001Good evening. It's Monday, January 9th, 2023. This is a regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education. This time we'll do roll call. Mr. Carney here. Mr. Goodman here. Miss Murphy here. Mr. Powell here. Miss Reed here. Miss Wells here. And I'm Jamie Price. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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. Please be seated. Dr. Yes. It's to prepare every student for success in every classroom every day. Thank you. Item 14, schedule patron input. We do have several tonight. We are pleased you have joined us tonight to celebrate student and staff achievement, hearformational presentations and reports and reserve consideration of policy decisions and administrative recommendations specific to the
002Levvenworth Unified School District. We set aside time at each regularly scheduled board meeting to hear from the public. Comments should address board policies or the procedures or administrators established and carry out those policies as opposed to individual complaints to investigate and resolve. Please understand that while board members will listen to and carefully consider all comments, board members will not immediately respond to questions either verbally or through gestures, for example, raising hands in response to questions, nor will they engage in dialogue of answer and response during the patron input time this evening. This is not an appropriate time or place for patrons to make comments of a personal nature about any district employee or student by name. Persons making comments which violate the privacy rights of district employees or students will be asked to terminate their
003remarks. If speakers have concerns specific to an individual student or staff member, please make an appointment with the superintendent. Those concerns will be documented and shared with the board. Attendance with the same interest, we ask that a spokesperson be appointed to deliver the group's message. As a unified board committed to desired outcomes for our school community, we ask that comments not be directed at individual board members, but addressed to the board as a whole. Thank you for taking time to address district business and policies with the board. Madam President, can I have a few minutes to speak? Yes. Uh, I think I speak for some, if not all the board members in welcoming this group of people into the room. I mean, it's great to see the community actively engaged and concerned about making sure
004we're doing the right thing with our school district. So, your comments and concerns are appreciated. Uh however, I asked to speak uh because while most times the you know the board and board members uh try to focus on doing our jobs and not what's going on politically um around our community. Uh but there are times when the board needs to ensure that the community as well as um people that are participating in our board processes understand the facts and the truth surrounding district issues that we're going to consider, which we are tonight. Um, we're going to review uh and we're going to vote on certain policy changes that should be carefully considered and the public and the community should speak to it with their concerns. Um, however, this process unlike what may have been portrayed
005in other forums is a normal healthy part of our board processes uh to consider and make changes as necessary to our policies. And just a little background because I think it's important because not everybody understands our processes. Almost every school district in the state of Kansas uh subscribes to the Kansas Association of School Boards and rely on the school board or excuse me the KASB is what it's called to evaluate legal changes, legislative changes, and even challenges that are ongoing in other school districts. compile what that means in terms of potential policy changes that school districts might want to consider. Again, their recommendations. Um, they're provided on a regular basis. The board has a process for considering and implementing those recommendations because that's all they are is recommendations. And the process is is that we
006use is there's a first read that's announced here in the meeting. and that is to give the board members formal notice and the information then to consider over the next month. Uh then it comes to uh the end of the month and it's time for the next board meeting. If nobody on the board has provided any substantive input or changes they want to that policy or policies, then it goes into the consent agenda. That's an automatic process. Um and then if it's not and there are changes, it's put on the agenda just like this is tonight. Um so that then the full board can talk, you know, publicly address uh both our concerns and to get good feedback from the community on the community concerns. Um and as you'll see here in a few minutes,
007even up to the very point of approving the consent agenda, any board member can say, I want it removed. And so it's a pretty flexible process. This is just when it goes on the consent agenda. It's just because there were no additional requests or requirements. Uh in a previous board meeting about two months ago, um this came up and it was coming the issue of our IF policy which has to do with the review of uh curriculum materials came up. There was a policy recommendation from KSB. Uh I was still concerned about it. I didn't think we'd adequately researched and addressed the issue. So, I asked it to be tabled, the vote to be tabled. The board supported it, the superintendent supported it, and we tabled it until tonight. Um, but there was no other
008no further board input in those 30 days except for the issues I'd raised and I didn't raise them again. And it's my fault. I should have. So, they assume, you know, the staff assumed that there was no fundamental changes to the policy. it was put on the consent agenda. When I found that it was put on the consent agenda, I requested that the policy be pulled off the consent agenda and added to the normal agendas and agenda items because I thought it was that important as well as other members of the board had expressed they thought it was that important. Um so, um those are the facts. I mean, they're they may have been portrayed in a number of different ways outside of this body, but those are the facts. Um, it's a normal part
009of the public board process. It's just like the legislative process where you have committee meetings, the review bills, there's a floor debate, and then there's a vote. It it follows that basic process. Uh while I personally have concerns about the policy change for if uh I'm going to make sure that another thing is clear is that policy did not come from any of the leadership in the district or from the board leadership. This came from KASB and it's our obligation to review it and decide whether it's the right thing for our community and that's what we're going to do tonight. So we appreciate your input. Um well we look forward and appreciating hearing concerns. uh about the policy. Uh my my only concern and I I don't want anybody to take this wrong, but my
010only concern is that if you came here because you were concerned about the policy, man, you were you are it's appreciated that you're here tonight. It's appreciated anyway. But um no one on this board or if you're concerned about anybody on this board or in the district trying to restrict community rights, that's that's really patently false and you're influenced to attend under false pretenses. Uh, I hope it's because of a misunderstanding of the facts and the processes. Uh, because if it was political gamesmanship, I'll just be blunt. Our kids deserve better. So, thank you for coming tonight and we appreciate your comments and we'll listen to everything you have to say and we'll consider it in our I know I will. I bet you know the board will too consider it in their deliberation. So,
011we want to welcome you. Thank you for being here tonight. Madam President, thank you. Mr. P, can I say one thing in response to Michael Pal? I just want to thank you for clearing up that item about the consent agenda. Okay. First patron input is Mr. Mcernney. As you might expect, I am here to comment on the proposed change to the IF policy. Specifically, the provision to change from any person having a complaint about textbooks, etc. to any student, parent or legal guardian of a student currently enrolled in the district. Whether this change came locally or whether it came from KSB, the intent is still the same in my opinion. Students, parents, and legal guardians of students currently enrolled in the district are all subject to the board. The board has influence and an effect
012on their life. person involves folks like me who are not directly involved in this district other than providing financing through my taxing and providing input to you through these meetings. It seems pretty clear to me that whoever authored this change wants to make sure that only those people who have something to lose by dissenting from a policy. Therefore, the least likely to present a dissension would have an opportunity to do so. I can't accept that. I cannot accept that. That seems to me like we want to run our schools in absentia of input from other sources. [Music] You're reasonable folks and I hope you find that unacceptable. Thank you. Okay, Miss Overby different detail. I'm here to ask the board to reject the prescribed KASB policies regarding the selection, collection development, and challenges to textbooks
013and media and other instructional materials. The processes are designed to be restrictive, opaque, and unnecessarily lengthy. They there are some obvious problems with the policies as stated before, but I'm going to focus on a change in verbiage that jumped out at me under the collection development heading. In that section addressing media collections, various types of materials and a variety of content in various formats now reads diverse content in multiple formats. Diverse content in multiple formats sounds very sensible, but it can be fully loaded. One thing we have learned in recent years is that word choice, language manipulation, and the redefining of words is not an accident. It's designed to steer ideology. For example, we previously understood diverse to mean varied. But the word has come to mean variety only within a narrow ideological framework. More
014often diverse is defined as not white, not male, not heterosexual, not western, not traditional. We even speak of individual people as being diverse or not diverse, which is rather strange. Diversity along with equity and inclusion are the most venerated words in our public institutions woripped above all others. They are nice words used to paper over some divisive and destructive ideas. Diverse content can be and I predict will be used to justify radical ideological and/or inappropriate instructional material. The phrase will be in effect an insurance policy against any complaints or challenges coming from parents, teachers, or taxpayers. Have a problem with pornography in the school library? It's just diverse content. Don't want materials that promote gender fluidity? It's just part of a diverse collection. Disagree with media that suggests your skin color determines your life opportunities?
015You must be an enemy of diversity. Meanwhile, more classical content deemed not diverse will continue to be quietly removed as it has been for years. We all know how the language game is played, and it is my belief that diverse content may be a convenient readym made catch-all phrase used to frustrate the growing push back about inappropriate instructional materials. Before dismissing this concern as frivolous, I strongly urge you to carefully scrutinize all the proposed changes in language in these policies and when considering future public remaining consider the motivations and imple implications of the language because I guarantee somebody has already done that. Thank you, Mr. pass and it's the first time that I've come here before the board and I'm I'm sorry that I feel it's necessary to come before the board uh because um
016you know I was kind of first of all I was shocked last year to to see that we have textbooks that encourage encourage uh masturbation and and you looking at porn um and and that's being taught to kids that's totally against you know my my background my upbringing totally inappropriate and then you know I hear I guess said it's not coming from the board it's coming from some other guidelines and somehow it almost slipped through on the consent agenda here and was almost passed that are limiting basically our rights to comment unless we're a parent. I mean is this America or or where are we? You know this is a first amendment right? We we have our first amendment rights to to make our opinions known here and everybody in Levvenworth should be able to
017come here and express their opinions. And so I I mean that's the main thing. Everybody's comments are supposed to go through a review process can take up to a month. basically the the superintendent can decide to keep the material in uh in the school room until a decision is made. In other words, all sorts of paper uh bureaucracy and paperwork in order to get a comment. I I think it's inappropriate that I had to apply three days ago just so I can come here and speak when normally, you know, in city hall meeting or whatever, you can just come and speak. So, I mean, just more and more restrictions on free speech. I mean, what's what's going on? Is this America or what? Are we are we just turning into a another dictatorship? I mean,
018that's all I have to say. Mr. Borman. I hope I'm on target here. I have a concern. Is Lemore School District considering a motion that if you don't have a child in the school district, then you have no standing with the school board? Okay. So, if you uh are on school board, you don't have a child in the uh school system, do you have standing with your with the school board? If you're a parent or you're a Well, let's go back. How about a principal or a teacher in the school district, but you don't have a child in the school district? Do you have standing there as a taxpayer? It doesn't matter. There's a taxpayer that pays for the schools. whether I have a child in the school at the moment or not, I expect
019to have a say. Okay. So, another thing going on and it's just it's understandable as human beings. We all do the the herd instinct. We all move with the flow. Um, if this kind of thing is going on in adjacent school districts or already has and I say I'm a property owner in several different school districts for whatever reason and I don't have a child in each one of those school districts, all of a sudden I'm paying a lot of property taxes. I'm paying a lot of taxes and I find myself odd man out and have no say in anything. And for me, that's just all bad medicine. And I think we need not go down that road. And I think that needs to come to a screeching halt. It's always better to talk things
020out than to not because all that'll do is cause more resentment and uh more angst. Thank you, Miss Pricinger. Members of the board, Dr. Roth, administrators, and staff, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Joanne Pryzinger. I'm a proud graduate of Levvenworth High, as my husband and our two children. I was on the site council at LHS for eight years, and during that time, a small group of us from the council started the Levvenworth Education Foundation. I am politically unaffiliated. I am strongly opposed to political influences making their way into the educational systems. There is a reason why city and schoolboard elections are nonpartisan. To do what is best for those who are served without being beholdened to a political party. Sadly, this has changed in the past
021two elections. A force that recently moved to our city has attempted to influence all elections, even those outside of their own district. I feel undue pressure has been placed on some members of this board to follow the agenda of a political party and nowhere is it more evident than in this attempt to change the process for challenges of materials. The education of a student should be a collaboration of the student and teachers with support from administration and parents andor guardians. Teaching materials and curriculum have been approved by staff and the board and do not need to be second-guessed by whoever has an agenda to disrupt the public school teaching process. If there is dissatisfaction, there are other opt options for an education. I saw the email sent out to the certain political party calling out
022the board president and superintendent for trying to sneak something by the citizens and that only two board members were trying to bring conservative values and ideas to save the district from those charged with serving the students. This would be attempting a solution where there is no problem. Throwing gasoline and hoping someone else strikes the match. There are real problems and issues in our world, our country, and yes, in our community. But I strongly believe allowing anyone in the community, especially those encouraged to force their excuse me, political agenda should not have the ability to usurp control over those professionals who are actually in the business of education. Hiring and keeping quality educators is becoming increasingly difficult across the country. I know many of these great people currently in the field and some who have retired
023all say that that doing the job they love is more difficult than ever. The love of teaching children is there but the mental and emotional strain of fighting battles because of politics is taking a toll. It didn't used to be this way. We have an excellent superintendent, administration, and educators in this district. We have a diverse group of students from all walks of life. Miss Rising, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you for your attention and the opportunity to address the board. Mr. Sprat. [Music] Hi, my name is John Sprat. I'm a Christian father and citizen of Levvenworth for over 30 years. Uh I like probably all of us here greatly are greatly interested in what our kids are being taught and how they turn out as adults and citizens. Um I'm of course
024also interested in how all the kids in NATO grow are educated and turned out. My comments tonight are about the policy as well. Um, I was thinking about launching into how by passing these proposed changes in policy, it would be the equivalent of taking away a large percentage of the citizens of Levvenworth uh interest and concern about the future uh of their their kids that they're going to have to grow up and live with in the future. Um, for the fact that the tax code seem to think that we are all responsible for what goes on in the school schools. Um, so instead of that, here's what I did want to say. We have all heard that it takes a village to raise a child. And to raise a child really well, it does. Some
025of the proposed changes in the policies before you tonight will be a move that will not help children, but move move us farther away from being able to. Not only is it each citizen's privilege to help protect each other's children, but it is also our responsibility. These proposed changes get rid of a large percentage of the available community to help influence and protect our community's kids by the ability to bring a challenging materials to the school leadership. I'm sure that this school board is always looking for ways to improve its policies for the betterment of the children. Unfortunately, these proposed policy changes go against that. My hope and prayer is that the board requests a new draft or keep the current draft of the policy for the selection and challenging of curriculum. One that will
026protect the rights of all the people of this community to file a challenge to material that they see as harmful to children. I know I would want anyone to bring to my attention something that is harmful to my children or yours and I'm sure you would as well. The wording in these policies, as you know, is very important and needs to be done with great care to promote what is glorified to Jesus. And in return, it will be what is best for the children in our community. I trust all of you will remember this as you vote tonight and in the future as you continue to lead our district and our children. So, thank you for all your work that you guys put in in your your time. Thank you. Right. Moving on. Item 1.5,
027adoption of the agenda. Um to make fellow board members aware that we're deleting item four, but the rest of the agenda stays as published. I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda with the amendment of removing item four. Second. We have a motion by Miss Murphy, a second by Miss Reed to accept the agenda, the deletion of item four. All of those in favor? 70. Thank you. Right. Item two, Mr. Kramer. Madam President, board, thank you for having me here tonight. Just going to give a couple updates on the city, mostly stuff that's relevant to the school district as we go around town. So, uh, tomorrow night, the city commission will consider a design contract for the improvements on Violet Street. As a reminder, the city applied for and was awarded a uh
028state grant, an 8020 uh construction grant for sidewalks and ADA ramps on vio between 10th and 20th and then the reconstruction of vio between 20th and 22nd. That's the area subject to some concerns back there because of traffic and stacking. So again, thank the board, thank uh Mr. Dedi and his staff for all the work that you've all done and so now we're going to try to make that roadway better. So again, the design contract is on the agenda tomorrow night. construction on that, as a reminder, is in 24. That's a state grant. So, that's when that that will happen. Uh we're working another collaborative project with the city and the school district is working on the FiveM Creek project. They're out there now. That's a bank erosion project. Um eventually, it would have gotten
029to the track out there at the middle school. So, we're happy that that project is underway to stabilize the bank in that area. Uh the city is in the middle of a what we call a conceptual plan for possible traffic calming or a traffic study just north of the high school. So uh those those streets that go north south just north of Levorth High School. We've had some complaints or some some concerns about um some speeding. I think kids have probably been leaving the high school for 60 years uh speeding uh as they would at that age. So the commission allocated some ARPA dollars. That's the American Rescue Plan Act dollars and set that aside. We're going to look at are there uh engineering uh fixes whether that's uh breaks in the roadway um anything
030anything that could help that situation. So that's ongoing right now. If you see surveyors out there or traffic counters that's what they're doing. Uh just a couple of items of note for the community on the 17th the commission and therefore the public will see the first uh conceptual design redesign of the Centennial Bridge. So K Dot's bridge team will be there on the 17th. They'll have 3D renderings, models that will show you what the Centennial Bridge will likely look like. And again, that's a four-lane bridge with pedestrian pathway located just north of the existing bridge. That project is moving forward and really excited about that and really excited for the public to see what that bridge is uh potentially going to look like on the 17th. Um, also excited about uh an item that could
031help uh could partner with the district then at some point is on February 7th, the city commission will have a presentation made by Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Kansas. So, if you followed uh some of the efforts that the commission has looked at for some youth services, we we worked on the idea of Big Brothers Big Sisters um or I'm sorry, Boys and Girls Club and that that has uh unfortunately kind of gone away as they've had some leadership changes and it was a pretty heavy lift. they needed a facility and and all those things. Uh we have re-engaged with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. It was in the community about 15 years ago. They've really revamped the program and so they're going to come on the 7th and give a presentation about what
032it looks like now. Um again, really conceptual in this in this age, but designed to help those children who need that kind of mentorship. So, I'm excited about that presentation and to hear from them about the changes they've made in the program in the last 15 years. Um, those were the issues that I had that uh directly relate to the city, youth, or the school district. But I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Anyone? Thank you all. Thanks, Mr. Thank you. Item three, Kansas Association School Board Superintendent Search. Dr. Wes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So my mind I'll take one morebody. This is kind of scary with burning no head. Hey. Yeah. You know, uh we we always talk when you're looking for a new superintendent trying to find that
033absolutely perfect person that can walk on water. So, we don't want to give you any, uh preconceived ideas about what they may look like. So, uh we actually have a few things that we want to get done tonight. So the three things that I've given you are um the notebook that uh I'm going to ask you to hang on to through this entire process and bring to every meeting where we're uh doing some function related to uh the superintendent search um and and we'll refer to it. I'm going to briefly summarize the the process tonight. Um and in phase one, uh we've already actually taken care of several of those steps and we'll do uh a couple of those pieces tonight. Um so the the calendar or the timeline that I've given you is just
034as a starting point um uh after having a conversation uh with Judy on the phone and kind of looking at some dates to try to avoid. I just threw this out as something that may come close to to meeting your needs. But the whole point of it is to make sure we put dates on here that that work for you. Um, and so I think before we do that timeline, I'd actually like to walk you through the phases because I think the timeline will make a little bit more sense when when you can see what the whole of the process looks like. So, if you'll look in that notebook that I've just given you and um uh you'll you'll see as you if you kind of flip through it that it's divided, you know, into
035four phases that that look like this. Okay. So, so tonight we're talking about phase one, which is the announcement and the timeline. So, if you turn over to page 15, uh you'll see what what we will work on um for tonight. Um in in terms of those, so announcing your intention to seek a new superintendent check, that's done. Uh and uh you did that on December 12th. And then uh we started advertising the position on December 13th. So that's already in process. Um if you uh look in on through your notebook, that just shows some of the kinds of marketing. That's just some of the examples um of things that have been done in other districts. Um, so probably not things that are really significant to to action that that you all need to take.
036Um, one of the things that I gave you tonight was my card so that you can email me uh with any questions that you may have at any point about any part of this process. I'll I'll work primarily uh with Judy and Brenda as contact people, but uh feel free to reach out to me. um uh if you have a question about this. Um so phase two is the preparation for interviews. Um and so we will touch on that briefly tonight because it does impact your timeline uh in in terms of how you do the interviews. It also impacts what something that's a very important part of the marketing and that is working with your stakeholder groups um and surveying uh your community uh and then coming back and sharing that information with you to
037identify the characteristics that you want to see in your next superintendent. And um so we want to schedule the times to do those things because I've actually already received a couple of phone calls from potential candidates and your very best candidates really want to know what you're looking for because they they don't want to apply for a position that they don't think aligns well with who they are. And so it's very important that that we look at at what your needs are. And so uh th those are ways that we do that. Um and then just moving forward through this overview then um if you look at phase three that's the interviews. uh we will work with you then um to identify the questions that you'll ask, appropriate questions, the number of questions. But we're
038not going to get into the nitty-gritty of that till after we've come back and presented your focus group and your survey information about characteristics that you want because clearly you want the questions you ask in the interview to align with the characteristics that you want in your next superintendent. Um, but you can kind of look through, we give you a lot of sample questions that you can choose from. Um, once again, these are starting points to assist you. Um, at at KSB, we we strongly believe in local control. You are the decision makers um on these pieces in terms of what you're looking for. Um, we have then the form that will assist you in the interviews. Uh, and we'll talk through that with you after you've completed all of your interviews, how you come
039together. um as a united team to determine who your first and second choice will be uh in terms of uh who would like to offer um a contract and then the last phase is actually that hiring process. So for tonight then if we want to go back um to page 15 and the sample timeline that I gave you right here. So, the um the two decisions uh that you will make tonight that will really help us get at what your next superintendent will look like is one when you first of all confirming that you want to do an online survey to your entire community. Now, typically the way we do that is we have a link that we provide to you and whatever your normal means of communicating with your entire community, we encourage you
040to use that means whatever way people expect to hear from you. And then um that goes out and and anybody can respond uh to that to help us collect information. that then I will bring back to you a summary of those survey results. Um so you can see that data and also comments. There's an option uh for people to add additional comments. Um, the only thing that we would not put in a uh public document is if someone were to in a comment put the name of a student or an unelected uh personnel, something that's not appropriate for public comment, we would redact that before that would go out. Um, but it but everything else is shared with you. Um, so that's one part of collecting information from your community and your stakeholders. The second
041part is scheduling a day in which you determine who you want your stakeholder groups to be and um we have representatives from those groups that we meet with throughout the day in focus groups and I take them through uh a series of questions. Um and the way this is different from the survey is by having people in a group together that communicating with each other helps people um clarify their ideas or come up with new ideas and then we prioritize within those stakeholder groups what they think are the top characteristics they would like to see. So ideally you schedule a special meeting for the evening of the day we do those focus groups and that's when I present your survey data to you and the focus group data and then you take that information that
042you've received plus the information that you have through your lens as board members and I understand that all all but one of you are new to uh the superintendent hiring process. Is is that right? One of one of you has been through this process before. Okay. Is it is it you? Okay. I saw I saw somebody look at you. Whole bunch of you. You look like a very wise man that's been through this process. So, um but then ultimately you you see what your community says. you you look at through that through your lens and then identify what those top traits, attributes, characteristics are that you think need to be present. Can I ask you a question? Absolutely. What kind of uh historically what kind of input have you got on this community input on
043the online survey? Um so generally speaking pretty good return. There have been a few cases where the return has not been as high in a particular district, but most of the time we do get a pretty good re return on our surveys. When you look at comparisons of most kinds of online surveys, we we tend to see more response than than you do. People usually are pretty interested in having some input. Um, what we really want to emphasize is that you use communication that people are used to using because that's the best way to reach your community and make sure that you let people know that it's coming, that you remind them that it's there. We also suggest not having it open. Um, it's it's finding that sweet spot. uh you want to have it
044the survey available long enough for people to fit it into their schedules. But what we find is if it's open too long, it becomes something that people put off and they don't complete and then you actually have less return. So about a week usually allows people to work it into their schedule. doesn't take a long time, but gives them plenty of opportunity to respond without it becoming something that's too easy to put aside and and forget about. But I mean, once again, if you've had different experiences in your district, we we want to um to use whatever methods have worked for you. Yes. Um I I can see how the survey, you know, we have automation tools and all that. probably make that fairly reasonable. But how have you seen other districts select stakeholders for
045a face-to-face meeting? So, uh, we can give you I can tell you tonight what typical stakeholder groups are. Um some districts uh have maybe a special committee or organization or group that's different from typical um and and we might incorporate them. Um typically uh if we look across the board um we usually have a stakeholder group that is classified staff uh licensed staff, administrators, district staff uh communitywide um in which boards each have their own way. Sometimes each board member uh selects one person or two people. We don't want the groups to be too large because then they're not effective. So we we wouldn't want board members to probably select more than two if if that were the method. Sometimes an invitation goes out and you see who who asks to be part of it.
046I have seen it wide open and anyone can come. Um, usually those end up being manageable, but you run a risk of of not being able to get good input if the group is too too large. So, that's the only risk if it's just wide open. Sometimes people uh some districts use like their um adv uh their site councils um PTO membership, economic development communities, uh a committee from the chamber. It it really as you think about as a board, who are the people that um provide input to you? And then the question I always want to throw out before you absolutely finalize who you want to have is who haven't you been hearing from? And to really think about, you know, what stakeholder group do do we never hear from? They don't come to
047board meetings and speak. They're they're not the ones sending us messages, but we need to know what they think. Is there a way to to tap in to that group? May you may or may not feel like there is such a group, but but I like to have you just reflect on that a little bit because your your superintendent will be serving your entire community, all of your students, and so you you want to make sure you can get as much input as you can. So, um but but that would be kind of typical uh in in terms of of what we see. So, um, we we like to do them within one day. So, probably six groups is probably the most we can really manage. If there's a reason you really need more, we
048need to look at how to schedule that or or make that happen. But, um, you want 45 minutes to an hour with each group. And then I'm compiling data uh and entering it into a spreadsheet as we go through the day. So to be able to have it for you that evening. So I need to build in just a little bit of time within between each group. So to compile their data and add it to the report that you'll get that evening. So are you or is a representative of KSB the one that leads those talks? Yes. So, so I anticipate unless we end up with a calendar issue in which I personally can't do it, but um my intent is that I would be the one that would do your focus groups. If it's
049not me, it would be someone else on my uh team at KSB that would do that. Yes, you you definitely don't want it to be an internal person. You want a a outside person to conduct those. What's an approximate number of stakeholders that you found that uh we should be looking at including in the stakeholder discussion just you know rough order of magnitude in your experience in terms of the number numbers that we select for the stakeholder meetings for for within each group you mean well in each groups in total if we use six then in each group what um so within each group um you know ideally 20 people, you know, is a good num number. I I have done it with groups twice as big. Um probably the most functional effective are 12
050to 15 uh people. Um, I mean just in terms of group dynamics within 45 minutes to an hour, 12 to 15 gives every person that's participating the opportunity to really have their voice heard. The problem when they get much bigger is they may be physically present, but it's harder to make their voice heard. So, so it's kind of that well just mathematically if we have 45 minutes to do it and you have 15 people, they get three minutes and they're done. So I mean there's a lot of that's why I asked. Yeah. So it's just kind of so I mean the the research on the dynamics of it would tell you about 12 people. Um but you're typically somebody is going to plan to attend and not be able to be there. So it's it's
051kind of okay to have just a little bit more to account for illness and other reasons why someone that plans to attend isn't there. So, um, so I guess I would say if you do an open-ended one that gets really large, it it it's probably less really of a focus group and more just an opportunity to to get quick input because you don't have quite the the back and forth if it starts to get to that higher end 20 and over. But but like I said, we've we've done them. You know, it it it depends on I mean, sometimes your need is to make sure that you're as inclusive as you want to be. I mean, you just have to weigh that, you know, the the quality of the information versus how how many people
052are allowed to participate. Do you have an example of what the online survey looks like? Um, yes, actually. Uh, Judy, did you have a chance to look at that? That I didn't get it. Sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. I thought that was sent to you on December 13th. I don't think so. Okay. Um, yes. I didn't bring it with me because I thought we sent it. Uh, maybe. Oh, look. It might have gone. Okay. Maybe it got to went to spam or something. It's a survey monkey tool is Okay. Um, and and I could certainly I'll send it out to okay if I have it. If not, I'll let me know and and I'll resend it. Um so the questions align with the questions we do in the focus group. There are just more of them.
053Um we also have demographics so that you can uh look at the responses in terms of are they employees, not employees, students. Oh, I I forgot to mention and my most favorite focus group I always work with is the students. I there uh I didn't even mention them. Uh some of the best data we get comes from students. And one of the things that I continue to love to see every time is how well their feedback aligns with the adults, too. I mean, how perceptive uh these these kids are. And districts have different ways of determining who the student might be in your student focus group. Sometimes it's a student council. Sometimes um districts want to look at who are they want to make sure they include some kids that maybe aren't involved in a
054lot of activities. So to hear that voice too. So, um, those are some things I I'm throwing lots of things out to you so that you can kind of discuss those and discuss those, uh, with some of your staff in terms of what best uh, provides Levvenworth, uh, the information that that they need. Um, so did somebody Oh, related to that online survey. Um, so that that data that we give you, you can kind of see how it breaks out in terms of people newer to the community or people who've been in the community a long time. Um, that's al also helpful when you're looking at those responses. Okay. So, um so that so the first question and I threw out uh you know potentially um start starting that survey this week. We really don't
055need it to conclude until before we meet with the focus groups. So there's there isn't really a reason we would need to do it immediately this week. And since you haven't seen it yet, I already think um perhaps that's the date we want to move. Do you have reason to think that a week would not be an appropriate length of time for you all to have the survey open? Does that sound reasonable? What if um I just moved it so that it's the week prior to whenever we do the focus group? So, as we identify that date, we we would just have it open and and I think I would typically I would send that to Brenda and then Brenda would make sure that out through whatever means of of communication. So, we would send
056that link through her. So, if that's okay, I can fill in that date after we look at these other dates. So, we would look at a week. Okay. Um, so what what's significant about the day that we do the focus groups for your scheduling is that we need to have you schedule a special board meeting that evening to bring that information to you and to have you then finalize from that information what those final characteristics are. So I suggested February 1 just as a starting point. I was trying to avoid um a couple of federal holidays in there. Um uh does it look like that's a date? And I don't know. Okay. What was that date again? One February. So, uh it is a Wednesday evening. Yeah. So, it would be your availability for a
057special board meeting. Uh, Brenda said that this room is booked, but it could be another space somewhere else in the district that you what what time would this be? So, that that would be your decision. Time six o'clock. Sure. Okay. Does it work for your calendar? That works for mine. Okay. I have nothing that day. Okay. So, we would just need um a a space within the district and as we schedule these groups. So like if it's um uh and this is where we need the assistance of your staff, you know, it needs to be a time that the people in these stakeholder groups can can come to a focus group. So typically like um certified or licensed staff usually is like a right after school time. Um um likely for some of these you
058will have to find some coverage for some staff to participate like in your classified uh group. It you may not get the representation that you want if you only have people that are available at a specific time. Um, so that you might have to have about an hour of coverage for for a staff member for those kinds of groups. But, um, you don't have to decide who your stakeholder groups are tonight. Just kind of process that though as you're thinking through that day that it would be a day that we could pull those groups together. Well, if we don't decide that tonight, when would that be decided? prior to the focus groups because we won't meet again until that night. So, we'll have to work that out. One of the one of the things, sorry
059to interject, but one of the things that could happen is if you decided the focus groups like you like she mentioned like classified staff, certified staff, district office staff. I can we can work with like department chairs to get how many individuals across reference from different buildings and that um to meet the criteria that's kind of across reference so we could work with schedules. The other thing if we do lunch we could provide that group during lunch. If they're down during lunch we could provide lunch. Same with you as a board that evening. um if you would want to do because I know schedules and stuff we could provide some sandwiches or stuff here to where you can meet and work at the same time. I will say that my student focus groups frequently uh
060come with pizza over lunch. So, um yeah, we we definitely know how to pass pizza around and do focus groups, but really we we don't want you to lose sight of staying in your at the 30,000 foot level. So really uh as uh Mike is saying conceptually you decide who you want represented or if and if there are people you don't hear from and then allow your staff to work out the details of how how to get those groups identified once you've decided who they represent. So could I clarify this meeting on the first? I know it's been mentioned starting about six, but this almost sounds like this is going to be with the focus groups character. I bring to you the data from the focus groups that I work with all day. Okay. So,
061um I probably need um at least two hours of your time that evening. Okay. Now, I I did recently have a board that ended up needing more more time. Um I think their outcomes were great but but um they did take a little more than than two hours. So it's me sharing the survey, sharing the focus groups and then I take you through an exercise where you're identifying then from what everything you've heard and everything you bring and then and you identify characteristics and then I take you through a prioritizing of those characteristics. Thank you. So about two hours to do that. Thank you. So like a 6 to 8 o'lock could be the plan if people could be flexible in case in case you're one of the groups that need a little I I've
062also seen uh a board take um 30 to 45 minutes less too but but usually about two hours. Are you available Miss Murphy? Oh yeah. Okay. as well. Are you there, Mr. Carney? February 1st. Yeah, that's not round day. No, that's the same. I'm good. Okay, Mr. P. Okay. Yeah, it might be remote, but I should be available. Okay. So, we'll plan on one February being a special meeting. We need to have that to discuss that. Can we discuss more of that in the executive session or do we have to do that now? Uh discuss how which groups we have? You would do it open. Okay. I'm just asking you do it now because you're not you're naming groups not individuals and so like if you as a board would want to select if say
063as a board you say we're going to give each person two invites or one invite to the community side then I mean you wouldn't mention names you would just mention um kind of groups that you would you as a board would like to see. Okay. So, I guess back to your question. Um, how do you see us developing our stakeholder groups if we don't have a working session? We're going to do it now, right? Do it right now. That's why I asked is it now or I didn't catch that. Thank you. Okay. So, uh, we could come back to that in a little bit after we finish the timeline. So, we have uh right now in our marketing materials, we have asked for applications to be completed by February 15th. Um, unless you have a
064compelling reason, I don't know why we would need to extend that, that's that would be an appropriate amount of time to leave it open. Um, okay. Um and then this date that I have next uh about our screening that really doesn't directly impact you is it just needs to be done before the next date on the timeline um which is when um when I bring to you um the screened applicants. Now, we will bring you the name of every single person that applies for your position, but through our screening process and review process, um we will identify the candidates that we believe best align with the characteristics that we end up with on February 1st. So our screening is done against those characteristics as well as other kinds of background checks and and and things
065like that. So we will bring to you the candidates that we think best meet your criteria, but we will have the information for all of them. I'll have it with me so that if you want to take a look at someone that for whatever reason didn't rise to above the line for us uh you can you can look at them but um so uh but that would be on the 27th and I believe uh Judy it was my intent to have that hit a regularly scheduled board meeting. Is that Yeah. Is that not right? No, we're the second Monday. So Oh, okay. So that must have just been uh uh because our next Yeah. It' be the 13th of February and then we're the sixth I think of March. Okay. Yeah. March. All right. So
066you you do one board meeting a month instead of two. Okay. I think I was thinking you did too. Okay. It's the sixth. It's because of the um spring break. Um then I think you you really will need to have another special uh meeting. Now this this one is executive session. This is confidential information of non-elected employees. Okay. Um so at at the end of that evening you will have determined who you want to interview. So then when when I looked at potential interview dates, um um I I identified four. Um typically boards interview three to five candidates probably depending on size of district. you know, more of our districts interview three than interview five. Um, sometimes there'll be, you know, a couple that you just can't uh decide between as as you're making the
067cuts, but but the calendar does limit, you know, the number of people you can interview based on the premise that you want to have um be able to announce or at least be in the process of negotiating with your new superintendent by March 6. That was the work backwards state that I was using. Um so that would mean um that on you would decide who you want to interview and we would be asking one of those people to come the very next day. Now that happens that's as uh plus more that will be recommended to you. Um I will have had a personal conversation with them and to verify that they're still interested uh that if offered they would accept the position, let them know what your interview days are um etc. Um, so but
068that's something that, you know, we could go backwards since you have to have a special meeting on the 27th if you want to move that up. We have some flexibility there. I I'm trying to avoid the 20th, which is a federal holiday. Um, but we could move that date up sooner to give you a few more options for interview days, which now that I realize that you have to call a special meeting anyway, I I think that would be my recommendation so that you're not quite so tight on your interview options. Sometimes it's good to have a a flex stay in there in case for some reason um a a candidate can't fit into the ones that you offered. And we do have the option if they can't just having an off schedule that we
069create. Correct. Yes. So, uh, when we talk about interviewing, um, you know, one of the things we'll really emphasize is we want to make sure every interview is comparable and that they have the same experience. But, but yes, assuming we're just talking about adding a date and not who's present. Uh, because you know what is really really important is that every single one of you is at every single interview. Um because each candidate needs to have the the same kind of experience and and you need to see every candidate uh in order to to really be able to give appropriate input into who you want your first and second choice to be. Dr. Whisman, since the KSD screenings are supposed to be done by the 21st, if we go to the 22nd or 23rd, um
070certainly. And I I can even move up that screening. I have some flexibility to move that up. So, don't let that 21st um bind you. Uh that that date I could I can be flexible. I could even potentially have it be the same day and schedule that final screening panel in the morning and then come to you that evening. So, so don't let that date worry you. What you know, I look more at creating the space for interviews and then what works best for you to schedule a meeting. Right? So, if we leave the we leave the interviews that last week of February, essentially the 27th through the 1st of March, are you a are any of you available the week prior? like the 22nd, 23rd if we have a meeting that evening to anyone
071totally not in the area, not available. You're talking February now? Yes. February 27th through March. Well, to do the meeting prior to meet with you, the 20 it' be the week prior to the 27th. So, I'm looking at the 22nd, 23rd, 21st. Is everybody available? Is there a better date than others? Is there a no-go date for anyone? Like, absolutely not. Wednesday. No dates. Just I just want to avoid spring break. Like this is all before spring break. That I mean all before spring break. You don't have to look at me anymore. That's my only concern. But I was just like, you know, is a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday better because that's that Monday's the holiday. Thursday. I mean, if I had to pick Thursday. I don't have a intense burning indifference to Okay.
072all those dates. Any purpose? Um, Wednesdays are better for me because we I only work half of a day on Wednesday and I can guarantee that I can be here with plenty of time, but I can make Thursday work. Okay. Are we looking at Thursday the 23rd? It' be the 22nd or 23rd, I think, was either day. Are you in town? I'll make it work. Mr. Party. So, why don't we do Wednesday then for Yeah. Wednesday. That' be the 22nd. What time are we looking at? It's February 22nd. 6 six o'clock. And this is for you to to discuss all of the all of your applicants and the screening and and recommendations. How much time do you recommend for us? So, so you may want to continue to meet after I present to you. Okay.
073Um, so I I would like for you to all lot at least an hour for me to present to you and then all lot at least an hour uh after that if you need to amongst yourself continue those conversations about who who you want and this is to narrow down the choices to make that determination of who you will actually interview. So, so typically I've left driven an hour or two hours, however far away I am, home and when I get home I get a call from Judy telling me who who you decided um that you want to talk to. Okay. But but sometimes like you see them the way they align it's clear and there's not that much to talk about. It's just so hard to predict. Is six o'clock still a good time
074for you to be able to get off of work and come? Six o'clock is perfect. All right. Okay. So, we'll have exe we'll have special meetings on the 1st of February from starting at 600 and on the 22nd of February starting at 6. But that one's just an executive session on the 22nd. Still come through and do the Okay. meet and go because the February 1 is open to the public. Anybody can come and hear that. We'll be out here in the room. Okay. What time is that? 1800. Six. Yeah. 1,800 on both. Um, and I didn't pull up what these dates are, but we're using February 1st for focus groups. So, the survey will be open the week prior to whatever those dates are, just prior to that, February 1st. Um, so I will
075work with Brenda on that. And then uh probably I'll have my screening team still on the 21st. Then uh you'll have a special board meeting on the 22nd at 6 o'clock also. And then you will plan to interview February 27th through uh what what is the date of the Friday of that week? The 3. The 3rd. Okay. So March 3rd. will be all in town that week. And and that obviously will depend on how many candidates you choose to to interview. Um if you choose fewer than five, which I anticipate you will, I would recommend you not use the Friday. Um typically for scheduling, we find that works better. Um but one of the things when we make those personal phone calls to the people that we um think are most likely to be uh
076recommended to you, we ask what conflicts they have during the dates that you've identified. So when I present that to you, if there is a candidate that we think is one you want to look at and they have unavoidable conflicts during that week, I'll I'll let you know that and then those you can make decisions on what we do. Mr. Carney is saying that the week of the 27th through the 3rd, he is unavailable to attend anything in person. Starting the third. Oh, starting the third. No, we would be done by then. So it would just be in that uh process of finalizing the contract with the superintendent that you're a final candidate. Okay. So other questions related to the timeline then? Okay. So I I think then your next order of business is who
077you want your stakeholder groups to be uh for the focus groups. So I think the recommendation so far is we have a group of classified certified administrators, students and community members that we appoint or have invites to. Does anybody else have groups that they want addressed? That's five groups already. Well, I think that um we should definitely have like um a group of site council representatives that Yeah. from each of the buildings. And I know our site councils are supposed to encompass parents and staff and all of that. So how would we that would be determined? Would we see how many are available and interested and then select from those or we could contact them and say, "Hey, would you like to have a representative represent you to this to this stakeholder meeting?" So the
078building principles could reach out to the site councils to garner interest to see um who would be interested in serving on that committee and then report that put that back. Um would you consider that a separate group from the comm community group? So yes I think I think that the site council um in previous exper I'll just go from previous experience for me. So you had the you had the the uh the group where as she said I met with classified employees, I met with certified employees. I met with uh and sometimes you com like here it was combined with certified and classified. Um and so I met with them and I met with the board naturally and then I met with a community group that seemed opened at the time. So that was my
079process here. So um part of what may align exactly with that and that um that we'll talk about when we want this to happen but on your interview day. So the groups that the candidate meets or that you have available may or may not be the same kinds of groups that you had for your focus groups. But but that is a good way to to think through uh that process because as you think about who you want your finalists to be able to meet during the interview day that may give you insight into who you want to uh participate in in developing those characteristics but but they don't have to be the same. I guess that's the point. So as I understand it then we have students classified certified admin site council and a community
080group at this point. So I guess my question to you ma'am would be um how does that fit in what you've seen an effective organization of site count or these so tell me again you said students classified certified admin site councils where we get you know a broad mix and then a broad community group that that is a a very typical configuration. Uh the the only thing that varies is uh for those communities that choose to have like uh um a local business organization or chamber or economic development group. Um sometimes um in a in a district that's getting ready to try to pan pass a bond issue or something and and there's a likelihood of one of the characteristics that is going to be really important as somebody that's able to manage that kind
081of uh facilities uh issues as well as the process of building uh support for a bond. um that might be a time you would want to think through having one of those but but this would be a very typical structure. So within these groups then madam president are we looking at the community but also defining how we want to pull people into you know the the first five pretty straightforward it's internal to uh the district organization pretty much uh but the community group uh do we want to specify who we would like to target because I mean we have like three from the chamber three from main street from the economic development city commission so many of those are deeply engaged in the in our district. So, right. So, do we need to talk to
082that or you going to come up, you know, what what's the right way to figure that out? I don't know. I think we do have to, you know, have a number from each group. We have to figure out who those groups are. That's what I'm getting at. Identifying the groups. Do we want to hold off since we've got the broad groupings listed? Do we want to hold off and just have uh Brenda and the district gather our thoughts on who the right vested groups are later this week or I mean what makes sense uh so we're able to give this some thought because that one I think we need to give some thought yeah don't need an answer tonight on that. Yeah. Okay. say by Friday maybe. Would that work? Is it possible to do
083that in like a Friday review where you ask us for our thoughts on that and then we you gather that information or is that a violation of something? Robert, can we do can we do a thought exchange with the board to where that they can see what they're thinking since they're not making any decisions. They're making recommendations. I would argue it still is trying to maintain some type of consensus on it. What if they would put that in minutes? Take the transcript from the from the thought exchange and put it in minutes where it's open to anybody can see all the thought exchanges. The issue meeting because it's not just recording and therefore has I mean honestly if you sat here and look at the ones that she was talking about take three people from
084the chamber, three people from economic development, three people from Main Street, three people from city commission and city offices, you now have 15 people, you've already got your good core group. And if somebody doesn't pick up from one group, maybe we can grab another one uh that's there. But I mean, this is maybe for you, too, because that gives us a little broader range because I mean, we still have people who probably want somebody representing the foundation. I mean, there's there's maybe a few other groups, right? But education foundation could actually go in with site PTN. The only thing with three like city commission I'm not sure the same two of them two. Yeah. Right. But I mean you have Paul Kramer who works with the city commission as that just somebody from city hall.
085Right. Right. Okay. Because that's still commission core. So you could so you office three from chamber three from um main street. I mean that you know and again even if you did more than that and had 18 you still have smaller than a 20 group and have three from the foundation. or another volunteer organization that impacts the community. Maybe one from CASA, one from, you know, wherever else that speaks to how people take care of other demographics within the the community. Okay, that makes sense to you all. Does that work for you all? Main Street had three people. Main Street has over 30 businesses that participate regularly. It would be just their staff. We would be asking Main Street to provide three participants. If you make those broad parameters, then you could direct your president
086then to to finalize the details of it. If you if you you know, because they could put it out and just say the first three that volunteer to do this. Sure. [Music] Okay. I think that I would just ask that on that one there at least be two positions for people from the community at large to volunteer however we produce that because I mean we pretty focused it but we we need to make sure that others get an opportunity. So and they'll have the opportunity to do the online survey as well, right? Like I anticipate people from the focus groups would also have the opportunity to do the online as abroad. Yes. And then if they were selected to do the focus group separately. Yeah. I just that's the only thing I know. I really
087would like to see two, you know, at large community positions. Okay. So in in uh terms of scheduling, so we're looking at six groups and then so um I don't know uh would you be willing, Mike, to assist in the scheduling of those groups around the parameters with employees. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Um, Miss Brenda, since this off since the board office is busy that day, are is it busy with our staff that we can move it around? Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So, I I think it sounds like we have what we need to to get that scheduled. So, when So, there are a couple of options to do this. One of the things that that I will need to do with you is work a little bit more on the actual interview process and
088you also will need to to determine what the schedule for each uh candidate will be on the interview day. Um but during the time that we're meeting um I need some time to work with you to talk about the questions um kind of some of the legal uh parameters uh you know to to assist you with that. Um, so one of the things that I I want to throw out to you now is we have sample questions in here now that shouldn't have much meaning till you know what your characteristics are. So it it's not like you should start deciding, you know, exactly what your questions are going to be, but if you can begin to think through a process where once we present, once you've determined what those final characteristics are, you've got a
089process in place to really start to define what your actual interview questions are. One of the things that I've seen done in in some districts is every board me member is asked to submit um sometimes to the clerk, sometimes to the president um you know three questions that they think are important and and then we try to get that narrowed down and um and then you make a final decision probably that night uh that we do the screening that needs to be an executive session. You don't want uh questions being asked in an interview part of public information. Um so a a little bit of that uh time where we're presenting candidates to you, we need to allocate to finalizing those interview questions. Typically, I worked pretty closely with the board clerk in helping to
090nail down the logistics of of getting that done. So, any of that, Marsha? Can it be done at the next regular board meeting in February? Um, and so your next regular board meeting is when again? So, it's be Oh, yes. Okay. Yes. That is following the characteristics. Yeah. Good. That's the All right. Um and then the final thing is um candidates that uh request more information. And one of the things that your finalizing of these characteristics does is really give me good information when potential candidates call and want to know more about, you know, what the board's looking for it. It's amazing how much like I can glean about the district by working with the focus groups and able to share. You know, typically there are so many wonderful positive stories that come out of
091meeting with those uh groups that that we're able to share with candidates. But one of the things that will be a little bit unique to you all is kind of your uh secession plan or your overlap plan. So, um, as you can kind of finalize what that's going to look like, uh, in terms of titles, timelines, um, it wouldn't have to be absolutely final, but but definitely a framework that could be shared with potential candidates um, who who are asking questions. s um so that that they have that and they know what that would look like. Um that could end up being, you know, something that could make a difference between somebody deciding to apply or not apply. It's a very unique opportunity in terms of having that kind of ongoing support when you slip
092into and I keep looking at you because you get to do all the work related to this. Not everybody gets someone in-house to onboard them. So, uh, but kind of just making sure you get that framework put in your place. That's what I had for you tonight. Do you have other questions for me? I know I threw a lot of stuff at you. This was great information. Thank you so much. Um this isn't necessarily directed at the um the search as it is when we've accepted um as KSB or the work that you do. Um can you help provide us what an onboarding would look like for a superintendent? Yes, we can assist you with that. And then the other thing, don't forget that is part of our process is that we uh would like
093to have you invite us uh within, you know, ideally within 60 days. Sometimes it doesn't happen that time. um could be July, but um a goals and expectations session where um your new superintendent um in this case Mike and the board and and we um do a process together of identifying um your goals and expectations for your new superintendent. and your new superintendent can share the expectations and the needs they have uh to be able to be as effective uh for you as you need. So, um that that's part of of what we do in this process. We don't just walk away after you hire and we want to help make sure everybody gets started on sure footing. And that information becomes very important then in your superintendent evaluation so that you're evaluating them against
094expectations that have been set. So, so yes. Any other questions for Dr. Whisman? So I did have a question on on the interview day. You were saying something about the candidate meeting the stakeholders. So depending on how you structure that and and uh maybe at the characteristics meeting that might be a good time to talk about um structuring the schedule for that day. Um but very often uh part of the day is uh the opportunity to meet various stakeholder groups through throughout the day. Um and then the interview with you takes place in an executive session in the evening. Um but prior to that time, um they've had the opportunity to tour the district to meet various stakeholder groups. Um and and so I'll want to talk to you some more about that. We in
095your book when you have a chance to go through it, you'll see some sample schedules. Um we we suggest the the whole day schedule um as the best way for the the candidate to to see the district. So it be like a meet and mingle expo some opportunities for that. Um also suggesting that you give them a a block of time after the day and before their interview with you some some time by themselves. um you know, a lot of your candidates will will be in other jobs and they may need to be able to take care of some business back home. So So we don't want you to book every single minute of of the day to give them a little chance to take care of business, too. So, any final questions for Dr.
096Leman? All right. Thank you so much. Okay. Item five, consent agenda. Madam President, uh well before I make a motion, does anybody want anything removed from the consent agenda? Madam President, I move that we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay. Great. Motion by Mr. Pal second by Miss Reed to accept the consent agenda as presented. All of those in favor 70. Thank you. All right. Moving on. Item seven, consideration of Horizon annual renewal. Dr. Rose. Mr. Beth. So, as you uh had the information in the agenda, the district uses a program called Horizons, and that is a child nutrition software that the district uses to not only uh track meal money for students, but also free and reduced lunch allocations and number of meals served, the type of meals that are served, free,
097reduced, and full pay. and we compile that information and use that to submit for the claim each month for the money we receive from KSDE for the reimbursement. Uh we have to have the software in place. The district's respon is responsible for for doing that process. That's our responsibility. Okay. So it's an annual renewal. So we have to renew that every year. And and just because we're going to come up with another discussion later, just want to be clear for everybody that even if we change our method of delivering meals, this still is going to be a requirement and will require the software. That is correct. Okay. Any other questions from Miss Beth? What where does this requirement come from? Comes from KSD. Okay. And is this software the only software that we can use
098for this? We've had um I mean the software gosh I don't remember when we put this in but we've been this is the software the district has used for many years. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? I'd like to make a motion to approve the renewal of the software for $13,55383. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Miss Murphy, a second by Mr. Goodman to accept the Horizon annual renewal. All those in favor zero. Thank you. Item eight, resolutions 22- or excuse me, SL23-019 and 223020 for officer elections and meeting dates. So when the board several years ago or couple years ago went to keeping the officers and setting meeting dates in July, um the resolutions have to be read in January stating that you're using the July model. So this is really a formality
099for business because until the board changes that they want to move to January, this would be ongoing every every year. So is there something I need to read? Huh? Is there something I need? Uh the resolutions 22-23-019 is for the officer elections and 22-23-20 is for meeting dates which you've already established. The only requirement is is that you vote to approve those resolutions and then you sign them uh prior to leaving the city. Okay. Madame President, I move to the adoption of the following resolution. Whereas KSA72-1138 requires board of education at the first meeting on or after the second Monday in January or a later date during the calendar year so determined by the board at the first meeting to adopt a resolution to establish a regular board meeting dates, times and location as well
100as alternative date and time being a meeting of the regular meeting date falls on a Sunday or holiday. Whereas the board of education mud must each year on and after the second Monday in January and before February 1st of each year or later during the calendar year to establish its meeting dates and times and locations be it resolve pursuant to KSA 2019 supplemental 72-1138. The Board of Education Unified School District number 453, Levvenworth County, Kansas, at its meeting on January 9th, 2023 does hereby adopt this resolution establishing the following meeting schedule. Uh first meeting on or after the second Monday in January before February 1st So I'm lost because it's check mark which that's okay. I think the fact that you did the July there we go. Establish the day of week of the month
101time and location of regular board of education meetings and any alternative meeting dates to be held during the 2023 2024 school year at the July 2023 board meeting. If established meeting date falls on a Sunday, a legal holiday, or a holiday specified by the board of education, each regular meeting will be held on the day following commencing at the same hour and location as detailed above. The board of education serves the right to adjourn any regular meeting to another time or place. Second. Okay. I need new contacts or a bigger screen. Need a motion by Mr. Ms. Murphy and a second by Mr. Goodman to accept resolutions 223-019 and 223-20 223-20 Okay. All those in favor 61. Thank you. All right. Item nine, alternative school pilot program. Dr. Rose, do we need to do the
102other resolution? I was going to say I think we need to do the other resolution as well, don't we? Okay. To read both of them. Well, that's why I asked you. No, we you can just read the title of 019 and what it pertains to. That's what I So, you can you can just say resolution to establish election of school board officers resolution 22-23-019. Second. I can't make that. I can't make We already did the long one. It's ditto and second. So 020. Okay. Judy Price. Okay. Sure. Made the motion. Establish the board's regular meeting dates. All right. In a second. Second. Thank you, M. Since we'll try to be more official about that. All of those in favor? 61. Thank you. All right. Now, number nine, alternative school pilot program. It's been long. Yes.
103Um, so last time we met, uh, talked through so kind of where we're at in the process. We interview or we, uh, advertised for teachers and we advertised for possible part-time admin. We've had to this date no teacher applications for it. um we've had a couple of interest to it and we also have um the post uh possibly having some interest as well. Um but right now we have no teacher applicants for that. So what what would like to do is continue moving forward. Um Dr. Riddleberger and and her team um will meet with counterparts at uh the post and create parameters that are like what we do for Third Avenue, but it would be regular ED. And so what we would do is create the parameters um to create the program. Matt and his
104crew, we've already identified the building we're all or the classroom at Netti. we've already started the process of changing over over that. Um so really just want to keep the process moving to where um we get to a point where in February at the February board meeting, we'll bring the parameters, we'll bring all the cost factors, we'll bring everything to you at that point in time to see if it's something that you still want to move forward with. If not, the classroom is still going to be ready for eventually uh adding this program. Um, but I will tell you, taking it through the entire strategic plan process, we have everybody uh has been through the process districtwide except for um our parent surveys going out this week um to get their input on that exercise.
105100% of almost every group that can possibly put uh or the information coming to the top after every group almost 100% of all the categories has student behavior um identified within that. And again, this is trying to listen to that process as early as we can get it in front of you as a board to try to continue to move forward. Um Dr. Miss Pgel up on post is briefing his board in I think the the next week or two about the same process. Well, I sent u some preliminary staffing numbers that we're looking for and that we believe that we would need um to get his input as well. But really the next step is Kathy and her counterparts up on post to create some parameters uh that would fall and guide how we
106would uh um get kids in and out of the program. I have a couple of questions about that. Okay. the size of this classroom uh about how many students does it will it with the parameters that the we talked about the last time we're looking at no more than 12 um ideally uh we could the classroom is big enough to for more than that but we really felt like a 10 to one a 12 to1 max per instru like certified teacher um would be ideal. So we were looking at trying to start small to make sure that we do it right. Um and then possibly expand as we get more interest or more need or more staffing. So the next question if you wouldn't mind reminding me the age group dynamics of this are we're
107focusing on uh K3 overall um in the first classroom depending on once we get the parameters and building administration or teachers make recommendations of what students qualify for this including up on post. It may be a K1 it may be a 23 based on the highest numbers within that age group. When I did a walk through with Mr. Pal and Miss Murphy, I seem to remember the administration there stating they felt cramped for space. So, I'm not sure where they would be cramped for space at. Um, we talked about the uh 18 to 21 program um needing more space, but that was for more life skill type things. I Kathy, I'm not sure if you want to speak to space. Um, but the space that I'm aware that really need to be expanded is the
10818 to 21 program. And that's why we were talking about possibly adding a house in the back. Um, but uh parents as teachers uh we we've realigned or restructured that so we captured one of the larger classrooms without much alteration to their right. And then um there seemed to be some cosmetic like lockers were smashed in and stuff. Has that been fixed? Um haven't really I was over there. We walked through that building a month ago. Didn't see now Matt and his team has changed out lockers or and made them more cubby spaces. Um, but we'll definitely look at any of the the locker needs, but the students coming over there would have ample space to store anything that they would need for the program. I just want to I I was sad at the
109time that we did the walkthrough and that was many months ago, just feeling like the building needed attention, especially cosmetically and especially if we're bringing younger students in. I would definitely want the building to be and so one of the things that you will see um in a future meeting as we review and Matt reviews the strategic plan process um and part of the SR3 application. We were looking at some windows, some air conditioning units and things like that. That's going to be a major decision that this board will endure sometime between now and the next budget cycle. Thank you. it may have no impact at all, but it's something we haven't talked about and that was environment which was triggered. Thank you. Um, you know, colors and uh color of lighting, a number of
110different factors affect many of the kids that we that have issues in our classrooms. Now, not that it would change everything, but will we be able to have, you know, kind of study the environment that we're creating to see if there's any way that we can um improve the mood and emotional impact on the already troubled students we're bringing in here. Right. So, one of the things that we're doing to get the room prepped right now is that we had some stock carpet, the carpet squares like this carpet that we're looking at adding some carpet areas to that room, if not totally carpeted. Um, Matt N has already got it scheduled for uh to look at some paints. Um, lighting uh look um through natural light and just the classroom lights. That was one of
111our better um areas as far as that. So we feel like to start with or to go we have a lot of the things in place naturally as we see like trigger points or if we see any escalating and that we can tone down through colored lights or dimming the lights or things like that. That would be something that we could definitely add. But we're already looking cosmetically at changing some things uh within that room at a low dollar amount that or stuff that we already have on hand to be able to make that more of a a feel-like classroom, right? The other danger would be the over stimulation, right? And then it'll be the the walls. And if anybody ever asks, Matt really likes basic colors um because they're easy to repaint. Um, so
112most of that would be taken care of because Matt's in charge of this restructure of that classroom. I only say that because he's here and I know that he's doesn't like the spotlight and he's always becoming influenced. So is is it wise that we continue moving forward with this when we have no teachers interested in teaching? Well, one eventually whether it starts in in we're hoping that we could start this in sometime February or March. If not, you have all the parameters because this is something not only our staff, but I think our our community is more parents are talking about kids that come in and doing everything that they're supposed to be doing, having to leave a classroom because of constant behavior change. We're starting to get more involvement of that. So, as a
113board, as a district, as a society, we're going because behaviors are changing rapidly, not only in Levvenworth, but nationwide, statewide, regionally, and so more of these types of classrooms, more of these types of programs are going to be needed. I I guess a follow on uh to a question is um in the February meeting or because I didn't hear you say it, are you going to look to try to provide us potential staffing alternatives because some we've talked about? Yes. So, in in February, what our our hope is is that we have the entire program line aligned out and ready for you as a board to to look at, to ask questions, to dive into. if if you're not if at that point in time we need to set something else up, we would be
114able to do that. But what we're trying to do is reach out um to other areas that have programs like this, but also work with the staff from the post and our staff to kind of create what behaviors are we seeing? What would require the behavior analysis? What would require all of the different things that would go into play um in this? And so what we're looking at is just to continue with the process to be able to get all of the information. I want to keep it at the forefront as transparent as possible is what I'm trying to do by continually giving you updates where we're at. Is there any action that you need from our board for this? I would say if you just want to make a motion to continue with the
115process with another update in February, that would be suffice. Madam President, I move that we authorize the school administration and superintendent to move forward with continued planning uh and development of our alternative school pilot program. Second. I'll go ahead and give it to Jack. Oh, thank you. Okay, we have a motion on the table by Mr. Pal and second by M Mr. Goodman to continue plan authorize continue planning of the alternative school pilot program. All of those in favor 61. Thank you. All right. Item 10, consideration of Kansas Association of School Board Policies update. This is a first read of the the uh Oh, sorry. This is I bio break before we begin discussing. Sure. Five minutes. I guess we need a motion to go to bio. Like to make a motion to take a
116bio break. We'll return in the room at 7:57. Second. Okay. Motion by Mrs. Murphy and second by Miss Reed going into a bio break to return at 757. All those in favor? 70. Go. 7 seconds pass. Eight. Oh, here we go. item association policy. U Madam President, I've got a a motion to present. Actually, I have two so the second one doesn't get lost in it, but uh it's based upon discussions we've had in the past and concerns I expressed before. And it has a limiting uh factor built into it. And the reason why is because for people outside of the community because I mean that's the double-edged sword I think people haven't considered is if your policy is too open then you can have people that have no vested interest in to take care
117of our kids using this policy against us. So if it that's the only limiting factor. So, Madam President, I move to adopt the policy as presented uh with one other change uh with the incorporated amendment. First line of challenge of materials replace student, parent or legal guardian with person revi residing within the Levvenworth USD 453 district boundary. Can we discuss we need a second and then it's got to be discussed. Um, well, I mean, this this sounds like it's a change that we have to vote on, right? But we're supposed to be able to discuss it and I'm going to h offer another change. Is this the motion to discuss? No, this is the motion to make a change. It's offering it to change that that there's probably more issues beyond the single issue that
118that is animating a lot of people. I I agree with that. There are also other changes that I would like to ask about additionally with uh the graduation requirements as well. So I I anticipate that if we have to make a motion and a second for every single change. This is going to be a long meeting. So I can I make a suggestion that we have discussion first before we make any motions. Two separate. So it's I have policy. So it's its own. Yeah. Okay. Then then let's uh then we should do the IF textbooks policy first have a discussion on it and then we can make the motion an omnibus of changes draw my motion should should we need to do that for discussion okay um if I may um on this and I
119I lean to Mr. Powell, I I agree that that needs to be changed. I had no problem with the way we had persons written there, but do understand not having that, you know, like people from Johnson County and coming in. I know Mr. Pal, myself, and three other members of our community, one of which was here, sat and spent weeks working on trying to figure out challenges to the to any curriculum and materials within the media center. and we met with all the librarians and all the media centers as well. And I just I'm not blaming our district. Our district did not do this. We had our policy based on the work that we had already done prior to the summer coming. Um I can go ahead. I don't care if they want to put
120me under a microscope. I I point my fingers at the state um for this. And the problem with just limiting it to what we Mr. Pal just stated um it excludes teachers, right? We just it excludes teachers and that's one of the main people you cannot be excluding for this. You can have all the teachers but then all of a sudden have something that they may not one teacher may not agree with and even the way he's read it that prohibits them from challenging. So, we need to make sure that we are taking in account um and not all teachers live in our district. They may live in another district thereby would that exclude them because they lived in another district. So, they should be able to have the rights to challenge that. Um I
121just was really a little bit appalled that the the state um would want to censor, you know, our our goal was to properly curate materials, not ban materials. and curation is graphics. Uh, you know, you wouldn't, and I've said it before, you wouldn't be handing kids Playboys and Penthouse and Hustler in the media center. It wouldn't be appropriate for any age from preK through 12. Um, so this purpose of this was to make sure that things could get challenged should something have gotten missed or slipped in. I just find it sad that after being accused of trying to ban and censor books, then the state literally came in and tried to censor our constituents. And I had a huge problem with the state doing that. Uh can anybody list an example of when person was
122a problem? I mean, that's the way it currently reads. So that was when when this whole thing occurred last year where kind of initiated and got this whole ball rolling. I went into this to the all the schools the stakeholder schools that this was going with and uh I was I was informed that the only we've only had five challenges to books uh since the history of forever. I guess nobody could give me a time frame. So, I'm just assuming that there's only been five challenges and those these five challenges have all come from within uh parents being uh objecting to these things. So, I'm I'm not certain that we're we're not pursuing a solution in search of a problem. Um I I understand it it could be a problem. it potentially could be a
123problem, but I don't know that it it hasn't been a problem in the past. Um, all of the people that are really interested in the school books that we have, which is is completely and totally searchable online right now, anybody on the planet can come and look and see what books we have available in our media centers. Um and and we've not had this issue of of every Tom, Dick, and Harry coming coming into town saying, "Hey, you you can't have this particular Dr. Seuss book or or whatever." Um because Sorry. And so I just I if without having a a long wordy this person can object and this person can't, you know, it really does kind of limit us when we change it from person to, you know, a very long list of qualified
124people because in certain cases, you're going to have legal guardians that just they don't care about their students, but they're going to have an uncle who is genuinely or a grandparent who is genuinely interested in the in the welfare of the child. You have neighbors who are tutoring. You have neighbor groups. You have you have all sorts of uh community members who should have a say considering we have local businesses that are going to be looking for our students to be their future employees uh and and volunteers and generally just productive members of society. So every member of our community is going to have a a vested interest in how well our students are doing and that means are they getting access to appropriate books. So, I understand the the problem that could lurk out
125there, but I don't know if that justifies just cart blanch excluding everybody except immediate uh stakeholders. And to lean in on that, I cannot tell you how many times I've heard this board sat here and be briefed out that um the kids may have parents, but the parents may not be present. The parents may be the ones with custody, but it's the grandparent or the aunt and uncle that's present in that kid's life that is still coming to the school to help resolve some of those issues. And then this just completely cut them out of the equation. And I just the problems I have with this kind of stuff is it's coming from KSB number one. Um it's not an issue that we had in our district. And so here we are having to push
126back against KASB's advice. And when we get these recommendations from KSB, there's no uh description given this happened, this happened, this happened, and this is why we're giving you this recommendation. It's just the recommendation with no back history. Um I think that's silly um to be polite about it. And then the uh collection development they also want to change the word from a variety of content in various formats to diverse content in multiple formats. And um I think we need to leave that the way it originally was for the same reason. Um, what issues have we had with not being able to offer enough of a variety or in enough variety of format? As far as I'm aware, none. Um, if we change that word to diverse, we open ourselves up to, and this sounds
127good on its face, including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc. is just a simple Google of the word diverse. Um, however, there's been a lot of hype about, um, you know, do we do drag queen shows in preschool and stuff? And I think if we sign off on this, we're opening ourselves up for putting a stamp of approval on that. And I just am not comfortable with that for my preschooler. And so, I'm not going to put a stamp of approval on that, you know, for everyone in the district. And I think it's important for us to remember that. um the board still has the final say going back to the other situation on challenges. It's not like we're handing it over
128to, you know, somebody from the UK to challenge something and then we have to agree with their challenge. If the board still has the final decision, I don't see why any person shouldn't be able to shed light on something. Basically, in a nutshell, I thought our policy looked just fine the way it was already written, that we didn't need any of these states input. We were working just fine. The part that I um let's see, sorry, there's Isn't this where the superintendent has the right to remove material when it's Well, it's it's at the end. It's the last page under review. Also, challenge materials may uh be removed from use during the review period which quite honestly I the original reads challenge material shall not be removed from use during the review period. So uh
129giving giving the superintendent the discretion to remove a a questionable thing is in my view not necessarily a bad thing. Right. Yeah. Um, that's why I think there's some good changes, but we need to selectively decide what's right for our district. Yeah. Right. Right. And and I mean the the only other way to read that would be to say that the superintendent shall remove the uh item from use during the review period. But that's something that we can we can discuss, which I think um I'm just trying to, you know, guess about a classroom setting. If you're if you're in the middle of reading, you know, a book, you know, whatever, six weeks or whatever, you know, we're talking about and somebody challenges it. Well, now what are you doing with your class? Um, you
130know, now you they all get the book pulled away that they're in the middle. I mean, I think there's that's why it needs to be discretion because there there needs to be appreciation and respect for the teaching position, for the students and families involved in those situations. So that so that would be a change that we would generally consider because we can leave that up to the discretion of the superintendent whether or not it's uh should be pulled. Um the only other issue would be the uh uh meets with teacher media specialist or principal wherein before it was strictly the principal. Um I I don't mind this. If it can be resolved at the lowest level that would be great. Um I would I would want some sort of mechanism by which if there is
131a complaint that it includes the principal and not it would be a it would be an and instead of an order. So that so that media specialist and principal right teacher media specialist and principal uh be at least have visibility on something that that could potentially be an issue. Um, I I I like things being re uh resolved at low levels, but uh I don't want there to be a case where uh the the teacher uh decides it's not an issue, but the person thinks it's still an issue and it just dies at that point. specialist. Well, unless unless the teacher decides they don't want to report it, right? But [Music] speaking the microphone. Um, I was just pointing out the additional language because I think the language is there and I and I' I'd
132rather avoid I I'd rather have the the mechanism be there right up front rather than hey now we have to go punish the teacher you know whereas before it's you know if there's a complaint it goes to all parties concerned so that there's not that temptation. I'm not union policy. I'm just I I know I I I appreciate the the the lawyer's perspective. Can you talk to me about that challenge of materials section? Um, I just went back and forth with myself over whether we're saying if we change it that they because it says um after receiving the completed form, the superintendent shall shall meet with the complainant to discuss the complainant request or something. I don't know what it's supposed to say. And then we're changing it to after receiving the completed form, the
133superintendent shall review and consider the request. Are we taking out the ability of the complainant to meet with the superintendent? That's what I was trying to clarify. Yeah. The way that I would read it is say that it's there's no requirement for the superintendent. Okay. There's currently no no requirement for them to meet. No, the new language says that the superintendent shall review The old language said that the current language prior to this red line superintendent to meet and I guess that's important to me. I mean, if I write down, you know, fill out the form, which I hate, you know, I think it's an awful form, but anyway, if I filled that out and I submitted it, um, and I didn't get that face to face, I mean, you know, just using Dr. Roth
134as example, he might at the end of the day have no clue what my problem is. I think that face-toface communication goes a long ways in every situation I can possibly think of and that's important to me to keep that um personal approach to the situation in in there. So should we go ahead and just start from um the beginning and um we have what's written with the selection criteria. There were no changes there. You go to the next for collection development. Um, do we figure out how many people want to leave it the way it is or go with the new with the diverse verbiage that the state wants us to use or do we wait and put all these ideas down and then just do the whole thing in one? I think that
135we should adopt KSB's policy as they present it because they put in a lot of work into it and we pay them for this service. My suggestion just move along on it. If there are there are items that each of you maybe have disagreement with. It's possible to narrow down parts of the provision that you are in agreement. There are no issues. You can do that as one separate vote and vote on each other particular items where issues. I think going back to your original items is that you like the original policy as we have it written based as that was came from our committee work, right? So for whatever new changes they're recommending, are there any new changes you want to adopt from the new language? If our current policy from our committee work
136is what we like, right? Are there any is there any language from the new recommendations we want to adopt? Because I think what we want to say is that we like our policy as is right now but from whatever new language it but I'm saying whatever new language what do we accept for the new language? So, if I could read down through and maybe help frame this on the collective development, is there any of the language there in that paragraph that we want to change In our current policy with the new language that's there. No, I want to leave it how we have it. Any any other comment? Okay. Go down to challenges and materials. I think this one we do have language that we want to modify um from our well well now let
137me back up. Yeah that's correct from our current challenges of material or anyone here desire us to accept the new changes for collective development just the challenges of materials in the first paragraph. Okay. Now should these So we're asking questions now. Should we should we vote on for example putting forth a motion to preserve the original wording of of the documentation and we all vote I and then is the what changes board to accept the changes that were made? No, it's going to be our document would be the first motion is we accept ours as it currently exists. We accept ours as currently exist for the following things that we accept from the new change. Okay. I think that's what you're from listening to the discussion. I think that's what we're asking for. So, we
138have collection development. We like ours the way it is. We don't want to adopt any of their things. So, challenge materials. Then, do we like our document or do is there any changes we want to adopt? We we do not want to make any changes on the challenge materials on the challenge materials. Although there may be Can I just make a motion to not accept KSB's suggestions other than the line challenged materials may be removed from use during the review period. That's what we're doing right now. Yeah, that's what we're doing. We're just reverifying it section by section which is not there yet because everybody should should get an opportunity to comment. So yes uh so we are if I understood what was just said the first paragraph of challenges and materials we are satisfied
139with our current um policy as it exists. Correct. Hearing no changes. Next one is if the issue outlined goes through that are we satisfied with our policy versus the changes uh accepting any of those changes? I like ours. It encompasses a better group. Any desire to incorporate anything? Then that paragraph is is accepted as our original policy. Next one is composition of review committee. Actually, it's review committee. Uh are there anything in the first paragraph that we wish to accept from the new material? Nothing heard. Uh the next paragraph is building principle actually. Um okay, back to the first paragraph. They have their spaces because they added extra things. Did anyone want to uh keep KSAB's written report? Where is this? Are we talking whether the complaint still? We're not there yet. Oh, we're not
140there yet. We're still we're just on second paragraph structure. Do you have any objections to any of the changes or do we want to preserve? I want to preserve what we have. Okay. Do so any other comment to that? Okay. Next one was a complete ad which is perview of the review committee written report. So perview of the review committee. Do we want to accept any of that or uh just retain what's currently in our policy? You change. I think ours is fine as it is. So perview of review committee is not added. the written report which was also a direct ad by KSB to your point you started a moment ago right I think it might be a good idea to have a written report document document document that we adopt the written report
141verbiage the issue the way it's written is that report is directly related to the review so so let's talk about the purview of the review committee does anybody have any objections Adding this uh the review committee shall examine and evaluate the material as a whole. Consider the district's policies, procedures, and philosophy for selection of textbook instruction materials and media center materials. We strengths and weaknesses and foreign opinions based upon the selection criteria. How is that different from what we currently Yeah, because it it doesn't you don't have this. Yes, we do. See, it says preview of review. Ours is just the review committee shall. Here's the review committee here. But then the review committee child is actually the preview of the review committee. That's right. They just retitled it and it says almost exactly the
142same thing. Okay. Of what ours says here. Okay. So it's just in a different location. They just did it in a different worded format. Yeah. So ours actually still maintains the integrity of that. We would just add the written report to that review committee shell. If that makes sense, then then I say we keep what we originally had and then add the written report portion here. So we have document document document. There's there's already language in the original. Okay, very good. Then we're good there too. So as of the paragraphs the purview review committee and the additions that are listed there, uh we do not accept and retain our current one. Then the next paragraphs are if the board receives simultaneous challenges. Um is there any reason that we feel that we need to accept
143that change? What was that one line you said you liked in there, Jack, on that last paragraph? The superintendent may remove them. That was the next B challenge materials still. That's that's still we're still down there. Um I mean do we have language in there about receiving simultaneous challenges in the original original document? I don't remember any. Then I mean are we getting so many challenges that we have to you know well if a if a new book comes in and there are it gets noticed and there are 18 people filing there are 18 parents that all of a sudden say hey we don't like this book then it rather than doing 18 challenges I don't see a problem with it encompassing one so long as it's the same media item And well, is there
144anything currently stopping us from combining those or this is just about time, right? Correct. Yeah. The way that is written, if you got five different complaints on five different days, you would have 30 days and I think 30 days is already long enough. If I'm not mistaken, I think Lancing went to 10 when they went through this in the thing is you have five, right? So, and then you guys want to put on that committee. It would be nice if we had something in writing that says, "Hey, if we get multiple objections to the same book, you know, despite when it comes in, here is here is our policy on how we handle multiple." So, if I can take this to where we we've got it, this paragraph of if the board receives uh the
145board believes that that can be added to our policy. Yes, I'm reading this as simultaneous challenges of multiple different materials. So, like it's not the same material being challenged simultaneously, it's multiple different materials being challenged. That's how I'm reading it. Okay, that is that is that is how I read it now. And to point out the new language proposed by KSD which I would just practicality or discuss the proposed language on page four says if you receive receive simultaneous challenges unilaterally they say look. Okay, that would be language that I would support. Yes, right. Yes. I would I would support that change as well. I would too. So do we the if the board receives simultaneous are we saying that we want to accept that as modified? Um yes because I think that's what we
146just did was what's the reasoning for that? I mean, if I can ask you, you know, if if there are congruent if there are concurrent challenges. No, I mean like summer break. Then what's how long summer break? Huh? How long summer break? 30 days. Yeah. By time you get the challenge in there, summer's already over. Manower. I didn't write this so I don't know but I'm assuming having as long as I have that when you have committee together are those individuals it's hard during summer during summer break and they can still conclude the action within the first month of the you know school coming back or when everybody comes back because they come back early correct so I I have no I have no objection to adding this granted if you want technically worried about
147the that second paragraph about summer break. Technically the paragraph before it because decision to extend review times past the 30 days if something came up before the break under your power. So would that language preclude the break? We wouldn't need it. Are is that what you're clarifying? because the board may extend the committee's deadline review. It's just the board's decision. It's just whether you want something whether you want to be diligent and you have to be diligent if you need extend more time or whether you want it to be an automatic. So the if is the key paragraph because of the authorities that are inherently built into it. Okay. So we're saying that we accept the if paragraph. The second no reviews paragraph becomes unnecessary, right? Uh board review and action. Are there any uh
148because again that's an ad from somewhere. Excuse me. Uh I I don't mind this language either. I don't either. So any anybody on the board who disagrees with incorporating board reviews and action? I'm just trying to track the language. Yeah. Hearing uh hearing none. Uh that also would be incorporated in the new policy. Um doesn't it say somewhere that the decision of the board is final somewhere else? I mean the board is always the final authority. Does that need to be in there? I would add it. Okay. Yeah. So is there any u concern of adding the decision of the board as final? No. As written. Okay. Moving on. Uh removing challenge materials. Yeah. Okay. So, we're Yeah, because I think that one is we said we were going to keep our policy. Our policy
149was so strikeouts wouldn't count. Yeah. Right. Good point. So, we're moving to uh removing challenge materials. Challenge materials may is the first paragraph. Yes. Uh is there any that's the one I think where there was some agreement that we wanted to keep that change. We wanted to give the superintendent the authority to remove his necessary discretion. Anybody have a problem with that first paragraph? So then we accept the changes to the challenge materials. Next one is the impact of simultaneous requests. This is redundant. Sorry. Good Tim. [Music] Was that Tik Tok? Right. Okay. So, uh we are saying that we will decline the change which leads us to the end of the document. So, as I gather there were four changes. I've got four accepted. I've got four. Uh, Madam President, I move. Would you
150like me to remove Would you like me to review the changes? Yes. I'm sorry. Before we go too far, can I ask the board one more clarifying question? So, on challenge of materials, the board's okay with somebody from Kansas City, Kansas challenging a book in your library. If somebody from Kansas City, Kansas figures something out, they have no kids, they have no grandkids, they have nothing. I mean, what's the problem with shining a light on something? They're they're having to go through and fill out all that paperwork that asks that they read the whole thing. You know, they have to say all the things. We haven't looked at that yet, but you know, the talking of the district. So, they they're asking to fill that out and submit it here. So, here's a here's a
151question. um the the form that gets filled out. So So we haven't we haven't talked because there's a there's a second form. There's a second part of it. Yeah. And there's perform. Yeah. Then there's red lines to that. What's our what's our policy on the form being filled out? Is that something that has to be filled out? If they make a challenge, they have to fill out the form. Okay. Not It's online. They can do it online submit. And it's slightly different than the changes. Like I said, they're red lines, right? Okay. Because that's I mean that would be something that we could do is hey, if you've got a problem with it, come to the school, fill out the form, and submit it to the uh to the principal for it to be challenged.
152Consider it. If somebody from Kansas wants limit anybody that not trying to limit anybody but you're USD453 with boundaries and all other aspects of the district. If so if we put any persons living in or working in connected to the USD 453 may make a challenge. Um, that way it gives it the quote family connection, kids in school, family member in school, teachers that may live outside the district but work within the district and so forth. Yeah. And this isn't conceptual. Uh, it was before COVID, but there were some issues going on in the district and I got emails and potential what could have been the challenges from three different states. um New York City, uh Los Angeles, California, and those came directly to my email. So, I mean, that's that's the question I think
153we want to ask. Do we want to leave, uh, you know, and create turmoil in our district? it might be opening up, but do we do we want because that's the flip side of not limiting it in the way that has just presented is there's nothing that precludes any other organization with a vested interest outside and and again I go back to doesn't really care about our kids to get engaged uh just from an activist perspective. So it also emits limits organizations that do have a vested interest in our kids bringing light to things that we I mean you and I aren't sitting down and we're not even reading all the curriculum books. We're definitely not sitting in the library reading all the library books. It's still we all they still have an opportunity to
154work through the board or work through other agencies that do have a vested interest because we might not even agree with that and bring that material I think to the district. Um you know at some point though we've got to frame this because there's a lot and I'm not making it up. I got emails from all over the United States just because of one decision that the board was making. Um, and if this is online, they don't have to go to the school and do it. Um, that presents a a real potentiality to just disrupt what we're trying to do in the district. Again, I'm thinking to the kids and I'm thinking to the administration, the teachers, you know, um, now we convene a review board for the purposes. Sir, you're not part of the
155discussion. Yeah. Sir, you're not part of the discussion. It's an open meeting. You can observe, but you cannot making comment. Would you happen to have uh any advice on where we said any person who worked or lived within our school district? I mean, we're looking at taxpayers whether they own a business, whether they have kids in school, whether they work for the district. the listening to the other discussions there was also it's up to you how you want to also concerns about well if legal guardian who maybe doesn't legal guardian but a grandparent who's taking care of them in something legal guardian that would also the flip side is if you say any relative that could be anything too that relative could be from California or the teachers union whatever you know what I mean
156so it's up to you how how broad or how narrow you want this is kind of where I'm I'm going with you know without having a big long list of people that we're excluding or including it's it's difficult to say hey these people can do But these people can't uh except on a Sunday if you live three miles and and you've ever worked with us ever. So I I kind of like the idea of hey, if you have a complaint, you have to come to the office, fill out a form, and submit that form. If if somebody from Kansas City is going to drive all the way up here to fill out a form, okay, if the ACLU wants to to drive a contingent here, we put the forms online for accessibility reasons so people
157didn't have to physically come to our holdings. The other thing as far as the process that process has to be we're already protected is what I saying, right? And we don't have a reason why we're having this discussion other than apparently KSB, you know, is cared. So, okay, we have that covered. You must meet with the principal before you do the form. Can I make one more suggestion? Sure. Can I make a suggestion that um we have Robert work with all of the notes that have been taken tonight, draft a draft a clean version? Yes. And do a first read in February. and a final approval in March. I love that idea. And please, please, please, please, we send these out at first reads. That's the reason why do it. Let us know so we
158can we can do that as much as we can and then we'll submit it. You guys can look at it. We can put it online. We could do whatever so everyone feels like their voices have been heard and then you can vote on it in March. Here's my thing about sending my voice being heard on email. Let's say my voice matched this voice match this voice match Mr. Carney's voice. You just have four voices in the email that matched and that's technically a vote. And I just that that to me just well you don't have to talk about No, we we just say coincidence that we all happen to have the same thoughts in line as you saw that we agreed to this that or the other thing. If we all emailed those thoughts, then
159you get four. That's a quorum. No, because you're only you don't you don't point that doesn't violate, right? That doesn't violate. I'm just very careful with whatever I email. But I need guidance. So most of these I already have. I know you want to go back to the status quo and then there's something but with this particular definition it's a good idea but I can draft whatever you want but I don't have so I need guidance from you on that particular item what you're looking for even if it's a principle so that I can look and try to put something together. So, Robert, the only thing in question though, if I understand you right, is that one line where we line pretty much everything couple of bold provisions here regarding review and yeah, the only
160thing comes down to how do you want to limit if you want to limit changes to something else. The problem is what is the something else and who does it exclude? I'm pretty practical and I mean in my view it it does sound advice but but here's here's my thing I'll just consider for guys discussion I do think it's one of these while I understand that KD has um has put these recommended patients in there remember that if for some reason you person because we have never had an influx of complaints. If you do, you can change the policy, right? Okay. Yeah. So remember that just because you pass this today doesn't mean that the next either one of you break it up and think, you know what, it really discuss or you get an
161influx of complaints or challenges. We're like, you're all from out of town. we need to change this. But that's up to you on how you want to decide that. I can define it, but but considering what we've had the discussion today. Yeah, it's going to be pretty lengthy definition, which I don't have a problem with. Well, I I think we've said that number one, there's there's a limitation in that you should be talking to the principal before you execute it. So, that's a limitation that's in there already. And despite what I said earlier about the potentiality, it still does come down to the likelihood. And not just potential, but the likelihood. And at this point, the likelihood's pretty low. So, um, from me as a board member, I'm good with retaining what we've got. Yes.
162I mean, there speak up. I mean, we're I I'm in agreement. We have the motion to accept the um our policy as we've already written it uh with the exception of the additions that we wanted to add from KSAB. Um which there's only which there were only three on this document. Yes. Four some I heard of four or maybe one of them together. Only yeses I have are if we receive simultaneous challenges. So on the second to last page that we the board has the ability to extend we're going to keep the one sentence the decision of the board's final and then we keep the language on removing challenge materials on the top of the last page but impact of simultaneous request. They incorporate board review as language. Is that something you already have? I
163think you know Robert, you said that the board already had a review process. A board reviewing the process, right? Correct. Okay. Keeping the original language. Yeah. Okay. It's already processing. Yeah. You just read. Yeah. Because by rejecting their changes, you're keeping the original. Okay. So, you'll draft that for us and then it'll be a first read next month if you want to. But because I'm not drafting any new language, you're literally just rejecting stuff. If you want to wait, you can. I'm happy to put it together in a cleaner format. I'm telling you, it's literally just accepting rejecting all their changes. I'd like to make a motion to do the um revisions with what we've rejected and accepted in our discussion on the board policy for IF textbook instructional u material policy 12122. Now do
164we do we have to vote on this all as a omnibus thing or can we break it out by individual document? This is just we're just doing if this is if that's why I'm asking we don't have to we don't have to vote on the whole package as a as a whole as an agenda item. We can break this out into multiple votes. Okay. So this is not this particular vote is not going to include the We'll do that next. That's next. Okay. Or the form. Yeah. Form. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Then second. I'd like to make a motion to accept the changes of the IF textbooks instructional materials policy um of the three sections that we have adopted from KSAB while keeping everything else that we currently have. Second per the discussions we had here
165on the board. So basically the motion we have from Miss Murphy and second by Mr. Goodman is that we retain our current policy with the addition of those three areas uh covering simultaneous challenges a board decision finality and the superintendent um ability to um discretion. Yes. So all those in favor Mr. Goodman. [Applause] Okay. And now four. So this particular matter that we're talking about now is the challenge form, right? Yes. Um, I've looked at this form many times and I think it's written with one thing in mind and that's to silence anybody that would even consider or have a slight thought about challenging something and that's why I stated earlier that I hate it. I think it's absolutely not saying, "Hey parents, what can we do better at? What isn't working for your student?
166Is there something we could do differently? Um, those are the kinds of questions that I think need to be on the form. So, I would just trash it completely. But talking specifically to this form, it says um on item number two, did you read or view all the material provided in the entire work? If not, how did you select the parts for reading or viewing? So when I picked up Fire Force, I didn't have to sit there and read all 10 books to know that the first one was egregious and should have never been purchased for the library, period. So would I fill out this form? No. Why? Because I'm not going to sit there and read all 10 volumes of nonsense garbage in my personal opinion. That should have never been provided to our
167freshmen. And I don't think anybody needs it, but that's not my, you know, my um I'm going to stay in my lane obviously, but I think that that's not a good question. I think it's worded poorly for people to feel like we want their input. And I think we have a a um like a culture problem in this district. I think it's one of the large problems we have problem with staffing and um I think that this is kind of why parents aren't saying anything. Parents are afraid to say anything. They definitely don't want to contact a teacher. That's the last thing they want to do. They send their kid and they drop their kid off and they tell their kid to listen to the teacher, to do whatever the teacher says, to respect the
168teacher. At least if they're me, okay? and you you expect that the teacher respects what your child, your family values, they're not going to teach your student something that is against your household. So to me, it's just just terrible. So I don't know if we the problem the problem I have with this is it's it's kind of overong and it's asking I mean these are a lot of cross-examination kind of questions. It's not a what are the facts. So name of the author, name of the book, name of the media, whatever it is. What do you find objectionable in the material? Where is this objectionable material located within the book, page, paragraph, etc. And and that that should be kind of it. Yeah. Honestly, um the the questions like uh did you view all the
169material provided in the work? Well, I mean, no. I came across the the part about the sexual act and I had a big problem with it. Right. Um like I'm I'm not trying to interrupt. I'm just asking for clarification. Like that and in itself on specifically number two to your point Vanessa when you said that you found that you said I don't need to read any further. I think that's gone. Why not just say no and I found this to be Yeah. Well, I'm just saying I think the form is intimidating. I'm I'm asking it's it's kind of an unnecessary question is is what I'm getting at the material. It doesn't really matter if I read through the rest of the book. It's did you find objectual material? This is what you found. So, as
170a a longtime loving reader, right, a phrase taken out of context of the entire book can you don't know the context completely differently. But if you finish the book, then you see why that rape scene was put in there so that you understood the travel and the journey of that character. It's not there to be pornographic. It's there to Well, it's it's not necessarily this could happen or to identify that that situation is Yeah. Right. But I mean, typically, is it possible that's just an example? Is it possible for us to add a line somewhere at the beginning of the forum saying if one of these questions you feel doesn't fully apply to you, feel free to omit or change or something to make them feel like they have the responsibility. If I'm filling out
171this form, if I don't feel like some of these questions don't apply to me or I'm not comfortable with it, then I definitely wouldn't answer it. But I'm still going to submit it because I have a problem with whatever it is. I don't think that I have to fill out all 50 questions whenever I only know the answer to 45 of them. I'm still gonna turn in my answer. Yeah. I, you know, I I guess I'm I'm listening and trying to sort out in my own mind. Kind of goes back to the changes in the first part of it. What is what is it this form is trying to achieve? I struggled with I actually filled it out and I used the process because I wanted to try it for myself. Um the uh as
172I answered these questions, I went what what are we getting after here? I think we have a very smart group of people who work with this district and I respect them and appreciate their their feedback. I'm not so sure it's not time to just take this form out. We're going to do this review of the if anyway and let uh Dr. growth and the smart members we have of our district come back with us with a form that asks questions that are relevant you know is uh what was your concern was it because it was not age appropriate what is your concern is this rise to the level of pornography you know what is it that you know I'm I'm just throwing that out as ideas I'm not saying put it on there but I
173struggled with this form it just made there was no instate of me answering any question on there that was going to arrive that it that material whether it was appropriate or not. Are you talking about our initial form or the one that's been with the changes? I both of them really I mean it it one of the questions is what do you believe is the major theme of this material and and I felt like am I going to be graded on this particular report? Is there a right answer? Uh I I really think for for a form like this it really needs to be succinct. It needs to be just the fax ma'am kind of form. You know what was what you know fill in your telephone name, how can we contact you? Uh what
174was the name of the material that you object to? Uh as many details, name, title, author, etc. Um and then what did you find objectionable? Uh can you give details? Page numbers are helpful. It it it really should just be kind of like paragraph form. What did you find objectionable about this material? And then please identify what was objectable. Please identify if give as many details as you can. Um and why do you find it objectable? What would you recommend the school do with this material? I mean if I find it objectionable, I want you to get rid of it. You know, that's it's not a uh in its place. What material of equal educational quality would you recommend? Uh, I mean, that's that's the educator's job in my opinion. That's that's not what this
175form is supposed to be doing. It's supposed to be, hey, identify material that's objectionable. We'll review it. If we decide it's objectionable, we'll take it out. If we don't decide it's objectionable, we'll keep it in. Um, and then we'll bring, you know, if if it gets appealed, comes to the board, comes to us, we can look at it. we can say, "Hey, we don't think that this is objectionable. We're going to keep it. Board decisions are final. Thank you for submitting your form." And and I mean, it's it's a good process, but uh I mean, it it should really be one page. That's that's my objections to the to the form. It's just overly broad and overly long. So, as we do the revision of the policy, you're asking basically for a rewrite of the
176form kind of. Just I hate to say it, but it and and it should be a really quick rewrite because it there should be only a few questions. Motion. Is that your motion? Yes, that is the so moved. Second. And who's going to write the next changes on here. Yeah. Okay. Madam President, I move that um as we've accepted the IF policy that we retain the IF textbook instructional material review form until such time as the district uh provides the board an alternative um textbook review form. I would withdraw mine. Second. Okay. It follows is just more comprehensive. Yep. So the motion we have by Mr. Second by Miss Murphy to retain the current form until a new form is provided to the board for review and approval. All those in favor 70. Thank you.
177Okay. JCFCA questions, discussion. Um more of a question. Let me see if I can find track changes. Excuse me. Thank you. Um so on it's the it's the social studies. So we've got the three credit social studies. Um it looks like what is struck through so it's removed is the economics, sociology or psychology half credit. Uh what's being put in is contemporary world issues, sociology or psychology. Is there a reason that economics is being removed from this? So, this policy is written based on changes that KSD or state department of education has done with okay graduation which is trying to get more CTE classes in and at an earlier age. So, this does not pertain to anybody until seventh grade. Seventh graders and Laura's right here. So, one of the things that KSE is now
178requiring as Saros said with the upcoming group of eighth graders will be that they have to have a financial literacy class which are economics um would come in there. The state has not outlined exactly what that financial literacy has to fall under, whether it'll be a math credit, a a CTE or technical ed credit. But in that, that is why the economics was moved separate because every student is going to have to have a 0.5 credit of financial literacy. Okay. But um how is how is economics because in my mind if I think about economics I'm thinking more about economic systems forms of government that are are based around economic systems that is not how to balance your checkbook right economics the system of it and part of the culture piece is in embedded into
179our world history our world issues all of So we don't have a specific class that's economic. It's one of the main domains. Okay. And our HDSS standards. So this is more of a semantic change then. Okay. Can you talk to me about the uh says turn a diploma from North High? A student must earn a minimum of two is in black, three is crossed out, six is in red credits. I need to get them. Okay. [Music] which department graduation requirements. Okay. Minimum of 26. So originally um we had 23 credits was what was required by our district to graduate. We now have 26 credits which that has been Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, I just know I read this at home, not I just wanted it to be stated so everybody was there. So, um,
180for full graduation 26 credits for our district. Thank you. Any other questions or discussions on JFCA? Motion like to make a motion to any of the the changes. I'd like to make a motion to approve our policies. Well, where did they go again? JFCA. Okay. Second. There's a motion by Miss Murphy, a second by Mr. Goodman to accept the changes to JFCA. All of those in favor? 70. Thank you. All right. Item 11, KSB policies update. These are all first reads, correct, Dr. Rose? Yes, correct. Okay. So, if you have comments on these, this is your first read. Next month will be second read. All right. When do you want comments on them? Do you want them tonight? Do you want them as soon as possible? I would imagine. Typically, it's the week prior to
181ne the next board meeting. Okay. Is the deadline. We're looking at an agenda. That's the deadline. I was just I was just you have notes you want to give a little bit replying to Dr. both from from his earlier comment and some things on you know I I personally think it's extremely important that our discussions are in public that people have the opportunity to listen to them six months from now on YouTube if that suits their fancy and so when we don't discuss it in public meeting at first read we're pushing it down the line and stuff like that and so that's all I was that's all I was clarifying for we haven't had a chance to read it either. So, I think the public can in and look at all these and write along
182with us and we'll give our notes over the next month to Dr. Roth and then we'll have a second read. Yep. Process. That's been our standard process from the beginning. Yes. All right. Did you want to add anything, Dr. Rose? Item 12, contracted food service request for proposal. Dr. Rose. So this is the final stage to go out to um an RFP which is a request for proposal. Um we will work with KSD to write the parameters of that. Um we will submit it out to see what companies are actually interested in bidding your food service programs. Um and then at that point in time in February, the board would uh select a an interview committee. Um and at the interview committee uh will interview between the February and March board meeting. In March, that
183committee will make a recommendation to move forward with a certain company or stay status quo. At that point in time in March, you as a board would have the ability. Um you'll have all the information of what the anticipated uh growth is, what the anticipated costs are, all of those things. You would have all of that prior to the March board meeting. um and you would make a final decision in March either to go with contracted services or state status quo. So what this does is give permission to go out for a uh a request for proposal. Um I did have the opportunity today uh to meet with food service. We have a couple or a few food service ladies here today. Um where there was lots of great questions, lots of great opportunity uh
184for discussion. Um and uh um and I'm glad that they're engaged in the process and that they care about what they what they have. I will tell you um I reiterated to them that this request for proposal in no way, shape or form um shines anything but positive light on them because this isn't because of something they couldn't do or can't do. This is an economic decision that I think the board should consider um moving forward. Now whether that pans out is yet to be seen based on proposals. Um but all indication shows that there is a po the potential for savings or uh and more options for kids than what we can do economically with the staff that we have. Not that the staff's not capable because they are super capable, but it it
185comes to an economic thing of buying and I gave them this example. They may be able to buy we may be able to buy a hamburger for a dollar. they may be able to buy a hamburger patty for a quarter. And so the reimburseable rate, what the meal charge, the reimburseable rate is revenue for the district. And what you do with that revenue, you spread out through the kitchen, you spread out through the other programs, other things that you want to support. Um, so I felt like the meeting this afternoon u went well. I think that um the the mistake that I made and I told them this today is that I should have done it earlier. But the as I told them even with that my my recommendation to you as a board would
186still to be still to see what the possibilities are out there. I I would just add that by this board is committed whether if we do this that within the power of this district we will do whatever is necessary to to protect uh the employees that we have because they have served us so uh and uh that I want to make sure is understood. Yes. And I shared that with them as well too. Very good. So the only thing that I was asked and from different schools and different office levels, kitchen staff people have been contacting me for months ever since our original meeting was that if they want to after they see the proposals from these other companies, if they want to have their opportunity to share what they feel like they can do
187if we don't uh go with one of these companies to still maybe make changes or improve what we're currently doing, they have that opportunity. I um if they still want to do that at some point would just ask that the board is willing to hear them out. Why not? Yeah, absolutely. It's important especially um since we know that um our kitchen structure is changing. If we do nothing, there's going to be changes. um knowing and talking to them and finding out what they think is better or what could help or all of that is great. Like is it possible for our current food service program to present at the same time? what they think um the the changes that could be implemented to positively impact our students like similar to what proposals we would receive
188from outside companies. Absolutely. Plus comparing because you've got these outside companies that say they can get you the burger for a quarter versus our 50 cent burgers. we could really do a costbenefit analysis between what we're currently using with Cisco and how they're doing their P power buy or if we even wanted to incorporate a power buy. I know we've seen power buy at nationals just as often as we've seen the food service program. That could be another opportunity to save while still maintaining the integrity of what we've had for so many years, which is a a rich history of our cafeteria service workers and their relationships with our kids as well. And that's very important. And as we talked today, those relationships won't shouldn't change with whoever you select because the quality of the
189people are still the quality of people. Um the other thing that we talked about today that um you know we're they're running 25% short on staffing um in the kitchen area. As we talked um you if you say and I told them this so I'm not telling you anything that I didn't talk to them about today. You you could, but you would you would disrupt a lot of things. You could say, "Okay, for the kitchen, in order to fill that 25%, we're going to pay them $20 an hour." Now, you just lost you lost your tech people, you've lost your food or your custodians, you've lost everything else. So, from a from a private standpoint, it's easier for them to incentivize more so than you because they're only targeting them. And so as they go
190out and recruit, they know what they can do for x amount of meals. You can't. You could do it, but then who's going to clean your buildings? Who's going to do these other things? Because in a school setting like this, that bargaining is different. And so we talked about that as well today. And so there's a lot of things um that absolutely can change. Um the economic piece to that and the being able to go out and recruit differently than what we can recruit um is two big hurdles, right? And if we can overcome them and you as a board um the longevity of of those programs, those are things that you have to that you have to uh to weigh in on. You know, as I told them today, things aren't going to be
191the same next school year regardless if you go or not because new leadership's going to be there and new leadership's going to be in this seat. So expectations, changes, and those types of things are already going to happen. So, if we're fearing change because of change, it's already in place. Right. Right. I I just also want to remind everybody, this is a year-to-year contract. It's not like we're signing this for five years. So, if uh what was promised isn't delivered and our people aren't taken care of. Chaos is not good for a district, but we still have the authority as a board to go back to where we needed to be. Right. And to Miss Well's comment, I think it would be great if they could present at the same time. If I understood you
192correctly, I would just ask that we're uh, you know, sensitive towards timelines to make sure they have a I think it's fair to let them see what these other companies are proposing before they're expected to come up with what, you know, they don't know what what's being presented. That's my only comment on that. So all I would need is that the board would like to approve moving forward with the process. Okay. Madam President, I move that the board approve uh the district administration moving forward with pursuing the concept of uh changing or modifying our food service to contract. Second. Okay, we have a motion on the table by Mr. Pal, second by Mr. Goodman to pro to authorize the district to go forward with request propo request for proposal for contracted to service. All of
193those in favor 70. Thank you. All right. Item 13, consideration of Lworth High School varsity football jerseys. Amy, you want to speak to this? [Music] There should be a brief there. This is um a year later than what was it should have came to you last year, but coach uh Sean, the head football coach, extended the life of that uniform. We at the high school have a five five-year rotation for our varsity uniforms. The varsity uniforms that we currently have will be then uh transition to our subarsity JV and then the JV goes to our C team and so forth. And that has always been the practice in this district. Uh typically the cost as everything else is going up typically the athletic director has budgeted 9,000 for uniforms. Obviously it's significantly higher just as
194when we had to help a little bit with the uh band uniforms previously. Uh Beth and I discussed and we'll split the cost with them. Uh so uh there are 80 uniforms away and home and so this is very normal practice. Any questions on uniforms? Can't we get sponsors with banners? Start talking. Do they know we wear anything other than just jerseys or what? It's the whole uniform. I'm pretty sure it's completely unifor. They get a helmet and shoulder pads, too. Yeah. Uniforms. All right. Do you have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of the BSN sports uniforms for our varsity football team at $19, $150. Second. Okay. A motion M is Murphy, a second Miss Reed to accept the um the bid for the high school football jerseys. All those
195in favor 70. Thank you. All right. Item 14, superintendent report. Dr. Rose, um today or this month is National Appreciation of School Board. Um, so the little cup and the little book is a little swag for you as board members. Um, that's double the pay that you had last year. It is and um that today we met as an ad admin team and the admin that were present um all signed a card in appreciation to the work and support of the administration and the school. Um definitely times like today are sometimes trying on on on a lot of a lot of fronts and you guys do an extremely great job uh deciphering through everything to make good decisions to keep kids first. So thank you for that. The only other thing that I have is
196the strategic plan update. As I said earlier, um all staff has had an opportunity um that's taken the opportunity to go through the process. uh we're sending out a parent the parent request this week and so we'll have all the information gathered and siloed and uh start submitting out to you and and Friday review so you have a chance to review all of that and we'll start narrowing it down. We may, depending on time and and what happens when you meet with the superintendent search, if we can have everything gathered at that point, may steal 30 minutes to 45 minutes to go through that to start narrowing that down even further uh to get that ball rolling so we could start this next phase of of the process. And so, um anyway, we're still on
197time. Uh but we have uh have met or at least tried to meet with every staff group throughout the district uh as of today. That's all I have. All right. Thank you, Dr. Item 15, executive session for non-elected personnel. Do we still want 15 minutes? Um yes. Funny break, but okay. You can put a fivem minute bio break in there. Okay. Um, the first one, Madame President, uh, I move that we go into executive session to discuss non-elected personnel pursuant to the exception of Kansas Open Meetings Act in order to protect privacy interest of the individuals to be uh, discussed and we'll return to open session at 09:30. No, no, just 9:35. Well, I was going to take a potty break. They badmouth me. So, not 09. That's in the morning. 9:35. The board will
198invite Dr. Roth, Amy Sloan, and board attorney Robert Angula. All right. Into the meeting. Second. All right. We have a motion to go into executive session to return at 9:35. Mr. Powell and second by Miss Murphy. All those in favor? 70. Madam President, I move that the board accept the recommendations for the from the staffing report as presented. Second motion by Mr. Second by Mr. Goodman to accept the staff report as presented. All in favor 70. Thank you. Item 17, upcoming meeting dates. Closing the meeting. So just to remind everyone the holiday we have 16th off for the Martin Luther King day half day of school on the 25th for the um half day PD program one February will be a special board meeting to work superintendent search issues 6 o' um the next board
199meeting will be the 13th of February and then we'll have a special board meeting on the 22nd of February primarily an executive session deal with the superintendent item 172 two unscheduled patient input. We have several Mr. Schwarz. Good evening board members and fellow citizens. The actions of a local politician in the name of large lobbying information turned this school district as well as the Lancing school district into a political playground. Unfortunately, that is zap funding for set for actual playgrounds and other needed construction to continue to improve our district. Representative Proctor has made a point to share with his constituents how connected he is with the American Legislative Exchange Council, which uses the organization status to obscure the identities of donors with clear intention to impact legislation at every level. In 2020, Alec began enacting
200their playbook to attack our public school system. Members of this very board have subscribed to this thinking as it is one and it is one representative with admitted close ties to ALEC that began the same playbook here in our communities turning clearly defined nonpartisan seats in our school board into conservative seats and has gone as far as to say as the vice chair of the Levvenworth County Republican Party we ran 10 candidates for multiple elections and that's an actual quote In fact, a newly elected conservative board member as described by Proctctor did not submit a finance report for the last election and has said she does not have ties to Mr. Proctor. However, they are seen quite together frequently. I'm here to say something shocking though. I agree with Pat Proctor. Our schools are under
201attack. It isn't social emotional learning or the CRT boogeyman though. It's politicians using a political agenda and a playbook written by dark money organizations to advance a political agenda. This does not have anything to do with the students, staff, or educators of this district. Those of you who have subscribed to these political talking points should ask yourself, at what cost does your loyalty require from the district? That is why I do not support this vote. Thank you, Miss George. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for hearing me. The rallying cry of taxation without representation from the Revolutionary War seems like antiquated history. And yet even today, elected officials seem prone to the same dissipations in trying to restrict citizens voices and inputs. Agenda item number 10 seemed to have been in response to a KASB concern
202rather than an issue that was plaguing this specific district. With this, what this board should be concerned with is the atmosphere that you are establishing with your citizens. The atmosphere should be one of trust. trusting that those who have concerns for the welfare of students can and should be heard regarding that if textbooks instructional materials and media centers challenges of materials. I am object I was objecting to and I'm glad you are reconsidering and readressing it with input from your attorney the deletion of certain aspects of the policy. My specific concern was the deletion of any person to the policy of the materials challenges. Why would you restrict the any person who wants to object to objectionable materials if not to restrict citizen inputs into the education of our citizens? I know of many grandparents,
203uncles, aunts, loving friends, neighbors, single, and yes, even childless citizens who are voters and taxpayers here who support the school district who are thoughtful and deeply interested in education. So, I urge you to resist a reactionary urge to silence constituents. The proverb, it takes a village, is something that is upheld by many caring people. And yet this proposed policy suggests silencing a majority of your village. During the discussion, thankfully Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Henula indicated there has never been an influx of challenges. I believe Mr. Goodwin said there were five and didn't even have a time frame which indicates that there is no current problem. Instead of addressing a problem, this proposal creates a problem in fermenting an atmosphere of mistrust between boards and citizens. My second objection is the composition. Why would you of
204the committee? Why would you ever entertain involving a student in material reviews? Adults that divest themselves of their responsibility to make sound decisions for children is inappropriate and it is shameful. I urge the board not to accept such changes in the future. Changes to the current policy were intimated to prevent any problem that could lurk out there. Tonight's discussion indicated there is no existing problem, but it does indicate that there is a more odious problem, an attempt to keep citizens in the dark and silence voices. It's a big problem. Why would the board object to someone bringing their attention to objectionable materials being presented to the children? Do you think you wouldn't have missed something? If somebody finds something that's objectionable and improves the learning environment for our kids, who cares who that person is?
205So, I urge you to be sound. Thank you very much in your decision making. Please use sound decision making. Hi, my name is Sharon Miller and I have two students in the district. Uh much has been said tonight about challenging and restricting material. I ask you, what challenges will occur when protected classes of individuals no longer see themselves in what they read and they learn? All students deserve to see themselves in what they read and what they learn every day. I want the students in this district to know and I want my sons to know that they are first in this district and there are people who will continue to fight for their right to see themselves in what they read and what they learn whether they are straight, LGBTQ, white, people of color, white,
206rich, poor, religious or secular all day, every day. Kids first in what they see and what they learn. Thanks for behalf on behalf of the work you do for our students every day. Thank you. All right, moving on. 173 board member comments. Me first. Oh my gosh. Uh, let's see. I want to um give a shout out to Harvest Christian Center International for their donation of 800 to go towards negative balances at Anthony Child Nutrition Department. I'm sure that helps those kids um with their situations. And so, I just wanted to call that out. But I'm not trying to overshadow any. We always have lots of amazing contributions. I just wanted to thank them for that. Um I think it's interesting that people on the left want to pretend like they haven't been involved in
207schoolboard races. I know for sure in Levvenworth um there was legislator involvement as long as six years ago that I'm personally aware of. So um anybody that knows me or has talked to me at all knows um that I did seek um input from both sides and people who are unaffiliated and was told that it would be vanilla that it wasn't uh a partisan situation. Otherwise, I would have never filed for it. Anybody that knows me knows I hate conflict. I love sitting in the back of rooms and people watching. I don't like being involved um like this being on YouTube, being in front of people um ruffling feathers and stuff. But needless to say, I was elected and here I sit and so for the next three years, I'll do everything I can to
208make sure this is a better district than I found it. Thank you. Mr. Well, it's been a long night and I've talked a lot. Uh I I do want to Yeah. Um I I do want to just talk about the the ROC program, the ball. It was great. The banquet was uh wonderful seeing all the kids getting up and and uh especially the seniors being able to to give their experiences. Uh, I really appreciate uh what they did and and enjoyed the evening. So, I want to uh just give a shout out generally to the ROC program. We have a real great one. Thank you. I'd like to echo how great the banquet was. You know, we got to meet Lieutenant General Briggs. Um, of course we had our um, state rep and our state
209senator there in presence along with our mayor who contain all the demographics within our community that makes it rich. And, uh, we're really proud of all the kiddos. Uh, I know softball's going to be starting soon along with baseball, um, basketball. So, we got a lot of things going on. We got We're gonna blink and it's going to be graduation time. I mean, we are seriously gonna blink and everybody's gonna graduating. So, please know you're up here on the roller coaster right now. It's from here on. So, please be safe, please be kind, and enjoy the ride. Mr. Oh, uh, haven't said much lately, but I know you all got the same emails I did, and I think you did anyway. And I I don't respond to canned emails on what you all do, and
210that's what they were, and it kind of mirrored what what uh Harry just said. We got involvement that shouldn't be involved. I wish our legislators, all of them, would work on issues that are a little bit more important than getting somebody on a board, like expanding Medicaid, uh, colas for our teachers and other capers people, uh, things like that. And what are they doing with all them billions of dollars they got over there in Topeka? If you read the paper, they got a couple billion dollars. They don't know what to do with. I know a lot of things they could do with it, but uh, and and Jack made a great point. That's why I didn't say anything during ring world about the IFC or whatever and that's we've had five things and she mentioned
211it too. So is it really a big deal? I mean a lot of this stuff is manufactured as far as I'm concerned and that's my opinion but I don't want to get into a situation where just because you don't like a book for your kid that my kid can't read it. That's BS. That's uh borders on totalitarian. But anyway, uh if you don't want the kid to read the book, just don't read the book. But seriously, on this these canned emails coming from U and this came from Proctor because I got his little email he sent out to everybody. Uh we don't need that. And I wish somebody would do something. I thought he got censored by his own party, but I guess that fell through. I don't know. But uh that guy's no good
212for our district or for this community as far as I'm concerned. I hope he's listening. Um, I am very excited the basketball has started because I get to hear the band indoors and not have to freeze my thought off of um I also I also do really enjoy the environment watching the student section of the games. If you haven't been to a game, go to a game, watch the kids in the student section and listen to the pep band van. It doesn't matter what the score is. Even though the kids play great, they put their hearts out there. But man, that environment is what it's why I'm here. The kids and wanting the positivity of each other and just trying to pump each other up and be great humans. And I want every day to
213be a pep band day. That's it. Mr. The dinner that we went to the other night's the reason why I love to be on this board and it's exactly what was expressed by a couple here that you watch the kids and they're just amazing. Um, and there are other programs other than the ROC program that I'm so proud of. So, I want to make sure that we remember to be proud of what we got. Uh, I also uh want to applaud the board on the uh effort that we put to to do the right thing by the policy. It took a lot of time, but every everybody in this board, I'm really proud uh cared to make sure that whatever we did with it, it was right or we thought was right for our kids.
214So, I I thank each and every one of you for that. Um, and uh, I hope that this year is a is a better year than years past. A happy new year to each of you and to our staff. Thank you for all that you do. So, I'm going to touch back to December a little bit because we talked about people go see the choir and band concerts and such and I will tell you they were fabulous. I'm always amazed at what our kids can do and they're just they always always surprised and I was really impressed with the many talent show. Those are some kids who really put their heart and soul into it and it was really it was really awesome. So, I know not every day is perfect, but when you get
215to see kids do their thing, it it just makes everything better no matter what's going on. Um, back to the new year. Um, yes, basketball and and wrestling and all the other sports that are coming out there. you want to do something, have some fun, go support our kids because they get out there and practice and, you know, cheer for them because they need us there. And it is a new year, so it's a new year to be a better version of ourselves, be a good pioneer. And that's all I got until next time. 951. Conor might make it home before you.