001I'd like to call to order the Levvenworth USD 453 monthly board meeting. The date is November 10th, 2025. The time is 6 p.m. Would you 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. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped the roll call >> here. >> All right, roll call. Miss Murphy >> here. >> Miss Wells, >> here. >> Miss Price >> here. Mr. Carney, >> Miss Wilson, >> and Miss Reed is absent. So, we've got um and I am present. So, six. Sorry, I skipped that. All right. Um Dr. Adams, would you like to proceed with the district mission statement? >> Yes, ma'am. Just a reminder to
002speak clearly into the microphone for our friends listening online. As to the mission statement, the mission of the leverwork public schools is to prepare every student for success in every classroom every day. >> Okay. And we'll go on to our [clears throat] board of education individual commitments. Miss Murphy, >> I commit to facilitating the wonders and to ask more questions. >> Miss Wells, >> I commit to not agreeing to push through ideas until they have gone through a discernment phase, earning a majority of support. I commit to [snorts] sharing my wonder with more clarity and share my discernment by providing thoughtful feedback. >> Miss Wilson, >> I commit to working on my wonders without letting it overtake my focus. >> Miss Price, >> I commit to sharing ideas and I'm sorry, achieving results for positive
003change. >> And Mr. attorney. >> So commit to being open-minded and attentive to the ideas of others for the good of the whole and staying focused on the task behind yourself. >> Moving on to item 1.4, scheduled patron input. We do not have any scheduled patron input. Correct. [clears throat] >> I'd like to make a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I >> 6. [snorts] >> Moving on to the fun part, student and staff recognition. I would echo that. This is arguably my favorite part of the agenda. We've got two amazing educators that we would like to recognize tonight. I see some of their family has also joined them. How awesome that is. Each year, each school district has the opportunity to nominate two for the Kansas
004Teacher of the Year District Teachers. And it is our honor tonight to present to you two amazing educators. The first of which is our elementary nominee, and that is Miss Nicole Quinn Coleman of Lawson Early Learning Center. [applause] So, I get to read the official stuff. This Levvenworth USD453 2025 certificate of achievement is proudly presented to Nicole Quinn Coleman as Kansas teacher of the year district finalist for the elementary level. Signed by Mrs. Ovie and Dr. Adams. Congratulations. [applause] >> Congratulations. And our second nominee, she teaches at Levvenworth High School. It's our secondary nominee that is Mrs. Annie Longberg. [applause] >> All right. Leworth USD453 2025 certificate of achievement is proudly presented to Annie Longberg, Kansas teacher of the year and the district finalist for secondary level. Congratulations. [applause] >> [snorts] [applause] >> Amy Joe
005Amy Joe [laughter] That's >> okay. >> I just want the very >> All right. So, moving on to um our legislative priority discussion. Um [snorts] tonight, I'd like to welcome our uh state representatives, Representative Proctor, uh Representative Johnson, and Representative Buer, and our state senator, Senator Jeff Clamp. I appreciate you making the time to attend and um and listen to what some of our priorities might be and ask some questions and bend your ear a little bit. >> Do [clears throat] you want them to move up here? >> Gentlemen, I'm let you make your way there to that table. You're going to get nice and comfortable with each other. [snorts] I do apologize. We're going to have you rotate the microphone. >> [snorts] >> Well, first I just want to say thank you personally. It's
006a thankless job what you do in Topeka. Uh I am confident that you get far more criticism than you get applause. So, thank you for what you're doing for the folks of Levvenworth County as well as the state of Kansas. I do appreciate it. Tonight, my vision is really about a collaborative conversation with the local governing body here of these seven and what you gentlemen are focused on certainly at Topeka. Uh we identified five topics and really meant for this to be kind of a roundroin back and forth again helping to identify what we're struggling with at the local level, but then how you see it at the broader level as you govern 285 districts. So uh in no particular order, the first one we had discussed was related to teacher lensure and specifically some
007of the barriers related to state statutes. So I'm just going to serve as the moderator. These are the folks that are really going to help inform you of what our challenges are at the local level and then how you might be able to help inform us of what you're focused on at the state level. >> Take it away. >> Do you want to do lensure? Are we doing the contracting as part of that? >> Okay. I have an issue. [laughter] I have an issue that I was really not aware of until I got on the board and it is um it has the potential of really um messing up our budgets. Um particularly it's um the the rise of contract companies and [snorts] contract teachers. Um this uh affects us especially in special education where
008we have we have to provide services. I that that is the law and when we are unable to find somebody to hire to provide particular services we are having to go to contract companies. Well, as you know from government work, um contract companies, somebody's going to take a cut and those um contract teachers, and correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm if I'm not explaining this, but they cost our district more money than hiring a um hiring a teacher directly for the district. and um and I it's just something that uh I was not aware of until I got on the board, but it looks like it's a rising trend and that has the potential to really affect our budgets uh because we don't have a choice about providing those services and that's just my
009introduction and you can ask a question. >> So, so Karen or do you know what the statute is? I I mean when I think of contract contract employees, I relate directly to the contract nurses at our state hospitals that cost the state $45 million a year more than what is budgeted for. So I can very much appreciate if that potential is there for for the school district. Do you know what specific statute this is? Is this the one teacher lure barriers by statutes or is there a statute on this one that we're referring to? I would say we're not currently looking at a statute that exists. >> Okay. >> Um to be clear, it's allowed what's happening. >> Okay. >> I think what Karen is after is what kind of prohibitive statute that doesn't exist
010that could be that could be written. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, it does. Thank thanks for the clarification. >> Um because I think that's a rising trend and I know even just since I've been on the board, which isn't very long, we've had to go to that more and more. And um and like I said, you know, I mean, these things are required by law, of course, and you have to provide those services, and if you're unable to do that, you got to find them somewhere, and that cost us quite a bit more than >> So, is it specifically special ed teachers? >> Um, mostly, but I think last year, didn't we have a Spanish teacher that we had to go to? >> [clears throat] >> I would say special ed dominates the majority
011of the FTE again just due to that inability to staff those positions. But where we're seeing now is some that are cropping up in in the way of just regular secondary positions. So I think last year we had both math and if I recall foreign language. >> Okay. >> Uh one of the things I I have heard about this also is that so then these contract teachers in not all circumstances are even in the building that they're in fact being used uh online from these companies and from these universities. So in doing so, we're still paying a higher price and the kids aren't getting the chance to see them. I know in we do county, which is part of my district down south, that has been the case in the largest of the districts, they
012simply can't get teachers in in Kansas City, Kansas. And so they're utilizing their college level professors maybe or instructors, but they're just online. And yet we're paying a higher price just to get that in. And that is a concern for me. >> Do you want to speak to lure? >> My issue is that it's just that being a military I'm sorry, Senator Clint. So, you're advocating for some legislation that may prohibit or some type of language that may help with that where we don't have to go and utilize contract contractors. Is that what I'm hearing here? >> Um, that would maybe be my preference. >> Sure. Um because that does um I think it's growing and I don't I don't know if we're you know if we're going to go I mean there there are
013incentives there's incentives to grow that and there's definitely incentives for employees to go that route but it has the potential of the cost gets higher and higher and higher and higher for the local school district. Superintendent, have you looked at any state legislation in other states that may be something we could take a look at? >> I have not, to be clear, but I would echo what she's saying. I think absent any guard rails, you're going to continue to see this grow exponentially. >> And today, you're not able to go look at work experience for someone to come in and backfill, right? It has to be a I think we had some conversation about that in past legislative cycles, >> correct? >> Before my time, but seems like that might have been a good idea.
014>> Yep. >> All right. I would agree. >> Mine was just going to be that we are a military community and we do have a fair number of military spouses that come in that can teach but don't teach because the Kansas licensing laws are somewhat prohibitive in the time it takes. And while Kansas has gotten a little quicker about um granting licenses to teachers from other with certifications from other states, it's still a lengthy process. So, it's really more of the can we get more oomph from the legislature to push KSD to continue streamlining and shortening the process so that we don't have to wait so long for folks to get licenses even though they're licensed in other states. >> Yeah. So, uh the first uh the first year I was in the legislature, we
015passed House Bill 2066, which was supposed to um allow any any individual and professional with any certification to carry that certification from out of state into state if they were a military spouse or military. Um and it has been regulated out of existence by the administration. And so, um, I'm I am 100% open to somebody if they're teaching across the river in Missouri and they come over here, they should be able to go right to teaching. Um, and so, uh, I that's something that we've been screaming about in the legislature ever since we passed that law. Um, I could tell the horror stories for, but I get the call because the, you know, the spouses on the installation are my constituents and they come over here thinking they're going to go right to work because
016they see the website says they can carry it and they spend half of their time at CGFC just trying to get their get their license over. So, I I absolutely concur with that and that's something we can clean up that'll help address this issue. I think >> it would be much appreciated >> and I would concur with that. I'm on the veterans and military committee and this has come up for two years and uh we were thinking that we had it kind of covered. We I think we've made some progress like re representative Proctor said, but what I find is maybe a Department of Education licensing department has been part of the issue. I'm a licensed teacher still and I'm I'm going through to keep my license in place and it hasn't been easy. It's
017almost like we find at times too many layers and it should not be there. I have military family. They've moved into state. They should have been ready to walk in the door the next day and get started. And yet about the only thing they've been left with was emergency sublicens. And that's not what we need when we have >> Yeah, that's not what we intended. I guarantee you. Well, up until Friday, I was very hopeful that the veterans committee would be able to take this issue up. all of all of the not just teaching but we've kind of hit a [laughter] hiccup on Friday and I'm going to have we've lost a couple chairman and as of today I'm not sure where we're going to stand on some of that legislation being able to come
018forward and I'm sorry and I think that's an issue we need to ask our state leadership because those are valid. Thank you. So this might might be a question for Pat or so the law that was passed in 2021 is it 2066 was that a multi-state licensing compact or was it just so so the second part of that is the state of Kansas I know we are there's I think 20 multi-state licensing compacts Kansas is in 14 of them so I don't know if this is one of those or if we need to do something different or if if in fact it's not is there a multi-state licenser compact that we could roll into. >> Yeah. Uh 2066 was a bill that uh um that now majority leader Croft sponsored that I co-sponsored and it
019was supposed to be exclusive to military spouses and military service members. And it short it yeah it didn't require reciprocity from the state that we were accepting a license from specifically for that group because it takes so long and you don't want just a subset of states that a that a uh that an individual could come from. So it was just a blanket. If you are licensed in any state, you're military or spouse and you come here, you're supposed to be able to go right to work. and at darn near every state agency has in some way circumvented or created additional hurdles that were not in the statute. So, so I get that. So, is there a multi-state lure compact for teachers only? Okay. So, we've done that with physical therapists, dental hygienists, and a
020lot of it's because of the military. Um that may be a question if you guys don't know of KLRD or somebody that could say is there a multi-state teacher lure compact that we could join um food for thought. >> There is I believe I'm looking for HR team specifically for the military. Correct. Yep. >> Okay. So we can we can do a little digging on that. I don't know if that would be if the Veterans Committee would want to do that. We're on the cuff here. It's like an audible. >> Well, I can guarantee you members of the committee, I'm not as of today on things are getting reorganized. >> Okay. >> Because I could have answered that last week. >> Okay. >> But I can't today. >> All right. >> Anything else on that
021topic? I just appreciate any assistance just so we can get our teachers, you know, good teachers into our classrooms. All of our kids deserve good teachers. >> All right, the next one, uh, just for context, we recognize that the school funding formula has a sunset July 1 or June 30th, I should say, of 2027. Um, but within the context of that is the transportation aid formula that is specifically probably hindering small districts like ours, small geographic districts. uh what I've affectionately called micropolitans where you are really small geographically thereby meaning most of your students do not qualify under that 2.5 mile radius. Uh for context for our viewers we have about 3,3100 students and only about 700 of them qualify this year. Meaning the vast majority of our students do not qualify for service. Many
022of whom are in that two mile uh two mile to 2.4 band. I think there was wanting to be a conversation about what that would look like to maybe change for districts like us and the impact it's having on our ability to provide transportation services. >> Not off the top of my head. I'm sorry. easy for me for us. >> I don't >> So is KSB or uh KA or anybody they have a a model policy or like a recommendation on what that would look like? >> I have not seen one yet. No. >> Okay. Yeah. I when we get up there and hunt down the folks from those organizations, but I'm sure they've got a suggestion. >> Sure. Yeah. And I think the other one that goes with that has been for our CTE
023transportation. That money was originally appropriated and then it was cut back at the governor's level. >> Sure. And I was very disappointed because in Wandot County that is a critical component for getting our kids from our high schools. And of course, Levvenworth and Lancing are all part of the KCK CTE program, which I think is is just tremendous. And I know we're I'm very thankful we're getting a campus up here, but that got cut back and that impacts our inner city kids. And I would guess probably here the same way in Levvenworth. If you don't have those little mini buses to get those kids over there, a lot of those kids are not going to have transportation. >> Yes, sir. >> They're not the suburban kids that have their car the daddy got them. >>
024The transportation issue comes up every year in our needs assessment. Um, it is a huge issue for our district and right now with the current formula and it's kind of an unsolvable problem because we can't provide it and our um students families can't pay for it. So, but it comes up all the time. It affects our attendance. >> So, is uh who provides the busing here? You guys contract with East Bus Company? Yes. >> Okay. because a related issue is they can't hang on to CDLs. As soon as they train get somebody a CDL, they go get a job paying more money. And so I think, you know, from the transportation committee perspective, we've been trying for years to find the the holes in the federal CDL program where we can get, you know, we
025can get exceptions or get people, you know, uh, trained cheaper so that they have more people, which lowers the cost, which maybe allows you to out of your your existing budget, you know, it becomes more affordable out of your existing budget. So that that's the direction I've been taking on it because I every year we come here we have this conversation about the busing and I hear it a lot from constituents as well and I think that lowering the cost to bus would be a huge help too >> and with that concept I know in Lincoln Nebraska the school district there does provide their own training uh and it begins they work very diligently and it's actually at one of the high schools there in Lincoln at the new school and I've met with them
026and talked about that. I'm wondering if we were able to get a consortium going between because KCK has got this. >> Sure. >> CL I mean all of these they need the CDLs. Well, all summer they've been getting people their license >> up in Lincoln so that they'll have enough [clears throat] bus drivers. And maybe that's an idea, something that we can propose much like we have drivers education, >> get that training and bring it in and do those people. >> Dr. Adams, do we have the ability to know tonight um like what's our eligibility and usage numbers? What amount of kids are currently eligible for what we do have? What amount are you using it? >> I'm sure we could. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we'll try. I do have a statute for you. >>
02772 >> 5148 deals specifically with the transportation waiting formula. >> So, are you is there a mileage that you've run data on to know what that number looks like? >> Yep. So, what we're finding is the majority of our students are within the one mile to 2.4 four band. And if you think about Levvenworth and the district is 17 square miles, we're about a 4x4 area. We've got elementaryaries in three of those four corners. Where you live, generally speaking, determines where you go to elementary school. So, a lot of the kids live in or near their elementary. We then have our middle school and our high school, essentially the heart of town. And so, it's very easy to live within that band of a mile to 2.4. My opinion is if you could get it
028down closer to a mile that is more of an appropriate walking distance for a child. >> Is there any [laughter] determination what is appropriate? >> What's that? >> Is there an is there a number that is appropriate that the state is education has identified? Is >> Oh, no. I' I've not heard that. No. >> And you're also advocating for that change to go into the formula. So there's probably some type of a a range, but closer to one mile is what you're advocating. Yeah. >> For our district specifically. Yeah. >> Well, it would be for I mean, do you do district specifics? >> No. I mean, >> not not if you were to adjust the formula. Yeah, it would impact everyone. >> It would impact everyone. So, and running that uh fiscal note as well,
029you're fighting a budget as well as our state spends 10.5 and they bring in 10 billion. So, we all have some challenges there, but it's interesting to know what that number is because I think there is at some point when they're ready to tackle that formula, it'll [clears throat] be a conversation. It won't probably happen this year. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Anything else on that one? >> Anyone? >> I make no promises for tonight, but we do have that data because we've been interested in where are the kids relative to their attendance center, right? And in my mind, I don't think we need to drop transportation to half a mile. I'm okay with asking children to walk half a mile. I really am. But I think there needs to be an appropriate threshold that
030we set it at. And so that's how we had initially established one mile. >> Good with that. Okay. The third one was specific to the special education funding. Again, knowing full well that this is being examined currently uh by the education task force. Uh and again just for context for everybody listening uh what we have seen is more and more of our local dollars from the general fund having to be taken as a result of the expenses that are mandatory for those services. And so that that demand transferred on either the general fund or the lob is taking away from the the general operations of the rest of the district. So, uh, again, open up the floor, but I would say that there has been a shared concern about what that has done to our
031budget operationally. Well, I mean, Karen already touched on it, how we're having to spend more for special education services um because of the contracting issues, not having somebody here inhouse, but just having it funded the way that the rest of education should be funded. I don't know. Well, even with transportation for special ed when they can't do the services here and we transport the kids sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes three hours away to get their services. Uh we're not reimbursed 100% on that. We do get a chunk of it back, but that's still when you're spending just a maybe a far-fetched example, a million dollars a child to do that. And then if you get 10 kids that have that, that chews up a chunk of budget. I guess our bigger issue there with sped funding
032is that federal government does not reimburse at the at the rate they say they will. The state government does not reimburse at the rate they will. And for us, I think that ended up being over $3 million last year out of our general to cover sped funding. So, it affects all of our kids when we can't get the right the right reimbursements back that have been told that we'll be receiving. It's just a challenge across the board. Yeah, we uh put in an additional $75 million last year or this last budget for special education plus the state supreme court requires that we put in an additional hundred million every year into the education budget and that it's now over 60% of the state budget is for education and uh the other 40% has to cover
033everything else including all the different human services that we have to provide. And so that that I mean the federal government has opponented up their part. The the understand you know and it's it's kind of frustrating because the governor says you know we fully funded education. This is but you didn't fund sped but the formula she's using includes a huge federal contribution that we don't get every year. >> And so I I I'll just be realistic with you. There's no way that the state can cover what the federal government said they're going to do and doesn't do. Um it's just a it would break the it would break the budget. Is there any way to >> um [laughter] get get the federal government because because it all you know it just all rolls down. >>
034Talking to President Trump the other day and [laughter] >> I'm I'm just because I mean my understanding just from the presentation that you know I I listened to just last week was um they're funding at about 9% is that right? 9% of what they're of the 40% that they're supposed to. >> Yeah. >> And so, I mean, I understand. I mean, you can't >> the state's not getting it and so the local's not getting it, but I mean, those are we don't have choices about that. We're the we're we're where the rubber hits the road, you know, and uh and and it's it's an issue. I think also with that federal issue is that many of the regulations that are affecting us here in Kansas from the federal level are what is really expensive in
035special education. Some of the requirements, reporting requirements >> that we have to take care of and then they don't give us the money for what their regulations are and in many ways it's over regulated. the people here in Kansas have a better idea what we need for our special ed kids than they do in Washington. I think maybe that's being addressed. But that's a problem for me because um as a teacher I received because I taught special uh social studies. I would mainline a number of students in certain courses and I'd have 15 or 16 kids in my mainline class and I still had the same regulatory requirements for IEPs and meetings and signing off on computers and it was taking up my time from my regular classes and that came from the federal department
036of education and so I think that's been an issue. Anyone else? Anyone? >> Is that the end of our questions? >> We got two more topics. >> Two more topics. >> Just two. Uh the fourth one we had identified and it's again maybe specific to Levvenworth and some others that are being challenged with some of these um these staffing challenges is related to Medicaid funding for certain positions within our district and some of the restrictions and and prohibitions that have been in existence that are not allowing us to reap back that revenue to pay for some of those positions. Um I've got our director of special ed that can talk specifically about this if you have questions. Representative Buler, I do not have a statute for you, but I can get that for you tomorrow.
037Um, but I think we had discussed this with Representative Proctor. You were here last year. There is certain positions that will essentially be able to be reimbursed almost 100%, but because of some of those restrictions cannot be currently. We have reason to believe these are good men and women doing good work in our schools. What can we do about changing some of that policy language is essentially the question. Does that make sense? Anything you all want to add? >> Okay. questions from you all. >> I'd love to hear the expanded explanation. >> Sure. Dr. Varl, >> please and thank you. >> Good afternoon. Um, so for example, we employ speech language pathologist assistance. And so in order to be an SLPA, you have to have a bachelor's degree. And so while that individual cannot evaluate
038a student, they cannot um qualify a student for special ed, they cannot write the IP, they can provide special education services under the supervision of a um a master's level speech language pathologist. But when we hire an SLP at an elevated rate because they do have a bachelor's degree and they are a qualified individual, our reimbursement for them is the same as a pair professional who may have a high school diploma. Um, and so that's really frustrating because we can and and we cannot do Medicaid billing or services provided by your SFPA. So those are some of the services that we want to look at expanding and getting included under Medicaid billing as well as looking at additional reimbursement rates through the state for those individuals who are really a qualified individual. >> Does that
039help? >> Yep. I think so. Do you know the building code by any chance? I don't have it on me. I can find it, but I I do not have on me. >> I guarantee this is also a problem in foster care and and dealing with those children. spent the day up in Topeka uh with a special meeting looking at a lot of these problems and on the Medicaid issue they're having trying to get the emergency care and treatment for their medic or foster care children in need of care that type of thing and they're having the same billing process problems. So that is not just for your schools and I think that I know in in the welfare child welfare worker they'd be looking at that on the med it was talked about today.
040So thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Anyone else? >> All right. I thought I'd end it with a fun one. Property tax relief concepts. Knowing knowing full well uh [laughter] that with your property taxes, we probably represent about 50% of that bill for most constituents. Knowing full well that is what's funding the majority of the finance formula and knowing full well that people's assessed valuation of their homes are not going down, they're only going up. Uh the proverbial squeeze is of course how do we make all ends meet while at the same time ensuring that we can deliver quality services on our end. So wanted to open the door for what is hopefully a robust yet collaborative conversation about what would maybe be a solution uh that helps everybody. >> The door is open. [laughter] >>
041You know, I'm not sure if the [clears throat] the door helps everyone, but I do think there's a strategy to I think there's a couple things at play. there's a need for a cap. There's at the state level um and I do think that is being discussed and it's and it'll be a part of a conversation, but there's a broader conversation. It also says there's a need for the re the appraisal process to be looked at again. It's how it goes about what it does creates inconsistencies that create frustrations that show significant increases that create a lot of pain for our folks. At the local level, there continues to be a conversation around is there a story that says if you go above revenue neutral, should you have to have a supermajority? If you go
042above revenue neutral, should there be um an option for the folks to take it to a vote? Something that truly gives the decision tree to the people, which is why we're all here and doing what we're doing. So I think anytime you take it to the basic core of what we're talking about on an election, hopefully we get more than 16% which is what we had show up in in the recent election, right? So I do think that there's a whole conversation around what is that entire solution look like? And there's a few steps in that. Um I sit on tax so I get to be a part of those conversations and and uh there's a there's a lot of heated debates around how do you do that because the whole thing is around local
043control. We all believe in it. We want to keep it where it should be, which is a local control. Um, and potentially tweaking something that allows it to take it even further, which is to the people, which is, I think, even a stronger decision. So, that's probably where it's what's going to be looked at this year. There's a lot of pressure on on folks that uh may not have taken a strong look at uh providing a cap or some other solutions that um allow us to make some adjustments. I think that pressure probably creates more pressure here. Um potentially I'm not it's um but it is it does allow you to run the budget how you see it. And then sitting on commerce I think for us it's how do we expand that base that
044business base to allow more property taxes to come in. And I would say for our community here, there's some significant things that may help broaden that base that are coming um that we've worked very diligently on. And um I would assume a lot of that as early as this week will be discussed. So, I do think that also is you can have this conversation, but how do you expand the base and how do you create more tax revenue? Um, that's realistic because I don't think raising taxes on folks, continuing to raise it on more than we already are is a recipe for success. And um I don't think we'll tax ourselves out of this one. I think it it it's going to result in strong decisions and and potentially some challenging decisions. So, I'll pass
045it down. So, uh, this has been one of the most frustrating problems that I've had in my time in the legislature. Um, the state is now completely out of the property tax business. We just gave away our one our last 1.5 mil. So, we have zero control over what people pay in property taxes. The 20 mills that are still on the books for the state go straight to you guys. Uh, we don't it's a pass through. We don't control that. And so, um, I think everybody, I'm pretty sure everybody at this table voted for the valuation cap, but but I sympathize with my colleagues that didn't vote for it because that's only half of the formula because even if I even if we cap the valuation increase, that doesn't do anything about the mill levy
046increase and or the mill levy. And so, um, at the end of the day, um, I I think that the key point I I agree with everything you said, but the key point to me is accountability. Um, if you know the student population at the at the school district goes down every year, but the budget goes up. Um, that's tough for me to explain to con constituents. It's tough for me to understand. Um, but if there's not accountability when those decisions are made, then uh it's not going to stop. Um, we had what was it? 13%. What was the turnout this time? >> Yeah, 16 in the teens. It's consistently 9 to 19% turnout these local elections. And uh, so I'm chair of the elections committee. What I'm going to work on this year is
047moving all the elections to the even year so we can get more participation. And you know, I've talked to a lot of clerks around the state about it and they love the idea because they have to do half as many elections. Yeah, the ballot's longer. The thing I hear as well, ballot fatigue, as they go down the ballot, they won't vote. Well, even if only a third of the people in an even year vote, we will have doubled turnout in our in our local elections. if uh you know I I've knocked doors for several people here uh on the uh on the board and you go to the doors and you talk to people and then they don't go and out and vote and then when I knock doors for my own election they're like
048why won't you fix property taxes and I'm looking at the voter role I know you didn't vote last time and so if we don't hold people accountable for raising our taxes we're never going to lower our taxes >> here's a different concept that because it I was approached at the county level about the possibility of an earnings tax and I'm just putting that out there. This also comes from Wandot County who would like to see they feel that um so many people come in and take their money out and then go back to Johnson County or wherever because of our issue with such a low so much government owns land here in Levvenworth. You just you're not getting it. federal government's here and the state and all that. What would you think? I'm not for
049it or against it, but I am considering if that's what we need to do as as one of the solutions. I is there any comments out of that? But um Commissioner Reid, any thoughts on where the county is, right? No, I I've talked to, you know, my predecessor, you know, Commissioner Dev and some people. Does it work? Is it not a good solution? What do you know? >> Well, I've heard the um the debate, especially from Commissioner Culverson, that [gasps] the state, you know, has more than one leg to stand on and and the local governments aren't given that opportunity. Um I think it's an interesting conversation. I think that would go over a lot better than an additional sales tax or something like that. So, I know when we were discussing those matters, I
050got some push back, especially from downtown Levvenworth uh business owners because they feel like it's so difficult to pull in people to to shop um as it is. So, if we add um some kind of tax on people coming in, they're they're like that'll make it even more hard, you know? So, um so I think it would be I would I would like to see what it looked like. I know whenever we talk about the government taking tax in whatever form it is, it's obviously going to be unpopular. But I think if we only have property tax and we're maxed out on property tax and expenses are going to continue to go up across the board with what we're paying for, whether at the school district level or the county level or whatever it is,
051where do we go um to try and level that out? So, >> well, I'm not sure if it's I'm I'm like you. I'm not sure. Is that the right thing for us? Is that is it detrimental? But I do think we need to explore it publicly so that everybody has a chance to weigh in and I would welcome that opportunity to at least bring it out. Let's talk about it. Thank you. So, I'm going to maybe maybe expand this topic a little bit. Uh I think it was back in August, I was at a at an interim committee meeting that we were working on of all things contract [clears throat] nursing costs in our state hospitals and the shortage of nurses in the state in general. And um one of the speakers at the committee
052meeting, it's from KU u had something to do with the school of nursing, but they were looking at the the gradu the number of graduates in this state. And this is a this is a her statement that shocked me a little bit. She came out and said the number of high school graduates in this state has peaked and will never be any higher than it is today. So conversely in my committee work um I see the the growing segment of the population that this state must deal with and it's the it's the elder side. So the the numbers of of canons who will be in their 60s7s 80s by the year 2030 2040 2050 um if you take a longer term view for the state we need to take a look how we're going to
053take care of those Kansas and the tax dollars that we have to use that. So, conversely, my my thought is to schools that have declining membership, when you see uh if you're to take a five-year look, and I know I think Karen, you said you do a needs assessment, but if you were predicting a needs assessment that went five or six years out, if you knew what your um what the number of students you has, how do you manage that? What do you need for schools? What do you need for administrators? I I see Judy smiling over here. I'm not trying to put [clears throat] any words in your mouth, but it's a different picture than it is today. So, I appreciate the fact that um there's a there's a short-term look that you have
054to have to this problem um just to keep the doors open, the lights on, and to teach kids, but we'd be fooling ourselves as a state not to recognize that there's another problem that's out that is out there growing. Um for for students, it may be that the fact the numbers of high school graduates in this state is going to continue to climb. Um, and we have to budget and spend for that shrinking number while at the same time we have to figure out a way to take care of the older adults, older citizens in this state. So, you know, I guess my my thought would be if your needs assessment isn't hey, what does it look like in five years from now? How many kids do we have? How many buildings do we need?
055um need to be taking a look at that because I I got to tell you when I sit in that in that committee meeting back in August, it shocked me uh thinking about the uh potential for hiring for getting college uh ready students into a nursing pipeline or any pick any pipeline because it's going to be the same challenge. So anyway, just just a thought not necessarily answers the question on what we do today, but it's it's something that's going to be >> we've been thinking it. [laughter] So I'll add on to what Representative Johnson mentioned. There is an appetite to explore a one% or a scent. Um I think it's more about how do you reduce the 20 mills on the state level down to 10 and you can do that through some type
056of a process. I think when you get into the local level we worry about we do county being a good example and I represent them as well. you give them the avenue for an additional um one cent and they've historically shown they're just going to take that plus the the mills and nothing really ever gets impacted. I don't uh see that as what's happening here. But I do think when you broaden that base and you add in uh consumption, you do open a conversation up to it affects those that have less more or disproportionately. So you get to have that whole conversation. So, um, your points were also well made about the downtown district. I think there's a lot to think through there. We will be exploring that on the tax side and on the
057Senate side. So, it is a a good question. We sat through some hearings last year. We had a a very strong uh [clears throat] county commissioner who had a strong opinion uh which was uh Commissioner Colbertson and then we also had the mayor of W County came in and sat as well. of the UG. And I do think that there's historically we don't make decisions that are one-offs for for folks, but we do have five or six uh districts that seem to uh counties that seem to be a little more challenged than than others about the the amount of uh federal government [clears throat] uh property that we have. But I do think there's some good information that may come out on on that as well to help tell that story. Um so it's just
058a little more color for you. >> Yeah. And I I I'll just, you know, not not globally across the state, but here in Levvenworth, I'd be very skeptical of how much a 1% earnings tax would really help the school district because Fort Levvenworth isn't in the school district. And those are the highest paid people in in the county probably or in that population. You do have the VA hospital, so you'll have some professionals there, but I'd be concerned that it might just make them go to another hospital to work. And then we don't have the medical professionals, and then you've got the prison um with, you know, but that's not a really large population of people. Everything else in the all the other income generating uh professions in this in this school district are service
059industry. And so you're you're taxing, you know, servers at restaurants and people who work in retail to pay, you know, that are already paying to to to fund the schools. Um, I'll just I I want to go back I want to put a finer point on what uh Representative Peeler said, which is, you know, when we had a when we had a a dramatic decrease in the number of students, the headline in the paper was $5 million shortfall in revenue, not we have to pay for 300 less students. And so it's like how do we make up and maintain the same budget? Not okay, we need we have 300 less students. What you know, how can we scale back to the lower population of students? And I know that's painful. You're talking about people that
060you work with, people that you know. Um but um golly, if we have less students every year and we have the exact same number of school buildings, the exact same number of teachers and administrators, we're man, they're they're getting, you know, they're getting a lot of personal attention. So, um, I think that and I I'm, you know, right now I'm going across the state. I'm seeing, you know, communities that are a lot smaller than ours and we're you started a lot closer to our size and have had to wrestle with these problems and, you know, it's painful to do. So, you got to scale the service that you're providing to students and parents to the number of students and parents you have. I just want to make a point about I don't think you can
061simplify the fact that if you have less students you shouldn't have any the same money because the expenses we have in insurance utilities and things like that they're astronomical and they go up I think exponentially now I know life insurance or liability insurance has so that's too simple an equation the other thing is we can't compete with the bigger schools in Kansas City because of the money they get from their local option budget. You know$120 million dollars sometimes. >> It's you know it's just can't be simplified like that. Well, I mean, our our budgets when we talk about when we talk about whether we're properly funding education or not, and all of the lobbyists come up and all the folks come up with the with placards to Topeka, they talk about the number of dollars
062per student that we're spending compared to the surrounding states. And so I I think on some level if you've got, you know, if you go from 30 kids in a classroom to to 20 or 18 kids per classroom, it's probably time to start thinking about maybe needing less classrooms. I I'm sorry. I >> Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You can go combine some schools. >> Yeah, >> that's going to boil out. Yeah, if you Yeah, if you could buy classrooms, you have fewer fewer schools and fewer buildings and less insurance and less electricity and less water and all the things that cost to support the infrastructure. >> And unfortunately, that means less teachers and less administrators, which are [clears throat] the biggest piece of a budget is is those salaries and those
063benefits. >> I didn't see it on the agenda, so I didn't know if we could give them time to provide feedback before they go or if they have anything for us. I think it's a discussion. >> I think it's just back and forth. But I do have one thing though. I do appreciate each one of you being here tonight. And I would like for each one of you to take out your your phones and mark your calendar for 20 June uh January because that's going to be literacy day at the capital. And while a lot of people think in the short term that literacy is just an academic thing, literacy for Kansas is going to be an economic imperative because if we can't train our workforce, we can't bring industry and business to Kansas. And
064so taking that long look, I would love for each one of you to come and be there as we do literacy day at the capital on the 20th of January. I will see you there. Uh and Mr. Zack, I just saw you. That uh invite includes you too. >> I did have a question. Uh when you were talking about doing earnings tax and stuff, um do we know if you put a toll on a bridge, is that only going to pay for roads or can you put a toll on bridge to pay for educational needs? >> I don't know. >> Got to get a bridge first. [clears throat] >> Um I think it's a good question. I think a toll on a bridge is driven by K dot as they handle the funding on those
065kind of things. >> So I think we would be limited to what we can do there. Um coming from a family that constantly talks about the toll. I've been inundated with a toll bridge for like 15 years. So or maybe longer than that. >> Oh, those bills get high. >> Yeah. So it was um but that being said, I don't I don't think it's a bad idea. It would be um if we have a better um kind of tax climate in the state of Kansas, I think you will see less of the coming off the base and heading east. And I think that is about they're making a pocketbook book decision and I think the more we can start to impact that and I think we will continue to improve on that side of the
066business to have more folks that choose not to go that route. So, I don't know if the constant um decline is going to be that consistent with in your world here, but it's worth going through the exercise with another what's what's it look like in five years because I think that's you have to plan for that. Um but I do think that um our motivations are to stem that. Yours are as well. What can we do to create an environment that keeps folks here? And I do think we're all motivated on the same topics there. Um, just for your own edification, I sit on um and at the Senate I sit on Senate or I sit on taxation, I sit on commerce, I sit on transportation, and I sit on the budget. [clears throat] So,
067um, so we're we're we're well represented in the Senate for District 5, which is is Levvenor. So, I get to see some things that are impactful, and we have wonderful folks that are taking on the helm of of education. and having uh Representative Johnson here tonight with his background is it's nice to have him uh a part of the conversation. So, just so you a little FYI on on what I do and keeping me in my lane is probably a good thing, but I really enjoy being here um and being a part of that. >> Yeah. Um I, you know, [snorts] I [clears throat] agree with everything that uh Representative Buer said. I don't mean this as disagreement, but um I don't think that kind of the straight line trajectory is necessarily destiny and I
068want to change that destiny. Uh we've done a lot of stuff up in Topeka to try to incentivize business and incentivize more people to live in areas that are off of I70, off the beaten track. And uh it's sort of frustrating because you know you work you work for years and years to get an incentive in place and then everybody comes out with torches and pitchforks to try to stop it. Um I don't know how much any of you were watching what was going on in Lancing with the development in Delaware and there's another de development uh behind uh Walmart I think and the one behind Walmart ended up going in. think it was a little bit less, but um that getting more rooftops and getting more humans here would solve a lot of our
069problems and so I I know that there there developers that are looking at RHID projects here in uh in Levvenworth. I hope that you will look favorably on those. I was frankly stunned by the opposition to RHID in Lancing. I mean, they they had done a whole housing study where they said they needed 400 more houses and then here comes a developer willing to invest 20 thou $20 million out of pocket and they drove them off. I mean, it it just it it confounds me. And so, um I you know, and it it's kind of, you know, since I've got the the mic here, [clears throat] it's kind of the property tax analogy to the star bond, right? the star bond. We're going to develop something that isn't there and then we're going to use
070sales tax that we're not currently getting to pay back the investment. Well, this is property taxes that we're not currently getting because it's just an open field. We're transform it into homes and then we're going to use that to pay off the investment. And then we've got people, you know, are paying that are uh you know, spending their their paychecks here in town and once the the RHID period's over. And so I I hope, you know, I I probably will not be sitting in this chair when the next RHID comes down the the pike, but I hope that when that when developers do come to Levvenworth wanting to put more rooftops here, you'll look favorably on that because that's a long-term solution to our problem here is not, you know, how do you know I
071don't want to be managing how we lose students and we have less schools and we have less families. I want to be managing. Oh my god, we got to build another school because we got so many darn kids here and we got so many new families moving into the area. That's our long-term solution. That that lifts everything. That doesn't just lift the school district, [laughter] that lifts the businesses, lifts everything. So, um you know, as I as I uh finish out my last year in the legislature, I hope that everybody will when that does come down the pike, everybody will will look favorably on that because, you know, I don't think it's a red or blue issue. I think it's what's best for Levvenworth and what's best for the future of the school district in
072this town. >> My final comments, I I joked a little bit with everybody. I wore the Berlin Lynwood ball cap in here as a tribute to what's going to happen. >> Dangerous. >> Yeah, I don't. But I want to compliment the Levvenworth High School sports program. >> There you go. >> What they have done. I watched that first game of the year and that was close. A lot closer than people realize. And I think it's up for grabs, but it says a lot for our conference. United Conference now is becoming a very strong Levvenworth and Baser Lynwood are both top quality 5A teams, legitimate. My only regret will probably be the winner Friday night's going to have to go against a private school that gets to recruit. and I still [snorts] just see every time
073I hear that and I'm sorry, but it's going to be a wonderful game Friday night and I'm so proud of both teams. And the second thing is your superintendent has probably been the most communicative of anyone I've worked with in the last five years. um he'll sit and watch me on committee meetings K through 12 and I'm able to check with him on things that you need and that's a compliment to your choices for leadership. So sir, you do a good job here. Thank you. >> So Tim took my comments about the Levmore football team. So thanks for saying that. Um that's awesome. U I guess I'll make a comment back to Pat. I'm going to try to be a little little levity here. So, we need to figure out how K families need to
074have more kids because there is a declining number [clears throat] of kids per family. >> I know how it happens, but they need to have more than one point whatever they're having. You got to have it's got to be a positive thing. Um the the last thing I would leave you with is um I probably wasn't as good at this as my first year. Uh, I've gotten better each of the last few years, but I would say um each of us put a lens on for the communities and the people that we represent and we sit on different committees um and so issues will come up and I will always try to put on my Levvenworth or Lancing hat. Um I'm on appropriations so and I chair the social services budget committee and 35% of
075Kansas state spending goes through that budget. Um, and so I do very much try to represent um, this community and if I do see an issue, whether if it's law enforcement, I can reach out to uh, Pat Kitchens or uh, Steve in in Lancing. But if there is an education issue that um, we need maybe your insight on, uh, please feel free to email us. Um, I think I know one county commissioner and someone else at the courthouse that is um, notorious for beating on down the email door for hey, you need to think about this from the county's perspective or something. But I would just say that that door is open >> [clears throat] >> um because we we do in fact try to consciously conscientiously do that. Um, but if we miss something
076or if there's a bill um that we see, hey, is there a Levvenworth perspective? We we uh do try to take that into account and that is always open. So just a just a just food for thought and thank you for having us here. This has been great. >> Can we get comments, >> questions, discussion? >> Can we get a picture with the board and the representatives? >> Sure. >> Let's do it. [clears throat] >> Want to do it by the LV? So, >> who what? >> Hey, my grandson's a quarterback for Le. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> You know what? He's he wants to be an entrepreneur. He doesn't want to go to college. >> You got a money. These guys own good business right now. [snorts] >> Oh, I don't know the room. >>
077Hang on. You got wide angle number. >> I'm going as fast as I go. If somebody asking [clears throat] you at >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Time out. [clears throat] >> Safe travels, gentlemen. >> Thank you so much. >> Drive safely. All right, we've got a request. We're going to take a five minute bio break. So, we are going to return at 7:09. >> We're back in session. Moving on to item number four, our chart wheels update. >> Very good. >> Take it away. Welcome and thank you for the opportunity to present our Chartwells business review. Okay, since we presented last time in April, we've had some changes to the team. I'm Sandy Curran, director of food and nutrition and I've been at Levvenworth for 10 months. One of our initiatives that we presented in the
078spring in order to run all the programs was to hire a chef. We welcomed Matt Peak in September to our team. Matt brings with him over 10 years of experiencing managing um school food service and kitchens. He was also a culinary instructor for kids teaching food and nutrition classes to Head Start. You can also see some new faces in our regional leadership. We have moved from the south division to the north division and have a new support team. I will let Amy make those introductions. Hi. I believe I met most of you. Um Mike, I didn't get to meet you, so I'll mute you later. Um Amy Carrian with Chartwells. I've been with Compass for 10 years and Chartwells for eight. Um I'm based out of the Chicago market. You probably can tell I'm not
079from Chicago. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. So that's um where the twain comes from. but super excited to work with all of you and to your wonderful team and continue the great partnership that you all have developed. Um below here um we have four including myself uh regional support. Brandon McCarthy will actually be in district in two weeks um working with Matt and Sandy and then Haley will most likely follow that up later in the year as well as um Amy LeFrank who handles marketing. Any questions for me or Okay. >> Okay. So, tonight we're going to go through some highlights for the beginning of the school year, August to ongoing. We're going to talk about celebrating fundays with our promotions. We're going to talk about student engagement with our discovery kitchens and advisory committees. Um,
080community engagement with our chamber and board events. And lastly, associate engagement. So, you can find out what is happening in our monthly newsletters published at the end of each month. Um, I have copies at each boardroom dinner and as well the principles send this out and we're working on getting a link to the child nutrition page. You can also see our marketing calendars. They're available to understand what we have going on. And, um, we've had a number of promotions and fun days so far this year. Um, the favorites are always when we can incorporate fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables into our menu. For example, you can see in the pictures, watermelon day and apple crunch day. Um, we also celebrated the fact that September [clears throat] was National Fruits and Vegetables Month. Um, fruits and
081vegetables give your brain the fuel it needs to focus, learn, and grow. We've increased our offerings at all schools this year for fruits, vegetables, and prepared seasonal salads. This fall, students enjoyed some um new taste with the dip into flavor promotion. It was a limit time limited time cafeteria promotion inspired by trending Tik Tok flavors. And so featuring cravable student approved dips like honey buffalo, Korean barbecue, chimmy cherry ranch. And so we featured some of these at the board meeting last month that you got to try. Our next promotion that you had the opportunity to sample tonight or even just smell was chilly days warm bellies. Get your fill, beat the chill. So we're going to be running this in November and December. The days are getting colder, so we're going to highlight the warm,
082robust flavors of chili and other spicy flavors that the younger generations have a strong connection with. Um, we're featuring chili and cinnamon rolls, chili hot dogs, chili baked potatoes, and chili frito pie. So, some of the other promotions that you can see on the pictures and in our newsletters are Lucky Trade Day, Halloween, Taco Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday, Pizza, and Freezy Fridays. So, Discovery Kitchen, we ran our first Discovery Kitchen. The theme for the month in September focused on teaching students how to fuel their bodies with nutritious foods through fit. From competitive athletes working to achieve peak performance to any student looking to power through their active day, our nutritional education program will show students how eating the right foods can help them perform at their best and stay ahead of the game. Chef Ma Chef
083Matt demonstrated how to make powerp packed protein energy bites which we also served at the last board meeting. So you got to try those. Students received the recipe, a fun activity sheet and tips on eating well and staying active. And you can see how much fun we've got a few thumbs up in the pictures and that's how we know we did a good job. Um we are just wrapping up a of from launching a survey. Your opinion equals better meals. At Chartwell's K12, our mission is to ensure that kids leave the cafeteria happier and healthier than when they came in. To support this mission, we launched School Meals Report Card and [snorts] nationwide initiative designed to gather valuable feedback and insights from the people who matter most, the students, their parents, and families, and school
084staff. The school meals report card survey will provide valuable insights into satisfaction and preferences at both LA local and the national level. This feedback will enable us to make some meaningful improvements to our meal program, ensuring that we better meet the needs of the Levvenworth community and ultimately enhancing the K through2 school meal programs nationwide. This year we're also initiating quarterly principal scorecards to get feedback and understand issues that so we can address them right away. The first round of scorecards are coming back. Principal communication and feedback is very important to this the success of our program. The our first advisory committee was held at Anthony Elementary. Students were asked questions as to why they do or do not eat school lunch and breakfast, what they like and don't like, and they even gave helpful
085suggestions for um menu promotions that we ran through October and November. They helped to plan our World Series event and suggested potatoes for the potato possibility menus since October was potato month. The winners were mashed potatoes and tater tots, but there was also interest in the baked potatoes, which we will feature with our chili promotion. We are excited to grow advisory um committees at all schools. Um we've been excited to partner with the district in the chamber education breakfast series to [clears throat] promote Levvenworth schools and showcase our breakfast options. The events were fun, well attended, and a few brave guests even used the cafeteria trays. We featured some of our student breakfast favorites of breakfast sandwiches, breakfast tacos, and pancakes. We've also been excited to showcase some of our new features running in the
086cafeteria at boardroom dinners each month. We appreciate our partnership with the district. Um, our fresh fruit vegetable grant is back up and going this year with the addition of two more schools. We have [laughter] $118,000 to um set apart in this grant to give fresh fruit and vegetable snacks. The fresh fruit and vegetable program is a federally [clears throat] assisted program providing free fresh fruit and vegetables to children at eligible elementary schools during the school day. The goal of FFBP is to introduce children to fresh fruits and vegetables to include new and different varieties and to increase their overall acceptance and consumption of fresh unprocessed produce among children. The FFBP also encourages healthier school environments by promoting nutrition education. You can see some of the pictures of our staff getting the product out of the
087kitchen, bagging it up onto carts, and some of our youngest students at Lawson enjoying the FFBP snack. The next few slides will look at meal counts and participation so far this school year. This slide focuses on breakfast meals compared to last year. We looked at September October 2024 and September October 2025. We are trending up 2% with breakfast serve as you can see the breakdown of the schools. Richard War intermediate has an increase of 10%. Um in breakfast which is the the highest increase. So for lunch um counts are we're trending down about 2.7 from percent from last year due to the decline in enrollment in the schools. However, if you look at participation, even with the decline in enrollment, we see a 22% more are participating in breakfast and 15% more are participating in
088lunch. Participation looks at the meals counts with the current enrollment. Um, this slide shows breakfast current um participation at the school currently. Um, I'm sorry, clicked too fast. Anthony is at the lead with 57% participating in breakfast where we have set up another register in order to to assist with the speed and LHS is at 17 um% where we have started a second chance breakfast between first and second hours to capture a few more students that to make the to see if they're able to take part in the free breakfast program. lunch participation went up um 15% from last October and here is where participation numbers are sitting. Hopefully we can continue to see increases throughout the year. Um the high school has also seen an increase in alocart participation with the addition of hot
089entre, new alocart offerings and a coffee par with increase of 16% over last year. So this is breakfast daily participation where we're at in all the schools in the breakdown and that's lunch daily participation. Okay. So looking ahead um we want to continue to increase participation with new menu items, promotions and fundays. November we'll be having our Thanksgiving dinner as well as other promotions. Um, more participation helps to fund the child nutrition and we want to keep continue to manage our costs and minimize waste. We're looking forward to getting the results in from our survey and our principles and making a plan to implement that feedback to help grow programs. We're looking to continue to build a strong team. Running our programs can only be accomplished by having staff in place. We continue to hire
090and train and are working on recognition programs for our staff advisory committees at each school so we can understand what we would encourage kids to what would encourage kids [clears throat] to participate and eat in the cafeteria daily and incorporate what we can um regional support. Our new region has some new and exciting um ideas to incorporate. were um by attending calls for station standards, visits from the district chef um and additional training, incorporating more Chartwells programs like the student choice, global eats, discovery kitchen, and culinary throwdown. And lastly, um to present again at our quarterly business review with the board again in April. >> Thank you. Are there any questions? Yeah, I think if I had asked you this question before, just say shut up. But I went I went to a ball game
091this year [clears throat] to one of our competitors in the conference and Chartwell was running the concession stand. So are you familiar with that at all? >> And do you know if Chartwells does concession stand? So what so how do you how do you operate that? You get a percentage or you just do the whole thing and >> it really depends on the district and we come up with a financial usually beneficial agreement to do that. >> What we typically find is it um it's cost prohibitive for us to do it to staff it to maintain it. It doesn't generate the type of revenue that needs to cover this >> but because of paying the help >> doesn't mean it can't be done. You could use volunteers. You could donate a portion of the money
092raised to certain athletic groups etc. >> Thanks Andy. >> Thank you. Are you finding your equipment is still adequate in each of the schools to do what you need to do to feed them? >> We are. Um there are a few things that we've went through Beth and updated um at Lawson. We just got a new steamer um because they just had the oven and so we're able to purchase that. And um yeah, so anytime we need anything, you know, we have a good partnership with Beth and we present it and get quotes and you know do that process. So, >> just making sure you have what you need or if we needed to do something to fix it. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item
093number five, executive session for non-elected personnel. All right, Madam President, I move we go into executive session to discuss non-elected personnel pursuant to the exception under the Kansas Opens Meeting Act or coma in order to protect the privacy interests of the individuals to be discussed and then return into open session in this room at 7:34. The board will invite Dr. Adams, Amy Sloan, Amy Joe Troyer, and board attorney Robert Angula. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> 70. Okay. Madame President, I'd like to make a motion to approve the staffing report as it was read to us. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> 70. >> Okay. [clears throat] Moving on to item number six, the adoption of the consent agenda. I would like to pull an item. Um, item
0946.9, the consideration of the rooftop units. >> Mine has been corrected, so I don't need to go. Okay. So, is that the only one? >> That's the only one. >> 69. Okay. So, that becomes item 71. So, the motion to approve the consent agenda. I move that we approve the consent agenda as provided as amended. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> 70. Okay. So, now we're going to 71 items removed. So, I guess that's me. >> That'd be you. >> Um I wanted to pull this just um just in the interest of transparency um because we've got quite a difference between um [clears throat] the estimated cost and and the cost of this project with the with the units. And I'm going to assume is that this is the same company
095that we used over the summer to do the first eight. >> Is that correct? >> Yes. So, it is the same company. Um I think there's there's three reasons the cost is higher under the law. The first one is there was an increase in the cost from last year said around 10%. The other two reasons are we targeted eight units and they're spread around the building. So they're going to require the credit set up in two different places. So there's no additional cost with that. And then the third one I've got to take a little bit of responsibility for it. We based an estimate off of the very last project which was over the summer and it was about $34,000 per unit. We did six units. They were all the same model. Um out of
096these eight, there's four different models and there's different size classrooms, different size used. For instance, the music rooms [snorts] staff loun. >> So they're not all the same. >> They're not all the same. Okay. So there are some bigger rooms with bigger models included which drove the cost up a little bit. It's not quite an apples to apples comparison. A little bit of a learning lesson on planning that but all the models last year were the same model this year. >> Okay. So they're different models. >> Okay. >> I will say that we it is using the green bush purchasing cooperative which ensures the lowest contract price we can have on it. Um, we would still recommend that the a cost will continue to go up likely every year and we're trying to have a
097pretty aggressive replacement schedule that accounts [clears throat] largely for the cost and there some of them are larger. >> Okay. And I noticed that they put kind of a disclaimer on here that the the taxes are not included and also the note about um price adjustments based on possible tariff changes. Is there like a higher limit that if this got over you we would say that that's I mean do you have like a number because we're already we're $73,000 >> over what you were expecting to pay. I know this was like part of um part of our budget. So this was this was a a known project. We were going to go ahead with this. So we that was already factored in, but we're quite a bit over. Is there like a high mark where
098we had to reexamine, rebid, pull the plug any that's my concern because we're quite a bit over. >> I think they're always going to put a disclaimer in there to jump 100% or something like that. Um, but the shouldn't have taxes. >> Nonprofit >> profits, >> right? >> They just have that on there. Taxes is not included in this cost. Um we I mean we could do fewer units or different units or different school. I think we're going to run into the same problem from year to year. >> Well, the cost not it's not going to go down. >> No. And whether we do them at David Brewer, we do Anthony High School, we have 16 year olds everywhere. It's just a matter of trying to to pick the right ones. I will say that
099the units we picked at Anthony and David Brewer that are 16 years old. That particular model, that was the classroom model, the control boards on them were obsolete. You can't anymore. So if that was to break, we would have to >> replace control board on have them reprogram and that's $10,000 for a unit that's >> 16 years old. >> So if I'm understanding the overage is basically from inflation, higher costs and that they're not uniform units as we did last summer >> and multiple locations. So >> multiple locations. Okay. >> Different models. So A couple of them are larger. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Overby, >> the project last summer had the same disclaimer on the tariffs. There was no price change due to tariffs for the project last summer. And also the sales tax forms
100are usually issued when the purchase order is issued. So we wait for board approval before we issue the sales tax exempt forms. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions, discussion? like to make a motion to approve the recommendations for the [clears throat] rooftop units at $345,269. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> 70. Okay. [clears throat] >> All right. Item eight. >> Moving on to the Netti Hartnet Education Center, item eight. And thank you, Mr. Varl. >> Um, so we have done a little bit of research. The board has mentioned with the uh property at the department that there would be some interest in maybe replatting that uh property to keep a portion of it for um have a potential future use for site for the Quest 1821 program. And so, Miss
101Maddox and I went to the city um to check into if [snorts] that would be possible, if there would be any roadblocks that we would need to consider. They gave a verbal blessing um and said, you know, gave some things that we needed to think about, but verbally gave us a blessing that if we wanted to do that, we could do that. So, tonight we would be looking to you to see if you would have interest in uh going to replatting that to keep that section of property. Do we still have the blueprint those kids? >> Yes, I say I think we need to retain flexibility. So I would say if we can if that is possible. >> Is there additional cost to replat that? >> Yes. Do you remember $5,000? >> 5,000. That's [clears
102throat] I think it'd be worth doing that. >> I'm just trying to figure out. So this is the portion that is by Netty Hartnet. We're selling the building and trying to keep that corner property to potentially build a house later for that we've been talking about. I think it was being talked about before I got on. Um it just does not seem reasonable to me. Um especially with the location like if we're not going to have school there anymore and the kids aren't going to be housed on that lot anymore. um transporting kids back and forth to this. I mean, we couldn't even build a ROC building for an active program at the high school. I just don't really see um the district thinking this makes sense in the future to build a standalone house
103that's several miles from the kids, especially if we're going to keep them at the Warren campus. um that's nowhere close to this site and then you know once the property's listed um you can't go back. So then the district would be stuck maintaining this um mowing and such like that year after year for absolutely no reason. And then also, you're gonna have a hard time selling this lot later because it's just gonna be odd. So, those are my two cents. So, for those of you that weren't on the board previously, we a little bit of information that you don't have is the original um plan was to build a universally designed home that if the district uh at any point decided they did not want that home, they would be able to sell that home
104um to a buyer and a buyer would be able to move in right away. um if we replatted the the district's belief is we would keep that piece of property in the event that we decided we didn't want to um move forward with using it for district purposes. You would have a lot to sell for somebody to build up. >> Do we do we have any other um location that we could build that house on or No, >> not currently. Not that we don't we already own that piece. So, >> right. >> Well, I know we own a lot of things, but >> we own nothing. We pay taxes to try and keep it. You're right about that, [laughter] >> including our own homes. >> You would need to go through the land acquisition process
105[clears throat] if you were to try to get something closer to a current attendance center. >> Okay. [snorts] But if we were building a home for Quest 21, I don't know why that would need to be right next to a another center. I mean, that's just my two cents because um 18 to 21 program should be separate. That program would completely relocate to that side. Well, this is >> if you want us to move forward with >> this is a discussion item. So, um it's not up for a vote, but do we have any consensus on a direction we want to go? Is there any interest? I I personally have a lot of interest in seeing the program grow and move into it, but I just don't think that with the state of our district
106right now with the funds that we have that it is foreseeable anytime soon to be able to build the program that we want Quest to grow into. So, I would be fearful to put more money into potentially saving something that we are never going to be able to fund >> because we currently have this program still running at um Warren, right? >> Okay. And we just remodeled that particular spot for this program. >> Correct. >> For all three. Yeah. Third Avenue program, you had the LSS program, >> but on that back part of that school building, that was for just our quest, right? Okay. Because I remember there was a lot of modifications on that part. >> So, why don't we go ahead with the platting [clears throat] and maybe down the road we can
107do something creative to get some community help for the house because if you build a house, that's like a ranch house. That's what I mean. >> I don't see it being feasible for us either. >> I say let it go. >> Give somebody else to pay for. >> I mean, that sounds easy, but how many? There's a lot of things out here for us to do in the community that we need a lot of volunteers for already. So, >> the type of houses they're looking at building in the Monroe Manor RHID that just got approved for lancing are [snorts] supposed to be kind of the average house and they're probably going to be definitely in the 300,000 range. So, I don't know that it would be a small task. >> Bring the blueprint back. We
108can do that if you want us to do that. >> I think we need to let it be a whole piece as it is now. Let it be sold with the building. >> So, it's one less thing we have to maintain. >> You probably won't remember because you weren't around back when we [cough] had the [clears throat] uh the program where the kids built houses, >> right? They used to under guidance of local construction people, but then they killed the program because they weren't qualified teachers. But it was a great program and I think >> it's gone now. >> H >> I said, but it's gone now. >> Unfortunately, it's called >> I was about to say that, >> but I'm saying it's something that could be done. >> You know, everything's >> But then
109in the meantime, we're paying taxes. We're mowing it. We're cleaning it. We're trying to keep it looking up to standards for what could happen but may not happen. So it may be more feasible just to let it go. [clears throat] >> So is our consensus we're not interested? >> It sounds like we let it go. Well, what what uh why why can't we just keep the ground for further, you know, down the road and maybe something could work out rather than just give up on it? How many kids we have in that program? >> 17 >> single digit. >> That's definitely a large thing that I I don't see happening. I mean, as much as I thought it was cool when I got on the board, I thought it was a neat idea that I
110supported, but there's just been no movement in that direction. And so, >> going to pay $5,000 to keep it. >> Yeah, I think we need to let it go. >> Talk about budget crunches and everything else. >> Let that property stay whole. Move on. >> I agree. >> Okay. Sounds like that's the consensus. >> Thank you for the conversation. I think that was our final piece that we needed before we can now move forward. So, just know additional information will be coming forth for interested buyers on the Netty property. Uh, but that was one kind of one of the final pieces that we needed to get through tonight. So, we'll move forward with our real estate agent and make that listing available to her shortly. >> Okay. All right, moving on to item number nine,
111district capital projects. >> Let's see. Should I stay seated? >> Are you doing that? >> I never got to do. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Kellen. >> Hello, Kellen. I want to talk about what we're about to embark on, which is really at the at the midpoint of the year, letting loose of our larger capital projects because the timing is such that if you don't move toward a ward, you will not have the necessary time frame to complete those during the summer months. These are really specifically geared towards our larger capital projects. This is probably also a good reminder that even despite the budgetary concerns that we're going through on the operational front, these dollars are separate and specific for bricks and mortar. So, this is coming directly out of the
112capital outlay fund. There's two that we're really targeting for this and the two of the larger projects. You would have seen these previewed. I believe it was at the August regular meeting if I'm not mistaken. The file name was known as uh the capital improvement plan. What I want to talk about to you tonight is my recommendation for how we proceed from a delivery method standpoint. And so just to level set for everybody, what I [cough] want to talk about tonight first was the idea of the different delivery methods that we use from time to time. The three that we really see primarily are design bid build, design build, and finally construction manager at risk. You'll see the lay person's description there. What I would say is the primary difference is the relationship in which
113the architect, the owner which is us and the contractor i.e. construction manager are engaged. In the first two, the engineer and/or architects belong to the contractor. And the third is a triangulation of those three parties. And it is because of that as well as some other reasons that I'm going to recommend tonight uh what I have for you as it relates to these two capital projects. So again, just for a key comparison and and really in my opinion, a good chance to review what these three are and are not from the perspective of those specific categories. I'm going to take you down to probably the one that we deal with the most on large capital projects, which is change orders and how the change orders are handled differently as it relates to the different delivery
114method. The other part that I really want to stress for you tonight is how you reach the final price that you pay. And if you if you go with a design build or a design bid build, you often are not finding what that price is until at the very end of the process. And so Karen, to your concern earlier, which I think is valid, you budget for what may be a million dollars. You go through the design process. You engage stakeholders. You attempt to meet the needs and the scope of the project and then what you thought was going to be a million dollars comes back at a million two and now you're left with tough decisions. When you deliver with construction manager at risk, you decide at the onset that gross maximum price and
115that process, if you will, reverses, so to speak, any cost increases that would come after the fact. The second caveat that I really like is if and when savings are found, those savings belong to the owner. They do not belong to the contractor. And that is another benefit in my opinion. I will say design build has its place as does design bid build in certain in my opinion certain applications. But for the scope of the two projects that we're talking about, I think construction manager at risk really makes sense. So you might ask what are those two projects? Project number one that we identified and I think we've talked about previously is the culinary classroom renovation at Leworth High School. It would be a reimagination of the current flow and structure including all new FFN
116furniture, fixtures and equipment. It would bring in a commercial grade hood and bring all aspects of ventilation, electrical and otherwise up to code. The second of the two projects is at the intermediate center, specifically the parking lot facing New Lawrence and what we believe is unders sized for the current capacity of the building and what we believe would greatly in uh improve the traffic flow concerns on New Lawrence both before and after school. When you combine those two in total, you're looking at about a million dollars worth of scope. That is enough scope in my opinion [clears throat] to justify why construction manager at risk makes sense. So when we consider this the caveat here is whether or not you want to engage a specific construction manager at risk which you can do under Kansas
117state statute or if you would like to have district administration entertain the RFQ RFP process so that we can bring you back recommendation for who we believe that construction manager risk should be. I'm happy to entertain either one. The caveat is if we go through the RFP RFQ process, that will likely include both a 30 or I'm going to say a 30 to 60day delay just as we work our way through that next step. In an ideal world, you would be awarding this work no later than February as those contractors certainly need to be working with their respective suppliers on ordering and whatnot because we are going to have a tight timeline from which to work specifically in the culinary classroom. You're looking at mobilization probably the last day of school and demolition taking place
118the immediate day thereafter. We have about an 8week window give or take during the summer from which to operate. So the timeline is such we cannot be awarding work in April or May or you begin running into issues related to equipment supplies and so forth. So it is my recommendation tonight that you would allow us to engage in CM for the purpose of these two capital projects. It is also my request for direction on whether or not you want us to entertain the RFQ RFP process or if you want us to bring back the entity that we believe is ready. I would stand for any questions. [clears throat] >> Isn't this um you were part of it? So were you Danielle when we were doing the bond issue. Isn't this exactly how we went and
119used to build everything? That's what I thought. >> C and but even >> I was on this side while you were on that side. Even when we went through the CMA the CM process, we still did RFQ because we ended up being a panel to evaluate >> and we saved a lot of money doing that. >> So I agree with the CM that I mean my background is in construction so I agree with that. >> The question is do [clears throat] we get >> RFQ that's >> yeah so you've got the RFQRFP process and I apologize. Great point. C has a specific spot I would say in bond issues. really where you see a lot of this valueecally that's driven. So >> I think we did some little um tweaking on the the kitchen area
120at Lawson where that came in as well and that saved us additional money. We came in a few thousand lower because we utilized that instead cutting out the middle guy and everything else and it did not keep the district >> administration on various levels hopping around trying to renegotiate or discuss and figure things out. So, if we go with this, what you're asking is do you do we want you to go bring the bids back to the board or bring us your recommendation? >> Here's what I'm asking. Do you want me to go the short route, which is the CM that we're already comfortable with that we've used past? That's NAV holds construction. That's who you use with the latest bond. or do you want me to go the longer route which is RFQ RFP
121in which I entertain anybody that's interested and I bring you back the recommendation from that short list. >> So my gut reaction is go out for the RFP RFQ process >> mostly because of competition and that we may get ideas as they do their presentations for projects that sometimes there's something that we didn't consider that they did looking at it as a as the builder that I like oh yes we do need that. So I my preference would be doing that also but my question is also do we have a limitation or a requirement from the state on how long the process goes out because I know then sometimes you can do a whole you can be out for 30 days and be out 45 days. Do we have a minimum timeline >> looking right
122here >> for that? I mean is there something by state statute saying oh it's got to be out for 60 days or or whatever? The only guideline I'm aware of is it's just a reasonable time for the process to start to finish. >> My gut says 45 days, but >> so >> and doing it that way is going to make the process longer >> just by that time frame. >> So that I would say the benefit is instead of having one, you now can bring theoretically a field of five six interested companies and bring forth the best for this scope. The downfall is it will delay the start of the rest of the process by probably 45 days >> which doesn't u negate that NABS couldn't be part of that bidding process at all and
123very well may be on the table >> and we do have a great relationship with them but it's it's not it's not excluding everybody else within the bid process. >> We've also had instances where we've only had one person bid. So we could put it out there and it's possible Naples is the only one or we might get nobody that wants to do business with us. >> It is plausible and possible. You may have limited interests as well. So yes. >> Okay. So we want to go with the RFP. >> I would [clears throat] um and this was again a discussion item. So can we do this with consensus? We want to do the RFQ process. Consensus. Okay, [clears throat] >> I've got my >> So, when the when the RFQ is complete and the
124bids are in, um, then I will appoint an evaluation panel. >> Yes, ma'am. I've got my marching orders. We'll we'll make a goal to bring back to you the short list before we go to break. Theoretically, we're right around that 45day period. If not, immediately when we come back from break at such time, then that review panel could work then from the short list to consider their finalist. All right. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on. Strategic plan update. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. I know I'm one of the last things before you and your Veterans Day festivities. So, I'll try to make this succinct as possible, but hopefully give you a good overview of where we're at with some recently released academic data points. So, similar to years
125past, uh this will be kind of the flow as we go through things. Uh so similar data points just updated looking at both this past year uh and longitudinal data for you. And of course always want to mention we'll have those updated on the strategic plan dashboard probably later this week by Mr. Perry. So uh as always we're hitting mainly on teaching and learning but a little touch of some family community involvement student engagement and other areas as we uh talk through these data points. Before we get into what I would consider the hard data I do want to have a quick celebration and recognition to our teams. Uh we were recently rewarded a silver star for kindergarten readiness as well as a bronze star for social emotional growth. That's part of the work we
126do within the KISA accreditation process and really uh credit to the team at Lawson as well as uh team members across the district are social emotional because those are based on uh reports that are submitted outside of what is required. Uh so it is things that we submit with evidence and artifacts to justify why we should get those ratings and um it's exciting recognition to continue that. >> Is the silver star for kindergarten readiness is that a bump up? I know we had a bronze star. >> So we had bronze for a few years and then it bumped up to silver uh as well. Yes. And in social emotional I'd like to say we're kind of on that bronze silver cusp a little bit. So we're working on that one as well. Uh first hard
127data point we talk about is we kind of go from our old [cough] our youngest students to our older students is ASQ. Remember that's the ages and stages questionnaire. That is one the parents complete as part of the enrollment process that's required by the state. So this is parent perception data uh as they work on it with our early learners uh not one administered by our stu by our teachers. So a little different than your traditional data point. Uh your 48 54 60 and 72 is the age of the students. So that's how months they are in age. So your 60-month is your old your 5-year-olds. Uh so it's the biggest pocket because it's required when they enter kindergarten. Uh you can see orange means that there's a level of concern within that data from
128what the parents have filled out. And the blue is that there's overall no concern. There's subcores within that. Looking at that more longitudinally, so you can kind of compare over time. Uh so we've been doing this assessment in the state of Kansas since 2019. Uh so you have both 2025 data so this past fall as the window closed for this around in September uh and then the data over time. So positive as you look at that 54 month as an example uh the overall concern has has uh gone up actually not a positive on that one uh but we have some other ones that have stayed pretty consistent. So um really I would point you to that 60-month group as being the biggest pocket of terms of endount uh in terms of those numbers there.
129Um, so what you can see is is over time students are staying pretty status quo. [clears throat] And really we use this as students enter kindergarten to see uh what class we might put them in and where so the teachers have an idea or feel where they are before we get into fast bridge and those kind of things. So this is kind of just a entry data point but we want to include it for you since it's required that we do it as an entry process into kindergarten for fastbridge. Uh this is uh multiple years now we've been using FastBridge as our primary screener for K12. As a reminder uh we have different tests within each grade band. So that's why you have two different graphs here. So this is our early and our A-
130reading. Uh the first graph there represents kindergarten and first grade and it's [cough and clears throat] the early reading composite. Those are short one minute tests uh that are administered onetoone with the teacher and the student and then it gives a composite score of where they at or compared to a benchmark level. Um so that gives you the green being those students that are uh above benchmark, yellow being approaching benchmark just below and red are those higher risk students based on those scores. On the right hand side is our A-reing. A reading is an adaptive 30 minute assessment that students take individually on the computer. So if Miss Overby and Miss Price took it both as third graders, they would start with the same level of questions and then it's going to change as they
131go. So no student gets the same test. Uh, and at the end of the day, it gives you a scale score, which then tells you where you're at compared to the benchmark. So, it's the more looking at those broader skills and standards that would be used for comprehension specifically in reading. This is a trend we've shown you every year as we've gone through. If you look second through 12th grade, our red goes down, which is the trend we want to see. Of course, uh, I know second grade in the fall is the first time they're taking a independent assessment on a Chromebook like this. So, definitely a big caveat to that data point. uh but as we go down the red goes down the green generally goes up that's a trend we want to see
132so students get more exposure and metriculate throughout the system uh the scores generally improve which is a positive trend >> so this is an out there question so the norms that they're being graded against is it within just the classroom is against the system itself is it against the state what what is it being normed against >> so this is actually not the norm data it's the standardsbased data so it's based on cut scores uh so they establish that to be above benchmark Mark, you need a 210 or whatever that cut score is. We can look at it by norms and generally look at it by national norms so you have a bigger comparison point. >> Okay, thank you. >> And that's a positive about FastBridge is you have that ability to toggle between based
133on how you want to see things. >> Okay, that helps. >> This [clears throat] is the math data uh similar in concept. So on your left hand side you have kindergarten and first grade. Again, one-on-one short one minute assessments. Think like number sequencing, number ID, things like that, those base level skills. And then when they get to second grade through 12th grade, they're doing a math, which again is that adaptive assessment that's going to change and be unique for each person as they take it. Similar trend like we see before of that red generally getting less as the students metriculate and get older through the system. Green we see [clears throat] some improvement but a little more wave there. Uh so as we work do that work with beyond textbooks that we've talked about before
134that I know was in Friday review last week. uh you know those are some areas of focus as we look at it to see how that curriculum work and that instruction aligns to those skills and standards. Now we're talking state assessment for you as a highle overview. Remember uh that state assessment was a new test this past year and we talked about that with the needs assessment last spring and in the summer. So we just got the official score release pretty recently. But before I show you data, I want to kind of draw your attention to outside of a new test, they also set new performance level descriptors for what each level means. So in level one, uh, and I'm going to point out the key word here, it's a limited ability, level two is
135a basic ability, level three is a proficient ability, and level four is an advanced ability. So both the test was new and the language for each level was new uh for these assessments from the state. So, so as we think about this and we go through the scores, obviously we want students in three and four and we want to be raising three and four. We want one and two to go down is the kind of the overly simple way to say it based on uh federal law for school improvement. So for ELA, uh your orange here, I'm sorry, we got a bit of a glare, so I'm having trouble seeing the numbers, but orange represents our level one, yellow represents level two, green represents level three, blue represents [clears throat] level four. On the far
136left hand side, you have state of Kansas, followed by district, and then each of the attendance centers there. Uh, one note, of course, with our virtual school is that does include students who may be attending because they've been long-term suspended or expelled. Uh, once they get that opportunity, if they choose to enroll in virtual, their data becomes part of the virtual school count. So, just being aware of that. >> How many do we currently have in virtual school that would have been affected by this? >> Yeah, this would this would not be accurate. I say currently, I say we have about 30 roughly. Um I do not have the count of what it was last spring but probably in that general range maybe a little bit higher. >> Thank you. >> Um so you can
137see that is just spring 25 data. So looking at that moving on this is a lot of graphs and I do that intentionally for you. Uh and hopefully you can see it on your screen or saw it in your board review. Um that's so you can see it across time. Now I do give you the big caveat like I've said is this is a new test from spring of 25. So I always get a little nervous when we're comparing two separate data points that were two separate tests. Uh but I do think you see some benefit by looking at it longitudinally. Um so you see a few different buildings there where that orange has gone down over time which is the trend we want to see because we want to reduce level one and level
138two. Uh and then we want to see that green and blue going up. Um so you can see that kind of trend. Again this is ELA English language arts. Next we have math. same structure there for you uh in terms of the state compared to the district and then each of the attendance centers. [clears throat] I should note that if you want to dig further into this, this data is all from the KSD building report card that is publicly available on the KSD website. Here's our math data from 22 through 25. Uh again, new test, so I give you that caveat. Uh but some positives there in terms of like the high school as an example or level one has clearly gone down over time uh as an example of an imprint we're wanting to
139see within the data. Again, this really closely relates that beyond textbooks work we're doing right now that Dr. Soberone and our team are leading. Uh they've realigned our curriculum pacing for grades one through eight uh to match the interim assessment blueprints that lead to the state assessment. So that kind of connects to some of the work as we're talking about uh these data points. Then here is science. Uh I keep saying caveat for you, but I've got another caveat for you. Uh they actually did not release high school science scores. Uh so no one across the state got science scores uh based on uh they didn't have accurate data to feel like they could publicly release it. So when we look at this from spring of 25, it's not a misprint. You're only seeing grades
140five and eight. We should have high school, but no one in the state got those released. And here's that over time. You'll notice the high school again doesn't have a 25 bar there. Um certainly we anticipate that for spring of 26 that we will have that data across the state. Uh but for this point um we did not and that would of course impact your overall state and district scores because you don't have that 11th grade pocket in there. [snorts] Next we're talking postsecary and graduation. This again is from the building and district report card. Uh you've seen this graph and data before. This is what I call the ultimate lag data, right? Because you're talking cohorts of kids from class of 19, 20, 21, [snorts] 22, 23. And the reason why it's so lag
141is you got to get two years past to see if do they get a certificate, are they enrolled in college, all those pieces. So this comes straight from the state, not something that we create internally. Uh, but I put the green box there for you because I think that's a key metric in terms of that effective average, which is part of the graduation and their post-secary success. We're at a 42.9%. The metrics uh that the state would expect would be for us to be 37.5 to 42.0. So, we're about almost a percent or more above what the expected would be based on our demographics. So, I think that's an important one because you can get that comparison point. Um you'll notice of course uh that that that class of 23 graduation rate dipped a little
142bit. Mr. Vayex team and my team has done some extensive looking into that. You really see that spring of 20 and we know what happened in spring of 20 of course with co there's a lot more unknown exits. Kids that went to virtual programs that weren't accredited or other places that we're not aware of. And that's a trend that we've kind of seen the last few years starting very clearly in spring of 20. Um so we've identified that as a challenge. That's something I know his team is working on as well. It's a partially out of our control, but partially something we want to obviously focus on to get that graduation rate up. So, just know going in that as this lag data, spring of 23 comes next year, spring of 24, you're going to
143see that similar trend and we know it's because of those unknown exits being a key driver of that. This is just a a nice easier graph that Mr. Perry put together. Compares the success and effective average over time because I know the board likes to see that data over time. you're seeing uh the pink or orange type color being the success average and the blue being that effective average. Next we have ACT and this is taken from the ACT platform itself as of uh October 2nd 2025. Uh so that's when this data was pulled down. Uh you can see the blue is overall all of our district scores. The red is the non-state contract. That's your traditional Saturday testing that we're all used to from when we were looking at uh college applications. And the
144orange is the state contract day. Remember that any junior in the state of Kansas can take the ACT for free on a designated school day uh typically in February. So just those kids who take it under that state contract are your orange, your red is the national and then blue is everything. A lot more kids take advantage of that state contract date than they do the national testing dates. That's why that blue is closer to the orange than it is the red, if that makes sense, because that number count is much bigger for the orange. And here's that breakdown over time. So, our overall average uh composite was a 20.6 for the 2425 school year. Um, and then we'll show you longitudinally compared to the state contract here in a moment. So pretty similar to
145232 24 where we had 20.9 just a 3/10 difference uh which had already gone up uh compared to those previous years. Here's the breakdown. We do not have the all data for the state. So this is what Mr. Perry could pull from the ACT platform. So this is state contract data only uh comparing us to the state. So this is just the state contract data. Um [snorts] so we were slightly above that. State average was 18.6. Ours was a 19.3 the most recent [clears throat] year. So these are just those juniors, not the Saturday test takers. Chronic absenteeism, a big reason of celebration here as we look through that. This is longitudinal data. Um you can see a number of the buildings have had a pretty steady decrease in chronic absenteeism over the last four
146years we as we've really dived into that subject. A reminder that chronic absenteeism is missing 10% or more of days for any reason. uh that would not be like a school activity as an example that doesn't count against you. But if you're uh medically absent, if you're suspended, uh those kind of things would count towards that chronic absenteeism rate. Uh and as you can see, a number of the attendance centers have had uh some good improvements there through the hard work that the staff has been doing on that. [snorts] Then this is as of the end of the quarter, so October 21st. it basically if the school year ended on October 21st this would be our chronic absenteeism rate. Um so this so if we had ended at that point we'd have 51% in the
147green which is 95 to 100%. And then yellow is 21.7 and then our our chronically absent rate would have been 27.2 if the school year had ended. Um so that would still be better than what had been last year but we know over time it tends to creep up a little bit as the school year goes on. But still overall a positive trend compared to years past, but not where we want to be as an end result. This is absenteeism over time. Again, a lot of bars there for you. I'm sure you're going to say, "What's that giant bar there?" That's the Friday of homecoming. >> Oh, >> so when we had the half day and then the PD day and the parade, that would be that day. Your next two high bars there, uh,
148are the first two Fridays of the school year, if I remember correctly. Um, so like August 22nd, August 29th, if I'm if I'm [snorts] recalling from my notes. So, um, pretty consistent over that. Generally speaking, you're going to see Fridays, biggest days kids are out. Um, little surprisingly that that Mondays is not the second one because historically Mondays would be the second highest one. That could be because we had more days off with PD days and things. Um, but certainly the the typical trend of Fridays being your highest days of kids being out. And again, buildings are getting that data every month uh for Mr. P. can actively intervene on those kids that are showing up because they get it down to the student level. Parent teacher conference data for you. Uh as has been
149now tradition, we have done a digital signin and then a survey on parent engagement. So this is taken from the Kansas parent information resource center. We adapted that uh before Mr. Potter left and we've done that the last two years. Didn't change any of the questions so that you'd have uh comparison point data here for you. We had 1,136 responses across the system during par teacher conferences. Um, and you can see pretty similar trends which is very interesting uh as someone who looks at data quite a bit as uh a lot of those responses were within a percent or two of each other uh from the previous year. Um so some areas definitely of growth and improvement but also some positives there in terms of that welcoming environment being informed of upcoming events. Um but
150as it connects to some of the work we're doing with safe and civil schools uh that piece about uh be constantly telling the positive things going on with my child and those individual connections are one we want to keep working on. And that kind of concludes our overview at a glance as always open to any questions and any needs. I do owe I mentioned him throughout [clears throat and cough] the training wrap throughout the presentation, but want to give a shout out to James Perry who's just instrumental in putting this data together and it's I would think [snorts] more more detailed than what you see in many presentations. So, thank you to him and our team. >> My only question is this is my first year without a kid in school. How did we facilitate
151the conference survey this time? >> Yep. So, similar to last year, we asked the technology department, our building principles to basically wherever you're going to have the prominent traffic flow, put [clears throat] out stations. The buildings I think I went to five of the buildings throughout conferences and most had them in their entryway. And then a few like Henry Levvenworth as an example, also put stations outside each classroom. Okay. To make it as easy possible. And of course, we we ask people to do it, but we don't force them to. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions I can ask answer for you? >> It's good information, Ryan. Thank you so much and please look for it on the strategic plan dashboard. >> Thank you. Okay, [clears throat] moving on to item 11,
152superintendent report. >> Now's [clears throat] when you get up to the [laughter] >> Hello again. >> Hi. I'm just going to warn you for the foreseeable future, what we will probably discuss during this placeholder is going to be focused on the budget and the operational challenges for FY27. Okay? So, you're about a month away from being halfway through this fiscal year, believe it or not. And this is really when we start ramping up the process as it relates to the budget conversations. So tonight I want to start with big picture and then moving forward we've got several different time I'm going to say points in points in time that lead up to really a ramp up in February at which point we hope to have that gap fully closed. Here's the caveat that you you've
153got to deal with and grapple with. Last year we were able to reduce through staffing and really through attrition. You're now going to be faced with some tougher decisions this time around. Okay. Um, so for context, we are down another 140 students. And so in total, what you're looking at there on the screen, let's just round it to 2.5 million that we've got to find by next fiscal year. Okay? That in includes both the anticipated increased expenses. So think things like the liability insurance, health insurance that you mentioned earlier. think things that inflation continues to have effects on like n gas, electric, etc. And then I do believe uh that we need to try to entertain something for purposes of compensation for the good men and women working in our classrooms and supporting our kids.
154So all in 2.5 million is what you've got to find. you will see there is indeed a plan for some revenue that of course is part of the the cola that's included with the last year of our Kansas school finance formula. So that total there is 737,000 but the net loss of kids is what's leading to the primary loss of revenue. The waiting is of course going with those kids and then the lo that correlates with the general fund. So, as the general fund goes up, as does the LOB, the same works in reverse. As the general fund goes down, as does the LOB. Let me pause there. Take that all in. We cut five million last year. >> Yep. >> This is another 2.5. >> Initial reactions. >> Ouch. >> Buy more [clears throat]
155tickets. [laughter] Well, there's no more cutting around the edges. >> I mean, >> well, >> did you have you I know you probably looked at us and I brought up about you have to combine a school or close another school or something. >> Can't just keep going with the staff and things like that. For sure. Yeah. >> How candid do you want me to be with you tonight? >> Be candid. >> I would say we are actively exploring the closure of at least one elementary effective next year. >> I'll let that soak in. >> Purely for budgetary purposes or we have unused space or what? What is your would need to reduce that operational footprint. Right? >> So think things like the insurance for the building, >> the utilities for the building and then there
156will be some some staffing redu reduction. Okay? Because you have certain staffing positions that get duplicated that will go away. [clears throat] I really truly believe we would not have to enter into reduction in force. Now, you may have to have some people transfer to other positions in the district to keep their job, but I do not believe we would be going through the quote unquote pink slip process. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> When you close a building, you reduce by default your operational footprint. >> Want some context? We've got three elementaryaries. They're all about the same size, give or take, right? What we could find initial conversation is closing an elementary is between$ 1.2 and $ 1.5 million savings. So it's a real savings. Said differently, the proverbial juice is worth
157the squeeze. [clears throat] >> Can you talk me through that a little bit? cuz you still have like a vacant building potentially, but you can't just like shut the water off or like what how does that look? >> Sure. >> Like, >> so I'd say first you identify are you going to keep the building or not? >> That's I think the bigger question that has to be answered at some point. Not immediately though. That's what I was gonna ask like what you know wasn't didn't feel too long ago that we were building. >> So how how long do you do you just is that I mean I know you asked for a study to be done which was kind of confusing to me because it seemed like you know before I came on we knew
158the district was headed in a downward direction so as far as enrollment goes. So, do you just go off of that data and close the building soonish? >> Sure. So, I'll tell you our approach would be to use that enrollment study because I think is informative of not only where you're looking at for purposes of where physically kids are going to live because I think there's a the conversation of what building do we close. I will tell you right now we're not closing Leworth High School. You know why? it's the only high school you have. >> So again, to be very candid with you, we're looking at the closure of an elementary building. And I think we need to be strategic about which building is picked. So I would use the enrollment study for not
159only where our kids are living, but also more importantly what we're looking at for purposes of that enrollment trend. The conversation here tonight about, hey, where are you going in the next five years? That to me needs to be an absolute front and center part of these conversations moving forward. >> Lease school property. I'm sorry. Can you lease? >> I have done that before. Yes. >> I understand that we're looking at maybe having to get rid of a building, but I don't personally think that. I' I've worked in several of our buildings through our district. Um I don't personally see that. I know we're downsizing in kids, but I don't think we're at a downsize where our buildings would fit a whole another building. and the two accurately. So, would we look at separating grade
160levels again for those two elementaryaries or >> I I cannot answer that tonight. All I can tell you is what if we propose a plan, it's not going to include the construction of any or addition of any of the existing buildings. >> We're going to ensure that the kids that we have are able to appropriately be shuffled to the remaining buildings. >> [snorts] >> So, Kellen, in your projected revenues, why do we not have the sale of Netty Hartnett in here as a projected revenue? >> Sure. Good question. When you sell a building, that is a one-time versus an operational savings. Does that make sense? >> So, while those proceeds may go into say capital outlay, they don't fold into the ongoing and perpetual expenses. >> Perfect. >> Good question. Are we taking a [snorts]
161hard look at how to um [snorts] I don't want to use the word fix, but we we have a lot of students, hundreds of students that go to other districts. Have we taken a serious look at why >> I couldn't tell if you were done talking. Sorry. >> I am. >> Yep. >> I'm not sure either. [laughter] It is front and center for me. Again, this is conjecture. I want to make that clear. But I have a reason to believe some of our students would patriot repatriate back if we were to resolve some of the issues for which they left. >> Yeah. >> Do you agree? >> Yes. Yes. >> My question for you is, are you ready to take hard and drastic steps to resolve some of those issues? >> Yes. >> Okay. because
162they may they may contradict and or fly in the face of I would say well-worn paths. They may represent drastic changes from the status quo that we've become very comfortable with. >> Change can be good. >> Well, change like you said, change can be good. Change is hard. It's always hard. But I mean, what are what are our choices? We I mean we we have to we have to change. >> Yeah. I think Representative Buer had a very very poignant point tonight. He's like, "Yes, you have to look at the short term, but we have to look at the long term." >> I think we have to look at what sets up Levvenworth for long-term success. >> Your largest classes right now today are Leworth High School. >> Smaller. >> And you will only begin
163to get smaller and smaller every single year. your classes are now almost headed to below 200 for the first time ever >> but birth rates are decreasing the population of Kansas is decreasing >> yeah this is in my opinion it's a multiaceted factor >> Leworth USD 453 that is losing students alone it's >> it's nationally I would agree >> it's actually internationally >> but to the point I was I I like the way you you put this as I always try to focus on what can we control >> right >> I don't think we can control the live birth rates but can we control some of the factors for which students have left the district [clears throat] >> yes >> so this is me trying to warn you and I'll do it again really really
164tough conversations are going to be happening in this room over the course of the next three or four months really really big decisions are going to be headed to this diet over the course of the next three or four months. >> When is the enrollment study going to be completed, >> Beth? >> Or when's it anticipated to be received? >> Anticipated is January. >> January. >> So, we may see that. Will you see it in January or we probably see it for February? >> Okay. We've asked for the most accelerated timeline that that company could provide. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> What else can I answer for you tonight? >> So, what's the co because we closed one, there's going to be redistricting. What's the cost of a redistricting plan? >> I do
165not have an [clears throat] answer. >> That's another We've kind of talked about this many years ago about having to redistrict students. I want to say about seven years ago and I don't remember what the cost was but I know that there was a cost and I know there where you're doing that as well that changes busing demographics. It does >> which also infers another cost. So depending on the cost, it may not necessarily save us as much as we thought. >> Speaking candidly, I do not have all the puzzle pieces together yet. >> Okay. Um, do we I'm sure we do track the operational costs per building to know which buildings cost us what >> site level expenses are absolutely available. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Also, age. Wouldn't some of that be taken into
166some of this consideration? >> My opinion, you should absolutely look at the age andor condition of the building >> building, right? Your newer ones would probably be more likely to keep, >> right? [clears throat] >> Yeah. Multiple factors would be in my opinion on the table as it relates to that decision. >> Any other questions, points of discussion? So, the only thing that I will say is if we are looking at potentially closing a building and we are getting ready to replace Well, we're replacing rooftops of several buildings, so I guess that doesn't really matter. I don't know. >> Yeah, it does seem to cause maintenance upgrades on things until a decision is made. I get what you're saying. >> I mean, but >> that way we don't put money into a building we might
167be putting up for sale ahead of them. [clears throat] >> You can do that. I'm not opposed to that. Um there just >> especially if we're looking at such a close timeline if if we truly are looking at 2026 not having a building. Is that what you're saying? >> Yep. I'm I'm saying you need to entertain the idea that we would close as early as the fall of 26 and as late as the fall of 27. >> If you wait, you will not realize that 1.2 to $ 1.5 million savings until you close that [clears throat] and and move all those appropriate staff and services. Does that make sense? Mr. [snorts] >> But then, however, leasing option of a building would change some of those demographics as well. So if there is a working units
168on the roof more like more likely to be leased than remaining dormant because we did not do any maintenance >> and and that's the I guess differing opinion I would have again I can fully understand you don't want to invest in a building you may be vacating right but I still think you have an obligation and you should try to maintain what you have >> whether it's that you're going to try to sell it you're going to try to lease it or you're going to keep it for another purpose you still want to maintain that asset does that If you did the >> I was going to say health and safety issues [cough] if we're not maintaining the HVAC and all of that. We still have to get through this school year. >> Yeah. >>
169So, whatever we're doing to the buildings, I think we can't just say nope, don't do it because we might not do it next year. I think what's done is done for this year, but we move on with what may occur for the next. >> What do school buildings get at least for? >> Depends how much. >> Yeah. >> Say that again. What would you what type of business model would potentially be interested in leasing? >> Oh, like if we were to maintain ownership? >> Yeah, >> sure. Um I've seen a number of different models across I would say the state of Kansas. Um you've got everything from churches that want to come in and be able to lease it. >> Okay. >> To you'll have individuals that may want to repurpose it and buy it
170for purposes of infill for um housing. So, I've seen a number of different uses. Honestly, >> I've seen them remodeled after a purchase, but I haven't seen I couldn't think of any leasing examples I've seen. >> What about if because you said one of the options was keeping the building and using it for other purposes? >> That's where I was going. Like, what I mean, would it be a cost savings perhaps? or potentially if you kept the building and the different purpose that you used it for was like I'm thinking we've got the board office, we've got facilities, we've got it >> the possible need >> in different locations. >> What about potentially consolidating in one of those buildings? >> My opinion and again back to that conversation about are you ready to take big
171changes, right? You need to reduce the number of rooftops you're maintaining. You need to reduce your operational footprint. You need to have less square footage that you own and maintain. >> No, but I see what she's saying. If you were to take one of those buildings after consolidating three elementary schools into two, move the district office into that building, move your facilities maintenance in that building, let's say it's a two-story building, and then even had a CTE section, >> then you get rid of these other rooftops here. Yes, ma'am. >> So, instead of getting rid of one one rooftop, you're actually getting rid of two. >> Sometimes you least yourself. >> What else do you have for us, Kevin? >> How much How much more do you want tonight? >> Any other questions, discussion, comments?
172What else you got? >> Well, maybe some want to turn this back into a grocery store like it used to be. >> This was a grocery store. Really? [laughter] >> Yeah, >> it was. [clears throat] >> Well, everybody wants a grocery store on this side of town. Why not? >> There you go. >> Aldi North. >> Okay. Well, that's >> since I've got you warmed up. >> Okay, go. >> Do you want us to entertain shifting instructional models? >> Instructional models in what way? >> Where are fifth graders from? >> I think we have to look at all the options, Kelly. So, I think whatever comes from our enrollment study, whatever comes from boundary lines, whatever, we have to look at everything. >> Okay. Am [clears throat] I a miss? Like, you know, I I
173feel like I've heard a lot more complaints about uh student behaviors since we made that move. Is that accurate or not accurate? >> Which move are you referencing? >> Putting the intermediate >> putting the fifth grade in with the sixth grade. >> I will say anecdotally, the intermediate probably is where our number one amount of parent concerns stem from. Yeah, but I mean like it's hard for me to to know without the data to support if I just feel that way or if it's really true that we >> that was not a good district move when we did that. >> I don't have the data. I apologize. I can have it for you next time, but I don't have it. >> Yeah, that'd be awesome because obviously, you know, when the students are in several
174different buildings [clears throat] and now they're all together, >> you know, I would just like to know did was this an uptick when we made that move of behavioral problems and that overall will go down, which I think would help the district overall if that was the case if we move fifth grade back to whatever elementaryaries are left. >> So, >> here's here's where I'm at. So, I don't want to even in investigate issues that are a non-starter for the seven of you, right? So, if you're like, absolutely, no way. I'm not going to consider that. I don't want to spend staff time investigating it, doing the research, and so forth, knowing it's a non-starter from the onset. Does that make sense? >> Well, I don't I don't feel like >> tonight, I thought I'll
175just lay it all out for you to guys tell me which one is is is and is not even a possibility. >> I don't think moving fifth grade back is a non-starter. I don't know if it's the right move, but I don't I wouldn't >> not to me. I mean, that's not a non-starter. >> Okay, but Mrs. Reed's point is where I'm at. If if we even brought back a hundred kids that said, you know what, you've addressed the issue. I now feel better. I'm going to bring my kid back from wherever. That would do that same thing in reverse. Does that make sense? I think it's an option to be like forces of action. >> Okay. >> Now I'm really done. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Well, thank you. [clears throat] So, a lot to
176think about. Okay. So, we are at item 12, closing of the meeting, and we do have scheduled paper. Okay. Um, upcoming dates. Um, tomorrow of course we have the Levvenworth uh Veterans Day parade. Um, big deal in this town. So, make sure you come out and and support that. Um, November 24th through the 28th is Thanksgiving break. December 8th, no no school professional development for our staff. Um, that's also our next board meeting. Uh, December 19th, end of the second quarter. We're moving right along. And December 22nd, flex day, no school for students. And the 22nd of December through January 2nd is winter break. So, any questions, concerns, comments? Okay. Um, item 12.2, unscheduled patron input. And I see we have one, Mr. two two um >> Mr. Lee Butler and >> sorry >> I
177didn't get the second one. >> And Sharilla. Okay. >> Okay. You want to read? [clears throat] >> You want me to read it? >> Yeah. >> All righty. >> Yep. >> Three minutes. Three minutes. >> Hello. My name is Lee Butler and I am here to address and bring to the attention of the school board issues concerning teaching and discipline behaviors at Richard Warren Intermediate School. Unfortunately, we have had issues with teachers since the second day of school as I have previously brought to the attention of the vice principal, school board, and principal. Since doing so, we noticed only mild changes. However, a lot of the same issues are still occurring. After we addressed problems with the principal, I was informed by my daughter one of the teachers would be monitored for one day to
178which she proceeded to inform the class about this and requested for them to be on their best behavior that day so that she would not be overstimulated and evidently be required to take classes after school to learn how to be a teacher again. Ironically, they only had to sit in silence a couple times the next day and no mention of being overstimulated. A typical day is usually five to 15 times with this teacher. Another teacher has not only made my daughter cry on the second day of school by being loud, aggressive, and intimidating. Other incidents include calling the class horrible human beings for not knowing answers to a problem. When students have asked for help because they didn't understand a question, they were told they were already taught this and should know how to do
179it. I've been told in art class there was an autistic child who had an outburst. Some of the children were giggling a bit and upset the teacher. She responded by telling the children, "We have I have severe ADHD and I am still able to ignore him, so they should too." As the child started yelling, "Shut up, shut up, shut up." The teacher yells, "Yeah, shut up. Shut up, shut up." These are only the beginning of the incidents that have occurred, and I bring them to the attention because these are concerning mentalities, especially coming from people who we are required by law to have teach our children. My daughter has had zero behavior issues, not only this year, but ever in school. Yet, she is punished multiple times a day by multiple teachers. This is unacceptable
180and should be concerning for all parents as this is damaging to our kids. My daughter is scared to ask the teacher for help in fear of being embarrassed in front of the class for not knowing the answer. This should show an obvious correlation between poor test scores and teacher behavior. There is many issues that can't even be brought to light in such a to short time frame. But rest assured, I will not give up bringing up these issues until we see resolution. I'm happy to meet and discuss with any of the board members who are concerned as we are. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Now we have Miss Sharon Mueller. >> [clears throat] >> I really am the one that stands between you and Veterans Day now. So anyway, very quickly, um
181yeah, we're a military community. We're proud of that. So, uh we just wanted to be sure to say thank you to our veterans, uh our staff members who are veterans, our family members who are veterans. Many of you on the board are either veterans or, uh military family. Uh and so, thank you guys for your service. We appreciate that. Um, and Thanksgiving's coming up, so we wanted to wish everybody a great Thanksgiving break with family and rest, hopefully some good football food. Um, Dr. Adams presented, you know, information today that's, uh, not new, but still troubling. And the only way we're going to get through this is together, collectively, collaboratively, uh, with open minds. Um, and I think we'll get it done. So, everybody have a good break, and we'll see you in December. >>
182Thank you. Now we move on to board member comments. Why don't we start at this end? Miss Reed, thank you. If you could pass this down for me. I have um just the email exchange. you don't get to see the first part of it unfortunately, but [clears throat] I would like to request an executive session to address it um because it does in my opinion um speak directly to security um and if that's not lawful then of course I would like to see it on the agenda um in December if possible. if not um it's something I ask all of you to take seriously. This is a bit of an overlap between my position on the county um is how it came across my attention which is why I haven't addressed it before now on
183the school board because um we had a briefing last week I believe it was um um by Chuck McGa who's our director there of response to emergencies and it was part of that um you know interaction that made me ask more questions here. So, if you have time and you want to watch that interaction um or let me know and I'll send you the minutes and everything so you can watch it. But I want to make sure that our school buildings are prepared on an annual basis to face any um thing that may arise in crisis and I want to make sure that the whole county is prepared. So from sheriff's department police response, but it really deals specifically with the school um preparedness. So this response was very um sad and shocking to me.
184Definitely not what I was hoping for um more what I was afraid of. And so as far as asking it to be on the agenda wherever you feel is appropriate, um whether I'm here or not, my my goal in that was to um try to make sure that we're all on the same page. Um in researching this issue, it sounds like this response should have been, you know, at least 2024. Um that this whole whole exercise is done at a building level across the district on an annual basis. So, just trying to make sure that um our understanding, my understanding at the county matches the understanding of the school district and we're all on the same page. Thank you for that. Um and then I'm very sad to hear um what's going on at the
185middle school. I was also um um have got some feedback from staff that there's a large drug issue that the school's uh classrooms smell like weed and um you know I did go and meet with the sheriff um and it it is an issue um that we're just dealing with um with the state of of drugs and everything now. So, if let's say you're smoking weed and your kid gets out of the car and that scent is on their clothing, [clears throat] um the drug dog, you know, may falsely um search out your student if we do something like that just because the scents on their clothes, not because they actively have the content on them. So, it gets really tricky nowadays. I get a lot of questions about why we don't use the drug
186dog, why we're not doing something about the drugs. Um, but again, I'm on my way out and I think I'm leaving it in great hands um with Deb Brown coming on, but I definitely want to um you know, this has been a struggle the whole time. I know we've taken measures to try to address it, but it's just continuing to get more and more out of control and it's not fair to our staff [snorts] um or all the students in the classroom who aren't partaking. And then I also got some feedback um that like let's say I'm a teacher at at Warren and I know my kids are in the bathroom doing drugs right now, but our administrators are shying away from from the issue or not supporting the um resource officers. So, I just
187kind of want to bring some of these conversations to light in hopes that um the board can do kind of a deep dive and try to make sure that staff is being supported, that we're doing absolutely everything we can to address these issues. Um because like we were talking about, you know, when we have these things going on, it's not attractive for families and they end up going as we've seen recently to other districts who don't have this situation yet as bad as we do. Some of our local schools are still not quite in the same boat that we're in [gasps] with that. And then to end on a positive note, um I'm extremely happy for the Levvenworth football team. Um I'm [clears throat] really happy with their their success and uh thank you. >>
188I know our students had today off, but our staff did not. So, I'm hopeful that everybody enjoyed the breakfast and the lunch um on behalf of some of our great community outreach partners here in Levvenworth. You are definitely appreciated. And as for our students, we hope you enjoy tomorrow off as well. Um enjoy the Veterans Day parade, but please stay warm and drink some hot cocoa. And we're proud of the football team and [snorts] hope those that can come out. I know it's a little travel, but those that can come out Friday, come out. >> Have good night, >> Mr. Comments, Miss Murphy. >> Um, so I'll echo thank you to all our veterans and happy birthday, 250th birthday for the United States Marine Corps today. Uh, [clears throat] I would very much like for
189us to definitely dive into some of the issues because from what I'm hearing, part of that is the reason why our kids are leaving. It's not the only reason, but that is part of the reason why kids are being taken to other districts to be educated that or other disciplinary issues. And we could give a whole big long list, but it's a cumulative. And if we don't nip it now, it's only going to continue to grow um much like a virus and it will consume us. So, I really do hope we work to try and fix some of these. Um and uh thank all the staff for everything they did. I hope you um learned a lot today in your uh PD day and got a lot accomplished. And um please know you can always
190reach out to me whether you're a parent, your staff, or a teacher. Um and then um hope everybody has a great um rest of the week. >> Um I just wanted to say I recently learned of Mr. Torlson's passing and wanted to um just I mean he was a character but um he loved our district and loved what he did and he um had great service to us. So um any of his family that still exists I send my condolences. Um on a happier note I was very pleased to be able to honor Miss Longberg tonight. Um, I have had the privilege of having a student um, taught by her and she was extremely engaging to my student. She was extremely communicative to me as a parent and she exemplifies what is great in our
191teachers and I very much appreciate her as well as all of our teachers. Um, Veterans Day tomorrow, the parade should be amazing. Please stay warm. come out and support all of the community members that will be a part of that as well as many of our students. Um, congrats to the boys football team, all of our staff that is a part of that and parents [clears throat and cough] that are there rooting on everybody. And um, last thing I want to say is I I want to thank all of our um, legislative people that came today. Um, I especially want to thank Representative Johnson for recognizing Kellen's commitment to our district and his abilities as a superintendent. Um, that he stood out to him throughout all of the different um things says, [clears throat] you
192know, we're we're doing great things here. You are appreciated. You are noticed. And um, thank you. >> All righty. So, there's always awesome things and I can't really call them all out, but there were two things this past month that I was invited to and I was really happy to attend. One was the cafe day at at the high school. I'm always amazed at what those kids can do and every year they raise the bar and so I'm always excited to see that. And then the other thing at the high school was a inauguration of our JAG K program and that is a big deal if you're not aware of it. It's uh jobs after graduation and that's just an extension helping our kids do something bigger and better after they leave here as a
193pioneer. Um yes, the the pioneers are being awesome in football, but I also want all the support folks that go out there with them, the band, the cheerleaders, the parents, everybody. Thank you. Because it it takes everybody to have that awesome spirit. And I'm just amazed that it's taken us this long to get it all together. Um, the teacher of the year recognitions tonight are a big thing because without great teachers, you can't have great kids do the great things that they do. So, I appreciate what they do. Um, something along the CTE lines, I want to do a shout out to all of the local businesses that were there today for the CTE advisory councils. And while it may not sound like a big thing, um, internships and apprenticeships for our kids is a
194big deal by helping them get skills stay here in our community and helps our businesses. So, if you have a business or have an interest in helping out our kids do an apprenticeship or an internship, please reach out to our CT program. Um, and I extended the invite to our legislators, but the 20th of January is literacy date in the capital. And like I said, for some folks, they think it's a short-term academic issue, but it's not. It's long-term economic economic imperative for Kansas. And so, if you're able and you're interested, come hang out at the capital that day. And as always, it's a great day to be a pioneer. Thank you. >> All right. And [clears throat] one thing about going last, it's late. Everybody wants to go, so I'll keep it very, very
195short. Um, thank you, Mr. Butler, for your comments. Um, I appreciate that. And thank you, Miss Mueller, for your comments about us getting through this together because we do have a lot of um big changes coming, a lot of hard decisions to make and and also a lot of potential. Um it looks like we're going to get smaller, but we can get smaller, we can get better [laughter] and uh and so um we'll do it together as a community and we'll get through it. Um, and I would echo Miss Well's comments about um, our superintendent. I really appreciate your engagement with the community. I appreciate your willingness to engage with with the board and and the great things you do for our district. Um, and I don't think you hear that enough. So, thank you.
196[laughter] And with that, enjoy the Veterans Day parade tomorrow. And this uh concludes our monthly meeting. So our meetings are journ.