Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | September 24, 2025

001September 24th, 2025 board meeting. >> I second. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Could Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Pastello. >> Yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> We're going to start with a student update. Um, so I'll turn the time over to Dr. Swift. >> Thank you, uh, President Gordon Ross and members of the board and everyone who's joining us in person and those who are out there joining from remote. We are delighted to have students uh with us this evening. Come on down if you would. Uh you're welcome to come to this middle microphone and our o over here. Okay, come on down. We're delighted to welcome Adelaide Bodecker and Grayson Barker and they're coming to share their experiences from

002the sister cities exchange program. Uh these are two ninth grade students from Lawrence High School. And this past summer, both students had the opportunity to travel to Hiatsuka, Japan as a part of the program. And Adelaide and Grayson, if you will introduce the kind folks who came along with you, that would be great. Hi everyone. I'm Adelaide Bodcker. >> And I'm Grayson Barker. And these are our chaperones Katie Trumbull and Lizzie Warner. Hello board members. We had the opportunity to visit Haratska Japan this past summer with the sister cities organization. The reason Lawrence and Heroda are sister cities is because we have similar sized towns and they're both university towns. For this opportunity, we'd apply and the application looks a little something like this. You must be a 7th through 12th grader in Douglas County

003schools, private, public, or home school. You must write an essay on why you want to go, what you hope to learn, and why you would be a good candidate for the trip. In addition to writing this essay, you must get two letters of recommendation. Then, in the following week after applications are due due, you'll need to attend an interview where you be asked questions about your essay and the rest of your application. You can also apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you need help paying the cost of this trip. Once accepted, you have to attend monthly meetings leading up to your trip. In these meetings, you'll get to know the people who you'll be going with. You'll learn some Japanese phrases you'll need to know. You'll also do some team building with your

004group that includes making a brochure about you and your delegation, a trip t-shirt, and you'll a t-shirt that you wear to the airport and when you meet the mayor. You'll also have to choreograph a dance that you'll perform at your farewell party. You'll learn you'll learn cultural dos and don'ts such as what to do when you enter a room and how to use chopsticks. Another thing that is important to note is that this is not a school trip or a school funded trip. Lawrence Sister Cities is a nonprofit organization and there were students from Billy Mills West Middle School, Lawrence High, Southwest Middle School, and Free State High School on the trip in 2024. We learned mo we learned we learned most of our Japanese and cultural knowledge from Miu Miho who was a JOI

005coordinator for Kansas who works at Johnson County Community College. While in Japan, we applied all of the Japanese and cultural things we learned from miho by saying eatakimas before eating saying arato go zimas to the people around us and all of the other cultural things we were taught came in handy when we met the mayor of harassica and knowing what to do and what not to do with our chopsticks. [Music] One of the ways we really immersed ourselves in Japanese culture was getting to stay with the host family. These families had kids that had been to Lawrence the previous summer. We slept in their spaces, ate breakfast and dinner with them, and hung out with them so we could get to know each other. Some of the ways we immersed ourselves was we tried on

006yucatas, played traditional Japanese games, and learned the dance that was performed at the Tanabatada Festival. Tanabatada has been a festival for 74 years, and the streets are filled with lanterns, food, and many people. Herasica and Lawrence have been sister cities for 35 years. One of the Tanabata festivals is even a J-Hawk and they also have some pictures of Lawrence landmarks. I personally really valued this experience because I was excited to see how Japanese people live their everyday lives and I got to see that by staying with my host families. Having strangers welcome you into their home and treating you like one of their own is such a neat experience. I was really grateful to both of my host families for being so welcoming and giving me my home away from home. We got the opportunity

007to repay the favor by hosting two Japanese students, Hano and Moka. While we couldn't take them to Thousand-Year Shrines, we took them to a Royals game, Texas Roadhouse, and the Oz Museum. I really enjoyed being able to meet new people. Part of the reason I went to Japan was because my dad went there when he was in college. So, I went on this exchange to be able to relate some of my experiences with him. I have always wanted to visit Senoji which is one of the biggest temples in Japan and was built in and in the year 628. We have a short photo uh presentation that we'd like to share with you. Um so this is our delegation. There were eight total students that went on the trip including or excluding the two chaperons. Um,

008some of the things we did at our meetings was this first picture is us meeting for the first time and the next two are us practicing our Japanese and practicing how to use yen and how to count it and what to do when using yen. Um, some of the Japanese phrases we learned from Miho is how to say your names and treat me well and basically everything you might need for your 10day stay in Herodka. >> Whoa. >> Beautiful. A >> um here are some of the cultural activities we talked about in our speech. We tried on yukata. We did a traditional tea ceremon ceremony, Japanese calligraphy, and we met the mayor of Haratska. >> This is um some photos from the Tanabatada Festival, which is um as mentioned a uh 74 year old festival.

009And as you can see, the streets are packed with the bamboo leaves and they have all these different types of lanterns that are hung from them. And one of them does have a J-Hawk. Um, I'm going to point out the one with the J-Hawk is the one in the biggest picture. So, the red and blue is the Jay-Hawk and then the next one is a church here in town, I'm guessing. And then that third one going up is the KU basketball court with the original K in the middle. >> And then that very last one is I think the Watkins History Museum. Um the these are some of the photos of the Heratzica delegation in Lawrence. The very top left one is them during the farewell party. The one in the middle is us at

010JCCCC when we made origami and played games with them. Um, and then that top right is them at the Japanese cultural garden that's here in town that I think was established in 2001. And it's to honor the sister cities relationship. And then at the bottom is us at Deanna Rose. The middle is them at Alenfield House. And then that bottom right one is them sitting at Governor Laura Kelly's desk. Um, if you're interested on going on the trip or you want to learn more about it, here's the contact information and then that poster you scan the QR code to sign up. In previous years, before co COVID shut everything down, they consistently had around 15 to 20 students travel. This past year, there were only eight students that were on this exchange. So, we need

011your help to get the word out to 7th and 12th graders, you know, in Douglas County. Our hope is to get the program back to where it was before COVID. We are so grateful for this opportunity and the friends that we have made will last a lifetime. Thank you for your time. And do you guys have any questions? >> Board members, any questions, comments? >> Cool. Um I know uh just awesome opportunity and you mentioned you wanted to go because uh that your dad had been. Um I don't know. I'm sorry if I missed it, but did what was it that kind of made you interested in traveling? >> Um so I've been traveling my entire life and it's one of the places I really want to go because my great grandma immigrated here in

012the 60s from Okinawa, Japan, and I wanted to go and see the country she grew up in. So, I'm really happy I got to experience that even if it wasn't exactly where she grew up. >> For me, part of it was for because of my dad. Um, he he uh came here to go to KU and then I'm pretty sure he spent about a year uh studying abroad in Japan and then like I've always been interested in Japanese culture. So, that was part of the reason I wanted to go. >> Awesome. Thank you for sharing. Okay. >> Do you think this experience will inspire you to consider studying abroad when you um finish high school? >> Um I would say for me it would definitely it was like something new to me and it was

013something I probably would consider when I get to college and stuff. >> Um I had talked about before I went on this exchange wanting to travel, wanting to study abroad, and my parents said, "Tone it back a little bit. let's try this 10day exchange first. And so it was very an eye- opening experience having to learn everything, but I do think that I still want to travel and I still want to study abroad later in life. >> What um what advice would you have for 7th to 12th graders who might be nervous about going, nervous about the application process, nervous about the cost, like anybody who might have trepidation about doing the program. Um, I would say Sister Cities is a very accepting program for sure. And the application process to me isn't crazy scary.

014It's going into that interview and maybe this is your first time ever doing an interview like it was for me. So just that experience of an interview, but I think the actual process of going to those meetings and flying over to Japan, definitely those first couple meetings, we didn't talk to each other at all cuz we didn't want to get to know each other, but we definitely warmed up to each other and by the end of it, we're such good friends now. Um, but I say just do it. It's a great experience and if you need help, there's financial aid, there's scholarships that you can apply for. I would say just do it. >> I would say again just to be yourself and like again like if there's like any like if you have any

015like financial problems like there is financial scholarships you can apply for and yeah I would just say like again be yourself. >> Yeah. Awesome. So, I'm wondering if the U mentors or the sponsors if you could talk a little bit about the application process and what that scholarship might look like for families that are thinking, I don't think I can afford this. >> Absolutely. So, the application process, the reason why I think um it shouldn't be as intimidating as it might sound is because you're really writing about why Japanese culture interests you and why you would be a good candidate to represent not only our city but our schools as well. So, um, you're just writing a lot about, uh, what interests you about Japanese culture, which, um, I think now our kids, um, what

016we call jet streamers who have been on the trip before, uh, in the beginning their paper might have been a page long. I'm sure right now they could write about 10 pages on why they like Japanese culture. Um, but, uh, they said the interview was intimidating as well. Uh, I understand that. We were all kids that age once. and uh you walk into the library and then you see our faces. So I think the intimidation level goes down pretty fast. As for our financial aid options, sorry, I didn't realize that he um everybody is accepted, everybody is considered and everybody is welcome. We want everybody to have this chance to exchange with our sister city program, learn about a new culture, have that chance to go across the world because so many of us wonder

017what is it like on the other side of the world and may we may not all have that opportunity financially to be able to do it on our own. So us as a sister city, we want to support everybody and really we just want to make that connection, keep it going on because we've had this going on. This was our 35th year anniversary and we want to keep it going strong. We want to see our numbers grow and we want to have as many people involved as possible. >> Thank you. >> And I just want to quickly say um the presentation was like really good. you hit all the good points and it really was comprehensive and I feel like I left with more information than I definitely came with. So, congratulations on that. Good

018job. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming. >> Oh, thank you so much. >> Also, before we go, um I know board meetings can run a little bit long sometimes, right? So, I have a little gift from >> Thank you. How nice. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well done. >> Thank you. How do you say thank you in Japanese? [Applause] >> All right. Once again, thank you very much for coming in the in the presentation. It was very very good, very in informative. Uh we'll move on to the report of the superintendent of schools. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board. Uh so nice to have folks with us and folks joining remote as uh we officially begin the

019fall season uh this week on Monday. uh we're well established into the daily routines of school and we're just so grateful uh for the ongoing work of our teachers and our support staff, our school leaders, our parents and community. uh you know, each school year brings um just those memories and we've had a lot happening uh internally and externally this past two weeks and I just appreciate that we work together to support learning growth and achievement in each other and that we have that relationship here in Lawrence Public Schools. We are the lucky folks who get to go out and uh celebrate uh awardwinning teachers. The Horizon Awards every fall are really special awards in that they honor educators new to the profession. And while educators are inspiring all the time, uh to me there's

020nothing more inspiring than a newly minted teacher who's doing well and growing in the profession. So last Friday we were out at uh Schwegler Elementary to award Kyra Jumper as uh the Horizon KDE Horizon award winner elementary level. And then also in the lower photo you can see Braden Yog Yoder Moi band director at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School. Um and we had the great uh the te the students call him Mr. Yomu and we had the great opportunity to present both awards uh during class. So we had a lot of students and uh was so inspiring to see uh their fellow teachers, their colleague teachers and how happy everyone was for these beautiful award winners. Um in case you missed it, there's a great video out on uh social media. Uh but we recently

021opened two playground facilities for our preschool classrooms. one at Sunflower Elementary, the other at Woodlon Elementary. Um, and our students had some excellent weather to enjoy their new playground enhancements. Uh, just check out our social media and you can see live action of the moments um that uh these playgrounds were open. I just want to give a shout out to Dr. Ingleick and our facilities team for all their work. They may look just like a playground, but there are a whole lot of guidelines and regulations that have to be followed specifically for preschool uh playground areas. So, we just really appreciate uh the finishing of that project so that our students can safely enjoy uh their preschool playgrounds. Uh farm to school. Uh this recently uh our fifth grade has been learning about corn. I

022really appreciate that Pontto Leon Flores, our experiential learning specialist and farmtoschool coordinator, brought some of his own farm grown corn to Langston Hughes Elementary. It was reported that our students were get it all ears. They said for this as Flores spoke about his indigenous Mexican farming practices and showed off the corn varieties he grows at Masacali Farms. Along with this colorful collection of cobbs, Flores managed to bring an actual corn stock in from the field. You can see it here standing just under 11 feet tall. We love hands-on experiential learning opportunities for our students and we're proud of farm-toschool experiences like this one. Really happy to have West Middle School in the spotlight. Uh, Chief Lockheart and I noted in our safety video uh that school safety is a community effort and tonight we wanted

023to spotlight the hard work and dedication among our school community and particularly spotlighting two of our team members, school resource officer Lindseay Bishop and her four-legged sidekick Officer Rosie, a mini golden doodle. Officer Rosie has been with us uh for many board meetings. Uh they serve several of our Lawrence schools and together they interact daily with students, lead presentations, and provide support to staff and to our families as well. Officer Bishop shares that Rosie helps bridge the gap between law enforcement and students by offering a calming presence that makes officers more approachable and creates a welcoming school environment. I think the data that I heard uh from officer Bishop is that Rosie averages over a hundred touches and engagements during every five minute passing period or 4m minute passing period. So her data is pretty

024strong. I'm just saying. Uh research research supports Ros's incredible impact on our schools. Studies shows that therapy dogs like Rosie can lower cortisol, a stress hormone, increase dopamine, and help regulate heart rate, contributing to a natural deescalation and stress relief. These effects are especially valuable in school settings where students benefit from consistent opportunities to manage their emotions in safe and supportive ways. So Rosie joins the other therapy dogs across Lawrence public schools. And we had to give a shout out also to Free State High School therapy dog Wayne uh who earned second place in the Best of Lawrence awards collectively reinforcing the district's focus on student well-being and positive school climates. Um, I just want to uh point out that Officer Bishop and Rosie uh will be highlighted on KSHB41 News in Kansas City coming

025up on this Friday. So, you can watch for them there. And I think I failed to mention that Rosie came in in Lawrence Best also. I think she was third. Yes, Mr. Potter. Okay, great. She was third place. I don't want to cut her. I don't want to miss any of her highlights. There we go. We wanted to also just mention, and I know the text is small here, and I apologize for that. Dr. Sarah Hotetler conducted uh in-person training for this year's AVID tutors. And you can see here just a quick photo of the tutors who will support our middle and high school students with uh classroom visits and bi-weekly tutoring sessions. Um, of the 15 tutors that signed up for this semester, half of that number represents tutors that are returning from the

026prior school years. The group includes KU students, a recent graduate from Peasley Tech, and a small business owner. In total, this represents the range of opportunities for postsecary success and the many options available to our students. Beginning this week, our tutors will support just over 400 students in tutorial sessions during AVID class time twice a week across all of our secondary buildings. I just want to note that by the end of the semester, our students will have benefited from over 8,000 contact hours with AVID tutors focused on academic readiness. That's a really big deal. Um, at our last board report, we had a little um, technical glitch that prevented us from hearing our AVID why. And I wanted to wrap back to that. This is Galani Reagan's LHS class of 2021 who is now enrolled

027as a student at Co College for sharing his my AVID why with our school community. I also want to give a shout out to Scott Lane uh LHS avid coordinator uh from who uh it's his website uh that we steal these great videos from and just a spotlight on Lawrence High School. The last week's avid strategy was the gallery walk across the building and this week their strategy featured strategy is foldables. kind of fits with our Japanese uh influence. Here we go. Gelani. >> Hello, my name is Galani Riggins and I graduated from Lawrence High School in 2021. Um I was an AVID for all four years of my high school experience and I credit a lot of my successes today from being an AVID. We did a lot of skill building that has been

028very crucial to my college experience um when it comes to being um a good student in my classes and staying on top of my work, but also just in general of picking what college to go to. Having AVID as a foundation um was really helpful and really meaningful to me and experience that I realized a lot of people actually didn't get going into um looking for colleges and understanding how that whole process unfolds. So, I'm very grateful to have um been participating in AVID and being able to take advantage of the resources that we were provided with with advancing um ourselves with scholarships and learning how to apply for those and all of the um resources that come with that. Just understanding like there even though there are scholarships at the school, you can still

029apply for scholarships um all over the place. So having AVID as that foundation for being able to be a successful college student really has helped me um in my time here. So thank you. >> Just really appreciate that we talk about equity work uh with lots of words and it's so wonderful to see it actually equity in action and I appreciate Galani sharing his story. Um, we are so delighted to share uh about Lawrence High School portfolio day that occurred last Friday. Was really disappointed that my schedule didn't allow me to get over there, but I'm enjoying it vicariously as we look at these um facts and components of what happens there on this magic uh art portfolio day. So, there were 14 college and universities. It's a lengthy list that you can see on

030my superintendent report. Uh, as well as community partners, the Lawrence Arts Center, Van Go, and Brackers all were at Lawrence High School last Friday to give presentations and to review student art portfolios. So, over 120 of our Lawrence High High School students participated and spent the day showcasing their talents and their best artwork in the areas of video, jewelry, fashion, photography, animation, mixed media, design, digital illustration, drawing, and painting and architecture. Other CTE courses also supported the event, including architecture, culinary, and journalism. The this impressive event comes together with the dedication of many teachers, classes, and students from every grade level at Lawrence High School. I specifically want to applaud teachers Emily Marados, Angel Leah Perkins, Todd Potit, and Zach Saltz who worked for months of organizing and planning for this signature event at Lawrence

031High School. College representatives were quoted as saying, "This is my first time ever attending this event, and it is one I've already acquested requested to attend again next year." Maryland Institute College of Art and your students are always the best in the nation and I look forward each year to seeing what new things they have created. That's from the School of Visual Arts. Um, our student honors at Free State High School. Two Free State High School students that excel within our performing arts program were recognized as the Quaca Capfed True Blue Students of the Week. Congratulations to Anders Benson and Landry Coaster, seniors from Free State High School. Both students are heavily involved and active in four different groups within their school's accomplished performing arts program. It's homecoming week for Free State High School and

032next week, Lawrence High School. Throughout the week, uh, Free State football seniors, 21 of them, have been making visits out to schools to honor one educator each. It's a very special tradition called My Jersey, My Impact. And so, these My Jersey, my impact awards have come in the form of surprise visits to classrooms. Here are a couple of photos and jersey and certificate presentations. These uh presentations have occurred everywhere from Lawrence and Douglas County and even to communities in other states as our senior football players have honored those educators who've made an impact on their lives. Uh so uh we have included for those inquiring who would like to know the uh parade times and the homecoming festivities for Free State this week and Lawrence High next week. It is our understanding that 41 Action

033News will be on site at Free State for this Friday's parade and they will broadcast remotely as a part of their 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p. newscast. I am really proud uh as you all know of our teachers in the district and the work that we are doing now in participating in and leading teacher networks. I don't really have a slide dedicated to this, but I wanted to make sure and share it this evening. I wanted to give a shout out uh to Dr. Amaya and two teachers on our team that are working to enhance our work in curriculum instruction, teaching and learning practice and implementation. Want to give a special shout out to uh an elementary group board members. You're familiar. They've now met for their second Wednesday in a row and they are

034looking at elementary technology integr integration uh particularly at those lower grades and they're really working to balance and align our shared expectations. Uh it's a it's an active and productive and positive group. They're receiving impact from uh input from across the district as they work to refine our practice. Um I also want to give a shout out to our elementary librarian group who began uh their work last week. They're always working, all of our teachers are, but they began focused work on clarifying this work to inspire a culture of reading. You know, sometimes social media and technology have stolen our attention and maybe we've lost some of that love for reading. No worry. In Lawrence public schools, our librarians are on the task. So, they are working uh weekly to really uh enhance our elementary

035libraries to really bring them up to a national standards level and I look forward to hearing more about their work in the future. I wanted to highlight a third group that we're just beginning to talk about and that is that soon we will share an invitation for teachers who want to participate and lead in the area of aligning, integrating and ensuring a robust Native American curricular emphasis and connections across elementary, middle, and high school. This has been an effort that folks have wanted for a long time and I can hardly wait. In the last two days, we've been talking about it. We've already received outreach uh from folks in the community and at the university and across uh the area who are interested in plugging in to support our teachers in this work. So stay

036tuned. We'll keep you updated as we go. Um, I'm really proud of the communications team. You can see here just a quick overview of the new 497 focus. Uh, you know, the old daily post uh was in place for many, many years. Um, and our team now is working to redesign how that looks and how that works. Um, and it isn't uh perfect at this moment, but we are launching a beautiful new interface and it will share all of those student and staff celebrations, the board updates, district announcements, department notifications, save the date, and community information. Our goal, as always in all of the years before, will be to minimize the onslaught of many, many different emails to try to put as much information into a regular 497 focus so that folks aren't distracted by

037so many uh disperate emails coming. Uh just we always want to finish our report with uh our analytics on communication. communication is one of the primary areas that our community charged us, our board has charged us uh with working on uh to align our school and district communication. So, you're seeing some of the images and videos uh that our communications team is capturing throughout each school day. And I just want to point out that every teacher, every principal, every ESP, they are all communications officers because they're sending in great photos and great video uh that we use right away. Um we have for the month of September, we keep track by month. We have over 3 million uh views this month. This is across uh Facebook and Instagram. over 46,000 interactions and new followers gained

0382600 in the month of September. I'm proud of the superintendent message. We have tried uh two things so far this fall. Both the Samora deliverable that we've done before and then also a parent square deliverable. I think on both of those we're averaging about this number of about 20,378 um engagements. I am proud when we look into that data that folks really do read and they really do click on the links that are inside the messages. Um so I'm really proud of that about Lawrence Public Schools. Um we won't uh play the video tonight although I'd really like to. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out that ERG has recently produced a business showcase video featuring Lawrence public schools and we're really proud uh board president GR Gordon Ross in the video talks

039about the return on investment that our district has realized through a sustained focus on energy efficiency. And I guess unless I pray play, it doesn't really show very much. So there it is. We'll just do a few seconds. >> So, Lawrence School District is the seventh largest school district in the state of Kansas. We have about 1,500 employees with just over 10,000 students. We have a lot of buildings that were built in the 50s and 60s. Back then, being carbon neutral and being energy efficient wasn't really a priority. Trying to retrofit those buildings and to make them energy efficient by modern standards has been very difficult. When Energy came and approached us and explained to us the um the offset costs and the savings that we could incur, really saw it as kind of a

040no-brainer decision to participate. Ever's ability to walk us through the program, help us understand where we can see the savings, how to do it, how to find the savings, where to go next, and just to keep moving forward. Certainly, every >> So, thank you uh President Gordon Ross for representing so beautifully. And you can look that up uh on our website or on FRG's website. Really is a remarkable case study in innovation to realize advantages to our bottom line and that's something that we think about all the time and I'm so proud of the work Dr. Ingleick and uh all of us on the team. I I know it wouldn't be a superintendent report in September if we didn't get back to do our progress monitoring on the goats and residents at Langston Hughes. You

041can see here they have cleared almost all uh we're down to just one acre and they're just a few days away from uh finishing their 6 acre task of removing uh vegetation uh on the Langston Hughes Elementary property. It's anticipated that they will be finished by the end of this weekend if not before. I've been really impressed that the farmers have shared that when they're out every day tending to the goats and getting them water and doing all the things they do that many people in the community have stopped by to visit with them and just talk about the sustainability efforts and the work there that's going on. So, I kind of hope Dr. Ingleick that we'll find other areas that need clearing in the Lawrence public schools because we love these goats. Yes. Very

042good. It was great to be out with the Chamber of Commerce. I was uh privileged to sit with several other other community leaders um with a group from New Bron Falls, Texas um on last Thursday really we were focused on innovation in school districts in partnership with cities and it was just a great conversation. We're looking forward to our upcoming conversation uh with folks from De Moine, Iowa on similar topics. It's already sold out and we have excitement building through this building and across the community for our Lawrence Schools Foundation uh breakfast on Friday. This year the event will be held at Burge Union on the KU campus and it features Jared Neer as the keynote speaker. We will also have many students actively involved in the program uh which serves to raise funds and

043support LPS students and staff through the mission of the Lawrence Schools Foundation. It's hard to believe, but next week we will turn over our calendars to October. And just some highlights due to some board uh uh adjustments that needed to be made in the calendar. Uh we won't uh meet again before these. So we wanted to highlight uh that parent teacher conferences are coming um uh as we uh set them up then for October 16th and 17th. that follows the end of the first quarter which occurs on October 9th. These are great opportunities for engagement for our families to check in on their students academic progress and to continue to deepen our partnership to serve students. I want to bring also to everyone's attention just a really important date and that is our fall 2025

044college and career night. It is coming up on October 23rd. You'll see a lot of promotion across our social media and our schools as we rally up um our community to really participate in this exciting event. It is in partnership with the Kansas Association of Collegiate Registars and Admission Officers and it will be held at the lead center of Kansas that is 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 23rd. Now, students and families will be able to meet um representatives from over 50 universities, community colleges, trade schools, and more to learn about educational scholarship opportunities after high school. I'm excited that on that night, our high school transition coordinators will also be hosting a panel discussion on postsecary services for students with IEPs and 504 plans. And that will happen from 6 to 700 p.m.

045just ahead of the college and career night beginning at 7. The event is free and open to all area schools. We do ask that folks register so we have enough materials for everyone that we're expecting. Uh and we're really excited to see this event coming up this fall. I thank you uh members. I apologize for the length, but it's good to get caught up on lots going on this fall. Um I thank you for the opportunity to share this superintendent report and for the honor of serving the Lawrence public schools. >> Thank you, Dr. Swift. Um my report tonight will be very brief. Um I just wanted to touch uh uh had an opportunity to attend um a negotiations meeting on the 9th and we'll we'll touch more on that later in in the agenda,

046but specifically wanted to express my appreciation to the um ESP bargaining team and the work that they did um uh to get us to the point that we're at tonight. and uh um the continued work that we have going forward and then also to report back to the board um uh based on uh previous comments just to report that uh I continue to work with Dr. Swift and work to um get a meeting set up between us and the city and the county and I hope on October 20th that I can have a a more um concrete information but I just wanted to know that that work continues. Um uh so with that we'll move to board committee reports. So we'll start with committee reports and then after everyone's had a chance to report on

047committees uh we'll go to board commentary. So we'll start with Bob. >> Well as you mentioned um we were involved in ESP negotiations and more will come at the later in the agenda. Um, I want to thank ESP for the work that they do and that it they are very much appreciated. Um, other than that, that was the only committee that I've met. Okay. >> Hi. Uh, this is Carol. I met with the Native American Student Services Parent Committee on Tuesday, September 16th. The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 21st at Broken Air for this um Broken Air Elementary building. The former elementary school building, Brook Brooklyn Elementary. and issues discussed were finalizing the headcount for those who are verified as enrolled in a federally recognized tribe or hold a certificate degree of Indian blood

048and parents in and I'm glad you addressed this because parents had a lot of questions regarding what efforts are being done by the district to improve graduate graduation rates and attendance and other questions were concerning about the daily post and when that's coming back. >> So thank you and Okay. Um, first off, policy committee. We met on the 11th and the 23rd of this month. We have several policies up for first read this evening. First of all, GAACB employee employee whistleblower. This is a new policy. Um, the House Bill 2160 brought about the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act. Although districts already have policy in place with some whistleblower elements that are required for federal funds, the specifics of this law require its own standalone policy and the policy must be prominently posted where employees will

049see it in the district buildings. Um, next IB school site councils. Um, this has to do with coma as amended by HB2134. uh will now make any subgroups created by the board subject to the act and the law regarding school site councils in KSA72-5170 does not require the board to approve the creation of each school sites council we removed this element um of our board policy in this way appointments to the councils can be made administratively without board involvement JBC enrollment um we've added a section referring to uh referring policy users with enrollment questions regarding military students to new policy JC JBCD um that policy um has been added to address House Bill 21102 that passed um this last legislative session. This provides advanced enrollment of a military student whose parent or person acting as

050a parent will be stationed in this state in the succeeding school year. No proof of address shall be required at the time of enrollment. And lastly, JH student activities. Um, Senate Bill 114 focused on homeschool, virtual school, and non-public school participation, school related activities. This policy is revised to reflect those changes in the law, which are already in effect upon publication in the Kansas Register. We also began discussions on policies related to fundraising and board committees. So, we'll be continuing that work. Then, um, on the 16th, I attended the schools foundation meeting. Um, here, um, the grant selection committee had met. Um, so we've uh were able to award about $7,200 in music works grants. We also um awarded school assistant grants. Katie Carson at West Middle School for Reality U. Gary Denim at Catran

051for hands-on learning task boxes. Um, and then we also awarded innovative teaching grants. So, congratulations to these teachers as well. Britney Herell at LHS moving with math. Sher Flakus Avid College uh game boards and Kimberly Catrell at Pinkney um getting a 3D printer for that school. Um as a reminder, ACE award nominations are due September 30th. This is an award for our um hardworking and well-deserving ESP, so please get your nominations in by then. Um the foundation also submitted a grant to the uh a grant submission for the Sertoma Club to provide hygiene supply kits as we are seeing a lot of need in this area so far this year. Um the Rotary snack drive is happening again and packing of all of the snacks will be on October 9th. Um Ovation is coming soon

052in January and so they will be um having auditions um in early November. So they were looking for judges for that which is an awesome time. And then something that's really exciting um for the breakfast on Friday um our bakery at uh Sean will actually be providing some treats for the breakfast and they will have a scannable QR code on them that will take them to the website where they can learn more about the bakery and possible partnerships within the community which I think is just a really awesome thing. So that's super exciting. >> Awesome. That's all I have for board or for these >> Kelly. >> Um, we had a facilities committee meeting on September 10th. I attended part of the meeting virtually, but I think uh this will cover just about everything that

053was discussed. Um, for the part of the meeting I was able to attend. Uh, our facilities continue to have high usage by um district and community groups. 649 events were hosted in the month of August. We heard an update on data about student transportation um and learned that we have about 1135 riders total um that for student transports for the district um uh across our buildings. Um some general updates on ongoing projects. Uh as the board uh has on his consent agenda tonight, we are approving the purchase of a new chiller. um the equipment purchase for Lawrence High School. Um we are nearing completion of the Sunflower Elementary Solar installation. Uh but because of some issues uh with uh the roof, we needed to make some adjustments. So there's an item a change order item

054on the agenda tonight for that. It's my understanding that we will be scheduling um a ribbon cutting for that project once it is completed. Um and we'll uh let everybody know uh the details of that. Um there's some items coming to the board in uh October for repairs that are have been out for bid on the Free State High School press box. Um repairs that have to be done this year. And then finally uh the uh facilities committee heard discussion about the uh capital projects proposals that we will be hearing more about later this evening. So that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um all right, we'll move on to board commentary. Shannon, we'll start with you and come back down the line. >> All right. Um well very first thing I want

055to do is uh wish our board president happy birthday this week. Um uh and then also I wanted to thank uh Dr. Swift and uh for highlighting the my jersey your impact program in your superintendence report tonight and thank our super our district communications staff for coming out to take some photos and video of those events. Um I've been involved in that project as a parent volunteer. I'm a parent of a senior football player at Free State High School this year. And so, um, this summer I volunteered along with, um, uh, football parent Scott Aligruchcci and, um, parent Laura Senchan, who also happens to be one of our, um, teachers in our district, to organize this recognition of teachers by our senior football players. I've had the privilege of attending several of the presentations, including

056my own child's presentation today. Um, and I will tell you, it made me cry. Um, so I just really appreciate um, uh, having the opportunity to recognize some really outstanding educators in our district and let these young men share um, how important these people have been to them in their lives. So, thank you. Um, wanted to update the board on a couple things that uh, have been going on in the education policy space. Um, first off, the state board of education met um, in on the 9th and 10th of September. And the biggest news I wanted to share, if you haven't already seen it, is that our state education commissioner, Randy Watson, announced his intention to retire as state education commissioner, um, pending the state board's selection of a successor. So, the state board is

057beginning that process actually tomorrow. They're having an online, um, it's kind of a hybrid meeting, but people can observe it online at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. And then there's another in-person meeting scheduled on October 13th at 3 PM uh to be to for the board to begin doing that process of searching for a new leader of the Department of Education. Um so that'll be something important to follow. And then the education funding task force met um for what was supposed to be their last two meetings of this calendar year on the 3rd and 4th of September. Um they heard uh one of the important things they did, they heard a presentation by a group of special education directors who put together feedback for the task force on some of the conversations that have been taking place

058around proposed changes to our special education funding formula. Um I really appreciated uh the expertise that those folks brought to the table. It was uh very um helpful. They presented both a set of preferred features if the will of the legislature is to move to a student centered funding model for um special education. So by that I mean uh instead of what we do right now which is funding uh teaching positions for special education. It would move to more like what the rest of our funding formula looks like where you have a student waiting for special education students. Um, there are pros and cons of each of the approaches and the special ed directors did a nice job of setting out what some of the pros and cons are and talking about ways that those

059could be u mitigated or avoided in a transition to a different kind of formula. Um, they also presented suggested ch suggestions that would improve our current special education funding formula which is a a staff FTE reimbursement uh model. And then um in addition to that, as I mentioned, it was supposed to be their last meeting, but at the meeting today of the legislative coordinating council, they approved one additional day of meetings for the task force to consider um putting out an RFP to hire a vendor to provide a school finance simulator. Um I don't know yet when that um meeting is going to take place, but I will let you know. And then finally, the other big news today that came across just before I came to the board meeting was that our state senate

060president seems to be barreling toward calling a special session in early November um in an attempt to redraw our Kansas congre congressional districts. So um that does have an impact on us as it impacts federal education policy, the members of Congress who are elected to represent Lawrence public schools. So I just wanted to make you aware of that. Um thank you. Uh I would like to start with extending my gratitude to um Mr. Kadoo and Carol um Paula uh Van who served with us on the board previously. Uh NAS past and present leaders uh your parents I know that have fought for this and um just say thank you to Dr. Swift for taking up the charge and and really taking seriously what we've heard you advocate for for the entire time that I've known

061you and that exceeds the time that we've sat on this board together. Um really creating a curriculum for indigenous students where they can see themselves, but more importantly so that our children can learn more and understand more about um about your communities and be better humans. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, okay. So, the other thing that I'm kind of fired up about is autism. Um uh so I want to extend to our families um and uh to our students and staff who have a family member that includes a loved one with autism that uh this has been a strange couple of days and um the ridiculousness of which they have had to endure endure in terms terms of the um just joke of a press conference we saw from our president. So, what

062I'm going to say is um highly political and I'm going to be cautious about not sharing um the organization for which I have the opportunity to partner with, but I'm not sure it's commonly known uh but uh once a month I have the um great honor of um facilitating a support group for individuals with autism and they're young people. Uh they lead it, they coordinate it. I'm just there as a as a social worker and as mental health support. And it is impossible for me to uh let tonight go without acknowledging that the that press conference probably had an impact on our special education teachers, on our teachers who have a child with autism in their classroom, and certainly for the families that were impacted. And I just want to share a um a quote

063that's been widely published from the chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation. It is disingenuous and misleading to boil autism's causes down to one simple thing. We know that autism is incredibly complicated and we need to move away from studies that simplify it down to one exposure without other considerations. It was very harmful uh that particular press conference and particularly to mothers. Um, the other thing that I have for tonight is um pertaining to a request from the uh request for the ELT's planning related to achieving a living wage for the um ESPs in our district. I would like to share some information pertaining to the NEA education support professional earning report from April 2025 when we get to that item uh which is 4.1. Um, so I'd like to to ask I talked

064to GR prior if I could have just a little bit of space, not much to share that data and then um again just walk through that request. So thank you. >> Um first thank you uh um Kelly for mentioning that. Um I spent the better part of that evening um consoling my nephew who is in the Lawrence public schools uh after know his mom and dad watched the uh the the the press conference and I assured her that um Lawrence public school was going to stand behind him and all our students 100% no matter what happens. And so um thank you so much for uh for stating that. Um, October is National Breast Cancer Month. It's coming up very quickly. We have a wonderful organization called Kindness is Key, which is a head led by

065one of our own employees, Damp. Um, he does a cancer walk. Um, I think this year it is scheduled for November the 1st at Rock Truck Park. So, I definitely encourage everyone to get behind one of our own employees and um sign up to walk for a mile, two miles, whatever you want to do. Me and my grandkids participate every year. It's a chance for them to get out. We wear our t-shirts proudly. I have also purchased some more pink shirts, so I can beat him this year to wearing more pink shirts for the month of October than he did. So, uh, but, um, I definitely encourage, uh, the the rest of our employees to definitely get behind one of our own and help support his nonprofit organization. >> Um, briefly, just want to share

066a quick anecdote that I heard at the foundation meeting. So, the sunflower pray for the little just opened, but they don't have a fence up yet. but not to worry because the big kids were there standing around watching to make sure that the none the littles went arry or astray. So they were very concerned about making sure that those kids were, you know, doing what they were supposed to be and just kind of sat there and watched them a lot. So I thought that was really sweet. Um uh on the 13th I was able to cheer on the uh Southwest Middle School volleyball team at their tournament at Shauny Heights. Um just happened that my son was playing a football game there and there was some time. So that was really fun and exciting to

067see and kind of made me wonder why I never did that when I was younger because I really enjoyed volleyball. But um and then on the 16th I attended the leadership Lawrence class announcement and was excited to see some educators among the class. So Heather Llewellyn and Trish Nudome um congratulations to you. Um and I will see you in uh some of the various classes. Um I hope you get a lot out of it and I'm also really looking forward to the foundation breakfast on Friday. So, >> thank you. This is Carol and um I just want to thank our students who came here and did their their outstanding presentation on their visit to our sister city here at Suka. And I was and we were all able to see the beneficial impacts of them

068being exposed to another culture and language. And to that end, I would just like to extend a a huge tremendous thank you to United States Senator Jerry Moran's office. I was contacted on a Wednesday afternoon. Um they called my cell phone. I I thought was this real? And then um they um wanted to meet the very next day and so I was able to arrange a meeting at Kikapoo Nation school. It's the only tribal school in the state of Kansas and it's one that is very dear to my heart. My dad purchased that school for a dollar back in the day and so I was able to arrange this meeting between Kikaboo Nation School and the Kikaboo tribal council and myself. But the focus was on uh US um Senator Jerry Moran who was on

069the United States Federal Indian Affairs Committee wanted to know what he could do better to improve our outcomes. He wanted to know what what you wanted to know what was going on, what they could do better to, you know, improve our outcomes for our students. But specifically, we discussed our our treaties with Washington and our social welfare clauses that we have in the treaty with Washington of 1854. And I would you I some of the students at one of the two of the littles came in and they were kindergarteners and they introduced themselves in our language and I said that Mr. Moran is exactly what we're talking about. That's in the United State that's in the boarding school report. That was one of the findings in the recommendations from Deb Holland was that in SEC

070Secretary of Interior was for our students to speak their languages because um you know September 30th the is the national orange shirt day for in recognition of boarding school survivors. But I um shared with him that when I was working on the name change for Billy Mills Middle School, I came across paperwork at the Haskell Cultural Center where and I I I pardon my language here. I know their young ears here, but I um came across paperwork where children had so many needles put through their tongues for speaking their language or their arms are broken for speaking their language. So I just wanted to impart that like no this this we can do better. It needs to be corrected because it's one of our cultural beliefs is that when we go to the next plane,

071we need to introduce ourselves in our language. And so, Kikapu Nation School is the only tribal nation tribal school in Kansas, but we also accept other federal other students from other tribes. So, they can learn, you know, our culture and our language. And he um he was so moved that he said he will do something. He will do something. he will appropriate federal funds and urge uh state lawmakers to do better for Native American students. And I just wanted to tell him thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um the only thing that I would say um I'll just add briefly to something that Kelly said. Um uh I'll speak uh I don't do this very often but I'll speak professionally and just mention that uh the first case the first official reported case of autism

072in this country was in 1911 and Tylenol was invented in 1955. All right Bob I believe we have a special recognition. >> Yes. Yes we do. Uh the board of education recognized Ronald Fowler II uh with sincere appreciation for 31 years of service and devotion to this community and its schools. Thank you. All right, we're going to 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. Can I have a motion, please? >> I move the board of education adopt the items listed on the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Kitty Blackwood. >> Yes. >> Stello, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross,

073>> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. Moving on to new business. Item 4.1, Lawrence Educ Lawrence Education Association, Education Support Professionals Tenative Agreement. Turn it over to Dr. Swift. >> Thank you. Uh, President Gordon Ross and we have folks coming to the podium. as they are approaching. I just want to uh as superintendent share my deep gratitude to this group and uh who's coming and to all they represent. Um I want to thank everyone who's served on the negotiations team. That's hard work. And to all who supported this effort and worked hard to bring this agreement forward this evening. um our board members uh member Franklin, member buyers, and President Gordon Ross have served on that team representing uh the board.

074We all recognize that we have significant work ahead of us and we will continue the work to innovate, to streamline, and to advocate to achieve our shared goal of competitive compensation. So I want to make sure that you all hear that directly from me this evening. Uh we are just getting started. We have a long way to go. Um and we know the value of that competitive compensation for our ESP and for for all of our employees. I want to share that we value the work of our educational support professionals team. Not a day goes by that I'm not so deeply impressed by the work that our team does. Friday evening, I'll just share an example. I hadn't planned to, but Friday evening, we were viewing a video of a student accident that occurred in

075the district. No one's fault, just the child had an accident. And in viewing that video, it was literally seconds before folks were immediately on the scene to assist the child uh to get a hold of the parent to get that child transported uh and get medical attention. And that's because caring and competent and committed members of our team are on the job for children every day. So I thank you for that work. I want you to know I'm grateful. We are grateful for your partnership and we look forward to our next steps together uh to move forward together. So with that, I believe we're going to hand it uh I think Miss Devon has lost her voice. So um not metaphorically, but literally. Uh so I think it's Julie and Megan and whomever else. You

076tell Audrey. >> Okay. Julie's gonna start us off. Thank you. >> Go, Julie. >> So, um, good evening, President Gordon Ross, um, board members, and Dr. Swift. A little bit closer. Um, do you want me to start off with all of our names? >> Okay. >> First, I would like for the team members to introduce themselves. I'm Andrea Albbright, one of the uh co-argaining committee members. >> Sam Ray Devon. I'm representing Kristen Ryan, assistant superintendent of HR. >> Megan Eerson, director of human resources. >> Diana Brown, member organizer, building repaire educator. Melissa Allen, part of the board for the um bargaining. Yep. >> Emerson Hazales, president. >> And I'm Julie Donley. Um I'm a PAR educator at Hillrest. Um, we are pleased to announce that the new contract agreement with the Lawrence Education Association for

077ESP staff members has been success successfully ratified on September 23rd, 2025 with a 97.76% approval weight vote. This agreement reflects our continued um commitment to supporting staff, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the best outcomes for our students and community. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all those who have contributed to the negotiation process. >> Our 2526 ESP negotiated agreement includes several updates to the agreement. The first is an increase of a dollar per hour that will be applied to ESP hourly wages along with horizontal movement to acknowledge the continued service for returning staff members. This increase amounts to a 5.97% increase to the salary pool for a total of approximately $1,132,000. Both teams recognize that increasing wages is an ongoing interest. We're excited to announce the formation of an illness leave pool as well

078as a catastrophic leave pool for ESP staff members. The illness leave pool previously existed in our district and was retired several years back. Reinstating this pool, plus the addition of the new catastrophic leaf pool, provides a muchneeded support for staff experiencing personal or family medical needs and that need to be off work. Additionally, the negotiated agreement for 2526 includes additional clarity for union leave for the LEA president, as well as the continuation of fully paid single medical, dental, and vision insurance premium coverage for full-time employees for the entire year, including summer months for staff who are off duty. With the medical premium increases of approximately 15% for the 2025 2026 plan year, the total premium cost for medical, dental, and vision plans for the year is $9,993.72 per staff member paid for by the board.

079These updates to the negotiated agreement will bring us bring so much to our ESP staff members. It is great to have the illness leave pool back with the addition of catastrophic leave pool. The added support of staff being able to take care of themselves is vital to ensure that our students are cared for. LEA will greatly benefit from the additional 50 days for members to experience organizing leadership training and union opportunities. In our debriefing of negotiations, we identified some potential new opportunities that will be shared with ESPs as they become available, including leadership training for ESP staff, career development opportunities, and the committee to focus on education surrounding the salary schedule. The teams jointly acknowledge the importance of working toward a living wage that is competitive and supportive for ESP staff members. Both teams are

080committed to continuing this critical work to recruit, retain, and honor our current and future USD 497 team members. >> Okay, thank you for your time. We'll be happy to help answer any questions that you all have. >> Okay. Um, so thank you all for your work on the contract and um to Dr. Swift for your um leadership as it relates to aligning our finances so that we were able to find additional dollars to dedicate to wages. I was really impressed with the way that you looked at our um staffing and made decisions that allowed us to get further along this year than we thought we were going to get. And as a board member, I really appreciate that. I know that what I'm about to ask is going to be challenging. Um so I wanted

081to just share with my board colleagues in preparation for this evening. I was trying to educate myself on a couple of things. Um, it came out of a trip I took to South Dakota where my nephew said, "I'm making $20 an hour. I'm a pair in Yankton, South Dakota." And I said, "That's excellent." And he said, "Uh, Aunt Kelly, I want to have a baby." And I was like, "That's even greater." Um, and he said, "Uh, but I don't get health insurance, so we're going to have to pay. We don't know how to pay for the the delivery." um and it kind of caught my breath and it felt really painful. So I was thinking about um the the living wage calculator and in doing that research around the MIT calculations but also looking at

082um a report from the NEA education support professional learning report in April 2025. And I just wanted to take a moment to share this data with you all and I really appreciate you giving me what I think is going to be five minutes. Sorry. Um, so just to give a a little background about this, uh, this report provides earning data for education support professionals working in K- through2 schools and higher education institutions, but it it it pulls the data out so you can look at just K through 12. Um, the data is from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey. It's a large continuous collective survey that uses na a nationwide sample. So what I want to u mention about this particular data is it's not just NEA's members. It's it looks at um the

083data as a whole. So what the most current data we have they're calculating from 2018 to 2022 and we're looking at adjustments um for the 2023 2024 academic calendar. So the averages are based on all career families and at this board we all know that career families mean um janitorial staff uh might mean um food service would mean para educators but the largest percentage of representation is para educators around 50% of the of the people in this data. So um overall ESPs make on average 9% less than they did 10 years ago adjusted for inflation nationally. Oklahoma had the lowest average K through2 ESP full-time earnings at $27,656. I'm mentioning Oklahoma because it is our state to the south and I like to be quite um more I'd like to be further along than they

084are particularly as it relates to public education. We've watched their um absolute uh chaos they have in and um their support for public education at the moment. What is sad to report is that Kansas um we rank 48th. There's only one state between us in Oklahoma. Um and that is concerning to me. So it is the case that um we are in a in a space in the country that I would like us not to be and certainly want Lawrence public schools to lead the way in getting us closer to the US average which is $34,954. In states where there is a bargaining laws uh covering ESPs, the average earnings is $38,554. In states that do not have bargaining laws, but where bargaining may take place, the average ESP earnings is $34,623. In states where

085bargaining is prohibited, the average earning is $35,879. The reason why I'm sharing that data is to point out that where bargaining happens, you can see a correlation between a higher wage. And so when we as a um district made a decision to be one of the few districts in the state to have um an ESP bargaining unit, we likely set ourselves up to see increases of wages for those workers. And in fact, when you look at the overall wages increased over the time since that union has been formalized, you'll see large percentage increases. And yet still we are not at a living wage. And that is including the year in which we were able to provide a 16% wage to the pool. Um so uh we know then that um essentially that that came down

086to this point that I'll just go ahead and make anyway that ESPs earn 7% more on average in states with collective bargaining units. That's that's the the note there. And so I would say to um union members, it's a fine time to organize in other districts. Um I know that there my other colleagues are going to share a bit more, but I have a request. Um this is not a new request. I've heard um I've heard Carol make this request. I've heard Yolanda make this request. I've heard um Bob uh I've sat with Bob for a long time. I've heard him really advocate hard for this particular request I'm about to make. Certainly GR and I have been at the table together for many years. I know you are so committed and Shannon spends every

087day of her life, eight hours a day trying to get more money um for public education. So, I'm I know that I have support, but my request is that the board provide direction to the ELT to persist in the directions noted, which is to establish a plan to increase both the ESP starting wage to a living wage and that certified staff base salary for the um increase as well uh for the 2026 27th school year. um which may include continued examination of positions through chronically underfund unfilled positions andor attritions uh based on the the thinking that we're protecting the positions that we have. So there would be no riffs essentially. Um and then I would further request that the budget planning be not annually but maybe two years out. Uh which I have heard Dr.

088Swift you say you're more accustomed to and is where you're wanting to take the direction uh the district and its leadership. I I do I don't mean any disrespect to anyone that came before you, but um in 23 years of watching Lawrence public schools and being an advocate for this district, I think you are the most positioned superintendent to do this. You have the high no pressure, but I I really think that you I I think you you might be able to get us closer than we've ever been. Um and um so so this is this is where I got all caught up in the health care piece of it and started looking at MIT calculators because a 9,900 you know dollar uh increase not increase but to cover health insurance. It got me thinking

089well then so my nephew Owen if you calculated it out that he gets no healthcare cover like what I you start doing this like what's it equal in a dollar amount? Um, and I had to stop myself. Um, because employers should communicate both the cast wage and the total compensation package, which we do here clearly. Megan has been amazing at that. Um, both when she was an NEA representative and then in in her current job in HR, so workers understand what's being offered. So, I appreciate that we do that. But the MIT calculator bakes in health care as an essential cost of living which affirms the value that all workers deserve access to affordable health care as part of the academic you know as part of dignity. What I didn't understand is whether or not

090you know what what does that translate to in terms of where we're at right now and um the the the um it reflects real costs not just minimum. So rather than using like the government poverty threshold which ignores health care costs, it looks at actual insurance market prices and typical outofpocket spending. So it's not just the coverage of of healthcare insurance. And so um I know I'm getting over five minutes, so I'm going to just quickly say u a balanced way to consider this. So employers should avoid saying so us here at at Lawrence Public Schools should avoid saying $15 an hour plus $9,900 in healthcare is basically like paying $20 an hour. So, we should avoid saying that the the the better frame to me because you have to consider both cash in hand

091and the benefits um is we pay $15 an hour in wages and also provide the $9,900 in health insurance. That's transparent. That's what we do right now, which brings total compensation to I I think I calculated around it gets us closer to that 35 mark. But we're committed to reviewing wages regularly to ensure that they align with our local living wage standards. So that would include not at because what we know about our um health care costs is that they're projected to go up 30% um next year to about $4 million um to be able to get at that to continue to provide um the full coverage that we do. So the the the ask is huge. >> Um but I believe that we're in a place where we can reorganize and get much much

092closer and particularly if we're doing two-year out um planning. So anyway, um, thank you for indulging me, GR. I apologize. >> Okay, >> well, Kelly just said most of what I was planning to say. No, don't be sorry. Um, I >> only five minutes. >> I I don't need five minutes. What I appreciate, um, Kelly, about your deep dive is that, um, we're on the same page really. Um, I am glad that we are able to approve this agreement tonight. I'm very thankful and in looking back at the work that we've done at the board table over the last several years, particularly since about 2023 24 school year, um, we have finally started to see real change in what we are doing in this partnership with our education support staff. Um and so I am

093um I'm glad that we are finally making real progress. Um we're we're outpacing inflation for a change in terms of the increases that we are we are seeing and for example our starting um our starting wage on the salary scale uh for our class uh for our education support staff. Um that is really important uh but it is not enough. And so I am 100% in agreement with Kelly's ask um to administration that we um we look at what does a plan look like to get us to both the ask that you are making of us on behalf of our support staff but also the ask that our our teachers have made of us um to to be competitive with our starting salaries for our teachers. Um and two I you know I am still

094interested in looking at equalization of our matrix for our teachers. I think it's important for us to acknowledge that we have a we have a black hole in the middle of that um matrix where our midcareer teachers can go elsewhere and make a lot more money in districts within short driving distance and that is not okay because we need them to stay here and do the work that they do with our kids in Lawrence public schools. So, um I am I'm all in on this work. I know it's going to be very hard. I second Kelly's assessment that we um we have the talent in place in our district administration to do this work and do it well. Um and we have I believe the will at the board table to support you in doing

095that. Um and I want to be a part of that. So, um I'll just echo um what you said and thank you for presenting it so clearly tonight. And um I'll be I'll be a yes when we take this vote. Thank you. >> An enthusiastic yes. >> And I'll chime in as well. Um, and as I'm listened to Kelly, Kelly, I in last the last board meeting when we were talking about lobbying and what we needed to do do and and whenever we talk finances, we usually go to special ed and the lack of funding. Uh, which which is an easy place to go. Um what my thought at this point is I think in this district we've made a lot of movements uh positively in moving towards getting staff uh salaries to where they

096need to be the but I see that the road is tough because the other reality uh with schoolboarding is that uh everything comes down to people and it it's not that dollar that's the issue. It's usually that dollar converts to someone's livelihood with that. Uh and I think where I'm going is I want us to all understand as a community even that this is really about our district needs to streamline and um my usual word is is uh right size instead of streamline. But that's what I think where we're we're at in order we cannot rely that the state is going to come in and save us. So, what we've got to get better at doing is looking at the jobs we do and how to streamline them so that we can afford to do

097the things that we know we should be doing. And um and our salaries are one of those things that we should be able to do. Um, thank you to Kelly for saying such u wonderful facts. I totally agree with um what everyone has said thus far. I think um and really um you know I've seen the work that you've done already uh Dr. Swift in terms of streamlining and and making things happen and finding pennies, nickels, and dimes that we felt like were there but didn't know were there. So, I'm excited to see what you can do um to meet this challenge because it's definitely not going to be easy, but to know um to express my support for you in this um and I think obviously you have the support of, you know, the

098board here as well um to to really make this happen because it is so important that we, you know, have competitive pay, that we're paying a living wage, and that we're able to, you know, retain and and recruit top-notch individuals. be they teachers or ESPs, we have amazing people here. We don't want to lose them and we need to bring even more amazing people here um whenever possible. So um you know challenge you on this, but I look forward to seeing what you come up with. >> Thank you. >> Uh this is Carol. I would like to thank Kelly for that deep dive and I will look forward to looking at the research for the NEA. Uh, and I would like to thank everybody on the team who worked for this this increase. I know

099a lot of people will say, "Oh, it's just a dollar." But that dollar means everything. I mean, I was looking at the price of milk and the price of a tomato. It's almost $2 for one tomato. And I've watched the price of even the old bread increase. So, I know it's not much, but I really look forward to watching you take your deep dive. And as you always say, we have our marching orders. And nobody's coming to save us. So, thank you for your hard work. Um, I want to thank everybody for your comments. Um, I know that, uh, at the table, um, having a plan was something that that I personally committed to. And, you know, I think Kelly framed it really well. And so I think one of the things that I will

100add to that commitment, you know, one of the things that we talked about at the table was um a lot of the things that we heard tonight are things that we've heard in the past. Um and so the commitment that we'll make that I'll make tonight is that the the we will follow up with the plan and and and and give updates on where we're at. It won't just be something that we talk about tonight and then not mention again until the next time you bring uh a contract to us. We'll we'll we'll be more um transparent, I guess, will be the word, as we as we go through this work. We'll find a a balance in there as we move forward. But I want to thank you all for your work. Thank you for

101the effort that you put into it and coming to the table and working with us. Um the district team, the work that you put in as we as we as we got this done. Um so that as Carol said, as we can get the increase, as we can get the back pay done, um as we can move move forward, um as we all know that this work is never done. This is just a step in con a continual process. So I thank you for for that. So with that, can I get a motion? >> Go ahead. >> I move the board of education to approve the tenative agreement with the Lawrence Education Association LEA Education Support Professionals ESP for the 2526 school year. The education support professional salary pool receive a 5.97% increase totaling approximately

1021,132,000 which includes a $1 increase to base hourly wages as well as horizontal movement. >> I second. >> Costello, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. Fidu Blackwood. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you all very much. >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. So, um I've now heard from three different people um that they would like a fivem minute break. So, we're going to take a fivem minute break and come back at 7:45. on to new business item 4.2 bond refunding resolution. We're going to turn the time over to deputy superintendent and director of FNO, Dr. Larry Ingleick. >> Thank you very much, President Ross, Gordon Ross, board members, Dr. Swift. Thank you for this time.

103I'm going to be quite honest with you. My role in this process has been minimal. >> I get to attend the meetings. I get to nod my head yes when things look good. But we have two people with us this evening that have done a great deal of work over the past 12 months and maybe even a little bit longer. our executive director for finance, Cindy Frick, and a friend of the district for a number of years who's helped us on bond issues and is helping us on this um refinance re refinancing, David Artberry. And I'd like to turn it over to them. They did the hard work. Let them have the credit. Thank you. >> Thank you. And we'll put David Artberry is here with Stiffel. Like like Larry mentioned, he's been monitoring the

104market for a while now and will let us know when there is an opportunity for refinancing. Um, keep in mind the purpose of refinancing is when we have the opportunity um to issue new bonds at a lower interest rate than our current bonds, we are able to pay those old bonds off and um save some interest expense. It's kind of like refinancing your mortgage for your home. Um, and so David is here to explain our current situation. Thank you. >> Um, thank you Cindy and Larry and uh, good evening everybody. Um, yeah, as was mentioned, um, the school district has the opportunity or possibly has the opportunity to refinance some of its outstanding bonds and possibly create some savings for for taxpayers here. Um, now for those of you who have been on the board

105for a while, you're probably having a little bit of deja vu because we've been here a couple of times over the last few years looking at this refinancing. And every time we we look at it and we get start getting geared up to do it, interest rates jump and the savings disappears and we put things on the shelf. Uh, well, we're back again because interest rates are down. Um, I just wanted to kind of go over with you really quickly here. um just refresh your memory of what we've been through in the past and then talk a little bit about what this transaction might look based on current interest rates and if you do want to proceed what we would need to do from here. Um you should have in front of you a handout

106that on page one has a graph that looks like this. This is a graph of um tax high quality tax exempt interest rates, both a one-year bond, which is the green line, and a and a 10-year bond, which is the blue line. And you'll see these interest rates since the beginning of 2022 when when rates started going up. Um the district had two bond issues that became callable and in other words, you could refinance them beginning in late 2022. Well, if you look in late 2022, rates were just skyrocketing. Um, so we were monitoring interest rates and then in early 2023, they started coming down. Um, so we we notified Cindy and Larry that there might be an opportunity to refinance those two issues and we got permission from the board to proceed with it.

107And that's where you'll see the first um dotted vertical line is when we got permission to proceed with the first refinancing. Well, if you look about a month later, interest rates spiked up. And unfortunately, between the time that you approve selling bonds and when you can actually get into the market, it takes about four to six weeks. Rates jumped up. We tried to sell the bonds, but we weren't able to achieve the level of savings the board was looking for. So, we put it on the shelf. We continued to monitor interest rates. And then later that year, rates dropped again. and we start we we re we got things moving again. But sure enough, shortly after we got things moving, rates went back up and the savings disappeared. And so since then, for about the

108last gosh, better part of two and a half or better part of, you know, a year and a half or more, we've been monitoring things. You'll finally see over on the right hand side, uh, rates have come back down again and we're now at a level of savings that I I think looks attractive to the board. At least I I hope it will. Um, if you switch over on to the next page here with the big old table of numbers, um, I'll kind of guide you through this, but I think you'll see over on the right hand side what the savings looks like. But first of all, um, what this table shows on the left hand side, it shows the debt service on what we think the new bond issue would look like. And you

109can see the interest rate or the coupon rates listed there between about 2.43 and about 3.45%. Those payments um represent are totaled up in the new debt service, the new DS column. If you compare those then to what the existing or the old debt service is, you'll see a column of savings. And if you look at that on an annual basis, you can see the district we anticipate could save about $300,000 per year. Right now, um over the next 10 years, actually over the next eight years, and the savings in the last couple of years is a little smaller, but the total savings right now is about $2.6 million. Um now keep in mind this is savings in the district's bond and interest fund. Uh it might in future mill in future um budgets result

110in a little reduction in the mill levy. A lot of variables could occur but it's not uh unfortunately it's not savings that can be used for other purposes. You won't you can't use this money uh since it's a separate fund the bond interest fund. You can't use it to pay teacher salaries or things like that. It it would represent a reduction in in the mill levy. So saving taxpayer dollars. Um down at the bottom of this page, you can see what the reduction in the actual interest rate is. The old bonds carry a rate of just a little under 4% 3.994%. Based on this latest estimate of rates, we think the new rate on the bonds would be about 3.07% representing a reduction of little over 9/10en of a percent. Um, so that that's a

111snapshot on what we think the savings could be if you were to sell the bonds today. Um, now unfortunately you, as I mentioned before, it takes some time between the you you authorizing selling bonds and when they can actually get sold. It's going to take probably four to six weeks. Um, what you have in front of you tonight though is a resolution that would allow staff and us and legal counsel to to start that process um to begin to prepare for a sale um and actually provided that um a minimum level of savings can be achieved it authorizes the sale of bonds to occur. Um the way this resolution is structured is provided that a minimum of $1.5 million savings can be achieved, um the the board will grant authority for the board president to

112to approve the sale of bonds and then we would return to you at the next immediate following board meeting in which you would then pass a bond resolution to officially issue those bonds and lock in that savings. So, it's it's a called a parameters resolution where it gives the board president authority to approve the sale of bonds provided that a certain minimum level of savings can be met. Um, I mentioned a million half dollars. Um, right now savings is quite a bit more than that. Um, but markets can change and previously the board had set a savings target of $2 and a half million dollars and you can see we haven't had any luck getting that. And so we thought since the bonds are callable that it it would be reasonable to lower that expected

113level of savings just to give a chance to actually achieve this and complete the transaction and allow the taxpayers to start saving some money. So, I know I covered a lot of ground fast here. I I'm sure for some of you this is, you know, bringing back memories, but um if any of you have any questions, you know, I'd be happy to answer them. >> Anybody have any questions? So, I'll I'll just I'll ask one question. So, normally when a district has to issue bonds, they have to go and get the public to vote on the bonds. Can you explain why we can issue these under our own authority and not have to go through the public? >> The um Kansas statutes, you're right. Whenever school district is issuing u bonds for new projects, new

114money bonds, it does require a vote, but there's not that requirement in the statutes for refinancing. Um, I don't know why that is, but I would speculate it's because refinancings are typically done to to save money and the timing of doing the refinancing, as we know, is very critical and it might just it's just not real convenient to try to conduct an election um for the timing of the market as well as the fact that since it's being done for the benefit of taxpayers and isn't raising taxes in most cases that it's not required in statute. That's my speculation, but it's not required. Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Shannon. >> Um, thank you. I appreciate that answer. Um, and just, you know, it's even less likely that we could go through that process now that

115the legislature has limited school districts to having bond elections only on election days. So you can h you can only have them uh in August, November, or the first Tuesday in March. So the only way that this process works to save taxpayer dollars is if we take advantage of it um as the conditions are appropriate. So um and I I just I'm excited that we're able to consider doing this. I appreciate the expert advice and guidance that um that you have given the board um on this and over the years um to to really take a close look at how we could be good better the best stewards that we can be of of these dollars. And you know, I think we I mentioned at our last meeting when we were talking about a different

116issue that um we have very few levers that we can pull as as a board um that result in saving um taxpayers property tax dollars without impacting the district's ability to operate and serve students the way that we want to. Um and I see this as one of the few ways that are available to us. And so I I'm um I'm happy to support this um and I am happy to support it at the 1.5 million. I know we've talked in the past about setting higher targets, but given the conditions in the market, this seems like an appropriate um um floor to set at this point in time. So thank you. Can you talk about um and I'm I might just be missing it, maybe you said it, but the $ 1.5 million minimum saving.

117What does that translate to in the mill? Like is it a 0.0? Do you know what that savings >> the way um on page um what is that two there? You'll see how the savings is structured. So it's it's approximately $300,000 per year. Um I I don't know what that would equate to in terms of the mill le. What does one mill generate? Maybe about 800,000. >> Okay. >> One mill generates about 800,000. So what 38 of a mill? >> Okay. So it could actually get us to a place where we are near even comparative to last year as opposed to the small percentage of we went. Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. Now uh keep in mind that the budget for this coming year is already set. So this would um impact future. >>

118Yeah. Thank you for clarification. >> Um and that and that assume you know that assumes all other things held equal. You know if valuations change that could change that number. If additional borrowing is done it could change that number. It's just a lot of variables go into that. >> Thank you for those qualifiers. It helps control my expectations. I appreciate My question is when how many times will you will will will our funds become callable? Because some people would say well then you do it now and if the market drops next month you do it again. >> Um that's a good question. the um unlike home mortgages um which usually you can originate you can pay off and refinance the next week if you wanted to. >> Um investors and bonds require u call protection.

119So so most bond issues are structured that you you can't pay them off early for a given number of years. Usually that's somewhere between eight and 10 years. Now, in order to get the best interest rate possible on these bonds, um what we're suggesting you do is just have these bonds be non-allable. So, this would be probably the last chance that you'd have to refinance these. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. A motion. >> Okay. Um, I move the board of education adopt the resolution authorizing the offering for sale of general obligation refunding bonds of Unified School District no number 497 Douglas County, Kansas, Lawrence, providing the refunding meets a minimum savings target of $1.5 million. >> I second. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes.

120>> Buyers, >> yes. >> Kadu Blackwood, >> yes. Costello. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you and I hope to see you again soon. >> Thank you. >> All right. We're going to move on to new business item 4.3 2026 27 capital projects. Turn the time over to Dr. Swift. >> Thank you, uh, President Gordon Ross and members. I appreciate the opportunity to highlight just a couple of items that we have in mind uh for our capital outlay projects. I do want to say right up front and I appreciate uh member Kimble and President Gordon Ross serving on the facilities committee. I do want to note right up front that the prior planned capital projects will continue. uh these uh highlighted projects we're bringing this evening because we'd like to begin to be

121able to plan and address some needs in the district. Um and yet this does not disrupt uh the other work that has already uh been going on over the past year. As you know, members, we've been listening close to our staff, to our community, to our students, uh, and we're working hard to address uh needs that we see um as as we see them and as we're able to get to them. In that endeavor, we're bringing forward two key capital outlay projects in preparation for the 2026 27 school year. First of all, the choice campus at Centennial. Of course, uh if the board is supportive, it will be most important to get uh a team of educators that will start developing the concept. What we're bringing tonight is intentionally very general uh so that we

122can um open the door and then if the board is supportive then drill down to further you know get those fine details but generally speaking we are looking at the need that we have in the district for a nontraditional flexible schedule uh day or evening uh selfpay based individualized learning approach at the Centennial campus. Uh folks have said, well, why could that not be at college and career? And certainly we have a wonderful program in the academy program at college and career. And just a reminder for folks who may not have thought about it for a while that those students at the academy apply for those positions. It is a limited number of positions, but by doing so, by being admitted to that program, they then attach to a CTE pathway at college and career.

123So, that program is really very specifically geared uh toward uh a a set of students who have that CTE desire, that connection potentially to Peasley, that kind of program. The Centennial Choice campus is really a student choice option. Uh students may choose or opt in. Uh it may be for po full-time students, for part-time students, for both credit acceleration. We have a large demand for that and for credit recovery. We have as a part of the vision there that students may choose that as a supplemental to their comprehensive high school experience. If they need to get additional credit recovery, they could uh be by that campus in the evenings or as appropriate to get credit recovery. or the choice campus could be the full-time or part-time school choice option for students. So, we really are

124excited about opening the door to a different way of learning really based entirely around the profile of the student and what they need. What we have found and I'll speak very frankly because we're here to address real uh challenges with real world solutions. What we have found is that students who need a different way of learning have often had the choice of virtual or they might choose the academy even though that's not really meeting the need perfectly. Um, it is very unusual to be a district of our size and not to have a choice non-traditional option available for our high school students. So, we're bringing to you this evening um just a general uh overview and if the board is supportive, we weren't going to invest significant time of this team and of our staff.

125We want to come to the board first, have that conversation. If the board is supportive, then we would move out to develop a concept and a plan and bring those project plans back to the board on a regular basis as we would uh with any other project. Um the second uh keynoted project in capital outlay is the Langston Hughes Elementary expansion. The board is very clearly aware that Langston use has been beyond 100% utilization for a few years now. Um and uh so this addition of classrooms uh to accommodate the current enrollment as well as future enrollment would expand the building with the addition of classrooms and provide a little more space in the common infrastructure areas such as cafeteria area. This would bring the capacity of the building uh from its current of about

126550 students to approximately 700 students. Now I want to qualify these are estimates um and certainly as we get into the planning stage if the board uh supports them moving forward then we would get more specific on that. I will note that Langston Hughes current enrollment uh sits at about 591. Um and so uh we are looking then uh to forward to engaging uh with our Lawrence Public Schools students, staff, parents, and community over the coming months as we refine these plans for both campuses. And we will continue to share regular updates. Um, I do want to mention that the improvements again are funded through capital outlay. That is those are designated funds that are not allowable to be used for teacher or uh ESP salaries other than a very uh few that would be

127a part of capital work. Uh so they're not funds that can be used for classroom salaries. um other previously planned capital outlay projects. And those of you on the facilities committee can speak to this much more clearly uh than some of the rest of us, but those include tracks at the high schools, desperately in need of refurbishment, the addition of preschool classroom spaces in the district, and then also the press box at Free State High School is on that list. Just want to reiterate again the list that was in process would remain in process. So these capital outlay uh uh spotlighted projects this evening would really not interfere with the work that's already in place. Um you might not know uh this about Centennial, but I appreciated Summer Workman putting together a little background. Uh

128it was nearly uh a quarter of a century ago that Centennial closed its doors as a traditional school. Since then it has served for some of the time as a location for the virtual school at one point and also as a practice site uh for Lawrence High baseball. It currently serves that way continuing even now uh with indoor batting cages and with other tennis and golf and other LHS sports storage and usage there. I do want to also emphasize that the current uh proposal does not displace those athletic purposes. is there really is room in the building to achieve both uh goals to do both things at one time. The important uh message this evening is a choice campus at Centennial will provide students with equitable access to a flexible non-traditional high school program. ensuring

129that every learner has the opportunity to thrive in an environment that is personalized and designed to best meet their needs. Um, we know when we look at both our graduation data and the attendance data that we're just about to look at in a few minutes, uh, that the niche for students who through the data show that they needed something different is right at that approximately 5% threshold. Um, and five to 10% even. And so although this campus is designed to be small, I do want to emphasize that I believe all of us know students for whom the comprehensive approach as wonderful as it is does not meet their individual needs. So I I believe that's enough of an introduction. I do have uh Dr. Inglebrick and others here with me. if you uh would like

130to discuss or ask questions, we'll take careful notes while you uh while you discuss. >> Um just a couple of questions to get started. Um first off um to your last comment about 5 to 10% of students um what are we looking at in terms I know it's estimated but what if the demand exceeds what your estimates are? Is there room to grow or >> how will we determine who gets to go? >> Thank you for that question. I really appreciate it. there is room to grow in the program in that building. My prior experience with opening a campus of this nature or being around a campus of this nature is that because of the come and go morning, afternoon and evening sessions. I have noted that you're able to serve quite a lot of

131students and it doesn't feel that way because of the differing shifts that students might come. uh student needing credit recovery at one of our high schools might choose to go Tuesday and Thursday evenings just to get those credit recovery uh hours in. Uh a student who chooses it full-time but is prohibited by time of day issues either by job commitment or by physical time of day needs. Perhaps they're on a 12 to 5 schedule or a 4 to 8:00 pm schedule. So, we feel like the flexibility is going to allow us to serve more than you might think. >> Okay. And then, um um have we looked at shifting boundaries to the east to potentially alleviate some of the pressure at Langston Hughes? >> So, I love that question and thank you. And as you

132look at the map and where our students live in this town, uh the facts are clear, uh that the shifting of boundaries would involve significant shifts across town. Uh I have experience in that kind of situation, particularly when it comes to elementary schools. it is not a viable or practical option. And I could go on around costs of transportation which are significant and recurring. Um I could go around uh that uh number one priority that I've heard everywhere in this community of a neighborhood school. I do understand um that there are complexities and challenges. I get that. But I I do not believe shifting boundaries to the west is a viable option to resolve to the I'm sorry to the east is a viable option to resolve the overcrowding on the west side. Thank you.

133>> This is Carol. I am um I'm with Ann here, but I'm I'm looking at the the previous report from RSP from last year. Um, specifically, I'm looking at the elementary student heat density map, and there are a lot of like so-called areas of growth on the the east or southeastern part of town. >> Areas of I couldn't hear. >> Has that been discussed or looked at the the previous findings from RSP? >> Dr. Ingleick, would you help us? So, I couldn't hear the word. There were areas of growth. Yes. >> Did you say on the east and south >> elementary student heat density map where I'm looking at the RSP uh report from last year specifically page 63. >> Okay. >> And so I'm looking at the map and I see a lot of

134like big red dots where the heat density is on the south the southeastern part of town east and southeastern part of town. >> And it seems to be there more like red zones or bigger red zones than the west side. And why Langston Hugh specifically instead of investing more dollars into schools like say Prairie Park where that area of the school the because we just shut down Broken Arrow. Is there has why Langston Hughes? >> Well the immediate need at Langston Hughes about those students who are currently enrolled there. We certainly are making investments as well in Prairie Park and I'm excited to share more about that soon as well. Um, but it is Langston is the building that is currently over capacity with our current enrollment. Dr. Ingleberg, >> that is correct. Right now,

135you use Prairie Park as an example. Prairie Pike Park still has classrooms available for additional students. At this point, Langston Hughes does not. We were searching for space at Langston Hughes last summer that we could use for instructional space. just as I'm thinking about it. Um, in order to move shift population, it wouldn't necessarily it would probably mean that we would it's more like moving in steps that you wouldn't necessarily want to grab a kid from as far west as you can go and bust them across. It might mean shifting from one school to another school and moving kids. My my issue however isn't no that's more from my understanding. My question is capacity of the schools currently in the east. Would there be enough room in those schools to cover a load >> load?

136Right. Uh because my understanding is all of our schools are in the east are pretty small and want to make sure that you know if we're thinking about that we we take that in consideration right >> that that um their size if you're shifting more population would become an issue >> right so I I'm so glad you asked that question member buyers we're bringing the enrollment in class size report coming up uh after our fall count is confirmed which was Monday. Uh so that report is coming up but what is true is that most of our elementary schools are are fairly well utilized at this point. Um they are not over capacity. We really only have one elementary that is over capacity. >> Yeah. >> Can I So, if to Carol's point, if we had

137a school on the east side like Prairie Park, because that's the example used, if it also found itself to be over 100% capacity, would the goal then be to add classrooms at that building as well? >> Without a doubt. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I will be bringing I'm so glad you raised that. I will be bringing that in areas where we want to add preschool classrooms in areas of need where there is not space. Okay. >> And so we will have that conversation. Thank you. >> So just to make sure I understood that right. So in the spaces where we might want to add another preschool that might be an example of another building where we might add a classroom at some point. Is that correct? >> Exactly. in in those areas where

138schools are fairly well utilized, there's no classroom for preschool. The board will be discussing the same way providing classrooms for preschool, adding those. Yes, >> this might be a weird question or I'm probably aging myself or as my husband says maybe outing myself. But back in my day, we used to have um as a temporary solution, obviously trailers. Was that something that we even considered this year given the lack of space at Linkston Hughes already? >> It it's um modulars are trailers or whatever word you want to put on them. Modulars is the euphemism. My understanding was uh is that the board and our community have not been supportive of going down that path and so I've heard that very clearly but Dr. Ingleick you've been here longer than I so I'll defer if you

139have thoughts on that as well. >> Thoughts have always been to stay away from adding modular units. Couple of reasons there. You're renting the space. Eventually, you have to create adequate space at the building and modular units may work for a short period of time, but it's like renting an apartment, >> right? >> At the end of the rent, you have just the time factor that you've extended yourself. If we can do that upfront, I think we're much better off in use of our uh financial resources. >> Agreed. I was just wondering like I don't think that's a permanent solution whatsoever, but I was just wondering given the the the closeness of quarters this year. Was that ever a consideration knowing that you know down the road we would obviously be looking for a permanent

140solution but in order to provide that extra space um was that something that was considered because I know we have one of the grades where we didn't h physically have space for the room and so could that have been a way to provide that space? We did look at that and the and the challenge is that it takes the same number of months about a year to uh get the modular lined up and installed. I know that from personal experience. Um so and you can add a few classrooms, which is the plan that we're looking at here, uh in the same amount of time. So, uh, and and then not have to the the issue with modulars is then you've made that investment in the modular. So, I I I have used them at times

141where we're going to move that modular around town to do many buildings, but in this particular situation, a straightforward solution was more appropriate. Yeah. >> So, Dr. Switch, I appreciate that your presentation answered um I think most of the questions I had. Um uh you touched on why choosing Centennial instead of one of our other buildings for example. Um you touched on one of my questions was what you know we have this award-winning academy program at college and career center. Is this going to displace that program? It sounds to me like you see this as in addition to because it meets a different need. >> Yes. Um and um talking about the what the specific target is um I think my question for um Dr. Englebrick because I didn't get to participate in this part

142of the facilities committee. I had to leave was um I have a just in terms of timeline um you know my experience with doing this work is that opening new space in August of 2026 um doable, but that's a pretty it strikes me as that's a pretty aggressive timeline. >> Um so I guess I just wanted to offer you a space to kind of address that concern because um you know at Centennial we don't have any existing uses in the space that we are talking about. So that's pretty like you can get started right away, but Langston is having school and if we're talking about an addition of a number of classrooms onto that building and the potential disruption of construction there, um that is a question or a concern that I have. So um

143>> it is a very aggressive timeline starting now. the the experts we work with say yes starting now and having a problem it becomes more and more difficult >> but if we if we're able to start in the very near future we can get there >> um does I I know we're working or proposing to work with ACI Boland on on the planning for this um with the Langston project um is their thinking that you know you do all the prep and bidding Um, I know you probably can't hear me. It's not I can't hear it very well. Um, >> thank you very much. >> You do all the the prep work um with the idea that you would start construction >> time frame >> January January. Okay. So, there would be construction during the

144second semester. >> And part of the early discussion is the form of the construction. We would be looking right now at using pre-cast concrete exterior walls for a couple reasons. We can get th those all in the pipeline, get them ordered. It's a quicker construction process than some of the other ways that uh we tend to use. It also facil facilitates our ability to prepare storm shelters in specific areas for students. And that's one of the things we've looked at. If we're going to make this type of investment, we need to make it so that we're providing not just classroom instructional space, but in this case adding on to our uh storm shelter space >> because currently the storm shelters at Langston are basically just the new additions that we did with the 2013 bond

145and that's probably not large enough to hold 590 students. >> Okay. Um what is that was I right and when in looking at the attachments that that the proposal there also expands some of their common spaces. Um, and can you talk about what that what that need is >> as we add students to Langston Hughes? As with any of our buildings, when you have to look at the cafeteria capacity, we would be expanding the cafeteria, not greatly, but enough that would allow us to serve the students that will be at the building. It also enables us to put together a nice flow of potential hallway passages from the building as it exists now to where the new classrooms would most likely be located. And I'm stepping out on a bit of a limb right now,

146but the last time we spoke last was last week. Uh we believe we can also prepare space inside for the smaller classes to potentially have an indoor play space. >> Uh not the absolute best where it's isolated from everything under the sun, but so that these young students could have space inside. Uh we would be looking at uh reconfiguring a little bit of the entry area to make uh access in. We would have a secondary uh access point for drop off and pickup again at the front of the building. But it would allow us to start doing a few things differently on the um morning drop off and uh afternoon pickup to hopefully make that process a little smoother for everyone involved. I have some experience at that particular building. It's it can be pretty

147challenging. Um does this does this plan include um expanding prek classroom at Langston as part of the classroom space that would be added on? >> They do not currently have room for preschool. >> Okay. So, this would just be addressing the K through five enrollment need. Well, um that's something that we'll discuss through the design process, but currently they're not uh next up for preschool. >> Okay. Um as part of what is I know I have a lot of questions. Thank you. um as part of what is what remains because the other questions I had was what is the impact on our existing capital projects plan which I think you know we have identified of a lot of really important needs in that plan. Um and you said it it won't impact any of the

148projects we've talked about including kind of expanding those prek classrooms that we've that we've started this year. Um, do we have an idea of how many new preschool classrooms we're hoping to expand next year? >> We are using a phased process. So, barring some great development from the state, i.e. full funding for preschool, may it be so. Um, barring that, we had set a pace of two classrooms per year. So we we kind of feel comfortable with that with the caveat that past president uh Jones brought up earlier uh is that there are several among our elementary schools where there is not room. >> Okay. Um, and then I think my last question is, um, you know, as you were talking through the Centennial program, um, you know, we're we're kind of talking about the

149space side of it. I would like some additional information in the future on the staffing side of opening up that program because of the centennial >> of the centennial of the high the high school choice program. Um, absolutely. just to understand um you know how many staff we would we would need to run that program where we are thinking the dollars for those FTE will come from um you know recognizing that we really need to make sure that we're reaching that additional um you know our graduation rate is around 89% I believe um last year that additional 11% of kids that we're not getting across the stage in May like we need to do something to improve that for experience for them and make sure that they are successful. So I I'm >> um fully

150supportive of that goal. I just want to understand what resources we think that's going to take to um provide that opportunity for those kids. >> I appreciate your commitment to our students. It's so true that it's very much needed. It would be our commitment to streamline across to uh yield the FTE to staff that building. We continue uh to operate on a streamline approach not additional FTE approach but um as you all noted in our prior conversation that's easy to say and challenging to do. So I just invite you all and I will we will continue to hold ourselves accountable to that challenge. >> Okay. Um do you see uh Dr. Englebrick in the in the conversations that I know happen around the where our enrollment pressures might be coming from in the future. Um,

151you know, I was trying to find the RSP report that Carol referenced and I actually couldn't find it um readily and I but I do remember the heat maps. Um, are are there conversations going on in the development space in Lawrence that make us think that um that there may be additional pressures in parts of town that we haven't been talking about in the past? Well, I do hear uh member Kadu Blackwood's words and I we do hear and and we were in discussion yes as recently as yesterday about developments that are coming. So, we've got our ear to the ground on that, but Dr. Ingri, did you want to highlight any particular patterns that you're seeing? We're meet we're meeting with the city quite often right now about uh development as and we met

152with them this morning to talk through some of these issues. I think we will see development and we will see growth and we will see that on the east side of our city. Maybe not as quickly and as fast as uh we will on the west side, but we also have some buildings on the east side of our district that are pretty full and we need to look at that and make adjustments in the years coming to take care of those students adequately. Also, >> that's right. Um, I think of a couple of the schools that uh would be really prime locations for a preschool and it may be difficult to find space there right now. So, those are items that we would have to look at in order to get a preschool there. What

153moves? And it may have to be the walls of the building. >> Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Um, I don't think I could ask any other question about Langston Hughes that no one else has already asked. So, I'm not even going to even try. But, um, I was totally excited to hear about the choice program uh, when you first brought it to to me as well. Um, one question I have is, uh, do we have a plan in place or is there a plan going to be in place on how to reach that 11% that we're not getting across the stage? Um, as far as how do we communicate that to the parents or the kids to make them seem like they're not being singled out or picked on or anything like

154that? you know, is there a plan in place, you know, to get to that 11% so that we can have a 100% graduation rate. That's true. >> So, that's I think that's one of the things I'm looking forward to seeing is how are we going to >> communicate that to the community that we have children that we're missing? >> Yes. >> In graduating. And so how do we get them to look at the choice program and see that this may be something that may be beneficial for them um to get to that graduation stage. >> That's right. We are so excited uh if the board is supportive to get into conversations with students that opportunity and I a model that I see in the district is our diploma completion team and they reach out to

155students and and describe how if you'll just give us 20 hours a week we can get you finished in this many months or you know just really getting down to an individualized plan that fits. Um, our high school counselors and teachers and teams are all the time working with students and yet um the the comprehensive can't be everything uh to everyone. And so I think that's where the niche of this school is is to meet students and families where they are. To me, the powerful lever here is that it's student choice. Um, it's not uh the result of an an IEP meeting or the result of a chief team meeting. It's the student and family choice to say, "I need something different. I need something small. I need something individualized. I'd like to set it

156up this way." And for great professionals to support them in doing so. >> This is Carol. I am excited about the choice campus and I'm going to date myself. I graduated in 1992 from Lawrence High School and we had something called the alternative high school right by Hulcom and it was a great program and you know we just I'm you know still I'm friends with a lot of people who graduated from that program and they leave they lead happy healthy productive lives and some of them were former board members that went to the alternative high school. So I'm in full support of the choice c the choice campus. >> Thank you. Yeah, I support as well. My my thing is we often look at what we do and say we can we just keep doing

157what we do and we'll just do it a little better and we'll get there. Uh the reality is is you usually don't get there. And the reality as my mom used to say say if you keep if you keep doing the things you've always done you'll always get the same old outcomes. Uh so where I support it is this is something different. It brings another tool to our toolbox. Um so we may not get all 11% if we can get one or two three or 4% that's success. >> Thank you. >> Larry, I just have one question for you. As you look at preliminarily the work at Centennial uh that would need to be done to get the choice campus up and running. Um is that all new work or is some of that work

158that would have to be done anyway? >> Great deal of it is work that would have to be done anyway. If we are going to keep the building for any use, some of the first things we're we'll be doing on that building if you tell us to move forward would be things, basic things. We need a new roof. Our HVAC system is on its last legs. The air conditioning side of that system is in much better shape than the um heating side of it. And you know where we're headed right now, and that is into winter. So those types of things we would begin working on quickly to prepare the building for us to come in and do the final interior renovation facelift. We'll be taking walls down. We'll be recreating restrooms. Another point that

159we would be looking at very quickly and this would take a great deal of coordination with the whole project. But uh the plumbing >> Mhm. >> the building's been virtually empty for 15 to 25 years. We've had people in and out of it, but wastelines tend to have problems if they're not used daily. The metal begins to rust. You can imagine what happens when substances go down a rusty pipe. They get stopped. So, we would be looking at those types of things. For years, the buildings had trouble with uh the water supply, old pipes, close it down for a week or two at any break in the school year, you have to go in and flush the pipes. We'd be looking at that. Uh repiping that. All things that in the big picture are very,

160very doable. But we would get those things going first as quickly as possible and then allow us to move to the um the things people will appreciate more. There aren't very many people that appreciate roofs, HVAC systems, and plumbing. >> I do. Um I uh have a quick question. Um the I agree with uh Yolanda and Bob and and Car. I'm very excited about the choice program. I think we've needed it for a while. And when I first came to the board, that was one of the actually it was Paula and a group of people that were pushing to get um another alternative like education program. So I think this adds to the opportunities for students. I think it's a great idea. Um, I'm also glad to hear that the condition of Centennial is not

161there are things we need to work on, but what I'm hearing you say is that this is a much more efficient way than tearing down a building and rebuilding something new. Um, the location is so nice on a right next to the existing high school because you can imagine good partnerships like thinking about wanting to streamline staffing. that's going to be much easier with the proximity to Lawrence High comparative to the college and career center where it's a bit harder to transport back and forth. But um to the question of if you have to tear down entirely and rebuild rather than using an existing building in this case it's more efficient and co in in terms of the cost and also just getting the project up and going to use the existing building. Correct. >>

162Yes. >> Okay. Um, thank you for another shot at a couple of things. I had um I just I wanted to ask a make a request and just make a couple of observations. Um, I think that the RSP report that you were mentioning, Carol, might have been something that the boundary committee looked at, but didn't we did not necessarily I don't think that we saw that at the board table when the boundary committee was doing the high school boundary analysis. So I if if that could be provided to the board because I don't think I've seen it. Um sure. So that would be helpful. Um and then just a couple of observations. So you know having done facilities work and bond issue work in this district as long as I have, I've been working on

163these issues since 2010 at this point along with um GR and uh Kelly. Um, and so, um, there's some things that we've talked about a lot over the years that have that I come to the table with assumptions about, um, what our values are that we're going to live out when we do when we talk about projects like this. So, I just want to say them out loud so that the community can hear that and so that um, everybody kind of knows these are the expectations that I have in my head. Um you know many many years ago we made a commitment to stay away from portables as much as possible in our district. I think that is a commitment we should continue um to the extent that we are able. Um uh along those

164lines you know we have created a standard of learning spaces through the bond work we've done in 2013 and 2017 in terms of what we think an appropriate learning space is for students in our district. And so as we are planning um this uh putting a new program into Centennial um I want to I will be asking questions about how are we going to make sure that the the students who attend a program in that building are having the same experience in a facility in our district that they would have in any of our other buildings. So I I think we have a lot to be proud of in Lawrence public schools with the quality of learning spaces that we provide to our students. Um we have stopped using a number of buildings like the

165building at Hulcom that did not meet that standard that did not respect um the students that were in them in the way that I want our students to feel supported and respected in learning spaces. Um, Centennial is going to require some work to get there, I believe, based on it's been quite a few years since I've been in the space, but just from what I remember. Um, but I hope that we are going to live out that value in the planning we do around this project. Um, and then, you know, we've had some conversations about why why are we adding on um what are our future plans? what are we thinking about um other buildings where we may have um enrollment pressures in the future? Um, I think it's really important for us to to

166think about the buildings that we have in our district um and making sure that um as we have enrollment pressures going forward in the future that we are responding to that in a way that helps us use the facilities we have um better and more efficiently. So, um the elementary schools that we have that are still very small, um uh if we need to add on classrooms, I think that is something that we need to talk about because if we grow enrollment in those buildings, it allows us to operate more efficient efficiently, which means that we have additional dollars to put back into the priorities around um supporting wages for our staff, >> right? So, um, the more efficiently we we can use the staffing that we put in a building, the more we can

167achieve those goals. And so, having enrollment growth in those buildings, whether it's through adding preK programs or otherwise um is a way that we do that. So, I really um appreciate that and I want us to keep thinking about um you know there are creative ways to add on classrooms to every building that we have >> um in service in the district um as an elementary school, middle school um at this point. And so I really want us to keep that in mind. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um two things. one. Um I do want to just kind of remind everyone that um though we did close two elementary schools, those buildings are in use currently. Um and so especi [Music] schools as options. And secondly, um I really want to make sure that

168as we're doing this, even if it's um a um just in addition to a building that we really have our eyes to the future and how we're designing and building these spaces, um I've had the opportunity to tour a lot of different districts and see kind of how they're laying things out. And you know, when you talk about um the different ways that you know, project-based learning or those kinds of um different collaborative things that we're doing at all levels now, making sure that we have we're building that space into those now so that we can, you know, take advantage of these new opportunities for our students and stuff like that. Um I just I don't want to, you know, just like, oh well, we need three classrooms. We're gonna add three classrooms. not really

169think and I'm not saying you would do this but not really think about what are some of the other things that we might need in our buildings to make them even better and within obviously the goal to be finding a way to roll some of that out at some point to the other schools in some method but you know um I I mean I saw some great schools with that you know each of the areas have their own you know kind of like um outside the classroom shared learning spaces and stuff like that for them to take advantage of for you know projects that maybe take up more space or something like that. So um you know we just we have an opportunity here and I hope you know we you know involve our teachers

170in this as well and kind of get their thoughts um but really look at you know what what is education look like in the future and how do we want to deliver that and let's design for that and not what we're doing today. All right. Can I get a motion? >> I move the board of education approve the planning and development of the Choice Centennial Campus and the additional classroom at Langston Hughes Elementary. >> Second. >> Gordon Ross. >> Yes. >> Jones. >> Yes. >> Kimell, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Could Blackwood? Yes, >> Costello. >> Yes, >> Franklin. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Move on to our equity attendance report. Turn the time over to Dr. Swift. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members uh board and members of

171the community. September is attendance awareness month. Um, and it is also the time when we'll bring our equity report on attendance. And members, I've been delighted to dig into the data with our team. And I am joined this evening by Miss Tina Mitchell, our equity uh, director, and by James Pulk, our data director, who will help us um, to really unpack attendance. As with all of these reports, we are focused on the report as an equity an through an equity a lens of equity. There we go. Attendance is more than anything else at its root engagement. I'm not saying anything fabulous. That's just fundamental. It's a whether we show up serves as a fundamental measure of our level of engagement. Um, you know, you see posters everywhere. I see them in schools all the time.

172And I've got a school poster right here on the next slide that I uh took a photo of out at Liberty Memorial Central recently. uh you see posters that say 80% of life is showing up and you know inspiring posters like that and um and yet we know that when students begin to miss school, it doesn't take long for that to add up. And one of the uh data pieces is just missing two days a month, which seems like maybe not that much, but just missing two days a month means a child will miss 10% of the school year. So we know that attendance matters. It matters because fundamentally there are only three legs to the to the stool of student growth and development. One is time on task. another one that quality educator and

173then thirdly a strong and visible and viable curricula. That's what it takes. And so tonight we're focused on one of the fundamentals which is school attendance uh as a CI3T framework district. We think about everything we face uh you know in the three sides of this triangle or pyramid. uh thinking of that tier one on the bottom as the thing that everyone gets no matter what. It's good for all. Thinking of tier two really as more focused supports usually for 10 to 15 uh percent of students who need a little more. Um and then we think more uh at the top of the triangle about more intention, more uh intensity, more duration, more frequency, higher levels of intervention. So, as Miss Mitchell walks us through some of the strategies that our schools are using, I

174just wanted to kind of have that framework of how we approach. Everyone gets communication. There are more specific supports that come into play when that student gets below a 90% attendance rate. And then we think about that high part of the triangle as those students who are frequently absent. And I'll note members that we're not using the term chronic that is defined by the state as 10% or greater. We really have divided in this presentation uh a 10% uh absence rate and then a 20% absence rate because we see that is very important to note uh when it comes to students and learning. Um as we often do, we'll kind of set out our takeaways at the front. I apologize that there's a lot of text on this slide. Um, and I apologize for that,

175but I wanted all the takeaways together. Uh, the first takeaway is our students by and large attend school in Lawrence public schools. That's not true everywhere, but our average daily attendance uh this past uh year is 90.6%. Uh, I don't know how many corporate environments of 10,000 people would be able to boast that almost 91% of folks show up every day. That's a really great rate of attendance. And yet, because we are uh ambassadors and advocates for equity, it's our job to look inside the 10% who are not attending 90% of the time. And so we're going to look at that. I should say the percentage rate depends on elementary, middle, or high. We do note that we have rates of approaching frequent absence and frequent absence. We'll talk about those. Um, another great piece

176of data is that once we got past that COVID interrupted learning, um, and once we returned full-time in person, uh, that year really being 2122, we have seen a positive increase in the rates of attendance over the past four years at elementary and at middle and we see high school as being fairly stable. Thirdly, uh our work as equityoriented educators is that we witness disparities and we'll talk about those tonight. Areas where we see disparities in attendance are among students who are African-American, who are American Indian, that is the term used in our federal data. uh our students with disability and our economically disadvantaged students. You'll see that tonight as well. When we zoom in on the very top of the pyramid, intensive focus, that's approximately 4% of elementary students. It's about 7% of middle

177school students and it's about 20% of high school students. Finally, uh, as you look inside the data that Mr. Poke will be unpacking, there is positive movement to see and we've realized a reduction in the rates of frequently absent students and uh approaching frequently absent students. that rate is reduced from 36 almost 37% uh to 29.5% over four years. So we are bringing that rate down. Inside of that we also see a reduction in those students who experience frequent absence. That rate has come down from 13% to 10%. So while we have not arrived, we understand the mission. We're not declaring victory tonight. We do see that the trends are moving in the right direction. And so with that, I so appreciate Miss Mitchell who's joined our team uh to uh lead the cause and

178support the cause on equity and on family engagement. And she has been busy collecting strategies from among our schools. and she'll be highlighting those strategies uh for you this evening. Miss Mitchell, >> thank you. Thank you, Dr. Swift. I again, my name is Tina Mitchell. I am the director of equity and student and family engagement. And I just wanted to take a few moments to highlight some of the intervention strategies that are taking place in our schools across the district. And at each level there are multiple variety of supports and strategies that can be utilized by um schools and students. I want to highlight communication first. Dr. Comfort, the principal at Schwegler Elementary and his team at the very beginning of the year proactively reached out to every single family with a welcome phone call.

179They successfully connected with over 57% of their parents and families and had wonderful conversations and dialogues. Families that could not be reached were followed up with voicemail and then there were a few that they had to email, but every single family had a connection at the beginning of the year. Schwagler worked to establish two-way communication and a welcoming environment from day one. This welcome phone call provided each family with a direct connection to the school and a specific person in the building to connect with. We know that when parents have somebody to reach out to that eases their comfort level and makes them more likely to contact school. At West Middle School, Miss Carson, she sends out weekly email communications, the school newsletter through Parent Square. Parent Square is allowing parents to read important information

180in their preferred language, ensuring that they stay informed and engaged, which in turn supports consistent student attendance. Now, we know that all buildings across the district are using Parent Square. But when principles become more familiar with the abilities of Parent Square, they can maximize that. And James is going to talk a little bit about how West is maximizing parent square. Yeah. So, West is doing something pretty cool. They're actually piloting out um our parents are receiving attendance notifications if their students are unexcused or unexcused tardy daily. Um and so West is actually their attendance secretary uh uh Don Salisbury is actually piloting for us uh a text back system so parents can actually respond back directly to the text that they're receiving saying their student is unexcused for the day and that can then um

181inform Dawn the uh reason that the student is absent so that she can fill it into our student information system. And so we're piloting that with them to hopefully expand that in the future. But West is doing something unique. >> Thank you, James. So now I want to talk just a little bit about family learning and capacity building. And we're going to highlight Hillrest Elementary and Woodlon Elementary. Mr. Daly is the principal at Woodlon Elementary. and he hostly and he we and he hosts weekly Friday morning openers where all students and families are welcomed to attend the end of the week assembly and families are excited to show up and participate in this learning experience. At the end of a long week they come together as a community and they get their questions answered and

182families hear questions of other families. This builds unity, community, and capacity for Woodlon Elementary. At Hillcrest Elementary, Miss Cathy and her staff recently hosted Cookies with Cathy. They welcomed nearly 30 families. What made this event especially um meaningful was the fact that the majority of those 30 families were families that typically choose not to to attend. This was a result of Miss Cathy and her staff building a non-threatening and welcoming environment. We know that when parents show up and feel connected to school, their kids are going to attend. I'd also like to take a moment to um highlight interventions and partnerships, the things that are happening at College and Career Center and Free State High School. Mr. Puit and his leadership team at CCC ensure that every single day at least one member of their

183team is standing at that front door welcoming students by their first name. Calling a student by name is really really important. It solidifies the connection. Mr. Puit and his team are intentional in their efforts to connect with all students and they express their delight in their presence each day. They let the students know, "We're glad you showed up today." And if a student fails to attend, a phone call is made immediately, and students are personally followed up with on the very next day that they show up. CCC is working to ensure that kids know that this is their building and that they need to be there to be successful. At Free State High School, Mrs. McCannernney and the Free State team use a triple check system or a three threeprong approach to attendance. They want

184to ensure that they match supports to student needs. Attendance is reviewed simultaneously by three different teams. One team might be composed of a counselor and a social worker. The next team might be a little bit larger, perhaps the mental health team. And that third team is the administration. And they are doing this to ensure that students get what they need. For instance, you might have a high school student that is hiding out in the bathroom because they're fearful of dressing out for PE. You might have a second high school student who takes an extra long lunch and is tardy every day of lunch. And then you might have a third high school student who is simply skipping seventh hour so that they can make it to work on time. All three of these circumstances are

185attendance issues and all three need to be addressed with different interventions by different members of the team. And Free State High School's tiered approach is ensuring that students are getting what they need. The last thing that I'd like to highlight is that individualized student specific support. That's for that top tier, that 5% of students who need a little bit more, a little something extra. For instance, we might have a family that has extenduating circumstances and they can't get their student to school. Transportation is a barrier. However, they do not qualify for transportation based on the guidelines. But we can submit a special transportation request to our transportation director and he will work to ensure that if there is a seat available on a bus, we're going to get that student to school, removing those barriers.

186So I have just highlighted a few of the interventions that we can put in place. Research shows that when students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating improve significantly. We know that there is work to be done and James is going to talk to you a little bit more about the data. >> Thanks. I'm James Pulk. from the director of uh data and assessment and uh I'm going to follow up uh Dr. Swift and director Mitchell to talk a little bit more. That's not the right button. Um about the data that we are seeing. >> Oh, you're going to want to hit the right arrow. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. So, just to give you a little bit of background information in Kansas, we talk about ADA when

187we talk about ascend attendance. That is average daily attendance. That number is telling us how many students were in school each single day. It's also divided by the total number of days that school was in session. Uh this makes it kind of the reliable indicator in the state for how we measure uh attendance rates. Um and as we get into the data today, you're going to notice that 2019 2020 school year is missing from the reports that we're pulling. Uh due to the pandemic, the state does not kind of recognize attendance data for there because we stopped attending in March. Okay. So, as we look at our first slide, this is our overall average daily attendance for the district. You're going to see two things to note here. Number one, the orange is the state

188uh attendance rate, average daily attendance. The blue is the district rate over time. You'll see that there's a blue dotted line that indicates, and you're going to see it on a couple slides, that that is the year that we don't really recognize the attendance data because of COVID. And that green dotted line is when we returned full-time in person. So that's after we did the year of hybrid and inperson and virtual mixed together. So we can see over that four-year trend, our attendance is staying stable and moving up. And so when we look at this data, we also want to look at how we break it down by levels. And so this graph is the same information, but now it's broken up to look at elementary, uh, middle, and high. So you can see the

189gray line indicates how our district has ebbed and flow over this time period. But you can see in our last year 24-25 how elementary and middle are uh trending in that positive direction over the last four years. And you can see where our high school average daily attendance is staying steady at that 86%. This is uh the same uh data that you saw on the previous slide here. It's just represented in a little bit different way. We wanted to kind of zoom in on these last four years where you can see uh we returned to full intime learning. And so you can see that positive increase in elementary and middle school attendance and you can see that maintaining in high school. Uh the dotted line on this slide just indicates the average attendance in the

1902425 school year for us. Okay. Um another thing that we like to do when we're looking at these equity data reports is we like to look at our student groups. Um, so we're going to look at those student groups after we zoom in a little bit more to look at the grade levels. And so when we look on the previous side and we see those positive trends of uh elementary and middle and the maintaining of high school, you're going to see uh those numbers reflected here just zoomed in a little bit more by grade. The one thing we want to point out when we look at this is there is a trend we saw kind of throughout the data that the increase in grade level or age of the student we saw a decrease in

191our average daily attendance. And so that's something that you'll see in multiple data points as we represent that through this presentation. So as I talked about we also want to look at our student groups. And so for our student groups uh this slide is representing our race and ethnicity across the district. You'll notice a couple of things here. 2425 school year is not included. As Dr. Swift shared at the beginning of our presentation, count day just happened on Monday. Uh and so once we report those numbers to the state and go through the auditing process, we'll be able to pull in those student group numbers for the 2425 school year. But this is representing those last three years we do have those numbers. You can see in all of these student groups, we're seeing a

192positive trend of increased average daily attendance. Uh we do want to recognize that several of our student groups are below our district average of 91.31%. That is African-American, American Indian, and multi-racial. Uh the table on the right, a lot of times when we do these presentations, we talk about percentages, but we forget how many students this is representing. We really want to make sure that we're um acknowledging the number of students that this is representing in each of these student groups. And so that's what the table on the right is representing. That last year that we have of 2023 and 2024, those are the number of students falling into those student groups. The next slide looks at two more student groups and those are our economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities. The chart on the

193right just reinforces the graph on the left. But again, you can see we have positive trend uh data for all of our subgroups that we've looked at, but we also acknowledge that this attendance rate is not where we need it to be. And uh that is the work that we have to do as a school district. Uh the last thing that I'm going to talk about with you tonight is uh frequent absenteeism. And as Dr. Swift shared earlier, we want to make sure that we kind of define this for you. So attendance rates or that average daily attendance tell us how many students show up each day. Our frequent absentee rates tell us which students are failing to show up. So when we talk about tiered levels of support, the the frequent absenteeism rate that

194we're talking about. That's how our buildings uh identify students to work with, families to make connections with so we can put those interventions in place. So we wanted to look at this through that three- tiered level of support lens. Tier one uh that's working for for a majority of our students is those students attending 90% or above. That approaching frequently absent or tier 2 is those students in that 80 to 89.9 range. And then the frequently absent or tier three students, those are students that are attending less than 80% of the time. Okay. So when we look at the next two graphs, you're going to see these colors represented and those are what those terms represent. Okay. So, this is frequent absenteeism over time. And as we've looked at kind of our trend over the

195last four years when we've returned to full-time in-person learning, you're going to see that reduction in frequent and approaching frequent absentee rate from that 36.8% down to just below 30%. Which means uh last year when we're looking at that frequent absenteeism rate, 70% of our students attended school 90% of the time. Okay. We also are looking at um how we can provide intensive focus and intensive supports for that 11 or 10% of students that are attending less than 80% of the time. >> James. >> Yeah. >> And just like in years past, so I'll just ask this is absent for any reason, excused, unexcused. This is not in the classroom. >> Correct. So even our uh our athletes and our people that have clubs and attending different things across the state, even those excused absences

196are counted in this number right here. Okay, >> thank you for that. The last slide we're going to look at, and I want to make sure to note this is not trend data over time. This is just last year. And so we wanted to capture our most recent year and how the data looks at each of our levels. So just as we looked at our average daily attendance, we wanted to look at our frequent absenteeism. And so we can see that intense focus with supports at elementary looking at those 4% of students, middle school, 7 and high school 20%. But again, this follows that trend that I talked about when we looked at grade levels is the higher we go up in grades and age of students, we see that decline in attendance. And this

197data matches that ADA. And so we can see that we have a real trend uh in the data that we're pulling. So, as we look at our takeaways, these are the same that Dr. Swift kind of laid out at the beginning of our slideshow. Uh, we know that students in Lawrence overall are attending at almost a 91% rate, which is fantastic. We know that as we look at that trend line data over the last four years. Elementary and middle are moving in the right direction along with a lot of our student groups. We know that high school has been stable, but we also want to make sure that we're acknowledging those disparities in those student groups of African-American, American Indian, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged. Um and then uh lastly that intensive focus for

198those students that we talked about with frequent absenteeism and uh the positive not uh data that we're seeing in that trend decreasing um but still uh 29.5 frequently attending or approaching frequently um is still lots of work to do there >> and uh thank you Mr. Pulk. I will wrap by just it we all understand our assignment when we look at this data and so there's no um there's no reason to not see it. It's there. It's clear and particularly around high school data. So um as you all discussed in our prior discussion, we have needs to meet kids and families where they are to ensure that we have engagement. Um the other piece to triangulate which our school teams do is what is the percentage rate of students who have this frequent or approaching

199frequent and are also failing classes or also failing to acrue behind an acrruel of credits. So that's what our teachers and counselors and principles are doing is looking at that triangulation of data. We're just looking at one picture tonight, but I want to acknowledge right up front that we see and we understand the critical need around uh attendance particularly at the secondary level. >> Yeah, >> thank you for putting this together. Um I appreciate it. Um question around um so as JR mentioned this includes excused and non-excused. So, have we looked to see like how much of this is related to like school activity or or sports and potentially how much of this is preventable um based off of busing requirements and stuff like that that have our kids um sitting out and leaving for

200events hours before they start. >> Yeah. Uh we had a lot of robust conversations um as a leadership team uh around the data that we see here and potential factors uh and also action steps that we can take in order to work on improving uh our attendance rate and and also the frequent absenteeism. And so that uh busing uh point uh in particular was something that we discussed how we can continue to improve that so our students that are um uh participating in extracurriculars can do that while also missing the least amount of school as possible because as Dr. Swift said um time on task is one of those contributing factors to achievement. So, we've looked at that, but we don't have >> data or action plans yet. I guess I'm just trying to understand

201the followup. >> We um are always working actions in that direction, but your piece about the bus is one that we are looking at more closely. Now I would also note that understanding what percentage of for example high school absences are excused versus what percentage are unexcused. That's another when we um do this work we come up we end with more questions than we began with. And one of those additional questions is to try to get inside um whether it is athletics and clubs and activities which would be excused or whether it the root is truency. I loved Miss Mitchell's example of the three students and three different scenarios. They all have the same absence but there are very different scenarios involved. So, one way we could get at that it would be to parse

202out the percentage of excused versus unexcused might might be useful. >> Jan, >> um I appreciate um that and I appreciate that you addressed the question I was going to ask already which is around what out of this percent because the high school percentage is high, right? You look at that and you think, okay, that's that's quite a few students, but what why we talk about chronic absenteeism is the is the academic risk piece of it. Right. So yes, it would >> as you develop a better understanding of that, I would um I would like to see a followup on that conversation with the board. So thank you. >> Julie noted and we'll look forward to following up on that. >> This is Carol. Um, I uh gave a a very brief report about my

203meeting with the Native American Student Services Parent Committee and six uh slides six and seven address the the staff checking in with the student being very proactive. For example, you know, the the student is in school and they'll come down to the office say, "Hey, what's going on? Ask questions and you know, find out what's going on." But is there enough support staff to do that to check in with the students? because that was one of the questions with the Native American Student Services parent committee. They wanted to know who is doing the check-ins and how that's being done. >> Well, and I love the question because it's everybody's job and yet folks are very very busy. So often you will see that uh either uh with the classroom teacher or with the counselor or

204with that assistant principal at a high school situation or with the principal at a at a elementary uh situation usually would be the folks um although everyone on the team is asking and checking on those. Would you agree? >> Yeah, I um in some of the work that we've done um in ion analytics um I've really worked with more some buildings uh more specifically around the systems that they have in place to um look at their data as well as brainstorm interventions and Lawrence High is one that sticks out to me. They have weekly meetings as a student support team to um go through their list of students that um meet several criteria. So we talk about attendance, but we've also talked about failing grades uh you know our social emotional screener with SRSSIE. And

205so they look at lots of data points and that's just one example of a building that's meeting regularly to not just identify those students but talk about the action steps that they're putting in place around it. >> Thank you. So thinking about Carol's conversation, the model that you have going on at West where there's the text is going on. I might have missed exactly what's happening, but it like if they're if they the attendance person is texting the parent in real time. Is it is that true? So, um, Parent Square two hours after the school start time sends a notification automatically to parents similar to the, uh, dialer phone calls that we used to have >> that I got a lot because my kid could have used this choice program that's coming. But, um, the,

206um, so that like this I guess I was wondering about that like what the technology we have and the staffing of it. So when you're running that pilot, you're looking at like the number of resources that go into it to see like how you might implement it more >> and and ease of use too. So for families, um I received a text that my student is unexcused because I forgot to call them in. Now I have to find the school's phone number to call them in. So ease of use. I can just respond back to that text. So we're trying to make that interaction with families uh you know uh not a barrier um as ease of use for them. Yeah. >> And obviously just to jump in there also the translation. >> Yes. >>

207Is helpful. >> Um going back to the high school um in addition to transportation with our with how our buses for activities work. Um h are there any other kind of obvious uh schedule or structural changes that you've come across in talking about this? For example, we've heard anecdotally in the past that having open lunch um increases our chronic absenteeism. And is that something that um you're able to see from the data? >> Yes. Yes. And yes. >> Okay. >> And I don't want to be unpopular superintendent, but I call them the way we see them. There is a pattern around open lunch. >> Okay. >> It is a concern. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that acknowledgement. I'm the data is what the data is. >> The data is the data. Yes. >> Thank

208you. >> Um I'll just kind of do what I always do, James. So I'm really sorry. On slide with disability for 2324, you have a different number in the graph than you do on the table. The table says 86.63 63 and the graph says 88.63. So I'm assuming it's the graph because that is a better story to tell >> with disability. >> It would be the graph. That is correct. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So that says 88.63 that says 86. >> We will make that correction immediately. Thank you for your good eye. >> So I we will note the graph is the correct number. Yeah. >> Yes. The graph is the correct number. >> Very good. >> The chart was the manual entry. >> Thank you. Miss Nolman will take that task. Will you?

209Thank you. >> Are there clear goals for where you want to be at? Have you identified goals as a team for what you're hoping to achieve for next year? >> I'm really excited to sit with principles and think about what's possible in terms of a a real authentic goal that we can achieve. um it to me the high school frequent and approaching frequent is is a number that we must get inside. So I I feel like that's a priority goal. Um and then having every group above 90% of course I think a lot of um business and corporate owners would be proud if they had employees at or above 90%. I think 90%'s a worthwhile goal for every area. I know that high school has a lot of athletics and field trips and choir and

210band and all the things, but I still believe 90% is a is a reasonable goal. >> Do we have any understanding um of the why? We have the 20 plus% um but it comes to me it's hard to fix what you don't understand. Uh, and so my I think my question is, are we doing anything to try to figure that point out? I I think we do a lot of of guessing around the edges. >> And so >> I'm inspired by the achieve team processes that are going on like the one you described at Lawrence High School. I know Free State has a similar structure. To me, that uh understanding is student by student because I've seen it be that the utilities were cut off and they couldn't get up to get to school. I've

211seen it be as simple as if we got a bus ride or we got an alarm clock, that would fix it. and then you get into a different situation where maybe an older child is needing to care for someone at home and it's a completely different situation. So I would just continue to point to school teams in that tier three working literally case by case on a problemolving uh situation. Do we ever if they're working it on it case by case ever like aggregate that data under like kind of broad categories of to try and understand like what seems to be the bigger issues um to understand like if there could be more systemic um solutions for it. >> We do and I mean I think the one that comes to mind is just outright

212truency. uh you know what percentage and maybe that's member buyers where you you were thinking if it if it's outright how many students are choosing not to come as opposed to um being out for sickness or for other reasons but um we can get to patterns in it if if you'd like I can have I mean the principles and I can send you a list of patterns that they see none of them will be surprising to you I don't think Yeah, >> I think I was just thinking like broad terms if you know we found that transportation was a significant issue is there you know like have we you know because like now the buses are free in Lawrence so is that an option or is it not an op you know what I mean

213some of those things like could we be working with the city to look at those routes or something like that or >> I think just it's kind of that next step absolutely analysis so >> absolutely and I don't think there are any large patterns that we would deal with with the big brush. Other than the couple that you all have raised, you know the district very well, so you already know them. And the athletic busing is definitely one of those patterns that we need to address. There may be a couple other more systemic patterns, but I think for the most part, there is a pattern around open lunch. I've acknowledged that. We we know that's happening. Um but uh that significant or frequent level of absence is a problem-solving achieve team root cause analysis process

214with every child and family. Yeah. >> And when we're talking about this, we're still talking about excu those that are are not in class take not pulling out the excused absences and stuff like that. No, we we work with the straight at level of absences. >> Mhm. >> With the total number of absences. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Frequent and approaching frequent absenteeism is all of those attendance codes excused, unexcused, all combined. >> And that I think that's my question. And I wanted that when we're looking at it, I want to want to make sure I understand that what we're looking at is not necessarily all of the excuse all of the absences, the problematic ones more for me are the ones that where they're not excused. They're not for a related school issue. >>

215Yes. >> Those are the ones I would think we need to zero in on. >> Prioritize. Yes, absolutely. Great. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you both very much. All right. We will move on uh to our last item of the evening, public comment. Someone read the public comment statement for me, please. The USD 497 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.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.

216This is your time to share your opinions. However, public comment is not the appropriate form 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 and GAE, general complaints and 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 andor to protect the privacy of an individual, staff, or students. If you need assistance in sharing a complaint or a 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 the standards laid out in

217board policy GAE and board policy JCA, anti-bullying and hazing of staff and students. Comments or acts that are threatening to the 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 and/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. The board president or presiding officer will invite comments on topics not included in the meeting agenda at the beginning or end of each meeting. Comments related to agenda items are welcomed after

218the board has had the opportunity to discuss the topic. Limit your comments to three minutes. Patrons who are unable to comply with the above procedures may email their comments/viewpoints to the board at schoolboard usd497.org. >> All right, we'll start with Justin. >> Can you guys hear me? Yes. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. Uh I think we are having some technical issues. We can hear you. Uh >> I will let you know. >> This is not intentional. I will let you know. Uh can you see this screen to know your time is how much time you have? Yes, I will. >> These This is not intentional. I will let you know. Can you see this? >> What the [Music] >> What the

219is going on here? >> Every time with these guys. >> What the is going on here? >> Thank you, Justin. every time. >> All right, let's check the technical before we go to Carrie. >> So, just to talk to him, just unmute whenever you like to talk to him. That's okay. >> Okay. So, so >> so you're muted. >> So, he needs to bring Carrie in >> or >> we'll do the same for for uh for that. >> Okay, >> that's okay. All right. >> Are we ready for carry? >> Yeah. >> Move on. Move on to carry. It's not. Oh, there we go. >> Okay, we have her. >> Carrie. Carrie, can you hear me? Hello. >> Hello. Hello. >> Okay. See, you can hear me. >> Yes. >> Hello. >> Okay. Can you

220start my time over again? Because right now it's showing at 250 and 249, 248, and that's not what I prepared for. >> You set it back to three. >> No. No. It's running. >> It's running. >> Excuse me. Are you serious right now? You're taking my time away, especially knowing that you have a lawsuit against you guys for stuff like this. All right, so let's go ahead and start. Um, he just tugged aside her underwear and put his fingers directly on her. She moaned again and Hunt stroked her, two fingers dragging up and down with teeth grinding lightness. He lifted up the side of her throat. >> I'd like to call a point of order. He whispered against her skin. Do you taste as good as you feel? Bryce, please find >> The public commenter

221is um engaging in behavior that I believe it violates our rules. Um and I would like that to be taken into consideration as to whether it should continue. The reason the reason being is that his fingers or his anything she might >> I don't know what she's talking about and um we would not typically permit this kind of language just in public comment to the board. Uh you you could call a recess if you need a moment. >> So Carrie, I need you to explain what you're doing when we restart the time or I'm going to have to cut you off because we don't know what you're doing. You You told me that I couldn't that I didn't have my time. That's what I'm doing because you said I couldn't have my time. So, I

222started in the And now you're doing it again. It's 2:56, 255. I don't know what's going on with you guys, but like literally I have a speech prepared. I time my speeches. I prepared them. So, what's So, what are we doing? No, I I'm I'm literally asking because I am at the mercy of you all and you're having my time go by because I'm reading a book that's in both of your high schools. It's called House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Moss. This is a book that you guys are allowing. You guys are okay with it. So, if there's a problem, it's because of you all. Okay? So, I don't even know what you guys have heard or not. So, I guess I'll just jump right in again cuz this whole thing is

223a mess. Her eyes nearly rolled back into her head at the feeling of that finger. She rocked her hips, desperate to drive him deeper. and he obliged her, pulling out his finger nearly all the way, adding a second and plunging both back into her. She bucked, her nails digging into his chest, she purred her face and his neck, biting and licking, starving for any taste of him, while he pumped his hand into her again. Hunt breathed into her ear. I am going to you until you can't remember your god damn name. I had plans for this beautiful ass, Bryce. filthy, filthy plans. She moaned again, and his fingers stroked into her over and over. "Come for me, sweetheart," he purred against her breast, his tongue flicking over her nipple just as one of his fingers

224curled inside her, hitting that God's dance spot. She tipped her head back and let go, riding his hand with abandon, driving them both into the couch cushions. he groaned and she swallowed the sound with an open-mouthed kiss as every nerve in her body exploded into glorious starlight. >> This book says 528. >> Yeah, I know. 224. >> Do we have any announcements? >> Um, Mr. President, the uh correction, and I appreciate you noting it, has been made and the attendance report has been reattached to the agenda with the correction. Thank you. >> Anything else? All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? This is right