Lawrence Public Schools Special Board of Education Meeting | February 24, 2025

001e e e I'm going to call the order the February 24th 2025 board meeting is there an approval of the agenda I move the Board of Education to approve the agenda for its February 24th 2025 meeting I second Jones yes Kimble yes buers yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes the motion passes 70 okay we're going to quickly uh motion for a executive session I move the Board of Education recess to Executive session for the purposes of discussing Personnel matters pursuant to the non-elected Personnel exception under coma with the board to return to open session in this room at uh 611 p.m with no action to follow I second yes buers yes kadu Blackwood yes Costello Franklin Gordon Ross Jones yes the motion passes e e e we are back from

002executive session with no action to follow so we'll move on to the report of the superintendent of schools Dr Swift just one second a little extra excitement with my laptop here so very good well good evening members of the board and those who've joined us in person and those who are joining us remote we're really excited to be wrapping up February I'm not sure where uh the early part of 2025 went uh but here we are uh preparing for March this week I just want to thank our students and teachers and school teams our parents and families and community members for all the work that they've done to support us throughout this year and and especially uh as we've turned over to 20 uh 25 um as we begin the superintendent report this evening we'll

003be sharing an official statement uh shortly um Madame President and I along with members of the board are are working on this but I just wanted thought it was a great day to reiterate our core value in the Lawrence Public Schools of welcoming everyone all are welcome in our schools especially we are reaching out to those who may be experiencing concerns during this time in light of ongoing State and National statements these are certainly challenging times and we recognize that recent developments may have increased the level of concern for our students for our staff for our families so I find that times like this are just the right time to double down on our core values to remind ourselves of what we believe across this district and that is that we want to assure and

004reassure everyone that in the Lawrence Public Schools our practice will continue to be support Embrace and celebration of all and Lawrence we've long LED that that effort to ensure that we see diversity as a strength it Bears out in our daily practice in our commitment in policy it is not just what we do it's who we are and I'm just proud to be able to share that with confidence this evening that if there are folks who are out there and are concerned about what they're hearing in the Lawrence Public Schools we will respect and value each student staff and family member for exactly who they are and the gifts and uniqueness they bring to our classrooms every day so things out there may get more confusing and things here in our Public Schools will gain

005deeper levels of clarity we celebrate and welcome all so with that let's celebrate some students this evening had the great opportunity last week to to be out with Zanna Kennedy Lawrence High Senior and she is the Kansas student journalist of the year just an amazing young woman she is the third LHS student of Barbara thand to earn this Statewide recognition in four yes three out of four years Zanna earned 12250 uh dollar with this award and she will now submit her paper work to move forward nationally to be considered for additional scholarship funds uh congratulations also to our girls a wrestling team uh we have nine state qualifiers they are all listed here um and six are from Lawrence High School and three are from free state we wish them all the best of luck

006at State uh to these team members and their coaches here are Free State High School student musicians they were honored to participate with the University of Kansas bands in the 23rd annual Prairie winds festival at the lead Center Eric Bradshaw is their proud band director Lawrence High School uh Orchestra members under the direction of Mariah Barnett performed Valentine's Day serenades last Friday or Friday a week ago um across the district and throughout the city we really loved having a group of these young people in the afternoon here at our location they played some classical and pop selections while bringing joy and cheer to our staff um Mariah shared with me that various performing groups of that Orchestra were out all day and they and they achieved more than 50 separate performances on that one day

007and they divided up into smaller groups to achieve that goal so congrats and what a gift to us here at the ESC uh we wanted to just give an update um oops we have to do model Nations forgive me these Lawrence High students earn verbal commendations for their presentations at the model United Nations conference at the University of Chicago students learned about diplomacy and international relations and enjoyed some of the sites of the windy city um just a quick update as we wrap up on our community outreach efforts this includes our digital newsletter and podcast as you can see we're holding strong in February at almost 21,000 views and they are averaging about a a read time of about about 5 minutes uh which is really better than um than what I've often seen in

008school district data our next podcast I'm so excited for you to hear about it and to get to hear it uh it features Boys and Girls Club Youth Of The Year Al Arabella Gip um and then the other half of it is Junior Youth Of The Year Aden Kong Arabella is a Lawrence High Senior and Aiden is a fifth grade Sunflower Elementary student and what a great Delight uh Andrew bevon and I have been out on location and recording that podcast with them uh one of the most important things we do every day as you know members is to add uh talent to our team I have not put this on the slideshow because we won't speak ahead of the board other than to say uh you have two writeups at your place I believe

009yes and uh they are introducing Tina Mitchell and Sarah Murray both very deserving uh individuals who will be announced uh later this evening uh for positions Miss Tina Mitchell is director of equity and family engagement and Sarah Murray as the incoming principal of Quail Run I want to give a special uh thanks to all all of the community members students staff members who participated uh in the selection processes I want to thank the candidates we did uh performance rounds at every uh level of the interviews and a special shout out to our human resources team who guided everyone through these processes to the outcome uh members that you will be uh I thank you for considering uh the selections this evening and so uh it is my great honor to serve as interim superintendent and

010it's such a delight to share the report with you this evening thank you thank you Dr Swift we're going to move on to the report of the um Board of Education president uh my report this evening is short because most of what I have brought to share will come later in the agenda uh but I do want to extend congrat ulations or a preemptive congratulations to um Miss Mitchell and Miss Murray who I'm really excited to um see join the uh or to move into these positions within uh USC 497 so congratulations to them um and then additionally I want to recognize as many of us did I attended uh West Middle Schools production of Beetle Juice and that was a good time um they were very talented they did an excellent job I saw

011um the cast on Friday as I understand it they run this is this is a piece of information that I missed uh they run multiple crew multiple Crews and multiple students cast um that is a as as a former um theater major that I don't publicly mention that very often um that is a a serious Endeavor so congratulations to the director the um students and the staff that helps support them it was so much fun so I really appreciated the opportunity to attend um we are going to move on uh again I have other announcements but I'll save them um for later in the agenda um we'll move on to public education legislative and State Board of Education updates and I'm going to start with my uh colleague Shannon kimle thank you um first of

012all I want to wish everyone happy Public Schools week um it is public schools week this week and I am so proud to uh be a public school supporter I'm so proud I put a sticker on my coffee mug everywhere I go um okay I wanted to share with the board um and our community updates on the State Board of Education meeting that took place earlier uh this month and then also some legislative updates it's been a very very active couple of weeks over Ina um first of all State Board of Education met the week of February 10th they only had a one-day meeting because of the the inclement weather that week um at that meeting they approved an updated atrisk programs list um and they took the first step in removing from the updated

013graduation requirements the requirement that graduating students um complete the FAFSA uh that was the subject of some controversy uh they had a public hearing on revoking that regulation and are expected to do so at their March meeting um their next their next set of meetings is March 11th and 12th in case you wanted to follow along with that um moving over across the street to the state house and what's been going on um uh three three big things to report on the budget uh bad policy bills and the education funding task force that is now underwear so first of all the budget um that this this past week is what um Capital insiders call turnaround it's where everything that happens in house or the Senate has to be done so that they can send it

014all over to the other house to the other chamber um for the other side to do their work before they send things off to the governor um so they had to complete a debate on the floor and pass out all the bills that they wanted to send over to the other chamber the budget was one of those bills um it's House Bill HB 20007 so the the budget process this year as I've mentioned previously looks very very different than it has in past years the education education funding is part of the regular budget bill and the unlike most years where they're working on it simultaneously in the house and the Senate they have started all the work in the house completed their budget and now are sending it over to the senate for the second

015half of the session um the bad news is that um despite a unanimous recommendation from the house K12 education budget committee to put in 30 million of new special education funding next year um that uh there was an attempt to zero that out in the house of Appropriations Committee that was led by representative Christy Williams of Augusta um thankfully they didn't zero it out they settled on $10 million and that's what ended up in the bill and that's what passed out of the house um as we all know that that is not nearly enough to continue closing the special education underfunding Gap that exists um that Gap will widen again next year if the Senate does not um uh come back with a number higher than $10 million um to to increase that um it

016is also substantially less than what was requested by both the Kansas Department of Education and the governor's proposed budget they recommended somewhere between 72 and 84 million in new money and that would have paid for year two of what is like a three to four year plan to fully fund special education in Kansas instead we ended up with $10 million that's disappointing um I will say that there were some very uh heartfelt and impassion pleas from the floor that were bipartisan um to consider doing something different but in the end that's not how it turned out um We are continuing to have conversations about vouchers over in Topeka uh the Senate passed out Senate Bill 87 this past Wednesday um it is a voucher bill in the form of a tax credit to people who

017donate to scholarship granting organizations that then give scholarships to private schools um that bill has probably closer to a $15 million a year price tag the big Bill that we were all um watching Senate Bill 75 that's the one that would have been $125 million in the first year um it did not make it onto the floor but was what everybody calls blessed it was sent to an exempt committee so it's not dead it didn't die it can sit there all through the rest of this year and into next legislative session because we work on a two-year schedule um so just continue to stay engaged with your sources of information that that you're following about advocating for public dollars for public schools um there was also uh a bill Senate Bill 47 um very bad

018policy has to do with micromanagement ing how Boards of Education uh run their meetings uh potentially putting board members in danger of cyber security and or physical danger with some of the things that uh it requires um the bad news it passed out of the Senate the good news that only passed out by one vote um that is pretty far from a veto proof majority so um I don't anticipate that that will look like it did coming out of the Senate if it makes it any further through the process but it's definitely one I would encourage my fellow board members to watch and Advocate around as it makes its way to the house um and then finally today was the second meeting of the education funding task force so just as a reminder um our

019school Finance formula sunsets in 2020 in July of 2027 so that means the legislature has to pass a new F School Finance formula in the um no later than the end of the 2027 legislative session uh which means that they have to have a new formula ready to propose sometime in 2026 um task force is going to be meeting throughout that time today was their second meeting uh their next meeting will be the first sometime in the first week in April they haven't set a date for that yet today was all about informational um uh presentations to help task force members understand the details of how our funding formula uses waiting to allocate dollars to school districts and it was very informational if you want a deep dive on how waiting work in our school

020fin formula go watch the Youtube video the meeting was about 3 hours long so it's a lot but um if you're really interested um of note for our district in all of the information that was presented there was a lot of information District by district and I thought it was very interesting just for all of us to know um you know we talk a lot about transportation and how in Kansas uh the state only pays for transportation for students that live more than 2 and a half miles from their assigned Attendance Center um and that how in Lawrence it seems like we bust a very small number of our students in comparison to the size of our district that actually is very true when you look at the Statewide data on the transportation waiting we

021are 255th out of two or 55th or 56th out of 286 districts in the number of students in our district who qualify for transportation um that puts us in about the bottom 10 to 12% of districts Statewide um which means that on average our students most of our students live less than 2 and a half miles from their assigned Attendance Center um but we're not getting we don't transport proportionally many students in comparison um in terms of the other waiting that were talked about we're we're in the top 20% or so of districts in terms of the number of bilingual students that we're serving um through uh through the formula and we're kind of in the middle when you look at our district compared to other districts around things like um CTE programs and atrisk

022um students students who qualify for atrisk funding which is different from the students who actually receive the services um finally this upcoming week the Senate is going to be Begin work on the budget in fact there's a briefing tomorrow and Senate Ways and Means on what the house did with the budget um it's really important to be in contact with Senators on that committee or really any Senator um any of our Senators um they need to hear from public school supporters regarding how important it is that they increase the special education funding um there is money there to do it it's just a matter of setting the right priorities so that's what I wanted to share thank you for your time are there other legislative updates from other folks okay I will share that um

023in in our legislative priorities we affirmed our um support for our uh trans uh students and so this is a week um as um Dr Swift was mentioning welcoming all students uh bills uh SB 63 and sb76 which uh undercut the care and instructional expertise of school counselors nurses teachers and and parents is uh clearly harmful to students so we will be um watching the implications for that and certainly as a board have affirmed that we oppose um both bills so I wanted to mention that as well um okay so I uh will move on now to um item 1.7 which is board committee reports before we do it has come to my attention that the KU multimedia reporting class is joining us this evening okay shout out to you all thanks for coming um

024and uh if you have any questions for us afterwards do you have to stay for the whole meeting no how long do you have to stay half an hour you know okay it's 6:33 this meeting started at 6 o'clock y'all all right well stay it's going to be riveting this next part um we're glad you're here all right so we're going to move on to the board committee reports uh there was a lot of snow so I think this is going to be very brief the policy committee was impacted by the snow fac facilities met so I'll let you go first so um facilities met uh just some information um from that meeting um and we didn't meet in January so just um brief information so in December the district uh held 91 events across

025our campuses in January we we held 1,33 and then um couple other things uh we have a couple open positions over at fno um uh HVAC uh plumber preventative maintenance maintenance maintenance technician preventive technician HVAC technician and a custodial position we had a a conversation about the fact that Casey ride would like to restore the uh bus stop over at Lawrence College and Career Center to Johnson County so we're working through options there and then we got some project updates on the HVAC up upgrades which I'll talk about here in a minute cuz it's on consent and then some energy incentives and the bakery project over at Pinkney and the studio apartments both of which are proceeding along very nicely and then um we're going to have some additional fno office space some 2025 roof

026repair and replacement work at ESC schwagler woodlon New York Hillcrest Pinkney and LHS and then some building exterior work at Billy Mills Kennedy Liberty Memorial and New York and then we have some asphalt and concrete maintenance work in various spots around the the district um had an update from Finance on some budget requests and various reports and then we got an update on the progress report on Hall Pass and CICS and how that's working and then um we talked about Vehicles the state of the vehicle Fleet and uh how we're going about do doing um purchasing and so uh as a result of that meeting on consent tonight uh back in July we had uh allocated roughly $350,000 for vehicles and then on tonight on consent tonight we have an additional 368,000 for seven vehicles

027um replace aging vehicles in the fleet across the district both for safety and efficiency we have a purchase and installation of additional playground equipment at sunflower for $52,000 we have an item on there for MacBooks which is primarily for uh replacements for staff but also for specific uh student use devices at our high school and then finally HVAC repairs at uh ESC fno Liberty Memorial and Sunset Hill for a total bid cost of $387,000 thank you uh did other committees meet any updates and no um so uh on the 11th I attended the schools Foundation program committee where we reviewed grants and then awarded um grants to our teachers and some really awesome interesting um Grant proposals um and then on the 11th I attended the sunflower site Council um Mrs Green discussed the excitement

028around being an avid showcase school um she really hyped it up I was excited and then the weather didn't cooperate so that didn't happen but it was really they looked at it as a celebration of the hard work they've been doing um implementing Avid in the school um and she talked a little bit about State assessments and some changes to accommodations for students based on New State guidelines um and then she also talked about the new system they have to track attendance which she loves um you can see patterns for days and weeks uh for days of the week by month you can see um you can look at individual students and so um she was asking for help brainstorming ideas to help communicate with parents of students who are close to or have passed

029that 10day threshold who then get the letter um so that was really interesting um and then uh supposed to have uh Southwest Middle School site Council but that was postponed um along with Beek um and the schools Foundation meeting um but we did have the schools Foundation 40th celebration planning meeting on the 19th and so we just kept kind of worked to finalize some of the details with that and then just to note that um this coming Wednesday so in two days will be the final boundary committee meeting for the year okay thank you um I don't I didn't see any other do you have a I don't have a committee meeting report per se but I just wanted to thank Dr Swift and the U fno team for taking care of our students especially

030during the this um this past week um it took several days for my my Lane to be cleared I live just south of town in the rural part of Douglas County so I just wanted to thank you for keeping our children and families safe it was um just brutally cold so thank you and actually that's a good segue because it laads us into board commentary so do you have you have additional things you want to add no I just wanted to say thank you as my word colleague here Shannon said many of our children or students live just under the threshold so a lot of them have to are they have to walk to school and that is a a very long walk for me of our children especially some of the ones that live

031out on past 31st in Michigan that is quite ATT track to school thank you uh others board commentary yeah go ahead um just very brief uh I was the excited and happy to be the parent helper to throw the Friendship party at in Miss Frisco's fourth grade class where we played Minute to Win It games and enjoyed snacks um and I just love getting to go in there cuz the kids are always so hyped and so excited um and it's just so much fun um I'm sure that it's not always like that but I love those days when I get to be in there um that's really it right now other yeah and I want to you had ear mentioned uh Beetle juu uh I attended on Saturday at 1 so a totally different CL

032C yep but it was a excellent presentation they did a wonderful job and I just wanted to mention how how nice of a job they actually did yeah I left thinking the musical was way better than the movie that's what I I love the movie too yeah I went on Thursday um and one of the things that was mentioned on Thursday night was that because of all the snow days the two different the two casts only had one dress rehearsal each oh so on Thursday night was after one dress rehearsal and Friday night was only after one dress rehearsal for the full awesome okay I'm impressed yeah it was it was phenomenal it it was good okay I just have to pile on because I actually have a student that participated in in that so

033I attended three of four performances um and just uh huge compliments Kelly's right they run two full um separate casts to do their performance and and it is a huge undertaking um so many kudos to Mr Williams Mr rashar Mr vits and Mrs Misha learner um at West Middle School um they are providing some really outstanding opportunities and experiences for our students and they should be very very proud of those kids this week um other board commentary yolinda um it seems like I missed um Beetle Juice um email but by the time I got the email because of the snow days I was a designated babysitter so um I enjoyed my grandchildren and step-grandchildren and nieces and nephews at my house for those three days so thank you Dr s we I got more artwork

034on my walls and refrigerator than we got in here um but um we also got a chance to attend the um black lives matter uh event at courtly so that was awesome to see I definitely enjoy their capes uh that they made um I wanted to try to see if I can find some of the artists that made some of their capes especially the indigenous capes that I seen were completely amazing and then the children walked around the school and they did their little Chant by the time they came downstairs they created their own little chant that they were doing around the schools but that was uh that was amazing to attend that and so if we get a chance next year you guys board members you ought to definitely attend the the event that

035they have at the school all right um um are we good everybody ready okay we're gonna move on to approval of the consent AG agenda item I move the Board of Education approve the items listed on the consent agenda I second buyers yes could Blackwood yes Costello yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones Kimble the motion passes 70 thank you okay so this is my favorite part of the meeting meeting this evening um we're going to move on to item 4.1 and I would ask if there are committee members here no pressure Josh I saw Julie do you want to join us she's like Kelly no but yes to the and christen's here um and uh is Ron here maybe not I don't think so Ron is not here that's fine um if you all

036want to join that would be great um and I won't make you Julie say any any anything um so I uh wanted to take this uh time to share from the committee our recommendation uh so the usd497 superintendent search committee in collaboration with the Kansas Association of school boards has carefully considered our District's leadership needs and after reviewing the applicants of candidates from across the region and Country and data from extensive Community engagement activities and surveys it became evident that interim superintendent Dr Swift is the most qualified candidate uh she is uh possesses the vision experience and dedication necessary to continue advancing the district's goals the committee sees no need to further extend the search process at additional expense to the district and community and it is my great um honor and with absolute excitement

037that I get to say that our recommendation is that you become the next superintendent of schools and just I was wondering of committee members wouldn't mind just joining in a bit and that includes um Bob gr and I and we're missing Emerson and Ron but yeah if you want to okay no I just wanted to thank everyone involved for the very thoughtful process that has really started since um early fall and the collaboration with our certified and classified staff um obviously the immediate connection to our school community the first day you arrived was noticed and the impact in such a short time has been um felt across um this District so thank you um I would just add that um Lea was very appreciative of being a part of this process um and we're very

038excited to to continue and to some of the things that we have coming up so and um Julie I don't do you want to jump in I know you did I know you enough to know that you don't want to so I want to say something on your over the summer when we had the interim superintendent search Julie took phone calls for me on the weekend on a Sunday in the evening at night um and helped us with the interview process and with coordinating and really getting to understand uh with our both our certified and classified staff's perspective on on in bringing you uh to Lawrence and I'm grateful for that and and just the continued collaboration we have with the Lea to make this work um so I'm going to pass it off to

039my board colleagues here in a moment but I did want to just share a little bit about your history which we have sent out in the um press relief but since the KU multimedia reporting class is here is maybe doesn't know all the great things about Dr Swift I will tell you that um she's a veteran educator uh she served as an educational leader and Leadership consultant supporting prek through 12 education uh leaders leadership teams and board trustees and prior to serving as the interim superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools she served as the an Harbor Public Schools as superintendent for over a decade in Colorado Springs School District 11 she served as assistant superintendent executive director principal assistant principal teacher coach and secondary English teacher for 15 years she also taught secondary English and Spanish

040during her 10 years in Hurst Ulus is that right Bedford school district in Texas Dr Swift earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and Arlington her Ms at the University of Colorado and a doctorate in educational leadership from the is morgage is that right College of Education at the University of Denver um her expertise and knowledge really shows through the board uh recognize that you are the reason why I I think you connect with teachers I just broke it though don't forgive me um this is our gift to you they got a little ripped up there Dr um so we recognize that you are an English teacher at your heart and I think I can see that because um I when I was at Beetle Juice which we we all probably are going

041to talk about the next time we come to um uh the teachers were very proud to tell me that Quail Run was the first school that you visited and um some enthusiasm that that you were here and and that they were going to get to be able to work with you um but your ability to connect with teachers I think is because of your extensive uh work in the classroom but also your dedication as an administrator to making sure that their needs are are met so in um yes we would like you to look at it we have uh gone to our I don't know what happens at Ann Arbor I understand you have some book history up there as well um but we have the best uh local book shop in Lawrence Kansas so

042we wanted you to know um one of the books that we've given you the discovery of America Mr kadu who is here with me or with us this evening um uh shared this book with board members um and we wanted to make sure that you saw it as well to uh learn indigenous history and we recognize um HS have kind of rough week right now but is an important part of our community uh liberating Lawrence uh gay active in the 1970s at the University of Kansas um is a u a real hot book right now in Lawrence and we wanted you to to know a little bit about our history in Lawrence um we see oursel as a progressive Community but we know we have still a lot of work to do so we wanted

043you to understand the roots um as we face what I think is uh a moment of um crisis for educational uh po policy and and we we believe strongly in Our Roots to do good Equity work and then the final thing in there um this oh yeah this is this is a local author so this is a ladybird collected and that is um the first restaurant that you and I went to um and Shannon you were with me right when we went to ladyb but that actually is a lovely book about lorenzian and the experience of owning um a small restaurant here in Lawrence Kansas so welcome to Kansas welcome to Lawrence um and we're so proud to have you uh my board colleagues you want to jump in and provide some support comments oh

044sure I can um Dr Swift Welcome uh this is um uh I always get weird especially when my Dad's here in the audience but my family chose to move to Lawrence in 1978 because of the the excellent school systems and my dad is here in the audience to um support that he's um my he's one of my biggest supporters and one of your biggest supporters but I I my decision was overwhelming because I you exemplify the importance of role models for for our children in this great Community especially for our our females and I want our children to be able to see themselves in leadership as they see you I mean they can see that you um and I I I I see I'm falling all over my words but for us we and Lawrence

045we have the unique opportunity to demonstrate that Lawrence is a place of opportunity to overcome broken rungs and making glass SE break making glass ceilings irrelevant so thank you thank you um wait isanda okay sorry I didn't see her going whatever anyway um my decision to support Dr Swift um came from my mom you made a amazing impression on her uh and one thing she said um after meeting you was I sure hope she stays and so um when you accepted I called her that night and said Mom she's staying and she cried you know so that was one of the reasons why I supported you thank you thank you um I just goes back to actually the interview for um the interim position and I was just so blown away by how much research

046and how much you already knew about the town and the district like you weren't coming in blind You' been watching board meetings you'd been paying attention and I just thought that was so amazing and you know you came in and you've hit the ground running and you've been making all these kind of amazing positive changes and impacts to our district and I'm just so excited to continue that work with you and I'm so glad that you said yes thank you um Dr Swift I just um I'm so thrilled that you agreed to take us on um and we are we are so thrilled to have you I um having watched your work over these last several months I know that you um you have your eyes on all the right things when it comes to

047academics and supporting our students and supporting our teachers um but you do you lead with empathy and firmness um and you you have you're just the whole package and I'm just so excited to see where we go from here so thank you thank you okay for me um I've been a big supporter for quite a while most of the board know know that um for me it's about uh how you treat people in general um what I loved about even your initial resume was the discussion of the importance of family and children and that connection uh I think what you bring to the district is that connection as well and for an old social worker my thing is really what we do for our families and children um and I think uh during the last

048seven months you have demonstrated that you have passion and desire to help them achieve their best and for me that is the utmost important and you keep us moving which is always great what I have been most impressed with over the last 7 months um one when we when we initially hired you as an interim superintendent we we made it very clear that we didn't want just a warm body in the chair and you took that very seriously and what I've been most impressed with in the last seven months is you have been more than willing to tell us where we are doing really well where we're doing okay and where we need to make significant changes and you don't just tell us behind closed doors you've been very open and honest about what needs

049to be done and how we need to do it and taking input from anyone who's willing to talk to you and I've I've been very very impressed with your ability to synthesize the input from all stakeholders and bring back to us um all all of that feedback and and be able to present both the good and the bad and and just say here's where we are and here's where we're going to go and start to work on how we're going to get there and not try and sugarcoat it and just say this is this is this is who we are and this is where I want this is where I want to take us and we're all seven of us are going to be right there beside you as we move forward you thank you

050do I get to say yeah please thank you all I'm uh honored and deeply grateful for the opportunity um I'm really grateful for the input and feedback of everyone uh around us because the only way we know the way is by having those conversations and you've all been a part of that I'm really grateful to the community for coming out and engaging considering uh where all of public education has been I wouldn't have faulted anyone for just taking a time out and not coming and yet folks came and because of that I I feel like we have a clear and Collective Direction um all of the data resonated and we're ready to get to work and move forward I appreciate your kind words and I'll hold them close for another day when maybe things are

051hard and it's not so much fun um but we're in it for uh for the long run we're in it for kids and to support our staff and to really engage and work with alongside our community that's what it's about isn't it so thank you from my heart thank you so much okay um my gratitude to you all thank you very much to the committee and the work that you did and now we need a motion maybe I can I ask Bob you all want to make it Kelly I think it's actually Bob Mr I mov the Board of Education approve the hiring of Dr Janice Kerr Swift as superintendent of schools for the period of July 1 2025 through June 30th 2028 pending the successful negotiation of a contract I further moved that the

052board leadership is authorized to enter into negotiations with Dr Swift and finalize the terms of her employment contract subject to final approval by the full board this is Carol I second kadu Blackwood yes Costello 100% yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones absolutely yes yes buyers yes the motion passes 70 thank you [Music] thank to do so let's it's a long meeting certainly longer than 30 minutes okay um we're going to uh now get ready to look at um student enrollment and class size very good so we'll move on to 6.1 um I do want to um invite I guess Dr Swift you're going to be leading this okay thank you um Madame President and members of the board and those who are joining us this evening uh we really uh have been talking uh

053with community members and with our Equity Advisory Group and with members of our team about really Shifting the way that we report um and I'm really excited that the annual enrollment and class size report will be the first example of really kind of a different way of looking at our data and really our goal in all of this there it is is really just to show the data we use the data as a mirror to take a look at our organization how we're doing um and that does form where we're going our next steps um director pul will be stepping in here in a moment but I just want to give the introduction which is um here are the facts and the facts are simply the facts and in Lawrence Public Schools I'm delighted to

054say we work with facts here and so uh 10,358 students that's the number of students who are enrolled in our schools preschool through 12th grade uh we also serve a number of other students through Community programming uh parents's teachers a variety of other uh programs but this is the number of students who are really gaining their education with us um by enrolling in one of our schools or our virtual school um we really as we go into this tonight really think of the data though to represent the stories of each individual student so as we get into this and director P gives us the student groups and all of the pieces and parts I just always try to keep in the front of our mind that these are the stories and the lives of children

055uh that we're talking about and we look at the data to help us get an idea a better insight into that and to inform our work this is a slide that has too much on it to really read but those are all all of our trend lines now let's take uh dig in and take a look at it so we know student enrollment over time has decreased uh that slide is not a surprise to our board members you've been uh present throughout this time it's been a very hard time uh starting uh in 2021 um and this trend line really mirrors our national picture uh and yet we'll show some ways that it's different I just want to point out two years the two hardest years of covid were at about a 3% decrease and

056then we see the next two years really coming down to about a 2% decrease each of those years and I'm glad to see that it appears that we're beginning to level out that is our hope and then of course to turn up the enrollment if that is possible we'll talk about some things that impact that but there really is a sign of stability uh in these numbers when we think about that trend of declining enrollment it is true across the country but just as a comparison you can see there the last year for which data is available with the national Center for Education statistics is the spring of 2023 three but you can see Kansas there at right at 1% decrease the US really leveling out only a 2% and then you remember from the

057slide before we're um above that rate so when there are differences we do pause and reflect on what what's going on there and what uh more can we learn um when we dive inside of this trend line over seven years and when folks ask why do we choose seven years it's really to get that one year before the start of covid so that 1819 it's amazing uh how long ago that was but yet how short time it sometimes feels like but that first year was our last year before the beginning of the impact of covid um the change in the third column to the right on your chart there is the difference from last year to this year I'm delighted really to see that that difference is uh minimizing now as we begin to stabilize

058High School very very stable and then obviously keeping our eye on that continued 2.7% drop at middle and then uh less so 1.7% drop at elementary and again there's some Trends uh the birth rate is one of those that contributes really to smaller uh Kinder classes arriving and larger senior uh 12th grade classes graduating so there is that Trend that's a big part of this uh but we're also observing a a highlight throughout this uh annual report is the growth in preschool I love adding grades uh to the work we do and we're working with three and foury olds um at two locations primarily at New York monu and at Kennedy preschool Center um that growth rate of about 6.2% is a tremendous opportunity first of all as a closer of disparities if we get

059students into that on ramp at three years of age four years of age they pick up language they pick up all manner of early literacy uh skills and it is good it's a rising tide so we're delighted to see that we're also delighted that engaging families at preschool helps us from the earliest years to really engage with the family and pull them in to the Lawrence Public Schools family also um and we'll be talking more as we get toward March about some additional preschool opportunities that we're really excited uh to bring forward um as we get into this next section we're going to look at student groups and how they may have changed or not changed over time it's really important again to reiterate we look at student groups to see what we might learn

060and what we might understand about our data and how it can inform our work I've seen at times in communities that a community narrative can be the experience of the community that either does or does not line up to facts so we look at this data so that we're looking in the mirror to see who are we really uh we don't look at student groups to think of any group as a monolith so on each of the groups we're trying to drill down a little bit to share with you a little more of the Nuance within that student group but we see every student uh and the Beautiful diversity that they bring to us we know we are stronger and we are deeply enriched by that University now um director pul has been chopping the

061wood and carrying the water along uh with Boon and with Miss jenet Craig hair and many members of our team uh and he's on point to walk us through this middle part tonight somehow I'm still the driver so any mistakes on that side will be purely mine Mr P uh good evening members of the board um I'm James pul the director of and assessment for the district I'm happy to be here with you tonight um as Dr Swift said I'm going to walk you through um some of the students that we get to serve here in Lawrence Public Schools so um this is an overview of the the three groups we're going to take a deeper dive into tonight um students that qualify uh for English as a second language students who are coming from

062economically disadvantaged households as well as students um identified with disabilities and so as we go in we're going to dive deeper into this slide because it's a lot of information as Dr Swift said um so first we're going to start off off um looking at English as a second language um so English as a second language the numbers you're looking at here are categorized as students receiving Services we know that there are more uh students that uh qualify as English as a second language but that 5.3% that you see for this school year is the percentage of students receiving services from our teachers um that means that about one in 20 students are coming from uh homes that have English as a second language and you can see that that number over a seven-year period

063has been pretty stable um it works out to be approximately 550 students um 552 um coming from 20 uh languages spoken um coming from countries all across the world especially being a University Town um we have a great um variety um our three most common languages that are spoken in Lawrence Public Schools are English Spanish and Vietnamese um so we know that these students are very capable multilangual langual Learners um and we're excited to celebrate them tonight um our next group that we're going to be looking at are students who are economically disadvantaged so our number this year is 41% of students coming from households that are economically disadvantaged as you look at this graph I think it's important to note that in the 2020 2021 school year as well as the 2122 school year

064um during the pandemic all students were receiving free meals so we got less return on our free and reduced lunch applications you'll see that jump in the 2022 2023 school year up 14.5% because that's when the applications had to start coming back in we saw an increase last year on this and we've seen it really even out so I think we feel pretty confident with this is a true reflection of the students that we serve and that is two and five students are coming from homes that are economically disadvantaged so is that number that two and five is that number based on students who receive free lunch is that is that how you define that it's the number of students who qualify for that so we have some students that we report to the state

065who are economically disadvantage that we don't receive funding for um the example would be Lawrence virtual school but that's still an accurate snapshot of the students that we're serving okay so so that would also include students who receive free lunch for non-economic reasons as well I will have to look into that I don't know the answer off the cuff okay it's it's just it's something I I bring up on occasion because like when I had a house fire in 2018 um my my family was displaced from one household to another in the middle of a school year and that was a qualifier for free lunch and that's under mcken vento I believe yes and so I I so it's it's just a question every once in a while that I yeah that I will just

066am am am curious because my family certainly does not qualify as economically disadvantaged but right we did qualify for free and reduced lunch for two years yeah I'm happy to look into that and get you what that number actually is um I do know that the majority of the students that qualify is 41% % are free U with a much smaller being on that reduced status so I'm going to make a not Mr pulk just I just want to confirm because that was my question the 41% is free and also the reduced lunch it's it's that entire category okay yep the way that we report it to the state is typically referred to as economically disadvantaged which is why we coin that term here okay thank you uh the last subgroup of students that we're

067looking at this evening are our students with disabilities um this does not include students that are only categorized as gifted if they were on an IEP gifted and speech they would fall into this category but only gifted is excluded you'll see that we're sitting at about 17.6% of students with IEPs or with disabilities um that number has been steadily increasing about 1 and a half% and then 1% this year um since the 2022 2023 school year um the next thing that we're going to look at is race and ethnicity um ethnicity is reported by parents at the time of enrollment it is not something that they do annually um I think that's important to note you'll notice that the two increases in the um race and ethnicity that we have over time is in multi-racial

068we've seen a significant increase from 11 and a. half% to about 15 a half% almost 16 and also uh Hispanic population you'll see that we've had a large increase in our Hispanic population as well and then um last thing and we're going to continue to highlight this is just our growing preschool enrollment we've seen um Early Childhood Kennedy up 43% of their enrollment since 2020 2021 school year and we also see a continued growing Trend at New York monu as they continue to expand their programming um so we're up to 220 students um enrolled in our prek programming across the district can I ask a question about the monor in New York so um are we seeing students from the preschool at monor staying at Monas if they live outside of the neighborhood catchment that's

069a great question that I think we're going to need to get some help on but I love the question thank you thank you very good we're going to make is it okay director Paul we're going to make a little transition to class size and I appreciate those of you who took took the time to take a look at this and give us feedback I think it's a lot easier to read and understand now um but if you can just uh picture that um those um that were coming from an aerial view looking at every Kinder classroom in the district every first grade classroom in the district all the way up to every 12th grade classroom in the district because it's our first uh time to really do this together we looked at core content classrooms

070so these don't uh these numbers don't include uh maybe a high impact special education setting uh they don't include a band classroom or a choir classroom these are just our core kind of regular Ed classrooms if if that sounds all right and director poke is ready to walk us through we'll get our eyeballs ready here we go you're going to see every level grouped together the first slide that we're going to show you is is kind of a heat map and it's categorized um by different colors so anything that is green is going to have 25 or less students yellow is going to be 27 and red is going to be 30 or more um each cell in this table represents a different classroom in our district so you can really see how many students

071are in the seats in every setting at every grade level um these are class counts and you're going to notice this trend as of February 5th this year so these are all classes that are going on right now the next slide is going to give you a summary of what the heat chart is showing you and what it is saying is that um we have uh in kindergarten for example our minimum our smallest class is 17 our largest kindergarten class across the district is 24 and our average is 18 so if you look at our primary grade levels Kinder first and second you're going to see that the average class size ranges from 18 to 23 and if you look at our intermediate Elementary classes which is grades three four and five those average class

072sizes sit between 22 and 23 students I was really proud uh when we got to the bottom of this data because as we look back at what the district has been through uh the challenges of the previous uh six to eight years um I just want to honor that you have held to class size for elementary Learners certainly we want to um as we're going at it this year my team and I want to get at some of those larger situations we know that students don't fall out in natural little groups of bundles of 25 uh we wish they did um but I I just want to honor members uh the cuts and the closures and the covid and all that we've been through this is uh a positive report does not mean that there

073aren't some challenges in there there certainly are and we're going to get at those but I am happy uh that director po can bring these numbers now we're going to take a look at middle one last addition Elementary I forgot but um 94% of our Elementary classes are 27 students or fewer okay so I have a um a quick question about elementary before I do I've already asked a question is there anyone else that has something before me okay so can you just talk a little bit about the spa and I know each class will be different depending on what school they're in depending on U what the resources that are available but if you could just speak broadly when you have a class that is large like a 24 um I see that that

074where we have marked the um grade you know the kindergarten classroom of 24 is green that's a lot of kindergarteners that's too many um and when you have spes where there are 30 um fourth graders that's a very large class for uh those Educators can you talk a little bit about ways that we mitigate that I'm sure it's imperfect I'm sure there's more work we have to do but what are some strategies and you might not be the right person to ask but I do happen to know that you're an elementary principal before this role so I'm wondering if you could just speak a little bit to what are some of the ways that we mitigate those High numbers when we see them perfect and I know also in addition addtion to our principles Miss

075Ryan Dr Ingle have been in integral in this work but that could look in a number of ways it could look like an additional certificated person falling into support with reading groups or with math groups um it could uh look like uh for example there were a few more of those orange and red squares except that in the fall as we work through the fall we added staff on some of those so when we're able to we want to add staff if we're not able to make maybe there isn't another room uh so we you know we have to then look at an overlay of support and I want to be very authentic uh there are teachers sitting out there tonight sometimes uh we aren't able to offer the support and we want to own

076that and acknowledge that what would you add uh former Elementary principal yeah we ran into this a little bit it it really is about um maximizing the resources available to you and prioritizing where to put them and so when you get um class sizes at a grade level or with a cohort that are larger it's who in our building can we tap into to help alleviate some of this so we look at some of those staff like um title and ESO and um isas as well as our learning coaches to see where we can provide some relief for those classroom teachers that do have larger class sizes because um they are stressed to the system but um I think we have some really skilled principles that have made some really great plans in those larger

077class sizes thank you I also want to share and I love that a member of the elt raised this as a great metaphor for us is that when it comes to class size it's also like windchill that we were experiencing last week that if there are say higher needs which is your point about addressing the needs uh because you could be that a smaller class size has greater needs that need help and so it might feel larger than it is the way that it felt 20 below on some mornings last week so uh we I know the principles are also looking at the density of need and the number of bodies and and really how those interplay so that's the snapshot of Elementary so with middle school you're going to see it broken into those

078core content areas so on the first slide you're going to see Ela and math again each one of those cells represents um a classroom in our middle schools you'll also notice that the key has shifted as we move to secondary our color coding changes just a bit we look at 27 and Below being that greenish Hue 28 being that yellow and then anything more than 30 we see as being that red um but we are sticking with core content areas here in the Middle School oops and so on this slide you can see science and social studies presented in a very similar way um and as you dig into that there is a summary slide at the end that kind of summarizes what we're seeing here similar to Elementary so our minimum at the middle

079school is 15 our maximum is 31 and you can see those average class sizes between those core content areas anywhere between 23 and 26 members I I just have to share coming in new to the system uh I'm not saying that uh classes of 30 and 31 are okay at middle school I had some of those in my time and trust me they are a challenge but especially the size of the classroom depending but this average is is something I'm really proud of and I don't believe there are a lot of districts that could say that yeah now now for high school I'm sorry sure I've always got something but back to the Middle School class size those class sizes are likely due to the fact that we put in the second plan again correct

080so when we when we made the decision to reinvest the um money back into the schedule last year that had the impact of lowering class sizes is that true no R it would actually be the opposite that it would incre would you talk about that a little bit she's the right person so the adding in the plan time increased the class size even though I can see we have good sizes there correct yes so it would have increased the class size I know with lure and certification um EV every principal is trying to be as creative as possible in in terms of maxing out to keep those class sizes lower um I think they did you know a really nice job overall okay thank you very much I appreciate that very good um when we

081move to talk about high school um I just want to note that these are required courses so they're still within the same core content areas but when you get into Ela you'll take English n you'll take English 10 and then you get Ela electives you can choose from so we stuck to the required courses for this one to give you a snapshot the only elective you'll see on here is that American literature 2 and it's the most commonly selected ected Ela um elective and so you're going to see uh uh what we see at the high school between Ela and math and our average class sizes here the key in high school the color coding Remains the Same between high school and middle school um on this Slide the one thing I definitely want to

082note um biology has 35 sections in order to make it look prettier I condensed it and did it a little different way but I want to note that it has 35 you're also going to notice that AP physics and physics has nested courses a nested course is kind of a a course within another course so the the courses that look like there are two students in it don't actually have two students in it they're partnered with that AP Physics class so that two would be paired with those 14 to make 16 that did not affect the average class size we looked at the total there so that we can get an accurate depiction okay so when we look at high school um I want to point out that 90 97% of high school classes are

083less than 30 students 97% are less than 30 students so we can see that we have a wide variety we have a minimum of four in certain classes and we have a maximum of 31 in others so our high school range of average class size is between 20 and 22 very good so we'll come back really to the summary uh this is the bumper sticker for all of that data which is we can see those averages at K through 5th 18 to 25 Middle School 23 to 26 and then at high school 20 to 22 so we make some observations and then we're very excited to hear your observations members but uh certainly the diversity is strength we recognize our students for the uniqueness they bring we are encouraged to see some stabilization in the

084decline and our Focus uh members will be a laser focus on stabilizing and turning up in some areas preschool is a great example and you'll hear more uh over the coming days I look forward to com conversations and coming in March the enhancements that our parents ask us for um and folks have said if you build it we will come if you have those opportunities we want to be a part of it so we want to hear folks and respond um I want to honor that focus and I know that it was Blood Sweat and Tears and many cases and hard tough decisions but we have kept for the most part smaller class sizes um and uh with very few exception core class sizes have been maintained within an acceptable range elementary middle and high

085school we do want to get at it's not on the slide but I want to say it so we can all witness it we do want to get at some multi-grade classrooms there only a few of them that are not by curricular design so I'm not referring to monor where that is the design but those few that are left uh we really want to see our ability to serve students by uh not using the multi-grade um a significant highlight is preschool we've referenced that another observation is that when it comes to our students with second language we do see a higher in fact kind of a double percentage at elementary compared to high school some of that we know is perhaps the growth and development of students that they move over into a monitor status

086but we also uh feel that there is a higher number really of esol students that were receiving at elementary so that's just a part of what uh we're thinking about in our observations I I want to be very clear though uh members you know as superintendent I get asked a lot so what now what what are you going to do about it and that's where we come in on these last couple of slides is I just want to say clearly and publicly that there are opportunities to streamline and use efficiencies to achieve what our community has asked us for number one to take care of our staff and support them as they serve students and compensate them well and also the other number one to ensure that students have wide and excellent opportunities for programming

087and learning and you'll see tonight that if we are disciplined in our organizational practices and the team will work hard together we can improve in this area of streamlining in order to offer more and to be able to serve our staff better so uh those are the two sides of the coin enhancement of programming and ensuring additional opportunities for students uh as we meet this moment uh seven years of declining enrollment we see that we know there are reasons for it we witness it and we face face it uh we want to meet that moment with the organizational discipline necessary uh to innovate our way uh to improvements so I am calling on our leadership teams and I want to thank the members because you all have given uh your support for this work coming

088up but I want to call on our uh Partners in our employee groups Lea our school team and school team leaders our principls our district leaders I want to call on everyone to work together to really take two steps we are streamlining in order to provide additional professional time for our teachers during the school day it's important for folks to understand we're not just making changes to be more efficient we're making changes with the desired and intentional outcome so that includes both at elementary having the two 45 minute plans so that professionals we have the world's best teachers but even the best of folks cannot create time so we want to build in time so that they can have that professional team time and also have their personal professional time to attend to to the

089many many tasks that our uh folks have to do we want to do the same thing at high school and that is to ensure the second planning if we were to be in a drone and zoom Over Districts across the country this is the professional standard that most districts in the country meet and we're not quite there here but we can get there so I'm calling on everyone to work together and I want to thank the leadership of the EA my uh El elt team and our building principles they have all given their their indication of support and intention to work hard to bring this to a reality now tonight as is always the case with system change we have many more questions than we have answers it's important to just call that out and

090name it yes and yet I have confidence that we have the best outcome in mind more programming for students more time and professional time for our teachers and the ability to streamline our resources so that our fiscal responsibility is in place now with all of that I did intend to mention that that additional uh special special uh that's what we call it at elementary specials uh will be a science special so we're really looking at improving student engagement having our teachers who are pass passionate about science really get in to doing that project work and we'll bring you updates as our great teachers get together and sort out what this might look like so we have an opportunity ahead of us the direction is clear and that is to streamline our resources to innovate organizational

091practice and discipline to prioritize our resources directly into our schools our classrooms and our staff and to prioritize enhancing wider opportunities for our students so that's the summary of the enrollment and class siiz report and I bet there are great thoughts we're going to jot everyone that you say down cuz this is where you usually uh do a lot to help us move the work forward thank you board colleagues start go you want to go first I just have two quick so I just have two quick comments really quick so one I just wanted just just to clarify my comment about free lunch uh just it's it's just personal to me so I I wasn't I wasn't trying to throw shade I wasn't trying to trying to do anything it's just just it's it's something

092I'll bring up on occasion just to just to point out that you know because I know sometimes there's there's some stigma around free lunch and and just it's just a reminder I'll throw out every once in a while that there are other reasons why people are on free lunch and so and so and so that's why I I I do it so that's what I is and then and then Swift had said something during during the enrollment uh enrollment presentation which I really liked and I just wanted to add just a piece of information to it um when she said that you know we've been we've been bringing in kindergarten classes that have been smaller than our graduating senior classes and I just wanted to mention because the the slide deck had data back for

0937 years but I would just point out that it it has been since the 2015 2016 school year that we have had a Kindergarten class that was small that that was smaller than the previous senior year so it's been since 2015 that that trend has has it was 2015 2016 when that Trend started did I see you did I see well actually more of a statement I I've said and listened to a lot of these reports over the years and this is really one of the few first times that I can honestly say I understand the data that it was clear um and obviously present it with purpose uh so I do appreciate that and would like to congratulate you on a job well done because I actually think the data itself was good um

094and for me it's well my question is generally always the same is where do we go from here if we've got the data um I'm me interested in uh how we get the savings so we can move in the direction we want to move in yes um and and yeah I I think I understand it but I think the community needs to understand as well what we're doing this is why we're doing this is how we're doing it so that everyone is marching in the same way yes thank you Shannon um just a couple observations I wanted to share for Dr Swift's uh and staff's benefit um I really like the presentation of the class-size data this way because it's probably the easiest way I've ever seen to understand and visualize what what the reality

095is on the ground um personally I'm pleased to see the extent to which we are achieving our goals at the elementary school with class size I actually anticipated that to be less good um so that's that's nice to see um my other observation is that I am somewhat surprised by some of the low class siiz numbers in high school required classes um and that seems to be an area of um further investigation and opportunity yes thank you it is an area of opportunity and investigation I mean you know we I think we have lots to be proud of the breadth of opportunities we provide for students um but I appreciated your statement that we also have to be sure to be good stewards of our resources so that we can provide those opportunities yes to

096everyone across the district so um so thank you for highlighting that um and then um I think I have a couple questions um one um as you come up with solutions to this uh do you think that there will be potential for policy changes that may need to be looked at um and um another area and this I guess not so much a question but just an observation as we have attempted to address some of these issues in the past we have at times not attended as closely as we should have as a district to the language of our negotiated agreement so um I'll I will be I would be interested in updates from the negotiations team as we go through addressing this to be sure that we are attending to that in the way

097that we should be wonderful thank you so much that's all I had thank you uh this is Carol Carol um I uh in looking at this and I'm looking at the strengths are strength based and approach but I would like to I I commend you and your work and we acknowledge that we have over 20 languages spoken within our walls of La USD 497 and I'm especially proud that if you go to our homepage there's a tab where you can actually look at that you can change the languages on the on our website so that's something I'm especially proud proud of in our district and I look forward to working with you in these next few years and developing or looking at curriculum that reflects our diverse population here in Lawrence Kansas and we can

098continue to attract um families here to Lawrence yes thank you um I want to Echo kind of what everyone else has said I think the presentation was very clear and easy to understand um and I think um also echoing Shannon um happy to see that Elementary maybe isn't as bad as we thought obviously not where we want it to be but is not maybe um um where we thought it was and then um the opportunity um to streamline in high school and and with schedule adjustments in order to you know I think it's it's such a win-win to be able to um offer more programming to our students and give our teachers more planned time like how it's almost like blows your mind to think that you could do both of those things without like

099a bunch of additional costs and so I really appreciate um your your work to find ways to do things differently um than maybe we've done them in the past and to think creatively and be Innovative um and how we do things so that we can make things better for our students knowing that we have finite resources right so thank you um I again will Echo what everyone else is saying um this is my first report so I definitely thank you guys for making it more easy for me to understand having grandchildren in all three levels elementary middle and high school it helps me to understand when they come home and they're having issues in class and understanding to know are you in a smaller classroom or are you in a larger classroom are you in

100a smaller classroom because there other kids in class with you that are also struggling in in ways that you're struggling so it helps me as a grandparent be able to understanding how to assist them at home with trying to get more help that they need in class or maybe if they're in a larger classroom and they may need to be moved to a smaller classroom because their needs are being overlooked you know another question I had was um I know you stated that sometimes the smaller class size is because there's a more need in that class so with the larger class size are we adding more help in that larger classroom to the to the the the the not only the student but to the teacher itself and and we're not able to say that

101that happens when class sizes are larger it certainly does happen we're we able to use uh as you noted director po title esol our extra Personnel in the building but I I would not want to portray that we're able to do that on every larger class because that wouldn't be realistic go um I so I'll say uh to Shannon's point about the negotiated agreement wanting to understand um how that's being attended to but I it's my understanding that you're working closely with the Lea on these I'm looking at Kristen just because okay to um ensure that we are we are being good stewards to the contract and considering um how this will impact there it there it is with the sticky it's already in okay so for people not here the contract was just opened

102up for the board to see with lots of sticky notes from an Lea representative in the back yeah um okay I I for me one of the things that when I served for seven years on negotiations team and consistently um there are a couple things that come up um every year certainly wages being an important component of the work that we're doing and then secondly a conversation around time time and looking for um opportunities to optimize um additional planning for our Educators I wanted to recognize for the high school um Educators you you might have 20 students in a class but that's time six for some of our our um staff so the ability I just want to make sure I'm understanding this it what we're working toward is the ability for teachers to have

103a a a seven um period day in which they're instructing for five is that that correct that's the goal that's correct okay and that would mean that teachers will have a reduction in their case load correct so in addition to getting additional time to plan they will have less grading to do um less students to account for which could also be um a win in terms of retention and recruitment it sure could be it also is possible we will have to just observe it is possible that some teachers because loads vary year toe you know so some teachers might have an increase your they might yes okay um and then the Elementary second plan has felt elusive the whole time I've sat in this um at this table I am very much interested in seeing

104both of those things realized and am grateful very grateful for the amount of work that's going into um coordinating with uh certainly with our bargaining units but also um with the principles and uh elt and and everyone that's putting their heads together to look at like what what are we going to do differently with schedules which is this the thing that um I have since learned is one of the most important things that happens um at the uh district is how we how we plan um our classes and and and time them so I just I'm very grateful for the work and and thank you all for everything that you've done um this is a very positive direction and it I I also appreciate that you did not that you're working toward being honest about

105the data as it is right now which I think is an important um aspect of being in governance role so we want to see The Good the Bad and the Ugly and the yeah um thank you very much uh this is your first report to us correct uh it's my second second okay I'm okay come back with one is this good then that's the new standard I think the new bar well and that's the hope is that we can build you guys reports that are that are similar to this every time that we step in front of you so they are easier to understand each time we appreciate your work thank you very much thank you okay we're going to take a five minute break before we move on to calendars so it's 7:46 we'll

106recess until um e e e all right we're going to reconvene and move on to 6.2 which is the calendar update and we will invite um Dr Swift is this you as well eating your okay thank you yeah thank you Madame President and members of the board and everyone else who is joining us tonight um we have promised uh from the beginning of this year to give regular updates on our instructional hours of course we knew that back in January it was early in the winter um but I guess none of us knew the roller coaster ride uh that winter of 2025 would really turn out to be so I remember from from our last monthly update I think it was member buyers who said um it's early we probably should just wait and see

107how it all turns out and boy were those words of wisdom so we're about to put up our update um and the team is working to get that up members you've got it on your attachments but as you can see we are uh presently at 9 incl weather days um I don't know that in 12 years of superintending and years of assistant superintending uh in states that are known to be cold and have Winters I don't know that I've ever seen N9 days before so just putting a little perspective on this historic winter and the nature of this winter so um when we say that it's nine days as we look around at our colleague districts it is that similar number all over uh our general area so um not that we're trying to be

108like everyone else but in this case uh it is a pretty similar number I have a nephew at a neighboring District who had last Monday as a holiday which we didn't have and then had the cold weather and snow days um so so on Friday he was heading to school he is a senior graduating senior he was heading to school for his first day of last week and um so at any rate we are pretty in a pretty similar shape as everyone else I I will remind everyone and we've uh talked uh chatted with our Lea partners and with our leaders uh we all need to prepare for that April 21st day to be a school day it's marked for that reason uh we always look at it in hope against hope for that spring

109warm weather day um but we need to plan for that day we will continue to monitor our winter weather I'm delighted to look at the 10-day forecast um right now and yet we're not out of the woods yet um uh the other thing we would share is that we will still hold to our commitment that by March 14th that Friday before spring break we will have the information out to our community so that week of March 10 through 14 we're going to go ahead and make our plan we are hearing uh from uh folks in the state that it is possible the ksde will look at things we uh will only give that through that midark timeline because we have to be responsible to achieve our instructional hours so I know Miss Ryan and our

110partners will already be thinking about whether we do get forgiveness or whether we don't we'll prepare plans for both directions I also wanted to share tonight and they're going to scroll up just here so everybody can see it um I mean down just a hair forgive me um we wanted to share a preview of coming attractions on our 2526 calendar as we head out of February and toward March and spring inquiring minds are ready to have next year's calendar in hand we had a wonderful opportunity about uh 10 days ago to do an additional layer of work that we believe would really improve things for our families particularly our families that have children at more than one level so um we're going to allow that team an extra meeting or two and commit to bring

111you that calendar at our first meeting in March and that is on March 10th I want to give a shout out to the calendar committee you know who you are out there hardworking folks who are adding up our minutes I just want to express my gratitude also that you all built in minutes it's last year for this year we haven't done all of the figuring the folks are working on it now but we are in exceedingly better shape even with our N9 days because of the tough decisions that the calendar committee kind of laid out and that Miss Ryan worked with our teams on so we want to continue that so that we are really well prepared uh someone has said many of you said it uh extremes have almost become the norm so we

112know our calendar has to reflect the flexibility whether that extreme is around whatever thing in our future that we don't know yet what it is so uh we are looking forward to bringing our 2526 calendar on March 10th and we're really grateful to all the folks that are working on on that and really have heard from parents about things that they would like to see adjusted and all of that's in the mix so I hope that helps you and um we'll at our next meeting uh we'll be more clear on all of these questions thank you any questions about the calendar thank you for the update we look forward to seeing the calendar for next year on the 10th beautiful thank you okay we're going to move on to public comment would one of my

113board colleagues please read the public comment statement yeah you need to edit that you have to read that which one which one is it this one M the USD 497 Board of Education welcomes public comments and thanks you for taking time to talk to us about our policies and procedures we set aside this time during our regular meetings to hear from the public patrons who wish to participate in public comment must fill out the public comment registration form so that District staff or the board 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 to District staff as provided

114under board policies KNN or 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 students if if you need assistance in sharing a a 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 comments must comply with standards laid out in board policy GAE and board policy J G CA comments or acts that are threatening to staff the board or others in attendance including the use of language or behavior that is not that is disrupted to the to the board meeting will not be permitted during public

115comment in addition because students may be in attendance or watching online members of the public will refrain from using foul or obscene language the district assumes no responsibility and or liability for the information shared during public comment the views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lawrence Public Schools the board president or 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 welcome after the board has had the opportunity to discuss the toic the topic 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 uh Mandy dring I think

116Mandy did you wan to hi welcome thank you for coming okay thank you um hi I'm Mandy my son uh went to school here at West West Middle School um he's an IEP he's got special education and dis disabilities um he we've this school year we've already had five IEP meetings he started Ed Out full days and went down to back down to half days until there was another meeting that Lawrence Public Schools wasn't appropriate for my son so he now attends school in Kansas City Missouri and Lawrence School uh Lawrence uh buses are the ones that transport him it's a two-hour drive to school every morning um other kids do go up there too from Lawrence and uh regarding um the enrollment numbers my son even though he gets his education in Missouri he's

117still considered a USD 497 student with the snow days he also um when Missour Kansas City Missouri public schools are out for weather or whatever reason he's out when laurren schools are out he is out um laurren schools had school on President's Day Missouri did not so regarding making the missed hours of school my son has already missed so much education since he started at West Middle School that's just another one there um sorry uh so that was my spiel about the student enrollment and um see yeah they said um in the meeting that there is no school here in Lawrence because my son is not a criminal so he couldn't go to any of the alternative schools here and I won't let them criminalize my my son or in the state of Kansas so

118that's why he has to go all the way to Kansas City Missouri now to get an education um from the start middle or grade school at Pinkney was not a problem when since he started at West Middle School it's just been a downward it's just not been good and my son has quoted what did quote several times coming home from school that he didn't feel part of the school and he felt like he was always picked on by staff and also he was the victim of being bullied from day one at West as well so just want to make that clear um and the other thing I had to discuss kind of got dismissed but I don't know who and where to go to regarding his Mist hours of education so if somebody could possibly

119get back to me about because I Missouri Kansas you guys are different so um I'm going to ask that people follow up thank you yeah thank thank you for coming thank you I appreciate you okay um so we have uh here with us uh Carrie Schmidt Carrie I think you're joining us um I I don't have your information here but you're joining us from outside of Lawrence is that correct outside of Douglas County yes so okay thank you for coming it doesn't mean my concerns it certainly doesn't you're welcome to come I'm glad you're here okay my I haven't started yet that's okay okay all right um good evening I would like to start off saying that I feel some of you on this board are treating me differently than other speakers um the only

120thing that I can think of as to why that would be is because I am a female I hope oh gosh my computer sorry I hope that's false and that there isn't any discrimination going on however I appreciate you for not stopping me from speaking last meeting so that I could make my point I would like to make another point and read to you a little from the book The hate you give by Angie Thomas this book is in middle and high schools here parents if your kids are listening please remove them from the room or turn the volume down before I start I think that you should know that in the book ass is written 101 times is written 14 times is written 97 times is WR 200 I'm going to ask that you

121stop I'm asking that you stop from using obscenities please stop this is your warning I'm going to ask that you sit down are you asking I'm asking this time this time I'm asking I guess I don't stand I'm not trying to make this is a warning you are breaking the decorum policies and procedures if you would like to proceed please give us your Viewpoint without doing so are you ordering me or are you asking me to stop without punishment would you proceed by following the procedures that were read at the start of this meeting well we'll start your time back up I feel like I can proceed without can you start the time back up please okay here we go this is from the book the police this some several croes he covers his eyes

122and rocks back and forth this star whatever you're going to do I'm down you want to burn some up well we'll burn some up give the word dude are you crazy Chris says you don't get it so shut up star what are you going to do anything everything scream cry puke hit somebody burn something throw something they gave me this hate and now I want to everybody even if I'm not sure how I want to do something I say protest Riot I don't care Riot Chris Echoes hell yeah D gives me a Dap that's what I'm talking about and neither uh did talking I snap I did everything right and it didn't make a difference I got in death threats cops harassed my family something somebody shot into my house all kinds of and for

123what Justice won't get they don't give a about us so fine I no longer give a N I don't give a about neither one of them and not only does this book have profanity in it but it sends a lovely message to kids to not respect the police and that the police are racist in the problem what a wonderful message yeah the point I'm trying to make is that this District's libraries are a cesspool of profanity yet you are and have censored some of the same words at these board meetings just for the record you all should be focused on providing better reading material for students versus deciding what words someone is allowed to say in your presence because it makes you feel uncomfortable sadly you all seem more worried about your feeling feelings over

124protecting children and the hypocrisy is off the charts I'm done now thank you thank you for coming up to Lawrence appreciate you driving I I appreciate that okay we're going to move on to the next speaker on the WebEx we'll move on to uh Mr SP or Dr SP inting Dr spe Dr spe yeah this is Dr Justin spe you guys got a lot of explaining to do right there first of all you guys threw me out of your meeting two meetings ago for reading that exact same uh passage that uh Carrie just read right there and on top of that you just gave her a warning that she couldn't cuss anymore and then she proceeded to to cuss uh throughout that and you didn't you didn't do anything meanwhile you were going to have

125Michael removed by the police last week for for a cussing as well so you got a lot of explaining to do on that one and so uh right now I want to I want to read a quote from what a speaker during general public comment uh said last week during or at last meeting here at your last meeting during general public comment quote I'm going to share with you just some book titles in the in the district that I think that you should know about here we go here lies a vengeful in a high school Yi Delgado wants to kick your ass middle and high schools lady my life is a in a high school the transformations of Lucius Otherwise Known are you reading the titles of a book in a high school this one

126is good the tit I'm reading a quote here so don't interrupt me anymore this one is good the title is did nobody give a what happened at carada read the title I picked up the book and opened it to a random page and it said this that's why men who don't be men be the out of men up in their right because human contact just human contact at the end of the day is something and so I noticed right there that uh you allowed that uh that cussing right there that that foul language why do why do you allow it right now and when you allowed her to uh say that exact same thing at last meeting two speakers before that you had uh removed me from the meeting online speaking by hanging up on

127me for using what you call foul language so I'd like an explanation on that why you allow it when some people say it and not when others say it recently judge Julie Robinson had a ruling in my lawsuit case against uh sheriff armbrester and the uh Douglas County commission for first fourth and 14th Amendment of rights violations and she uh is quoted in here as saying quote and he also alleges that members of the public may not use vulgar language given that members of the public are entitled to three minutes uninterrupted during the public comment period it is not clear based on the allegations that such speech causes disruption or disorder when the commission has already set aside dedicated time for the individual speakers so as judge Robinson says there you guys are wrong you

128can't uh be disrupting US during our three minutes we can't be disruptive LJ world uh we can't be disruptive during our three minutes it's already set aside so the actual disruption is coming from you up there on that's your warning yeah you you and your warning so thank you the no you the I cannot be interrupting this meeting during my three minutes it is Not A disruption this is okay um we're going to move on uh uh Mr Arabi you gonna say my name say it correctly please Michael hello it's your turn so I think it's time to remind you and everybody else watching and reporting of the clear messages that's been sent to you every time before I ever stepped in that room to speak to you you all received several emails from me

129expressing disgust at your continued efforts to silence certain people with expressed viewpoints that you find hurtful to your ears it is a constitutional right of the people to express those points of view in this public forum in those emails I told you weeks in advance that I would would come to this meeting using words that you find objectionable to express a Viewpoint you obviously disagree with and why a constitutional right of the people that's why because you'd shut down other people before me in those seene emails I referenc the First Amendment protections that we have as citizens of this country I also referenc con V California a Supreme Court case that specifically address curse words in obscene language and the right of the people to use those words and phrases you objectionable instead of recognize

130that recognizing that clear legal implications of your actions you chose an attempt to criminalize me a viewer who commented on a recent video report I published about your behavior summed up the definitions and expectations better than I you or the Ural world ever could quoting Edmund Davis the decorum rules apply until the board opens the meeting up for public comment when they open for public comment they create a designated public forum which is governed by the same rules that apply in traditional public forum that is strict scrutiny this makes it an unconstitutional infringement on free speech and expression when the board censors or punishes speakers based on the content of their speech which you have done what this means for the on the deis this means you are to sit there on your ass and

131keep your mouth shut for three minutes now you're going to cut me off yes I am remove okay okay we have a couple of announcements we'll move on to 8.1 um board members there's a notice of a board business meeting on March 10th which you should all have in your uh calendars but um the uh they it was missing on the website so we are noticing it now um so it's not a new a new board meeting to us but it was missing on the website so we want to make sure that the public is aware of it and um I did want to also let uh board colleagues know that the chamber has a on Friday um the 28th uh from 8:30 to 10 at KU Innovation Park they are hosting a um two

132government Workforce education sector meeting um and if you are interested I can provide you those details uh by maybe with your help could you forward those on um and then I wanted to note a couple one other thing Shannon had mentioned that we could watch um a uh video on YouTube and I'm wondering if um Shannon you would be willing to that was a video pertaining to uh budget education budget would you the education funding task force I will send that to Jan you could send it out to everyone that would be great um and it I um know elt is very busy but perhaps yes um all right uh do you have any announcements I think we're all wrapped up thank you so much okay is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn

133seconded all those in favor I anyone opposed have a good evening