001regular month monthly board meeting of the Levvenworth USD 453 board of education. The date is June 8th, 2026. The time is 6:00 p.m. Do roll call. Miss Brown >> present. >> Mr. Darling >> here. >> Miss Murphy >> here. >> Miss Price >> here. Miss Wells >> here. >> And Miss Wilson >> here. >> And I'm here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Dr. Adams, can you please read us the district mission statement? >> Yes. Thank you, President Over. The mission of Levorth public schools is to prepare every student for success in every classroom every day. >> All right, moving on to the
002adoption of the agenda. >> I have a motion to adopt the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> 70. Okay, moving on to item two, uh, opening of the closing of David Brewer Elementary School hearing. The board of education of USD453, closing of David Brewer Elementary School public hearing is now open. We'll now take comments or questions from the public. Uh, we have Miss Chelsea Mopin up first. Please come forward. Good evening. My name is Chelsea and I am once again here as the parent of two students in this district. I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to understand the recommendation before you tonight. After reviewing the May 26th presentation, I do not believe the district has adequately demonstrated why closing David Brewer Elementary is the best
003solution to the financial challenges being discussed. The presentation shows declining enrollment and budget pressures and nobody is questioning those realities. What I do question is the lack of analysis provided to the public before this board is set to vote on a decision of this magnitude. The district presented a decision framework that acknowledged financial effectiveness, student impact, workforce impact, operational feasibility, community trust, and educational access. The presentation gave us the recommendation, but it never showed us why David Brewer was chosen over the alternatives. We were shown the conclusion. We were not shown the work. If the answer is closing David Brewer as the best option, then show the community the analysis that supports this decision. While we're discussing long-term planning, the same agenda includes consideration of a of renewing a neighborhood revitalization program whose stated purpose
004is encouraging housing growth, business growth, and investment in Levvenworth. So, which future are we planning for? Are we planning for growth, or are we planning for decline? I'm struggling to understand how this board can simultaneously encourage growth while reducing the very infrastructure that serves the families we're supposedly hoping to attract. Before you vote to permanently close a school that has served families in this community for generations, I would remind you asking the community to trust your conclusion is unreasonable when you haven't shown us the work that got you here. If this is truly the best decision for the district, then prove it. Thank you. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, >> next we have Meen Shirts. There's been a lot of discussion about the closing of David Brewer. It may have seemed that I and others
005have been fighting to save a building. And I will admit that preserving the school has certainly been something I hoped for. However, reducing this issue to the fate of a building overlooks what school closures mean for the people inside them. We have already seen the impact that closing the intermediate school had on staff and students and to suggest that that decision was easy diminishes what they experienced. I want to make it clear that I am not here tonight arguing for a building. I am here arguing for the children and staff who attend these schools. Over the years, I am sure many decisions have sounded like great ideas of the time, but without enough research, planning, and consideration for our specific student population, they have always not produced successful outcomes. As a parent, I have yet
006to hear any analysis of how this proposal will affect the challenges our students are already facing, such as behavior issues, which remain one of the most significant concerns in our districts, attendance, parent involvement, and community support. We have already experienced a major closing in in the intermediate school and I think it's fair to say that not every question was answered before that decision was implemented. Rather than prep repeating that approach, we should be ensuring we have a clearer understanding of how this proposal will affect students before we ask them to live with the consequences. For example, research suggests that increased bus rides can contribute to both behavior issues and absenteeism. If that proves true here, we could be compounding problems that already exist within our district rather than addressing them. I am not saying that
007this closure should never happen. What I am saying is that moving forward without a clear plan risk repeating a pattern we have seen before. Deciding on a course of action first and then figuring out the details later. The problem with that approach is that it leaves critical questions unanswered. We do not know how long student bus rides will be. We do not know whether classroom sizes will be appropriate for available spaces. We do not know whether enough support staff will be available to help students navigate the emotional challenges of being uprooted and placed in a new environment. This board along with staff, parents, and the community has a responsibility to make decisions that best serve our students and support their success. Making this vote before the logistics have been fully developed and before the impact
008on students has been thoroughly evaluated is in my view putting the cart before the horse. The reality for our children and what they will be facing with this decision is why I stand here tonight. They deserve to know every possible question has been answered and every necessary support has been put in place before a decision is made that will fundamentally change their school experience. If decisions like this are made with students truly at the center, fully planned, informed, and supported, then Levvenworth has the opportunity not just to respond to challenges, but to lead in how we serve our kids, our families, and the district in this proactive, thoughtful, and focused long-term student success. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have Mr. Adam Shirts. Good evening. I would like to begin by reaffirming my
009request for an independent performance audit that I brought up at the last meeting. Before any decision is made to close any school, we have repeatedly heard that this is this recommendation is being driven by financial concerns. But before we prematurely close another school that serves our community, I believe that taxpayers and families deserve a clear understanding of how how district resources are being spent and whether all options have been fully exhausted. My second point concerns the students of David Brewer Elementary. I've heard several board members say that this is just a building. Respectfully, it is much more than building. It is a community. Is it a place? It is a place where children see a familiar face every day. build relationship with trusted adults and feel like they are supported. For many students, that school
010is one of the most stable places in their lives. Research has shown that school transition can have significant negative effects on students learning and achievement. Some studies have found that changing schools can set children back academically more than seven months. We should not dismiss the impact that such a major decision can have on our children. If the board does ultimately decide to close by David Brewer today, I would ask you to consider keeping the David Brewer students together by moving them as a group with the staff to Lawson Elementary building and returning their current preschool and kindergarten programs to their neighborhood elementary school. This would allow the students to remain with their classmates, teachers, and staff they trust rather than being split apart. Our students, my final point is about leadership. Our students are expected
011to treat one another with civility, respect, and professionalism. Unfortunately, I have attended many board meetings where the board members have not always modeled those same behaviors towards each other. I hope moving forward we can see more respectful dialogue and collaboration among members of this board. The students, staff, and family of this district deserve leadership that demonstrates the same standards of conduct that we expect from our children. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Miss Sharon Mueller. Good evening. At the end of the last board meeting, there was a lot of dialogue regarding the budget's impact on course offerings, particularly at the secondary level. The outcome of that dialogue was a narrative that courses had not already been cut, that perhaps they may need to be cut in the future. That narrative is false.
012When school starts in August, LHS will have 10 less course offerings than we have had in the years past. In addition, four ELA elective courses have been cut in recent years. The elective offerings for students at the middle school are minimal at best. Their campus has also had to cut several courses. Another area where staff reduction has had a significant impact on student learning are libraries. There's one fully certified librarian in this district. It's me. Hi. And I teach halftime English at the high school. As I've said for years, we can discuss reading scores. We can talk about turning students out who can think critically. But when librarians are not in every one of those buildings, those words mean nothing. I'm thankful for the library aids that we have in our elementary schools and our
013middle schools who run our libraries. But we need to be doing so much more. Yes, it makes sense that if lower courses if enrollment is lower, course offerings may be disinished may be dismissed. Excuse me. The reality though is that oftentimes the courses that are cut are AP, upper level, career, teched, STEM, and the arts. And that's usually when there are no other options left. We still have options left to explore, but not very many and not for very long. The budget decisions that have already been made, are impacting student choices in this district right now. It is dishonest to suggest otherwise. Any further reductions to staff, regardless of what level, will continue to negatively impact our students ability to succeed and it will diminish resources and support the students, staff, teachers, and admin need
014to be successful. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to come forward and make any comment? Okay. So, we will move on to item four, the closing of the hearing. The board of education of the USD 453 closing of David Brewer Elementary School public hearing is now closed. Can we reopen? I'm sorry. I I thought were my questions addressed from last week or two weeks ago, I'm sorry, regarding the legitimacy of the meeting >> public publicly. >> Yes, those questions were answered in the Friday note and then I believe each one of you received a separate email this afternoon from our attorney. And was it going to be addressed publicly? >> And why not? >> You would have to wave attorney client privilege if you want to do that. >> Okay.
015So, moving on to item five, the resolution. I'll make a motion to close the David Brewer Elementary School at the end of the 2000 26 2027 school year. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Darling. >> All those in favor? >> No. I think we get to have discussion now before we do all those in favor. versus opposed. Is that not correct? >> Isn't that when the floor is open up for discussion after the >> typically discussion at this time? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Open discussion. >> Um I can understand why u Mrs. Brown's concerns with whether it was addressed publicly or not. Uh had the lawyer been here that day, it would have been addressed publicly. Um, so I'm not opposed to it being addressed publicly. I think that's one
016of the things we've all asked for is transparency, not things being hidden. Um, and I did personally did not see anything that would have made it to where it had to be client privilege. Uh, it was a question asking legitimacy of the building and the facts of where it would be approved or not. So, I don't know why it's being shadowed over top of um I want to say this has weighed on my mind heavily for the last two weeks. We've had board members that have petitioned. We've had citizens that have petitioned have campaigned on that it is the board's job to give the superintendent anything and everything that he wants. Um, that's not in my oath of office and I can't find that written in any of our board policies anywhere. I feel we
017are lacking in greater detail analysis of why this had to be done, why it couldn't wait until October so that maybe there could be more planning, analysis, and explanation. I feel like it's a rush just to get it done before one door closes and another door opens. Um, that's rather frustrating and I can sense the frustration from the community because of that. I also feel like since the board went based on a superintendent's recommendation that we had to have these new buildings because we were growing and the rooms were so crowded that we had to turn Lawson into a prek. We had to move kindergarten and uh prek out into Lawson. We had to move fifth into an intermediate center with six because it was too crowded in the seventh eighth grade center. This was
018something we had to do and the board voted to give the superintendent what he wanted for us to set here basically less than six years or right at six years later to say have a superintendent say, "No, we don't need any of these things. Let's start closing them all down." And that is frustrating. That was $40 million worth of our constituents money to pay to open those facilities because we were growing. To say now that we are not growing and then to not necessarily answer the questions of um when we do the survey that they say in about five years we will be growing. So what do we use for schools then? How do we pay for those schools then? Where is the forward thinking and planning for that? We closed that down and collapse.
019Is it well, we'll just throw another bond out there or we're going to move the district office out of David Brewer and then start it back up as a school again? There's a lot of unanswered things and I think that's as me as a board member one of the reasons that I was happy we were going to at least wait until October so we could flush out the rest of those conversations. Not we need this money, we need this money now. I think we do need an audit. I think that would be very beneficial uh because there's just some math not mathing there. And um that's my two cents on that. Any other discussion? Um, and just back to my question regarding the legit legitimacy of the meeting. I did ask for that information to
020be shared publicly when I made my comment and when I raised the issue. Um, additionally, um, what statute are you basing then on? What bylaw? >> So, the decision on >> I can't hear you. >> Can you hear me now? No. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> I'm just talking louder. I don't know if my mic's on. So, >> if my voice drops, please forgive me. So, I will very briefly cover I think what were the two inquiries. One was specifically whether or not I believe the special meeting, the last special meeting that you had was properly called. As indicated in the information provided, KSA72-1138 outlines the process for that. The meeting was appropriately um noticed up. There was agenda provided and there was adequate time for that particular meeting. If the
021inquiry has to do with the hearing today, it also appears that the district has followed the statutory process of placing a public notice that had the required information prior to the hearing today. Once the hearing takes place, then the board can vote on a resolution at that time. >> And at that prior meeting, the special meeting, um it was noted that they would make it the date. And that was my other question. Um because it wasn't agreed upon that that was the date. So are we hitting those timelines accurately. That's what was uh uh spoken to about from Dr. Adams. I'm I'm going to be honest. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by make the date, but the information that I have been provided is that statutoily you have met the requirements to hold
022the hearing today. Your last meeting was actually an additional meeting that provided for additional public comment on top of the public hearing that was posted for today. >> And we wouldn't need to be in agreement with that because I I don't know if we agreed on it. We It was a discussion. I don't know if anyone agreed to do anything. That's my point. I'm sorry. The agreement the agreement was from February that we would wait till October to get analysis from how the kids do in their new classrooms and what the adjustments made. That is not happening. And I I just need to know why. >> I don't know that that's a legal question. I think the legal question is whether or not the hearing was properly noticed up. >> And I understand what you're
023saying. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. And I apologize to I didn't mean to to cut off the question, but the legal question is whether you've properly placed the notice. I am not aware of a vote that was taken by the board of education to not make a decision until October. I'll be honest, even if there was a vote, you still properly noticed today's hearing, but I am unaware of a vote taken by the board of education to stall any action until October unless I've not been advised of a vote of that nature. >> And thank you. That was my the question. Someone said they were writing it down. I I also have my questions written down. Um it was in two parts and I was promised that they would be addressed and I don't feel like
024they're being addressed. >> I can be as as broad as possible. What specific question do you not believe is being addressed? the legitim legitimacy of the meeting when we agreed as a group and voted that we would rate till October to get the analysis back from our classrooms how the um when the sixth graders move up how they're doing in the high in the middle school and how the fourth graders when they move to fifth grade and stay in their same school how they're doing in their same school >> that was the agreement >> I am unaware of a vote that included an agree agreement till October. Do you have a date that you believe the vote took place? >> That was from our February meeting. >> That was not a vote. >> That was
025a discussion. That was not a vote, >> but we had a general consensus. No, I mean, there was, put it this way, Dr. Adams didn't say he was going to come back in a month or two and open up the issue again. So, that's that's what I'm questioning. That is why by statute there's a specific process where you post the notice for the hearing and statutoily you are in compliance in that regard. >> I understand what you're saying. I just don't think it's um I think the way it was done I guess wasn't totally transparent. But thank you. I appreciate you uh responding question. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Okay. I will make a motion to close David Brewer Elementary School at the end of the 2026 2027 school year. >> Second. >> All
026those in favor three. The motion passes. I would like to ask a question though, seeing since it seems things can be done versus consensus versus vote. Should the v board decided in two months to put it on the agenda and vote again to not close David Brewer in 2627 or 2728. They could do that, could they not? >> I would need to look at the statute for that. I don't think the statute speaks to it. the resolution has passed and there is a there's a period of time before the board can act on that within 45 days. However, the resolution has passed. >> Could you please get all those facts for us as well? >> I would appreciate that very much. Um because I know since this is already passed, but it kind of pertains
027to voting and stuff. I know is we get emails from a board member asking questions about things on the agenda and then putting how they're going to vote and then putting discussion on how they feel, why they're voting the way they're voting um sets up some complications whenever we're trying to do our regular business and I have a lot of concerns with it now if we're having uh to do other votes if we want to change them. How long do we have to wait to change them or if it's something that could be done within 30 days or by the DEX board meeting or whatever? >> I can get you an answer within two business days. >> Thank you. >> The resolution. >> All right. Madame President, I move the adoption of the following resolution.
028Resolution 25/26-022 for closing school building or buildings. Whereas Kansas Law KSA72-1431 authorizes the board of education of any unified school district to close any school building by majority vote of the board. And whereas unified school district number 453, Levvenworth County, Kansas, timely published notice of and held a public hearing on the 8th day of June, 2026 to hear and consider testimony and evidence of proposed building closures. And whereas the board of education of unified school district number 453, 11worth County, Kansas, has found and determined that the closing of David Brewer Elementary School would improve the school system of the unified school district. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of education in Unified Schools District 453 in Levvenworth County, Kansas, in a meeting lawfully assembled this 8th day of June, 2026 that the David
029Bur Elementary School shall be closed at the end of the 2026-2027 school year. adopted this 8th day of June 2026 by the board of education in unified school district number 453 Levvenworth County Kansas needs a second. >> So we'll all need to sign on after the meeting. Okay. >> Okay. Moving on to >> I have a question on that. Do we sign if we voted no? >> Um moving on to scheduled patron input. We have um first up Mr. Adam sir. Do you wish me to read it? >> Yes. >> All right. We are pleased we are pleased you have joined us tonight to celebrate student and staff achievement, hear informationational presentations and reports and reserve consideration of policy decisions and administrative recommendations specific to the Levvenworth Unified School District. We set aside time at
030each regularly scheduled board meeting to hear from the public. Comments should address board policies or the procedures our administrators c established to carry out those policies. as opposed to individual complaints to investigate and resolve. Please understand that while board members will listen to and carefully consider all your comments, board members will not immediately respond to questions either verbally or through gestures, for example, raising hands in response to questions, nor will they engage in dialogue of answer and response during the patron input at this time this evening. This is not an appropriate time or place for patrons to make comments of a personal nature about any district employee or student by name. Persons making comments which violate privacy right rights of district employees or students will be asked to terminate remarks. If speakers have concerns specific
031to an individual student or staff member, please make an appointment with the superintendent. Those concerns will be documented and shared with the board. Each patron is reminded they have three minutes to speak and will be given notice when 15 seconds remain. If a group is in attendance with the same interest, we ask that a spokesperson be appointed to deliver the group's message. As unified board committed to desired outcomes for our school community, we ask that comments not be directed at individual board members, but addressed to the board as a whole. Thank you for taking time to address district business and policies with the board. >> Mr. Sh, >> y'all are going to get sick of hearing from me. >> So, I was sitting back there with my kid and he's he's making a lot of
032noise, but I see this little card right with mission statement on it. preparing every student for success in every classroom every day. Can you look at yourselves and really say that's true? Honestly, can you? Because our test scores in this district are abominable. Our students act like they've never had any order in their lives. So, let's not pat ourselves on the back. You guys need to seriously sit down. actually the right policy that teachers and administrative staff can use on these students for their behaviors. You need to look at the budget, not just go over the audit and see actually how the money is being spent. Also, I would like to ask the board if they have considered partaking in the class action lawsuit against the state of Kansas for the special educ the the
033sped money because I mean that's a good pot of money. If you could actually get your your your special education money that they legally should be paying you, you wouldn't have to be closing schools probably. you wouldn't have to move that money from your general fund. I I appreciate your time tonight. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have >> Miss Sharon Mueller 25 years ago. uh when I was a rookie teacher here and people across the state would find out I worked in Levart. They would ask me if I knew Coach Strano or Coach Hogan and I was always proud to say yes I did and I still do. They would comment on our fantastic athletics or the impressive number of appointments that our students were given to militarymies. And guess
034what? Those incredible things haven't changed. But the questions that I get asked have changed more often now. I get asked, "What is wrong with your district? Why do good people start their careers there and then move on and apparently up?" And these questions offend me. I believe I've spent my career in a great place with great people with great outcomes for students. I made the choice to bring my children to this district and it's not a decision that I've regretted. So why the change in these questions? No one person is to blame and there's probably not one incident that was the catalyst. But increased division among the board and out to get you mindset. Somebody's doing something wrong. Somebody's not telling the truth. Distrust in people that you have approved to fill to fulfill roles
035has led to a perception that this is not a place that people should want to come to work and it's not a place that people should want to send their kids to and that has to change. Discourse and disagreement are inevitable in any organization, but how both are handled determine which organizations will make it and which will not. I hope that this board chooses to be leaders of an organization that will make it. I once heard a colleague say, "People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses." So, I'm asking you to be the boss that people want to stay and work for. I'm asking you to be the boss that makes the decisions that will encourage people to bring their kids here because there aren't any other options. And lastly, um just to address some previous
036concerns regarding uh test scores, there's much to be made of test scores. You can make a lot or a little out of it. Uh yes, we should be mindful and cognizant of our test scores. And believe me that there are not any individuals sitting before you or in the classrooms that I teach in that are not aware of that. It's preached and harped to us all the time. I work at the high school and for the last three or four years we have met the state average and exceeded the state average in science and in English and I know that because I teach there. We're very close in math and we've made great strides in our ACT scores. Improvement needs to be made always. It doesn't matter how good your test score is. But let's
037just take into consideration that there are a lot of really great things that are happening. You'll hear from a few students uh in a little while who are not only great athletes but great scholars and uh they sat through our our program as well. So thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to item seven, the best part, student recognitions. >> Dr. Adams, >> best part indeed. Thank you, President Overby. I think Coach Stenderson is here. We've got all of our athletes. So, I do apologize, but I've got two pages worth of accolades to read to you all. Bear with me, but there's just a lot to be shared. We are proud to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our girls swimming program and the outstanding performances that these student athletes achieve throughout the season.
038This year's state team consisted of Addison Allen, Ella Doll, Elizabeth How, and Alexandria How. Despite competing with just four swimmers are sitting there in the second row, these athletes represented Leverworth High School with both excellence as well as determination on the state's biggest stage. So, here tonight, we would like to recognize each of our state competitors and their accomplishments. Ladies, I'll call you up here basically one at a time and read for the crowd what your accomplishments were. And then after each one of those, there will be a presentation from one of our board members with a certificate. First up is senior Elizabeth How. Elizabeth made school history by becoming Levvenworth High School's first ever KSHSA state champion. Elizabeth captured the state title in the 100 freestyle, breaking the school record not once but twice.
039Once in the preliminary round and again in the finals with a time of 5182. The fastest swim of her career, mind you. Elizabeth was named to the all state first team and also earned a third place finish in the 50 freestyle while also setting another school record. This certificate is proudly presented to Elizabeth Hal in recognition of earning the 2025 2026 5A state championship title and school record in the 100th freestyle a third place finish in the 50 freestyle in a selection and the selection to all states first team amazing uh signed by Karen Overy Overby board president and Dr. Kellen Adams, superintendent of schools. >> Next up is senior Alexandria How. Alexandria earned a top five individual placement finish in the 500 freestyle and was a key contributor to the team success throughout the
040season and at the state meets. This certificate is proudly presented to Alexandria Howell in recognition for earning a fifth place finish at the 500 freestyle the 2025 2026 5A state girls swimming competition signed Karen Overby board of education president Dr. Kell Adam, superintendent of schools. Next up is Addison Allen. Addison helped lead Levor's relay teams to outstanding finishes at the state championships and was a part of a historic state meet performance that showcased the strength of our program. The certificate is proudly presented to Addison Allen in recognition of team membership, earning a fifth place finish in the 200 medley relay and a seventh place finish in the 400 freestyle relay in the 2025-26 5A state girls swimming competition. Signed by Karen Overby, Board of Education President Dr. Kellen Adams, superintendent of schools. Well done. And
041our fourth swimmer tonight is Ella Doll. Ella played an integral role in the success of both relay teams and helped the Lady Pioneers earn valuable team points against the state's top competition. >> All right. The certificate of achievement is proudly presented to Miss Ella Doll in recognition of team membership, earning a fifth place finish in the 200 medley relay and a seventh place finish in the 400 freestyle relay in the 202526 5A state girls swimming competition signed by me and Dr. Adams, superintendent of school. All right, now some comments in aggregate as coach Tenderson makes her way up to the podium. As a team, Addison, Ella, Elizabeth, and Alexandria accomplished something truly remarkable during the preliminary rounds of the state championships. Levore swimmers earned top eight positions in all but one event they entered, demonstrating
042both the depth and competitiveness of this talented group. Those four ladies there accomplished the following at the state meet. A fifth place finish in the 200 medley relay and a seventh place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. Together, these performances propelled Levvenworth to a ninth place team finish out of 52 schools in the 5 through1A classification at the state championships. Of those 52 teams, only 37 scored points, making a top 10 finish with just four swimmers a truly extraordinary accomplishment. These achievements reflect the dedication, discipline, and commitment that these student athletes demonstrated throughout the season. Folks, please help me in congratulating Addison, Ella, Elizabeth, Alexandria, as well as coaches Camille and Coach Fis on an exceptional season. And a historic year for Levworth High School girls swimming official photo ready. Congratulations. ations, ladies. Okay, moving
043on to item eight, consideration of city of Levvenworth neighborhood revitalization plan. All right. Good evening. >> Thank you, chair, board members, and Dr. Adams for having me here tonight to follow up on the request from the May 11th meeting uh to approve the three-way interlocal agreement between the city, county, and school district to continue the neighborhood revitalization area program. You should have received the uh agreement that includes approval and signatures from the Levvenworth County Board of Commissioners from their May 13th meeting. The city can continue to provide the program with school district approval. I know there were questions that arose at the last meeting about program success and metrics and I would agree that going forward it would be good to have those metrics established and track them more regularly and have those be shared
044with the school district. I plan to do that with the renewal. Um, I did my best to gather information from Levvenworth County who administers the NRA program for us. Um, for data going back at least 20 years, um, while you have more detailed data, um, it was difficult to go back and find the data if it wasn't already being captured regularly. Um, we ran into some issues that the information tracked for tax purposes may not um, have been exactly what we'd be hoping for to more precisely measure that program success. Um, I do believe that if we had the right data, it would show the benefit that the NRA program has uh in the area that has struggled with housing and development. The NRA may not be a perfect program, but it's currently the only
045tool the city and the school district has to encourage keeping and growing residential housing in this area of the city. So after our last meeting, I went out and I uh I did some driving around that area um just to figure out a way to explain the NRA program better. And um the data is is helpful and I think we can um improve on that. But um it's also maybe helpful just to see what I saw when I drove as a as a helpful picture under what this program does. So um the initial pictures are pulled from uh Google Maps. I'm sure they don't mind me putting this up on their PowerPoint. I give them all the credit. This is their property. Um, so this is 7:25 Pawne Street. Um, that had been a vacant
046lot for a long time and they um built a duplex and were the NRA program. So um just one example of how this program uh built at least uh two houses that could be used for students to stay in the district um could be used to bring teachers to work here. 789 Podawatami. Um you can see the before where they had just started some of the work. I think that was 2022. Um you can see even uh to to now. So the now pictures are uh me taking these on my cell phone. Um you can see that this is a house that was improved and not only was the house improved, this improved the character of the neighborhood. They did additional investments besides what they needed to do to qualify for the NRA program and
047it continues to add on to the housing stock that we have in this area. This is a lot at 613 North Second Street. This is right across from Bob Doherty Park. Um you see kids there on the playground all the time. We had an empty lot there that was a city-owned lot for a long time that goes all the way from um the the street. I think that's Kikapoo all the way the alley. So this was a very large vacant lot sitting there not on our tax roles, not in your tax roles and not providing housing. uh if you go there at that corner right now um they are building at least one if not two houses um right across from the playground there. So it's very exciting to see that. Um so just wanted
048to sort of share that as examples of uh success we have found through the program. It also wasn't tricky for me to look around and find what I would call opportunities for the program to be used better. Um this is the corner of I believe Pony and six. Um, and you can see there is a largesiz vacant lot there that goes half the block as well. Uh, we are open in Levvenworth for new residential housing. We'd love to get families here and this program hopefully will um inspire others to build like the other duplex down the street. And this was just one I found driving in that area. Um, I'm sure it's on a city list somewhere before people send us some comments on this, but um, this is an example of what we would
049love to see happen with this program. We'd love to see this house be invested in um, have a family live here um, and maybe just do some work to make that housing. So, just wanted to kind of show that through pictures, but sometimes speak just as much as the data involved in this. Um, I was able to get information from both the Levvenworth County Appraisers Office and the Levvenworth County Clerk. I believe you received that information. Um, the program appears to be somewhat evenly split. Um, what it covers. It does cover residential housing and it covers commercial property including the downtown. Um, there's definitely more residential property in this area. Um, but it's about a 50-50 split between residential and commercial. I would likely contribute it to the fact that we've had better outreach um
050for the commercial district. We work with the Chamber of Commerce and with Main Street and they share the program more regularly. And this really brought up that there's probably an opportunity to do outreach to homeowners and developers and others who would want to invest in this area to use the program to build more housing. So, I'll summarize by saying that both the city and the school district um would like to see growth in this area of Levvenworth. Um, this is one way that we can work together to do that. Um, I'm here tonight to ask that we continue the NRA program. I'm available to answer questions that you might have. >> I want to thank you for the data provided. I realize it wasn't necessary and I was a little abrasive on the last meeting
051just because I was here 30 years ago when we started this stuff. the idea of having yearly updates is most welcome. And I was concerned that uh not it wasn't being used by a whole wide range of people. It was being restricted to just a the favored few. That wasn't the data you showed me and I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. >> And can I reconfirm that this doesn't cost us anything in this partnership? So it is a property tax rebate program. Okay. >> Um so the school district, the county, and the city um all um help out with this tax rebate. So the city and the county school district don't lose existing tax dollars. So let's say this house that we have up here, they would continue to pay to all of
052us the property taxes for this property. What would happen is if they invest um and you know bring this home up to up to par where it's livable again um that a temporary for a temporary time the additional value that they add they're going to they're going to do the siding. They're going to probably redo a bedroom. Um they're going to put in let's say $50,000 of work to make this a good space. That will give them five years of a property tax rebate on that additional value that they add. What that means for us is on year six we have the housing and we also get that back on the tax roles. So it's ve it's very uh in the scope of of economic development incentives it's a very targeted and small program but
053it's enough just to give that nudge just to give that encouragement of you know why would this building owner why would why would they want to invest in this area of Levvenworth because they know they can get that rebate and it can give them a nudge to make those investments happen. So then there's nobody that should be comparing it to like a star bond or anything like that. >> Um that would be a little bit of a different economic doment incentive that would deal with sales tax. Um this deals with the increased value when people make the investment into that property. So no no loss and a longer term gain for all of us. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussion? >> I have another question. Um, so I do need to know
054if a board me member is sending out an email with questions for the agenda and then put in the agenda their discussion points, not just a question, but discussion points on why they would or would not make a vote. Wouldn't that be something against the Kansas Opens Meeting Bact and and possibly tank the pool of voters on a board? I would have to see. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussions on this agenda item? >> I I also thank you for putting this together for us and um I think I I was here previously when that program rolled out and um I had a neighbor tell me about it recently. So, I think it's very good to uh continue to get the word out. And I think it was it just local
055to the city or maybe it was initially from the city and then it moved to the county. >> So, um honestly, I'm not sure. Um I know as um board member Darling was sharing um last year that last time it went back until 1999. The records that I have started in 2006. So, it may have been a more limited program from what I understand. Um, but 2006 is when it started to be in its current form where it's a three-way agreement between the school district, the county, and the city to participate in this. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, >> I move that the city of Levmore neighborhood revitalization plan interlocal agreement be renewed and approved as presented. >> Second. All those in favor? I >> I >> 70. >> Thank you. >>
056Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Moving on to executive session for non-elected personnel. >> Great. Madam President, I move that we go into executive session to discuss non-elected personnel pursuant to the exception under the Kansas Opens Meetings Act or coma in order to protect the privacy interest of the individuals to be discussed and return to open session in this room in >> 10 10 minutes >> and it will be 7:51. The board will invite Dr. Adams, Amy Sloan, Amy Joe Troyer, and board attorney Jessica Bernard into the meeting. >> All those in favor, >> excuse me. >> 701 Yes. >> All right. Yes. >> Everybody seated. Madam President, I move that we accept the staffing report as presented. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> 70. Okay. Moving on to the consent
057agenda. I would like to pull off 104 and 10:15. >> So 104 becomes >> 111 >> and 112. >> You said 10:15. >> Yes. Please. And thank you. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda with those items removed? >> I make a motion to approve the amended consent agenda. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. 70. Okay. All right. On um 111, which is the KSAB policy updates, I wanted to ask for a clarification because it seems like in the eight and a half years I've been on here that we did not have Where's our attorney? Oh, there she is. In the eight and a half years I've been on here, we did not have to take everything KSAB recommended her word, we were able to adjust it
058to fit our district and our community's needs. I wanted to make sure that didn't change that we know of. >> I walked in question. >> Okay. So KSAB >> KSAB has policy updates. Some of them may be federal law, some of them may be state law, some of them are just their suggestions of changing. Um, in the past, as a board, we could choose whether we wanted to accept that update or we wrote our own verbiage for those updates. I wanted to make sure that did not change. >> You're correct. So, you're not legally required to accept the policy is provided. Obviously certain provisions may be legally required. So we have to look at it >> individually like that. So it's not we have to vote on it because somebody said we had to vote
059on it. It's something that we could discuss, rewrite and amend as we saw fit with those provisions involved. >> Yes. With the small caveat being many of the provisions in the policy are legally required. >> Right. Some of the some of these are like let's go back into the past to why I'm getting the clarification uh is where we were doing book reviews and things like that. We set some of our own standards with that. We didn't necessar we may have gone above what the state recommended. We may have, you know, stayed within the state but changed a couple of small little caveats to it with hearings. We still are allowed to do that. We do not have to necessarily accept it of what they have written here. You can make revisions subject to make.
060>> Okay. And how do we have does that have to be done today or we can turn around and revisit it again say next month? >> Is this the first or second reading? >> Second reading. >> So if I can for procedural clarity, we have not changed anything with the appointment of Miss Bernard. Everything has stayed the same where we bring it to you in one month. We allow that comment period. We have that comment period closed prior to the second meeting and then it is placed usually on the consent agenda in the subsequent meeting. So Miss Bernard's appointment has not changed any of that procedurally. >> No, it's not it's not about her appointment or anything. It's about questions and concerns that were sent in an email of whether we had to vote for
061it or not. And I me remembering that we had rewritten certain KSAB policies to suit our district versus going word for word for what they had written >> after the first read. >> But my understanding is that should have been done after the first read. >> This email literally came in on the second saying it had to be voted for. >> I I'm sorry. I'm not tracking. >> It it it's it's fine. We'll we'll we'll end up getting all that figured out, but I just wanted to clarify. We had a right to do revisions. We could do revisions after this date if we saw fit. >> You could you would then have to vote again. >> Right. Right. Okay. That's just what I wanted to clarify because we have changed things before when we saw
062things evolve in the district where maybe a policy wasn't working out well, we revisit it and and we revised it. >> That certainly happens. >> Okay. Thank you. That's all I had on that. >> Okay. So I So we are not taking a vote on the policy updates this evening. Is that >> Well, I I don't know because you know there there was a thing of somebody saying that we have to vote for this. >> We are recommending you take action tonight and we believe you are ready to take action tonight. >> So now we do have to vote on it because it's been pulled. But I wanted to make the clarification should we want to change it that we were under no guise of that we had to vote for it. We could have
063changed it. >> I think I may be the guilty party that you're referring to, Mrs. Murphy. >> Well, I wasn't going to try and out anybody, but >> I'm willing to do it. I was complaining about JCDC, student personal electronic communications devices, not liking what the state legislature said we had to do. I think it's absolute horse feathers. I think they're dealing in our classroom management procedures, but it's the law. And I think I was expressing my frustration after about an 18-hour day when I was doing that stuff. And I I would just suggest that if you have questions that maybe it might be best not to put how you're going to vote or any kind of discussion about why, who, what, when, where, or why because that is or would be construed as a
064coma violation, >> which is >> and I would not want to have to start paying for those things. This isn't like it's an accidental reply all to a constituent. This is directly to every board member. every month at some point there's a commentary and how you're going to vote. >> Not sure it's every month, but I'll let you make that decision. But I do provide here are my things that I see and I think you all need to be aware of them so that we know what's going on. If I remember correctly and I could be wrong that I say don't reply. There have been some emails with that and I don't think anybody's replying. Again, it's not about the question. It's about your personal discussion. Then it becomes a meeting via email because now
065you're making a vote known and you're making a discussion known. >> Administration would recommend action on all the items on 11.1. Please. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve uh all the items on 11.1. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> 6. >> Okay. So then the other item >> 11.2 >> I had a question about our workers compensation fund. I have no problem with renewing it. I'll put that out now. But before we do that, um, Mr. Carney was our board representative that attended some of those comp workers comp meetings. Did the board appoint another board member to take his place or is that position open? >> I I am not recalling an appointment that occurred at this das >> just I know Mr. Gardner um Mr. Carney always went
066>> we would not be the ones appointing KSB's work workers compensation fund would be the appointing body. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. So it's not it's not that we select his replacement. >> Okay. >> And just so that everyone is aware, they reached out to me and I accepted that appointment and have attended one meeting so far. The next one is scheduled in August. And I prior to attending that I was under the understanding that there was more uh board representation from um each district and that is not the case. There are only believe there was seven board members statewide as a part of that. So >> yeah, there's >> not every board is is done and nothing is done the decisions made within that workman's compensation fund have nothing directly to do with each
067individual district. It is the Kansas districts that participate in the fund as a whole. So we are a part of that but not any decisions that are made that I'm there with is not in the interest specifically of USD 453. >> Okay. When was your first meeting? Uh I think I So they voted on me being there. I think January or February and I did not attend until April was the first meeting of the board. >> Not that I have a problem with you doing it. I just think it would have been good if you had notified the board of that appointment. >> Thank you. I make a motion to approve the renewal of the KSAB workers compensation fund. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I 70. Okay. All right. Moving on
068to item 12, staff handbooks. This would be a first read. Have any comments, discussions on that? has um have we been working on all of Mr. Darling's commentary of all the catches he made with uh >> we have >> grammar and other issues. >> Yep. So I believe those were in aggregate shared in the Friday note. We copy pasted those toward the bottom >> and that was referenced in student handbooks though. >> Those were student handbooks. Sorry, my apologies. Yes, >> this is the first >> I have not had a chance. >> So for what it's worth, this is going to outlive my time. So maybe Kathy wants to do it differently, but what we've done in the past is comments cut off essentially questions, comments, whatever the Wednesday before the board meeting. If we
069want to continue that, Kathy says yes, I'm showing Beth 13 July. So 8 July would be your cutoff for purposes of comments, questions, etc. That gives us enough time to circulate them with Miss Bernard internally or otherwise. >> And that goes directly to Dr. Edelberger. >> I'll let her confirm that. >> Keep doing it the way we've been doing it. She says >> sending them directly to super right to Dr. Ren. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Do not send them to me. Um, and then while we're on the whole policy update, um, you will get a large amount of policy updates in the July meeting for a first read for transparency. Those did come out, but they came out basically right as this agenda was being publicized. And so we decided it was too late to
070be able to vet those and otherwise. So, uh, Miss Bernard's team, certainly our team internally will look at those, but those are largely those that will make us or put us into compliance with anything that changed statutoily from the latest legislative session. >> Okay. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Item 13, electronic device committee update. I believe Mr. Vanic is up. >> Mr. Vanigan. He's got a couple associates, I believe. Yes. >> All right. >> Well, good evening board. Thank you all for your time this evening. Um hopefully spend about 10 minutes to fill you in on a lot of the loopholes that maybe you have been aware of or maybe maybe you're missing some pieces of information we can hopefully clarify for you. I'm Mr. Van, principal of the high school, and I have
071served as the chair of this committee, and I'm honored to have a couple of ladies off of the team with me this evening. So, I'm going to let them introduce themselves and kind of which building they're from. >> Randy Bond, I'm from Warren, >> Heather Turner, and David Brewer. >> All right. So, a little about this committee. Um, as you all are aware or hopefully you're aware, over spring break in mid-March, Governor Kelly signed into effect House Bill 2299. Um, subsequently after that week, I had a meeting with Dr. Adams, Dr. Reler, Dr. Bowdensteiner regarding that. Um, just to see where we're at as a district as we are going to start navigating some change coming due to that legislation. So, we had a good meeting. Um, gave me some guard rails, some parameters on
072how they would like for me to kind of proceed as chair of this. um continued discussion with principles, asked for building reps because I didn't want this to be just a high school thing. I didn't want it to be a middle school thing because it's an entire district thing. So, I reached out to all of my colleagues in all the buildings and said, "Hey, can you provide me a couple of resources um from your building, people that maybe you've already had conversations with, people that are admin about maybe this or feel one way or the other particularly about this topic." So, we confirmed that committee after that first week of April. Um through those building administrators, we had 10 certified staff members, four classified staff members. To kind of break that down so you're aware
073of the numbers from the levels, we had eight from elementary schools, two of middle school, three from high school, and then one person from Third Avenue that all served in this this committee of 14 of us. Um I would say religiously we probably had about 10 of us present at every meeting. Um so as we kind of navigate all this stuff and and had conversations, there were 10 of the 14 that regularly were there to to engage in this work. We set up bi-weekly meetings after school hours. Um, and that presented some challenges sometimes for some people with schedule. Um, and that's why I say 10 to 14 regularly. Some people had some other commitments and weren't able to attend all the time. Um, so we had to work around some things as we set
074those meetings up and try to navigate it through this. Some highlights. Um, and certainly if you read House Bill 2299, it is I want to say a 9 or 10 page long document in its entirety, but I just want to try to give you just a few bullet points of the work um that was being done. Some highlights here. First and foremost, it requires all Kansas public and non-public schools to adopt policies prohibiting student use of personal electronic devices during the school day with devices stored in inaccessible locations unless student qualified for exemption conditions. So, that is one of the huge challenges that we we had to try to work through and navigate. A couple of those key words and key terms there is prohibited during the entire school day and then inaccessibility were a
075lot of those key words that we really had a lot of conversation about if we tried to build something and build this road map for you all to consider. restricts school employees from using social media for direct or private communication with students allowing only official one-way school related communication and then provides liability protection for schools employees for lost theft damage to students personal electronic devices whilst we're pursuant to that policy. So those are kind of those big themes that we had to navigate through. If you take the nine-page document and narrow it down to just a few threats. Once again, mid mid-March is when that bill was signed. We had to work pretty quickly to try to figure out with 14 of us what was our decision-m procedure going to look like. Um obviously as
076a board you guys have your decision-m procedures. We try to operate in a similar fashion. How are we going to make decisions when we have to vote on things if we maybe disagree on some things? And so we establish that guardrail. I will tell you we're very fortunate because every decision we made, we were all in favor. There was not one person said, "I disagree with the way we've written this or the language or the verbiage." Everybody that was there was like, "Yep, we're all in. That sounds great. We're all in agreement with this." So, I was very happy with that outcome. Um, we had to create that language and procedure guidance that you all have already had a chance not to review. It was in that consent agenda with student handbook language. Um, so,
077thank you all for taking the time to kind of navigate, look through that, and get that approved for us. this evening. Um, in that work, I was able to reach out to various Missouri schools right across the bridge because a year ago, Missouri legislation passed a very similar bill. Uh, their terminology is a little different than Kansas terminology, but reached out to a lot of those people and said, "What are you doing? How are you navigating that change of districts?" They were able to share with me all of their recommended handbook language, their current practices, procedures. I was able then to use that to bring it back to the committee to provide some guidance for us as we kind of navigated through the work. Recommendations were given to you all for consideration and our deadline
078for that that we kind of put to ourselves as being completed by May 22nd. Um really the deadline being May 22nd was because teachers and PAR educators are off contract after that. And so if the work had to continue through the summer, I was really concerned about the 10 people that were regular there with summer vacations with summer plans like would we have enough people to really flush out some ideas. So I was pretty happy that we were able to meet those deadlines and get all the recommendations to you prior to that. Let's talk about our recommendations. You want to talk this one? >> I think Mrs. Bond, you want to talk to me about the recommendations and the language? >> Um, we all just kind of wanted to look at what it was going
079to be like for um elementary as a whole and secondary as a whole. We wanted to make sure that everybody was going to be on the same sheet. So that way it wouldn't be Anthony does it this way, Henry does it this way. So there would be no questions at everybody would be equitable and it would be fair across the board. And what we start in the middle school will follow up to the high school so that James isn't having to retach anything and get all of those students in line with a different policy and procedure. So, um, Kansas law, House Bill 2299, prohibits students from the use of having access to their cell phones and other personal electronic devices from the start of school until the dismissal bell, except as otherwise provided in board
080policy JCDC. Personal electronic devices refer to any non-schoolissued device such as that personal portable technology used that is used to initiate, receive, store, or view communication, information, images, or data electronically. This includes but is not limited to cell phones, personal tablets, smartwatches, personal laptops, gaming devices, smart glasses, wireless earbuds, and headphones. We wanted to make sure that the wireless part was also included in that because that is a huge thing that we've seen especially in the secondary side with everybody with the AirPods, Beats, whatever. So, I just wanted to make sure that we highlight that part specifically as well. When entering the school each day, USD453 students will be required to ensure that personal electronic devices are silenced and stored away per primary and/or secondary campus procedures. Students will be responsible for keeping the devices
081turned off and properly stored away during the school day. USD453 assumes no liability for personal electronic devices that are brought to school. Please note that students failing to comply with this state law will be subject to disciplinary action. If you need to contact your child during the school day for any reason, please call the office so that we may assist. If your child needs to reach a family member or caregiver during the school day, they should let the teacher know or stop in the office during passing period for prompt assistance from our teams. Please know that we understand that this will be something that will require us all to adjust and adjust to and our staff will be committed to working with both students and families as we navigate these changes set forth by the
082state. We included that because we know it's going to be a growing pain for everybody, staff, students, and families. And James was very adamant that we wanted to make sure that the office takes the phone calls. Not that you know if you have that you can call the teacher, you could reach out to the teacher during instruction or because instruction should be that just that instruction. Teacher shouldn't be having to stop to answer an email because oh can you please tell Timmy that he has to ride the bus or what? like it needs to be streamlined through the office to where they can make sure so teachers can do what they're supposed to be doing and that's teach. Um so for elementary schools our recommendation uh we had two different procedures for elementary and secondary.
083Um for elementary personal electronic devices are defined in the student are as defined in the student handbook. They must be silent and stored in students book bags for the duration of the school day. Book bags will be kept in designated classroom storage areas such as classroom cubbies or backpack storage backpack storage locations. If a student does not have access to a bookpack or locker, the school will provide an alternative location. So, we wanted to make sure that that covers everybody because in reality, there's a lot of students that don't bring bags to school and we didn't want to necessarily put it specifically on the teacher, but the classrooms and then the classrooms can be locked once the teacher is out when they go to specials or whatever it is that they need to go to.
084Um, for secondary schools, personal personal electronic devices as defined in the student handbook must be silenced and stored in students book bags for the duration of the school day. Book bags should be stored in student lockers during the school day. That is something that we started enforcing in the middle school last year and we're going to continue to enforce this year. Book bags have to stay in a locker. There are a couple exemptions that's based off of the building principal, but he makes those decisions. Um, and then we talked about the consequences or violations. So for the consequences, um, we know we're going to have some miscues, right? Especially as we navigate through August, September as this is something new to families, new to students, new to schools across the state. Um, so we need
085to have something set up in place. Um, so we can try to work with students. And what we we had in mind here is it's going to look a little differently in the elementary schools again as it will in the secondary schools as we work through these things. But we really have the idea of progressive discipline in mind. Um we don't want to the first time a kid gets caught having that phone or because you know they forgot to put in a bag or they went to their book bag and looked at it like we don't want to kick kids out of school for that. Um there are a lot more heinous things going on than a kid looking at a phone. Um so we recognize that it's going to be a challenge but we
086also understand this is state law now. So we have to have something as consequence to guide us. So, we kind of put together a progressive discipline piece for the elementarymentaries, first, second, third, fourth offense where it really works through just kind of documenting those incidents, contacting the parent guard, letting those folks know, hey, your kid had the phone today. Like, this is state law. We can't have this happen again. Please have a conversation with your kid so we don't have that recur. Um, all the way through, you get to the third offense where we're potentially going to have that parent meeting um or guardian meeting kind of establish like what else do we need to communicate to you or how can we help in this? Um, but we've got to partner together and advocate in
087this. We can't just be on our own. Uh, and saying this is how it's got to be. What can we do? What supports we need? Is there information that we need to have that maybe we're missing? Um, but this is what we have to adhere to. And then once you get to the fourth offense and then beyond, that's when you start talking about out of school suspension. We kind of felt like once you get to the fourth time, it's not probably something where it's a cell phone issue. That's an insubordination issue. U, we've already given you several warnings. We've already contacted families. got families engaged with with having that meeting to talk about what next step would look like. Now it becomes probably just a a defiance or an insubordinate type issue for secondary schools.
088Um kind of a similar procedure. Um but we have other disciplinary measures in place at secondary schools that elementaryaries don't have. So you'll see the first offense where it's just simply documented. Um but as you proceed through second, third, and fourth offense, you get into some detentions, you get into some ISS time. um that third offense, you get ISS, but also that meeting with parent guardian again just like we established in the elementarymentaries to try to be consistent to make sure we're on the same page moving forward to hopefully not get to a fourth offense and then from there fourth and beyond becomes the out of school suspension um and progress as needed to but hope we don't get that far. So those were our recommendations um for you all. So, thank you all for
089entertaining those things and and approving that handbook language so we can all start working together. Um, those things, like I said, were all done before May 22nd. So, hopefully you've seen them. I know I've gotten those to Dr. Adams and Dr. Bensteiner, Dr. Bettleberger. Uh, pretty much as soon as we got those things all approved, I put together the language and got it to them. Hopefully, they got those to you by those Friday review deadlines so you could have plenty of time to to have a look at those things in advance. It does come with some building needs, but we'll get to those building needs here shortly. Um, but at this point, we're working on a one-page document. Um, because we think it's really important as we navigate this to really try to communicate as
090much as we can this summer before students show up in August because this is a brand new one. Um, this is not just a simple, hey, we're going to move from this textbook to that textbook type thing. This is going to be a big lift for a lot of families. Uh, and we recognize that. So, we want to be able to communicate as much as we can. So, thank you again. Um, the one pager I assume by the end of this week we'll probably have as a committee. I'm going to get it all put together and get it emailed then make sure we're not missing anything from tonight. So, we can get that approved then I'll get it to Dr. Adams, Dr. Bowdensteiner, Dr. Littleberger probably to get to you all for the next potential
091Friday review so you can kind of see it as well. but highlighting those policies, the procedures, the consequence. Um, that way families kind of know throughout the summer what it's going to look like before they show up in August hopefully. And if they do have questions, they can hopefully contact us through the summer and we can flush out those those concerns. So, let's talk about some needs for implementation. Um, because with all these things, we're going to have to have some things in place to make that happen. So, when when students do violate that electronic device is going to be confiscated. So, we're going to need somewhere in the offices to safely store and secure that device. So, every office is going to need something. Um, so for the elementary buildings, they're going to need
092some type of a lock box and offices. I I've done some estimating. I've done some research, found some things on Amazon. Um, approximate cost for every one of the elementary buildings, not 250 per building. 250 would be a total approximate cost um for some type of storage box to have every office equipped with something they can go lock up. the one I think I found I had like 24 or 25 different like slots if you will. Um so hopefully with the number of students they have that would be enough. Certainly we don't know until we know. Um but I'm hoping that we don't have more than 24 violators on any one given day in elementary building but we'll navigate that storm when we have to. in secondary buildings um for the middle school campus and
093for the high school. I've actually located there are much larger boxes because we do have a higher volume of students and we'll we probably tend to see more of the iPads, more maybe the gaming devices and more of the different pieces as defined in that policy than maybe what they're seeing in the elementaryaries. So there are larger storage device or storage containers that are all locking. So we could store um more quantity-wise in those things if we needed to. But that approximate cost for the middle and the high school will be around $175. As Miss Bon spoke of, I've really worked a lot with Mr. Kesser in the last couple of years and we've really tried to do a lot of things um whether he has taken some things from the high school and put
094them into practice at the middle school or he's doing some things in middle school that I'm like, you know what, that's a great idea. Let's try to implement that at the high school because we want that transition to be as seamless as we can be because we all know in education we've heard it from people from families transition years are tough years on students especially when they go from one building to a different building who has a entirely different expectation. So we've really been trying hard between the middle and high school to have some fairly consistent expectations so that way that transition is a little seam a little more seamless hopefully on kids. Um, but one of those things is we need about 300 more lockers. So, years ago, we took out several locker bays
095and put in flexible learning spaces at the high school. Well, those locker bays that all went away are now lockers that are needed to meet this. Um, if we're going to be consistent with middle school and have that onetoone locker assignment for students, um, I don't have an exact cost on this. So, I am just approximating cost. I know I've been working with Kyle Varville. Um he's still working with vendors trying to get nailed down what actual dollar is going to be. Um but my estimate for approximation here $45 to $50,000 in order to get those lockers all purged and installed so we're ready to go by August 12 for students. Um those are building needs that is something that will be coming to you I would assume next month. Um I would assume hopefully
096we'll have all those bids by next month. Um, and maybe the cost is not that. Fingers crossed. Um, but won't know for sure until those things all come in. But hopefully next month we'll have that for you to consider and take a look at so we can be equipped and ready to go by August for our students. >> And with that question, >> uh, when you're looking for these lockers, are you looking for full-size lockers or the top to bottom stack lockers? >> We're looking at top to bottom stackers. >> Top to bottom stackers >> just because you get more lockers that can go into space. Exactly. We have at the high school now. We do have some of the full lockers in the building. Um, but I want the stackers is what I call
097them. >> Um, and maybe Mr. Varble would need to answer this. Are we looking at board by or purple wave to acquire any of those lockers? >> Okay. Um, if there's a school, if there's a school that sold the building and has lockers, there might be a way to grab some lockers. >> Yeah, I heard uh about a month ago, I heard Tom was doing something different with their middle school. Reach out to them. They already had them sold to somebody else. That one's already I mean, I'll keep looking to other schools out there. Reach out to all my colleagues in my networks and go, "Hey, are y'all getting rid of any lockers? Y'all closing any buildings that might have lockers you want to get rid of? >> Let's see if we can find some."
098>> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I I have a um three three questions or or comment. Um >> this first defense when the device and I'm thinking at like the high school level >> and you're taking that device and putting it in the lock box in the office. Have we I know this is a detail, but have we thought about is that student going to be required to physically place it in there? Because I'm thinking um that's personal property and somebody is going to have an issue with that you taking that and putting that in the box. Are you going to have the student go to the office and physically place it in the box? >> So, we are planning on right now the student bringing that device to the office. Um, but
099then administration will store that because that will be locked up in our vault. >> Okay. >> So that way it's kind of double secure. There's only administration and our bookkeeper that have a key to our vault. So there's only about five of us total that have a a key to actually get into that vault room and it'll be locked into a device inside of that locker room. >> Okay. But the student would be bringing it. So because I I'm just picturing a a scenario you're like you're not say, "Hey, hand it over." Because >> Yeah. We we lived that years ago. I've been around long enough to know back in the day we used to actually take devices from students and confiscate those things. Um and that's why we changed our policy years ago to
100where we currently were and now we got to change that again adjust again. >> Okay. And then um we're going to hopefully get a quote for the lockers uh next month. Um, oh, are we prepared for cuz u especially the cell phones that's addict behavior sometimes? Are we if if somebody refuses to give it to you? Are we prepared to does that go into insubordination and and we deal with it that way? >> Once a once a student refuses, that's a different piece. It's not any longer a cell phone violation. house at disrespect and then supporting behavior. >> Okay. Um and then the last thing is um at the building level, are we having discussions are are we planning to have discussions with staff about setting the example because we're all addicted to these devices
101and um I can see a situation again especially at the high school if um if teachers and staff are constantly on their cell phones and uh and students aren't allowed to have access. So, I can answer that from my building. Um, because my BLT team at the high school, they're phenomenal group of people. Um, they actually brought this to me probably early February. And we have been talking about this since early February as a blood leadership team before it was even signed into effect by Governor Kelly. So, we've been having an ongoing conversation about how it's going to impact students, how it may impact staff. Um, so yes, I am fully prepared to be having conversations with my staff when I return. And then after this evening, I guarantee you Dr. Wellberger and the rest
102of the team will be talking with all building administrators on July now 18 20 when when all administrators return back from their summer breaks um mid July we'll probably having a lot of robust conversation about what this looks like for staff what the expectations going to look for staff and how to model behavior we want because we have to model behavior >> that's that's good because I have heard from um from somebody in another district um in another place that the problem ended up being staff more than the kids even. So, um, and and we're all addicted. So, it's going to be it's going to be an adjustment for sure. >> Yes, it is. >> I appreciate you putting in the work. >> Thank you. >> And I have a question in line with Miss
103Overby. Um, regarding the phone, when it has actually taken from the student, is it the little bit of time that it maybe is held, the personal information that may be on there sometime on that opening screen, you can see text, banking information, I don't know, emails. Is that >> our plan right now would be to take that, put it into a manila envelope, put the student name around the front of that envelope, and then it goes into that lock secure location. So, at that point, you're not even having a see-through object to see what's on that screen. Got >> if the student's going to put it right in this envelope. Right now, we currently have an envelope system in place. We'll just extend that to now here, put in this envelope, we'll get your name,
104we'll secure it to the end of the day. >> Got it. >> And and at the middle school level, we already have students that willingly and voluntarily or if they've already had if they've been told and they refuse to put it in their locker and they bring it to the office and the first thing that we tell them is they have to turn it completely off. So the student hands it holds it the entire time, turns it off, and then writes their name, puts it in a bag, and that's when the office staff secures it. So there's nobody seeing anybody's personal information. >> Got it. Thank you. And um as I mentioned at the last meeting, I feel very strongly one way about this matter, but I have a a good friend that feels very
105strongly the other way and she really really really wants her uh students to have their phone at all time and feels like she absolutely has to stay in contact with them during the day. Um have you thought about how you're addressing that with the families? It's because it's more coming from her to her children, not so much the kids wanting to comment or or reach out to her. >> Okay. So being on a cell phone committee and I I talk a lot to my friends. So I've told them on the cell phone committee and their reactions, why are they even doing this? The minute you explain to a parent, most times that it is a law that we are having to follow and that if their kid has the reason like diabetes trackers, things of
106that nature, they tend to come up off come understand that from 7:55 to 3:05 is the only time that they're not going to have their phone. They shouldn't have their phone during that time either. I've got five kids, seven, raise seven technically. And during that time, we shouldn't be texting our kids. Our kids shouldn't be texting us. If there's an emergency, my 28-year-old, we had an emergency. He didn't have cell phone. I went to the school and I approached them and said, "Hey, I need to get a hold of my kid." They brought him in. This isn't a new thing. It's new that we are addicted to our cell phones and that we have to make the law to say, "Don't have it at school." Kids are there to learn. Teachers are there to teach.
107Parents are there to support. Aids are there to support. And we're just going to have to keep telling parents it's the law and encourage them that at 3:05 their kid is going to turn that phone on before they walk out of that building or as they walk out of that building. And all those messages. We grew up in the 80s. I didn't know anything about what was going on at home. >> 80s and 90s. I know until dinner time. Okay, this is not something we can't do and we just got to keep encouraging our parents and as a parent sometimes I just need to be encouraged as well that this is this is what we have to do to get our kids to learn. Everybody keeps talking about test scores engagement get off. >> I
108appreciate it. Thank you. I do have one quick question uh with the state law and we're in compliance because we've written policy. The committee's done a wonderful job. Congratulations to all of you for that. Um but at what point are do we become non-compliant if there's still students that aren't doing something? What kind of uh repercussions can the state give us? Are they just going to take away funding? Let's just say parents are calling, contacting the state and saying, "Hey, this kid still has her phone somehow, blah blah blah blah." And then files grievances with the state. What kind of repercussions do we face from the state? >> I'm going to say we're unsure >> because one, this is brand new. this is the first year we've ever had this. But two, I would like
109to believe if there is a good faith effort by the district, you've put a policy into place, you're following the policy, you're attempting to enforce the policy, all of those things that you're going to be given the benefit of the doubt. It is when you fail to adopt a policy, fail to execute a policy, fail to put the procedures in place that I think that benefit of the doubt would go away. Just in case, worry. Should the non compliance be to a degree that is startling? Um, are we going to have a resource officer close by just in case should something escalate? >> Yeah, I would like to encourage that as a last resort, I would like for >> just saying should it become behavior become startling >> but to the point earlier if we
110we reach a point of escalation where it's now in subordination or otherwise >> that resource would be used as appropriate. >> Okay. Thank you. Do we already have a draft of what exemptions would be and what the to make sure that it's fair regardless of what building is at that all families are being treated the same if they're asking for an exemption? >> Yeah. So exemptions are going to be IEP 504 related. Okay. That would be a decision of that team. Um and working also with our director of special education to make sure that is appropriate um for what that disability might be. The other exemptions would be medical. I know Miss Bond talked about that. We have several kids because I have diabetic and use that phone to check the blood sugar levels. So
111there are some medical exemptions that are in place as well. >> Okay, perfect. >> And just um students being students, is there someone that will remind them at the end of the day? Someone in the office that says, "Oh, there's still a cell phone left." >> They're going to know they're >> Oh, they're not going to forget that cell phone. >> I know. No, no one would forget their phone. If they did, is there some way >> maybe they didn't need it? >> They didn't. Yeah, they don't need it. >> I I agree. I don't know the kids are going to leave that cell phone behind, but for some reason for some reason for some reason I can only speak for myself, but at the end of the day, if I walked in there and
112saw John Doe's put a cell phone there, I'm probably going to go immediately the phone and call a parent and go, "Hey, for whatever reason, John Doe did not come by at the end of the day to pick up cell phone. I'll be here for another hour. Would you like to come by and get it? Or do you just want your kid not to have that phone tonight? That'll have it here tomorrow. What would you like to see?" Maybe they go straight to practice or something. Yeah. Or an event. Um and then just one last question initially, I guess since this is starting August with this new school this school year. Um have you thought of maybe just in the interim having do we have any type of safes or anything you could put them
113in just temporarily or it's required to put them in the individual lockers or is that our decision? you know, just something you could put it in that would safeguard the >> personal for the students that don't comply, right? We have to pick up >> at the high school. I think we have the capability like I explained if we purchase some type of safe box or whatever, we're going to put that inside of our vault, which is a lock room in the office, >> but I don't think every school is unique and has that storage type option. >> Thank you. I missed that point. >> They have locations within their offices that they they can't secure. >> Thank you for clarifying. Any other questions? >> I had a question on the exempt. Um, will we see
114that form for enrollment or what does that part look like? >> I would recommend the enrollment process personally because I think that would make sense. I'm looking to the team that will be here to execute that though. Do we have the ability to embed that on the SIS side that we're going live with here shortly? >> Yeah. I say, can we jump in on that? We discussed that we discussed that with James Perry because that was something that me as a parent was thinking, okay, online enrollments coming up and one, we need to have parents have a visual of this so that that way they cannot say, well, I didn't know because now Yes, you did because you >> we had it you signed it. Yeah. So, there's going to be something there's going to
115be an an acknowledgement and I think James will work on like if there's a medical exemption or if they need to provide um their doctor's order or whatever for that as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Those are kind of next steps for us as we talk in that committee work because first step was tonight getting these things all approved. So then we can start looking at okay next layers. I would add though, you wouldn't want it to only be during enrollment because students have changes to their IEPs and 504s throughout the year. So, you would want to have that form available all throughout the year. >> Thank you. >> Good question. >> The only thing I would caution against as we're moving forward, and I'm sure you guys are looking at this, like I
116I expect the state board, they like they met today over some of the things from this. I did not review what their dis what the decisions were if anything changed with the bill. Okay, cool. Um, but I I would just caution making permanent plans on something that might not be a permanent law. So, and costing a ton of money. So, it I know you said at the high school the 300 lockers. Is it possible that we can just look at like the PE size lockers and get huge banks that are just, you know, per size to be able to put bigger things in instead of the whole half locker? >> Yeah. >> I mean, does that make sense? I I don't know. >> I was just thinking um from my perspective when I kind of
117had Kyle look into those I call them the stackers, the two in one, if you will. Um to be consistent and equity in terms of what we already have in the building. Okay. So, if you already have the single lockers, then we have the majority of our lockers are all kind of those stackers. So, I was just looking for for just being as equitable as it can be. >> And we've made sure that we didn't keep them in a warehouse somewhere like we don't have the lockers still somewhere that we haven't gotten rid of on. >> I think I asked Kyle more than once that question to make sure. Are you sure? >> To make sure they're not tucked behind something else. I've asked him more than once that he's probably tired of me asking
118him that question, but Are you sure? >> Did you check one more time? >> Okay. Okay. Anything else? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, the action we need to take on this is >> a motion >> approving. >> I make a motion to approve the committee's recommendation. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I 70. Okay. All right. I'd like to call for a bathroom break before we move forward. >> Well, a five minute bio break. >> Did you you made a motion? >> I would. Nobody else wants to stop. >> All those in favor? >> I >> All right. Go. Ready. Go. >> Recess at 7:59. We are returning to regular session. Um we are at number 14 on the agenda. The discussion regarding the lost
119and early education center. >> Okay. This came at the request of at least one if not more board members. Uh so Mrs. Wilson, I think you raised the issue first, but I believe there's also some others that wanted to discuss this as well. For clarity, we do not have a presentation. I think this was probably the initial conversation understanding what questions are out there, what research is needed or otherwise. Uh but we did want to acknowledge that there was a request at the last special meeting, hence why it is on the agenda tonight. >> Do we have questions, discussion? >> So I would >> I personally I do you want to go first, Jessica? cuz you do you have >> um I just stated my concerns last um last meeting and it's just the fact
120that um I think that we are closing down other schools and um the lack of enrollment is going to lead to loss and also being shut down and our buildings going back into K or preK through 5th. Um, however, now with this tonight's decision with in my opinion cramming a whole another school building into our two existence, I'm not sure if we have that few of enrollments. Um, but I do think like with the decline, eventually it will definitely have to be shut down because if we're declining and declining, why would we keep a big huge building open, running, insured, lights, gas, water, and still have fewer and fewer kids. Um, like I said, we've had a lot of adjustments and still adjustments that we haven't seen that we have set forth like this building
121being shut down and moved over to Richard Warren, the nutrition uh building also being shut down and moved over. Those things haven't took place and so financially I we haven't reaped the benefit of that financial because we're still lights, water, gas insurance to those buildings. So, I don't think at this time like shutting that down would be good because that's cramming more kids into these two buildings. And just behaviorwise in our district working in two of our buildings, behaviors are horrible. and we're going to see increase in those behaviors being horrible because of the amount of kids that are being shoved into the classrooms. So, I don't know where we stand with that, but that's my two cents for it. So, go ahead. So, I would like I know we get our building report um
122but I would like to see as other early childhood centers are closing across the state for the same reason that we are reducing the elementary things. I' I'd like to make sure that the model that we're using is as effective as it can be with the the building usage, if that makes sense. Um, I'd also like to start tracking the the number of students that we are having to assist with toileting. >> Okay. um at outside of sped um but just the the general education students that we are having to do because I know it's not just at the Lawson I believe it's at other buildings as well if I'm Is that correct? Is there other buildings that we're having to assist >> to? Yeah. >> That aren't special ad. >> Yeah. So I I
123would like to know that I think that there's this perception that the education is failing but I I I don't think that that in itself is true. I think if we can show that our families and our students themselves are changing, like we're we're having different things to overcome each each new class that's brought into our buildings as our outgoings are going. We're evolving and education is having to change and it's costing more, but we're getting less dollars for it. Um, so I'd just like to make sure that we're we're as efficient as we possibly can be. And I do think in the future it's possible that we're going to have to close Lawson as well and put them in to the others just based on capacity wise if if our buildings continue to have
124excess space for students that need to be condensed. I'm not blind to the behaviors. I I think regardless of how many schools we have open, there's going to be behaviors. I think we should wait to move anything into the intermediate center with the hopes that we are making a plan over this next year to open that alternative school and not temporarily move this to sell it to then move again. I think we need to really take this next interim year of having the interim superintendent. We as a board need to look at the way we we govern ourselves to be more civil. I do apologize for my own behavior. I get heated and I say things that I regret later and I do not mean disrespect to any of my fellow board members. I think
125we need to do better and I would like to apologize to Dr. Adams for the way that we have done things and not given clear communication so that he is not able to perform what we are wanting because he doesn't know what we're wanting because we're not doing that well enough. So I would really like to see us as a board do better with our interim superintendent Dr. Riddleberger and maybe if we can show that we can be good stewards and figureheads of this district that we can attract a new superintendent when we're doing the search so that we can be better and have a clear plan. So I I hesitate to move forward with moving those things temporarily into the intermediate center because we do need to address those behaviors and that's not going
126to cost that's not going to save us money. is going to cost us money. So, we need to find money other places so that all of our students can benefit. And I'm hoping that we can just gather that data while we're going forward. >> Um, thank you. Just bringing this back around to law. >> Um, Dr. Adams, can you um give the explanation that uh of why Lawson was eliminated or not recommended from the get-go? If you just go back to several several months ago and how this was first presented, just reiterate that so we can hear that again and and the public can hear that again. Why that was eliminated as a recommendation. >> Sure. Um these are in no particular order other than the order in which they cognitively register for me at
127this point in the day. Um so first is I think probably an understanding of what Lawson is and is not. I've heard that Lawson is primarily prek and the reality is Lawson is primarily kindergarten. The majority of the classrooms service our kindergarten students. An important reminder for all of us is that kindergarten is not required in the state of Kansas. So if you look at our K classes and you wonder why are those so low, I do believe we have families that actively choose not to enroll until first grade. There is then other programs that are blended into Lawson. One of which is our early childhood special ed. The second of which then is our three and fouryear-old at risk program. Sidebar, I think you have an opportunity waiting to be leveraged at Lawson that
128I'm happy to talk about here in a little bit. But to the question from President Overby, that building was specifically designed and engineered for really I'm going to say one purpose and that was the earliest learners. Said differently, that building is not exactly designed for a really ambidextrious purpose. And so when I looked at that, the physical envelope was a component that we said that really would be difficult to repurpose without substantial amounts of capital infrastructure. Two, I think Mrs. Murphy brought it up. That was part of the latest bond issue if I'm not mistaken. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. >> It's Yeah, >> it was. >> I don't think it is politically palatable to close down that building and not use it for what you said you were going to use it
129for. Now, the same argument could be said right now for the IC, but recall that the IC is part of a vision for that alternative school. It was never administration's purpose to move adults into the IC. I stand here before you reminding you that I think you still need to get kids into the IC because that is what you sold it to the public as was it was going to be used as an attendance center. Whether it is still a 56 attendant center or an alternative center, I think that is a conversation that should come to this dis but I don't think that adults belong at the IC. With all due respect to all the people that I love to the left and in front of me and then finally I believe that the district
130made a big investment in early childhood long before my time. And so what I don't want to see is that you begin to divest from that early childhood before you're able to fully see the results. I hope that answered your question, President Overby. If I could second that, a lot of the school buildings that came up when they gave our report on a special study session was the fact that the basics need to be covered first and early identification of learning disabilities, uh things like that, speech problems can if they're caught early, they tend to be solved at a lesser price. and less impact upon their education. And that's one reason why an early childhood center allows you to concentrate resources because your speech pathologist is not running spending a half hour over at one
131school driving 15 minutes goes parks goes in another school. you've saved that transit time in services that that individual can provide to kids, which I think is fairly important. One reason to support the early childhood center as far as I'm concerned. >> I fully agree and this is with all due respect to our secondary educators, but it is a heck of a lot easier to intervene at the early ages and correct deficiencies then than it is later on in their educational career. um regarding Lawson um and you're just strictly speaking it sounds like about repurposing it within the district but um I was curious if it been any analysis been done about the value of it uh property value for resale >> I'm going to say early analysis is based upon what the tax roles
132determine the building's value to be. I think there's a really important caveat though that we cannot just assume that number is what is going to bring fair market value. I think this building translates well to a commercial office space as an example. Hopefully, we can all agree and see that vision. I'm not certain that Earl Lawson necessarily has 10 different purposes and 10 different types of of resale value. Does that make sense? >> It makes sense, but I'm just curious if there is any value or attribute it to it. There's never been a real estate analysis from um Riley. >> We have not done that level of analysis to date. >> Can we request that? >> We certainly can. I think I would just want to make it clear that would come with a cost
133and so I want to make sure that the board is in support of that cost. >> I I don't know how much it would cost to do a just an analysis of a building for sale. >> I sorry I don't have a number for you. I'm happy to at least obtain the number and bring it to you for consideration if you want. And I I would like to see that number and um you know that's what they're in the business to do commercial real estate uh residential real estate. So I mean it should be something maybe they would do freely because you know at one point it's it will sell if if it's on the market. So typically that's what real estate agents do. They provide an analysis so people have an idea what the
134value of the building is. >> I cannot speak to their costs but I'm happy to ask the question. >> Thank you. Well, an example though would be in the late 90s we put 1.5 million in the Netti Hartnet, you know, which is be about three million today and we got a quarter million dollar for the whole building, not just the improvements we put in in the 90s and we spent a lot more at loss and we wouldn't I don't think we'd get that nearly 50% return. >> That's a good point. And we have a totally different community now though. And with the chiefs coming across um state line, it's different landscape. So I wouldn't put the question out there that the value wouldn't have increased. Um and certainly when Netty Hartnet and sold the Chiefs
135were not coming to the Kansas side. >> Um Dr. Adams, can you speak to um maybe a vision of um maybe some opportunities for that building? Um I can I mean I have one idea. I don't know if it's workable, but what are you thinking? >> Yep. So again, and I and staff is probably going to kill me with my comment here, but I would encourage you to dream big. I think you've got some unrealized opportunity at that building. Again, the majority is kindergarten, but you do have some classrooms that are what I call our blended model, early childhood, special ed, three and foury old at risk. You have opportunities, I believe, to serve a currently underserved or unfilled population. Right now, you could add another funding stream with what would be essentially a pay
136for service. This has been done in other districts. It comes with a really important caveat. You've got to continue to service and make sure that you've got slots available for your at risk students and for your early childhood special ed. So they those should receive priority. So there may become an issue where you either don't have the physical space or you don't have the educators. You'll either run into a physical limitation perhaps bricks and mortar or human capital limitation. But it is my opinion that you've got people out there that are potentially ready and willing to pay for this if you can find a palatable price point. >> Are you saying more like a private kindergarten? Is that what you're >> Nope. What I'm saying is you would allow them to enter into those same
137classrooms. I still believe firmly in that blended model. I am a huge advocate of that. that would allow those that don't qualify for early childhood special ed. >> Oh, I see where >> they don't qualify for three or four year old at risk, meaning they're essentially an unfunded slot, but they would be allowed to pay in as much. So, you have the physical space and the human capital and be able to pay for one of those slots. >> Is there not restrictions because we're using title funds for those things to bring in private money? >> I'm not aware of any. I mean, Beth, for what it's worth, I don't know if we've ever done this, but I'm aware of several school districts that have something similar to this. >> And until the state does prek
138for all, that >> Yep. >> makes financial sense. >> Yep. This is a reminder for those of you that have been around for a while, it took a long time before we funded kindergarten at 1.0. That only happened in 2017. >> You're still at half point or 0.5 funding, sorry, for your three and four year olds. And do other organizations have an opportunity to lease space for their own classes? Say Head Start? >> I thought of that, too. >> Do they? >> I had somebody from Head Start reach out to me. >> Do they? Yes. To date, we have declined because of how many decisions were up in the air. What we did not want to do was commit to space that later we would have to rep prioritize for our needs. So, they have
139been told no or not yet, I guess, is a better answer. Okay. Thank you. Um, back with Lawson and and some of these issues we have with toileting. Um, didn't districts have rules that you could not attend school unless you were sped. Could not attend school unless you were potty trained. >> That's not legal. >> All right. Well, it used to be legal. I mean, you had to be potty trained to go to daycare, you know, at a certain age. Okay, thank you. >> So, something to think about. >> Um, okay. Any other questions or comments on the loss in discussion? No. >> Okay. Item 15, the superintendent report. >> Just want to make sure we have clarity on what the questions are. Dr. Rutleberger will be the one delivering those. Okay, superintendent. >> All
140right. Thank you, President Overby. First, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to serve the students, staff, and all of the community for the last three years. I have vacasillated back and forth on whether or not I wanted to deliver this message tonight, but I feel like it is something that needs to be said. I hope you understand it comes from a place of cander, but also a place of love. There's some people in this room that I absolutely love a lot and I will greatly miss. I've got five challenges for the seven of you. Challenge number one is to keep students at the center of everything we're doing. I think that most important decisions are rarely the easiest ones. And this is said not lightly to the adults in the room,
141but sometimes we let adult priorities cloud over what's best for kids. And I would encourage us to continue to ask the question, what is best for students? The second challenge is to govern but not manage. Focus on vision, policy, accountability, and my personal favorite, outcomes. Please trust Dr. Rutleberger and the administrative team to manage the day-to-day. Hold them accountable for doing that and delivering on outcomes. But understand there is an important distinction between governance and management. And I firmly believe your best role. You are your best selves when you are governing and letting that team manage. I promise I did not hear Danielle's comments prior to tonight, but they dovetail well. Challenge number three is to protect this board team. I really firmly agree in healthy disagreement. It's a sign of thoughtful leadership. But what
142happens and what I'm seeing is that public division weakens confidence in this organization and people are watching. So I challenge you that once decisions are made, find a way to move forward together. It is okay to disagree here. But when we walk out of this room, we need to agree on the path forward. I have never been more convinced that a community watches not only what decisions are made, but how they get made. Challenge number four is to invest in your superintendent board relationship. This should be viewed as a team of eight. My firm hope is that Dr. Rotoberger is given full trust through accountability, communication, and a level of transparency that goes both ways. I also I challenge you to assume positive intent with her and whoever her successor is. Please give your next
143superintendent every opportunity to succeed. And I want you to remember something. You are in recruitment mode right now. Whoever is a potential applicant is probably watching every YouTube stream from the last year or two and deciding whether or not they want to put their proverbial name in the hat. Challenge number five is to protect and build upon what makes this district so special. We are so unique. There is no district like USD 453, which is what makes it awesome. and it is filled with some of the most talented and committed people. >> I was talking to an elected official recently who asked the question, "Is Levvenworth's best days behind it?" And I said, "I don't think so." But what I do think is that it's best narrative currently evades it. There is far more good
144happening in our schools than people get to see or hear. So my question is, what narrative are we presenting? and are we deciding to put our best self forward or perhaps one that drills holes in the ship? My final charge to everybody in this room, whether you're a parent, patron, or otherwise, is to be courageous, but also to be unified and to leave the district stronger than you found it. This has been one of the greatest honors of my professional career. I am very grateful to the folks to my left and in front of me who I absolutely love. And while my role is changing, my hope for this district remains the same. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Adams. Okay. Um, upcoming meeting dates. The first one on here um is our June 23rd
145board um meeting work session. Um I'd like to get sort of a consensus here. Our original plan was to have Dr. Varville um brief us on the sped funding which um she does an excellent job um with that and she is the subject matter expert but she is not available on that day. So, um I'm just looking for some consensus if we want to go ahead with that work session, if there's other issues that um the board wants to discuss or um you know something that we need to meet about or if we want to go ahead and move on to just the regular meeting in July. So, >> what are your thoughts on that? >> I would say move on to the regular meeting in July. one, I don't have my calendar with me
146and I know vacation plans and everything else are happening quicker than we can blink an eye at, whether it's weekend trips or or whatever it may be. And perhaps that that could be done something similarly to a building report in our regular board meeting without a full-blown study session. And then we can write in questions and comments when the slides get presented to us as the uh agenda comes in. and any additional questions that we may have, she can get back with us on after the meeting and that doesn't tie us up a whole night. >> Um, I am fine with that. I just wanted to um have the option out there in case there was somebody who had something that they really thought we needed to meet and and discuss at that. Only thing
147I could see that could potentially be valuable is if we would have a >> a nonstructured get together just to try to build camaraderie between ourselves, share dinner and just discuss, maybe even have a potluck, just talk about our families and things that are not district policy in relations to this, get to know each other as people. >> Um, would that require >> That still requires a coma meeting. It still has to be reported >> that would want to come and bring a dish and share. >> Would that involve district staff though because I don't want to >> That's true. >> Yeah. I I just say we go okay >> I don't know if I I don't want to take a take your time for us to >> we could possibly do that state meeting
148or something. >> So one way I've seen this appro sorry I I love the idea. I personally think one of the things that you all should start doing more of is getting to know each other outside of this dis. Other districts have done this and the way they approach it is they just notice it to the public and it's still an open meeting. Anybody can come join you wherever you're at, but it doesn't require the district staff to be there because there's no official business that's being taken. Does that make sense? So, publish it in the paper. You've got full sunshine on it, but then Beth doesn't have to give up any Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Um, I like the idea. I don't know if we like the idea for June. Okay. It's
149um >> maybe it's kind of early. >> What What are people thinking? >> Next meeting July. >> You want to go for the >> 13th of it? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we're okay with going ahead and cancelling that work that work session. Okay. >> All right. Um July 1st online enrollment begins. Um July 13th is our um regular board meeting and that will be a um board reorganization meeting. Um and then August 4th through 6th I have new teacher academy. Uh and that's >> is that where is that going to take place? The new teacher >> new teacher academy high schools >> LHS. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so that's all I have there. Um, we're moving to unscheduled patron input and we have Miss Sharon Wheeler. Come on down. Um, I didn't want to
150talk or I hadn't planned to talk about the cell phone bill, but I do just want to reiterate something very important. this bill and this ban applies to students. It it does not apply to adults in the building. We don't condone uh you know teachers standing up on their phones all day every day, but we just need to be mindful that there are a lot of reasons why a teacher may be on their phone. I, for example, get texts quite often about going to cover for a different class while I'm in the middle of teaching English. um or uh it's one of the primary tools to access uh kick >> yeah I always say kickstarter kickboard um for our teachers so a lot of times they will be on their phones inputting data into that
151so any decisions made regarding that I hope that we can be a part of um because it's going to be a learning process all right but what I really wanted to talk about um in August I'm going to start my 25th year here oh I know it makes me feel very old and it's going to be under the seventh superintendent that I've had. Uh, lucky number seven, Dr. Riddleberger. And we're excited to work with her and look forward to working with her. And by and large, all of the superintendents I've worked for have been very good, and the current one is no exception. Um, the relationship that Dr. Adams has with LNEA um, and and with me is been unlike any that I've had in the 25 years that I've been um, a member of
152uh, the teachers union. Perfect. Obviously not because he likes the color purple and he listens to way too much country music. But aside from a few uh issues like that, the last three years have been really uh really great. We met with Dr. Adams like on his second day here uh the LNA leadership and we just kind of outlined like you know where could we go and what could we do and what you know might our goals be. And I'm proud to say that we made a lot of progress in that. And I think the thing that I'm most proud of is that we did build a relationship that um you know works for of the best interest of all the parties in this district and and I'm happy to say that I have colleagues
153all across the state who ask me how did you do that? How can it be done? I want to work with our superintendent like that. So I think that's the thing I'm the most proud of. Um we appreciate your tenure Dr. Adams LNEA does. I appreciate all that you've done. and I have learned more in the last three years than I did in the previous time before here. Um, I appreciate the patience you've given me, um, and tolerance for long ranting emails. You clearly respect your elders. So, um, as he's known in my contact list, not that KJ Adams, uh, that's the KJ Adams basketball player or as my kid says, a tuxedo man. Um, in addition to, uh, boss and friend, we wish you well. I wish you well. Uh, we wish your family
154well. Um, and good luck, young blood. We'll see you around. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to board member comments. Um, let's start down here with Miss Murphy. Well, first I want to say congratulations again to our lady pioneer swimmers. That's an exceptional outstanding job and so few people and to make all those accomplishments. Way to make us all very very proud. Congratulations to all the students that just completed JCLC. Um you have all your future Raiders and JOTC students already g gearing up for their leadership and plans for the coming year. Um, again, I want to say my appreciation to Mr. Vanic and the committee for our cell phone use. Um, that's not an easy job anymore. It was any easy when we were trying to plan on how to do book policies and
155things like that. So, um, that was just really great and I appreciate all your accomplishments on that. Uh I did hear the state was meeting today too to discuss um schoolisssued electronics. So if we thought we have going to have some heartache and u pains with the cell phonesh I hate saying this. I really I won't no buckle up because I got a feeling we're going to have a whole lot more. Um but we can do this. We've been on roller coasters before. So, put on a neck brace and we'll get through it. Um, and um, I want to tell Dr. Adams um, that I appreciate you and your three years that you've been with us. I wish you all the best and your family with your future tenure with Piper and I hope all
156good things for you. Um, and I do agree with you. We all don't always have to agree. We don't We can all want to go to Kansas City. uh we just all don't have to take I70 to get there. There could be other ways to get to the same budget. Um but this is what we have now. So this is what we'll work on. We will find out uh any legal ease if there's a change or a pivot that we may be able to do if that is an option. Uh so we know that we have that door opened up to find out those resources. And um have a safe summer. uh enjoy summer school while you're there. Please do your work and um we'll see you soon. Thank you. >> Okay, Miss Wells. >>
157I have nothing further to say, >> Miss Brown. >> Um thank you. I um also would like to comment on the remarks that Miss Alisa Murphy just made um regarding not necessarily getting along which is some of the comments are surprising about the board because we're all educated either academically through the military both as business owners and we have a lot of experience um none of us are you know fresh out of the box we have um lived life and we know it's very important to express our views and not just let things get swept under the rug. While I say that, um, I am still concerned about the level of transparency and not because I think anyone's hiding anything, but I want to be transparent to our public. That's that's the key. Our taxpayers,
158our families, our students, our teachers. That's where I'm coming from. I know other people on this board for a long time. I've volunteered with a number of these folks and um I speak to them I when I see them in the community so um to say we don't get along maybe the impression if you're solely viewing a video for a short moment in time but I do know these folks and I do speak to them whenever I see them. So it's not that I have anything against anyone. Um, and I hope the public can see a disagreement or someone having a different point of view doesn't mean that we don't get along or we don't like each other. Um, we are all very committed to our community and I thank God for that and especially
159uh academically. I know each and every one of us cares about our students and to me the biggest eye opener on being on this board this year and um was to sit through the day we had each school uh representative come up and speak from kindergarten prek all the way up through the high school our um third avenue school if I'm missing a school please forgive me um but I thought it was very important to see those connections when kids start in kindergarten or prek, what they're learning, how the parents are involved, and how they're transition to the next level. And if you're a parent watching this or a taxpayer, I think if you could go back and watch that session alone, um, you would see the benefit of how each school works handinand to
160get kids prepared for the next level. And kindergarten is no less important than when they graduate from their 12th grade year. and anything you can glean from that information to make those connections I think is the most important. Um, also I would like to say I um just if there was a way to over the summer bring our community together uh publicly in a celebration back to school celebration I would head it up. I would volunteer. Um, but just some way if someone was willing even to fund it or help, I could help raise the funds, but to bring all of our schools together so kindergarten teachers learn who their first grade teachers potentially could be. First grade teachers could learn or sec sorry, second grade teachers would learn who their their kids are coming
161up the up the chain. And I think that's that may be one part that um while we have excellent schools, excellent teachers, excellent parents, but just making those community connections even closer and and um embracing the time that we have over the summer is most important. And again, I will volunteer to do all the work. But uh I think if again if you could go back and look at that special session from each school talking about their own instances how they work with their students and how they transition to the next level that was the most eye openening for me and I probably will go back and review it again before um our next session starts. Thank you. Have a great summer to everyone. >> Okay, Miss Wilson. >> All right. Um Dr. Adams, you're
162my first superintendent. So, I appreciate you always being available and teach me what I've needed to learn and I got a lot more to go. But, thanks for being here with us. And for the rest of us, um, I hate to see David Brewer shut down, not just a building, but our kids, families, and just cramming everybody together. And I know that's a horrible word for us to say up here and I'm sure it's not the professionalism word for that, but for me as a parent and just somebody who's worked in the district, it's very heartening for me. Um, but we're all going to enjoy our summer. We're going to come back and continue to be pioneers. So, we'll see y'all here. Thank you, >> Mr. Darling. >> Dr. Adams, I think you're my ninth
163superintendent. So, >> okay. >> You're always been on the board. >> No, I have not. I've had many times. I'm a 50% ball player. I've ran 10 times, got elected five. So, but Dr. Adams, you're one of my two best out of those nine. I really appreciate the last six months. God bless you and your family and the best to you and I will not pay to have you hijacked and have Pioneer Pete stencled or tattooed on your shoulder. So, you have that promise for me. >> Thank you. >> Let's make them Pioneer Pete socks. >> Oh, oh my. Um, first off, I want to extend a hearty thank you to the staff at the high school and all of our facilities folks because graduation was absolutely amazing and I thought the band was fantastic
164and I really appreciate the jazz band um participating as part of the ceremony and I don't think we tell our folks thank you enough, especially our staff and admin because graduation is such a big deal. Um, we think about our kids but not always the folks that make it happen. So, thank you and please let everybody know that's was amazing day. Um, likewise, I'm always happy to celebrate our students and I know that our students are already getting ready for next year. So, I my hats off to all of those that are taking part of those summer trainings and everything else to get ready for the new year. Um, also thanks to the electronic uh device committee. I know that took time out of your day to figure out how we're going to make this
165happen. So, thank you. And I know it will be a growing process. Um, uh, for all the things tonight, my best advice for everyone is breathe. Just breathe. You can talk to me later about how that happens, but we can breathe. Um, Dr. Adams. Thank you. I can't really say more than that right now, but thanks. Sorry. Um, also remind everyone to sign the resolution with Miss Maddox and it's always a great day to be a pioneer. Thank you. Okay, forgive me because I'm gonna go ahead and read this. Um, I want to take a minute to acknowledge how difficult and painful the closure of David Brewer Elementary is to this community. Um, this was, in my opinion, a necessary decision for the long-term financial health of our district, but there's pain and loss and
166uncertainty and change, and that needs to be acknowledged. But we're pioneers. We're a strong community and we will continue. And hopefully this change will allow for new possibilities that can make our district even better. Now to Dr. Adams. Thank you for making Levvenworth part of your story. Thank you for patiently mentoring me uh entertaining my endless questions and early morning emails even before my time as the board president. I am so glad I put in the time to get to know you and for the productive professional relationship we've been able to develop. I've watched you go above and beyond for this district time and time again. Not just in your professional role, but as a caring and compassionate human being. I've been the beneficiary of that compassion many times over this past year. And for
167that, I will be forever grateful. I will miss you. I believe Levvenworth is better for you having been here. I thank you for everything and I wish you and your growing family all the best as you begin your next chapter at Piper. >> Don't say that. >> You're one of the good ones. And with that, we'll go ahead and endure this meeting. Thank you for coming.