2020 September 14 Lawrence Board of Education Meeting

001so I think the only board member that's missing right now this is Kelly Jones is um Melissa and she told me she might be driving in on the front end of this um of the uh work session um so we can probably go ahead and get started here in the next two or 3 minutes we can just give a couple more minutes to try to join that would be great are we also Missing Carol looks like it okay see if she's having trouble logging in Dr Le do you want to go ahead and start I haven't heard yet from from Carol yeah okay yes we can go ahead and get started good evening everyone we are excited again to present another um episode if you will of our together again update I think this is

002episode five and during this update I want to steal Patrick Kelly's thunder in terms of sharing what we will cover uh at this board meeting but we will look at uh pretty much how things have been going uh thus far as you know this is beginning our second week with our um first six weeks of online learning and so we'll kind of talk about how things are going and then what we uh can expect effect um going forward and toward the end we definitely would want to get some feedback from uh the board in terms of uh information that will be needed for our September 28th board meeting so with that I will turn it over to Patrick Kelly our executive director of curriculum instruction and he will uh share the agenda for today and

003what we will discuss Patrick good afternoon good early evening to you it's good to see you all again thanks for your service um I'm sharing my screen with you let me go to present mode here for our next edition of our update um as usual we provide you a little bit of a timeline um of what's happened since the last time we updated you on October 27th uh education unified command move the risk level from green to Yellow the next day uh Administration decided to continue high-risk Sports and activities while we are in yellow um on September 1st through the 3D we had our first uh virtual parent teacher conferences um got a lot of feedback from staff and from principes that these went very well um on September 8th uh we began remote learning

004for all staff and students in usd497 and on behalf of our entire team we want to express our our real appreciation for our f amilies our students our teachers our administrators for their flexibility for their resilience for their creativity um this hasn't been easy and it's taken a ton of work to to to get started last week um you know for our students and families their patients um as we try to iron out problems um for our teachers um and our administrators they work closely with those students and families so they really have to make it work in the end and we understand what a huge task that is we're all going to keep working to do our best to to get this to work we're going to share some student voices with you but

005just from our entire team our appreciation to to our teachers our staff our families and and most of all our students for their work during this time the last thing on this timeline here is education unified command maintain that risk of yellow on September 10th so moving into our agenda for today we're going to talk about student engagement and learning logs a little bit um and some of that is brand new news as of today at 12:30 so we're going to share that information with you we have some guests from Bert Nash here also to discuss a building bridges program that has to do a student engagement we're going to talk about student and family internet access that Conrad is here um to discuss technology uh Rick Henry is going to talk about sports and

006activities uh we're we're going to give you an update on hybrid and distance learning and how our plans are evolving for hybrid learning and where we are right now with our distance learning and then finally Dr Stubblefield will talk about student support centers as part of Education unified command I wanted to pause here and ask the board uh we talked this morning um how would you prefer we can stop after each presenter and give you an opportunity to ask questions or or we can go all the way to the end um just do the presentation and then have you ask questions do you have a preference on that board members uh I actually prefer the presentation and then ask questions but that's just personal this is Carol are there any objections to that no that

007would be my preference to just to go all the way through through and then ask at the end okay my um my only request would be that you watch the time if we do that to allow for board uh conversation and that board members are keeping track of their questions as they go along so that we don't lose them um but at I think around 6 I'd probably step in and ask for you all to wrap it up sure we don't if we haven't had conversation yet I think that will work really well Kelly thanks for that okay so on to the first section which is on student engagement and I'm GNA invite Darcy Krauss our director of elementary schools to visit about elementary engagement good evening um thanks for this opportunity it's it's fun

008to share good news with you and and I'd like to reiterate um Patrick's acknowledgement of our teachers and our building leader our support staff it has been a heavy lift to launch as you can well imagine and they've done an amazing job so we have some numbers uh to demonstrate that um our average daily attendance for week one for elementary is coming in at 96% um really close to 97% depending on the day and the site it the range was between 92% and some buildings we even had 100% on some days definitely attribute this as we talked about to the dedication and and perseverance of the staff everywhere um and also we've been exploring um some intentional Partnerships with the boys and girls club and several uh daycare centers to to augment our student um

009attendance and engagement by partnering with them ahead of time on the technical side of things and um them crafting their schedules around ours to to help our little ones get on and and participate and then Rick Henry's got to visit a little bit about secondary student engagement thank you Patrick um I I too would like to highlight the amazing things our students staff and families have accomplished leading up to the start of school this past Tuesday I really appreciate all of our staff members who have worked long hours to bring us to this point it's as Darcy said it's been a heavy lift uh we too are pleased with our first week attendance data um in terms of average daily attendance for the first week Middle School came in at at 95.1% high school 94.7%

010um if you want to look from range from lowest to highest by grade level um in week one uh Middle School had a range of 92.5 to 9 6.7 and and again by grade level high school had a low of 90.2 uh up to a high of 96 uh percent really really pleased with that uh we will keep an eye on that moving forward because we certainly want to want to maintain that high rate thought I would throw in since this was about student engagement thought I would throw in a little little information about extracurricular involvement at the high school level uh we have combined 154 students involved in Fall events fall activities at the high school level that does include Athletics debate and and our music um participants at the middle school level uh

011we're happy to have two nearly 300 involved and and that number is just Athletics um and and remember there there are more opportunities at the high school level for participation so um in terms of where we are in the world right now uh those are those are pretty good numbers so little of conversation now about learning laws and adult contacts and uh Zach um Conrad our executive director of technology and assessment is going to address this information so this is actually old news as of 12:30 uh today the Kansas State Department of Education has made some adjustments uh but I wanted to go over some of the things that we've been working on up to this point to make this happen and Darcy and Rick and all of our building administrators have been doing an

012amazing job at ensuring that we had learning logs in place and uh that just shifted on us today at 12:30 but what hasn't shifted is our count day is still September 21st this day I cannot overemphasize how important this day is uh for funding purposes this is the day that we count our students and funding is based upon uh this number that gets audited for about a month or so um a lot of work goes into making sure these numbers are correct and learning logs uh was going to be key and essential and the adult contact uh the meaningful da adult contact into making sure that our count day was successful this year uh and so we went through and created a couple different logs ways for buildings to keep track of those students uh

013that were not in attendance online that we didn't see that day but they did complete learning that day and so those students were required by KSD at the time to complete a law log and to have meaningful teacher contact uh and so Darcy worked with Elementary principles uh to create logs within Google forms and actually go back a second sorry and uh we worked with in the secondary to create Logs with Rick Henry and those building administrators uh and our it team to build logs within power school now they also needed to have meaningful daily contact with teachers uh and so we were um building methods to collect that information and that information is actually going to carry forward uh so uh KS the KSD allowed us to calculate the minutes a little differently uh

014depending on each child's situation to get them to 360 um next slide please uh in the process that we had in place that we were gearing up for and that we we sent out some information on and all schools were prepared for uh schools were to pull the daily attendance of each student and they were to look at those students that either had a zero or 0 five meaning they missed something that day uh they would then take those student names and look in the logs to make sure that uh those students had a log that they did work uh and the elementary and secondary like I mentioned had different methods for doing this but this is a labor intensive process uh for all of our staff that are they were so willing to step

015up and complete this task but because they all of our kiddos are remote this was necessary for us to get funding and it's a big lift that they were all willing to do and we are a bit thankful that ksde uh has shifted uh our requirements uh but we are also very grateful that our buildings uh we're willing to take this on uh considering the situation and such short notice uh on getting this up and running uh so from collecting that information there were to go into the attendance and then Mark it as learning log we no longer have to do that processes of 12:30 today or at least part of that process so the adult the meaningful adult contact will still move forward can you next slide so the new process that KSD just

016let us know about at 12:30 this afternoon that we're still digging into so it's still somewhat new to us and we have to go back and start to hash out what all this means uh for all the little details uh but instead of a log we have these remote learning assurances that are very similar to what the the board has already signed off on uh when they signed uh the remote assurances for the state department so this needs to be signed by every student or the parent or Guardian uh so on the log that we have received copies of the parent will list out all the students and then there are three requirements that they are or assurances that they are committing to they sign it and we get that back now we have to

017create a whole new plan of what this looks like for buildings to collect this data and so that's going to be something um tomorrow that we start diving into heavily uh the daily meaningful contact is still required so we still need to keep records of reaching out to parents and tracking how we are making contact with those students who are not in attendance uh that we don't see face to face uh or sorry uh virtually uh and so again I can't emphasize this enough it's brand new to us uh this came out at 12:30 although we heard some Rumblings about it we just saw it at 12:30 today uh and so it's still going to take us a little time to work with building administrators to really roll out what this is going to look

018like we don't need to have these logs or these assurances signed U by the 21st but they will be audited so we need them as soon as POS possible so we will start messaging this out uh to make sure that parents are aware that U building principles and administrators understand how this is to be collected and what we're going to do um to ensure that we have that meaningful daily contact because we cannot the kiddos do not count for us we lose funding on them if we don't have the learning assurances and we aren't making daily meaningful contact so we need both of those elements in order to count our students as a full-time student and receive funding for them so this is a very important process for us uh and we need to make

019sure that uh it works as effectively and efficiently as possible for our parents uh and our administrators who are taking this on thank you so one of the things we learned over continuous learning uh in the end in the spring was that every once in a while we have a student who maybe Falls in that 8% maybe they were absent a lot um and we just lost contact with them um it could be for a technology reason it could be because they moved to stay with a grandparent who could support them during the day um it could be a mental health reason and so when the cares acting funding came through um we are pleased to partner with Berke Nash on a program called Building Bridges to um support um how we reach out to

020those students who we may have seen uh consecutive days where they are not engaged in learning and we've invited Stephen O'Neal the CEO of Bert Nash uh and Judy Rodman the director of Child and Family Services um from Bert Nash to join us and tell us a little bit about building bridges and uh their timeline for getting that kicked off so um Judy and Stephen if you could unmute your mics and take about five or six minutes and talk a little about the program all right uh thank thank you Patrick and uh thank you to the school board and all of the school staff uh before Judy talks because she's the real expert here uh I just want to let the school board and Dr Lewis know how much we've appreciated uh working with your

021team the staff of usd497 uh Kevin herel and jse Coro have been uh particular Al um great to work with and I would say in the last two years I've seen the relationship between our two entities um get stronger and stronger uh and uh I'm I'm just so pleased with with where we're at today and and this tremendous opportunity uh for for the students I'm a proud parent of three uh Lawrence Public School students and I know uh how how much families and kids are struggling to adapt to this environment so thank you and Judy I'll I'll turn it over to you you're really the expert here and I'll just hang out the background thank you everyone um when we start talking about this proposal what we talked about was what we learned in the

022spring and some of the things that happened in the spring is we did see some of those students that that fall fell off of everyone's radar um so when we start having these conversations I contacted some of our rap Specialists and start started getting some input from them and what we realized is some of our tier three kids our higher Acuity kids were doing better in the remote learning and they had those wraparound services in place where they really seemed to be doing fairly well we had a few exceptions but they overall they seem to be doing really well what surprised us was some of our tier 2 kids that were on everybody's radar but wasn't considered a high-risk kid were some of the kids that really struggled and we heard a lot of feedback

023that sometimes it was the technical they were having problems with bandwidth in their home because there was three students trying to connect at one time or parents that were doing um at home work and the children doing online learning so some of the struggles were bandwidth some were kids emotional needs that suddenly you know they were able to manage in the school setting when they came to school every day and KN knew what to to expect but when life became unpredictable we saw some anxiety and depression symptoms really start to increase we also saw some struggles with parents parents that were otherwise doing really well suddenly they were struggling with with needing to change the environment and how school was being handled um and so we saw some real family systems issues come to surface

024and so when we started talking about this this program what we had discussed was bringing in six case management level staff that would work from noon to 8:00 pm every day of the the week or the school week um Monday through Friday and the purpose of that would be to have some school hours where they could be meet with building Administration if they needed to te teachers Educators um school counselors School social workers School psychologists rap Specialists really our mental health teams our care teams to find out who are the kids that are really ramping up and that are on everybody's radar and with those Case Management Services then those individuals are able to go to the family's home and to help to assess what is their needs at this moment and plug in those

025Services where needed um we really felt it was also important to look at some of those kids that maybe came on our radar that day that were in crisis um what I heard from the rap specialist is it always seems that when there's a crisis with a kid and we have a child experiencing suicidal ideation that comes to our radar toward the end of the day so everyone's scrambling to make sure that those individuals have the support they need with having the case management support if we start a plan and we're needing to transition to the to home Community settings that person could be the person building the bridges between the school the the the family unit um and Community Resources that maybe they're needing to be successful we also wrote the proposal to have

026two parent or caregiver support positions um and that's because of the feedback that we were hearing from family systems is that some of the families started struggling with some of their own symptomology or managing with how to create the structure managing how to parent um what what we heard from parents was that they now have a lot of respects for teachers and Educators because they realize their child's behaviors are different when giving instruction to education as compared to what they were experiencing at home and they didn't know how to support their child around this so having the case manager that could go in the home and really be the communication between the school and the family we just felt would be really successful um and then again helping with that social learning um some of

027the skills that we use at school to help the child be successful those parents don't necessarily know those same skill set so having the individual that could go in and work with the family unit maybe work on some let's do some big muscle activity before it's time to do our math so that way you could be engaged and sitting sit in your seat and be able to do your math lesson or maybe we have a kid that's really has problems with social anxiety so let's do some mindfulness and some regulations so then you're able to to do your activity with school um so we're very excited about this opportunity we're very hopeful that this is going to fill a gap that we feel that that we currently are experiencing and it's really to focus on

028those after school hours um I think the schools do an excellent job of supporting students during those school hours and then we have those after hours where then we have some struggles and then we know that that following day you may have some carryover behaviors that show up when you're trying to do instruction um so we are happy to to to do this part ship we're happy to be able to to add the six case management positions into caregiver positions caregiver support positions and a manager position that we'll have a team that is just dedicated to building the relationships with our schools so thank you thanks Judy thanks Stephen and if you all could just hang out for a little bit in case board members have questions that would be great thank you uh we're

029going to invite Zach to join us again and talk about access for students and family as related to technology all right thank you Patrick Zack Conrad executive director of data and Technology um so we have tried diligently to ensure that our students and families have access to the teachers while we are remote uh we have the 1 million project partnership with T-Mobile Sprint it's actually the 10 million project now we're limited to 150 hot spots uh through Sprint T-Mobile and we have kept those hotpots at the high school there is an application process uh for uh a Hotpot a 1 million project hotspot we also have purchased board approved 300 hot spots through AT&T uh they both have unlimited data both the one Moon project and the 300 uh hotspots that we purchased from AT&T

030uh we looked at free and reduced price uh percentages at each building and we divided up the hot spots according to those percentages we then delivered those hotspots uh to Librarians and Librarians have been um just amazing right now uh in the support that they've been able to offer uh The District in delivering hotspots and checking out devices uh this has been uh something unique and different this year uh that we've been in this situation and so um a huge shout out Round of Applause for our librarian staff and their willingness to uh support us in helping families receive these hot spots uh we still have some students that have needs out there and we are working with midco uh to have a similar Pro process as we did last year uh to provide internet

031connectivity there's a few more things that we have to work out um in before we can offer that um but hopefully we're pretty close there and that'll be a better solution uh that will provide more permanent internet connectivity uh through midco and they've been a terrific partner for us and so we're hoping to keep that going we also had uh device handouts again this was very unique to us uh that students were able to keep devices over the summer and so it was a bit tricky getting them in uh once we get them in we clean them uh we wipe them from uh the they were attached to a student so we have to wipe all that information off of there we refresh it and we send it back out so that turnaround uh takes

032some time uh We've we've had a lot of dedicated staff uh in our department we are very few there's uh six uh IT staff uh building techs that have supported this process uh and they've done a phenomenal job of juggling this with other responsibilities uh and I can't thank them enough for all of their hard work that they've put in uh during this process uh we supported the buildings as they handed out the devices they had multiple uh handout days we tried to ensure that every student uh got a device uh there are still a few more out there uh that we are attempting to track down to make sure that they have devices uh but all in all our buildings did phenomenal work scheduling that uh getting the message out to families tracking down

033those that uh didn't have a device and making sure that they had the opportunity to pick up a device whether here at the district office or there at their building uh so that that's been a tremendous uh effort uh to get devices refreshed and backed back out to students uh We've also tried to support families managing the help desk this has been uh quite a challenge this year uh we had uh going up to uh the first day of school so that Friday it slowly built to Friday we had about 700 help desk calls uh we have very limited staff to handle 700 calls and I know that uh the buildings were also assisting and managing some of these calls uh there was wait time there is still people that we need to call back

034uh so leading up to Friday and then on Tuesday our first day of school we had over 2,000 calls uh we answered as many as we could all hands were on deck at that point I was answering phone calls I am not the ideal person to handle help desk calls uh but we were able to troubleshoot quite a few um it was a terrific day uh but one we hope not to repeat uh in this in this manner um we just it was 2,000 calls for a small staff is a lot uh we have slowly tapered off today we received about 250 so we slowly tapered off from 700 uh down to 400 at the end of the week and today we're at 200 we did provide uh Tech guides video libraries and handouts uh

035we're hoping that that would mitigate a lot of our telephone calls um lots of individuals and families still needed and still preferred somebody to walk through the process with them so uh we still handled a lot of those calls uh but we did try to mitigate that with the videos the tech guides and the handouts that that everybody received so rolling forward we do have some ideas on how we can better manage uh the the calling system uh to make sure that more phone calls during high high peak um times that we answer as many as possible during during those times thanks Patrick thanks Zach Rick Henry is back up with us again to talk about sports and activities thanks Patrick um I'm just providing a brief followup from the last time I came before

036you to discuss covid-19 mitigation strategies in place for our activities um you'll you'll see on this slide that um these these are the things that we said we were going to do and they are what we are doing uh we're we're completing daily screening uh which includes uh the the written part asking of questions uh temperature checks um just just uh th those sorts of things uh we are we're also wearing masks and social distancing unless directly involved in live play now I'll say I'll say on this one um we know that in this area we aren't perfect but we are continuing to educate students around around the masking and distancing protocols as well as reinforcing our requirements of of masking unless directly involved in live play we know we're not perfect but uh we

037we have the expectations and we are continuing to educate and have those and maintain those expectations uh we're not using locker rooms that's the next Point down uh we're we're making use of practice pods uh those are smaller practice groups uh when applicable coaches have created smaller practice groups to limit exposure among participants um during transportation to events uh we are social distancing and masking and we are also limiting spectator numbers and requiring spectator masking and social distancing during contests so just just wanted to follow up with that to let you know that those are those are the things we said we were going to do and those are the things that we are indeed doing and I'm I'm really proud of of our schools our administrators our coaches our our participants our our teachers

038um who are who are overseeing this process because this is is definitely uh not something that uh was in any classes they took in in their teacher preparation coursework so thank you thank you to all of them so we thought it might be helpful to give you some background on um what our students are thinking um the Lawrence High budget online is their newspaper with their sponsor Barbara thran and Tony Ry and Nadia sandburn did a really nice article asking students how it's going and I just included here a couple of their comments um because I think we we want to be clear we don't think it's all gone well and I think the students you'll hear positives and negatives so I'll just read each students quote it's actually gone much better than I thought

039it would I like the flexibility for some classes having 30 minutes of a lesson and then 25 minutes to work alone is really nice I think the lows are really the awkwardness in some of my classes being online which makes people less likely to answer questions the silence is the worst part that was Caitlyn sand she's an LHS sophomore the teachers are working very hard to accommodate these circumstances but it still doesn't seem normal to me Emma Francis Smith I'm sure a number of her uh other students share the same thoughts the first week of school was all over the place I get bad headaches from the screens and there's a learning curve on how to participate in WebEx without awkward pauses and confusion with mics aside from that it left me feeling pretty optimistic

040about the school year I think we'll get better at it and it gives me more control over my routine I was ree Wolford a Lawrence High Senior and the last quote I pulled from the article was Brian I hope I get this right zexer he's an LHS Jr and he Saidi feel like it's been a big change and I feel pretty exhausted it's definitely something I'm going to have to adapt to over time especially since we haven't been in school for six months so I just get a taste from our from our high school students we certainly hope we can get some similar information from our elementary and middle school students just a little taste of what they're going through as we talk about distance learning and remote learning I I did want to take

041just a little bit of time to share with the board sort of what happens when you get a group of kids from across the district elementary students there's about 400 in there um and about 17 teachers who we identified for distance learning um the initial work that was done is to put those students evenly into classes but remember some of those students are from different schools so you know they kept it about five or six schools per teacher um the kids still want to be connected with their home school but teacher might also be from another school so we had to navigate that then once we got those set we had to look at elll certifications and make sure those kids who were elll identified were with an elll licensed teacher so we had to

042move some more kids then we had to figure out a special schedule for art music and PE and those teachers had to be identified who are also teaching in either in probably a hybrid format at their own buildings and where was their room in their schedule to be able to teach a group of kids from multiple schools all 14 Schools and multiple grade levels um and so that was a big trick and then oh yes we have library and counselors who also provide plan time for our teachers so we had to work out a schedule for them then we also had to go back and make sure that those kids who had Title Services were still getting title services so we can make sure we have the title funding and finally we have materials that

043need to be distributed but we didn't want to send it to one school wanted to make sure it was a students neighborhood school so a big hats off to Chris Hae and a team here who gathered materials um from all those teachers who wanted to make sure their students had them and then disperse them out by Kid by school and our building principles who got them passed out these are these are Big logistical problems and and I just wanted to give you a bit of a glimpse of how we get 400 kids um assigned to 17 teachers from multiple schools the big chance on all this has been Darcy Krauss um and she's going to talk a little bit more about distance learning and what that looks like at the elementary Darcy thanks it's definitely

044been a communal effort I I owe Boon and and Zach um something um anyway um yes we basically have created what all of us are lovingly calling the distance learning academy because if you note approximately 400 students 17 s that's that's one of our bigger schools and um it was very important to um students and and families that we heard of or heard from initially how do we stay tied to our community school we don't want to lose that and and it was very important to the principles as well so ensuring that that communication those monthly newsletters all that good stuff that that makes you feel tied to your school um that there's a continual process for that or an ongoing process for that one of the things I think was most difficult and big

045hats off to Denise who has a special's mind and a scheduling mind that I I only wish to have someday but um we are basically taking um the same amount of Personnel Resources and dividing it to support two separate um learning environments so being able to do that has been little bit of a Jinga puzzle as we put it together so lots of people have have done lots of of hard work on this um our students currently are receiving as Patrick mentioned um live iners specials a specials rotation just as they would in our hybrid model as are the library and counseling sessions that are going on our elll and Title Services um those are groups that fluctuate so that that will be a challenge that we will continually deal with but our teachers have

046have been Troopers as they also adapt to being um basically their own learning model um we are providing a specialized collaboration for them because they're kind of their own entity but yet wanting them to remain connected to their home school as well um hopefully this is a temporary situation and we don't want to lose those relational ties so um kudos to everyone who's who's been a part of this great you want talk about secondary real quick you bet you bet um like like the Elementary uh well not like the elementary Sim well there are some similarities it it took a lot of it took a lot of work to to get this off the ground um we we thought that we would start by showing you you that the numbers of secondary students who opted

047for distance learning uh we had 534 secondary students who selected the year-long distance learning option and just over a thousand secondary students who selected the semester long option um I I really appreciate the middle school and high school staff who completed all of the tricky scheduling to make this happen uh we we are meeting the needs of of students wherever needs are and um it took a lot of work to make it happen but uh we have good people in place who have made that happen our our distance Learners will receive the same educational opportunities as our hybrid students um they have access to the same courses teachers and resources in fact they will be taught by the teachers within the building they attend this will allow for as smooth a transition as possible when

048our distance students and teachers are able to join us in person once again again really appreciate the efforts on so on behalf of so many um to truly took a team to to make this happen and we know it's we still have some some things to work out um there's still a few bumps to smooth out but um we we feel very good about where we are right now thanks Rick and Kelly I did get your message we are on schedule to finish by six CL no problem at all we are continuing to update our our together again plans on the website so um those have been going through changes as we've made changes as we've get uh as we've arrived at more details you can visit our website for both uh hybrid learning and

049and distance learning um we haven't made many changes to in-person learning right now so um but some um but I would encourage you to go there also from a curriculum standpoint we we really tried to maintain that teachers have access whether students are in hybrid learning or they're in uh distance learning that they have the same resources you've seen the last couple of board meetings that a number of instructional resources that you've been improving approving and those have all been online resources again tonight you're finding more resources on there um our curriculum instruction team has worked very well by having those working groups in the summer we were able to Esta L what resources we may needed to update sometimes for just a year as we get through this year um one of those was

050Florida Virtual School and that's on your agenda the consent agenda for tonight um and that's really being used at the elementary only based on what Rick just shared with you because those teachers we don't have students who are at the secondary level who are different than everybody else they're weaved into those classes at the secondary level so the instruction stays similar we did think it was a resource that may be helpful at the elementary level um and so our recommending approval for that purchase the purchase of those all comes from cares act money and I'm sure Darcy will talk about that a little bit as she talks through what plans we have so far for hybrid learning Darcy thanks Patrick um well the good news is our work groups our task force this summer um

051diligently untangled a lot of the details surrounding hybrid learning so we're going to take that off the shelf dust it off and go to work on the remainder of this month with filling in logistical details what we do have done is a lot of the instructional guidance that came from those work groups that was shared out at the beginning of the year during the professional development time um our non-instructional systems those that's like um breakfast lunch arrival dismissal um common learning spaces hallways all of those Logistics that are so important right now with the safety concerns our building administrators met with some teachers and we teased out what that would look like in a common template across all 14 buildings and then I tasked the principles with going back and tailoring that to meet the

052needs of their specific buildings because obviously our buildings are different in size and scope and so that needed to be customized um to fit their individual needs um moving forward we need to look at what the difference is um or excuse me how we will address our learning when we have our students in front of us and how we will um Supply and uh supplement their learning needs when they are away from us during those remote days um as I spoke to earlier during distance learning we had that pool of personnel resources that we were dividing in half to support two learning environments hybrid really takes us to three because we have still have those distance yearl we have our right in front of us in brick and mortar kiddos and then we have those

053that are remote on those days so again um going back to that 3D puzzle that we're going to put together the cares act money that Patrick mentioned um will be used to support our um the Florida Virtual School this is an optional resource that we are providing for both our distance teachers and our brick and mortar teachers so that as they lean into their lessons this will provide provide a supplemental resource they are not going to be required to use it they have worked so hard on building out their Google sites and and seesaw and all of that but we do believe that when our Learners are away from us in that remote field that the adaptability of Florida virtual will help sustain our teachers through um juggling those two different worlds thanks Darcy we

054thought we'd show you this short video it's about three minutes long um about uh that we'll be welcoming our students back um as they come back for hybrid learning um for good healthy safe practices during a pandemic so sit back and enjoy the great work of Rachel Thomas and Julie Bole well maybe not what happened there Patrick do you want hello welcome to [Applause] [Music] school please stay home if you have traveled to a hot spot if you have been in close contact with somebody who's tested positive positive if you are sick or waiting for test results please help us keep our school safe stay 6 Fe P hello over there wearing a mask protects your teacher and friends you want to first use hand sanitizer then take your mask by the ear Loops or

055ties put it on be sure to cover your nose and your chin take your hands and secure the mask to your nose tap your chin then use hand sanitizer again try not to touch your mask until you're ready to remove it when it's time to remove your mask you'll want to first hand sanitize your hands grab the mask by the ear Loops or tie take the mask off and then use hand sanitizer again sanitize when you get school you'll get a temperature check don't worry it doesn't hurt if you Fe the school will call your house and some will pick you [Music] up make sure to walk 6 fet apart some hallways maybe one away This is My Dance Space this is your dance space washing your hands prevents the spread of jums let your

056hands first then get soap use the soap to scrub your hands in between your fingers on top of your hands your palms fingertips do this for 20 seconds rinse your hands well with water be sure all areas are rinsed well and clean get a paper towel and dry your hands thoroughly wash your hands before and after you eat wash your hands if you accidentally touch the FL of your mask wash your hands after you cough or sneeze you can't wash your hand sanitizer your special teachers will come to your classrooms so we lunch Shing is f but we can use our own supplies be sure to bring your water bottle to school our amazing custodial staff is ready to keep things safe in your school your school's custodian will sanitize each surface in your classroom

057with a stick M during the day they will continue to clean commonly touched surfaces like your classroom door and doorknob also our custodian is using a stabilized aquous ozone solution which is a safe effective cleaner and sanitizer that has been proven around the world in health care food service and education [Music] sanitize so we hope you enjoyed that um and we want to thank our Hill Crest team and our boys and girls club group out at Hillcrest for their work with that a lot of people went into that son gmer our coordinator of nursing put that together um we're almost done uh Rick's going to talk a little bit about second hybrid learning and what that's going to look like hello again and wow I really don't want to follow that video I wanted my

058slide to be ahead of it that was that was awesome I loved it um in terms of secondary hybrid um like the Elementary at our at secondary we're continuing to to polish our hybrid learning model secondary schools have engaged their building leadership teams in this process and will continue to do so uh as you know we're following a schedule at our high schools in which all classes meet each day we'll be exploring a block schedule as a possible alternative when we are able to move to our hybrid model to uh to to trim out some of those transitions at the middle school level we're currently using a block schedule that we will transition with into a hybrid model our Middle School and High School task forces will be meeting throughout this month to refine hybrid

059Logistics those common non-instructional systems building leaders will will again engage their BLTs regarding these processes we'll continue to follow the excellent curriculum and instructional guidance provided by the teachers and administrators who made up our content area work groups throughout the summer uh we we look forward to this next step in in our in education in educating our kids and um we we look forward to to hopefully seeing seeing more people again soon and U stabilizing our our system just a little bit more thanks and finally Anna's going to talk a little bit about our student support centers um which has been initiative of Education unified command Dr Stubblefield good evening um I will talk about that quickly but I also wanted to just um because I got a couple of texts in the planning for

060distance learning both HR and sped have been um involved in that and students who are identify IEPs and whatever staff support is needed is being provided by both of those departments so I just want to thank our special ed Department student services andr as well um so student support center um as a part of Education UniFi command I am um on the equity advisor and then the child care um subgroups and what our main objective was to try to uh mitigate eliminate the barrier that um our Frontline workers and our educators are included in that um may have with providing support to students or supervision to students during the school day um each institution or um school was charged with problem solving that for their um individual organizations um for example uh the city uses

061the Aquatic Center um to provide um a a supervised space for their Frontline employees and KU is figuring it out so as a school district our hope is to open some um 11 student support centers during the time when we're 100% remote um at the elementary schools that are not hosting Boys and Girls Club um based on our staff survey um that was given to our staff we inquired about um inquired about child care barriers and 80 and this includes certified and classified staff responded that this was a barrier for them and when we asked how many students did this um involved it was 125 so if we have 11 sites with 15 St no more than 15 students per site that provides 65 slots our Target date is to start next Monday however we

062know that we will not have 11 open next Monday so what we are doing how we hope to staff those sites was we sent out an interest survey to um a few of our classified um employee groups who we know um probably will not be able to um work their full hours based off of us being 100% remote based on the nature of their jobs um and that include our health office assistants library media Specialists security guards um ISS supervisors at the high school um and instruction op Paras um we did not send it to title ESL or isas and a couple of other groups that um either funding dictates what their um responsibilities can be or because they have um full hours or work that will need to be performed um so of the

06351 individuals that we sent it to we've had 18 responses we sent it out I think last Wednesday um and of those 18 responses two have been a yes so our goal was to have two adults um at each site with no more than 15 students um we did get some questions about volunteers and I'm working with um HR on what it would look like if we used um community volunteers to do that so we're trying to problem solve this um we we have more spots than indicated and our thought process around that was we know that there are families who also are facing this barrier with educational UniFi command their uh uh priority was um Frontline workers but wherever wherever there's an empty spot we will uh look at those students who are not

064engaged in and our hope is to be able to have those students take um one of those spots and then also we know that there are families on the weight list for boys and girls club um and so we would try to um if we can accommodate those unique um circumstances but right now we only have two yeses and we'll continue to engage some of our partners um to see if we can get volunteers and um continue to provide information to our um classify employees on what the supervision um looks like so that's the update around student support centers okay we're we're at six o'clock so Patrick can you this is our last slide correct this is our last slide okay yes and so thank you we hit it almost on the nose um and

065just our next steps will be September 28th and the board of education is asked to evaluate which model will be in if we continue with remote learning hybrid what the community spread data is at that time um so with that in mind our team really wanted to ask the board we would really appreciate any guidance you can give us on the type of information you're looking for for our next um update for you on September 28th that will help you make um that decision so we thank you for your time and and stand ready to answer questions okay so in terms of facilitating the conversation to make we cover which was a lot of content and to also assure that we have given Direction around what we need to make decisions on the 28th um

066I just want to summarize what the uh the domains were in terms of what was in the presentation on that slide three you can see that we talked about student engagement and learning logs student and Family Access Sports and activities hybrid learning distance learning and student support center so um as board members if you can kind of um get your questions and those are Arenas that would be helpful and then regarding the the content that we would need to be able to make decisions we began to give a summary uh at least Erica and Carol and I did at the executive agenda to agenda setting around those things which we think board members will need in order to make an informed decision I think some of those questions will come out tonight I'm also asking

067that board members um send those questions to Elise if we don't get everything covered tonight that you are going to need in terms of um helping staff get prepared and if you get those questions to them um by the end of um tomorrow that will be helpful for their planning is that agreeable Patrick and and Dr Stubblefield and Dr Lewis yeah I think that sounds great okay so in terms of questions are there questions around student engagement and learning logs for dialogue this is Erica I just had a really brief question so um on the slide it said um 90.2 to 96% for high school average daily attendance and I just want to know what is the average daily attendance for this time the typical school year just so I can get a good measure

068that that's a that's a great question Erica um I I think I think we're we're trying to come up with that number I I worked with Zach a little bit today because in anticipation of that question um Zach do you do you have any thoughts about that question yeah I'd say uh we're a little above but it's it's about where we would expect it to be uh according to years past okay thank you other board members I don't have any questions but I I have a this is Carol K Blackwood but I have a compliment to the staff we have not had any we are very lucky we've not had any hiccups logging in or anything of that nature been smooth thanks Carol um I have a question Kelly just real quick so it's just

069it's just it's just a quick one for Rick you when you did the the the high school breakdown and you did the the extracurricular numbers with the participants do you happen to know off the top of your head what the percentage is like what that 1500 is and what that 400 is in terms of percentage of high school students and percentage of middle school students I I don't have that gr um I could I could easily get that I mean if we're looking at um you know if we add the two high schools together we we're talking what 3 400 or so so roughly what would that be yeah Middle School um again it's not a it's not a it's not a the same kind of comparison as high school because we didn't include the

070music classes um but but um I I would say the so the participation rate at the at the middle school is lower but we also have to remember that the there are fewer opportunities to participate right few few activities to be involved with Y okay thank you I have a question to building on Erica when you looked at that 10% of students that were not in attendance do we know whether those are some of our students that have access issues or that have internet connectivity issues or are they students that are from lower income families oh Kelly we haven't I mean I I'm assuming all of those things but we haven't had the opportunity to really break that out yet we know that we know that we have some students that we're still trying to

071get in in touch with for the first time um some of those students are probably probably students who who are no longer with the district but just haven't informed us of that we we have that every year um we know that we still have some students even though we've tried to to uh touch base with them about devices we know that we still some students who we haven't even been able to contact to get a device in their hands so um I we don't have those numbers broken out we just haven't had the time we we were just trying to get um some some high level numbers so that so that you all could could know the rate of [Music] Engagement Kelly this is Shannon I have a follow up to that okay um so

072Rick um I guess just I know you don't have hard numbers but as you may have a sense from years past you know every year I think we have students who move in and out because we're pretty um highly transient District in a lot of ways um and so I imagine that we have those kind of challenges um in in at the start of a normal school year we have students who we expected to show up that didn't show up and we have students show up that we didn't know we coming um is is this year any order of magnitude different from a normal year in that regard um I can tell you what I could speculate on that but I I don't think we've been in school long enough to really have those answers

073in fact after count day we'll have a lot more of those answers um I and I don't I don't know maybe I don't think Kathy Johnson is on this but yeah I think she she's going to be able to answer some of those questions but it's probably going to be a couple of weeks before we have really good specific information about it past we've sorry Anna in years in years past we've also had more lead in time to our September 20th count day uh and so we've had more time to establish our numbers and know who's moving in and who's moving out uh this year it's a much smaller window they kept the count day the same even though we moved our start day back and so um it's different this year it's going to

074be a little tougher to really nail that down um with regard to the um assurances that need to be signed is that something that we're going to have to do in a paper version or is that something that we can do virtually for parents we can do U we can do an electronic signature whatever um the districts decide to do the states will accept it okay thank you so I'm going to ask board members we have Community Partners here from Burton Ash that have hung on and um I know are invested in the school and broadly but maybe if we have specific questions for them um we could raise those now Kelly this is Shannon and I do have um a question I really am excited about this partnership and and the supports that have

075been described um and I just wanted to verify you know is this a program that we anticip continuing beyond the end of remote learning um maybe I just I didn't catch that if that that was said but I just wanted to is this something we we anticipate doing for this entire school year um just what's the thinking sure and yes um and that was part of our rationale when we start talking about this program of the difference between having therapists or case managers in this role to go into the community having case managers do that we anticipate that we'll probably be bringing more students into Burton as Services which would make this program sustainable and for us to be able to keep it moving forward okay yeah Shannon Our Hope isn't just the rest of

076this year but like two years five years that this has become a permanent um expansion in the availability of these types of services um to the children and families uh in Lawrence Public Schools uh and and in Douglas County that's great to hear thank you so much I have a question and maybe I missed it this is Paula um so the mental health Team I I think it's a a great um program to get started uh and the partnership continues but how are you um how are you building trust with families and students um because I know that I think you mentioned that there would be home visits or virtual home visits um or it could just be making that up um how are you building that trust with families and students yeah so that's

077something that that we do all the time at Burton Ash it's it's making that connection building those relationships it starts off a little slow at first um just like with any any relationship that you build it it's going in and and really helping them to identify the needs and then that trust really comes for us following up on the things that we say say that we're going to do um and really providing relief I know as a parent myself you know when I I reach out to somebody for assistance it's looking at are they able to meet my needs are they able to relieve some of those pressures that we have and does this make a difference and when parents are able to see those things come into play that that's when we really start

078building the trust and and working on that that long-term relationship does um Burt Ash members do they also go through the Beyond diversity training that the district um has put on for teachers and administrators Stephen do you talk about our St day training that we're doing at Burt with Anthony Butler yeah go ahead Judy thanks I'm not signed up for that so if you wouldn't mind talking because I'm oh yeah so we were uh I'm not sure who did the facilitated the beyond the diversity training um but we've retained Anthony Butler uh at Bert Nash um to come and engage in a series of uh discussions around uh race around diversity uh and inclusion um in addition to the other trainings that we do uh but over the summer our CEO Patrick um made a

079a big statement and has invested us heavily um in um training all of us um from the CEO to uh our Frontline staff on how to better navigate issues of diversity how to be more inclus inclusive um so we're we're going through that that journey I I I personally attended uh a session today um and it was it was really good I don't know if that directly answers your question that being said any training that the district thinks would be beneficial to our staff uh we would be happy to Ure that they get to that training uh and we would make any and all of our trainings available to any District staff uh that may benefit from them uh so that's a great question thank you um Paula I would add I believe we've had

080rap workers um participa in Beyond diversity at different times this year we are doing the two and a half intro to uh courageous conversations we don't the next one coming up we definitely for those case managers that um for the new building bridges we can definitely include them in that particular training um the two full days of Beyond diversity because we are in a virtual setting we don't know exactly what that will look like so we've been doing intro to Courageous conversations with all of our new staffs but we can definitely include um any Burton stash staff that will be directly a part of the building bridges thank you Dr Stubblefield and yes the the rap Specialists H have participated in those those trainings thanks Anna can I can we um in terms of like

081theou between Burton Nash and the and the district could that be formalized like a an agreement but that there that would be part of our partnership anah or Dr Stubblefield um yes I I know we're looking at the current mou I think it's on Dr Lewis and Kevin's and a couple other desks but we can definitely look at that and include that yeah thank you other questions for um buron Nash [Music] folks uh I really I I have to say Judy I know you came to about a year ago I appreciate your building or helping participate in building this program and um your leadership so thank you for persevering and continuing to help us build a stronger partnership with uh Burton Ash and for all the work that Jose and Kevin have done to build

082that partnership I appreciate it appreciate your work well thank you the districts have been wonderful to work with and I have appreciated all of the The Bold and honest feedback from from Kevin Jose Lori Patrick Kelly um I think that it it's it's been those those Fierce conversations that we've had that have really made a difference and so I I'm very I'm very grateful for this opportunity so thank you nice to see you um board members I I think uh we can move on to sports and activities if that's okay and if there's other questions related to student and family access we can come back to them I want to make I think I know there are a couple of you that have questions related to sports and activities does anybody want to jump in

083Kelly this is Shannon um I guess I I have I I have some questions and it may be that um these are answerable now or they may be things that um would would be things that we would need to talk about on the 28th as we're making the decision about how we transition or whether we transition um to remote learning so um I guess a couple things um obviously uh since um um we've been in the yellow um in our gating criteria um certainly I and I I suspect all the rest of the board members are getting emails from um the community asking why are we using the G gating criteria um or being more actually more strict than the gating criteria when it comes to student instruction uh but we are not using that

084gating criteria as it relates to our Sports and activities and so um I'll just be honest I'm really struggling with answering those questions for parents because I um I don't I don't I I don't have a good rationale I can give them as to why we would we would be more um uh you know the board has taken it approach with our instruction um starting the school year that is uh uh I I guess the right way to say it would be um more risk averse that that we're that we're minimizing the risk more than even our Public Health uh folks have necessarily um recommended as kind of the bare minimum of what we should do and so um I guess that's one question I have um and then the the next question and this

085really might be the discussion that has to happen at our meeting on the 28th which is you know depending on that discussion about the gaining criteria and whether or not um some of the high high-risk activities for our students continue um you know have we considered what what that means for those students in terms of returning to inperson instruction if we if we are in a place where we choose to move from remote learning to a hybrid learning model um sometime in October um do we do we need to have a discussion about making exceptions for people who are in high-risk activities I know that's something that the Ala School District did um when they transition when they had a discussion about this couple of weeks ago um and and the rationale being you know

086if you if you're participating in a high-risk activity um you need to stay out of the classroom until you're finished with that high-risk activity continue remote learning until you've um completed it and then had a couple of weeks to make sure that you um you know kind of quarantine from any potential exposure from that so um that's another question I had in terms of how we're how we're going to approach those those decisions hi Shannon um yeah so one we know all these are difficult decisions and we use the um gating criteria definitely as as guidance to make those decisions will there be popular popular decisions no uh one of the things that we look at is one as school being you know mandatory everybody has to go to school all these extracurricular activities are

087indeed um voluntary and um when we think about some of the um social emotional um impact that many of these activities have on our students uh for the most part some of our students are connected you know we talk about school connectedness uh many of our Scholars are connected to school by way of uh dance cheer football sports other other sports and activities and so um those type of thoughts kind of go to to decisions when it comes to when it comes to that if we didn't feel we had ways to to mitigate risks you know we definitely wouldn't uh proceed with that uh regarding your second question that's something certainly we can talk about as a matter of fact came up during I think an agenda setting around what it may look like for

088elementary students and and high school students and so um but there again with those individuals that are involved in um um some of these other activities you know that may be an U not NE an option but but mandatory for them to decide if you want to continue with this um while you're doing this this this activity okay um I guess I I just want to share that um I'm struggling still a little bit with the with the not using negating criteria um just because you know it's public health guidance and I see it as sort of the bare minimum of what we should be doing for risk mitigation um and I think that we actually whether we intended to or not um you know if if we make a conscious decision not to follow

089that public health guidance we assume risk for the district um and I and I think that is worth some conversation um at the board level about our comfort with um the risk that we assume by not following that guidance and and that's not really something that we talked about so um I would like to talk about that and it not necessarily right this moment uh since we are running short on time but I think that's an important um consideration in terms of the decision of whether we continue um to not follow that guidance and Shannon for you oh sorry go ahead Dr Stubblefield Shannon the only thing I think whenever you all have this discussion um for you to also to include in the conversation is when we discussed it at the last board meeting

090we talked about Casa offering the opportunity to shift and have a spring season um and given the um change of all the other districts including um the districts within our league if that decision would be made I just want to be transparent I don't know who our students would compete against so there would not necessarily be a spring season because there are not I can't think of any districts our size um in this area or in the state that are not currently um competing with um some specific guidelines in every district is different I'm not saying that that um is right or wrong I just think that's um a reality for those students who are currently in um um fall activities and the other component and because it'll be the same conversation when we get

091to winter sports when our students are scheduled to return um the most of the Fall Seasons unless they are advancing in the playoffs will be um ending or near ending and so um them sitting out if that's a determination it will be about I just want to be transparent to the public it'll be about two weeks because um I think the playoffs start the week of October 30th or 23rd just depending on the sport and our students if um we continue with the six weeks it will be mid October so that's just something else to consider but for winter sports that are considered high risk it will be the same conversation but the fall ones would be wrapping up and I think that um you know you're right the landscape shifted an awful lot um

092since our last board meeting in terms of what the options are um and what other districts are doing um I think another thing I I would encourage us to have a conversation about then is um you know um what um you know if we're not following the gating criteria what are the additional risk mitigation measures that we might need to consider um around those high-risks you know some things that come to mind have to do with you know should there be a different decision Matrix when you have players on your team who test positive or players on the opposing team who test positive should we be looking at um the uh Community spread situation in in the communities of the schools that uh were slated to play um that sort of thing you know it's

093um you know uh I guess like with our with our comp it's my understanding that the competition um that freest state was supposed to engage in last Friday was actually cancelled because of our own um situation with uh with co uh at least that was what was shared with me by a parent so that it was the school that they were going to compete against chose not to come it wasn't yeah yeah right exactly and so um I guess what I'm suggesting is are those the kind of conversations that we should be having as well on our end when we're looking at um you know bringing in students either into our community or sending our students somewhere else I just I think there's there's a lot more to it in terms of um risk mitigation

094and um assuming liability than just saying we are or we aren't going to let this happen and and I really do want to have a more fome conversation about that at the board level because that's really a policy decision it also occurs to me that along those lines and just kind of unpacking a little bit further what Shannon has said that if we decide just look looking at the gating criteria period if we make decisions to e either in the format of an activity or the any if we make a decision to go against the recommendation of the health department or the directive of the health department what are the liability considerations what are we doing in addition to to mitigate risk so it doesn't just have to be within the sporting Arena it could

095be like also apply to um the the format of learning that we're we are engaged in so I think that's a a really interesting question to talk about um what is the both the liability but what are the what is the policy Piece of It from the board's end if if um we allow for decisions to be made outside of that gating criteria how are we accounting for them and what are the the um parameters of that so that does seem I I'll concur that to for me that's an important question so Kelly and Shannon I think one of the things I don't know when you anticipate having these conversations um because I I I think that would be helpful to establish that because I think after this you will probably be inundated with emails

096or myself and Dr Lewis either advocating for or against Thursday we'll get a new update wherever we are um I I think it will be helpful whatever is going to occur that if it can occur sooner than later so that families and I I'm just wondering that or we'll continue to make a determination so it has to happen at the September 28th meeting for sure if you and and Dr Lewis determine that it's a conversation that we need to have before then like based on the gating criteria for example if we jump into the you know their color coding the Red Zone um and you wanted to have a conversation about doing something other than what's recommended that to me could be a special meeting and I would want you to contact me if you

097needed to pursue that path but to have the conversation formally our next meeting is the 28th if you need it before then Outreach to me and we can um potentially call another meeting if it's that I and again I think it's just about being able to as Dr Lewis has said like just tell the board how you're accounting for that decision- making and um what are the you know what are the factors that are going into a decision to not follow the gating criteria um and there might be justification for doing that it's just the Board needs to understand and I think really in terms of the liability piece I do think that's good governance to know how we're how are we accounting for that how are we factoring that in and I think there's

098there's a real risk Kelly looking at the data from this week There's a real risk that we are going to exceed that 10% um positive test in the community criteria and I don't know if that happens between now and the end of this week what that what the health department will do that um the color coding so um um very good point Thank you so for board other board members we're getting at that 6:30 time but um I do think uh again I just want to remind everyone to um forward any questions that you have or any information additional information you would need to make a decision on September 28th for um the format that we'll move into and just I thinking reflecting on what you just said Dr um subfield around what the community

099is hearing this is a um a conversation in preparation for making that decision but I think for most of us we are um hopeful to be able to include um you know presuming that we have positive um testing rates that are are in line with um recommendations that we would be able to move from a format that includes some additional um in person time for students and as Dr um Lewis pointed out that that might look different based on on level of student and another a number of other factors um including student need so if we have students who have limited access to Internet or students who have special education considerations that we're looking at this holistically it's not just everybody's this way or not um but thinking through uh what are the recommendations from

100administrators and from um the Lea and and um the district based on what your experience has been the last couple of weeks um so yeah could I make a request um I surely have a like kind of a bulleted list of some other things that I'm interested in hearing about and for the sake of transparency could we extend for just a few minutes to allow board members to yeah I was just I was actually going to ask that um to be to be sure but I wanted to ask the board members if they were comfortable extending for 15 minutes before you extend can I offer uh that maybe we can get the bullet to list and provide the entire board my only rationale is I do not want to Short change the equity U report

101that's coming up at at 6:30 that's I don't either Dr Lewis I really because we did last time um and it is something we can also include in in board commentary but I I do think um 15 minutes either extended even from 9 to 9:15 would be comfortable and I'll be careful with um my commentary for sure moving into the next board meeting are there others so do you want us to provide just kind of a list of things I was wondering if if I could hear from other board members okay okay excuse me this is Carol and to whom do you want us to forward the questions to did you say Elise they can go to Elise and Dr Lewis but if you wanted to share final thoughts that's I mean please do Carol

102sure I just want make sure you have time oh no I don't have any because you know we don't know where nobody knows where we're going to be on September 28th other board members yeah I just um I just have one thought so Shannon I just I just wanted to just to your to your one to your first issue about when you were getting questions and didn't know how to address people who were wanting to know how we were more more safe I forget the exact wording you used it was way more academic than I'm using it at the moment in our in our um classroom setting than we are with with sports you know what I've been telling people is what I is how I viewed it then and how I view it now

103and that we made that decision in July and we made that decision in July before the gating criteria existed we made that de that decision to start six weeks and we made that decision to stick with six weeks so that we didn't yo-yo so that parents in the July could know what the plan was going to be could could understand that plan and could plan for it could plan and anticipate that when school started it would be 6 weeks of remote learning and so the gting criteria has come out and it has it was two weeks green two weeks yellow other districts around us have already changed a weekend and and families are for lack of a better phrase because again I'm not that smart are are are yo-yoing around and and to me that's

104that's how I tell people that was a decision then the activity question was a decision that came later and they're different decisions um so that's that's that was the one final thought that I had other board members I don't have any additional comments and the comments I do have I can just forward them to Elis or Dr um but I do not want a short Change to equity report also okay uh and I think I didn't hear from anyone else so last chance or not last chance any other just a couple things I wanted to to throw out that I'm interested in hearing about um as we make that decision um one thing we haven't talked about at all yet is logistics of Transportation if we move to a hybrid model and so I'm interested

105in knowing more about that um I think I still need a better um kind of a better summary of for for those students who are transitioning to a hybrid versus those students who are staying in distance learning for some period of time um what is the transition going to look like um from remote learning to those two models what's going to be different for those students who are going from remote to hybrid versus remote to um staying in in distance learning um because I I still don't really fully understand how that's going to look um I uh have shared with Tony in our facilities meeting that I'll share here I am really interested in hearing more about uh risk mitigation as it relates to adequate ventilation in our buildings um and one concern that has

106come up for me recently is um you know the recommendation has been all along that we coort students especially at the elementary level to reduce the the number of people they are exposed to during the day but um with the new the new and ever um increasing data around ventilation and how important that is to mitigating spread um I'm not sure that having students staying in a classroom to eat lunch um in all of our buildings is necessarily the safest um or or at least not I shouldn't say safest I should say it does not necessarily provide us with the greatest risk mitigation um if we are doing it that way and so I think that's something um and I'll uh write that out a little more artfully um in my written questions but I

107think that's something I'm interested in hearing more about and then um I guess uh just having that discussion about uh the gating criteria and as a policy matter how are we going to um approach that as we continue to move through this this school year so um okay I think um oh and then when we talk about the Community data uh one thing I know that this health department is reporting everything in these 14-day trend graphs um it would also be helpful to me to see um actual numbers day by day um because the the 14-day rolling Trend um doesn't really allow you to see uh actual num you know hard numbers unless you go back and you try to pull up each day's report so it would be nice to have that all put

108together in one um one document okay thank you all right and so we want to move on to um the regular board agenda to make sure that we have time for um a robust conversation around equity and inclusion um we'll uh take a five minute break and come back at oh well it's not quite five minutes but come back at 6:45 so I'm getting ready to call the meeting to order make sure I can see all board members Melissa um let me know if she's having some connectivity trouble but she's hoping to get someplace a little more stable here quickly all right so um we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order um can I get a recommendation for an approval of the agenda this is Shannon and I move we approve the agenda

109is there a second this is Carol I second I think at leise we have to do a roll call on virtually I don't know if I got a lease with me or not Jones yes Hill yes kaboo Blackwood yes Gordon Ross Yes Johnson she's yes SM yes motion passes okay um we have special recognition uh and and Dr Johnson is here to um share with us some really um I'm just really excited to to hear this recognition um so I'm gonna give her the floor good evening good evening to everyone I can can't see anyone okay um there we go maybe the visual will come on in here in just a few minutes let's see I think we lost it for there we go I'm here it is my absolute honor tonight to share with

110you some great news that came to us mid August and um it came in waves the first um bit of news that we received on August 14th um is an absolute perfect example of what it means to have an inclusion Revolution what it means to have um a unified generation and what it really means to be chesty strong um I'd like to offer um recognition to the Lawrence High School students to the faculty and staff but especially the these three um faculty and staff members Eve Cummins Susie Mishka and Brad sto for the work that they do um with um our students in regard to inclusion and showing what it truly means to work together and to lift each other because we Rise by lifting each other and that's exactly what is taking place on

111August 14th um LHS students Gracie Flanigan and kathern Steinman were chosen to be youth ambassadors for Special Olympics of North America they are are two of 28 students representing the United States of America for Special Olympics this was our first celebration and we were so absolutely honored to be able um to share this with our faculty and our staff and with our community um so appreciative um to the journal world and the Beautiful article and things that they put together um celebrating this honor and things with us as well I believe that Susie am Mishka and um other members are here also I can't see them so at this time I'm going to turn it over to Susie Mishka and she's going to tell you just a little bit about the national Banner for the

112unified Champion School Susie are you here thank you I am here excellent um IPS has been at Lawrence High School for the past 10 years and for the last five of those 10 years we've um been in partnership with Special Olympics to to bring unified sporting program to Lawrence High School um that's a sporting program that um actually we were honored last at the board member um after our first set of competitions and we brought home a ton of gold medals we were so proud um and the program has just grown and and grown and it is an inclusion um inclusion style sporting program that allows um all students to participate um and um it has done I think great things for for a lot of kids and and great things for our students as

113we have been um cheered on by the LHS student body for many years now um so part of um our the recognition that they are bestowing upon us as a nationally recognized Banner unified school is to meet um 10 criteria of inclusion and that um a couple of those um criteria are having a an inclusionary leadership Committee in our school and that would be our IPS program and then having a steady and supported Unified sports program which we have maintained and and shown that we will um persist as well and um then and and a few other things as well so um such as having schoolwide um schoolwide activities such last year we had the um spread the word to end the word campaign and and video that that went way bigger than we've ever

114imagined so we just had have had a ton of success last year in our three qu um boy did I have a group of kids we we went farther and did more than than we've done I I think I needed that fourth quarter to rest so um but um I want to thank um Warren's high school because um in the past 10 years that um we have been promoting inclusion never once have we been told no we've never been told we can't do that instead the um Administration teachers um staff faculty have all said what can we do to help you um prom proot this idea and they've brought it into their classrooms and activities and and um in all areas of the building and so I'm I'm really really proud to be a chesty

115Lon and I'm so happy that we get to hang that Banner in our in our gymnasium here in about a month we'll have our um our big reveal so we're planning it now so thank you very much Susie I see that you also have Katherine and and Gracie here as well um either one of you would like to have a have a word hi everyone my name is Katherine Steinman and my Gracie girls on here too um we are so excited to be taking on this journey and representing Lawrence and the great School Of The chesy Lions we could not have done this without the support of Susie and our IPS family Unified sports is what brought Gracie and I together and we are so proud of our unified program to be recognized nationally and

116our main goal as us ambassadors is going to be to make more schools in Kansas more inclusive by bringing unified to others and hopefully getting some more Banner schools so we just really it's great that we could pave the way and Lawrence High was one of the first so thank you so much for supporting us Gracie do you want to say anything on her girl yes thank you love you we love you too Gracy what's up yes yeah that's my [Laughter] girl that's all um that we have for today as you can tell we are excited about what is um been bestowed upon um Lawrence High School in closing um all we have to say it's a great day to be a lion thank you all so much I just want to add that um

117Katherine and Gracie are both two amazing Scholars it's very r that rarely that you come to Lawrence High and see Katherine without Gracie or Gracie without Catherine uh the the work that they've done at that school around J this whole notion of inclusivity has just been amazing and it's it's just truly remarkable to see you know at something like that you know as a former special education teacher seeing uh our Scholars engage in such a way that is um just like I said full of in inclusion and so that's truly a testament to the work that that that Susan has done um with the program there at um Lawrence High and but most importantly the level of acceptance that our Scholars have for each other is just amazing so thank you all so much I'm

118super proud of you thank you so much for your support Mama Jay you too we love you both so much and we've been so appreciative to have you guys by our sides this whole time thank you so much we know you already know you are [Laughter] loved I'm M Catherine she do it best thank you for supporting us allow us to have these programs and laen thank you all very much congratulations and um it's really uh lovely to see how this has come along and the recognition that you're getting and that is well earned and deserved so thank you for coming tonight and um particularly to Katherine and Gracie for showing up at a board meeting we always like to see students so thanks for coming um we have uh next is the report uh

119the report of the president of the board uh I told Dr Lewis I would uh uh seed my report to make sure that we had lots of room for our conversation about Equity inclusion so I'm G to um pass and uh ask Dr Lewis if he would give us the report of the superintendent of the schools yes thank you so much Kelly and I I would you know um surrender my report but it's bragging on staff and students so I definitely want to take advantage of this opportunity um I did have an opportunity to present the Lawrence educ Lawrence Elementary Horizon award on Friday to uh Alexandra Smith then this was the elementary award uh Alexandra Smith is a teacher in our specialized autism program over at quell run in only her second year of

120teaching she has created an inclusive and supportive classroom community of students staff and family Partners all focused on student growth uh and just this morning I surprised the Lawrence secondary Horizon award uh honor Allison Gilmore a free state Agriculture and career uh and Tech aded Teacher uh Allison has built a strong Foundation of rigorous and relevant curriculum following the state competencies her students have uh the essential questions the objectives uh the vocabulary and other procedures all at their fingertips and they know what it takes to be successful um in in their classes the district will nomin both of these exemplary novice Educators to the Kansas State Department of Education Kansas Horizon award program um as always we continue to appreciate Trudy Credit Union our partnership with them uh they both I mean they presented uh

121both of our honores a um guess a check or gift card for $250 so thank you to truy I want to congratulate this year's eight National Merit semi semifinalist um Yol gillath Julia Lynn Isabelle uh Aya win Spencer wear dingding ye all of Free State High and uh Joseph Luan and Colin Meritt of lawren high also my thanks to our teachers and staff for their patience and perseverance during our first few days of school uh obviously we are still learning as we go with remote learning but I do appreciate our staff um how they're approaching these challenges with a growth mindset um I also want to thank Our IT staff for their outstanding work um no matter how many uh how-to videos instructions or um help guides that we share there will still be questions

122about individual technology needs um and and they've just been tremendous uh during these first uh SE first few days of of remote learning we do have a small uh But Mighty Tech staff and they do a great job of assisting our staff students and and families we learned this week that the Kansas uh state of Kansas did approve Douglas County's cares act funding requests we appreciate that our district will receive approximately $1.1 million uh for our priorities uh we have identified that are directly related to covid-19 if you've seen some of the pictures on social media this the most beautiful um Auditorium I think in the country uh resides over at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School well we have theater lighting uh new house lighting and other audio visual adjustments have just been complete there

123and we look forward to returning to host events in that beautiful space in the future today we added a fifth grab andgo meal site at woodlon Food Services average serving around 800 free meals daily during the first week of school uh to meet USDA requirements we are now asking adults who pick up Meals without children present to write the children's name on a waiver and display a numbered piece of paper in their vehicle during uh future pickups this will help us and help our program stay in compliance with Federal meal reimbursement requirements I do want to thank our Lawrence rotary for donating 300 50 pairs of shoes for elementary students anyone whose child is in need of a pair of shoes should share that information with their Elementary School and we will assist those families

124um as much as we can I do want to express my sympathies to the families and friends of uh Lawrence philanthropist William Dan uh as you know Mr Dan died last weekend he was a longtime supporter of the district's Early Childhood programs in the Lawrence schools Foundation donating tens of thousands of dollars annually for the past 27 years including a $50,000 check this month uh the organizers of the new Early Childhood playground plan uh they had already planned this at Kennedy they want to name uh the new playground the William Dan play town in honor of his generosity to the Early Childhood Program and that's all I have thank you Dr leou I'm glad you didn't cut any of that short appreciate it um we now are going to do uh p commentary I'm going

125to read a um audience participation form this is just or excuse me not the participation form my um uh the audience participation uh I I lo can someone does my I just lost my computer does anyone have it does any board member have it up that they can read for our our um public our individuals who are providing public com comments I have it go ahead thank you the USD the USD 497 Board of Education welcomes Patron 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 this is your time to share your opinions however complaints about specific staff or students will be heard by the board in executive session in order to protect the

126privacy of the individuals to be discussed while you are not required to share your contact information we ask for that information so District staff or the board can follow up with any specific concerns you may have the board president will invite comments comment on topics not included on the agenda at the beginning of each meeting comments related to agenda items are welcome after the board has had the opportunity to discuss the topic please limit your comments to five minutes thank you grr I appreciate it um I have uh Alexandria Kaine are are you with us yes pres thank you um we're ready okay I will try to make this as quick as I can I have a lot to speak on um I'm here to speak on behalf of my family and uh my son

127who is an IEP student um I appreciate everything the school has done however this situation is not been conducive to his learning we're experiencing of course a lot of issues um one is the school lunch issue that we he was not able to get his lunch as at his allotted scheduled time I had to send multiple emails meanwhile I'm at work dealing with all this it t it took me saying I was going to go to the newspaper in order to get a call to get his lunch there when in his IEP it is already an issue a food is a huge trigger for him so if he can't eat at the time it's allotted then we have another disregulation issue um and as far as us both being full-time working parents we can't just

128go to the next one um so it's frustrating that meals aren't being delivered to families who need it I think that would be great if that was an offered service I understand that there's furload employees through the district I think that would be a great opportunity for them uh Child Care is a huge issue just even getting to the meals there may be so many people that my child care provider is taking care of but they they can't put them all in the vehicle um not only to be able to find Reliable child care I have two a seven an eight and a newborn it I cannot find anyone to take my children at this point because there are three kids um it is impossible we have no call no shows from babysitters I am

129could be on the verge of losing my job because I cannot find Reliable child care and we need both incomes in the house and it is hard balancing it all and DCF by no means is loosening their guidelines to come and help pay for that child care um hybrid is sounds ideal for most students and I feel like my student is not like a regular student hybrid could cause him more disregulation but he is in such a desperate need of having the interaction with teachers Paras and his peers that that's what we're going to be forced into which causes more disregulation because it's another inconsistency in his schedule um it is hard for me to come home at 6:30 at night and um look over his work and make him work on it more these

130kids don't deserve that our families don't deserve that and I understand that we're living under someone else's rule however this just doesn't work for some people um his IP requires a pair with him throughout the day in order to be successful to be success successful in the general education classroom we have worked since two years of education two years of age to get him to where he is now with his education and being able to even be in a general education room and now we have somebody to click into and say hi to him or tell him to calm down yeah right that there's no way that's going to work no way um I've reached out two additional sites such as Burton Ash but they are so short stabed most of them are even on

131quarantine now I have reached out to people and I'm looking for resources but these people you know I can't find somebody to even socially interact with my son they come to my patio to sit down um he there's been an extreme amount of regression he couldn't attend the ESL for summer school because that was virtual and I said no he's that's no way that's not conducive to his learning that's not going to work so he's already missed out on that much schooling um I find it interesting that blue valley udora Baldwin Perry these these schools are going to be back in person five days a week if anything why can't we have um smaller class sizes and then let IEP students at least go to school you know I feel like these children are getting

132left behind all of them and it's not just IEP students but especially IEP students they have been totally forgotten about and you know it is required by the state for these guidelines to be met and I am at the mercy of everyone in everything um if I could just have a teacher administrator somebody sit in my living room one day and see how difficult it is I have a stepdaughter who attends a different school plus a newborn baby it is literally impossible and we are doing the best that we can the school I'm communicating with the school every day but again it's literally impossible to juggle it all on top of trying to maintain two full-time working people that's all I got uh that's a lot I appreciate your coming and sharing that and um

133I think it's a really important thing for us to hear and I just appreciate that you were brave enough and um motivated enough to be in front of us and I can hear why so thank you for um Coming and and uh it'll have an impact on the decisions that we make um I appreciate it thank you for your time next we uh Dr Khan is here I believe Dr con are you with us um okay I'm going to just double check the participation and while I'm doing that um uh Sarah uh is it rosalin Sarah I can see you're there yeah it won't let me unmute oh wait can you hear me now yeah I can hear you now oh Sarah hey soce okay um all right mute sorry oh H Sarah would you

134mind yeah Dr Kong awesome okay can you guys hear me okay yes okay great um so I am Fatma Khan I'm a physician uh attended a medical school in Missouri and did residency at University of Missouri Columbia and uh the reason I'm here is to share my thoughts on school reopening uh and happy to take any questions if anybody has um so some of the consideration uh as we are getting more and more data about whether or not children can be affected by covid-19 and also if they're able to spread it uh in their households uh as well as back to the teachers and staff in their schools so initially the thought was uh mainly from the data that was received from other countries is uh children were not affected and also uh there were

135there was a theory that children uh were not spreaders of covid-19 and those theories have been debunked and at this point the most latest data that has come out uh basically it's saying that children can be affected as we we have seen the numbers in the news media um and also they can be spreaders so I'm going to share couple of uh points here um so young children infecting family members uh and this is from Utah off of 12 children who acquired covid-19 at three Utah Child Care Facilities one quarter of their close contacts became infected and most often mothers or siblings the second one and this is from this morning that I received um okay okay infected children have at least as much of Corona virus in their noses and throats as infected adults

136so and and up to 100 times as the children um for much younger children which would apply to uh the younger children in kindergarten Etc uh some of the other information uh that I would like to share is so far uh as of last week so just the data from last week 80,000 cases as of last week for positive cases in the schools uh for the children um in Michigan they reported 11 covid-19 outbreaks at K12 schools and I don't know if there are any teachers in the board uh but the National Data is 30% are over 50 years sold and 51% have risk factors um and the recommendation I attended one of the uh lectures this morning for school reopening and the recommendation is to open the schools when the infectivity rate in the

137community is less than 5% a and stable and declining okay um so as far as there was a comment made earlier U you know as we're going into the winter months the ventil ation will become an issue um so we are already in September by October uh the temperatures will stop dropping and one of the important factors we have to keep in mind for covid-19 it is spreads by air and the droplets initially we were thinking does it stay in the air for less than an hour now they're saying it could be for several hours um also not only that the children can get infection in the school but also the children who have parents who are working in health care settings or other uh Frontline workers they may be getting exposed bringing it home

138giving it to children children could be taking back to the schools so those are so it's not just unal it could be coming from the community or elsewhere so pretty much that that's all I want to tell you know I'm seeing all this with very open mind uh I did hear the previous commentators comments as well so you know I'm saying a very open mind it's a a moving Target and it's too early to say which way we're going uh we don't have the vaccine yet we don't have a solid treatment yet um so my recommendation as as a physician as a mother uh of Elementary School child with my child has asthma and you know keeping all those things in mind my recommendation would be to stick with online learning until uh we have

139a solid Treatment available or vaccine available uh to decrease the liability for these schools and also for the uh families that are involved with highrisk uh situations I understand there are families that require uh Child Care uh Etc and those will be special consideration for the board to think about that's all I have to say thank you thank you for bringing uh the medical expertise we appreciate it um Sarah are you still with us yeah can't get rid to me that easy sorry I didn't think so okay um well good evening my Sarah R I'm also a teacher in the district and a proud parent of three kids two of whom are LHS graduates um and then tonight I just wanted to pop in a little bit um due to a conversation I had with

140my daughter who came home over the weekend and it began with the statement web it sucks and I thought well what an odd thing to say and so I thought of some of the things that we've had challenges of as teachers like we've had um I think those breakout rooms are coming so we're excited um but we've had sessions that have crashed we've had you know the inability to see more than four students while you're sharing your screen as a host and some other things um a big one this last week has turned out to be battery power for those iPads because I guess the web X just really uses a lot of battery power so we've got kids who are now plugged in um uh as they're working on it um and then I

141also wondered about the the data usage for those kajit because I don't know how much data it's actually using up so I haven't been able to research that part um but I we have some families who are sharing those but I think the one that really saddened me when I heard her answer um was that she said that she still connected to students who were in the school and she's been seeing these Snapchats about people who are being addressed um either misgendered or addressed by their dead name and what do we and that really was when she said it's invalidating and possibly harmful to the individuals it happens to so I thought okay well that's a really good point now at the elementary level I don't have a lot of students who have maybe realized

142certain things about themselves and maybe aren't um in that area but we have so many students who as they go through um how do we support these kids who are lgbtq plus and how they are are seeing in their classrooms and so um I remember power school when they did their big sales pitch they talked about um it' be initially like the teacher could put in their preferred name or add their pronouns and then it would just be kind of in the system so I think progress has been made in WebEx but I just found out today WebEx will pull your preferred name rather than the one that maybe was assigned to you um but I I guess maybe the students don't know this or maybe there's not a clear or they're not easily finding

143who do they need to contact or who do they need to talk to to get that change in the system so that at least their preferred name comes up um with um zoom and things you could go in and you could add your preferred pronouns and and those sorts of things so that it wasn't questioned or you didn't have to feel like somebody was going to you know say oh well she thought and they're like well no I'm a I prefer they that um just to kind of save that level I know a lot of it you know we're just getting back into school you have kids that are coming in from other districts and and whatnot and so I'm just trying to think of how we can best help support those students and make

144them feel welcome and comfortable and supported um as they go through high school so um I I guess really the thing that I seem to found is that from what she was reading on the stories that people just really didn't know who to how to fix it like they they liked when they could go in on zoom and just fix it it wasn't a big question and they didn't have to like you know make a big deal and um and just to for it to be casual and and I know this is just kind of a just a general change just through many forms I've been noticing forms I filled out a thing for vaccinations at the doctor's office and it still asks for you know there's only two choices for gender so it's it's

145going to be a systemic long-term kind of a thing that we can't fix overnight but I just wanted to to kind of I can do and see what you know I'm willing to work with whoever and see what I can do to help um make a change so that they feel heard and represented um so that's really I guess kind down to um was the big thing that really just kind of spoke to my heart so um and one other suggestion that I was thinking of this week that came to me um when we're online um we as staff also can't make any change to it so it'll pull from what we're listed as we have first and last name um which is fine but we have as we're breaking off and doing work with

146students and eventually we'll go to breakout rooms um I had a parent we I was helping them get on to um an iPad and so not being that classroom teacher they knew who the classroom teacher was but they didn't real that the parir professional that was in the room and me because they came in late after we' started who we really were and they were like oh I just thought you were some random parent which is fine but I then I thought of well if I'm supervising students and I have kids in a breakout room and I see this adult in the room how do I know that that's you know I just I thought there's some way maybe if we ever have a way to influence the WebEx or how it props up for

147our names if maybe staff could just be a different color or something um because you know it doesn't say like Miss so and so or a mix you know whoever um just so that parents or the the Guardians they're helping supervise they could look over and say oh okay well that adult in blue I know that the district has vetted them and you know there's not going to be anything of who are you talking to online for cyber safety and stuff so um just to throw it out there I know I've got some kids that I'll have that'll be just remote and some that I have that I normally see so um and I'm introducing myself to those people anyway so but just anything I can do to help be proactive about um letting parents

148know that yes we have their their kids safety at at at heart so that's my very thrown together comment I'm sorry I didn't really write anything up tonight so um but I don't if there's anything I can do personally to help move that process so that our lgbtq um students get what they need um please let me know um I wasn't able to get that far today in my investigation so but just I appreciate it and it leads us nicely into our conversation around diversity equity and inclusion tonight so thank you so much for showing up you're welcome all right um we do have a board commentary um are there board members that have um commentary they'd like to provide it's never happen I always have something to say but I wanted to let everybody

149else go first so if there's somebody else that wants to go great if not I'll run through it quickly okay um any go ahead okay uh wanted to just share that one of my duties as past president of the Kansas Association of school boards this year is to lead the um creation of the legislative agenda for the association so I met um at the end of August started meeting with the legislative committee and we are beginning that work focusing on our um state issues uh that and the resolutions we're going to put together for the advocacy for this upcoming uh legislative session in Kansas we've made good progress I'm excited about uh the we've kind of revamped how we're doing it this year uh to be more uh targeted and strategic um those should be

150coming out uh publicly pretty soon and I would encourage all of you uh if you have feedback uh to to please send that to me we're looking for feedback from board members all across the state but I really want to hear um my my fellow board members voices as we're putting together those priorities so would appreciate that um also had um it had been a while but I had a meeting of the governor's Council on tax reform also at the end of August um basically we were just getting an update from uh legislative staff and others on uh the budget budget outlook for the upcoming session some of the challenges they foresee um and where some of the legislative proposals that we made last year where they ended up and where where we might need

151to be going um I continue to push as the education person on that committee to um remind everyone that um you they need to continue to think about fully funding special education in in the state school Finance form as part of planning for what our uh tax policy needs to support within the state um gr and I had a facilities meeting uh last Thursday um had a good discussion about progress at LHS for construction and also um talking about readiness of our spaces for return uh to inperson instruction eventually in light of of covid um really impressed with the work of our facilities um and operations folks in um in all that they're doing in all those areas um policy committee met a couple weeks ago we're meeting again this week actually um and we

152have updates on um just our regular updates on policy from kasb to look at uh we finalized our Gap guidance for our site councils which I'm very excited about that's something we've been working on in policy actually for a couple of years and so it's good to have that um out there uh as um for schools and our site councils to use um and then finally I just wanted to say thank you um to our staff um as a parent I I I recognize and I honor and acknowledge those families that have had challenges and I know that there are things that we have to look at uh to try to to help our families navigate this well um for my part as a parent this last week um my three children had a really

153good experience and I just want to compliment everyone um and all the work that has got in to getting us to this point um it it's it went very smoothly um the for the most part couple Tech challenges but really nothing that we couldn't overcome um so thank you to those teachers but thank you to all of our teachers and our staff who've done such a um an amazing amount of work to get us uh launched this year and um you know despite the challenges that we've all heard about um I have received a lot of positive feedback from um parents and um about their family's experiences during this this last first week of school so just wanted to share that thanks other board members hey Kelly this is Paula um I just wanted to

154thank the uh the patrons that provided commentary I think it's a really nice um complement to our um together again update um so I appreciate that uh I do want to save my time for the equity report so I'm going to pass other board members all right uh we're going to move on to approval of consent agenda can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda this is Paula um I move the Board of Education adopt the items listed on the consent agenda this is JL second H yes K do Blackwood K do Blackwood she was having some internet connection can you come back to her there it is yes I switch Compu uh Kimber yes Smith yes Jones yes motion passes 60 okay moving on to new business hey Kelly did you get

155to vote no he's shaking his head no oh we are she ski me and then counted me yes I'm sorry I uhuh sure I mean I would have voted yes but okay so we're accounted for there now okay thanks thanks Shannon all right so we'll move on to new new business um we have with us Kathy Johnson who is going to talk to us about uh briefly about the 2020 21 schedule of fees hi uh good evening Kathy Johnson Executive Director of Finance um and routinely each year we provide you with um the schedule of enrollment fees and and various fees that we um potentially um be charging throughout the 2021 school year um and so what's attached to your agenda are those various fees um there are some notes about some that although they're

156on the list um may or may not be charged based on what kind of a learning environment we are in so for example the activity transportation fee although it's it's on the list for 2021 as long as we're in the environment or um um activity trips or field trips are not going to take place we would not be assessing that fee to students so um there are a few of those like that and um I can open it up to questions I I have some additional information I can share I don't know how much detail you want or or don't want with this usually it's a consent agenda item and and so I know there was an opportunity you wanted for discussion so do board members have questions we pulled it just because of the

157uniqueness of the year but Kathy pretty much laid it out is there any questions about it concerns [Music] clarifications Kathy apart from those fees that we may not charge uh because of being remote environment fees that we're increasing were but wanted to verify everything else is staying the same yeah all all the fees are staying the same we've not done any increase of of fees um for a long time and and that doesn't change going into 2021 so so um it's it's really pretty much what you've seen in past years um it's just that there may be some of those isolated fees that as long as we're in remote they they will not be um assessed okay thank you if there are no additional questions um can I get a recommendation or a a motion

158the only board member I can see is Paula Paula do you have the agenda yeah I do um education approve the attached schedule of fees for the 2021 school year that's is Shannon could do Blacklist yes gon Ross Yes Kimbell yes Smith yes John yes Hill yes motion passes Z thank you uh we're gonna move on to the um the district Equity report um and presenting Leah wisdom director of instruction equity and student services Dr Stubblefield uh Deputy superintendent and I believe we also have um members of the equity Council and the parents of color advisory team with us yes thank you Kelly and as Anna get gets ready I just get ready I just want to say how excited I am to for our team to share an update just on some things that

159we're doing if you recall doing my opening remarks at um uh the virtual con convocation I talked about uh us being prepared for two pics well obviously during our work session and someone needs to mute too I see that um obviously doing our work session we talked a little bit more about our together G update but that second pandemic that I referenced was around uh pretty much our Equity work and and and more specifically our our racial Equity work and so tonight you'll hear from the team around uh just some things that have been ongoing but not only that some things that are unique to this year uh as it relates to equity uh there are many school districts around the country that are uh because of the um um racial racial tension in our

160country right now that are just beginning to Grapple with this work uh I'm super proud that we can say that we've been doing this work for a while um but there there's still some some some ways that we can improve this work and so what you're here tonight is kind of a mindset shift if you will in terms of just re-energizing um the work that we we've we've been doing and and moving it forward to where we can really began to see uh the benefits of this work so with that I'll turn it over to Dr Stubblefield good evening um Dr Anna Stubblefield we uh have rearranged our presentation um just a little um we're going to actually start instead of starting with like our background we're actually going to start with um an update

161from our um Equity advisory Council and parents of color um co-chairs so we're going to let them start to honor and respect their time at the top of the agenda so first we'll hear from um and I'll introduce both of them um MK Emerson is the chair for the parents of color and um Jessica B who many of you know is actually the chair of the equity advisory Council so um K is going to go first followed by Jessica and then um I'll fill in any gaps that need to be filled in and we'll transition to our um the rest of our presentation one other note I don't know if it's updated originally we were going to include HR and this report but we're actually not going to do that part tonight um just given

162the time and we're going to do a more thorough um update around recruitment retention and those components in a future board meeting so K I think you're on mute k no you're not on mute just not we're just not hearing can you hear me now yes okay hi uh I'm K Emerson it's nice to be here with everyone I as Dr stfi was saying I am uh the chair of uh parents of color um advisory team so uh we were originally named a Delta but we did a rename in 2019 um and we have acted as an Advisory Board to the district um on just a broad set of issues over the last four years um we're actually comprised of about 11 to 25 parents of color throughout uh the district here and we try

163to meet monthly um except for in the month of July um so some things that we've done over the last four years have done um we have provided input on the School dress code um English as language um the curriculum there there the school start time last year uh and more recently we're kind of working moving into more of the uh new Equity policy and we're hoping uh we're in the process of getting some feedback uh from um from the members as relates to the reopening plans around um Equity um so I mean that's a little bit of a a really brief update I know one of the things that we are looking at in this upcoming year is uh trying to um since it's been about four years since we have brought voices on

164to um the advisory committee we are looking at um expanding that out and kind of doing um uh I guess be a a whole another round of new individuals to get some new voices and perspective but one of the really cool things that we also do is we try to provide U representation across uh the district on the different site Council so we're able to be able to pull those unique in those unique um informations from those pod areas around the district so we can bring that up to more of the larger U meeting and conversation so but yeah that's pretty pretty to the point so uh that's all I got thank you Kay um and then Jessica um is the new chair of the Equity advisory Council and so she's going to um give

165you guys a little update of some of the things that are happening and um what are some things they're working on as well yeah hi this is Jessica B um I'm the current chair of the equity advisory Council but obviously a lot of you know me so good evening to the board members thank you for letting us have this time and mine's going to be a little bit longer um like pocat EAC has lost some members bership and our charge has always been a little bit nebulous which has made it difficult to keep the group engaged in the work um I know that members of the EAC want to be useful to the board and to be given things to do that allow us to have robust conversations help with research help with best practices

166and make solid recommendations um to the board regarding issues of equity in our districts the these groups need to be re-energized and revitalized I think because we are losing so many members and um the re-entry plan is a really great example of work being done that poat and EAC could have been really helpful about sorry for all the noises behind me I'm sitting in a yard and there's a lot of lot of things going on but um several concerns have been brought up by members and parents and staff and so we actually created a survey that we sent out to our membership and so I want to talk a little bit about that survey because I don't know if you've seen it um but basically the following topics were addressed and so we we asked

167them we had yes and no answers and I'm going to I'm GNA kind of switch screens here which I since you can't see me shouldn't be a problem um but we asked several questions so we said in your opinion has the district addressed students having internet access and connectivity and overwhelmingly 83% said yes um in your opinion has the district addressed food insecurity in insecurity and again overwhelmingly the the responses were yes and again this was the membership of the two groups that responded 75% said yes um and then the following questions we allowed them to say yes no and maybe information may have just not been shared publicly so um this question is has the district addressed or provided a way to check on the safety of our students I.E the possibility of unchecked

168physical or mental abuse with no professionals actually seeing the students and overwhelmingly 75% was maybe but we don't know because it hasn't been shared um and then our next question was has the district addressed or provided a way to check on the mental health of our students and again overwhelmingly the answer was maybe but we don't know because it hasn't been shared out publicly so that was a 75% answer um and then we asked if has the district shared or discuss information regarding the potential increase in the achievement Gap stemming from students who have access to better resources I.E home tutors versus students who don't have assistance because what we have heard is that a lot of like the substitute teachers and the retired teachers have actually been hired by families to sit with students

169and be their inhome teer teacher and so um in that response 50% said no 25% said yes and 33 % said maybe but we don't know because it hasn't been shared um the next question was has the district discussed or shared any information regarding providing supports for families trying to navigate online school when English is not their first language um 16% said yes 41% said no and 50% said maybe we don't know um the next question was has the district discussed or shared any information regarding the consequences for rency for students in an online environment and um 8% said yes almost 60% said no and 30% said maybe we don't know so then what I wanted to kind of talk about we we left like an open text box at the end of it for

170any kind of concerns and so additional comments included concerns about how atris students are being supported including the possibility of creating teams at the building they can make home visits to check up on kids a thing so each building kind of having their own team that actually responds to kids that are not getting online and whatnot um members are also reporting that they have heard from friends family that there are concerns regarding how 504s and IEPs are actually being addressed and executed people have seen kids sitting outside of school buildings and even at McDonald's to gain internet access um and is the length of the day setting behind sitting behind a laptop and actually staring at a screen healthy for our students and so what I would just say is that I know there is

171no right answer I also know how difficult it is to be where you sit and you're making decisions on how to address situations in the district that you know might be unpopular and so I guess I would just ask you to consider all of the items mentioned tonight follow the research and recommendations from the experts rather than emotional pleas and that we can come up with ideas that better utilize the members of our Equity Group and I'm fully aware that a lot of things were discussed earlier in the in the work session you guys have and I'm sure that Anna's report is going to address some of these things as well but um I do thank you for your time and I just want to you know kind of reiterate that as an equity committee

172we feel like this is a situation in particular where we could have been utilized and we really haven't been and so going forward I think that that would be a really great thing for us to be involved in and actually asking those questions and talking about it and I would kind of jump in there to finish that off so um thank you Jessica for uh relaying the the results of that survey there so yeah it's it's really important one of the things that U me and Jessica have talked about um that we're really hoping to do this year is being able to you know bring both teams together both groups together um and be more of a support um to the boards as well as to the uh School District when we are looking at

173a variety of different things we we have over four years um of active um feedback and um conversations and suggestions um that we've been able to provide that has been helpful um in these last four four years which we are very thankful for um so we are really looking forward um to partnering um continuing to partner in this upcoming year as we are dealing with some pretty difficult decisions uh for our district so thank you thank you all and I would just say like I'm gonna have to hop off of this meeting because I have some other like conflicting um scheduling situations but I promise I will come back and watch it because I do want to see Anna's whole report but if there are any questions have for me or k or really any

174member of any of these groups please please send those in an email because we do want to be helpful and um know that these are really tough decisions you guys are facing and um anyway so that's what I want to say at the end just because jumping off Jessica I just wanted to say thank you for coming and K for participating yeah and before you all jump off Jessica so I won't miss out on something that you did weigh on in on the slide um is the update around SOS um we did we typically don't meet in the summer but we did meet three times this summer just given the state that we were in and one of the areas that they did inform and would like um to see happening happen and Zach is

175going to join both groups tomorrow as they would like um for us to resurvey all staff and students and this time to include parents um in regards to um SRO so um I just wanted to share that and then we also in our last um intro to Courageous conversations training um we did include all of our um current SRO they did take a part in that but um that was just something that was on there um that did not get mentioned and I didn't know if you had questions for them before they jumped off around that board members you have questions for k or or Jessica around the SRO update this is Erica I don't have any questions on that but um I have a comment so I'm new to the health not Health Equity

176I'm new to the equity advisory Council um but I've as a former member of the parents of color Council um I like to just thank um Kay Emerson she for her leaders she's incredibly engaged and I've just enjoyed working with her and we're very lucky to have you on in this capacity so that was my comment thank you Erica likewise and this is Carol yes and I'm I'm really looking forward to working with you and I've enjoyed getting to know more more about the uh the people of color committee and I'm I'm also a member of the people of color committee and so is um Paula I think that's right thank you Kelly this is Shannon I just wanted to um acknowledge uh Jessica's comment about um figuring out a better way for us to

177use these committees and um you know that's something that we've talked about for a long time um in a variety of circumstances not just with these committees but with all of our board committees and I I think that um it's not something that we've really spent very much intentional time as a board uh really trying to figure out and with everything on our plate right now um I'm not suggesting that we need to do that at our next meeting but I do think it's something to keep on the um agenda for later this year um to really have a more fome board discussion about our board committees the charges that they currently have um whether we need to um revise those enhance them um because you know as a board as a group we need

178to provide direction to those committees um in in um in partnership with our administrative staff um uh to make sure that we are um we that we are asking for what we want as a board from those those committees um that were not um I I completely agree with Jessica you know the people who volunteer for these committees want to feel like their um their time is well spent and and that they've made an impact and um I think there's some work that we have to do on our side uh to really help support and encourage that so um thank you for making comment Jessica I agree uh Jessica and k um and I may have missed this in the emails but do recent uh recent the uh resent the results the survey results to

179the board yes Paula I'm happy to send those to you it was Survey Monkey that Don sent out this week and I'm happy for you guys to see those um and I guess I would just finally say like I really have so much for all of you I know how tough this job is and I I just want us to be able to work together in a way that is collaborative and important and we're doing that work together and I know how busy you guys are so if you can utilize groups like The EAC and poast um in a way that is helpful to you I would really like to see that happen I I definitely think there are ways for us to formalize that too we do have the new um we do have

180Liaisons on both committees from the board now multiple Liaisons and I mean we always have but there is a way I think for us to work collaboratively and there's existing relationships between Jessica and board members and K and board members so I can see a way that this can um this is an opportunity to really build on the expertise of both the chairs of both committees and the um members of our board so um certainly we will be much more intentional in the work that we're asking you all to do and thoughtful about the feedback that we've gotten and we will as board president I'll I'll make sure that I'm wrapping in um the board member representation the liaison from the board to those committees and also being um cing or including um K and

181and Jessica on that communication so um that's definitely a commitment we can make and get better at yeah I think that's great really appreciate that thanks belly if um there are no more questions I am going to hand it off to Leah but before I do I do want to acknowledge um what the survey said results that Jessica shared from um both groups they do create um a lot of opportunities and unique challenges that we are currently trying to solve um but where we um um a barrier that we run into is who provides those services and where they occur um just given um where we are in our current state so I don't want to um just let what Jessica share um we recognize there are some challenges and there are some inequities um

182and we are um working to solve it but we are definitely open to any recommendation and Partnerships and that is something that we will engage both parents of color and Equity advisory Council around um as we continue to meet this semester good evening Leah wisdom director of equity instruction and student services um excited to be here with you all let me so I'm going to just I'm going to begin our conversation tonight um of course here with our uh strategic plan and our five strategic initiatives I really want to frame the entire presentation with what like with our beliefs and philosophies that underpin our decisions and our actions because we're going to give you a lot of updates tonight on programs and um practices and and things that we're doing but it's really important to

183frame that for both you all as the board and for our community around what those beliefs and philosophies are that are driving our work so when as you all know um we when we talk about our strategic plan and our five main strategic initiatives we frequently say that Equity is um in all of them it's it's it threads them together and it's in every piece of our our strategic plan and our five initiatives but what does that really mean um so one of those things is is that as a school system Lawrence Public Schools is committed to equity oriented leadership and this idea of developing and sustaining critical consciousness bus for all of our staff members um and really placing Equity at the center of our work and then also transformative change um and I

184wanted to put this on here so that we're thinking about this idea of change towards Equity being persistent and systemic um change that is disruptive but also dismantles um historical legacies around you know all these pieces that we know are impacting um specifically our marginalized uh people and groups of people so how do we Define educational equity and what are we what is it that we're actually working towards and as I mentioned in this Equity update we're going to share a variety of actions um that we're taking and ways in which we're centering uh voices from our stakeholders and decision making to work towards these four tenants this idea of access representation meaningful particip IP ation and high outcomes and we know as a district that it's critical that we recognize and that we're reflective

185of how what we're doing um is contributing to this overarching goal so that tonight as you're listening to each piece we're thinking about this definition of educational equity and our overarching goal so to frame this conversation again and our worker on Equity we want to think about the Gap and we talk about that a lot um we talk about the Gap that exists and oftentimes when we talk about that we're talking specifically um or we use the term achievement gap which highlights the academic achievement disparities between um our white students and our students of color but and in thinking about addressing this Gap um which is the heart of a lot of our work we feel it's critical to understand that it exists as a result of access and opportunity and part of our responsibility

186is to be aware of and actively address the barriers and the graphic you're looking at is um just a metaphorical graphic showing you know barriers um but those barriers that exist in our system that prevent access and sometimes even create larger opportunity gaps for our students which ultimately then lead to achievement gaps so to illustrate this we're going to look at some other Graphics that you maybe have seen floating around on social media um this is one that that that I have at least seen frequently and maybe you have as well and when we look at this graphic showing it for a specific intention um really the intent of this illustration is to increase understanding and empathy for addressing social uh inequities but the picture itself implicitly reinforces the idea of minoritized people or those

187otherwise underprivileged sort of showing um inferior ability so the problem with this graphic and using this to help demonstrate again um we're going to get there through this process of our beliefs um and philosophy opes a problem with this graphic has to do with where the initial inequity is located so if you're looking at that in the graphic some people need more support to see over that fence um because they're shorter which is an is an issue that's inherent to a person thems which is fine if we're talking about something like height in this case um but if it's if this graphic is supposed to be a metaphor for inequities it really is problematic um and missing the point it infers that some students or people are inherently less academically capable that they or their

188families or their communities are metaphorically shorter and need more support but that is not why the so-called achievement Gap exists as many have argued and um I believe myself for sure and my colleagues would agree and that we would argue it should actually be termed the opportunity Gap because the problem is not in the abilities of the students um but in the disparate opportunities that they are afforded within our system it is rooted in a history of Oppression this metaphor is actually a better example of deficit thinking an ideology that blames victims of of Oppression for their own situation as with this image deficit thinking makes systemic forms of racism and oppression invisible so over time you might have seen that people have added on to this graphic to do things like take the fence

189away um as with this one or to show like in the third picture here what the reality is and then again what it would look like to take the fence away alog together um the one we're going to look at here is if we begin this metaphor of the fence we begin with the metaphor of the fence it requires making clear that the reason that some people have more difficulty seeing than others is not because of their height as with the former graphic but because of the context around them so this picture demonstrates inequality unequal access to opportunities in this image some people are standing on Lower ground which could be seen as a metaphor for historical oppression um and they're trying to see over a higher fence which could be seen as a metaphor

190for present day system systems of Oppression so when we think about what the quality is it's evenly Distributing the tools and assistance in this case if you can look um and notice the whole um that is a made in the fence it's made by the person on the right and that sort of symbolizes the often creative and sometimes subversive ways that people will find ways um for the system to work for them to get what they need so Equity as most of us know would be customizing the tools so you see here the customization of the tools to identify and address the inequity But ultimately um this graphic here is showing us Justice and this is the concept of fixing or at least attempting to fix the system to offer equal access to both tools

191and opportunities this represents the idea of empowering everyone to dismantle the system um and how do we get there we look at those four pieces access representation meaningful participation and high out comes and I think the meaningful participation part really speaks to me particularly as we um reflect on what we just heard from our EAC and parents of color um committee chairs and their uh the invitation to invite their voices into the space in a way that is that is Meaningful and impacting our systems is super critical to our beliefs and philosophies um and also as Dr Lewis often reminds us we we want to be not just Observer of the game but um another possible interpretation of the graphic is that this is just showing our students and people as onlookers and yes they're

192dismantling the system but maybe to also dismantle the system um you know we need to look at being in the stands and being part of the game um we need to provide access representation all those pieces that I just mentioned so as we listen to each of the following updates because you're going to hear a lot of different um actions and and things that are happening um want to be thinking about what role each of those things are playing into our overarching goal of narrowing the opportunity Gap and removing barriers so back to our strategic plan and our five initiatives that are driving our work and and what we what we are saying around Equity being at the center for us that is about being intentional and being purposeful so it's not good enough to

193say it's in there equity's in there it's it's um embedded we we want to be clear about in what ways it's embedded and um and how Equity is in every layer and element of the action steps that you will find underneath each of our strategic initiatives and that we are focused on Equity focused leadership we want an asset-based approach versus deficit mind that I spoke to earlier having clear expectations and outcomes so not relying on assumptions about what students and parents and families and community members are supposed to come to us with but instead um evening that playing field being transparent um being data driven centering our most marginalized voices and encouraging promoting and sustaining social and self-awareness of our staff um our students um as they're in our system and moving through our system

194I'm gonna so one way um that we have we plan to get to what Leah is describing and to um continue to uh dismantle um the institutionalized inequities that we have within our system is to um conduct an ecap and ecap is for Equity context and Analysis and strategic planning um we have been trying to get this off the ground since last last spring possibly a little bit before last spring um with our partners at the Midwest and Equity plane Center um we continue to be in communication with them um they're um in the midst of um shifting um given um they they cannot travel at this point and we're not Gathering so they're making some adjustments and our hope is to um do a virtual training which will include uh members of um our

195parent of color in our Equity advisory Council and also District employees um um our hope is to do that training after the first of the year um we've talked about um doing the survey um in November December but um still working with them and then also trying to be mindful so we're not over inundating our parents and others with surveys so we're still uh navigating through that because the information that we can gain um from that outside perspective and that analysis of what Equity looks like in our district will just help us to continue to move forward um with intentionality of with Equity being at the center of all of our decision making I think one of things that's really exciting about about the ecap is um that through our mou our memo of understanding

196with Midwest equity and plains and they obviously would help us with the pre-planning and the training of our teams but then in the um collection of the data they don't do uh as much of an analysis um in the way of giving us exactly what we should do instead they give the data back to us in a way that then allows another team of individuals that will include parents and students and others um to look at the data in a meaningful way and make decisions of our own so it's kind of exciting um just briefly wanted to talk about um some training or some Doc documentation or guidance that was created by um it's actually a document that has been around for a little while but has recently been revised um by many of us

197sitting on the cni team and our affiliate practitioners and that document is on the right board members you can actually click it and and see the document in its entirety but um that document was just used as a guide um or at least a reference or a tool as um some training took place this fall in the in the days that we had that were um gifted To Us by you all and delaying the start of school all of our staff went through a training um called effective conversations which was just pulling out elements of this idea or from that document around um utilizing the compass to prepare for conversations and ways to potentially teach students protocols to have effect conversations particularly those around race or those that might be more challenging um also offering

198and providing teachers with some supports and tools and also re um reminding them of the supports and tools that exist for them that maybe they haven't been accessing um also provided teachers and staff with some suggestions impr prompts to help facilitate deeper discussion with students um but mostly they they didn't have a ton of time our are facilitators in in doing this session so it's it's going to be carried over into our work with our e teams but they were able to hit at just the most critical elements that were in the CC tools mostly the compass so that leads us into our building Equity teams um which uh right now we've typically brought our building Equity teams together two to three times a year to support their work in the building um and so

199that we're looking this year about how that's how that's going to happen and when that's going to happen um we are challenged in every area of professional development just in the way of having substitute teachers available um and when we might be able to offer this but we are going to be doing this it um continues to be planned collaboratively through our curriculum and instruction team as well as um our Affiliates and affiliate practitioners our our um Equity facilitator Dena Moore typically um is the facilitator of our building Equity team trainings so we will continue to plan collaboratively with that larger group trying to build on and think about the way that our year started you know with this effective conversations and and what kinds of tools do our building Equity teams need um to

200continue that work so that's a really part of strengthening our e team capacity it does our e teams don't look the same building to building um and not that we expect every building to look exactly the same but we really um want and and attempt to utilize that time together with our building Equity teams to strengthen their capacity in their own ability to use protocol for Effective conversations in their ability to model and have effective conversations with other staff um in their ability to collect data and use that to help inform the types of professional learning that are needed at their specific building um and also strengthening their capacity and being proa and providing proactive support for staff through professional learning um versus that reactiveness that reactive place that sometimes we're at when something pops

201up Leah before you move on I do want to say that as we we've had these teams in place for several years but one of the realities and one of the things that often comes up and I don't want to speak on behalf of our Affiliates in future report we'll have them come forth and talk about their different experiences but I don't want to pretend like everybody Embraces this work and everybody is supportive of this work and there are barriers and um it it's a reality um um that particular our Affiliates who are um women of color have experienced microaggressions have experienced resistance and we um that is something that um I think any organization struggles with but I just want to be transparent about that and not try to pretend that there are not

202struggles and there are not um challenges that they face but one of the things that we are hoping that um this engaging in those courageous conversations and we're hoping that we can continue to progress towards that um but there are some challenges in um resistance um that's just the reality of of where we are yeah thank you thank you for that Anna it's absolutely true so in terms of just additional professional learning Anna um Dr subfield alluded to the intro to Courageous conversations about race this is um something that a Pacific Pacific educational group who we're partnered with is offering this year newly um as a result of somewhat of the situation that we're in but it it also has proven to be um something that we really have valued it's a 2 and a

203half hour virtual training led by um facilitators from Pacific educational group this year we've been able to offer several we we did um offer this on the final day of our new teacher induction so all of our new staff received the two the two and a half hour introduction to Courageous conversations about race also we invited staff who have not been trained both classified and certified to attend at that date um during the first couple weeks prior to school beginning we were able to offer this to additional classified and certified staff and then as Dr safield mentioned um sro's were able to attend the SE September 3rd option as well um I me I talked through the conversations about race effective conversations that happened at the beginning of the year we will continue with culturally

204relevant teaching um which is the transforming educator session uh again that is one that we're looking at being very creative in how we offer it it is typically two days that teachers um are out of the classroom to two consecutive days receiving this training and that's likely just not possible this year so we're looking at some alternative ways to offer this in a um shorter format and maybe over the course of more days than just two and potentially for um pay instead of during the school day when it might be more challenging to have substitute teachers so we'll have more on that as we get a better sense of where we're at and I'm going to let Anna talk about sore um oh go ahead sorry this is Shannon can I ask a quick question

205um uh a number of years ago I did the the Beyond diversity training as a board member um is it possible for board members to participate in one of these um sessions um I don't I don't know if there's a cost to add like if you had us attend if that cost the district extra but um I would really like to go through that and would encourage the beyonders consider that if yeah so Shannon um yes it's possible I will work with Don um to see when our next one is scheduled um they're virtual they're two and a half hour the intro the courageous conversations I actually went through it with the new teachers it it is even if you've been through Beyond diversity multiple times it was a um a good refresher a good

206way to experience it so um for the upcoming ones um we can have up to anywhere from 80 to 100 is not a per person cost it's just a group so we can make sure to um let board members know when it's coming we do also um when we have um space or allocate specific space for our parents of color and our Equity advisory members so some of them have gone through it this year as well um so sore um is H students organized Against Racism um in the past it's been a challenge to actually um bring this to our district one because of the number of Subs that will be required into pulling the students out of class for several days but in the new virtual format um we're going to be able to

207do it this year um I believe we're finalizing our dates um the teacher and uh the the staff who will support the students I think their first training is in October and then we'll have um about 40 students from each High School is specifically for high school students to participate um in the training and its chunks of time um over multiple dates so we'll provide um more updates around that um and um I'm I mean one of the things that have come out of all the virtual trainings and we're being able to offer opportunities um for our students that we um just found very challenging to do in the past um before we move on to the next slide I just want to add to this piece as we think about professional learning and and

208we um we really were and and continue to be really impressed with the introduction to Courageous Courageous conversations about race and being able to provide that to new staff they also received um 2hour or 90minut micro microaggressions training from Den Mo our Equity facilitator um so our new staff were um armed with a lot of good professional learning and we worked to empower them and encourage them to be voices um as they go out into the building but when we look at each of these professional learning um opportunities back to what uh Dr Stubblefield was saying in the in the absence of a strong Building E team it's really hard for the professional learning to keep carrying over into the work and so that's why we know um we know how important it is to

209be invested in developing our Equity teams as well as um our Equity leaders in the building in terms of Administrators and so that's a huge piece of our plan um it continues to be a huge piece of our plan um but you know we we know that each of these professional learning opportunities in isolation will have little to no impact without that ongoing embedded um opportunity and expectation um and accountability and so that's that's what we're working on in those layers that we talked about before now it will be Anette canoli providing a social studies update for you am I on good evening my name is Anette canoli and I am a a curriculum specialist and the social studies contact person so this summer um my work with the social studies task force included several

210things but I first want to say that um at the beginning of of our meetings with the social studies teachers we all recognized or the teachers really recognized that there was a great need that when students returned back to the classroom that with all that was going on in the world and in our immediate Community there was no way that we could start school um and just jump into into social studies topics even though um what's going on in the world is is social studies content but we couldn't there was no way we could pretend like what was going on in the world what was going was occurring and so we all made um a commitment to and this speaks to the third bullet that we uh created an essential question that would allow for

211a space for us to allow for a space for students to have conversation to unpack to share what was coming up for them um through since we quarantined and throughout the summer and with with covid-19 and the social justice movement and all the events um and the protest movements that we developed an essential question um that says in a changing world how do citizens adapt and so we decided that all the social studies teachers were going to fit that essential question into their lessons um at at different points at the beginning of the year to create a space for students to have conversation um to share and and problem solve and so forth um it was both uh narrow enough and Broad enough to include what was current what's currently going on in the world

212and add in other topics so I just want to to preface with that that there was a commitment on the part of the social studies teachers to do that we recognize that um the other work that we um were tasked with this summer um well let me backtrack a little bit as Leah mentioned um during our professional development days that we were gifted with one of the sessions that the Affiliates the equity affiliates particip ated in and and facilitated with all staff members in the district was a session around utilizing the tools that we already have um our district has invested heavily for several years in in tools and we and we sometimes hear teachers ask or they ask questions what should um I'm uncomfortable or I'm not sure how to have this conversation or

213what's the lesson plan and so we decided to focus on on on helping teachers and staff memb because it wasn't just teachers but all staff members go deeper have deeper level conversations um utilizing the tools that we already that we already have and I and I'm happy to um to report that even though we don't normally hold Equity sessions in such large numbers um it was it was a challenge but there were I feel confident in saying that many many of our District staff members found the time um in the session um worthy of their time and impactful to them as they um deal with their personal things that they've been grappling with as well as as well as as they grapple with how do I um come before my students when school starts and

214and do school with so much going on in the world so um the um Equity affiliate We additionally we plan to um offer additional um sessions throughout the school year we are we have some ideas that we're going to put forth and to I think it was Shannon and to your question about participating in the intro to Courageous conversation um we invite all school board members to participate in our Equity sessions um we have them we try to do well I'll say even this summer we offered some sessions um some reoccurring sessions equity in the time of quarantine that was that was freely offered to staff members and those were very successful as well so um I would imagine Leah or Anna can keep the board notified of when we plan to host our Equity

215sessions um let's see what's my next bullet um in our session we we focus heavily on on the utilizing the compass and The Four Agreements to go deeper to have deeper level convers conversations and we know that from the social studies per perspective um and just from the equity perspective we know that there's continues to be um a need to support staff and to push staff to utilize to continue to utilize the the tools that they have already been provided and so in our upcoming social studies curriculum work um that we will hopefully be engaging in that's going to be a pivotal part of that work as well as my last bullet point which is the utilization of our culturally sustained resource criteria um in our district different buildings are in different places in terms

216of their proficiency and use and user uh usability not usability but do they use the tool or not they're in different buildings or in different places so we know that that different buildings need different levels of support but in our upcoming social studies work um that Resource as well as our Equity tools will play heavily in that that's all I have thank you andette sorry I started coughing right before I unmuted myself um and I also want to apologize to the board and to anybody who might be watching I was asked um to make sure that I defined what an equity affiliate is and so in case um in case you don't know or you don't recall um because I think we talked about it in previous reports but we do have a very small

217But Mighty group um of equity Affiliates um and or Equity affiliate practitioners there's six of us and um the to to be to to have that certification um each each individual goes through a six to8 we training that ends in a um an in-person Training Day to dig deeper with others in your cohort that um that you went through the training with um and those are individuals from across the country that um that certification and training is provided by Pacific education group and so uh we have invested in that small group of us to go through that deeper training receive ongoing support and coaching from Pacific education group and then we meet as a team to discuss um you know what's coming up for us and what are some ways in which we can continue

218to support the work and what's our Direction and we're kind of right there right now um in all those places but if if anyone was unsure that is what an equity affiliate is and the training that they have received and how they're continuing to build their skill set and support the district I'm going to allow um let Jennifer atne take this slide this is Nas Native American student services and I believe she's on hello make sure I'm here can you hear me okay awesome so um look when I it was interesting because when I was first asked to talk about Nas when um in the board meeting I thought it was my normal like once a year I'm required to give the board an update about Native American student services so I I hadn't framed

219it in terms of the equity picture overall when I originally was tasked I didn't understand that connection until um I had met with Leah later after that so um but looking at what she had talked about those four aspects of access representation meaningful participation and high outcomes those four aspects figure heavily in a lot of our decision-making and programming and things like that so that it kind of it fit does fit with the equity thing but um for me it was like a mental leap to connect that with that because I often think of um what we do as in our office as kind of running separate from the district like we have our own think as I only we only focus on certain students so I tend not to think about all the students

220if that and that's not any way I don't care about all the students or anything like that it's just that my focus is on our Nas students when we're doing the work that our grants have to be spent on our students and has to be done that way but I love that what we're doing is already connecting with what everyone is doing so that that's great so um as far as meaningful participation piece that was hard for me to think think about in Corona virus time right like how do we connect students how do we make sure they're participating meaningfully how are they connecting with their um academic life or whatever and what brings back to me is the most successful the research shows the most successful students n Native American students are those who

221are connected to their culture and so because of that we're still going to support as much as we can through our cultural ways our students and um part of that is just being there for them and making sure they have the things they need to succeed in school like um physical things like clarinet reads and things like that um but also being a liaison for the students to the school district last week I most of my work was parents in crisis mode that had very little to do with school like finding resources they needed rent money they needed um how am I going to get Transportation it was a lot of just life stuff and so um that reminded me [Music] that although a lot of our preparation for school and this school year has

222been based on the Logistics of getting WiFi and getting access and getting things like that there's still this cloud of things that a lot of our families are having to deal with um and add that to the amount of deaths and loss that we're all my my community I say we um are experiencing that we can't officially mourn that yet we're asking students to sit in front of a a television a television a screen all day and so balancing all those things and still supporting my students has been my biggest challenge this week so um I've received help from um other staff members and helping to do that so okay going to like looking at the future our goals are our um immediate goals we do have a land acknowledgement um draft it's on the

223Mass page of the district website the draft is and we're modeling it after K State even though I went to KU anyway case States um land acknowledgement is really well done and they have hyperlinks so that you could drill down and get more information about the um the tribes and the areas mentioned so we're modeling it after that and so that it can be used as just a statement people can say at the beginning of events or it can even be used as a learning document like you can a classroom or a teacher or someone could look at it and like click on the hyperlinks and find more information about the tribes and regions and things like that mentioned so I really wanted to make an an active interactive um acknowledgement to me acknowledgement is

224reciprocal so there's like a little bit of give and take in there about the land that we're on and I know land acknowledgements are real popular right now but I want to make sure that um it's done as properly as possible especially with our intertribal community here in Lawrence most land ackn Ms really are only acknowledging the actual tribal Community not necessarily an intertribal community so there's a little bit a difference in there with that um our cultural academic enrichment pieces we will be um I've been working with a few Native American Authors to get permission to read some of their books online um they given different Librarians and teachers permission and I've gotten some extra lessons from some Native American Authors to do so I'm going to have we're going to plan some um

225cultural activities for Native families either through our website or through WebEx or Facebook depending on what streaming works best um so that keeps up a kind of a cultural thing and um there's some other ideas I've heard from families I'm not sure how feasible there are yet about doing some kind of like Nas YouTube like a native YouTube where they share videos with each other it's not necessarily for the public because it's not a performance for non-indians about us being Indian but about expressions of from us to us kind of an internal Network where we can share videos and little mini talks to each other so we're looking at that as a way for them to um connect virtually and um I'm working with uh teachers and curriculum groups as they ask me you know

226information about different books and different sources and stuff like that trying to make sure they have all the information that they need with that to make sure that their decisions are Equitable especially using the um cultur relevant the CRS the the what crsc uh document and helping them process things through that that's any questions any questions I have a couple um Jennifer um as a member I'm still here I'm just listening I'm writing down okay um as a former chair um of this uh important group um I know that there has been some issues with the programming itself um and I know that we that the Native American student services parent committee is supposed to involved in developing educational plans that do come to the board for approval um can you tell me um how

227you're connected with um what your relationship has looked like with the board other than the annual updates that you provide um what your relationship looks like with Dr Lewis um and then you don't have to specifically say um with Dr Lewis but I mean previous superintendant um and then what could we do to better support Native American student services um and it looks like you're doing a lot of work um by yourself so how could we support you and I I have a lot of other questions that may be in the weeds kind of questions um that maybe we can have off of off of this um lat time so you're asking me I'm just want to make sure I understand the question so you're asking me about um how the parent committee is included

228in our education plan right right yeah and then my relationship with the parent committee and the superintendent well not just the superintendent but the district um I'm not sure how to answer that I'm a part of the district and I'm like uh Leah and Dr subfield were saying that I'm on the affiliate team so I'm my input is infused and embedded in the equity decisions and Equity work the school does the district does because of that um I I don't know what you mean I guess I I don't understand like relationship sounds I don't know it works I mean we're working um I don't understand but then the our education plan yeah we the the decisions are made based on the suggestions I hear from the parents in the parent committee the the programming decisions

229are made based on those things could you um let us know what supports you need from us uh right now I'm working with HR to make sure we get our secretary hired and once I have that that'll help a lot and so um we're just because of the the changes and we had we kind of put on hold and then I was working from home anyway it's just been really hard to organize the logistics of for me to person hired so we're working on that this week so um that's that'll help a great deal but we thank you I guess right now I can't think of anything materially that we need that I would have time to do I mean there's a million things I would need but I only really have time to do

230things I'm doing like give me a whole Cadre of social workers in Paris and and stuff like that we can do we can do the work with that but um I think last year too just to remind us um last year when Kelly did um uh former um president Jessica b um attended one of our meetings that they had also offered um a couple of social workers or at least a social worker to help you is that something that would still be a possibility um I don't think that was offered I think we had talked about the cost it wasn't like here you go here's we're offering this uh our budget can't um um support that kind of Staff right now um our budget barely supports what we're doing um but you have a number

231well um aside from from that um the parents in crisis mode um yeah how are you working um are you working with the district at all I didn't hear that you were um so mostly those are are helping the parents find Community Resources like I need to find a food pantry so here's your food pantry I need to find you know it's people finding those Community Resources a lot of those weren't District resources they needed but if they were I funneled in that direction like if they needed help with an IEP or an 506 question or something like that I would funnel it that way but this past week it was a lot of food pantry rent my car breaking down it was those kinds of things so that was the um how many parents

232or would you say that you are getting um are you answering quite a few I I'm just trying to trying to see where I could be helpful um and um finding um resources for you um that wouldn't be at a cost to the district does that make sense since you have your two funding um Federal available to you it varies um this last week I probably had 2025 interactions which is a lot for one week for me on the phone not just being in person if we were in person pre pandemic time it would be a lot more um I'm not sure I'll have to think about that because I don't know I don't know I'm so used to just figuring things out with the have Leah do you have any comments yeah I I

233could maybe just add and and Jennifer you can um let me know this is your interpretation as well but um Jennifer and I we meet weekly granted during the pandemic things have um been different but we have talked about some partnership between um in terms of like uh dollars and you know potentially additional Human Resources thinking about our yell students and our funding on that side and there's there's a need for social work there and so Jennifer and I started to toy around with some ideas um some creative ways to think about um how we can utilize our funding um but I think that last bullet under the nas services and gos that work with the district is is uh really important there a lot of things that are happening that are very specific and

234I and I do appreciate and understand that and and I'm so thankful for the expertise and knowledge and the benefit of having Nas we also want to think about how that how we how we work together um for that ongoing partnership because it's not a whole load of money it's not a lot of money even though there's two funds um but uh to to make the best use so like for example this year our Jennifer I know you all of our Native American families instead of receiving their supplies from they were receiving them through um process which was actually different for our families um which made it in some cases is challenging but but I definitely want to highlight that continued partnership um and the work that we're doing together to think about how we

235can make sure that the services that are needed can be provided in Creative anytime there's a question or a resource if I don't know then I connect with someone in the district and they'll direct me I mean it's I'm part of the district it's just I focus on a specific group of students that's all so observationally just looking at it from like a as a person with Social Service background or it I it does feel like you are High um it feel like like you when I think about like all the work that you do individually with families and then administratively where you all are at I do think you need you would from I'm hearing you say that one support you could utilize is having a social service that that has knowledge and expertise

236of your community and is of your community is that right yeah yeah yeah and I think I mean there probably yeah go ahead oh I'm sorry but even before covid physical space was an issue and we did lose a pract we lost our practicum students our partnership with KU and I would just like to point the district no that was different we definitely have the partnership with with KU yeah the practicum partnership solid and ready to go whenever you guys need it so okay good that's what that was my concern because I know we lost the physical space yeah um yeah sorry Carol go ahead oh yes and I would like to commend that the nas office and the partnership between the United Way because we did have to shift on how we distri distributed

237school supplies and that was you know it was complicated but you know we'll get through it and it's like everybody says we're on this together and we all need to work together during this time so I think what might be helpful um is for Jennifer Jennifer and Leah do do continue to meet on a regular basis but those things that um board members may be hearing up observing if you can either send those to Leah or myself so as we're sitting down with Jennifer and we're talking about structuring support some to Paula's Point not Paula I'm sorry to Carol's Point Nas did physically move to the College and Career Center that was done with some intentionality to think about like access and partnering with the resources through Boys and Girls Club and some of their

238after school programming and some of those things and it didn't necessarily work out that way and we are in conversations around where is the best place because as you know everyone and everything has moved out as Centennial except for one that'll be shifting for there but we are having those conversations internally um as a district um and so I just think what's coming up and what is needed if we um and how do we leverage the resources and programs that we have in place because one of the things we did do this year but it had a hiccups and Jennifer was um definitely flexible and worked with us on Distributing school supplies um but I think now that we have a system and we can communicate with our building principles we'll know how to better

239to make sure that those hiccups and those things that we learned but that was a portion of the nas budget that can be for something else now that we have a Sy so that's just one example of of us partnering recognizing and leveraging resources that we have within the district but I do think we can have a larger conversation um around like the social work um or the social services connections that like how do we leverage um someone with who is native who will um connect with the community and be able to make progress in um those areas areas because I think everybody is wanting to um help however we can part of it sorry yeah so I just wanted to offer that yeah part of it Lawrence no longer has an Indian Center and

240so um a lot of the ways we've become the deao Indian Center because there's no other place to even ask a question even if um and now especially the high school is kind of shut to the public as well they would get random questions just from the community saying where do I find a whatever and so I'm getting the parents question so I'm sure there's community members out there that aren't parents that are also wanting questions answered so yeah there's no Indian center right now so that also adds to the number of those kinds of like what I was saying my work last week that added into that kind of work right the budget has always been an issue because the the the nas funding has been capped since 1995 and that only that was

241at it was capped and at that time it we served a little over 200 students so we've been having to get creative and as you can see on this graphic we have 500 students yeah that the cap is on the Johnson o Aly budget not the title budget yeah yes yeah I do want oh I'm sorry um just quickly um Kelly uh and I do understand that the budget's been capped at a certain number of students but uh there was a young woman who was sitting on the uh parent advisory Council for Nas had looked at the budget and she said over the last decade 10 years Nas has brought in over a million dollars to the district um and we had talked about our return on investment um we've looked at some data that

242was provided I think when Zach Conrad first started um he provided us some data uh not for just this 36 or 500 students but what it look like um for um who check the box for American Indian um in in preco and pandemic there had been some standing issues with Native American student services and lack of support from the district um so that's what I'm trying to get at and I think Jennifer or not just Jennifer but the Native American student services needs the support from the district we are signing off on um agreements with the Bureau of Indian education um and the federal grants uh I think that we owe it to Native American student services to elevate this program so just real briefly when you said check the box that does when we're

243looking at the um thinking about those access representation meaning full participation and high outcomes under the high outcomes piece of that Equity Banner um they usually we usually rely on data for that information right data that we call from um Power School schools Etc things like that so when Paula said check the box so there's and I've mentioned this several times but um there anyone can check any box on the enrollment form right when you enroll in school so we have I think it's 800 students who've checked the Box who say they're American Indian Alaskan native Native American right 800 900 students however 500 students students is it's like 493 or something like that 500 students are verified and have enrolled or signed up with Native American student services with a specific form provided by

244tile 6 Department of Education and so to to verify and sign up with nas one has to show tribal identification or their parents tribal identification in the child's birth certificate right so if the kid hasn't been enrolled yet right so that's a definite disparity in like this group the 800 group has a certain piece of data and the 500 person group that Nas serves is another piece of data so sometimes um it looks different like it it it's not an exact easy thing to discuss sometimes unless we get into the weeds of that right so um I just I do want to point that out because we can only serve the 500 people who've enrolled and um engaged with Native American student services with their documentation unfortunately so there's another group of students who've checked

245that box and they may be treated that way mentally by an administrator or a teacher that oh they're Nas they're going to get taken care of this way when really I can only serve the 500 that makes any sense so I just want to make sure that that's really clear there's always been a difference in those two is that what you're talking about Paula like the difference between those two numbers actually Jennifer I was trying to say that yes 500 students but you can actually serve those those students that are are native that identify as Native American student services so I get that um that that you have to serve this specific group of of students but when you look at it um uh from those students that check the box you can also still

246provide services to those folks um and and I see so much potential for Native American student services to expand their reach other than just specifically serving these families um if you have the right resources if you have the right folks in in in the program um and use really truly use the services that the District offers offers to you okay and I think I wonder too if we're just not offering the right services to if we're not offering the right support so one of the things that we talked about and that Leah has pointed out is um how are we moving to a space where we are providing resources where there's need and um demonstrating that um we could justify that there's there's um reason to provide more reses in a resources in a particular

247area um than we would in another comparative because we are as a district um underserving and marginalizing and continuing to participate um in not elevating not just services but our Stu our students so I think looking at like how can we provide you I think is is some staffing um and in a in a budget crisis that's a really difficult thing to discuss but I just think there's justification so I'm not talking about a practicum student who's an intern no I he marginally I'm talking about somebody that's a permanent you know and not maybe not just someone but looking at like what are the natural um what are the resources that we have in the district and how do we um like Dr Stubblefield was talking about making sure they're getting streamline to you so

248that you don't feel like when you get 25 calls that you have to address you can't not stop what you're doing and work with those families how how do the other things that you have you know your outcomes and goals that you're working on how do they get um accomplished and you you just can't as a single person do all those things I think you I think you deserve and and and the families and and the students deserve yes so the nas Native American student services is solely funded from our federal grants there are other IND and this Nas is also called often called Indian education there are also other Indian Indian education departments in public districts around the country that have a onetoone match of funds from their District where they have a 3/4

249to you know 75% match of their funds what they get from the federal government the district matches 75% so it's not unusual to get funding from the district for the Departments is that Lawrence has traditionally never funded or matched any of the federal funds we've always been say okay this is what you you're getting what you get that's how you spend your money and I've even had to like use Nas funds to buy work computers and things like that so sometimes we'll get a computer from the district but sometimes we have to even buy equipment that District manages and owns with our funding so it's been very very limiting and I'm I guess I'm also you know the daughter of a single mom and it used to live in on crackers and soup for a

250week so I just make do with what I got like this is this is what I got okay let's figure this out you know so that's my mentality personally so when someone says oh we could give you more money I might I don't even know how to organize that without a really good plan yeah so I think a couple of things um just because I think this conversation does yeah we're starting to kind of conversation but I do think that um they you know over the last couple of years every Department used to buy their own computers and we have streamlined those kind of things but I think it is um worth what um both Carol and Paula have talked about we probably just need to reexamine what where we seeing the need where are

251we um funneling those resources from the grants that receive naps from that Nas receives and then figure out the gaps because I will also say there has been times and I don't know if Kathy's still on here that there is some carryover because you have been diligent and Frugal so I would say before we say we're just going to and I'm not saying I I think we just need to go through like a budget evaluation process to see where where the gaps are where the the money is going and I do think that's a larger conversation so um I can work with Dr Lewis and Leah and Jennifer and we may just have a work session specifically around that um or it may be a smaller session with specific board members and not necessarily um

252on the board agenda but I do think it is a larger conversation um because I think that Jennifer is right you know over the years things have been done differently and and leadership is different and we are like okay Jennifer we want to do this and I can see where that could be a little overwhelming and it's like okay we need to ask some questions around sustainability but we also need to figure out what the need is so I do think there's space for a larger conversation yeah um to Service as many Nas students as um I mean Native American students as um we can throughout the district and figuring out what those needs are and connecting us to Community Resources where when families are contacting Jennifer we have a direct connect to this is

253who you call at um the shelter this is who you call that at this Pantry here's your connection but establishing those Partnerships so that are not a lot of barriers or loopholes that frustrate parents um if we can establish connected connections with specific organizations and Partnerships um to support the families so Dr St field it like you were saying there could be a budget review and that there could be board members um who assist with that PA seems like a natural fit given her history um and I don't know if Carol wants to join in as well but certainly if um you want to uh let us know how we can support in that I would appreciate y i I would be highly interested in joining that being a part of that thank you Jennifer

254MCH Jennifer all right see y'all later thank you you uh this isck hey good evening again everyone uh Rick Henry director of secondary schools before I begin with the content of this slide I'd like to thank the board for approving our collaboration agreement with equal opportunity schools during the July 27th board meeting I while I'm doing that I'd also like to thank the Lord schools foundation for providing approximately 40% of the funding for this partnership EOS will help us as we ensure that that students of color and low-income students have Equitable access to our AP our advanced placement courses and that they succeed at high levels as you can see from the slide year one of our partnership with EOS will focus on building a foundation during year two we will we will go deeper

255building on the momentum we've built in year one year three involves taking steps to to sustain that success we'll share more about years two and three at a later date but I'd like to share more details about year one with you right now um first of all uh year one build the foundation we we've already been introduced to our partnership director whose name is Rod Walton who will support our team throughout the process in the first year we'll work with Rod to understand our unique Dynamics and how to engage in critical conversations about race and class so that teachers counselors and administrators are ready to act in service of Equitable outcomes for our students as you can see on the slide uh the first step is studying the data during this time we'll collect enrollment

256data and Survey students and staff to better understand the context of access success and experience es in AP courses at our high schools next in year one we'll develop a set of strategies EOS will work with us to create a set of strategies to engage and advocate for underrepresented student groups we will build what EOS calls an Outreach list of students that could benefit from AP classes using an EOS process that includes learning mindsets covering and overcoming barriers and using staff recommendations to determine how to encourage and engage underrepresented student groups then we'll match those students with the courses that will vest align with their interests and support them in making strides toward their academic and career goals enrolling diverse students in AP classes is the next part of year one by partnering partnering with

257EOS along with a dynamic Outreach and advocacy plan our schools will ultimately enroll more underrepresented students in our AP programs offering those students the opportunity to shift their educational trajectory towards increased rigor engagement and college success finally um we'll support schools in monitoring success EOS will work with us to explore and identify the key support and sustainability strategies that teachers and unrepresented students need un excuse me under represented students need we will complete a support plan documenting the strategies will we we will Implement and how we'll measure the outcomes so that's a that's just a quick summary of year one with EOS I really look forward to updating you as we strive to provide greater AP access to our underrepresented student groups this uh this could could prove to be a very critical and Key

258Program in moving forward in our work uh with with bringing underrepresented student groups into our most challenging courses thank you Rick sorry it's sure thing um and you're you're up again I am um so moving to another topic reactive plan matrices for elementary middle and high schools elementary director Darcy Krauss will talk more about the outcomes of the process uh for revising and aligning our reactive plan matrices but I'd like to start by talking about those groups who partnered during this process this was truly a collaborative partnership involving the following groups building administrators directors of Elementary and secondary Kansas University ci3 team um Dr Kathleen Lane and and her her excellent group of of um ci3t experts we also worked with Kip core the Kansas Institute for peace and conflict resolution that I believe uh

259Dr Stubblefield will provide more information on soon and also our building leaders took it through their building leadership teams and in some cases they're building ci3t teams uh a series of work meetings with the above Partners throughout the summer cul culminated in the product that Darcy is going to explain to you now thanks Rick well our elementary and our uh secondary levels actually initiated their work um with our ci3t Partnerships on close but they were definitely subsequent years and that added to um kind of an organic level of disconnect so early on in Dr Lewis's tenure he approached Rick and I and and challenged us with creating um a vertical alignment not only in content but also in the physical graphic um representation that outlined the reactive plan matrices for both the elementary and the

260secondary level so we went to work on that and then um rather concurrently we had reported to the board um in regards to some discipline data and the board challenged us with creating basically a common vernacular between Elementary and secondary to ensure that not only um our families um were able to engage with the process in a more seamless manner but also that um the board would be able to look at data in a more cohesive Manner and that our power school um CIS would enable us to collect that data in a manner that was more conducive for comparison so that's exactly what we said about doing we now have a common set of vocabulary and definitions it has been refined and U minimized those uh vocabulary terms are also the ones that we now

261see in our drop- down menus in our power school system um our visual representation is very fluid and it is also cohesive between the levels and you will notice at the top of all of our reactive plan matrices there is definitely a restorative emphasis and there's a lot of proactive protocols that have been put in place any questions on that this work was huge Darcy and Rick thank you for all your work on this having been someone who's tried to support the reactive plan matrices and the development it really is a document that provides the transparency and consistency around how do we respond um to behavior to challenging behavior and so that all of our stakeholders have a sense so thank you I think this is um our last is Slide was gonna talk through

262yeah so uh Rick mentioned our partnership with Kip cor um we've uh partner with them um the last three years um so this year um um just to remind you that you approved the student support facilitators and um we are um very um excited about um to see what impact they'll have as we Implement restorative practices in our middle schools so um all four of our middle schools have been trained we um southwest and west was trained at the beginning of the school year um because Kip also had to make some shifts um we were able to train the entire staff um during two of those professional development days at both schools and um that would not have been possible if they hadn't shifted to a virtual platform so um we're um what we were

263intentional about this year was We implemented I just want to remind everyone CU I um can't remember if we talked about um this previously we implemented at our middle schools because that's where our data showed us that was the greater need um we are in conversations about what it will look like to have our high school staff train now that kipor has an online um way to do it a virtual way to do it I think that is more attainable um if we can find the time in the over the course of the next year but it is also figuring out um what does it look like to make it sustainable at the high school but um our student uh support facilitators um will engage in a monthly coaching call with kipor to make sure

264we're providing them the support that they need to um support the Middle School staff to implement the restorative practices um with Fidelity um we also um have used um right now in the virtual setting all of our administrators and our student support um facilitators have a copy of the book don't suspend me so um we can start to talk about conversations um and things that we can put in place for um consequences that don't men that don't require suspension outside of the statue you know there are certain things that you have to suspend for for like weapons and drugs and those kind of things but those other um things that a student may have gotten suspended for in the past or received an um multiple day ISS for um they are exploring and looking at

265ways to systematize that to um to do some restorative work so that the students will not um be removed but also at the same time um Can restore and repair relationships that um may have been damaged or where they may have caused harm um the other book that um we're using as a support as recommended by kit core is um Justice on both sides and this um looks at transforming um education through restorative practices but it also um recognizes the realities that we faced in systems that have been built on um punishment and suspension so we are um excited about our partnership kipe did um do a survey um after um the training and overall it was um positive and well received they are disaggregating the data and I hope we're um as we give

266an update probably in the late spring around what our data looks like um how often the restorative practices um restorative circles are happening will include the data that they um um got from staff when they did their training um we also have been more intentional this year about making sure that on our professional development days at a middle school we've cont contracted with Kip core to have um um space in there to follow back up with all the staff that was trained all of the staff was given it's not really homework but things that they needed to do between now and November and then Kip core will um engage um in some professional development based off of what they were um tasked to do I think most of them were tasked to do a certain

267type of circle to do different things that they learn in the training and then they'll follow up with them um in November in March so um we um last year we started and we trained two schools but we also realized where we had gaps and um have um worked with Kip core to address that so that we can Implement with Fidelity and um sustainability can I ask a question I'm gonna ask question supportive practices so that's one method around in terms of like making sure that we're it's one approach to reducing the in school and out of school suspension um numbers but the policies and procedure I mean the policy that we have in place right now would have to be edited pretty significantly to really align with the um goal that we have to

268reduce um not just the disparities but really just the the where it's where we use um suspension and where we don't so I know we just did that work in terms of looking at the Matrix but it doesn't I mean from a it doesn't seem to align with the any longer with the direction that you're going which it sounds to me is not I mean it's great that you have the restorative practices that you're using but there are other things you do preventatively you know as part of a whole that the these other things that you're doing that this whole presentation should get us to a space where we are at least looking at um you know increasing access to opportunity should have a positive impact on um reducing the disparities that we see in

269um suspension rates there are lots of things that will be happening simultaneously but if we have a policy that doesn't follow these restorative practices and the work that you're doing it's really not helpful if if you are a principal and you're still and you're still being um Guided by you know a matrix that allows for suspension in in in in either in school or out of school um based on an interpretation of of um you know discipline then you you know you you're not really on board with the district I I don't know if I'm being clear because 909 right now yeah yeah I I I I think there's in depth work that has to be done here that's policy related and is in the board's realm so I'm just wondering how can we support

270um so I think just as we um continue to make shifts I think reviewing the policy honestly I have not I did not look at the policy around like just discipline and attendance like I'm just thinking of some of those ambiguous things that people had the L I mean that administrators have the latitude to implement um suspension form we did try to address a lot of it in our reactive plan by taking out things like disrespectful or just those um words that don't really have a clear definition around them like um disrespectful is the one that keeps coming to mind Darcy and Rick may have some other examples we tried to be more specific around um things that you can actually observe see feel do and it's not so generalized so that um uh as

271administrators and staff we have to be reflective about what we are um writing students up for or sending them to the office for or engaging in whatever types of conversations so on that level we're trying to clean it up I do think um to your point um Kelly we may just want to look at our policies around discipline suspension I don't know which policies those are but I think just to see if they align or if there is ambiguous language in that that may be um I think it's also a piece practices and procedures that follow that policy so looking at for example you know if you have a kid that's got to suspension has the grownup involved taking ownership with the to for the place that got us to that space meaning like all

272the little you know it's like um death by a thousand paper cuts or whatever how do you um take ownership of those things that led up to um getting us to that big Mark of whatever you did you can no longer be in building for three days which we want to avoid at like almost all cost so thinking through like what what can we do not just from that broad board policy level but what what practices and procedures and policies we have in place that that mandate certain behaviors from the grownup yeah I agree so yeah those and those are the things we do need to look at and again like as I talked about with um the um e teams and just changes and how we um looked that Resto I mean I mean

273Kelly as you know because you are familiar with restorative practices there that it does take some adjustments and there are times that it it may not be the right thing to do so examining that and balancing that with um where we may say to a parent we are going to do a circle and somebody's like no I'm not participating in a circle I want that person X so navigating through all of those kind of things um it will take some time um and um shift in culture and expectation and a shift in like this doesn't mean that um people are not taking responsibility or being held account it's a different way of approaching um certain situations but yes yeah yeah appreciate that Kelly I think that's policy jdd that was last updated I think in

2742008 so this would be an excellent time for maybe the polic policy commit it looks like maybe just a few um words that may need to be um edited in that that policy but I'll definitely let the policy committee do that work but there again um in alignment with our Equity policy those are some things that we can look at or the board can look at to to to continue to support this work thank you Dr l i and we also approve all the handbooks so I do think we can look at it even beyond that at the board level so but I yeah I appreciate that thank you Kelly thank you for mentioning this is Shannon thank you for uh mentioning the handbooks I actually was going to bring that up because not only

275do these these uh policies and procedures and practices make their way into the handbooks I've even seen just this last week that they make their way down to the level of the syllabi that are getting handed out to um students at the high school level at least and so um I think there's some there's policy work for us to do and then there's maybe some systemic work for the building administrators to do the high schools to make sure that um that this shift and focus is really reflected at all those different level Paul um for our last slide just thinking about next steps um first of all just that was a lot and I I if I could bring you all the way back around and if you look at the bottom that Equity at

276the center and thinking about those four pillars those main ideas of access representation meaningful participation and high outcomes you know anything that you hear as a board um in terms of things that we're doing in the district um should be uh elevating one or more of those areas right providing more access um representation meaningful participation are high outcomes for students most specifically are most marginalized and so this report could have been 30 times longer um because we could have reported to you on all the you know the other things that we're doing um because because it's all connected and so think it's really important to keep those things at the heart of of everything that we're hearing but some a couple of next steps um is to as as you all as a board of

277education finalize your Equity policy for us as a district to be thinking about what those metrics are to monitor the board policy policy what are the action steps and metrics we want to utilize to ensure that we're meeting that expectation and that we're accountable and that that accountability is trickling down and then um would also like for um the board and the community to hear from that affiliate affiliate practitioner group as they are individuals who um deliver a lot of our professional learning um support our Equity teams support staff um and do some coaching with staff and can also speak to what's working and what's not we want to dig deeper into those successes and challenges that are associated with the the Adaptive pieces of the work it's sometimes easier to talk about those technical

278programs and policies and things that we're putting into place but there's this whole adaptive side that actually um impacts the experience of our staff and our students um so you know thinking about that how our staff are deepening their own self and social awareness as well as their critical Consciousness um and a lot of that work is shouldered by our Equity Affiliates and our our curriculum instruction team so we will um ensure that you get to hear from them as well regarding the Adaptive layers of our Equity work across all um elements of our strategic plan and everything you heard about today and with that um open it up for any additional questions for us and thank you for your time and listening anybody to jump in as you were thinking of your question I

279just want to Echo what what Leah stated I I definitely appreciate your um uh time in terms of listening to this presentation this is the work you know when we talk about really moving the needle on some of the the things that we really need to move the needle on and and um improving student outcomes as it relates to equity you've seen that here you know in terms of ch changing the way we do discipline uh looking at our students that are not in our AP classes not only is it important that they are represented in the AP classes but now they're in there what are we going to do to ensure that they have high high outcomes and so I'm super proud of the work that um and there again as Leah indicated we

280could have talked a long time about this because uh it is so vital to the success of every single student um in this district and so uh I'm really excited now to begin to see uh and and and wait for some of the the the outcomes you know as it relates to decreases in discipline you know increases in in closing those achievement gaps by addressing those opportunity and access gaps and so all this is seeming like it's coming together we're going to have Equity policy here soon and so it's just really beginning to be exciting uh to really um do some great things for students and families it's a profound amount of work I just want to like when you put all the pieces together when I think about like where I was sitting at

281just at the board member a few years ago and where you guys are at now um I know that this is this is work that goes on and on and we keep working but what you've done over the last couple of years is really it's remarkable I think it sets the stage for great great things to come and for us to be able to ask really challenging questions and for you to be set up to do something about them so I just want to appreciate I just say with my gratitude for that so um other board members I just want to thank everybody for their time and the presentation it was really interesting and you know like Dr Lewis tells us every once in a while um you know this is this is Legacy work

282that that that we're watching tonight that we saw and I you know I believe that and I agree with it and you know it's it's we've come a long way in the last couple years and it's fun to see it come together and I'm excited to see where it goes from here so thanks for the time and and for what you've done and and where you're going from here I appreciate it this is Shannon I just wanted to add that um it's it it feels like we've kind of finally figured out that next step of um uh embedding this operationally in a way that I think we struggled with for a little while um and so I'm I'm really excited um about lots of aspects of things that you've shared tonight and um and just

283commend the work that's going on we have a lot to be proud of in our district um for having these um having us Focus having us um be the way that we think about the work that we do as a as a team and so it's uh I just thank you um just I'm going to just Echo what everyone else said as someone that's grown up here in Lawrence and gone through um middle um in uh Elementary and high school and have my own kids go through um I definitely appreciate the work that's being done currently um and I I've shared with a couple board members and Dr L before that I wish that um when my three older boys had attended District at the time that they had the resources that we have available

284today it's changed a lot I just want to thank everybody for working so hard on this the equity piece and it's the the we're going to be a beacon for other school districts and we're not just doing lip service we where you guys we're all getting it done so thank you everybody okay um other questions or comments I know that um Dr Lewis you shared with Erica and I that and Carol that you'll be there'll be and and Leah and um Dr subfield alluded or Dr yes alluded to them that we will be um seeing more of this work and more reports coming to the board ongoing throughout the year as you guys meet some of those markers and start to look at um outcomes so I appreciate the early report all right um Dr

285Lewis are there additional announcements no just lastly I do do want to thank the team um the the the together again team that presented at our work session and um the team members that we're also partner together again that that presented at the equity some of our Equity work as well thank you all for your countless uh number of hours that you spend doing this work because you know often say this is um tough work but it's the right work U and I think we're seeing this even in our budgets you know I think I've seen it somewhere where it said uh show me your budget and I'll show you how focused on Equity you are well for us to and for the board to approve of using some administrative savings to fund equal opportunity

286schools that says that we're serious about this work so again just thank you to the entire staff and then just forecasting next next week and not I'm sorry not next week but next board meeting and reminding board members of uh Kelly's request to get any questions or any information that you would need for the September 28th board meeting to elase was it by tomorrow or Wednesday I I think you guys need it by the end of tomorrow to be able to really have the time okay I think we can give that to you okay so just reminding that and we look forward to um the board meeting on September 28th thank you Kevin okay I need a um motion to adjourn the meeting okay uh this is Carol I move to adjourn the meeting this

287is Shannon a second all those in favor hi hi hi anyone opposed okay thank you all very much for coming I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks thanks Dr Lewis and everyone for everything that you did tonight we appreciate it and to all the teachers out there for your first week thank you thank you thank you