Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | May 12, 2025

001meeting. Um, we will read our call to order. For the safety of all those in attendance, the display of signs and banners will not be permitted. If you have a sign or banner, you'll be asked to leave it outside the boardroom for the duration of the meeting. Tonight's meeting is a meeting of the board held in public, not a public hearing or discussion with the board. Please be respectful of the presenters, the board, and your fellow audience members as we discuss and deliberate the items on tonight's agenda. Comments or actions that are threatening to or disrespectful of presenters, the board, or others in attendance, including use of foul language or any other behavior that is disruptive of the board meeting, will result in immediate removal from the meeting. Patrons will be invited to share comments

002as part of the public comment portion of the meeting as outlined in board policy BCBI. That time is set aside on the board's agenda for members of the public to share their thoughts. It is not a time for dialogue with or a question and answer session with the board. If your comments require follow-up from the board or staff, that will occur after tonight's meeting. Patrons who wish to participate in public comment must fill out the public comment form so that board or staff can follow up with you regarding your public comment as needed. The district assumes no responsibility or liability for the information shared during public comment. The views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lawrence public schools. In addition, USD497 provides access to our

003board meetings through live streaming. The platform used for this live streaming has acceptable use rules for content on its site. USD497 does not delete or hide board meeting videos. However, the streaming platform may elect to do so if the content of public comment or any other portion of the meeting is found to violate the platform's acceptable use rules. Thank you for your cooperation in these areas. I'd like to welcome everyone this evening. We have some special visitors that I'm really looking forward and I know my colleagues are looking forward to hearing from. First up though, we need to approve our agenda. A motion is in order. I move the board of education approve the the agenda for the May 12th, 2025 meeting. This is Carol. I second. Gordon Ross. Yes. Jones. Yes. Kimble, yes. Buyers,

004yes. Kadu Blackwood, yes. Costello, yes. Franklin. Yes. The motion passes 70. Thank you. Next on our agenda is a student pre presentation from the Sunflower Elementary School first graders who are here this evening with their teacher Jessica Brown. Um I'd like to have Miss Brown invite the students to up to the the front here where you can uh share your presentation with the board. And we are so glad you are here this evening. [Applause] I feel like we need a step stool. And if you want if you want, you can stand in front of the podium so everybody can see and hear you. And uh we'll we'll get you a microphone. your microphone. Is that okay? Who wants Who wants to be the mic hold? You want to hold it? I'm in I'm in the

005middle. Okay, you're in the middle. Whatever. Go ahead. Hello school board. We are the No, no, no. My name is Oliver. My name is Pete. My name is Nolan. My name is Summer. My name is Violet. And we are avid students from Miss Brown's first grade at Sunflower Elementary. Our class was was responsible for taking on the challenge to answer a really big question. Do you want to know what that question was? Yes. How can we as first graders create a product to be marketed and sold to families across our community? money to be raised for a local organization. I love this part. Okay, we are all going to have a little fun. So, come on now. Let's help Shy 38 in with studentade jewelry. We researched, we short, took notes, took notes and voted

006on 38. Shy 38 incorporated as a whole class. [Music] They are a farm sanctuary here in Lawrence, Kansas. That means they help farm animals who would not live a happy life on other farms. They are kind of like a farm animal shelter. [Music] So, who's ready for a comedy bit? We had it scripted. [Applause] Hook earrings. Well, auctioning hook earrings, ball ear wings, and hook earrings. Hoop earrings and necklaces and necklaces. Starting today, May 12th. Starting today, May 12th through May 16th. We worked with Miss Laura from Muse Clay Designs through the whole process. She is pretty cool. Kind of like our jewelry. You can bid on our jewelry at www.mmusecllaydesigns.com. We really appreciate your help. Our class has set a goal. We would like to raise $1,000. We can't do it without you. Goodbye,

007school board. We can't do this mozzarella joke. It's too cheesy. [Applause] Thank you all very much. You're great. [Applause] You did wonderful. Thank you so much for being here this evening and thank you Miss Brown and all of the parents who made this possible. Um I did check out your website earlier today and you are not kidding. It is super cool jewelry and I am just so excited for you and your fundraiser. Um so just to I'm going to repeat the website so people can hear it. It's www.mmusecllaydesigns.com. So, um, thank you again for being here this evening and, um, have a great, have a great evening. One more round of applause. Okay. Uh, now that we've had what will surely be one of the highlights of our evening this evening, um, our next item

008of business is a motion for executive session. I'm I move the board of education recess to executive session to discuss negotiations in order to protect the public interest in negotiating a fair and equitable contract pursuant to the exception of employer employee negotiations under uh Dr. Janice Swift and Dr. Larry Inger, Deputy Superintendent, invited to be present and with the board to return to open session in this room at 6:42 with no action to follow. Second Jones, yes. Kimble, yes. Yes. Black, yes. Costello, yes. Franklin, yes. Gordon Ross, yes. The motion passes 70. I can do it. Okay. Um, we have returned from our first executive session with no action to follow. Uh, the board needs additional time. So I move the board of education recess to executive session to discuss negotiations in order to protect

009the public interest in negotiating a fair and equitable contract pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations under coma with Dr. Janice Swift superintendent and Dr. Larry Engelick deputy superintendent invited to be present and with the board to return to open session in this room at um 75 658 658 thank you 658 with no action to follow. I second. Gordon Ross has not rejoined this. Oh yeah, they might not. They may not pop over. Okay. Kimble, yes. Buyers, yes. Kadu Blackwood, yes. Costello, yes. Franklin, yes. The motion passes 5. Thank you. Okay. Call your back. Okay. All right. Okay. Uh, the board has returned from executive session and we have no action to follow. Next item on the agenda is the report of the superintendent of schools, Dr. Swift. Thank you, uh, members of the

010board, staff, and community. Uh, and we're just looking down miday, and we're just really grateful to our, um, to our students, our teachers and staff, our parents and community. Everybody's focused on a strong finish to this school year. It's going to happen the end of next week. Um, and May is a time both for reflection and for celebration of the things that have gone well. I have just a few updates on our work. Uh, the first chart is really an item that we keep an eye on members as you know is our substitute fill rates. We're always working to openly share the data that represents our daily work to improve our schools and our district operations. This year, we've had the goal of improving the rates at which we are able to consistently fill substitute

011positions. And tonight, I'm sharing a fourth quarter update on our fill rates so far. you can see this uh wider chart that really dissects the number of subs needed as opposed to just the absence rate. Um, I want to go to the second chart that that really simplifies it to so that you can see week by week over the eight weeks so far of this fourth quarter uh the rate at which we were able to place substitutes when uh a a teaching position uh has an absence. So you can see that overall we are averaging right at 93% coverage. Uh that is a tremendous increase uh over the past years. And I just want to give everybody a shout out and especially appreciate all of our team who uh digs in to help when that

012sub rate doesn't exactly match 100%. Uh secondly, we announced just about a month ago uh about our preschool enrollment in two elementary classrooms, one at Woodlon and one at Sunflower. Uh we are working uh through a variety of details as you might imagine, but I just want to give you an update that we have more than 26 students who've already applied to be a part of this new program across two classrooms. Of course, we will manage those class sizes to keep them small because they are three and four year olds. Uh but really exciting on top of Kennedy Early Childhood Learning Center to really start our work um with uh having preschool classrooms out in the elementary classrooms. I wanted to uh just spend a few minutes tonight uh talking about uh some streamlining of

013the organization uh that we've been busy with and board members, you've been briefed and updated over the on this over previous months. Uh but since our community conversation, we've discussed our intention to align and streamline the organization to push uh limited resources out into the classrooms and to prioritize compensation for our employees. So, uh, this is our last board meeting, uh, uh, during this school year, and I wanted to revisit this topic to let folks know that we continue that work to flatten the organization. We will continue a meticulous review of every area in the district operations to achieve greater efficiencies. It really is our ability to innovate uh that will help us to align the organization to get the very most opportunities for students uh classroom support and compensation for our employees. I want

014to just reiterate to the community that the board is supportive and we are all committed to this effort. I do want to say this evening because there are some steps uh covered in the HR report this evening. I want to just say to the community that um these changes are in no way a reflection of any individual who has served in one of the positions that's being reorganized. Uh those are awesome and wonderful professionals. Um but this is a time to step forward to lean into a redesign of the organization and to ensure that we push every resource into our classroom and into compensation for our staff. So, as a part of this redesign, you uh recall back in November, the assistant director teaching and learning position was reduced. And this evening, you may notice

015the executive director teaching and learning also reduced. And there are several other positions that will be coming forward over the coming weeks. As a part of this redesign, we will post over the coming days an assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and then really flatten that organization so that we transition to a design where that assistant superintendent will work directly with a network of active practicing teacher leaders and we will deploy a teacher leader model to speed instruction. In doing so, we will re leverage an asset that we have in Lawrence public schools and that asset is remarkable and strong teacher leadership. So the vision is of teachers by teachers for teachers and really flattening out the organization. This will amplify the opportunity to lead for teachers and help us to direct resources to the

016classroom level. At this point, there will be far more questions than answers and we recognize that we are early in this process. It is important to me though to share that that is our theory of action, our theory of leadership as we move forward toward school year 2526. Wanted to share some updates on our work. I have had just the incredible opportunity to visit with members of the class of 2025. I'll be seeing more this week. This was our conversation last week at Lawrence. high school. Um, and uh, students talked about what they were involved in at school, the profound memories that they have. I asked them for their top one, two or three memories from their time in Lawrence public schools, appreciation for their teachers. They told me about their exciting plans uh, after

017graduation. And then I also asked them to give me some work to do and that is to name some things that we need to get fixed. And uh they speak from a position of experience having lived in our system. Many of them for the entire 13 years. But was also excited to have a few students in that group who have joined us since their uh seventh grade year or since their ninth grade year. Last week we celebrated uh and I noticed that uh that Miss Johnson has put uh one a cookie on your place, but we were excited to celebrate um 123 Whoops, I may have passed it up. 123 graduates, Lawrence Public Schools educators from Letters Training with uh they celebrated last week with remarks from Lorie Curtis, the Kansas State Department of Education's

018early literacy and dyslexia program manager. She commended our teachers for their commitment to education, their training in the science of reading, and their efforts to improve student reading proficiency and engagement. Uh Lawrence, parents as teachers, welcomed a special guest to Wednesday's play group. You can see it here. Kansas State representative uh Suzanne Wickley uh visited with our parent educators, met families, and enjoyed a hands-on observation of our littlest learners. Several staff honors. It was wonderful to be out last week on teacher appreciation week. I got to be in so many schools to really thank and also to award our teachers. A quality teacher we know makes all the difference in student growth and learning. Um and our students benefit tremendously from their learning experience in the classroom with our 900 extraordinary Lawrence Public Schools teachers.

019Uh here are some of the teachers we got to recognize last week. this uh for building relationships and solving challenges to fostering communication and placing student success above everything else. This is the Woodlon uh elementary intervention team. They were uh recipients of the Rick Doll teamwork award uh last week. It was so great to to present to these five educators and as one of our master Lawrence education achievement partners, Trudy Credit Union joined us over there and awarded this team $1,000 to assist with their continued efforts to support students. We also got to be out to see Amanda Carlson, Cordley third grade teacher, who is our Lawrence Elementary teacher of the year. Uh, so exciting. We had a tremendous assembly at Cordley celebrating Amanda Carlson. And then uh it was also just a great honor

020to be out uh with Connie Mertz, Billy Mills Middle School science teacher who is our Lawrence Secondary Teacher of the Year. We received high praise in their nominations from their principles, colleagues, parents, and even some of their students. Trity Credit Union presented both teachers with checks for $1,000. We look forward to nominating these teachers on up through the Kansas teacher of the year program in the fall. On Friday, we announced that Jenny Hberg, a beloved Deerfield kindergarten teacher, is this year's Lawrence Master Teacher and our nominee next fall to Emporia State University's Kansas Master Teacher Program. We appreciate Trudy who awarded Miss Hamburgg $2500. The audience for that presentation was Miss Hamburgg's kindergarten classroom. And I have to say to you, they were fully engaged and understood every minute of it and also wanted to

021contribute to her application uh with their own reflections on what it's like to be in her amazing classroom. just happened to be when we were there Friday afternoon that there were three parent volunteers also working in the classroom. So, there was just lots of joy uh there at Deerfield on Friday afternoon. Jefferson's Restaurant of Lawrence honored Katherine Brooks, a science teacher at West Middle School. Here she is with its 2025 Jefferson's Lawrence Teacher of the Year. Miss Brooks will receive a $500 gift card to Jefferson's. And we're really fortunate to benefit from the strong support of our partners, businesses, and organizations like Jeffersons in our community who value and champion the teaching profession. Let's look at some of our student honors. Uh we just were delighted to hear that 60 students from Lawrence High and

022Free State uh earned their uh their seal of by literacy this year. This is a really big deal uh in Kansas and across the country. The state award of biiteracy recognizes students who have studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation. To achieve the seal of biiteracy, students must perform at or above a designated level on speaking, writing, reading, and listening exams. there. This accomplishment recognizes student readiness for college and careers and their engagement as global citizens. Congratulations to these students and all of our world language teachers who have supported them. Congratulations to Free State for defending its title to become yes the sixtime uh Ksh AA6A state speech champions. The team also captured three individual state championships. You may recall from January that the Firebird Firebirds also captured the

023state debate championship this year. So this is only the seventh time in 43 years that a school has united the crowns, winning both debate and speech titles at the same school. Free State is the only school in the state to have achieved this level twice. in 2019 and now this year in 2025. Congratulations to all these students speech and debate champions and to their coaches. Really delighted to share that two of our students, two of our seniors earned $2500 in National Merit Scholarships last week. We congratulate them and are excited to see them pursue their chosen fields of study in environmental science and mechanical engineering. These three LVS teams performed well in the state e cyber mission competition placing first and second at 9th grade as well as first among sixth graders. Their projects involved

024AI, solar pathways, and diagnosing Parkinson's disease. Two Lawrence High School wrestlers uh competed at the Kansas State Freestyle and Greco Tournament in Witchah. Jaden Herell finished in second place, qualifying for the national tournament in July in Fargo, North Dakota. He also will represent team Kansas at the junior duels in June in Milwaukee. 12 of our high school students were given the opportunity uh last weekend to perform with Black Violin, the two-time Grammy nominated group during his performance at the Lead Center. What an honor for our student musicians. You can see them here. Nutrition and Wellness Director Julie Henry has announced the winning recipe from Chef Rose Berry's culinary 2 class at Lawrence High School. We talked about this a little bit la at our last meeting. Three students learned about food nutrition standards and came

025up with the cheesy chicken fajita wrap which will be served at LHS May 15th. So that's coming up in three days. And this will also be added to the lunch menu at both high schools in the fall. So it sounds delicious and you can pick that up at a high school near you uh here in the fall. Some special events coming. Cans for the community is a special local organization that encourages communitywide recycling of aluminum cans. This group takes that earth friendly practice a step further by donating the money received from the sale of the aluminum to local nonprofits and worthy causes. So each day, each April, Cans for the Community issues an Earth Day challenge to recycle 5,000 pounds of aluminum cans. Our schools are the annual beneficiary of this April challenge. So we

026want to thank everyone, all our neighbors who recycled their cans. Lawrence exceeded that goal, resulting in what what would have been $500 donations to each of our elementary schools. Boilo of the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center stepped in and generously matched the donation. So, Cans for the Community volunteers visited all of our elementary schools last week to present $1,000 donations to each school. Next year, our secondary schools will reap the benefits of these recycling rewards. I want to thank Mr. Killow, Linda Clink Clinker, who is a affectionately known as the can lady. You may know her by that name. all the cans for community volunteers in our community for recycling. It was such an honor to attend the Haskell Indian Nations University commencement on Friday and I especially valued the references of the speakers. They

027referenced very powerfully the importance of leadership and warriorship. I took that with me all week and it was so inspiring. It was a special delight to witness the graduation of member Kadu Blackwood's son. Congratulations to the Haskell class of 2025. Now, speaking of commencements and commencement season, uh we are starting Thursday morning over at uh in recognition of our young adults in the community transition and project search programs at Community Connections at Pinkney. And from Thursday morning, then over to Saturday, we'll be at Lawrence uh virtual school out at Free State High School. And then next week, uh, two in a row, uh, Lawrence High on the 20th and Free State on the 21st. And then our adult education, college, and career, um, closes us out on May 29th following Memorial Day. As we wrap

028up this school year next week, I just want to extend my deepest appreciation and gratitude to everyone, our students and teachers, staff and leaders, our parents and community. We've done uh this school year together. Uh and thank everyone for your contributions to make this a successful 2425 school year. We have a lot of work ahead of us, a lot more work to do. Uh but we wish everyone all of our students a safe and peaceful summer as they uh leave us next week. Thank you members for the opportunity to share this report and for the honor of serving the Lawrence public schools. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Swift. All right. Up next, a report of the board of the president of the board. Um Kelly, I will turn it over to you for you to

029share if you're ready. Thank you all. Uh I apologize that I'm missing uh the meeting in person this evening and want to extend my gratitude to um both GR, excuse me, to um Shannon and Bob for stepping in uh in leadership roles. Uh I'm attending to a family matter and hope to be back in the community for all of the graduation celebrations coming up, but might might need to ask for some grace if I u miss a ceremony. Um, I do want to take some time uh this evening to um remind folks that a year ago I called an ad hoc generative AI and evolving technologies committee. That charge was given last summer around the the time that uh Dr. Lewis stepped down as superintendent of uh the schools. And so it continued to be

030a priority for the district. While the committee had not met, I'm aware that many educators across the district and I our IT department have been working on this particular um both uh opportunity and challenge for educators as we move into an evolving um world as it relates to generative AI and other technologies. So understandably uh due to the transition of leadership that began last summer and resulted in the naming of a new superintendent in March uh Dr. Swift the work was not undertaken in the manner that I had envisioned. So it's an excellent time to reset this priority and I um will ask Dr. Swift she and I have had an opportunity to have a conversation around this to um take this charge up again. So we are utilizing the same charge we had for

031the a uh the ad hoc generative AI and evolving technologies committee last summer and applying it to the upcoming year. Um it goes along well with the community conversations and subsequent reporting that came from that endeavor in January 2025. uh builds on the um several of the priorities and patterns shared from the community in the areas of of academic student achievement and support, student safety and well-being, and ensuring a quality staff. In um you may remember that the board members that were uh that we asked to serve on this committee are GR Gordon Ross and an Costello who are both um hopefully still on board. So I'll I'll I can't see you nodding and but I have a friend with GR that he's still available. So I hope that you'll be joining as well. And

032just a reminder of the charge of that committee that will recommend generative AI education guidelines practices and other policies to the Lawrence Board of Education for adoption. The recommendations will account for educational equity and the potential of generative AI and other evolving technologies to enhance and detract from teaching and learning. Um, I really appreciate that our educators are on top of this already, but look forward to hearing recommendations pertaining to policy and other ways that we can support you in your effort to incorporate and also um and sometimes to help students maybe not incorporate AI. Thank you. Okay, Shannon, I'm going to move on and and turn the meeting back over to you. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Uh at this time we are ready for board committee reports. Do we have any

033committee reports? Uh this is Carol. I don't have a committee report but um I attended the graduation last Friday at Haskell Indian Nations University and I want to commend all those um graduate I want to congratulate all the graduates and um especially my my nephew. We call him my son or native culture. He's my son too. But um I would also like to add that the last site council for Billy Mills Middle School will be tomorrow night at 5:30. Thank you. Thank you. I was just going to walk through the policies again for second read. Okay, that's right. Go ahead. Okay, so board policy CC uh which is deals with organizational charts. Um there are wording updates so that board approvals will be as needed rather than annually and making it required that the chart

034be available on the district website or upon request from the board clerk. Policyde fraud prevention and investigation. This is a new policy for the district. It outlines policy around reporting fraud including whistleblower protections against retaliation and board policy DFAC federal fiscal compliance. This removes the executive director of finance and changes with the wording to be superintendent's designate. It also clarifies responsibilities in ensuring fiscal management standards and procedures are executed. And to note that um our next policy meeting will be on May 27th, which is kind of off cycle or off the standard timing, but just to let people know. Thank you. Bob, are you on committee reports? Um actually the only meeting u that I wanted to report on was did do last week um district negotiations um which I guess the best way to

035say it is we're moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Um GR or Kelly, do you have anything? Uh I don't have for committee reports. No, but I do have for board commentary. Yeah, I can do it now or I can do it later. Why don't you go ahead? Uh cuz that's the next thing up. Um we'll set with you. Thanks. Okay. I just wanted to touch on uh three items on consent really quick. Um we have some uh we have an item on there for roof repair and replacement uh districtwide uh for um bids uh for roof replacement. one. Uh, as Kelly's also out, I'm also out. I'm traveling for business and I'm in Philadelphia. Um, and so I will be out and so unfortunately I will miss the uh cat graduation, but I'll be

036back in town uh Friday night. So, I'll be there for LVS. So, I'm excited about that. Um, my brain's going 500 different directions, so I apologize. that is uh roof repair and and replacements. Um the second one is uh centiggics. Um we we found uh in our our review that there was um some spaces across the district uh that um were not covered by um Cintics, things like boiler rooms, uh roofs, um uh places like that. And so this is an amendment to um to work with Cintiix to get all those areas covered. And then the last thing is the lease agreement on the MacBooks for um our high school students. Um just wanted to say a couple things on that on that item. Um there was a a a a question when we when

037we talked about that at our last board meeting about um you know one of the reasons that we had gone away from the MacBooks to the iPads was the cost of the repairs of the MacBooks. And um so one of two of the ways that this is different uh this time is uh the form factor of these MacBook Airs is different. Um uh the old form factor was an M1 form factor. This is an M2 form factor which has been known uh to have a little bit uh sturdier screen. It's less prone to uh screen issues and breaking. Um second uh included in this lease purchase is Apple Care Plus for uh these laptops. Um, and so a lot of basic basic repair and and maintenance that previously we were paying for out of the

038general fund is covered in the lease. Um, and so those a lot of those expenses we won't see. And then I I guess a third option is um we are also considering providing uh protective cases for uh the devices as well which which would also help on some of the other um uh issues that we saw with dropping and and and other things that that that we're hoping might protect them as well. So thank you Shannon. Let's go ahead. Okay. Thank you GR. Appreciate that update. Uh we'll start uh Yolanda and work our way down this way for board commentary. Um I don't have much um that um I attended a lot of things did not correct with my schedule uh my work schedule, but I've uh worked that out. Um I do apologize if

039you guys see me leave out in the middle of hope I don't miss the AVID presentation for tonight, but I have to pick up a family member from the airport at 9:00. So if you see me in the middle of that presentation leave, I do apologize for that. Uh, but I do look forward to look looking back over the the the video to see it. I will also not be in attendance on Saturday because I will be in Dallas. I have a son that's moving to Texas, so I am moving him over the weekend. So, that's pretty much all I have. I just look forward to all the graduations next week. I will definitely be able to attend. Thank you. Um, yeah. So, uh, on May 5th, I attended a choir concert at Sunflower. Um,

040and once again, Mr. Gibson, the choir director there, did a fantastic job with the students, and I especially loved getting to see their warm-ups. They were really excited about showing those to everybody, and it was hilarious. Um, and then the on the uh the next night, maybe it was the sixth, seventh, but attended a band concert at Southwest Middle School. Um, the students did an exceptional job uh performing there, and it was really awesome to see. I was um bummed that I got had to miss the one in December, so I was excited to attend this one. Um but I did note that there are no stairs on the bleachers there. Um they are original to the building. Um and so I haven't had a chance, but I'm not sure if that made it into

041the athletic facilities review. Um but from a safety perspective, it might be something we should look at um replacing um at some point. Um, and then on Friday the 9th, I was able to attend the Eagle Bean at Sunflower. Um, and uh, loved to see how excited the kids were to uh, run their coffee shop and do their different jobs. Um, one of the students who took my trash um, when I thanked him, he said, "It's my job." So, just they were so excited. And when they saw Mrs. green get in line. Uh the greeters came in to tell all the other kids that she was in line. It was like a rock star had arrived. And so that was just really fun to see how excited they got to see her uh just show

042up and and be there, which you would do normally, but they were like, "Yes." So that's all I have. Thank you. Carol, do you have anything else? Uh just one more h quick add. I'd like to remind folks to sign up for the summer meal kits and that information is found on our website and distribution will be on Tuesdays beginning June 3rd. Thank you. Yeah, I just want to hit quickly. I did forget um a meeting report and that was the equity council met last week. We had a good discussion actually decided to go ahead and meet through the summer. Uh we felt that we lose a lot of momentum by dropping off for four months. Um in addition uh not this last Saturday but the Saturday before I attended uh showtime at Billy Mills

043which was wonderful. It's always good to get out and see the young ones. I'm sure they wouldn't won't be calling them young, but we all understand. Thank you. Okay. Um, I have a couple things to share. Uh, in the vein of state board and legislative updates, wanted to share with the board. The state board meets, the state board of education meets tomorrow and Wednesday. Uh, they do have a few items of interest on their agenda. They're hearing a presentation on the role of the state board in in the distribution of state and federal funds. they are going to take action on updated performance level descriptors for the uh Kansas assessments. So that's the level one, two, three, four, the language that describes those. They are updating that because they've adopted um the version of the

044test the kids took this year is a new test because they updated ELA standards a couple of years ago in 2023. So this is a new test. They have to update the descriptors. And then the other thing that's on their agenda is anformational presentation about um they will be uh resetting the cut the cut scores. So basically what score you have to get to get in each level. Uh that work will be done over the summer uh in collaboration with a group of experts um and educators. Uh and so the state board's going to hear about that uh in their meeting tomorrow. Um, in addition, tomorrow the Lawrence High School Barbershop Quartet will be performing at the state board meeting at about 2:20 in the afternoon. So, if you want to catch that, uh, their

045v their meetings are all live streaming. You can see them on YouTube. Um, so that was I was really proud to see to see that on their agenda. Um, Wednesday, Dr. Frank Harwood is going to give a legislative update. Um, also the board is receiving a new bullying prevention procedure to be prominently displayed on all district school websites or handbooks. And so I've provided a copy of that enclosure to Dr. Swift so our our staff can begin to review it and provide feedback if appropriate. Um, and then um they're going to hear someformational presentations on data collection and security which obviously has been of large concern. Um the other thing that happened uh legislatively this week, the education funding task force met actually last week for a half day last Tuesday and a full day

046on Wednesday. Um they were very focused on again looking at special education funding formulas across the 50 states. Um and also they had a very good presentation from the education commission of the states on a 50 state policy overview of school finance formulas. Um, a couple of really important things came out of that meeting um that I wanted to share with you all. Um, there continue to be significant um, confusion over h amongst legislators and others over how special education money is appropriated, distributed, and spent in Kansas. Um so the state department folks who are on that task force spent quite a bit of time um responding to and trying to correct misunderstandings about how the money is distributed, how it's allocated, how it's appropriated. Um the committee had quite a bit of discussion time

047in the afternoon um on Wednesday. They did reach some agreements and some ground rules and I think it's really important to know uh they first of all after hearing all of the 50 state comparisons of funding formulas decided that they do not intend to move away from a base state aid per pupil structure for our school finance formula in Kansas. That's a huge decision right at the beginning because there about 38 states use a base state aid foundation type formula. um about nine states use uh kind of a resource-based model and then the rest of the states use a kind of hybrid variety of other different ways of funding schools. So making that decision that they're going to stay with a base state aid model um was a big step forward in their work. Um

048in addition they decided to adopt the five policy guidelines from the education commission of the states um around building a school finance formula. Those five policy guidelines are the formula should be transparent, it should be student centered, it should be adequate, it should be fair and it should be sustainable. Um, interestingly the education commission of the state says that adequacy, one of the things that makes a formula adequate is if it is indexed to inflation and takes account of the actual costs of providing an education, which is something that was part of the court cases that led up to our current finance formula. And then finally the the group agreed on a touch as a touchstone for all of their uh conversations. Um keeping in mind that they want to improve the impacts of the

049funding formula on students. So kind of student centered work. Um there was some really interesting discussion about some of the things that they are considering or want to consider within that model. um couple of uh recommendations of doing away with a couple of our big waitings like at risk and high and low enrollment and putting that money back into the formula. Um importantly, um the vice chair of appropriations who is on the task force did say that she doesn't expect that the legislature will be cutting where we are for school funding when they re-up the formula. Um so that'll be an important thing to hold the task force to as they do their work. Um they are again I think I've mentioned they're meeting monthly now through the rest of the year. Um and I

050think Janice had shared out the YouTube link for those meetings if you want to um watch them going forward. A couple of other real short updates. Uh was very excited to attend the West Middle School Corral Spring Show on May 2nd and May 3rd. Um just bravo. They those kids were fantastic. It was so much fun. And um and then finally uh thank you to Emily Vodker and Brandon Dailyaly for an invitation uh to the board to attend the Woodlon Wow Fest on Saturday. It was beautiful, perfect weather. I was able to go for a little while and visit with some folks and buy a um hosta from the Woodlong Garden, which is now uh part of my uh garden. Hopefully I can keep it alive. Uh so thank you to them for that um

051that opportunity. Okay, we've now reached uh consent agenda. Um I have a motion to was first of all, is there anything that needs to be pulled? Nope. Okay. Uh motion to approve the consent. I move the board of education that approved the items listed on the consent agenda. Second Jones, yes. Kimble, yes. Buyers, yes. Kadu Blackwood, yes. Costello, yes. Franklin, yes. Cordon Ross, yes. The motion passes 70. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going to take a fivem minute recess. We will be be back um to hear our AVID report at 7 uh 44. Thank you very much. All right, we are ready for our report this evening which is an AVID update. Um, and I am very pleased to invite uh well, Dr. Swift, would you like to introduce our um our folks who

052are presenting this evening? Thank you. Thank you. Um it's such a delight to be able to bring forward an AVID update this evening. Um AVID is something we talk about equity and opportunity and access for students often. And when we talk about AVID, that's one of the systemwide uh programming opportunities, tools, whatever uh word you would put in that blank. It's one of the ways that we really approach serving all students. And so we're really proud of this programming and especially proud that as we shared at our last board meeting in 2026, uh we will be a fully implemented AVID district. So we have three amazing leaders with us this evening. Doc, Dr. Hotsteadler, uh Miss Green, and Dr. Miles. Uh they represent a team of avid committed educators and I'm going to just give

053it right away to them and let them uh work us through uh this update. members, because you heard so much about it, I asked uh Miss Dunn to also attach the April 21st presentation, which was the showcase uh that we presented for districts from all over Kansas. Those districts were into Sunflower and Southwest. And so we included that presentation and then also uh cooked up something specifically for you all this evening. Uh Dr. Hot Stettler. Good evening. I'm Dr. Sarah Hostetler and I support AVID for the district. I'm here with my colleagues Dr. Carissa Miles and Mrs. Green, principles of two of our incredible buildings, Southwest Middle School and Sunflower Elementary. And so uh the document that was included in the the board docs was a set of slides from a presentation that we made

054as part of our AVID showcase. I know some of the board members were able to join us uh for that event for which we're grateful. So thanks for inviting us to come back this evening and share a little bit about uh the work that we've been doing in two of our schools. Um so we have an essential question to start tonight. Our larger goal for today, our larger essential question is how are we growing AVID implementation for student success here in Lawrence public schools and specifically we have three goals. First to provide a brief review of AVID. We know that it's familiar to many of you. We think sometimes it can be helpful to just reenter ourselves with a a quick refresher. I will share just briefly a little bit about the history of AVID

055here in Lawrence public schools and the why for district-wide implementation and we're going to share two case studies. So, a little bit about what AVID looks like in two of our buildings. All right. So, AVID review. What is AVID? AVID is an acronym that stands for advancement via individual determination. oftentimes people think of it as a a program or a curriculum, a set of guiding ideas. I like to think of it as a larger system. It's a system driver. And uh we have our students focusing on uh wicker which is another acronym which stands for writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization and reading for college and career readiness. If you have been in any of our buildings, you likely will see posters to the effect of AVID college and career readiness. Um, if you were to ask

056some of our of our students, it's an easy uh it's an easy framework for them to to call to mind when we think about AVID. And AVID is a lot of things. It's easy to think of AVID uh through this particular acronym because that's what it looks like in practice, Wicker. And lastly, how does it benefit our K12 learners? Um, from elementary, we have AVID schoolwide, which means that you'll see AVID in all of our hallways, all of our classrooms, in various spaces throughout the building in our AVID implementing spaces. And then for secondary, we have AVID schoolwide and the AVID elective class. And so when students hit 7th grade all the way through 12th, they have the option of taking an elective class that is very specifically scaffolded um a space for academic supports.

057Um, one key piece to that, and you'll see a little bit of that in our Southwest presentation, is that's tutorials. We ask our students to take rigorous, challenging coursework, and of course, we need to provide supports for them to be successful when they take on that challenge. And that's where we see that kind of support, that tutorial support in our AVID elective classes. So, in the district, we adopted AVID in 2012. It started in our high schools. the two principles at the time championed the integration of AVID in those two spaces and started to build it in our district. In 2015, AVID implementation at our four middle schools at the same time we launched that and then in 2018 we have what I would call the staggered implementation at elementarymentaries. Um every few year every

058few years we've brought on um interested buildings and I am excited to share with you to echo what Dr. Swift shared earlier is that by 2026, all traditional buildings in the district will be AVID implementing schools. And of course, a little confetti because AVID is all about those extras to entice and uh to be excited in learning. I'm going to invite Dr. Miles to share a little bit about the framework. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us. Again, I'm Dr. Miles. I am the proud principal at Southwest Middle School. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the framework. So, Dr. Hot Stadler talked about how AVID is a systems driver and AVID's philosophy is really looking at what are the skills that students need to be successful no matter what

059their trajectory is and then looking at what are educators doing to ensure that those needs are being met and ensure that our students are going to be college income readiness. One of the things I love about Lawrence public schools is really the K12 alignment and that's where we see the framework and the power happening. We're going to talk about that more in a little bit, but really we want to talk about how we're activating what students need across the board throughout all of our schools. Continue to drive. Go. Excuse me. All right. So, like Dr. Hotler said, we had implemented AVID at Southwest Middle School. We started with 12 students. Um, one of the things I love about AVID's philosophy is it changes with time. It adjusts. And so in the beginning um when you

060might have heard about AVID, you might have heard about um being targeted towards our historically marginalized students. That philosophy has changed over time, but that's where where we really got our springboard, our starting point. Um teachers were really interested. I was one of the baby coordinators here in the district. I really appreciate my own leadership opportunities through that. Um and then um as we saw so much success with our eighth graders, we realized if we start this earlier, we can get more bang for our buck. The kids are going to come in and they'll know their strategies. And so a few years later, we added seventh grade in all four middle schools at the same time. Now, COVID happened as we recall, and that did um create some challenges around our programming. It's really hard

061to go on field trips and bring in speakers when we were standing six feet apart and not able to travel. So, we had to be really mindful of how do we bring students back on board and get them re-engaged with AVID and all that it has to offer. At Southwest, we did a few things. We got a new coordinator in place and we really focused on providing direct supports to to students through the tutorial process. So students could go into any classroom and if they were to walk out with a question, they had an immediate support in place throughout their school day. That was important. It was tangible and that is how we quickly rebuilt after COVID. Um we've continued our work also with staff trainings. Um we've added in an AVID sixth grade kind

062of an intro class. We call it a little AVID light class. Again, really looking at how we are aligning our systems from kindergarten on, making sure students have all the skills that they need to be successful. Excuse me. That's okay. There we go. That's me. Good evening. My name is Amanda Green and I am the proud principal at Sunflower Elementary. Um, and I feel honored to be um up here with these amazing AVID leaders. Um and I am just here representing our fantastic Sunflower staff um and teachers that do the phenomenal work. Um it really is a system that allows us to build collective efficacy which is when we all believe in the same thing that students can do the hard work right and um that has been a huge driver for success for us

063at Sunflower. Um, a lot of times you might uh hear, "Oh, well, kindergarteners can't learn to take notes or first graders can't um organize with a binder or fill out an agenda." That seems like things for for bigger kids, right? But, um, at Sunflower and many of our other buildings across the district, we believe that students absolutely can do that rigorous work that will help them be college and career ready even though we're talking about just kindergarten first and beyond. So um that is a huge part of our sunflower story is that we had um a phenomenal collective belief that we can do this work and it will better our students in our school. Um so using that systems approach we really um dove in and connected to the familiar that we have at tier

0641 as well. um and always thinking about how can we be specific and intentional with our focus for the things that we really wanted to focus on with our students within the AVID system buildingwide common language around high yield instructional strategies increasing student voice through cooperative learning. Um embedding AVID in all we do by creating those community partnerships. Um, we did not plan for Miss Brown and our Sunflower Scholars to be here tonight at the exact same time that we are providing this um, presentation, but what a great opportunity to see um, their speaking and listening skills and their advocacy for um, you know, supporting the community and learning from others, not only in their Eagle Bean um, project um, but also and through their fundraiser and creativity. All right. We have several points of

065pride at Southwest Middle School. At Southwest, going along with that common philosophy, common belief that all students can be successful. We really think about how we are providing opportunity knowledge to all students. And so that shows up at Southwest in a variety of different ways. We have a pretty successful career day every December where we look at um students interest and then we bring in people. So, at the middle school world, if you haven't had a middle school for a while, I'll just remind you, everybody, not everybody, a lot of people think that they're going to go to KU and be professional basketball players, which is a great goal. However, there are so many opportunities out in the world, and we really want to showcase those to let them know what exists outside of our

066four walls. Um, so we do things like career days. We have school clubs that are aligned to different um career pathways and opportunities. We think about how we're taking kids on field trips and what do those field trips look like and what are our goals around those field trips. So again, really addressing the opportunity knowledge is one of our points of pride at Southwest Middle School. And it actually aligns to our new mission statement. We also think about rigor. How does rigor show up in the classroom? And so we monitor that in a variety of different ways. But one of the things that I think is really successful about AVID is it gives you common language with teachers. So that way you can train a teacher on a strategy and then other teachers can observe

067that teacher. We can learn from one another as professionals. But also what that creates is um a predictable system for kiddos because we know if a kid walks into the classroom and they understand what they're going to be doing and they're not having to learn a new strategy or new set of expectations, they're going to be more successful. So that supports students and our staff. Um another point of pride pride is I really appreciate the board's um dedication to AVID over the last several years investing in our professional learning whether it be summer institute or AVID pathway trainings or our in-house trainings even. um that work has done a lot to coordinate the work of our staff and to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction um with the same mission. Um

068one more thing I would like to mention is um one of the systems that really works for us at Southwest is thinking about um organization. So executive functioning is something that a lot of adolescence struggle with. And so we think about how can we create a predictable system for kiddos that makes sense to the kids and help them develop those skills. Um it could be how do you fill out your planner? How do you plan for a test? What I love about AVID is we're not going to assume that every kid comes to school with those skills um already in place. We're not going to assume that a student knows how to study. Instead, we're going to stop, we're going to teach, we're going to practice, and we're going to learn how to be learners

069first, content second. Um and that has been really successful as we continue to move AVID forward at Southwest Middle School. And so we um at Sunflower try to support that work as well. So those same things that she um shared around executive functioning, organization, the importance of note-taking um and how to be a successful learner. Uh we start that in kindergarten at Sunflower and many other elementaryaries across our district. Um so we do try to um identify because AVID is a systems approach and there are so many things that we could take on to um really push forward in our building. But what we focused on is a um some real intentionality around bu um focused note-taking as well as collaboration and student engagement. Um so when I talked earlier about believing that all of

070our students can um if you have not been into some of our classrooms to see first graders do a philosophical uh philosophical chairs or our third graders doing a Socratic seminar. Um they can absolutely do those things, but that takes training with our teachers. um that takes us modeling those strategies and being able to support that work. Um we also have those projects that are focused on mentorship and career-based opportunities because we want to start instilling in students right away that they have opportunities as they get older that are vast and wide. Um we have really made an effort this this school year to focus in as a team um using the first Wednesday of the month during our collaboration time to have an AVID focused PD and that has been very very helpful as

071our AVID leaders um across the building lead that work and help model some of those strategies for teachers and then um we partner that with sharing successes around those specific strategies. So, we take that little bite-size size and um we model it, we practice it, and then we celebrate when we've seen that success. Um, also something fun about Sunflower and to go along with executive functioning, we have a fun little um thing that we do at the end of this day called Reset the Nest. At Sunflower, we are eagles and so we have our nest and um it allows students just to take some time to take ownership for their belongings, to take ownership for their learning, get themselves set for success for the next day. um and it has been really helpful for our

072students as well. So those pieces we've um are points of pride for us at Sunflower and that we've been working on the last few years and we're excited to set a new articulation guide this summer during summer institute because we have implemented these things very successfully um thanks to the teachers um that were willing to dive in and do the work. Um, and so we're excited to be able to come back another time with a report sharing our work from from this summer and what we set as goals as we move forward um with AVID at Sunflower. But I do want to take the opportunity to um share that there were at least 12 classrooms that um were able to be observed during the AVID showcase and those were not just grade level classrooms. Um

073we had specials, our music and our art um classrooms were observed during that time. um our intervention classrooms were observed. Um we had um so much uh variety in teachers that were not only willing to have observers in their space, but also were excited to show AVID because it does not just happen in the classroom, it happens across our whole building, which is a huge um benefit to students with that commonality. All right, this is my favorite part. So why AVID and Lawrence public schools? It's really important that we address the equity and access for students. Historically, when we talk about college readiness, it talks about just a select few stu groups of students, right? But when we're talking about AVID, we want to make sure that no matter what students choose to do after

074high school, college, career, trade school, right into the workplace profession, whatever that choice is, they have a choice and they have the skills ready to do it. because it turns out that being on time and being able to keep track of your appointments doesn't just happen in college, but it happens everywhere. So, we really want to make sure that those opportunities are available to all of our students and they have the true skills development in place to be successful. Um, the other thing, and I've spoke about it already quite a few times, but is the importance of the consistent instructional best practices. Um, as a teacher, it can be very very overwhelming to know exactly which strategy or which support is going to um be the most effective for student progress and student learning. AVID

075provides um a framework that already has those high yield strategies aligned that allows us to hone in as a school family and say, "Okay, these are the ones that we know are going to make a difference for our students and we're going to do them all together." Um, and that work is incredibly incredibly important. um and is really the only way that you can see true progress as you move forward as a building. Absolutely. I want to mention vertical and horizontal alignment being so important. Sunflower and Southwest are connected through a kitchen, but that connection should not just stop at the kitchen. There are so many opportunities for alignment. We can tell the students who come from Sunflower because they have been working in AVID in that AVID framework learning those AVID skills for years.

076when they get to Southwest, they're prepared, they're organized, they understand how to set something as simple as set up a planner. It just helps with some of that um continu continuity of services and support and making sure that we are all aligned. And we see that at our high schools as well. And so that has been important and we appreciate that opportunity for the alignment. We still have room to grow. We do. Um, but we're excited for those continued opportunities and figuring out ways that we can um not not only strengthen that connection between our students and some of their experiences, but also make sure that our um students are are middle school ready when they head that way. Um, and that just continues to um drive that point around the culture of college and

077career readiness, making sure that students see the different opportunities that they have um and our AVID framework allows us to provide those um examples to our students. Absolutely. I love the leadership development and the student agency that comes along with the AVID programming. When we think about student voice and the ownership of learning, that is one of the most critical skill sets that can transcend any situation. Um, I really appreciate how we have been able to really work on that. I don't know where else you see a group of first graders come up and give a board presentation. So, thank you for the opportunity to allow them to invest in those opportunities. Um, we are very conscious of trying to find those and develop those skills. Um, it was absolutely incredible. So, I appreciated how

078that tied in as well. So, there are lots of different reasons why Lawrence Public Schools benefits from AVID. Um, we appreciate you getting to hear our stories and we're happy to discuss more with you and answer any of your questions that you have regarding AVID at Southwest or Sunflower or just Lawrence in general. Great. Thank you very much. Um, before I turn to the board for questions, did you have anything else you wanted to add, Dr. Swift? I We're in good shape. Okay, great. uh questions from board members for our presenters. This is Carol. I don't so uh have so much a question, but I just want to commend you on the work that you're doing. It is working. Dr. Swift and I attended the Haskell graduation on Friday and I saw you as Lawrence

079is a small town and I saw a lot of familiar faces walk across that stage and get their diploma. So, I was just so happy to know that, you know, we were a part of that and and AVID. I've watched it. I' I've been here. I've seen it implemented and it's it's growing and I can um yeah, my nephew is living proof it works. I mean, he's a he's a a like a 4.0. So, yeah. That's amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. No question. Um uh I really enjoyed um thank you for this presentation, but I also really um enjoyed getting to join you for the showcase that you guys did. It was so impressive to see these different things in action. I know I've like Amanda can attest like I'm always like, "Can you explain AVID to

080me again? Can you explain?" So, um I think I've got it now. But, um it was just so exciting like you know like they said, you know, when you hear the idea of like a kindergarter taking notes, you're like, but like, you know, the way that they scaffold everything, it really makes sense and it builds off of one another. and um you know the training that she's invested um you know in those monthly trainings and stuff and seeing the the peer tutorials at the middle school was just amazing and um so I just I commend you both because it's such a great program and I really appreciate how it is so inter not intertwined but just so built in to everything that you do that it's just you know a part of it like it's

081not something it's not an add-on it is just the way it's done so thank you for that thank Um I too attended the EVIT um showcase and thought it was wonderful. Enjoyed the little the kids and watching them learn because I really believed uh in doing their presentations that they were actually really invested in learning. Um I also enjoyed the little ones that guided us through. uh they took their jobs very serious and kept us in line. Um uh my question uh since I is as we implement districtwide I think in uh Sunflower um at elementary everyone basically goes through Abbott and as we implement districtwide will that be the case in all of our buildings? Dr. Dr. Hotler, do you want The answer is yes. Um and and Dr. Hotsteadler will comment. Yeah. Yes,

082absolutely. And so when we go districtwide, um it will be in all of our traditional buildings starting from day one. And so where we already have it well established, you know, that's just a great way to affirm that important work. And in the spaces where it's new, I can tell you I've been in conversation with those principles and those staff members. They have already invited me into their buildings. In fact, soon soon after these conversations started, they invited me in. They are eager, they are excited, and uh the community members and and families that are a part of those schools are really really um looking forward to taking this next step uh to the benefit of of the young learners in their homes. And so, yes, absolutely. Um it's already in process. We have some

083training opportunities uh on on the docket in July. We have a group of teachers going to Chicago, teachers and administrators to um do some deep intensive learning about AVID implementation at a variety of different levels. And so we're positioned really well to start strong in August. Thank you for asking. Um thank you for this presentation. I too am very excited that we are moving this to a district-wide model at elementary school. Um I've seen I have some personal experience with my own students um participating at the middle school level and it's been really transformative for them. So um I I'm excited about that. Um this is a question um for Dr. Miles or Miss Green or or for both of you. Um and I'm not asking for specifics but I am asking just to characterize

084the impact. Are you seeing um an impact of these practices on the results of like your risk screeners and your formative and summitative assessments that your students are seeing? And is it um um are you seeing improvements year-over-year? I I'm I'm trying to remember. I know it's been at Southwest for a while. I don't remember how many years we've been fully implemented at Sunflower. So, absolutely, we've seen a noticeable increase. So, one of the great things that we have this year is ion. That's the data platform that the district has been providing. And so we've been able to make some categories of students to track students who are both in the AVID elective and out of the elective. I can say with confidence that our AVID students their attendance is better. We see fewer disciplinary

085um entries and um achievement data only continues to increase. So yes, we have felt like that has been supported by data for several years now. Great. Now you want me to go first? Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. Um so at Sunflower this this is my second year at Sunflower as the principal and but the work h um preceded me. They um have been doing great work with AVID um prior to me being there. Um and so we've continued that. However, we did have a little bit of a rebuilding year last year when um there were um some mixed staffing that um we and we needed to onboard quite a bit of new staff. Um and so our building goal um that we have set for the year is to um see our spring data increase based

086on some very specific action steps um that are all aligned to our AVID work. So we're excited to get that information back and really make some of those correlations. That's great. So you really feel like this helps guide your go your building level goal setting and your needs assessment that you have to do? Absolutely. We are doing each year. Okay. Great. Thank you, Bob. Uh just another question. Um how does if I was a parent at New York school doing looking at them transitioning on to Monasuri in the upper grades? How does Monasuri fit with AVID? I that's a great question that we have also asked and really look forward to exploring that question. And I won't pretend that we have the answer. Uh but we're really excited to reach out to our monastery partners

087and it'll be a tremendous conversation to sort I we believe it's a vin diagram. Um and and really excited to see what's on either side and most importantly where the convergence is in the middle. Middle. Yeah. Okay. Stay tuned. I plan. Okay. We're on that mission. Yeah. Great. Any other questions for the presenter? I'm just a big fan of AVID. I've watched it grow and into the schools and I love it and I loved um watching I you could see the confidence in our students up here tonight and you I know you it gives them agency. So that's the most important thing with the AV and especially with the the clay muse that they're they're selling their wares. So I'm just excited to see how much they raise and I hope that they can raise

088more than their goal of $1,000. need to I appreciate you bringing that up because I was just back here kind of kicking myself for not saying that that is um something that I can already attest to with our you know skills in AVID. Yes. While we're working on or waiting on some academic progress data to um get completed for the spring um I feel that it is very apparent and obvious that our students um student agency skills, their speaking and listening, their confidence, their ability to um know how to attack a text and all of those things are incredibly strong. and we see those um that pay off right away. It's fantastic. Okay. May I share just one final thought and that is um we have a group of 12 seniors from Free State High

089School who will be doing grad walks in three of our buildings, two elementary and one middle school where they will be in their full regalia walking through the halls to pomp and circumstance. And so that's a great opportunity to just show full circle um how the kindergarteners all the way up um through 8th grade will have an opportunity to see what it looks like on the other side right when they get to high school. So thank you again for your time and attention. Thank you very much. All right. They're they're good. Y um thank you so much for that update. I'm actually really excited about the gradwalk. Um that is something I've seen in a number of places and I I think it's just such an impactful thing for our um seniors to show leadership

090and to share the end goal with our um with our youngsters. So thank you. Okay. Um at this time I believe we are concluded with our reports and we are ready for public comment. Um, I'd like to ask uh my board colleague Bob to please read our public comment procedures. Uh, patrons who wish to participate participate in public comment must email public comment commentusd497.org by noon on the day of the board meeting uh to to participate in person. information provided will will make it possible for district staff or the board to follow up with you as necessary. This is your time to share your opinion. 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 comments must be

091addressed to district staff as provided under board policy KN and GAEE, general complaints and personal complaints. The board president or presiding officer of the meeting may direct uh that a public comment request be redirected to staff to comply with board policy included and or to protect the privacy of individual staff or student students. If you need assistance in sharing a a complaint or concern with district staff, please let the board clerk or other district staff know. Topics discussed in public comments shall be gerine to the board to the business of the board. Furthermore, comments must comply with standards. Standards laid out in board policy GAE and board policy JGCA anti-bullying hazing of students and and staff students staff and students. Uh comments are actions that are threatening to staff, the board, or others in attendance,

092including 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 our liability for the information shared during public comment. The view the views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lawrence public schools. Uh the board president or presiding officer will invite comments on topics not included on the meeting agenda at the beginning of or end of each meeting. Comments related to agenda items are welcomed after the board has had the opportunity to discuss the topic. Limit your comments to three minutes. Patrons who are unable to comply with

093the above procedures may email their comments viewpoints to the board at schoolboardusd497.org. Thank you very much, Bob. Uh we have five um individuals signed up this evening. Our first two will be our online uh folks who are signed up and uh first up will be Michael Michael, are are you there? Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. So, now that everybody's present, except for I guess Kelly Jones took off, um I'm sure she's got more important matters to contend with than than just being president of the school board. But I wanted to revisit how how this whole thing came about with this permanent ban that you've you've unconstitutionally enacted. You know, back in January, you guys had a situation developing in your schools. At the same time, you had an individual speaker

094in the school board that you didn't want to hear from. So, you decided to unconstitutionally shut that person down. I sent you an email saying that I would come in there and challenge that aspect of your tyranny, shutting somebody down unconstitutionally during their public comment. And at the same time, you know, you've got things going on in your school district that I guess you you might have wanted to not talk about. So, you started playing games with public comment. So, I came in there in February and you know, Kelly Jones and I had this little charade for about 30 minutes where she was trying to control what I say and trying to get the police to control me and that didn't work. So, obviously there was no crime. But your superintendent still trespassed me from

095school district property for 60 days. That's a little difficult since it's public property and there was no crime obviously by police officer standards. So during that time, you know, things started breaking, news started breaking about a teacher, you know, doing these strange tests on kids tongues. You know, we had quotes like, "My kid was sexually assaulted by your employee." There was a actually a cartoon, you know, my my child was bullied to the brink of suicide was one of the quotes. Another quote was, "It took a restraining order to protect my kid in your school, but you guys, instead of paying attention to those things that you were sweeping under the rug, instead you decided to make a spectacle of public comment." And all people were saying was that your policies are Michael, that's your

096warning. So, I get a warning. Gotcha. But that's the fact. And you guys are so worried about people being so mean to you. And we move forward. I come back in the room. You don't have public comment because you don't want to hear from the public still. You've moved public comment to the end. At the end of the meeting last time, I go outside and ask elected leaders questions as they're leaving the building. and your superintendent decides to unconstitutionally ban me for for permanent lifetime. You guys have that cartoon in mind, the one that says, "Everyone, look how mean they're being to me instead of paying attention to your students. You're sweeping under the rugs. Your policies really are Your time's expired. Thank you." Okay, our next commenter is Justin. Can you hear me? Yes,

097we can. You may proceed. Can you hear me? We can hear you. You may proceed. May proceed. Can you hear me? All right. My name is Dr. Justin Spece. My name is Dr. Justin speaks. Uh your guys's policy that you just read there on general public comments says that complaints about staff are not allowed. And so do you think that that is or is not viewpoint discrimination that uh only positive things can be said about your precious staff there? So we all just had to sit through the superintendence report there where she gushed over staff and then we listened to the avid presenters just say positive things about uh staff as well. But if I were to say that the superintendent Swift is a tyrant for not allowing me to go to church on school

098district property because she's imposed an unconstitutional permanent ban on me uh for no reason. Would that be allowed? Would would that complaint be allowed? That's part of the lawsuit that I filed against all you guys there is that you allowed positive things to be said but not negative things. And so think about it. Anybody that tunes into your guys' precious meetings here will only see these positive things that are said about the school district, but anything negative whatsoever uh has to be shielded from the eyes of the public in an executive session. So that's what's called viewpoint discrimination. And so a couple meetings ago there, Shannon Kimble, you you sat there and played the victim and said that you'd gotten some some voicemails from uh people that were watching the meetings and you classified it

099as threats, bullying, and intimidation. And uh we got those voicemails through an open records request. And so I just want to read some of them. And I want to I want to show uh how you're a lion batch, Shannon. Okay, that's your warning, Justin. Thank you. So, one of the emails says, quote, "Hey, you dirty Stop breaking the law." You're done, Justin. Thank you. People like you in position. All right, we have uh three public commenters who have joined us in person this evening. Thank you for being here. Uh first up, Carrie. Thank you for traveling over to Lawrence uh to join us this evening. You'll have three minutes at the podium. I'm going to request that you leave your signs at your seat, please. We don't permit signs in the boardroom. Oh, they're not

100signs. They're pictures. Okay. We we don't we don't permit that in the boardroom. You can leave them at at your seat or you can um put them aside. are in the book that I'm reading tonight. I can read the book. I am I am asking you to please follow our public comment policy and our board meeting policies and that is so but you have signs around here. I am asking you to please put them down. Go put them at your seat, please, before you proceed. Thank you. So, you're asking me to do that and I'm not I am asking you to follow our rules and put them down before you proceed. Thank you. All right. Um that is um some viewpoint discrimination I'd like to say and I'm pleased to start off my time again

101because I haven't started. Your your your time is beginning. Thank you. Thank you. Grooming is the gateway to adults sexually sexually abusing adolescents. Reading materials like books is one way that is used to groom minors. I'm going to read from the adult book Gender Queer. This book is currently available in the Lawrence High School library. Page 166. I got a new strap-on harness today. I can't wait to put it on in you. It'll fit my favorite dildo perfectly. You are going to look so hot. I can't wait to have your in my mouth. I'm going to give you the of your life. Then I want you inside me. Holy This is the most turned on I've ever been in my life. I am dying. On page 167, the top picture shows a first person's perspective

102looking down at a girl with a dildo in her mouth and holding it with her right hand. The picture below it shows a couple engaged, excuse me, in oral sex. This girl wearing the strap-on dildo is looking down at the girl who is kneeling in front of her, sucking the strap-on dildo and um with her eyes closed and hands wrapped around the other girl's waist. Page 62. It really never occurred to you to put something into your vagina, not even a finger. It really didn't. So, you never tasted yourself? Wait, no. Ooh, wait. You have? Haha. Of course, you should try. and so vagina slime. There's a picture on page 135 of a naked bearded adult male who has an erect penis and is holding a naked boy's erect penis in his hand while kneeling

103in front of him. The boy appears to be pulling the man's head towards his penis. Board members, this sounds eerily similar to what your teacher will say allegedly did to the students at Prairie Park Elementary. You have a duty to care for children, but you didn't take the proper steps to protect them from a sexual predator, a groomer. The case alleges that prior to you hiring this predator, you knew of their previous misconduct. In a court document, you have said that you do not take any responsibility for the predator's actions. However, what do you say about the pornography that you are providing to minors? Do you take responsibility for this or these? How dare you expose children to LWDW and disgusting acts yet take no accountability on the sexual assault of the of those elementary

104babies in your building? Have you ever thought that maybe because you provide sexual content to minors in this district? That the teacher felt like they had the green light to blindfold and tie children's hands behind their backs while putting stuff in their mouth after a zipper was heard for their tongue strength test. Shame on you for allowing porn in your libraries and then saying you aren't responsible for what the teacher did to those children. While you have been banning adults from saying words like during public comment precious children were being sexually abused and that's my point. Your time is expired. Thank you. I would like to um submit this to you may you may provide it to the board. Thank you. Protect children, please. Uh, next up is uh, Mr. Vitz. Thank you for being

105here this evening. that leaves teachers and often building administrators grasping at scraps of information so we can do our jobs. For instance, there are two weeks left in the school year and elective teachers don't know what courses we'll be offering in the fall. Sixth grade students enrolled in February and we still have no official statement on what courses they can actually take next year. At the beginning of this se semester, choir teachers heard through the grapevine that our sixth grade classes would likely switch from quarter to semester next year. And we immediately communicated with our building principles regarding how bad that would be and why it would be so bad for music students in our district. And four months later, we still don't know if that change is actually going to happen. A month or

106two ago, the idea was floated by some building principles that zero hour choirs could be moved into the school day. They cannot, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Choir directors have tried repeatedly in the last month to communicate with district leadership, following the chain of command upward, and received no meaningful response. When we finally scheduled face-to-face meeting with to discuss our concerns with Dr. Irvin, that meeting was cancelled without explanation. I personally sent my concerns regarding the sixth grade electives proposal to the district leadership two weeks ago and the only response that I've gotten as of today was a note that my concerns will be shared with the ELT. What I see here is that the administrators who are making the proposals and making the decisions don't seem to know that like

107the ways that their decisions will impact staff and students and they don't seem to consider it worth their time to seek that knowledge from the trained professionals who teach those classes or even to include the superintendent on the discussion. One thing that makes this painfully obvious is that I spoke before this board two years ago when the proposed middle school schedule would have cut zero hour requires. The board agreed with me at that time that the loss of those four programs would be unacceptable. Dr. Swift, as I understand it, agrees with that as well. My principal agrees with that, but at leadership meetings, some administrators are still considering getting rid of zero hour choirs at some schools. We say the arts are important to Lawrence public schools. But when it takes months to even get

108a response to questions about our schedule, it's hard to feel like we believe that. In my remaining time, I would like to just be very clear that West Middle School principal Katie Carson has been without exception exceedingly competent throughout this process. She's supportive, responsive, and organized. And the communication I've had with Dr. Swift gives me the impression uh that you agree that fine arts should be highly prioritized and that you don't, I believe, agree with the proposed schedule changes that I've mentioned. So something seems not to be working somewhere in between. Thank you very much for your time everybody. Thank you Mr. Beats. Okay. Um our uh final public comment for this evening is uh Dr. Cindy Courtney. Thank you for being here. [Music] It has been 91 days since Mr. Gidley's arrest. M Dr.

109Swift has said, "Caring, highquality public schools are the outgrowth of engaged and supportive communities." Thank you to Dr. Swift and Miss Jones for their community engagement by meeting with my husband and I last week. Even though we aren't in 100% agreement, I hope we can move forward from the common ground we have found so far. I still have three asks. We agreed together that the current website falls short of your goals. Thank you for your willingness to do better. Please continue to work with us to make sure this resource is easy to use with relevant resources and updates. You all expressed, "District mental health professionals feel like a crisis debrief like that provided to Prairie Park teachers might be harmful to provide to Prairie Park parents. However, it sounded like you might be open to

110the idea of a public information session in line with what has been offered by other communities. I ask that you help facilitate such an information session, even if the district is not the one that leads it. I've provided additional information on such sessions. I shared um community concerns that the district's failure to quickly and transparently share information is due to their desire to avoid civil or criminal liability. I was glad that Dr. Swift and Miss Jones hope to reassure our community that this could not be further from the truth. My veterinary professional code of ethics encourages us to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. While I appreciate Miss Jones stated preference to work with individuals already intimately familiar, pause the time for a moment, please. Um, Miss Courtney, I'm going to pause

111your time for a moment. I'm going to ask the gentleman who has approached the dis um and is disrupting your comment to please return to the seats. Um it's it's clear that it's disrupting the public commenter and is therefore disrupting what we are trying to do here. So if you would please return to your seat, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Um we have designated places in the room for members of the public to be during our meetings. Um and I am asking you to please return to that seat so that she can complete her comment without interruption. Thank you very much. You may continue to record from your seat. I am not objecting to you recording. No, I would. You are not a presenter. You are not a member of the staff. You are a

112member of the public. I would like for you to please take your seat as a member of the public and record whatever you would like to record from one of those seats. And if I don't, if you if you decline to follow my direction because you are disrupting Miss Courtney in her public comment, Dr. Courtney, um I will ask you to please leave. I'm disrupting by standing quietly recording. No, I did not say that you are disrupting by standing and recording or recording the meeting. I said you are disrupting her by standing over here where people are not permitted to be typically during our meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much. You can take a seat right there. Thank you. May I back up about 5 seconds? Yes. Could you please add five seconds to

113her comments and you may proceed? Okay. Great. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, I will, if it's all right with you, I will stop you when there's um Thank you. I appreciate that. The right amount of time left. Okay. Thank you. My veterinary professional code of ethics encourages us to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. While I appreciate Miss Jones stated preference to work with individuals already familiar with the district's inner workings, I again express that we believe bringing in external experts who are outside a direct line of liability would go a long way to assuring our community that not only does the district have nothing to hide, but we haven't missed anything in terms of why this might have occurred based on expert opinion and how we can prevent episodes of sexual

114assault in the future. I think we also clarified that while we appreciate the importance of school safety generally, our concern is primarily with getting details about sexual assault prevention measures specifically. If an external audit is not elected, I provided a list of questions we would like to know about the comprehensive review of safety protocols Dr. Swift cited. This list includes questions about this most recent review that might clarify what has been done by who and their connection to the district and can help clarify what we might still want to know. In the last week, families looked their child's abuser in the face during a hearing to assess his competency for trial. I look forward to the board showing similar bravery as they provide by showing up at this this meeting every day and hearing very

115very hard words and criticisms from individuals who are not even invested in this district um and taking similar action to move us forward and to keep our students safe. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Courtourtney. That concludes our public comment for this evening. Um Dr. Dr. Swift, do you have any closing announcements for us? I believe uh that we're in good shape. I do want to express my gratitude to the Southwest uh community and uh for their flexibility today. We were not anticipating a power outage. And I do want to reassure folks that they have met their minimum hours. So, they don't need to be concerned. Everyone is concerned of course when we miss school, but uh their hours have been met. So, thanks to everyone and just sorry that we ran out of electricity, uh,

116in the community right on Monday morning. So, thank you. Okay. Uh, with that, uh, our business is adjourned. Is there a motion to adjurnn, please? I move we adjourn. Second. All those in favor? I I We are adjourned. Thank you. If you're the host pictures.