001[Music] thank you okay all right good evening I'd like to call to order the June 12 2023 board business meeting for the safety of all those in attendance display of signs or banners will not be permitted if you have a sign or Banner you will be asked to leave it outside the boardroom for the duration of the meeting tonight's meeting is a meeting of the board held in public not a public hearing or discussion with the board please be respectful of the presenters the board and your fellow audience members as we discuss and deliberate the items on tonight's agenda comments are actions that are threatening to or disrespectful of presenters the board or others in attendance including use of foul language or any other behavior that is disruptive of the board meeting will result in
002immediate removal from the meeting patrons will be invited to share comments as part of the public comment portion of the meeting is outlined in board policy bcbi that time is set aside on the board's agenda for members of the public to share their thoughts it is not a time for dialogue with or a question and answer session with the board if your comments require follow-up from the board of staff that will occur after tonight's meeting patrons who wish to participate in public comment must fill out the public comment form so that board or staff can follow up with you regarding your public comment as needed the district assumes no responsibility or liability for the information shared during public comment the via's express or solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views
003of the Lawrence Public Schools in addition USD 497 provides access to our board meetings through live streaming the platform used for this live streaming has acceptable use rules for content on its site USD 497 does not delete or hideboard meeting videos however the streaming platform may elect to do so if the content of public comment or any other portion of the meeting is found to violate the platform's accessible use rules thank you for your cooperation in these areas at this time a motion to approve the agenda would be in order and do we have we do not have an amended motion okay I move we approve the agenda for the June 12 2023 board meeting this is Carol I second Kimball yes Hill yes could do Blackwood yes Gordon Ross yes Jones yes motion passes
004five zero thank you we don't have any recognition of special recognition of Staff or students tonight um uh for anyone that's in person but I would like to take a moment to recognize two staff members who are retiring from our district with sincere appreciation for their many years of service and Devotion to this community and its schools John Becker for 10 years of service and Anastasio Romero for 16 years of service thank you and congratulations to both of them next is the report of the superintendent of schools Dr Lewis thank you good evening board members and members of the public just a few announcements this evening and things I wanted to share one I want to send a huge thank you to our building leadership teams from all schools they participated in a summer Leadership
005Institute last week at free state my thanks also to the teaching and learning team for organizing that time that was focused on our student-centered systems of support or what we call our ci3t as well as meeting the needs of our individual Scholars I also appreciate Dr Kathleen Lane who's ku's associate Vice Chancellor of research for leading some of those activities including a focus group or several focus groups of students parents and caregivers there's the image there from building leadership teams again from all buildings it's really good to see them all come together and talk about the successes of this year and begin to focus on goals and action steps for this coming school year we celebrated all building administrators last week including Elementary principal of the Year Jackie Mickel who's also Langston who's principal and
006as well as the elementary lead principal and secondary administrator of the Year Matt rink who's free state assistant principal the nomination read for Jackie a great example for others she models lifelong learning and supports the professional growth of all staff she works with staff to create an inclusive positive and safe environment for all and anchors decisions in what's best for students Matt rinks nomination read regularly reviewing data with the equity team members and staff to improve student outcomes Matthew Works to make academics clubs and activities accessible to all students he also helps students build their own leadership skills and advocates for resources and supports teachers May that supports that teachers may need to be successful as part of this a sponsorship of our staff recognition program we want to thank our Elite partner Truity Credit
007Union they provided both Jackie and Matthew with a check for 500 so congratulations to these outstanding building leaders our summer school and summer meal programs had a successful start last week as did our novice instrument exploration program for Rising 5th and sixth graders and many thanks to all of our staffs that are out making these programs successful our summer meal program as well as our summer learning program and again our Summer music exploration program as a reminder summer summer meals are free to students you will find those locations there on the screen there at New York Woodlawn Sunset Hill Broken Arrow Holcomb Park Lawrence Public Library and Pinckney playground for The Breakfast play date Lawrence schools Foundation accepted a 1 180 check from KU baseballs Michael Brooks who finished with 59 hits this season after
008pledging 20 per hit for school supplies there was a lot of out Community Support around this and interest around this and so there were some community members that were inspired by Michael's pledge and they matched that amount and raised more than five thousand dollars our thanks to all of those that contributed speaking of the Lawrence schools Foundation the foundation is accepting sponsorships and reservations for the 2023 annual Community Education breakfast that's planned for 7 30 to 9 A.M on Friday September the 29th at the DoubleTree Hotel our showcase and alumni this year event features uh nine-time Emmy Award nominee and two-time Emmy winning television producer Jared Stone who's a chesty Lions class of 1995. stone is the executive director brand creator for Warner Brothers worldwide television the marketing unscripted team he also authored year of
009the cow from the Flatiron books and so we're starting to look forward to hearing about his journey from Lawrence Public Schools to Los Angeles then lastly the district will Mark June 19th next week as Juneteenth holiday also the Lawrence June teeth organization will host a parade in downtown Lawrence at 11 A.M on Saturday followed by food live music and family activities in South Park from noon to 8 P.M for more information please log on to the Lawrence Kansas Juneteenth Facebook page and then lastly our just a reminder our summer hours started this past week so our buildings are closed to the public on Fridays that's all I have thank you Dr Lewis next is the report of the president of the board I have a few things to share I want to congratulate again all
010of our graduates from Lawrence Public Schools it was my honor to attend graduations for Lawrence High School Free State High School and the adult education program since our last meeting it is one of the greatest Joys and privileges as a board member every year to get to honor our graduates and congratulate them as they begin their Journey onto their next step in their lives and it really is an amazing thing to have watched those kids grow and learn and flourish and move move forward so congratulations to all of them I wanted to share that I had the opportunity to volunteer at Project Graduation which took place the 24th it's open to graduates from all of the high schools in Douglas County thank you to the community sponsors and the parents who ran that event for
011providing a safe and fun event for for the students and wanted to give a special thanks to Dr Lewis who served as DJ for the night at that event and I will tell you that you received rave reviews from the students that I spoke to afterwards so it was a lot of fun so thank you I also want to give my congratulations and thanks to KU baseball player Michael Brooks and to the community members who also stepped up and donated it was a lot of fun to get to honor him on June 5th in this room for his support of Lawrence Public School students June 7th gr and I had a facilities committee meeting um I didn't ask gr Jr do you want to report on the meeting um you can go ahead if you
012want to like putting you on the spot in the moment so facilities committee we heard a number of updates We are continuing to look for solutions to help the district replace our aging Fleet of vehicles particularly our aging Fleet of vehicles that we use to transport students and so we heard an update on some of that work we also had um an update on a garden project at the College and Career Center in addition we had a discussion a follow-up discussion on our solar power pilot project presentation that the board heard about at a work session a while back up the district has sent out an RFP now for that pilot project and responses are due I believe July 6th July is that July 6th Paula Marsh is confirming for me it's July 6 though
013we will have some further updates on that next month I believe also heard an update on the process of moving staff and materials out of some of our buildings and into some of our other buildings an update on the sale of the Holcomb property as well as updates on a number of the renovation and repair projects that are ongoing in the summer every year a particular note and I will tie this to um another issue that I wanted to talk about this evening for just a moment facility staff has in progress at the request of the facilities committee ordered signage to update our signage for all of our single-use restrooms across the district to make them General gender neutral spaces so we received an update on that as well um I'm flipping back and forth
014between a lot of documents here so my apologies um the board will be seeing some items on our consent agenda this meeting and next meeting from facilities one of the um the ones I want to flag to make sure our board members take a look at we have updated our facility use document the guidelines and and fee structure so that will be coming to the board for review and approval at the end of June and then the fees will come at the first July meeting so that's the update on the facilities committee work and normally I have some of this printed out so I don't have to flip quite so much um okay June 8th I did an interview with Hank Booth to talk about the process that the board is using to fill our
015board member vacancy as a reminder to the community and the board those applications are due to our board clerk by 5 pm tomorrow the application is available on the website and it's submitted electronically board members don't forget that we have a special meeting scheduled June 20th at 6 pm to review applications and select the candidates who will be interviewed at our June 26th meeting so I would just highlight that on the June 26 meeting probably we should a board members should be planning for that to be a little bit longer meeting than typical because of adding it'll take about an hour to do those interviews finally the issue the legislative policy issue I wanted to highlight as board members are likely well aware the legislature passed some legislation this session Senate Bill 180 that um
016as I anticipate will be harmful to our transgender members of our school Community there's been some recent news about this in our community in regards to comments from our district attorney about whether she will employ her prosecutorial powers to enforce this Statute in light of the safety and well-being concerns that this legislation raises for the safety of our transgender staff students and family members in the Lawrence Public Schools Community I have asked Dr Lewis to update the board soon regarding steps that the district has taken or will be taking to continue to support the education well-being and safety of our Lawrence Public Schools transgender staff and students this includes steps that are already underway at the direction of the facilities committee that I mentioned regarding changing signage on restrooms across all of our buildings to
017ensure that single-user restrooms are designated as gender neutral spaces I wanted to say to our community that I want to work in partnership with our community to ensure that our schools continue to be safe and welcoming spaces for all of our students and all of our staff so I invite you to please communicate with the board or with staff if you have specific input or concerns about these issues you will help educate us as to what we need to know to make sure that we are providing um safe learning spaces and safe working spaces so I appreciate that um that's all I have this evening and next on our agenda we have public comment we have one public comment this evening on the character strong program that is an item that is on our consent
018agenda so we will take the public comment at this time can I invite a board member to read our public comment policy please Carol but I'll give it a go 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 form so the District staff or the board can follow up with you regarding your public comment as necessary this is your time to share your opinions however public comment is not appropriate for them for making complaints about specific staff or students if needed the board president or presiding officer of the meeting May direct that
019a patrons comments be heard by the board in an executive session in order to protect the privacy of the individual individuals to be discussed before participating in public comment to share a complaint the board requests that public commenters follow the complaint procedures set out in the board in District policy as appropriate if you need assistance in these processes please let the board Clerk or other District staff know the board president will invite comment on topics not included on the agenda at the beginning of each meeting comments related to the agenda items are welcomed after the board has had the opportunity to discuss the topic please limit your comments to three minutes the district assumes no responsibility or liability for the information shared during public commentary the views expressed our solely those of the speakers and
020do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lawrence Public Schools thank you Kelly at this time I invite Yolanda Franklin to the podium you'll have three minutes and the board clerk will provide you with the timer thank you good app good evening board members my question tonight is on the character strong program it is my understanding that the original cost for this program to be implemented through our district was 206 thousand dollars for the first year and then an additional sixty thousand dollars after this first year but then in May another hundred and two thousand dollars was added for a speaker or maybe a book study which brings that total to about 368 thousand dollars for this program for the first two years now on the budget agenda there's another request for an additional twenty
021six thousand dollars for a two-day conference led by Consultants I guess from the character strong program it is my if this is approved then this program would hit our already stressed out budget for 384 thousand dollars for this program um it is published that it's um up to three hundred thousand dollars to close the school in our district but we're about to spend more than that on a program I love the curriculum of the program but there's one already in place in our district that's doing that um it may be outdated but we can update the program we can update the program are we sure that at this time this is the correct program for our district are we sure this program was ran through Broken Arrow and the Virtual School with positive feedback from
022staff families my grandson was part of the program but we lost Broken Arrow a title for school we lost it and from my understanding funding from the title for is going to be used for this program but that funding is supposed to be a decision made by parents and the community but I don't remember hearing about the character strong in this program thank you that concludes our public comment for this evening the next item on our agenda is board commentary I'm glad okay um I'll see I'm going to give an update on negotiations Shannon if that's okay yes please um so the pal CWA and the district administrators led by um Uh Kevin Harrell uh and I came to a conclusion that we had met a agreement on our contract so pal CWA will now
023be taking that back to their unit to have the contract ratified and I haven't heard an update that it's been it's not been ratified they've not had enough time is that correct Dr Lewis right so I for the for those of you watching I'll say that this was a pretty significant um negotiation moment for the district for myself having been in negotiations for past six years this was a positive outcome we still have a long way to go with pal CWA but I believe we're seeing an increase for our classified staff that might be the largest at least in the last Dozen Years and potentially some folks are looking back 18 years I'm not sure if that's correct or not so I wouldn't write that in the paper if you were listening to me I
024think that still has to be verified but at some in some time um so there's still gains to be had but in particular I wanted to highlight the work that was done on the Matrix um that work and the change in The Matrix lays the path for us to continue to improve wages for our staff in a way that the old Matrix would not so for that I am really grateful to the work of the committee that worked on that and in particular I want to highlight Megan Epperson who has been not a long time in her position but led that movement like she'd been doing it for her whole career and was really a good partner to both the board and to Pal CWA so just extending my gratitude to her and her expertise
025certainly is born out of her past leadership with Lea so the other negotiation update that we have is on 614 which is this Wednesday at 4 we'll be meeting with Lea to have another additional conversation about what they would like for their salary package and I look forward to that meeting which can be watched on WebEx if board members are interested thank you for that update Kelly other board commentary gr do you have board commentary since I can't see you no other than I'll just Echo uh what Kelly said about the work with Powell CWA having served on negotiations at the beginning of my tenure on the board I know how much time and effort the one into that work on that Matrix and the ground worked out in late so kudos to both sides
026of that negotiation to make that happen thank you gr AB Carol uh yes okay okay uh hi this is Carol I will just be very brief on Saturday June 3rd I participate in the Lawrence Pride Parade I don't know if anybody was able to watch it or catch it but I was very proud to support our lgbtq plus 2s Youth and I carry the letter e and the pride so yeah I was so you know just elated to be given that opportunity and on Friday June 9th I participated I would like to thank the City of Lawrence Haskell Indian nations University and Kip core for hosting the state's largest restorative justice conference it's something that we as indigenous peoples have done practice since time immemorial which allows for it promotes healing along with reintegrated individuals
027into the community because as we all know that once our youth enter the correction system it's hard to get out of that downward spiral and it will it will impact their outcomes later in life so I would like to just say that and add it as me it just myself as an individual and a mother I will continue to support our lgbtq that I would like to thank the district for making extra efforts to protect our our youth thank you thank you Carol okay all right that concludes our board commentary next is our consent agenda consent agenda items are those that are considered routine and are adopted by one motion unless any board member or the superintendent requested an item be removed the item or items removed are voted on separately no items to be
028pulled would someone please make a motion I moved the Board of Education adopt the items listed on the consent agenda Eric L II yes to do Blackwood yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes Kimball yes motion passes five zero thank you the next item is a budget update and I will invite Cindy Frick our Executive Director of Finance to the podium thank you Cindy good evening I'm Cindy Frick Executive Director of Finance we did want to walk you through some items here as we get towards the end of the year we did just finish up in April or May we finished up the ksde audit and I wanted to point out a couple things from that as you'll see here as we're tracking enrollment um that is the pink or purple line that goes through the
029different fiscal years and then our budget follows that we can use last year's enrollment number or the year before and when we talk about budgeted enrollment numbers we're looking at the full-time equivalency of students so it's a little bit smaller number than our head count for 2022-23 we have been using a number of which we can continue for one more year going into the 2324 budget and that is based off of the enrollment from 2122 um and so as we plan ahead for the 24-25 budget we will need to use either the enrollment count from 20 to 23 or next year's September 20th count whichever is higher and so I did want to point out that our enrollment was down approximately 29 FTE students this September 20th and we'll just kind of keep this chart
030going throughout the years so you can kind of see that how the budget lags behind the actual enrollment numbers and what we're forecasting for the future hmm another item in the audit was an increase in the students that qualified for free lunch for 22.23 one change that the state made this year is they automatically qualified Medicaid students that also qualified for free lunch based on income eligibility and so instead of having to do the free and reduced lunch app like everyone else needs to do they were automatically qualified by the state and so as as a state overall most districts did see quite an increase in their at-risk funding which is based on these students that qualify for free lunch we're also coming off of two years of having um having a different process in
031place using the household economic survey which never really people never really got the hang of that it wasn't responded to very well so we're back in 2223 we're back on the free and reduced lunch application and we had that change from the state that increased our at-risk funding another significant change is we're watching the virtual school students we had as of September 20th again we had 525 full-time students and 120 part-time students in that program also the time of year as we're wrapping things up before our June 30th fiscal year end that we start continue really to look at unpaid fees and you can tell by the chart I have a couple years of history on the amounts that we have assessed for fees around 3.2 million and this includes everything from instructional resource fees
032participation fees device fees if you lost property during the year and had to be charged for that this is a comprehensive list and in the pink you'll see these are the amounts that we sent to collections over the years now the 527 for this year is not a final number yet we are still collecting fees but we'll be sending them to collections this month and so we're concerned about the increase in unpaid fees um and and we're looking at different um ways to potentially handle that funny Cindy yes when you look at that number and that increase in fees does it is there an obvious category that it stands out of where those that increase is coming from or is it too early to tell at this point no I don't have the breakdown are
033you talking about which type of fee it came from yeah I'm just curious if if you can if you happen to know like if it came from more device fees or if it came from school fees and typically um when people pay their fees they're just paying towards um kind of the priority of fees as we go down them so I don't know that there would be a lot of choice in what they're paying for but I will look more into the details of that and hopefully in the future we can break this down a little bit more and report it even by categories of fees so that we have a little better information were you asking about categories for the unpaid fees or for the total fees collected unpaid the unpaid fees okay okay
034um and my question was related to the unpaid fees as well do we have a sense of how our history the last couple of years compares to other comparable districts um I do not I can try to gather that though um I don't want to ask you to gather if it wouldn't be helpful right I was just curious I do think um that are rules indicate how well we're going to collect fees or not and buy that if you're in a district that enforces payment of the fee before you can participate or gain access to something then people tend to pay quite a bit better we currently do not enforce any payment before they say play the sport or participate in the activity and so we do have unfortunately quite a few families that go
035to collection every year I think maybe in that regard then the more helpful information would not be the question I asked but the question that gr asked as to what categories of fees are tending to go unpaid yeah okay and um we can get all of that detail I can't it might only be for the last couple years again um because the system wouldn't let us go back like into the assessed but I'll see what I can get and and get some information back to you thank you very much let me just write that down um another uh fee type that I wanted to talk about we will we are looking at some additional costs that historically um that are more than what we've planned for historically are unpaid meal balances are up to ninety
036eight thousand dollars um this is much higher than we've seen or seen before um and this will impact not just the food service fund but since food service is a federal program they are not allowed to carry bad debt within the fund and so the bad debt um refers back to the district policy to Define that and so our policy says that bad debt is anything over 25 in the negative and so for every student that has an excess of 25 in the negative as of June 30th the district meaning general fund or lob or however we do that we'll need to reimburse the Food Service fund for somewhere up to seventy five thousand dollars depending on exactly where those fees land at the end of the year um and then that will allow the
037general fund to try to send those debts to collection and it will keep the Food Service Fund in the correct Financial place that it is supposed to be per the guidelines um I don't think we've had to do this before at least in recent history that we knew of so I wanted to to just convey that so we aren't collecting fees as well we're not getting meals paid for as well of course we did just come off of two years of free meals and so I'm sure that has been quite an adjustment for families to deal with that again another increase we have coming up is looking forward to the 24-25 budget as we were discussing health insurance and getting estimates um for this upcoming budget um we were told that based on our claims
038experience if we had not had a cap in place of a six percent limit that we our increase would have been a little over three million dollars for next year of course we did have that cap in place so that limited our increase of course we'll be bidding out insurance and doing everything on our behalf that we can but we do want to acknowledge that some type of significant increase is coming I've talked to other districts who do pay well over the amount that we do towards a single premium and so I think it's a um it's a reasonable amount that they are anticipating um and so we will need to plan ahead for that and for for the board and everyone can you just share an average of what we're paying for a single
039premium so we're paying I believe 581 dollars um for each full-time person uh for this uh full single premium um in the other districts that I talk to their average uh was in the 700 range per person and so that's why when I calculated out what their type of payment would be based on our number of employees we were kind of in the ballpark of that type of increase so um just just for folks that are listening when one thing that might be uh triggering for folks is when we talk about bidding out because we just did that and folks had to change their their provider so we would only do that if we were not able to negotiate a reasonable rate with Blue Cross Blue Shield correct um so I'm thinking out loud right
040now um we are not required to bet it out right and so what we could do is bet it out and see what the competition has but then still make our choice whether that's the lowest or not based on coverages and and that type of thing providers and we would have um we for those of us that are unfriend some On The Fringe committee and we work closely with advisors to help us make those decisions in a thoughtful way I think Erica has served on that committee as well um so that there will be a whole process because we just jumped in and I do have a another question I wanted to ask can you say when you say 500 per employee can you say is that per month is that per year oh I'm
041sorry so 581 is a per month cost per employee and in our district we we cover 100 of that we cover 100 percent we also pay dental and vision insurance for our full-time employees so when you talk about the districts where their premium is over 700 that's the cost of the premium but that doesn't necessarily mean that those districts are paying 100 of that so that's correct some of them are still paying a hundred percent some of them have started to ask have the employees pay a portion so that is a combination of different ways that they handle that so if the district is paying 700 their premium might actually be 750. yeah all right that's helpful context thank you in addition to the health insurance increase um are you aware of other insurance increases
042that the board should keep in mind in the budget process we did um plan for a property liability insurance increase of about 270 000 going into the 2324 budget and we were just informed today that it's going to be 50 or 60 000 more than that so yes um we're looking at I believe a 30 percent increase in that which you know what that put that puts the premium at um 1.3 something million I don't know the whole number that premium was down around 300 000 about five years ago I was I would like the community to know that and that's this is a particularly difficult area for school districts because there's not a competitive market in providing this insurance that's absolutely necessary for us to have so I'll just say similar to that we're
043seeing in terms of a competitive market when you look at the health insurance premiums we're additionally seeing less and less competition there it certainly it's not as dire as the circumstance of having you know one one insurer willing to engage with us as it relates to um not to health insurance but to premiums that you that you're you're referring to but it's getting more and more challenging to and not negotiate a premium that's affordable yeah and that 1.3 million comes out of general fund correct it does yeah okay thank you and when I say property liability it actually covers the whole gamut cyber Auto I just shorten it to the the Hefty cost of property and liability but it's the insurance you have to have in case one of your buildings burns down yes or
044somebody is catastrophically injured um when they visit your property or any number of other things that could happen right okay thank you okay I wanted to go over some legislative changes for uh the 2324 budget base aid for student Excellence which they call base now is following the uh the Ganon case which is a three-year average of the Consumer Price Index in the Midwest region which calculates out to be 5088 for next year this is a five percent increase over last year's base amount just for comparison the two years before that were three percent so that is a pretty good increase legislature also extended the high density at risk weighting through June 30th of 2027 they approved the safe and secure School Grants which we actually just applied for last week that covers security equipment
045or communication systems for example between the School District staff and law enforcement it would also cover new sros if they were brand new to positions at the district can I clarify is it sros or is it safety security officers or both sros are right now currently paid through the city Larry yeah is it SRI security officers sros okay it is security obviously I'm sorry security officers um the new legislation also allows school board members to be paid um a big change that I need you guys to start thinking about is the cost of living fund which we have taken advantage of for years there's a rule that says basically um if your district has a home valuation that exceeds the state average valuation by x amount then you can assess an additional Mill Levy via
046the cost of living fund so Lawrence has done that um historically and the change being that the calculation is different now and it increases the amount that the district could assess it's strictly a tax increase it does not have any state aid associated with it and so as we approach the August board meeting I believe it will be the first August board meeting we'll talk about what we want our Mill levies to be at in terms of the maximum amounts that we want to publish in the paper and then so we'll make a decision on that estimating High and that would be the time when you'll want to at least you know have that in your in the back of your mind about whether you potentially want to go there then at the September I
047believe the first September meeting is when we'll actually make those decisions on the final Mill Levis hey Cindy yes if we were to realize the entire the entirety of the increase in the cost of living change we would realize those funds in 24 25 correct not 23 24. you know I need to do some checking on that um because of I've heard a couple different things and I just want to verify before we before we count on that okay thank you I I would like to clarify that I do not want to see School Board member pay included in our budget as an individual board member I will not support that okay I would um and I would come back to why in a moment but um I would like to stay on this cost
048of living sure Peace So the cost of living fund the in the past when we what I needed help understanding in the past we have not utilized those funds toward wages correct um so the cost of living fund is super unique in that um the money gets paid to the state and then we get it back from the state so it goes a couple different ways and so in within the fund itself you're not going to see salaries or anything else used for that but it does increase the money that we have available um so what we use that for is our choice okay so for the community to know that when if the board made a decision this is just basic information because I understand that there is additional information that we need but
049I also anticipate that this will be part of our conversation on Wednesday which you and I had a moment to talk about the the negotiations meeting on Wednesday so the um it is possible for communities to now increase that Mill Levy and utilize that money to increase wages locally in a way that they had not prior but that that it would require that future boards continue to make that decision every year so a little bit in the way similar to why we might not use contingency funds not is it different because those are one-time funds it is possible for um Lawrence Lawrence School boards to make this decision one year and not the next year and if they didn't make it the next year then the district would have to make Cuts because those wage
050increases we have committed to ongoing yes okay thank you yes that's absolutely right and I think of it a little bit like um capital outlay okay we can assess a maximum of eight Mills capital outlay is easier though because it's Project based and so even if we plan to do half a million in Asphalt for the next five years if we decide to assess a lower Mill Levy then we just cut out those projects right and so once we've allocated them to wages though we are permanently um doing that okay thank you and it it has become a way then for the Kansas legislature to do things like not fully fund special education and to offset the cost of wages to the local governments as opposed to covering it as they are legally required to
051do so so yes with the cost of living fund um setting the middle Levee works just like it does for Capital alley it does right the board gets to decide every year or it has to publish every year yeah and it could be different every year um and is the are the changes to because this has not been a particular fund that we spend very much time talking about as a board right um are the changes to the way that is calculated that are creating this additional 1.2 million um how dependent are they on the property value increases like I'm just trying to understand how how they change the formula to get to this right so did they increase the the number of Mills that you can Levy or did they so the impact of
052it within the calculation it's um and I haven't I should have looked at it before tonight um but there was a couple different factors within the calculation itself that allows for an additional assessment but that will all result in a higher Mill Levy and then of course a higher tax payments based on the person's valuation okay yeah all right and then does this one get caught up in the revenue revenue new rate neutral so I don't believe hearing requirements the revenue neutral rate yeah um I don't think this is one of the ones that we have to report um it's it specifically just looks at certain funds um and I don't believe that this is one of them okay thank you so I just want to make one comment about allowing board members to be
053paid and why I would advocate for consideration so both are County and City Representatives receive a significant allocation for their service and time of which we devote a similar amount of time it is not unusual for board members to devote 20 hours a week in some cases and particularly those in leadership so the reason why I would consider that is the other thing that I think this board has talked about being important is representation from across the community and people from different socioeconomic statuses and I've served on the board with people from across the Spectrum and I know some of us have certainly lost days off we've lost we've had additional child care expenses and the amount that this might offset to run for the board itself some for some of us it's you know
054upwards of five thousand dollars or more so there are costs to participating in leadership at the board and for Equity purposes when we think about representation at the city and county level and the importance as we've seen through the pandemic of board leadership I do think there might be consideration for a nominal fee which could help encourage folks participating that otherwise are incurring Finance personal financial I appreciate that perspective I'll just clarify my opposition it stems from the reason why I think this was put into this session in the first place which is um for none of those reasons but rather that there are certain political groups in this state that would like to um be able to call into question the motives of board members for the advocacy that we do on behalf of
055students asking for additional money if we are paid then they get to dismiss our opinions even more than they already do and use that as a well you're just a pay you're just another person on the pay on the government payroll then we don't have to pay attention to you so I I respect the the position that you outlined and I I see the value in it my opposition is has more to do with how this will be used to damage um the advocacy around public schools and funding going forward so I think that's a really good conversation for us to have so I appreciate that other thoughts or questions before we let Cindy move on okay okay another change during the legislative session was when a school district is selling or disposing of real
056property legislature has the right of first refusal so what that means to us is the district must provide written notice of their intention to dispose of a building to legislature and my understanding is this would be real property meaning land or a school building but there's a lot of things that we don't have defined in in the communication so far um so we are supposed to notify of our intent to legislature then legislature has 45 days to adopt a resolution stating the intention for the state of Kansas to acquire the building if legislature is not in session they have 45 days from the start of their next regular session so there would definitely be some time the district would be on pause there foreign to our budget season which we are just entering now I
057want to go back a minute for planning purposes you know we look at planning during the whole fiscal year essentially the Futures planning committee met we're doing an assessment of needs for the next year but when it comes to actually working on the budget document and making the decisions are that is in primarily July August and September and so we will start our fiscal year on July 1 and then we will receive the budget software sometime the first week of July to begin working on that again since we have established since the state established the revenue neutral rate a couple years ago that delayed our process about a month and so now we are wrapping up budget decisions probably on the September 11th board meeting and submitting the budget to ksde and the county on
058September by September 20th Cindy as part of that schedule and this might actually be a question for Dr Lewis or for Patrick Kelly as part of that schedule at which one of those meetings will the board need to review the building-based needs assessments and make the required findings um for um those building-based needs assessments as part of the budget process so we're going to present you with the Building completed building needs assessment at your next meeting and so anytime after that you can consider those um could we add um to the calendar just a line item I think probably um the Board needs to make those findings at that September 11th meeting and include them in the minutes so I'm sorry what was that the board has to make specific findings at the meeting and
059include them in the minutes so could we note that on the on the calendar I think the September 11 meeting is the one we have to do that at okay um but just so that everybody is aware that that's when that will happen Okay thank you sure foreign so as we look forward to the 2324 budget the Futures planning committee was asking that we come up with staff Savings of 50 positions if at all possible at this point you know it seems to toggle a little bit every day but we are at approximately 48 FTE which equates to 3 million one hundred and twenty thousand the closing of two schools is tentatively at 693 thousand bringing budget Savings of 3 million 813 000. we're also anticipating an increase to base state aid of approximately 4
060million and so that will give us 7 million 813 000 towards next year's budget of course from this we need to set aside you know the insurance increases that we just talked about both for health insurance property liability insurance we also have some utility increases that we need to account for and then um just like we talked about from the Futures planning committee their primary goal was to achieve competitive wages for staff second goal was allocating funds for those annual cost increases that we just talked about and the third item in priority order was increasing District cash balances so I did want to spend a minute going over our historic June 30 unencumbered cash balances and so since we haven't finished the year yet I don't have 2023 on there but we will add it
061as soon as we have those numbers and then shown there is the goal that was established by the board in January of 2022. so you see our total between those various funds our goal is about 11 and a half million as of the end of last year in June we were at 5.3 million and a couple years before that we're at 4.2 and 4.3 um Moody's did downgrade our rating in um from a double A2 to double a three we also had a review from them in the spring of 2022 when they heard we were going through budget difficulties fortunately by the time we had that call with Moody's we had a plan in place the budget changes had already been made for the next year budget reductions and we the board had already established
062these goals for the cash balances and so I think that helped us to retain our rating last year and then we again had a rating call about a month ago for the potential refunding of bonds and it remained as well at the Double a three rating and so I've got here um the history and I have another page that goes back to 2010 that just really shows we had some really significant cash balances and then those started to decline say in 2015 um through about 2019 there we started using those fun fund balances and that coincided with block grants more or less yep uh we then got under the Gannon case and at this at the same time we're dropping enrollment so we started planning ahead for for that budget reduction yeah so I think
063our goal um you know it will just take a while to get there um under our current budget we essentially have um we are trying to keep those spots for vacancies and so we are utilizing substitutes as much as possible while maintaining trying to maintain those salary expenditures so any year that we have a significant amount of vacancies we will have a little bit left in that budget to go ahead and put towards cash balances and so that is how we will gradually increase these okay separate topic but I wanted to just kind of provide an update on our salary and benefit costs per student we looked at this during b-pec and the budget reductions last year so I just wanted to show you the updated version the pink is two years ago the dark
064blue is last year and the Orange is this fiscal year and you can see that the buildings are getting more efficient you know the question now is not so much finances but really you know how you want to handle um you know we've established ratios and and we're trying to keep with those and then also provide some support wherever we can so I will just continue to update this as the years go by if it's still of Interest I'll also add in the middle school and the high schools so you can see comparisons for them as well any other questions so I think this chart was not included in our material if we could get an updated one I think that'd probably be something useful to reference oh okay yeah I think the the we
065just need to refresh the attachment and board docs correct okay probably so yes sorry because I think I added the third year today okay thank you thank you so uh any questions for Cindy gr do you have any questions uh not that I haven't already asked okay thank you um Cindy to go back to that chart with the schedule so our next touch on this is going to be at the June 26th board meeting when we talk about the building needs assessments all right I have one more question that I didn't get that I um had before we sat down I forgot to ask about it's on slide six and it's about the debt collection um related for to the um uh Food Service fund okay so I want to make sure that I understood
066um what we will be doing with that moving forward and I don't mean to make you repeat yourself but that's fine it are we now at a place I think I heard you say that for the first time we may be utilizing debt collection to to get that 75 000 is that correct yes so a couple things are new with this the general fund will be paying Food Service approximately 75 000. okay and then yes uh the we as a district will send the 75 000 to collections okay on top of the fees that aren't paid on the slide before okay and is there um and maybe this question for Dr Lewis is there can you talk a little bit about how we've worked with families to help avoid that for them the debt collection
067piece on lunch or student fees that now we're in either case I guess would be so if it's student fees if a student qualifies for free reduced lunch they can get those fees waived okay obviously they're on free lunch obviously they don't pay for lunch don't um uh incur any expenses unless they purchase something out of the cart but they will have to have money for that or reduce likewise so we in the past have been working with outside organizations that contribute to those funds to help us with that that but it's my understanding that this includes those gifts of those outside organizations that have already helped contribute thank you for that additional information and in a typical year is is it correct to say that in a typical year we do not have to
068transfer money from general fund to Food Service because Food Service typically is completely self-sustaining in terms of their I see I see polymer shaking her head back there okay um yeah and as things change and food cost increases you know we're we're living pretty well right now because we had two years of federally federally funded lunches and the rate that they pay is higher than the rate we charge and so that built up our balance um you know that doesn't guarantee that in the future we won't start dwindling down that balance a little bit and have to support it it looks like maybe we have some additional information come on up hi I'm Julie Henry I'm the director of nutrition and wellness for the district so the transfer of funds for this purpose has to
069occur regardless of the balance of the Food Service fund there is a state statute that the food service fund has to stay negative but the bad debt policy is separate from that so no matter the status of the Food Service fund this has to occur because of what our bad debt policy is okay and the future of the chain a change in the bad debt policy could be something weak the board could consider but this time as that policy is written this is the direction we have to go okay so would you are is there any recommendation then to the board and maybe this for Paula or additional time or you to discuss but for us to look at that policy closer I think it would be great for the board to visit revisit that
070policy that bed debt policy and see how we want it worded because that changes how our department approaches bad debt and then what the district's obligation is in paying for it and when that obligation occurs there's there's a lot of different directions the district can go with that and they all have pros and cons so I don't know that it's a it's there's no quick easy answer to it but I think it's worth a visit okay we can add that to the policy committee agenda thank you yeah I would ask Dr Lewis then if we are if the district is wanting to have that conversation and the policy venue definitely need staff to put together recommendations to the policy committee for the policy to committee to consider in that area no there are no other
071questions thank you very much thank you Dr Lewis did you have anything you wanted to add on this our next report is our farm to school report with Denise Johnson director of Elementary curriculum Julie Henry director of nutrition and wellness and ponteleon Flores experiential learning specialist good evening I'm Denise Johnson director of Elementary curriculum Julie Henry director of nutrition and Wellness and panteleon Flores the experiential learning specialist I coordinate the work based learning program and the farm to school program so I have to just start and say that this is one of my favorite things to talk about um so what you see on the screen here is our timeline for Farm to school and I wanted to just kind of begin there to share a little bit of History we have I could have
072asked I probably could have put pages and pages of what we've done over the last several years in farm to school but I and the accomplishments that have taken place but I wanted to just give you just a snapshot of some of the things that have happened and how the majority of the work has taken place with grants so I definitely want to make sure that I give credit to polymerish our previous food service director it was her vision and her work on the large USDA grant that actually started this amazing program so Farm to school encompasses all efforts it connects students to their food it utilizes the cafeteria the garden classrooms and all of these efforts are just experiential learning opportunities that connect kids in the garden farm tours we use our culinary our
073AG education and I just have to start by saying some of my very Fondest Memories as an educator was digging in the dirt with the kids so as you see the picture to the right with all the buckets that's our Bucket Brigade and that happened at schwegler it actually happens at all of our elementaries when we refresh the garden boxes with compost and Mulch and the kids just come out with a bucket and kindergartners have three hands on one bucket to drag it to the spot so it's just one way of being able to utilize that space um we intentionally placed Gardens as you can see in Summit well I guess you can't quite see but you can see in the schwegler picture we intentionally placed the gardens in the elementaries either on or near
074the playground because that then gives the students an opportunity I'm going to swing I'm going to run with my friends I'm going to play kickball or I'm going to dig in the dirt so we do have kids doing that throughout and a couple of I shared the story of The Bucket Brigade but probably one of my favorites is at Woodlawn Elementary they always plant corn and the gardens are small so like 12 rows or four rows of corn with three in each row so very small but they always have a corn maze so you can only imagine peeking behind the little corn stalks so it's just an opportunity to really engage the kids in Outdoor Learning and I just think that that's an important part of their education so in addition to the gardens another
075piece of the farm to school program is the nutrition Wellness portion and how those two intersect so as a brief overview nutrition and wellness is funded through the federal meals program reimbursements and meal fees our department runs the national school lunch program the school breakfast program the child and adult care food program the after-school snack program and the summer food service program we have 18 production kitchens that serve 22 sites we are currently staffed at 78 percent and we have 78 food service positions across the district and how does that compare across the state for Staffing yeah I think we're doing all right I'd still like to see the number higher of course but Staffing this year has been a challenge for food service departments across across the country really not just across the state
076in terms of local food and School meals this upcoming year so program year 24 we did receive an allocation from ksde through the USDA Agricultural Marketing service of 29 000 to be used specifically for domestic minimally processed local Meats so we will be spending that money on local beef and that will cover our local beef needs or our our beef needs for the school lunch program for the fall semester we're really excited about that opportunity to bring in some higher quality meat products our produce commitment for this upcoming school year is around 30 39 000 milk in Kansas is also considered a local product it's all locally sourced and last year or this past school year we spent 164 000 on milk bringing our total local food estimate for next school year to around 232
077000. our total food budget is around 2.6 million which means about nine percent next year give or take is going to be our estimate for our local food budget for next year our farm to school um assess is that in the winter we have a bid meeting with a RFP process so local farmers and producers can submit requests for proposals and tell us what they have what prices they're they're looking at for the next school year so through that process this year we have secured agreements for about 13 000 pounds of seasonal produce from six local farms and you can see the variety there tomatoes peppers watermelon cantaloupe a wide variety of things these Farmers also indicate if they would like to work with the public schools through coming to speak to students letting students
078tour their Farms or coming and just helping out in the classroom or helping with the with the school Gardens so a lot of our farmers are really excited not only to provide us with the produce but then also to get involved in the educational aspect as well and that visibility also helps students see that farming is a career and is a career pathway for for them as well which is where I hand it over to panta I just also wanted to recognize in the audience Lori Greenfield is the garden coordinator at Prairie Park and has been there for a long time and we have stole we stole Megan Epperson who was the music teacher of Broken Arrow and also the garden coordinator there and she is now in her position so Farm to school is
079really three-fold it's procurement as Julie just mentioned it's also School Gardens and garden education I actually came into this position straight out of Agriculture I am still a farmer I think the first time I was introduced to Dr Lewis I came in from a half day from the field and overalls muddy and had been introduced by Denise and he said yes you are the farm to school coordinator I can see that so I'm really excited to be in this work and the position itself experiential learning Specialists under two programs it's amazing how much overlap there is so I kind of wanted to highlight and steal a little bit of farm to school time for work based learning as well but also show you how well aligned it is so before you you see the Kansas
080work based learning Continuum that Continuum contains elements of career awareness exploration and preparation and as I go through our Gardens and our garden education we'll kind of see how those all tie in really nicely together so first I want to start with our Learning Gardens is a really big aspect of career awareness so we have Garden clubs we have Community work days we also have Garden coordinators at all the sites and oftentimes co-coordinators I think our high school is now up to four coordinators there are so many Educators interested in engaging in those spaces we also have high school volunteer days that's with their uh the health classes and also soon to be FFA chapters as well and one of the things I'm really excited about is actually integrating Farm to school into the K-5
081curriculum so I'll be kind of auditing Mystery Science finding where the things teachers are already required to teach align and putting together some Frameworks for them to to make that integration relatively seamless I really want them not to have something extra added on top to feel like Farm to school is just one more thing they have to do but to show them like we have these amazing spaces at all of our our locations and we just gotta get you connected to those coordinators and get you tied into the gardens we also have production Gardens so this is where we get into career exploration and preparation uh Southwest Middle School is an amazing example Perry Canard has been really hard at work over there on what I would definitely call a farm um he sells he
082and his students who he hires and pays through sales sell to places like The Merck HyVee Merchants there's a Wednesday evening Farmers Market a Clinton Parkway Nursery from 4 30 to 6 30 and then also directly into food services so that's kind of how they're funding paying those paying those students so there's a really amazing program there we do have one Garden that is run by an outside organization that's growing food growing Health one of our our oldest Gardens for sure they have a leadership program that does a free market and actually just gives away all that produce and they've donated 30 000 pounds of produce since 2010 so really really amazing work by Nancy over there at West Middle School we also have what I would like to say is some amazing potential energy
083when it comes to agricultural Career and Technical education so we have really well functioning greenhouses at both high schools really proud of the infrastructure that we have and we have AG teachers over there who are just really excited about their work getting just kind of getting started in their careers and and teaching um and we also now have active status FFA chapters I get to be the advisor uh to that one and I really want to look at this as an opportunity for our students to be introduced to agriculture but also to potentially provide an Avenue for entry into agriculture I know as a state and as a country we have a very aging farmer population around I think it's like two percent of people know how to grow their own food which is kind
084of scary when you think about it in those terms um and so we have a whole lot of potential energy when it comes to you know what's going on especially at our high school level it's pretty amazing so we have some additional Partnerships that we've been creating over the last few months I work with the Kansas food Action Network which is a network of all the food policy councils around the state and also ksde we actually presented to the house and the Senate Ed committees in one of our action days and so I got to go to Topeka and explain how awesome this district is and and how well we're doing with Farm to school that didn't go unnoticed by ksde the state of Kansas was selected to actually go to a national Farm to
085school adapters Institute in Vermont and they tapped me to tag along for that and so we'll be I'll be going to Vermont the last week of this month to get a whole bunch of information about how to spread Farm to school across the state and then I'll be working with ksde to do a Tri-State Farm to school Institute with Nebraska and Missouri and so we'll have the um you know the the department of educations of both those States the agricultural extensions of both those States in on those conversations to really further all that work through 2026 so really big longer term projects happening and we get to kind of be right in the middle of it it's pretty amazing uh We've also done some grants so I I inherited a grant a really amazing one
086called meal prep buddies program through the Douglas County Community Foundation and live well that one's really amazing program because we worked with our fax classes to put together meal kits for families who frequent in the pantry and we sent them home with these meal kits and recipes which are also translated into Spanish for the families who needed that in Spanish and then they could you know cook those meals together at home with Garden from or produce from the garden as well so that was that was a really cool program that I got to get involved with right off the bat we also applied for quite a few of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas uh grants we were awarded three for our school Gardens so Woodlawn cordly and Langston Hughes were awarded those and
087then the the adapters Institute also came with a stipends to get us out there so it was no additional cost to get me to Vermont and I'll also be able to have a little bit of funding beyond that to do some more projects that that we needed our at our schools and I cannot honestly now proudly say as of last Tuesday we have a garden every single school last Tuesday we rebooted the juvenile detention center Garden so when I say every single school I mean every single School so we have a whole lot to be proud of when it comes to what we've got in place for sure there's an additional Grant opportunity that we want to put on everyone's radar panta and I we we applied for a USDA AG marketing lfp piece so
088that's a local food promotions program Grant this grant is a planning Grant with a two-year timeline the goal of that Grant is to run a feasibility study to create a Community Bakery that sources and uses local Kansas wheat to produce baked goods for the district and then also has partners with the students so the students have the opportunity to learn selling skills and run a bakery and do all the the stuff that goes along with that we won't know if we get awarded that Grant until October 2023 that one was a night is a 91 000 we wrote it for a 91 000 Grant fingers crossed that we get it and then we can work on that that planning so the first step would be a planning Grant after that planning process then we'd have
089to write another grant for an implementation Grant but that's how some of these big Pros projects you know work to get funding to do those so that's down the road we're also looking to expand breakfast this year which does incorporate the local fruits that we had talked about previously we were starting check Second Chance breakfast at both high schools this upcoming school year excited for that opportunity for high school kids to have breakfast at a slightly different time as opposed to when they first come into the school and then breakfast in the classroom providing that as an option for elementary administrators to decide if it's a good fit for their school and if it is then um breakfast in a classroom is a good way to get additional nourishment and breakfast to students at the
090beginning of the school day we did submit a fresh fruit and veggie program application Grant to run a pilot program at Hillcrest Hillcrest was interested and reached out to me about running that program that program provides a fruit or vegetable snack to the elementary school kids and you can utilize those funds to bring in some unique and different fruits and vegetables that you might not otherwise be able to afford in the school meals programs but you can also use it for local produce which is a nice way to once again incorporate those those our local local economy into into our programs so that those are some things that we are looking forward to and hopeful for the future are there questions we can answer for you all at this time I just I just have
091one um and they're looking to head Slide the district and Community Bakery assuming everything works out the way that you would like it to do do you have a targeted location in mind of where that Bakery would physically be located I think that's a part of the the feasibility study would be looking at what options are available in the district and then what the costs of those different options would be so we would we wouldn't look at buying additional space But we would I don't know we would see what the experts in that sort of planning say and and go from there okay thank you gr Kelly I have to I cannot believe you also Farm I mean all right really to share okay um so that is um that is like taking my breath
092away actually as I know the way that you've contributed to the district so thank you I want to just congratulate you on really an outstanding program and it's a piece of Lawrence School District that I'm particularly proud of as a community member um and the emphasis on local food but also the way that you've built it into the curriculum and talked to the kids about the way that it's from and it tastes good so when we get to go and um and eat at the the schools which happens for us occasionally um the particularly the food that's local is really it's really good so um thank you for all the work you're doing I will take just another second to say that I grew up in a bakery a local bakery and we use locally
093sourced food and traded to make the bakery run with farmers and I know what a big impact that can have on kids so I'm very excited to see how that project comes to fruition and hopefully we hear back from you that you were awarded it and then I will be a giant cheerleader so please let us know I think I just want to add um you know that first slide that Denise had with the timeline I I really inherited a lot of amazing work over more than a decade and a lot of that work that Denise did herself so I also want to thank her and all my predecessors for really setting us up to be at the point that we're at right now um thank you very much as a program really to be
094proud of in our district and I appreciate the thorough update I just want to particularly note how much I appreciate that you've expanded the school Gardens to include our jdc that is something when we talk about programs when we talk about equity and we talk about data um we often talk at the board table about making sure that we are including those students in that program and so thank you for being proactive and expanding those opportunities for those kids um other questions Carol yeah hi this is Carol I just um don't have so many well I do have a few questions but I like I would like to thank you for your work my in-laws are they sell eggs at the at the Mark and there are they sell chicken eggs and duck eggs so
095I you know I just I just love your work and you know my in-laws they depend on you know the scraps from The Mark to feed our chickens so it's um it's full circle but um I would like to know if at Woodlawn has there is there talk or considerations for you I applaud the efforts to grow corn and Woodlawn I love the produce from North Lawrence I am excited every year because I only grew up going to North Lawrence to you know look for cantaloupe and watermelon it's the best that I've ever had but um specifically the Three Sisters Garden it's some corn squash you're nodding your heads and beans because they all they work together to deter weeds and insects so has that been done in Woodlawn or other Gardens I'm not 100
096sure about wood blonde but I know the inner tribal Club at LHS and I planted a three sisters bed for for demonstration have you seen it Billy Mills has also done the three sisters beds okay and with that I know that we have an mou with Haskell Indian nations University in November they were awarded a 20 million dollar Grant from the National Science Foundation has there but any talks to expand efforts to work with them to combat climate change and maybe use the land at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School for the the former football field for a garden expansion or some greenhouses out there so I've been uh in a couple meetings with the dean of the School of Business and we're definitely talking about um potentially thinking through a Nas uh Garden I know
097he's got a lot of funding that he's really wanting to to see what we can do with and so those conversations have definitely have definitely begun uh specifically with uh the dean of the School of Business I'm not sure if that's separate funding I think it might be separate funding from what you're talking about is that for the science Hub the 20 million yes yeah so I've definitely tied into that as well with some members of the indigenous Community Center and we'll be we'll be definitely talking through that when it comes to work based learning and and farm to school but there's also another conversation happening with their School of Business as well to to see what to do over by uh in that space yeah all right well thank you I program in Dallas
098the Dallas area where the the former football the team they weren't doing very well so they just scrapped the football program because they couldn't simply couldn't afford it so they converted the space into greenhouses and like what you are doing you're teaching the kids the business model and the importance of you know growing growing our you know local plants but the the students they blew me away because they would sell the produce to the Dallas Cowboys and then they would learn you know how the the important they would learn about the importance of local food healthy food yeah and I think I'll also add um from you know my farm perspective I'm also primarily now that I have I'm obviously working here full-time I I'm I run seed breeding programs and so I also do
099seed Reclamation work with the seed banks that the USDA has all around the country and have talked to the intertribal clubs about um accessing their ancestral seeds and doing work with you know the seeds of their tribes and and reclaiming those if they don't have them too so we're we're working on that as well send my thanks to this this time I just want to thank the board for their support right you've supported this for a number of years and thank you for continuing to do that yeah this is definitely an All-Star team you know to have Denise Johnson and she mentioned Paul as well I've been in the district for a while and very passionate about this project and have done a tremendous amount of work to get it to where it is and
100to have Julie from ksde come in to to continue to help us and then Punta Leon who's just hit the ground running since he's been here I thought I was having a first conversation with the folks at Barry Plastics and then they mentioned him that he had already had a conversation with them and I've set up a situation to have maybe 12 students at Berry Plastics but to have a gardening in every single School Shannon as you shared is is truly remarkable and I don't know of many school districts that have have done that and and so um the um and we couldn't do it without the community volunteers as well that come in over the summer to help water the garden and and take care of it and so that's that's truly remarkable but
101most importantly to see the students getting their hands in the dirts and and could tell you all about the fruits and vegetables is just really remarkable and I know the the the budget presentation was in intriguing but I think this may be a good headline Rochelle for our farm to school program thank you thank you all very much okay I'm going to call five minute recess we will return at 7 40 at which time we will recess to Executive session for discussion of negotiations and there will not be any action to follow that executive session um it's slated to be I believe 30 minutes so we'll be back in about five minutes thank you at this time we have an executive session can I ask a board member to please read the motion and to
102note that we have revised our estimation of how long we need for executive session down from 30 to 20 minutes so please make the motion for a 20-minute executive session if nobody has it pulled up I can read it I'll read it that's okay I moved the Board of Education recess to Executive session to protect the public interest in negotiating a fair an equitable contract to discuss negotiations pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations under coma with Dr Anthony Lewis Cindy Frick Kristen Ryan Kevin Harrell Dr Larry Engelbrecht and Megan Epperson invited to be present with the board to return to open session at 803 in this room with no action to follow Eric Bell II could do Blackwood yes yes Jones yes Kimball yes Hill yes motion passes 5-0 foreign session and there
103is no action to follow our executive session so Dr Lewis do you have closing announcements for us okay all right then a motion to adjourn so moved Eric L second all in favor aye aye we are adjourned thank you very much