001e e e the March 10th 2025 board meeting is there an approval of the agenda I move the Board of Education approve the agenda for the March 10th 2025 board meeting second Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes Kimble yes buers yes kuo Blackwood yes the motion passes 70 okay we're going to start our meeting with an executive session is there a motion I move the Board of Education recess to Executive session for the purposes of discussing personel matters pursuant to the non-elected personal exception under coma with the board to return open session in this room at 617 with possible action to follow I a second Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes Kimble yes buers yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes the motion passes 70 for 15 minutes e e e session
002with no action to follow we're moving on to item 1.4 the report of the superintendent of schools Madam president point of V we will have action to follow later in the meeting correct correct but it's listed as a a a um agenda item okay agenda okay thank you all right thank you thank you Madame President and all who are joining us uh here tonight and those who are joining us remote uh the superintendent report this evening will be a little bit different I'll do a brief uh District update and then we'll move over into just a refresher and uh really a safety briefing seems like uh a great time to just Refresh on all of the steps that we're taking around student safety so to begin with today uh Monday is the first day of
003fourth quarter of the school year it is hard to believe um but here we are in fourth quarter um on uh last week our students wrapped up the third quarter and then on Friday our teachers were engaged in recording and Reporting student progress ahead of parent teacher conferences later this week so uh just as a note our staff is excited to meet with families in conversation this week about their students progress um since the conference schedule include evening hours there's no school Thursday for Early Childhood through grade five students and no school on Friday for all students Early Childhood through uh grade 12 next week of course is spring break and we wish all our students and staff School families an enjoyable and restful spring break uh just a couple of honors congrats to high
004school wrestlers here they are you will see a list of their accomplishments on the screen additionally I want to note that free state senior Grayson Hagen completed his career as the winningest wrestler in Firebird history and Lawrence High Jr Goldie Stevens there she is uh is the first girls wrestler in you in LHS history to medal at state so congratulations to these uh students these wrestlers on their accomplishment free state business teacher Kimberly Hawks took six student members of the schools distributive education clubs of America the DECA Club to the State Career Development conference in Manhattan what a wonderful opportunity for these young people to learn more about business and Finance we have a a school to farm farm to school update uh that program has received several grants including $11,200 Grant from Frontier Farm
005Credit to support us in rebuilding the greenhouse at Juvenile Detention Center it will serve as a resource for growing plant starts to support all of our district Gardens as well as provide agricultural training to learn ERS at the jdc day school this grant also included transportation funding for fourth grade day on the farm field trip and uh Lisa ball LHS science teacher and her school earned $1,000 Grant from grassland Heritage foundation's sustaining prairies fund they will use these funds to develop a seed saving St station in conjunction with LHS CTE agricultural research station El chess will also enhance its Prairie Library as students develop a mobile Prairie exhibit featuring a series of photos and air dry clay pressed prair plans um Julie schwarting free state um science teacher also received $1,000 grassland Heritage Foundation grant
006for Prairie restoration safety jumpsuits for students to wear when they are working in the prairie grasses they will also add informational signage to the Prairie so we look forward to seeing that the Kansas State Department of Education also recognized um Lawrence Public Schools for Farm to school intensity that means that we dedicate the resources needed to have a vibrant Farm to school program we look forward to continuing to enhance this programming if you haven't uh listened yet uh we still have uh online the Lawrence Public Schools podcast I invite you to hear Andrew bevon and I as we chat with the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence Youth of the year on the left there LHS senior Arabella Gip and the junior Youth Of The Year sunflower fifth grader a in Kong it was just
007a delight to visit with both of these impressive young people who had important things to say I wanted to finish by just updating our community uh Communications Outreach as you can see we're holding fast there through uh February just really averaging uh around 20,000 views of each of our um our Communications so we'll kind of turn now if it's okay uh trustees to um I'm just trying to get that to go away guys if you would and then it would be great if we could put up the document which is um the super message 310 uh 25 and trustees we've updated we took advantage of the 10 minutes you gave us and updated this document with some late breaking information and so if you refresh uh you'll get the uh most recent uh version of
008this safety update it's the beginning of the fourth quarter and it is always a good time to refresh our information on school safety practices safety is built into every okay we can wa for that sure and we'll start there on page two when you get that up the instructional makeup time sorry superintendent message it's under the superintendent's update and it's labeled 31025 and my apologies that I didn't have you have that loaded that's on me yes under the superintendent update is where you'll find the document we do have it thank you thank you J thank you we should be good thank you very good so we'll go down to page two into the safety part very good student safety is embedded in literally every step that we take we do it uh with every um
009Endeavor that we undertake in the district and it will always remain our top priority um I will share though that that includes responding immediately when concerns arise because concerns will always arise they as they have over recent days uh in our district as part of the culture of safety we constantly update our policies our programs and our training designed to promote child safety and to protect students from threats uh not just at school but all around them in society so I wanted to cover several areas of our safety work and then we can discuss if there are other areas you'd like to talk about uh Members First of all just that um that immediate response when concerns arise our district has the highest standards for our employees they are entrusted with the most noble of
010uh duties and that is caring for educating and supporting our community's children when a safety concern is reported our team immediately investigates including involving local law enforcement we're very fortunate to have our SRO right in the buildings in the school uh buildings at secondary and close by our elementaries they support us based on the findings of Investigations we then take immediate action in accordance with the law and with our Lawrence Board of Education policy and I will point out uh members and you are already aware that that was the case at Prairie Park that action was taken immediately once we were aware of the concern um we are constantly reviewing our safety protocols I just want to give a shout out uh to Lorie stitham director of special education services and members of our team
011who are currently working through every school building every classroom area every Service delivery area and I will be sharing more detailed information with the members about that process to just double and triple check that every single area of our building has visual site um from a hallway or from an area where people uh are moving and that there are no areas where an adult and a child child would ever be alone in a private area together uh this uh process is to ensure Clear Sight lines into all physical spaces where children are served so that these spaces remain open and observable at all times all student services are to be delivered in clearly visible areas and this is to protect everyone involved in everyone at school uh folks have asked about our uh fingerprinting and
012background checks I just want to point out that criminal background checks either uh kbi Kansas Bureau of Investigation Department of Children and Families they are required for every District team member prior to that individual being cleared for Duty that comes right up front names are checked against the kbi registered offenders registry the checks for violent drug and sex offenders as well fingerprinting and an FBI background check are conducted for staff members who've not lived in Kansas for the past 10 consecutive years uh certainly we uh as all districts do hire folks uh from within the state and outside the state the checks are completed regardless those are a requirement in addition the department for Children and Families background check is completed on the child abuse and neglect central registry for every new employee the Kansas
013Department of Education also requires a background check and fingerprinting on all new teacher license applicants so that is completed as well and then related Services State Licensing agencies so that would be for speech for occupational for all the related Services they also require background checks and or fingerprinting licensed status is reviewed for all certified staff during the application and hiring process another area that we do um continually is this process of mandatory reporting every team member in usd497 is aware and they are trained and retrained that we are mandatory reporters by law uh the italicized part under this section is directly from board policy gaad and it is our consistent practice that any District employee who has concerns that a child may have experienced harm due to physical mental or emotional abuse neglect or sexual
014abuse is required to promptly report the concern to the Kansas department for children and fam's office or if the DCF if office is closed we reach directly to local law enforcement in the case of a weekend or uh evening hours and I do want to share uh members publicly that that step was taken promptly in uh the situation we recently experienced at Prairie Park and that those actions are documented with DCF and clearly um uh occurred um over the coming days we are also working and I appreciate the engagement and support and uh more um uh ideas for how we can support that we are hearing from parents we hear those and we're doing our very best to be responsive to them as they align to trauma informed care and I really appreciate Kylie Luckett
015and members of our team who are trauma informed trained and so we line up every action of support to ensure that it supports every member of the community uh those who maybe have been victimized and those who maybe have experienced secondary uh trauma as well so over the coming days we will continue to share information and resources with parents including uh creating a website resource on our USD 49 7 uh page to share updated information to support parents in talking with their children about safety the most common request we've heard from parents is how do I speak with my child and I just want to share that any parent who's having that question this evening um we have a team of Crisis counselors ready and all they have to do is reach out to their
016principal or email any of us and we will get them connected for that individual care we are sharing uh today in our message uh the Children's Advocacy Center who's been they've been working closely with us throughout this time they offer sound and trusted guidance uh for parents and caregivers across many areas of child safety um and that includes um what to say uh to your child and I just want to get uh to a part that I think maybe is not updated here let me just scroll down a moment to make sure we're using the right example um Miss Luckett I'm not seeing that oh I know it's on board dos just one moment I want to make sure that I say this part with um here it is I want to include this part
017for from yes okay very good I believe I believe it's been added okay at any rate the child's the Children's Advocacy Center does offer those initial questions that you could ask your child it's offered they have several resources in a developmentally age appropriate way of how parents might speak to their children and we're including that the link is here in the message today and we just have been partnering with them they are an excellent resource we'll continue to had resources we have heard that perhaps having too long of a list of resources is overwhelming for some folks so we're really working to focus those resources for parents we really value our partnership with school families and maintaining those open lines of communication so again we encourage folks to reach out to us we have trained
018counselors ready and we look forward to to conversations individually around the needs of students and families thank you thank you Dr Swift so Julie I I understood you to make a caveat but it wasn't something that was heard on the mic can you share can we just qualify that yes yeah yes there is an update with a specific example from the Child Advocacy Center that we thought was particularly useful uh for parents and we added that into this document um and we will update the website as well uh because we wanted to not just give the link but to also share a specific example of how you might speak with your child thank you Dr Swift thank you so we're going to move on to the report of the board of educ ation president and
019I um I'm going to be brief this evening but I do want to extend um my gratitude to the Child Advocacy Center the Lawrence Police Department Dr Swift and the crisis team along with the um several opportunities I've had for conversations with family from the uh Prairie Park Community to understand more um what it is and how we can as a board assist assist and respond uh to the horrific events that you all are going through as parents and as a school Community as our Educators and teachers are as well with you so um again just to reiterate what Dr Swift has said if there is more uh dialogue to be had or you want to reach out to the board we will definitely connect folks to people that can provide those supports um and
020it has been a partnership that has is welcomed okay so we are now going to move on to uh discussion about public education and legislative updates so I'm going to ask uh Shannon Kimbell to lead this portion of the um opening items thank you Kelly um first off the State Board of Education meets tomorrow and Wednesday excuse me um of interest to our board I believe the the State Board is expected to approve a regulation change that would remove the completion of the FAFSA from the graduation requirements that were adopted last year um that's been in process for several months this is the last step um in that approval so I anticipate that that will be um completed and removed from the state uh graduation requirements um the board tomorrow is also going to have
021a discussion um and and there's not a lot of information provided about this but they're having a discussion about optin opt out um regarding uh student assessments and student data surveys so uh I think that might be of interest that's supposed to happen late in the day at like at the end of their meeting to around 4 o'clock or so um so if you have an interest in watching that those meetings are live streamed and you can uh watch it live or you can go back and watch the recording of it later just to see what that discussion is um that could impact some of the things that we we do in our district depending on a direction the board State Board of Education chooses to take um in the legislature uh I don't have
022good news to report on the budget front um and I'm I'm sorry to say that um I think when we met last time the house had completed their budget work passed the budget which includes the K12 budget this time um had passed it over to the Senate uh Senate committees have been meeting on their portions of the budget and the Senate education committee met uh this last week on Monday through Thursday to do budget work um some of it they do for the State School for the Blind and the state school for the deff and then the rest of it is for um the Kansas Department of Education and the big K12 funding that funds all school districts um when Wednesday and Thursday they worked on putting together what would be their committee recommendation and
023um that conversation did not go well um there was an attempt by five members of that 11 member committee to get the um actually I think the state it was it would have been the State Board of education's recommendation for special education funding which was like over $80 million um one of the senator uh Brad starns from The Manhattan area made a motion to include that 8 over $80 million in the budget and it got uh it got uh five votes for five votes against um so in a tie the chair of the committee breaks the tie and the committee chair broke the tie against adding that funding um which was unfortunate um it was uh it was a bipartisan uh group of senators that voted in favor of that funding which I think is
024is to be um appreciated the um there was more conversation about the budget they didn't conclude their work at that meeting so they held it over and um were planning to work on it more on Thursday uh there was there's a great deal of confusion because the only motion that was made and voted on on Wednesday and Thursday was that motion about special education um so ultimately after a lot of discussion and disagreement uh um on Thursday the chair brought back a a handout and said this is this is this is what we've worked out with staff and that on that handout it showed um zero new dollars for special education so remember the house budget had $10 million in it the Senate chair's version had z in it which is problematic because the state
025needed to put at least $2 and a half million dollar of state general fund in to maint for maintenance of effort so for those who don't speak special ed school funding speak that basically the federal law says you have to spend the same amount this year that you spent the year before without at least a $2.5 million appropriation in the budget we will be below maintenance of effort and in violation of federal law so from the get-go that that was problematic but then the the budget um the worksheet that was provided appears to show uh not only did it not include any of the enhancements that either the governor or the state department requested it completely zeroed out several line items that um have been existing and they zeroed it out for 2026 and also
026for the current fiscal year so uh Mentor teacher program teacher professional development um CTE transportation and a couple of other smaller things but those are the three big ones that really impact school districts um were zeroed out completely not just not just no enhancements they were zeroed um and they were zeroed for the current fiscal year and next year so there's a real question and then that was not voted on basically the committee couldn't come to agreement and the chair said well this is what I'm presenting to Ways and Means next week and they ended the meeting um so a lot of disagreement and drama on that committee um Senate Ways and Means will be hearing the Senate education chair recommendation tomorrow morning at 10:30 that is a live stream meeting if you're interested in
027following what that conversation looks like you can watch that on YouTube [Music] um uh it's a problematic situation um and so um it's I think the ask of those who are interested in this issue would be reach out to all the Senators on the Senate Ways and Means Committee and then in addition to that it's worthwhile to reach out to the senator that represents you um in your Senate District and talk with them about these issues um in addition to the budget work uh there's you know there's still policy work going on around K12 schools today uh the house education committee um held a hearing on a voucher bill Senate Bill 87 that that bill came out of the Senate um it what it does is expands the existing um uh tax credit scholarship Voucher
028Program in Kansas um which historically has only been for low-income students um this bill expands it far beyond that um it's no longer you can no longer really call it a low-income voucher scholarship program because it's not for it includes families who make above the median income for the state of Kansas um they did not conclude testimony on that today that will be continued over to tomorrow um also that same committee tomorrow will be hearing a bill that basically undoes a lot of protections that school boards have under the Kansas open meetings act um just for school boards so they're not proposing to make changes to the open meetings requirements for all governing bodies they're just proposing to do it to school boards so um that's that's also concerning um so I would encourage anybody
029who has interest in those issues to reach out to all the members on the house education committee um and you can also include conversations with your House of Representatives member in the state legislature um about the issues around those two bills so Senate Bill 87 and Senate Bill 47 are the two that I just mentioned um we're only about three weeks away from the end of the legislative session they will conclude all of their work um by the last Friday in March so I'll have one more legislative session update at our next board meeting um and then there will be a break the first week in April April and if there are bills that the governor has vetoed that they want to come back and try to address that will happen at the end of
030the second week of April and then they're they're supposed to be completely done um for the year at that point so there's there's not much time left um for them to do a lot of really important work uh around the K12 um budget funding um and policy that's all I have thank you Shannon regarding uh s SP 47 were there amendments offered to that it was slightly amended in the Senate um both in the senate committee and Al on the senate floor but it didn't change it enough to um take out the concern that it's making substantial changes to open meetings requirements just for Schoolboard members as it relates to agendas as it relates to some other issues um it overrides a lot of um uh long-standing state law in those areas and also um
031School District policies okay thank you um are there any other legislative or uh updates for discussion okay seeing none we'll move on to uh board committee report does anyone want to start and thank you Kelly um on uh 226 I attended the final boundary committee meeting for this year uh we identified what data we would want for next year for when we start meeting again along with uh the time that will be meeting so we'll look to start um in late September and meet twice a month um until we're finished so um it'll be the same people and everyone's really excited about the opportunity to kind of relook at things and make sure we're using our buildings in the most efficient manner um which doesn't mean closing let me be clear does not mean closing
032schools um also um on the 3D I attended the Southwest Middle School site Council um we talked about fast Bridge results um and she highlighted that they use that data to help identify students who are in need of additional interventions um attendance um they have a number who are chronically absent and they review that list every Monday at a mental health meeting trying to catch students earlier to understand why they're missing and right now they're sitting at just below 94% attendance um and then one of the goals they had this year was to create a sense of belonging amongst the students and so they did that through wind clubs um they have these clubs that meet during the wi time and the kids are super into it um so that's been a really um great
033thing for them and they're seeing Improvement and the score is based on that and the teacher feedback has improved well um there was a major Improvement on the school climate from teachers most likely due to the getting back the second um plan period um she also called out that next year's sixth grade class is only 154 students and they've been at above 200 for a long long time so that is a significant drop and so there are concerns about daffing and FD and how that will be uh impacting them um she talked about cell phones um she said they haven't really had in the past and continue not to have many issues around them so it's going um well there and then CICS is in process of being installed there so thank you thank you
034Ann uh other committee reports Carol hi uh this is Carol I attended the the boundary committee meeting with an uh the um last week uh what a note from that committee is that there was a there seems to be a gap in reporting and working with the safe rats to school um initiative so that will be something that will be included for the next um go around of the boundary committee and also I'd like to announce that tomorrow Billy Mills the Billy Mills Middle School site Council will have a meeting at 5:30 at Billy Ms middle school thank you thank you Carol uh yep up um okay I have two um meetings that i' want to report on and would first would be negotiations um and actually I think negotiations are going very well my
035we discuss calendar as well as uh snow days and I think both will be reported on later in this meeting um then I would go uh last week I attended Equity Council the district Equity Council uh actually we had a larger group this time um some of the issues we discussed was name change um of one the equity Council based on current situations uh political situations um and we talked as well about restructuring and how we should look in order to provide the board with uh contacts if indeed questions arise so meaning that if we had something came up that was timely and your committee meeting was off schedule we would be able to to send that information to you all and you would respond okay great thank you um I was able to watch
036the negotiations meeting online and I also really appreciate how that that conversation went uh and I learned a lot from it so um I look forward to that conversation later today okay other um committee meetings the I also attended negotiations the only other the only thing I would add to to what Bob already said that we'll discuss later in the meeting is we also had some really great and productive conversations about plan time uh and then uh alternative C certifications uh for um a very small group of Staff members that were trying to help uh uh them um uh move along the uh the salary Matrix that were that horizontally y horiz that were that were very very productive so okay all right I heard a couple of them and some some uh some of
037the things I heard were around nursing CES U monor certifications potentially CES in general CES in general okay yeah all right all right CES ctus and uh monor were the three that we specifically talked about uh yeah that monor certification is um really intense so all right other um policy yeah policy policy committee met um last Tuesday uh really just for a a planning meeting um given where we are at with some work we just needed to have a conversation about what what we are going to try to prepare for on our next um next month's meeting so uh that's that's all the business we conducted thank you um I'm uh yes yeah uh so the policy committee consists of an and Shannon and I and um we'll yeah good all right um the so
038facilities didn't meet correct okay all right and um the other just checking Lawrence schools foundation and is there's not an update from there uh no we didn't haven't met since then tomorrow we meet tomorrow okay thank you all right um we're going to move on to any general board commentary that folks have uh and I'll start at the end of the table move on uh um just that I attended the state of the city with you and Bob and that was a really nice event and um I thought uh mayor deor did a good job of outlining the priorities so I saw a lot of places in May de's presentation where we might be able to partner and he mentioned that too which I think is nice I appreciated that yeah so uh other folks
039any comments here yeah Shannon um just wanted to share my congratulations to the free state Fine Arts programs um this last week I attended the Wind Ensemble performance at the lead Center which was absolutely marvelous um I noted first of all our Wind Ensemble students um played wonderfully uh but also there were numerous lawence Public Schools alumni in the KU concert and the KU symphonic bands which also played at that event that evening and I want to give appreciation to the lead Center for its continuing strong partnership with usd497 um they provide outstanding Performing Arts experiences and opportunities for our students and they made it possible for this group of students to perform with the KU bands and then also for um the students families to attend so um appreciated that and then Saturday evening
040I attended Encore at free state um and a shout out to their faculty Olivia Henning and Joshua East as well as all the incredibly talented performers um that uh just put on a really fantastic show so thank you very much um yeah I also attended the um education business sector meeting put on by the Chamber of Commerce last week um where we just see a lot of the discuss was around school schools and how we fit into our community yeah uh just a couple things uh Monday uh March 3rd was able to participate in Reading Across America and read in all four kindergarten classes at schwagler um books Really Right On My Level and then uh Wednesday on the 5th was able to attend the wood law site Council and we talked about the progress
041of their building goal goals uh Community Partnerships and upcoming events uh uh DA's really doing a great job out there and that was a really fun meeting um couple items really quick from consent uh we're going to we have a contract for sanding and refinishing the lhx the LHS auxiliary gym floor it's going to take place in the summer of 26 but because of there's only very few companies that can do that work we have to to secure the contract now um so that's why it's on the consent now um so that's at a cost of $23,000 just under $24,000 um the wind screen and rail padding at LHS baseball and softball is nearing the end of life and needs to be replaced um so that's at a cost of uh right at $33,000 and
042then um uninterruptible uh power supplies for our networking equipment total of 145 of them um uh for about 80,00 using eate funding um to help with um in brown outs power outages power surges to help protect other uh more sensitive equipment and then the last thing that I would add I would I would Echo some of the things that Kelly said um you know as a as a Prairie Park alumni family member wanted to thank all the families that have reached out all the staff that have reached out um the work that the staff has done and we just publicly say that uh understand um that trust is earned and that we're here to to do what we can to do that and that um Echo what Kelly said that we're here to to help
043do that and so feel free to reach out with what you need and we'll help you get it thank you J okay we're going to move on to the approval of a one retirement oh we have one retirement can you want backe that um we'd like to acknowledge with sincere appreciation for service and Devotion to the Community Paula Donahue for 34 years of service thank you Paula okay um we'll move on to approval of a consent agenda is there a motion I move the Board of Education approve the items listed on the consent agenda second Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes Kimble yes buers yes kadue Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes motion passes 7 zero thank you okay we'll move on to Old business it's item 3.1 uh last board meeting we had the um
044pleasure of of introducing uh Dr Swift as our new superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools uh the um motion required that the those of us on the search committee which is represents um Bob G and I that our board members continue the negotiations process with that contract I want to say say that that negotiations process um not not to the fault of anyone just took us right up to midday today just kind of getting everything in in order and our ducks in a row um and we do have a uh contract that is attached in the um agenda and appreciate Dr Swift your patience with us as we um helped get that together and also want to extend gratitude to kasb who we um have been contracting with to provide us assistance in this process they
045have been uh very they've been good guides to us in terms of making sure that our contract is in order um and that we were able to retain an excellent superintendent uh so with that in mind I'll ask uh my board colleagues are there any questions that youall might have or comments okay I'll be glad to make a motion yeah quickly before Bob does I want to extend gratitude to the other folks involved in this process as well which also included Kristen Ryan Ron May um members of the Lea team and just to say thank you to all you to you all as well um and then uh enter the motion okay I move the Board of Education approve the hiring of Dr Janice K Swift as superintendent of schools for the period July 1
0462025 through July 30th 20 June 30th 2028 second everybody wants Royal representative Jones yes Kimbell yes buers yo yes K Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes the motion passes 7 zero thank you okay um so we had cake last time and uh appreciated yeah well yes just to say thank you um so much for your willingness to serve Lawrence Public Schools and the expertise that you bring to this position we are so grateful that you're here thank you my honor and now the pressure is on we're going to talk about schedules and calendars which are um exactly important to our our district and community so uh we'll move on to to reports which is item 5.1 and um the administrative responsible Kristen Ryan and I believe uh James will also be joining
047us to provide an update and this uh is the instructional hours update yes um so we have um actually it is Kristen Ryan and Mr James pulk uh but we just really like to go through uh our announcement that we've shared with parents today I have uh several shoutouts and that is that I am deeply grateful for the collaboration of a large team of people um on those uh some of those inclement weather days we were zooming through the day uh with our Lea partners and with members of our team we were already working on the collaboration uh at 28 degrees below windchill uh we were online starting this process so I just want to uh share with you all that this uh recommendation that we're bringing this evening is uh absolutely a result of
048collaboration and it is strongly supported by our teachers and our team um and it is to me just a marvelous example of folks coming together to innovate to solve a problem uh that we didn't have any control over the universe gave us an historic winter but we used that as an opportunity to collaborate and uh just an as an example of our teacher voice 800 of our 870 teachers 65% voted between Friday afternoon and Monday at noon so it ran over the weekend 65% voted and of those who voted 90% voted yes to this proposal so I am proud to bring you a calendar for makeup time that is supported by the folks in the trenches who are doing this work and I also want to share that throughout this time we were thinking about
049how to frame this so that students and parents and family wouldn't find it to be more of a disruption than it necessarily will have to be so I feel like and one of those was by moving the afternoon time and not the Morning Report time because we know what a delicate balance parents um with their workplace and with the car pools it's just a lot so and the other piece is that all schools are moving together so we wanted to make sure that the if the high school child is responsible for helping with the elementary or the middle or vice versa that we were moving the whole system so um it would I'm sorry to keep throwing you curve BS but it would be great to have this up it is attached the members have
050it but for those in the audience um so following spring break uh we are proud to prioritize our instructional time uh that we lost during the storms and we uh are recommending these following steps they will begin on the Monday following spring break so we had promised to deliver this word by Friday the 14th but we really press to get it out today because we know that it involves parents and grandparents and child care for our staff and for our parents it involves all the things so we wanted to get it out as quickly as possible so here's how it goes beginning Monday March 24th after our spring break uh we will be adding 15 minutes if you'll scroll up guys a bit to the end of I I mean down forgive me Monday Tuesday
051Thursday and Friday is a plus 15 minutes that will be March 24th through the end of the school year I do want to share some students have reached out to us they're worried that the 15 minutes goes all in 7th period I just want to let folks know that principles have been collaborative and those minutes are being added through the day instructionally and pretty much mirror across high school middle and elementary how the minutes are added and just for our students and those who ask these questions the minutes are not at lunch we're not allowed to do that for instructional time but they are added into classroom time the addition um also includes 25 minutes at the end of Wednesdays so starting the Wednesday after spring break a plus 25 minutes on Wednesdays um the
052designated inclement weather makeup day Monday April 21st will will be a full day of school and we've been saying that and counting on it uh for many weeks but just uh confirming then at the end of the year and I misstated this earlier um it really is the equivalent of one day added but it's the parts of two days for kids so we will have the half day for Thursday May 22nd will become a full day and then Friday May 23rd all students will wrap up at early dismissal time and then teachers will have the afternoon uh to do their checkout uh it always took me longer than that but I was methodical uh but that half day before Memorial Day in the afternoon is for our teacher time uh of note inquir ing minds
053want to know scroll down a little bit more this is kind of important uh for the class of 2025 seniors they will be expected to make the adjustments on the school days between now and the end of the year but and there will be a slight modification on final exam day and they'll get that information directly from their principal and in doing those those two things I'm able to announce that there will be no end of year adjustments required for our seniors the class of 2025 they've been counting the days for a while so I appreciate the team working hard to make sure we had it built in for seniors now parents should expect to hear from their building principle uh by the end of this week uh EX act dismissal times because those vary
054across schools we want you to receive that detailed information directly from your principal bus routes all of those details so this is our recommendation I know Mr poke and Miss Ryan will join us if you have questions um again uh Mr Spradlin and team and uh Emerson and team and Mr pulk and and Miss Ryan and all of our calendar committee um you're going to hear from Mr pul about that in a few minutes but we just appreciate everybody that pitched in to bring us uh from on the ground the best way to achieve our goal thank you thank you uh questions looks good work okay thank you I know folks were hoping that that we would just get forgiveness uh but this is a time where we just have to step up and do
055it so yeah and no more snow hopefully um so we'll move on to gr thinks I just brought snow we'll move on to 6 we'll move on to 6.1 uh the adoption of the 20125 2026 District calendar very good so Mr Po is coming to present us and members of the team I think Mr Spradlin is joining also for this thank you and I just want to share by way of introduction uh how much I appreciate that this 2025 26 Calendar I I want to share four things in brief introduction one it is the result of collaboration and you will hear the names of those who've served on the calendar committee and I just want to thank that team there is never anything easy about developing a school calendar because whatever adjustment is made we
056uh most likely will um result in someone not being thrilled and um and yet through collaboration we're bringing a calendar that represents folks on the ground and as well as the needs of our parents students parents and family I am delighted to share that this calendar represents increased instructional minutes to our critical Mission particularly at elementary school so that is our critical mission is teaching and learning in student achievement and growth we have more minutes with a rep pre presentation of this calendar thirdly something I've been seeking uh in the name of our parents and families is that this calendar lines for the most part elementary middle and high school some of the uh parents that I checked in with tonight and others all the time might have students across the levels and it's really
057hard when sum are in and Su are out of school so with this work we're bringing a much more aligned for the days of the school year and the days off fourthly I know it was above 70 degrees I wasn't out there today but I heard it was fabulous and so today's probably not the day you're thinking about it but we are always thinking about the cushion that will protect us from having to make up days and I'm proud to share this evening members that the cushion is even deeper for this next year calendar with the sincere hope that if we have a cold win a tough winner we will be okay because the days will be built in of course we never know that for sure but we are hopeful so with that Mr
058pul and Mr Spradlin are ready to walk us through the calendar if it sounds all right uh before we get started I just want to say thank you to our calendar committee members uh Monica ducher learning coach at Hillcrest uh Laura Leonard teacher at Liberty Memorial Marsha Riggins teacher at LVS uh Emerson hoses representing the Lea Josh Spradlin uh teacher at L lmcms uh Maria englewright uh from ESC representing classified staff Greg Farley assistant principal at Lawrence High Janna Craig ha at ESC Megan erson uh James pulk uh JC Roberson and Kristen Ryan at ESC that's who made up our committee um we met five times uh starting in uh December of uh last year um and uh we are excited to put the calendar for you for forward uh to you tonight um as
059we worked through this as a committee um the multiple variations uh that we did um this was by far I think the one we were most excited about across the board um bringing those things that Dr Swift kind of highlighted um with that aligned prek through 12 um Vision um with the only ex exceptions being um conference days uh we have those seniors getting out early in May next year those increased instructional hours um we're also really excited um that uh we have those snow day cushions we also I'm calling them purposeful pauses throughout the school year but one of our missions was to provide um more frequent breaks in our school year for staff and families um to not only uh take a break from students from school but our staff also receiving uh
060teacher Readiness and professional learning throughout the school year um it's a longer winter break we no longer come back on a Friday and then have to take two days off to come back on a Monday so we'd have that through January 2nd of 2026 um we're also looking at moving conferences from March into February um which will give more timely feedback especially for our secondary students um as we discussed it at negotiations on Thursday what am I forget um weather days yes so um one of the things that uh we obviously are living right now are those uh instructional days lost to inclement weather and so we're really excited that we're going to be building an even larger cushion into next year um so so that we can withstand even more um and that goes
061not only uh increasing our instructional minutes um it also goes hand inand with adding in inclement weather days throughout the year so we feel really confident with where we are there and how that's going to continue to support this so hopefully we don't have to talk about those inclement weather days much more after this um I would I would add that um and James mentioned uh the kind of purposeful pauses um one of the goals that we've had from negotiations but also calendar is trying to have a calendar in which uh you don't have those stretches where it's 6 78 weeks without any sort of Break um uh in just in terms of being able to kind of as a teacher be able to do some reflection with colleagues and things like that that uh
062maybe the people you don't normally see during a normal team meeting or collaboration time um and so we're really proud that the longest stretch C is five weeks um uh and then uh like we've had again from a negotiations lens we've oftentimes I've had those stretches where um April where you might have um on a Friday more staff that just because of those long stretches take off by giving those pauses in it's one of those Corrections that we had done on in April um over the last few years we were able to keep that okay um and so those were some of the highlights that I think from a negotiations lens we were proud to be able to keep within this new calendar it is frankly the prettiest calendar I've seen in the um in
063my opinion in the um seven years that I've been on the board so uh thank you for your work and then I'll turn it over to my colleagues questions yeah Shannon go ahead okay um I really love this calendar you all did a great job um so traditionally we're used to seeing something labeled as an inclement weather makeup day on the calendar can you um talk through I don't see that in the description so can you talk through how that's structured um for purposes of the the day the state forgives if you yeah do that so the way the inclement weather days work is as a district we designate certain days throughout the school year as inclement weather days and every day that we Mark as an inclement weather day that we are actually in
064session we get that day plus a day forgiven and so uh Liberty on math but one equals two okay so what we have done is we've been working with um the Department of Education to verify but we are actually um changing our approach on inclement weather days and putting them not front- facing out inside for the public we're actually putting them into the66 the superintendent report which is a behindthescenes support report that we we submit to the state every year and on that report we'll inclement we we'll indicate our four inclement weather days next year so because we've built such a great buffer we can have up to four inclement weather days and we can place those days anywhere in the course of the school year that we would normally be in session so in
065the past we've put these days in April thinking oh we hope we don't have to use them but what we've gleaned from the state and verified and corrected is we can place those days anywhere over the course of the year like a Thursday in September when there is no inclement weather on the horizon and that way we would be able to count that day as an inclement weather day so it builds us a buffer on days we know we're going to be in session and not dependent upon what the snow or the forecast might bring so I just want to jump in there and say this is a concept that I'm struggling with um and I appreciate the question we'll continue to learn more about this it's an adjustment that the state is allowing um
066and I continue to ask the team to draw me a picture and as I become more proficient I will share that with you all um I didn't come ready tonight because it is exactly what James says but there's still well okay well how does that work it's it's something that the state allows and our minutes I mean we are getting to our minutes and our days so okay I really appreciate that uh it it that would be a substantial shift in the way that the state department is interacting with us on this issue so I appreciate that um and just knowing that that's that's why we don't see it look the way that it has looked in the past um so thank you appreciate it and then just to just a nod to our last
067year conversation about um snow days can you talk a little bit about how you verify this with the state what that conversation looks like yes so um we had some uh leadership members sitting on a um they do a a superintendent call every Thursday and we had some leadership members sitting on that call where they had mention this initially and so we continued conversations internally as a district about it and we're curious um before we rush to judgments and so we did call the state department um and in fact the supervisor of that department and did get them to verify um that what they had shared on the call was in fact accurate um and so we feel very confident that we can put this forward with that um but we'll continue to ask questions
068and make sure that we are um doing things the way that we should thank you I appreciate that um questions gr and then go so um you know for several years one of the things that that we usually hear around this time when we publish a calendar is when can we get a multi-year calendar and so with this consolidation how close do you think does the calendar committee feel they are closer now to getting a multi-year calendar than they have been in the past yeah sure um one of the challenges with doing a multi-year calendar in the past is oftentimes um there's just a lot of unknowns in terms of the way that some of the language was written in the master agreement about um you know plan days things like that um so that
069is a benefit of potentially if we're able to uh change some of that language as we've talked about with increasing plan time um so we're very confident that we can come up with a multi- calendar multi-year calendar approach moving forward have we gotten there yet this year no um but uh the calendar committee still wants to continue to meet this year and start to start to work on that if I may add member I um was waiting until after tonight uh to U lean more heavily on them so but I feel like this is a great time because there's such good momentum going and I'm so proud of the work so fantastic so through the negotiation so the community can understand through the negotiations process you might be negotiating things like a second plan time
070for elementary education you have to change the language that gets voted on it closer to like June 1 and so the reason why you wouldn't see a second year right now is because that that negotiated agreement language is getting cleaned up once that is cleaned up you could foresee a um in the future a two-year calendar potentially uh just as a as a board member I would ask potentially 20 25 26 what would it be actually it would be 26 27 27 28 yeah just be a twoyear rolling calendar so with the charge that we got from Dr Swift two weeks ago um there is I think I showed kind of a little bit of there is a lot of language that will have to be reviewed through negotiations in that process um to the
071point where we're adding some negotiation meetings to look at all of that language um and start working on that so until until that process is finalized um and we able to tentatively agree on what that language is I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable with us starting that process but again that's that's something we're working on I think that we will get there within the next month or so okay um it's just that we just haven't had the time since okay and since there's so much language change it's actually quite ambitious it's possible that we could be back with a one-year calendar next that's a possibility just in terms of controlling expect I would say yes it's possible um but I also think that you know with the way that we ratify ultimately the negotiated agreement um
072it's not something that I foresee us necessarily having to wait if if okay that ultimately goes through and is ratified um we might start on what that is in the calendar committee this year um and then ultimately be ready to ratify something you know or to approve a calendar for uh 2627 sooner than what we typically have been thank you with that if that helps Ann um yeah sorry to kind of circle back but can I get some clarity on the inclement weather days so you said there's four built in and for every one that we would be attending we would get one from the state so in theory there are eight days built in sort of that's correct yes okay yes what happens if we have no snow days next year yeah so the
073way the inclement weather days work is you have to attend in order to use any of them so we would want to make sure that the days that we were um marking as inclement weather days were days we were for sure going to be in um but then if we don't use them um nothing we count those as instructional hours and we go on our merry way okay we don't get it cash them back in or anything yes be clear that there's no like the April day that we have this year does not exist next year right it's inward facing very good you had mentioned uh that you were were we were increasing instructional time could you explain how yeah so one of the things that we talked about at negotiations on Thursday was um
074part of this calendar is also um a recommendation to just extend student contact time five minutes um and that would allow us for that increased instructional time so as the negotiations team and the union come together to talk about language changes um that is something that was discussed Thursday and something they'll continue to work through um okay okay all right have my question okay um Ann took Carol's question well know I was just thinking about about my nephews who like were probably watching this like okay what that mean we mom um and I and one of the things I want to highlight that you said when you get that April 21st day that we now have to attend school that can be a little I imagine for someone in the district or for a kid
075a little heartbreaking to some extent that you lose that so to your point about the F every five weeks there's a break uh something that Educators can look toward or that students are going to have a type of break that might help offset that yeah so uh for instance in this year's uh calendar the and I forget what day in April it is but I think it's the third Friday um is a I think it's a work day for Elementary and Elementary only one of the things that we really try to do with aligning is that that day becomes something that all three levels and for if you include Early Childhood can can be able to take advantage of okay um which is not something that like for instance this year or even last year
076I think we were able to take advantage of okay questions um I would be interested as a board member in knowing how this calendar impacts the need for substitute teachers so just to kind of and I know that's something that HR watches um all the time but it would be interesting to know if it has a positive impact it sounds like it might so just to watch that data and compare would be uh welcomed I mean I would like to see that and then as a um I'm glad for parents that if a high school or middle school kid can be home to take care of an elementary kid that that's a available to them with this calendar which I think is huge so thank you for doing that okay does that mean the start
077times and end times are aligned or how does that work we're not there to that detail yet would like to be but we're not but the day with so with elementaries out of school uh High School is I think there's only one remaining that's different yes for conferences yeah High School requires a different amount of time for conferences so they are actually in session um two more days than Elementary because Elementary has that Thursday off each conference week for anyone who's had kids go through um uh Elementary typically has the Thursday off as a full day while middle and high school attend um that is still in this this calendar which equates to the difference in day that is the only day each semester that is different okay one in October one in February yes
078okay okay all right um so I think we've run through discussion I'm wondering if there's a motion I move the Board of Education to adopt the district community and staff calendar for the 2025 2026 school year I second kimbul yes buers yes kadue Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes the motion passes 70 Okay no Okay uh we need to take a a five minute break to get some things together here and then we'll come back so we'll recess from um and move on to public comment so we'll um reconvene at uh 7:38 e e e public comment and I'm going to ask my board colleague uh gr Gordon Ross to read the um public comment procedures the USD 497 Board of Education welcomes public comments and thanks you for taking
079time to talk to us about our policies and procedures we set aside this time during our Reg meetings to hear from the public patrons who wish to participate in public comment must fill out the public comment registration form so that District staff or the board can follow up with you as necessary this 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 KNN and GAE 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 and or to protect the privacy of individual staff or
080students if you need assistance in sharing a complaint or concern with District staff please let the board Clerk or other District staff know topics discussed in public comment shall be gered to the business of the board furthermore complaints must comply with standards laid out in board policy GAE and board policy J GCA comments or acts that are threatening to staff the board or others in attendance including the use of language or behavior that it dis eruptive 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 P public will refrain from using foul or obscene language the district assumes no responsibility and reliability for the information shared during public comment the views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do
081not necessarily reflect the views of the Lawrence Public Schools the board president a presiding officer will invite comments on topics not included on the meeting agenda at the beginning or end of each meeting comments related to agenda items are welcomed after the board has had the opportunity to discuss the topic please limit your limit your comments to 3 minutes patrons who are unable to comply with the above procedures May email their comments or viewpoints to the board at Schoolboard usd497.org okay so we will uh invite uh Justin are you online Justin he has shared that he's here to discuss things that happened at the previous board meeting yeah I'm here can you hear me yes all right when I signed up to speak here I got a email back with the uh meeting rules and
082in it it said that uh be civil while speaking and listening so I got a question for you what about when raggedy and Costello called me crazy Justin spce uh before I started speak in a couple meetings ago is that civil or is that unil would you consider that to be a A disruption as well because I mean think about it she she wasn't allowed to be speaking at that time it was getting ready for general public comment I was getting ready to speak and had I been sitting in the audience and called out and called one of you guys crazy or any other name uh that would have been some some sort of a violation on your on on your rules I would say but for you guys it's It's Perfectly Normal and perfectly
083fine to do that haven't even apologized for it as as well either and so uh what do you think there ugly Kelly Jones do you think that's a violation of being civil what about you nasty Shannon Kimbell you think that that violation how about you cowardly Gordon Ross some sort of violation well you know what they say they raggedy an Costello the thing about smart is that they look like crazy stupid he's had plenty of warnings no no so have a good evening okay uh Michael hello hello Michael yeah I find it interesting that you're still cutting off people for words they say and you know that was a quote from Albert Einstein I've noticed in the last couple meetings you've got a lot of inconsistencies happening some people can say certain things and still
084come to the meetings and some people can't and some people can say things if it's a quote some can't it's it's pretty interesting the way all this is working out I do want to touch on one thing before we get too far because that educational thing that you guys talked about where you're adjusting for your snow days you know I'm sure the parents appreciate you taking care of the kids for a few extra hours over the course of the school year but how much educational time do you think is happening in the last 15 minutes or the last 30 minutes of the day that's just been arbitrarily added to a few days at the end of the year um I can tell you as a former student though it's been a while that that little
085time at the end of the school day is nothing and it's there's no educational value to it so it's another example of how you guys are just checking boxes you're not actually looking after the kids interest and the kids educational interest in the ways that you censor people you're not educating the children about the way this country country was founded and the way this country's operated for what 250 years and Kelly Jones has taken it upon herself to just change what our rights are and to decide what our rights are that quote that Justin was saying was by Albert Einstein and quoting Albert Einstein he did say the thing about smart this is your warning Kelly Kelly I'm doing nothing but quoting that's your warning so keep on keeping on how are you giving me
086a warning for quoting somebody and now that you've got me online you're just going to shut me down when I finish the quote aren't you is that right Kelly you know one of the commenters in a video that I put up said you needed to get a new floby because it ain't working for you your hair do need some work I'm going to finish the quote Kelly because you're not going to silence me that's what your whole goal has been as Albert Einstein said the thing about smart is they look like crazy to stupid okay all right uh Carrie Carrie is joining us from outside of Lawrence all right good evening as you know my name is Carrie I am that from some other town this is your warning I started coming to these meetings
087because of the hypocrisy in your shitty profanity okay that's it you need to now leave the if you are not going to be cooperating we will ask that you be removed from the building okay so if you continue to go on in this manner we will have to have to ask you to leave do okay we are ready we're requesting it's good okay thank you you're done thank you yeah do you want a duration or just okay thank you sir thank you yes keep going you can do it okay um I would like to ask uh Lori Greenfield if you're here um to join us welcome hi Lori Greenfield she her pronouns uh educator from Prairie Park Elementary but I'm also a Community member um and in the past several weeks I have been uh
088doing a lot of advocacy work at the capital um it is important for us to um get our schools fully funded also our sped Department fully funded um there are attacks across our uh school um um Public Schools um we witness it every day in a variety of forms so I would like to urge the public and you all to join us on March uh 17th for a rally at the um inpa um this is called lucky to have Kansas Public Schools okay um I am lucky to be a product of Kansas Public Schools I am lucky to have my kids be a product of Kansas Public Schools and I hope that in the future my new grandson will have be lucky to um be a product of Lawrence Public Schools so um I encourage
089the public uh to join us at noon on March 17th uh that is next Monday spring break uh to uh be lucky with us that uh we can be a part of Lawrence Public Schools uh and be fully funded thank you thank you congratulations on the new baby okay Cynthia Courtney welcome I'm glad you're here okay hello my name is Cynthia Courtney and I'm a veterinarian parent of two Prairie Park students and a close family friend of an incredibly Brave student who I'm proud reported their assault and has helped protect other students thank you to all of you who have spoken with us over the past week we want to make some concrete requests on behalf of victims and Community parents 3 minutes is not enough so more has been provided by email school and
090District officials have told us three things over and over again first we've heard trust us we want to we're glad the district has its own child mental health and sexual violence experts but please know that right now it feels impossible to know who to trust we call on the district to hire an external expert crisis team such as the one at rain to avoid conflicts of interest conduct a thorough audit and assessment of the systems that allowed this to occur better advise The District in communicating and rebuilding trust with the community allowing staff to dedicate more time to their own healing and supporting students second we heard we can't talk about that yes the Integrity of the investigation must be preserved and laws followed but there's 's also room for expressing empathy and commenting on
091publicly available information please meet or adjust promises about how the district will communicate updates in the investigation and systemic policy changes facilitate further empathic communication between Prairie Park families and our school leadership and encourage a community healing process third we heard everyone needs something different during this time and of course they do but there are also many needs parents have in common right now of course you must prioritize victims and our community will be better prepared to support them if we have resources for our own secondary trauma many parents are asking how do I talk to my children not just about prevention or whether their students have been harmed as is indicated in the Children's Advocacy Center handout Dr Swift referred to but also about what is happening in the news and how we talk
092to them about one of their nice seeming teachers no longer being at the school any longer we're also asking what signs should we look for that our child might need additional support even if they were not directly affected the list of suggested resources um was overwhelming not just in amount but especially with its implication that parents need to deeply understand the topic and Child Development before bringing this up the included handout also included an advertisement which was in bad taste again we make these three requests an external audit ending secrecy in silence and better parent support we look forward to your response and thank thank you for your time thank you I Courtney before you leave I understand that you have a full do you have a um that you might have additional comments to
093email to us is that correct or not yes those were included in a document that I emailed along with public comment uh earlier today okay and those went out to the full board is that correct and we have't oh we Haven them printed out okay thank you very much I just want to double check that I appreciate your coming okay um we're now moving on to item 8.1 and then um for those that have come to in in support I just want to explain that next on the agenda is an executive session so we'll move to Executive session and then after that we will um we will uh come back to adjourn so we we will be around for a moment if there's anyone that needed to speak to us individually we will be here
094okay so we're going to go to motion for an executive session I mooved the Board of Education recess to Executive session to discuss matters which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship under coma with Dr Janice Swift superintendent Dr Larry ingberg Deputy superintendent chrisan Ryan assistant superintendent human resources and employee relations and Brad frinkle diey District Council invited to be present and with the board to return to open session in this room at 810 yes yes on second with no action to follow F get it out of I know buyers yes K do Blackwood K do Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes Kimble yes the motion passes e e e do our due diligence okay we've returned from executive session with no action to follow um Dr Swift
095are there announcements I believe we're uh good thank you Madame President so is there a motion to adjourn I motion we adjourn second all those in favor hi I anyone opposed thank you have a good evening