001The March 9th Board of Education meeting is now called to order. The board welcomes everyone present. The Wichita Public Schools will be the premier district of choice and inspire each student and staff member to thrive and to become future ready within the greater community. This is a business meeting of the Board of Education and we are pleased you have taken the time to join us. Out of courtesy for those participating and observing the meeting uh please take any side conversation uh out of the room. We recently uh lost a dedicated member of our community and our WP team. Uh Melody McCray Miller was a champion for education and for equal access to that education. Beyond Melody's work with Wichita Public Schools, she was a public servant through and through. She gave generously of her time
002to the community organizations and served on numerous boards throughout years. Some elected and some not. She will be deeply missed and I believe we will all work a little harder to fill that void that she has left. So tonight we're going to have a little extra moment of silence and I think uh Superintendent Beilefeld said it the best when we have a situation like this, we often think about things that we wish we would have said to that person before they left. So uh we we will miss her. Please join me in a moment of silence. >> Thank you very much. Will you please rise for uh color guard led tonight by Northwest High School? >> Order arms. Color guard halt. Left face. Present colors. Sir, Wichita Northwest High School is requesting permission to post
003the colors. >> You may post the colors. >> Thank you, sir. Order colors. Post. Ready post. Present arms. Please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge >> 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. >> Order arms. About face. Show your work. Round of applause. >> Latona, first item, please. >> Good news. National Association of School University Partnerships Award Presentation. >> Good evening. I'm Holly Ingram, Assistant Superintendent of Learning Services, joined with Dr. Stinchcomb from Wichita State University College of Ed, and we also have uh Dean Friend here as well. Tonight, I'm honored to share news that reflects the very best of Wichita Public Schools and our community partnerships. Wichita Public
004Schools and Wichita State University College of Education has been selected as a recipient of the 2026 National Association of School University Partnerships Exemplary School University Partnership Award. That is a mouthful. In addition, one of our outstanding educators, Stacy Chestnut from East High School, has been named the recipient of the NASUP Exemplary Mentor Teacher Award. We also had an elementary PE teacher, DeMarla Martinez, nominated as well. These recognitions are national honors that affirm the work happening here in Wichita and represents a model for school university collaboration across the country. >> Good evening. Um again, Heidi Stinchcomb, Associate Dean in the College of Education. For more than 30 years, our partnership with Wichita Public Schools has been grounded in a simple but powerful belief, and that's that when schools and universities prepare educators together, it's the students
005that benefit. Each year, more than 450 Wichita State teacher candidates complete clinical experiences in Wichita Public Schools, and that's a lot of teachers helping prepare future teachers. That's really awesome. These candidates learn alongside more than 200 mentor teachers and are supported by principals, instructional coaches, district leaders, and our university faculty who are all working together to support the development of future teachers. What makes our partnership special and unique is that we are not just placing students in school. We are truly working together. Um, we share responsibility for preparing future shocker teachers. We collaborate in selecting mentor teachers in aligning our preparation with district instructional priorities, calibrating expectations for candidates, and continuously improving how we support new teachers entering the profession. For the College of Education at Wichita State, these experiences are the cornerstone of how
006we prepare educators. Our candidates learn in authentic classroom settings while receiving mentorship from outstanding, truly outstanding, Wichita Public Schools teachers who model the craft of teaching every day. Perhaps most importantly, many of our future shocker teachers choose to begin their careers right here in Wichita Public Schools. Because they complete their preparation in partnership with district educators, they enter the profession already connected to the schools, to the students, to the community that they are going to serve. So, in a time when districts across the nation face workforce shortages, school university partnerships like ours are exemplary partnership, um, help ensure a steady pipeline of well-prepared educators ready to contribute to Wichita classrooms. And that stability directly impacts student achievement, school culture, and long-term district success. So, >> You can see the award if you'd like to see
007it on display. So, the second recognition we want to celebrate tonight highlights one of our most powerful elements of this partnership, mentorship. Stacy Chestnut, ELA teacher at East High School, has been named for the NACEP Exemplary Teacher, a national recognition for clinical educators who embody research-based coaching, reflective practice, and transformative mentorship. For more than a decade, she has co-planned and co-taught with teacher candidates, provided intentional and individualized feedback, modeled reflective practice, and built confidence and professional identity in our newest educators. Her former interns credit her with shaping their careers. One even went on to be named a Wichita Public Schools New Teacher of the Year. Even years later, former interns continue to reach out to Stacy for guidance. This recognition is not only about a university and our school district, it's about Wichita. It's about
008a community that believes in preparing great responsibility preparing great teachers is our public responsibility. It's about shared leadership with higher ed and pre-K-12 systems. It's about investing in people because when we invest in teachers, we invest in the students of this community in Wichita. And when we invest in students, we're investing in the future of Wichita. So, on behalf of Wichita Public Schools and Wichita State University, I just want to express gratitude to our Board of Education for continued support of strong educator preparation pathways, district leaders and principals, and others who host and develop our future educators, to the mentor teachers who shape the profession, and to our partners at Wichita State University. This national recognition affirms the work that's happening in Wichita Public Schools, and more importantly, it affirms that our students are surrounded
009by a system committed to preparing and sustaining outstanding educators. Thank you. >> 2026 Magnet Awards. >> Uh good evening Superintendent Beerfeld, President Reeser, and members of the board. Um my name is Jesse Miller and I work for the magnet department and this is my uh a colleague. Uh Amber Burbrink. Um uh on behalf of the magnet department, it is our pleasure to share with you the good news about three award-winning magnet programs in our district. Magnet Schools of America is a national nonprofit professional association that we belong to and guides a lot of our work in the magnet department. Every year they award merit awards to top magnet schools in the nation. To receive one of these merit awards, schools must submit a detailed application explaining their integration of the magnet theme, the implementation of
010innovative programs and instructional strategies, and their decision to leveraging and celebrating diversity with an unwavering commitment to academic standards. Magnet Schools of America has five major pillars which serve as a foundation um for true magnet schools excellence and also the work that we do with our 23 magnet schools. Uh one is diversity, innovative curriculum and professional development, academic excellence, leadership, and family and community partnerships. These pillars must be reflected in the application narrative and must depict a truly integrated experience for students. These schools are judged and scored on their demonstrated ability to decrease achievement disparity among demographic subgroups, promote racial and socioeconomic diversity, provide rigorous integrated curricula and instruction, and create strong family, community, and industry partnerships that enhance the school's magnet theme. And Amber is going to tell you about the three schools we
011have that won. >> So our first school we'd like to recognize tonight is Earhart Environmental Magnet. If you guys want to come on down. COME ON DOWN. THE NATIONAL MERIT SCHOOL OF Distinction for the fifth time. >> We're very proud of them. Um they've been a magnet school since 1977 and have an outstanding group of teachers that make their theme come alive for our students. Their Earth Day at living here, but their Earth Day celebration is amazing. So, you're all invited. Our second school is uh Mayberry Cultural Fine Arts Magnet. So, they are receiving their third Merit Award and is our only secondary magnet school to receive an award this year. So. >> Awesome job. >> And finally, we've got Riverside Leadership Magnet. Come on down. Is celebrating their very first ever magnet Merit Award.
012Thrilled to welcome them to our award-winning family of magnet schools and we are very excited to see uh the future of the students and staff at these schools. >> 2026 Scholastic Art and KMEA All-State Music Honors. >> Good evening, everyone. I'm Sean Chastain, Executive Coordinator of Fine Arts, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to recognize our WPS 2026 Scholastic Art and KMEA All-State Award winners. And thanks to so many of you, along with district leaders, for joining us at tonight's 5:00 p.m. reception in their honor. For now, though, I invite everyone to please enjoy these digital images that highlight the remarkable talent and achievements of our WPS fine art students. I'd like to start by recognizing our 51 WPS All-State student musicians who are selected to perform in the 2026 Kansas Music
013Educators Association or KMEA All-State ensembles. All-State rehearsals and performances took place during the KMEA 2026 in-service workshop held February 26th-28th at Wichita Century II. WPS was represented across multiple All-State ensembles, including the All-State full orchestra, jazz ensemble, middle school choir, high school mixed choir, high school treble choir, string orchestra, and high school 5A-6A band which just rehearsed in this space. And as I shared in January, and it does repeat bear repeating, that one of the highest honors any student musician can achieve is being selected to perform for members of KMEA. Such success only happens with many hours of dedicated students working hard and to those who support them. These All-Staters also represent 19 members of our exceptional WPS music education staff, eight WPS high schools, and three middle schools. And along with our KMEA student
014parents and families, all are to be commended for their time and support of these student musicians inside and outside of the school day. Congratulations KMEA All-State music students. WPS is proud of each and every one of you. And now moving on to Scholastics as our slideshow has, the Eastern Kansas Scholastic Art Awards showcases select artwork created by middle school and high school students from 70 Kansas counties. Participants supported by their visual arts teachers and other community members create and submit their best works of art. And each work is reviewed by a panel of art professionals for its originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal vision. This year, out of 1,613 individual submissions, 509 student works were selected for the exhibition. Of those 509 selected works, an impressive 205 entries came from the Wichita Public
015Schools. Our award-winning work represents 131 high school student artists guided by 26 WPS visual arts instructors across 12 WPS buildings. Our district totals include 99 honorable mentions, 62 silver keys, 42 gold keys, and two American Vision Awards. So, for the third consecutive year, at least 40% of the Eastern Kansas Scholastic Award winners are from the Wichita Public Schools. And that statistic alone is truly worth celebrating. Last year, over $1.5 million in college scholarships were awarded, and we know we'll have many WPS offers coming. But for now, please join me in recognizing and thanking those Scholastic Award winning students, teachers, parents, and families. And finally, many thanks to once again our Board of Education, building and district leadership for once again supporting our annual WPS Scholastic Art and KMEA All-State Awards. These students are simply an
016exten- an extension of the student and staff's talent that you all support in our fine arts classrooms on a daily basis. Once again, Wichita Public Schools Fine Arts would like to thank everyone for tonight's opportunity to share our students with such a distinguished audience across our region and state. We are WPS proud to see our future-ready artists thriving in scholastics and KMEA. Thank you. >> Integrating AI and environmental learning at Coleman. See, can I Okay. So, good evening. My name is Caitlin Schanhofer. I am the district's AI specialist. And tonight, I am excited to introduce a video to you all that's going to highlight some of the work happening at Coleman Middle School through our AI grant with Education First. This grant Grant has helped us explore how artificial intelligence and environmental magnet themes can
017be integrated into one to support teaching, learning, and innovation across our district. Before I share the video, I want to recognize the people who made this work possible. So, first, we want to thank principal of Coleman, Karen Waterman Overgard. Um the amazing teachers at Truesdale, which not all of them are here or Oh my gosh, Coleman. This is what happens, right? The amazing teachers at Coleman who helped here. Um and they helped support this innovation and have been willing to explore new tools and new ideas in their classroom um and work towards innovation and 21st century skills for students. So, finally, this video was created by two outstanding Southeast students, another partnership that we fostered with this project. Our students are Jack Elliott and Jasmine Saiden. Um through the guidance of their journalism teacher, Nathan
018Krishner, their work captures the story of this project and the impact that it has. So, we would like to share that video with you guys. >> this up here. Pull this pod out. You want to make sure something's cleaned up. Put the pod in. And then don't press it in all the way like that. See how you can't get that one out? >> We have our grow towers here, and our grow towers are intended to use hydroponics and artificial lighting in order to grow plants within the classrooms for students to interact with. And what we are doing is we are using AI to figure out seamless ways to integrate the grow towers into the curriculum. >> But you want an even layer going across. >> My name is Caitlin Shanover. I'm the district's AI specialist,
019and I am in charge of effective, ethical, and productive integration of AI into school buildings as well as business operations. >> Waterman Overgard is the principal of Coleman, and her goal is to have a grow tower in every classroom and every common space. Not only to help with the integration of the magnet theme into every single classroom and content area, but also to benefit the students in ways of having that connection to nature in the classroom. >> And graphing of real-time data from the plants that we have. >> It might be difficult initially to say, "Okay, I'm teaching proportional relationships or ratios in math. How does a grow tower relate to that?" So, what the teachers do is they use the custom copilot agent saying, "Here are my standards. Here's what I'm teaching. So, how
020can I meet the needs of all of my students while using a grow tower?" >> We wanted it to be embedded throughout the entire school. >> You're growing down straight so you don't finish them off. >> The grant was with Education First and AI by Coherence, and it was a $25,000 grant. And it just started with an idea of, "Hey, we have this new environmental magnet, and we wanted to think about how we could be innovative while still meeting that environmental theme." And so, sometimes it doesn't feel like AI and environmental go together because there are some concerns about the environmental impact of AI, which I think is a beautiful integration for our environmental school to use it in ethically and appropriate ways so that we can show that we are being conscientious of those
021environmental impacts while still using a resource that's available to us. >> Make sure that you are looking at the back. It will tell you how many seeds to put in each thing. >> I absolutely love it. Um in my classroom, in Sher Newingham's class, we have reptiles that like to eat the vegetables. So when we need to feed them, we can just go on over to the grow tower and take some of the plants and stuff. >> To incorporate like our prairie, we have a reestablished 3 acres of prairie and the students are like harvesting seeds from the prairie and they're planting them into the grow tower. >> nature champions classroom, we use some of the plants to feed the reptiles and we eat sometimes use them like for outdoors and stuff and it teaches
022us like how to support plants and maintain like plants. >> Um the kids that sit near it, they seem to love sitting near it. They'll ask me about the different plants that are growing and they want to know which ones are edible, which ones aren't and they just have a lot of fun trying to figure out what's what. >> It increases engagement with the students and it's a thing that sparks curiosity with the students. They want to learn more about the different plants. They'll come over and snap off a piece of a leaf and taste it and it's expanding their relationship with naturally grown food. >> And then that's a healthy that's a healthy root ball, right? So >> We are very intentional about the integration of AI here at Coleman because as we know,
023teachers are already inundated with tons of things that they have to accomplish. And so the last thing that we wanted to do was add one more thing to their plate. We were intentional in providing collaboration time and we taught them how to effectively use the AI tool to help with their planning, to help with their differentiation, to help with the creation of engaging student experiences. >> Very good. Very good. Now, go back into the painting. >> Anytime I have questions, rather than having to research through Google and it and sifting through a bunch of information, I can go straight there and talk to the chat agent and it'll always give me things that are related to this grow tower and my specific USD 259 visual art standards are already put in there, so that tells
024me how everything I want to do is linked to those standards. >> You take your lightweight newsprint. And most of this process can be done with your hands. >> AI is definitely changing the landscape of the world that we live in. It is embedded in everything that we do and everything that we interact with. So, we have to prepare our teachers and our students to think about the appropriate ways to use it without it becoming a cognitive offload for students. We don't want it to be where students quit learning and they use it as an easy button to not do their work. So, that starts with our teachers being educated about what that looks like. What are the things that AI can do now for us that maybe we don't need to do anymore. And
025that doesn't mean that students stop reading or stop doing paper pencil, anything like that, but it means the level of work that they can accomplish can be elevated because they have this additional resource. >> Thank you, guys. >> Very good. >> The next item, please. >> United Teachers of Wichita. Here we go. Um good evening. Um the first thing we wanted to do tonight, um, let's see. Can you hear me okay? Okay, sorry. I feel like this is different than normal. Um, good evening, President Reser, Vice President Hedrick, uh, distinguished board members, and, um, Superintendent Bielefeld. Um, tonight I wanted to start off by honoring the loss of Melody McCray Miller. Um, she was a dedicated educator, a compassionate leader, and a strong advocate for students and staff, um, during her service in the Wichita
026Board of Education. Um, being an educator, Melody understood the first-hand realities of the classroom, and she worked to ensure that the decisions made at the table reflected the needs of both students and educators. Her voice, her perspective, and her steady commitment to the public education will make a lasting impact on our district, and I know she will be deeply missed, um. My condolences with all of you and her family, and, um, we're really going to miss her, so. Um, uh, the next thing I wanted to, um, bring up was, um, last year during negotiations, uh, class size was one of the issues that educators had hoped to address, and, um, it was declined to be discussed. Um, so the last meeting I brought the, um, uh, board policy on class size, and so I was
027just going to share that again, um, with everyone, um, and the request that you look at these numbers. Uh, class size affects learning conditions, student achievement, and educator workload every single day. >> Katie, Katie, I'm sorry. I I I have to interrupt you. I Again, I want to remind the audience, out of courtesy of everyone participating and observing the meeting, please take all side conversations outside of the room. I apologize, Katie. Go ahead. >> Oh, that's okay. Um I was just saying class size affects learning conditions, student achievement, and educator workload every single day. So, we'd like you to update your class size policy so it better reflects the realities facing today's educators and students. Um and I just brought these just in case you wanted to look them over again. So, um thank you
028for your time and for your consideration. >> Thank you, Katie. Next item, please. >> Service Employees International Union. >> Not seeing anyone, uh we'll move to the next item. >> Public Communications. >> And Latona, I'll let you introduce each uh speaker. >> Ashley Bonds. >> Before you Hang on 1 second. Thank you for joining us tonight. If you have signed up for public comments, we will have you will have 3 minutes to speak and we kindly ask that you acknowledge that your light allotted time according to the timer displayed on the screen. We encourage you to share your thoughts openly and honestly. But we ask that your rema- remarks remain focused on school-related matters and are respectful and constructive. The board will listen to your input, but will not respond during this meeting. However, we
029are listening and may follow up as appro- as appropriate. Our ne- Our first speaker. >> Good evening. My name is Ashley Bonds and I serve as the program director for Jobs for America's Graduates Kansas here in Wichita and Augusta. I previously worked in this role at Southeast High School. Um and now in this role, um I lead and support nine incredible high school career specialists across our district and before I begin we too would like to um share our condolences to Melody McCray Miller. She was a valued member of the Wichita community and she will be missed. Um this year Wichita has been piloting an exciting initiative through Jack Kay focused on micro-credentialing. These credentials allow students to complete more rigorous, skill-based, and verified uh digital badges with metadata that can be shared on platforms
030like LinkedIn and connect them directly with employers. It's a powerful way to help students demonstrate real workforce skills. We're also proud to align with USD 259's vision of helping students graduate with post-secondary assets. Our financial literacy curriculum is now being recognized for college credit through Cloud County Community College and we are also currently working to expand that recognition across other Kansas community colleges. On behalf of our students and staff we want to sincerely thank the superintendent and the board for your continued support and partnership. Um we love providing opportunities for young people in our district and we have a small token of appreciation from our students tonight. Thank you. >> Next speaker Isabel Einwik. >> Hello. Okay. Is this thing on? Hello. My name is Isabel Einwik and I am a senior at Wichita Northeast
031Magnet High School and I currently hold the title for Junior Miss Wheelchair Kansas 2025. I am a very avid member of the community and I am excited to be here today to talk about my platform education surrounding disability. As Junior Miss, I use my reign to be a role model for a young students with disabilities as well as to promote my platform. My platform covers the realm of not only educating students of all ages, but also educating school staff and administrators about disability needs and what may need to be updated to make school more accessible for all. Educating other students is extremely important because it could affect how they interact with a person with a disability and how some might fail to see past it in order to get to know the person. These feelings
032of being excluded, whether it be intentional or unintentional, can shape how anyone views themselves and being able to be that advocate to encourage these topics in school settings is just the start. Access barriers can exist anywhere and are often overlooked because it does by people because it doesn't usually affect them. But to someone with a disability, it could mean the difference of being in able to participate or being left out. Some of these common barriers are broken elevators, blocked access ramps or even snow. Something I have noticed throughout my years is how many buildings, whether they are new or old or older, often have issues with elevator maintenance. I have had several personal experiences where there have been elevators that break and aren't well maintained because they don't have parts able to be mentioned to
033Oh my gosh, I cannot speak today. To be shipped and fixed immediately. So, I through my e-teachers and my admin the NEM administration, they have been very helpful about trying to minimize these problems, but these maintenance issues and elevate about elevators can easily cause an access barrier for any student or staff member. Another concern can be snow, such as the snowfall that we had last January, due to sidewalks not being properly shoveled or snow being piled onto cutouts and ramps. This can cause many issues for wheelchair buses, users, and all students and staff. I am very thankful to have great teachers and administrators who have helped me contact maintenance and facilities teams to clear the snow. However, I do believe it could be helpful to have more training to learn to shovel the snow through
034the cutout ramps to make the safety issue as minimized as possible. I see I am running out of time, but I do have a few more or things highlighted in the packet handed out beforehand, and I am very open to questions on the contact information listed below. Thank you so much for your time tonight. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker, Tessa Hoffman. >> Um good evening. My name is Tessa Hoffman. Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to observe a workshop you all had on regarding the Kansas Senate Bill number 281. This bill proposes a bell-to-bell ban on personal electronic communication devices, including student cell phones and smartphones, but of course does not come with funding for implementation. The bill also has ambiguity for implementation, like what it means for student devices to be securely
035stored during the school day. My largest takeaway from the workshop was how strongly you all felt about not tasking our teachers with policing this policy, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, the workshop also highlighted the discrepancy among you regarding the potential financial investment of securely storing student devices. As a current WPS parent to three students, I believe this bill and subsequent implementation is incredibly important. To maximize its benefit for both students and teachers, because there are statistical benefits to both students and teachers when you remove student cell phones from the school day, and to keep teachers from having to police the policy, you must be willing to invest in the implementation for its full success. Student devices need to be fully inaccessible and securely stored outside of student backpacks and student lockers. Essentially, if you don't
036make student devices fully inaccessible, you automatically place teachers in a position where they will be forced to police the policy. You cultivate an environment where teachers will be further exhausted, and where implementation will likely be inconsistent from teacher to teacher or from school to school. Unfortunately, Kansas is not ahead of the game in this area, and other school districts in other states have already done this and are already reaping the benefits. So, whether we do outside of classroom all-day storage like the pencil pouches at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C., or like the Manila envelopes at Dunbar High School in Dayton, Ohio, or do some other storage solution, I'm simply asking, I'm urging you to be willing to do whatever is necessary to implement this policy to its full potential. I believe the long-term positive
037outcomes will far surpass any initial cost, and I can't think, honestly, of a better way for WPS to help our students truly be future-ready than to remove the biggest distraction that's ever existed in our school buildings. Just a few quick statistics, I'll say them really fast. Students check their phones an average of 100-plus times a day, and every notification is a mental interruption that takes minutes to recover from each time. 72% of high school teachers report cell phones are a major distraction in the classroom, not just a minor nuisance. And students not using their phones during a class wrote down 62% more information and also scored a grade and a half higher on a multiple-choice test. The last thing I want to say quickly after attending the workshop is that we do have a couple
038board members who are already passionate about this topic, and I would just urge you to listen to their input on this issue. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker, Rebecca Armstrong. Rebecca Armstrong. Um next speaker, Trish Halman. >> Good evening. My name is Trish. Um tonight I'm asking you to take a courageous step. Reopen the facilities master plan before moving forward with additional school closures. The current plan is built on a central assumption, 24 students per elementary classroom. But many parents, teachers, and community members are asking a different question. What if we planned around what actually helps children learn best? What if our priority was 17 students per classroom? I know that's a huge ask. When we apply that community value to the district's own data, the picture changes significantly. With
039the schools that have already been closed, the six, and using a 17-student classroom model, the district would already be operating at over 100% utilization if the four elementary schools slated for closure remain open. So, I know the pushback to this idea. You've said that the district cannot hire enough teachers. We're going to have a presentation to staff more classrooms. I would encourage us to flip that script. Instead of designing a system around scarcity, what if we designed one around becoming the district teachers want to work in? Imagine being known as the district where teachers can actually teach, where class sizes are manageable, where student behaviors are more manageable because classrooms are smaller, where teachers feel respected and supported, and our BOE community representatives drove those values into our plans and our school system. I'm going
040off script. Let me share some positives because you have been more listening as a BOE than most in our my history. Good things. This BOE created workshops versus three on three for consent agenda. This district BOE made district emails versus personal emails for the BOE. They established the financial oversight committee. They listened when the community said, "Put the bond on the general ballot." Doesn't the city wish that they had listened? 90 schools in 90 days listening to staff facility priorities, meeting with community advocates to talk about changes to facilities master plan. That's all the stuff that you guys have done way better than any other board that I've watched. So, tonight I ask you, be bold, reopen the facilities master plan, invite the community into the conversation about the kind of schools and classrooms we
041want for Wichita's children. And then, watch us all march to the polls and vote 75% yes bond. That's what I want. Thank you for your service. You are amazing. >> Next speaker, Amy Drott. >> I'm very short. Can you hear me okay? Perfect. All right, good evening everybody. My name is Amy Drought. I'm here tonight because you all are preparing to vote on a timeline to close four elementary schools, a plan that voters in this community have explicitly rejected as part of the 2025 bond initiative. That rejection was not ambiguous. It was a direct instruction from the people you serve. Your own website states it plainly. The Board of Education is elected by voters. The governance of the district shall be vested in the board. I want to make sure that is understood clearly tonight.
042You govern this district. The administration does not. When voters rejected the bond, they were not casting a protest vote. They were exercising the exact oversight mechanism that democratic governance is built on. Moving forward with closures is not leadership. It is a circumvention of the public trust you were elected to uphold. And the stakes here are not abstract. The research on school closures is consistent and sobering. Empty buildings become community wounds. Closed schools sit vacant for years, draining property values, hollowing out neighborhoods, and leaving communities with nothing to show for the investments that built them. Children pay the price. Bussing students further away from their homes disrupts attendance, increases tardiness, and undermines the relationships between families and neighborhood schools that research consistently shows improve student outcomes. Consolidated schools are not automatically better schools. Overcrowding strains teachers
043and hits the most vulnerable students hardest. Now, let me put the district's enrollment argument in context. The district's threshold for a full school is 350 students. By that standard, two of these four schools barely qualify as under-enrolled. In 2024-25, Woodland served 347 students. Three students below the district's own benchmark. Pleasant Valley served students, 48 students, roughly one and a half classrooms. These are not hollowed out buildings. These are functioning neighborhood schools serving hundreds of children. The two schools with meaningful meaningfully lower enrollment, OK and Lobertcher, deserve honest conversations about investment and community planning, not summary closure. And even there, the district's benchmark of 350 is worth scrutinizing. It assumes class sizes of roughly 24 students, which exceeds what most child development research considers appropriate. Furthermore, this board should ask itself who's bearing the burden of
044this district school closure pattern. Each of these schools primarily serves black and Hispanic children from low-income households, the exact breakdown that you each have been provided. This is not the first round of closures with this demographic fingerprint. The board has the authority and the obligation to press pause. You are not obligated to carry out an administrative recommendation. I am asking you respectfully and directly to vote no on this timeline. Go back to the community, rebuild trust. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That was the last speaker. Next item on the agenda, action timeline of school closures. >> Um at this time, um this is kind of a continuation from our February meeting. Um I think we uh Did you still want to do a presentation? Did Steve want to go to that over that last
045chart or just >> No, I wasn't going to have Steve do it, but I thought we were going to have the slide. Do we have the slide to put up? Okay. We'll just post the slide. >> Post the slide and then um We've talked about it in January and then we talked about it in February, as you guys know. So, the slide is just a recap of what the discussion was and we would just ask for action tonight. >> Okay. And uh again, I would just remind the uh the board and everyone in in the audience, this is not a vote on school closure. This That was decided, and that was voted on in the uh year 2024. Um there has not been a motion to revisit the facility uh master plan. Uh this timeline
046is designed to um stay in transparency mode with our four schools on if the bond passes and if the bond does not pass. And then on the far left there, you will see what the original timeline is. So, with that, I will uh open it up for discussion. Amy Jensen. >> Thank you, Stan. I just have a couple of comments. Um in February, I responded to every person who emailed me asking us to keep their neighborhood schools open, and I asked a simple follow-up, "How many houses are on your block, and how many of those homes have school-age children?" Obviously, it wasn't a scientific study. It was my own action research. Uh but the responses showed a consistent pattern. On blocks with 17, 19, even 29 homes, very often there were only zero to four
047households that had school-age children. On my block in District 5, there are 12 houses, and there are no homes that have school-age children. That doesn't take away from the love that people feel for their neighborhood schools. That love is real. But it does point to a reality we have to consider in some areas. There just aren't as many students as there once was. As we continue these difficult conversations, information like this helps us make thoughtful decisions grounded in today's enrollment realities while honoring our community. And at the center of every decision we make, we must do what's best that supports our students learning, their opportunities, and their long-term successes. Thank you, Stan. >> Thank you, Amy Jensen. Amy Warren. >> Um okay. I So, Mike. Got it. Um I'm speaking on behalf of my district
048right now, and I think everybody knows I've got three schools that are on the list. Uh And coming freshly from being on the other side with neighbors and with community members, um being a parent who through all the facility master plans and going to to listening sessions, um I understand deeply the frustration and um and I don't think it's because I don't think it's because necessarily this is um the only solution. We just as community members have a different solution in mind. Um and it becomes really frustrating when our vision doesn't align with the district's vision. But, I want to say too that I don't know that their vision is wrong. I think it's just a different solution than what many of us would want. And I do think that what I have heard clearly
049is that people want a chance to reopen the facility master plan. Um I don't think it's likely, but I would make a motion now to consider reopening the facility master plan, and I think that that can be I want to make that as a response to the request from the community members. And then we've given that chance to really listen to their desires and um we can go from there and then at least have that on on the the notes. So, I don't know if that's something that we could entertain right now if I can make that motion. >> We have a motion on the floor. >> I'll second. >> There's a motion on the floor moved by Amy Wait, please. Uh um moved by Amy Warren, seconded by Knock Vaughn. Uh any discussion? >>
050Um let's see. Go back. Amy Jensen. >> Um I'd like to share a perspective that comes from my experience as a career educator. I hold a bachelor's degree in secondary education and in English. I have a master's degree in teaching and I spent 31 years in the classroom. Over those years, one of my biggest frustrations as a classroom teacher and an educator was having people who haven't been in the classroom since they were in high school tell me how to be a teacher. Um it's very frustrating. Serving on this board sometimes feels very similar when we ask the professional recommendations of our facilities staff and our district leadership regarding the facilities master plan. These are trained professionals. They study enrollment trends. They build the building conditions, the safety, the capacity, and the long-term needs in
051ways that most of us simply have no idea. We hired these professionals and we pay them very well because we trust their expertise. If we don't trust them to do the work that we've asked them to do, then I I to ask why are they still working here? I believe in our staff. I believe in their professionalism, their experience, and their commitment to doing what's best for our district and for our students, and I believe we should respect and seriously consider the recommendations that they bring forward. >> Thank you. Amy Warren. >> Um thank you and thank you not for for selecting that. So, again, I want to reiterate that the reason I bring this up is not um because I think that the current plan um is not an option. I think it's well
052thought out. I think that um the district has done a good job of trying to analyze different options, but I wanted to do that as a way to say that we hear the community members that have been coming and attending meetings um trying to do what they can, and I think it's really important that we we bring that voice up. Um should this not go through, I still would ask for everybody who shows up to continue supporting Wichita Public Schools and know that um we need you to still be as invested right now today as you might be on the other side of a different vote that does not sit well. I guarantee nobody else up here wants to close schools, but we are trying to look for the best options for the students and
053the staff. Um and having been in all the buildings that are on the the closure list, I do think we've got something better that we can offer a lot of our students that are in those structures, and so um just please stay with us and uh keep giving feedback so that we can hopefully marry those visions together better as we move forward in the future. >> Thank you, Amy. Um I just I just want to say that, you know, one of the biggest problems with um this motion is the list that you see before us on the timeline we're going to vote on. Um those four schools would be replaced with another group of schools. And that I think what this motion does is it's going to pit uh community school communities school communities versus
054school communities. So, I'll be voting against that motion. But I think it's important to understand that these school closures were not driven by have not been driven by just one factor. We look at employment trends, uh enrollment trends, facility conditions, staffing reality, and being able to divide uh deliver support services that our teachers told us they needed uh after COVID was over. So, uh this was the facility master plan was developed with the most objective way possible. As far as I can tell, there was no politics uh done behind the scenes, which is of I think it's a great credit to our uh our staff. It was done in a very clinical uh straightforward way. So, I'll be voting against the motion. We have a motion on the floor. Any other discussion? If not, you
055may vote. >> Can we do a manual vote, hand raising? >> Do you >> We We need to. >> Uh we do we do not want to use this? >> No. >> Okay. All those in favor of the motion, raise your hand. All those opposed to the motion, raise your hand. Motion fails two to four. Amy Warren, Knock Von voting I. Diane Albert, Stan Research, Julie Hedrick, and Amy Jensen voting nay. With that, I will make a motion to Um I will make a motion to go ahead and approve the timeline the that was before us in January and February and uh was up there 5 minutes ago. Any discussion? >> Can you put the slide back up? Thank you, Latonya. >> This is the timeline that we are voting on today. A motion by
056Stan to approve the timeline. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Moved by Stan, seconded by Diane. Discussion? If not, we'll vote. Do you need a a hand vote on this one as well? >> See it on your screen. Let's try that. Electronic voting. >> It's not on the display but I think since this one is already preloaded, it should work. >> Okay. >> Oh. >> So, we are able to >> Well, >> can't do a hand vote. >> Okay. All those in favor, uh raise your hand. All those opposed, raise your hand. Motion carries 4-2 with uh Amy Warren and Nat Von voting no. Again, we appreciate the community's patience with this and I think Amy Warren said it best. Uh of the this is disappointing no news I know to many people,
057but from from this day here, we have the opportunity to come together and engage on how we approach the fact that we match up our enrollment with the number of buildings that we have. So, we look forward to that engagement in the next couple months, and I hope everyone will keep in mind that the people that went through this after 24 have came back and said that the culture that the Wichita public schools is trying to create was also present in their new school that they went to. We have not received word that we have really worked hard in making these transitions as easy as possible on students, and on neighborhoods, and on staff. So, you are still part of the family, and we will continue to approach everything like that as a family. Thank
058you. Latonia, next item. >> Education >> Okay. We will I'm sorry. I wanted to give everyone a chance that if you just came for this portion of the meeting, we will take a 10-minute break, and then we will resume here at 7:13. >> 15-minute break? >> A little It's a little more than 10 minutes, yeah. >> Just making sure. >> Sticking with the 20 spots. >> 7:13 According to that clock. >> I just wanted to say thank >> Mhm. >> Welcome back to the Board of Education meeting. Latona, next item, please. >> Education, student board update. >> All right. I would like to invite the student board members up and Dr. Hatfield. And I did want to say a little something here. Um as we as we miss Melody tonight um and thank you, Latona,
059for the beautiful flowers. Um one of the comments that was made this weekend at uh Melody's celebration of life was how Melody got into the room so that and that wasn't enough for her. She wanted others to be in the room with her. So, in the room being in the the room where the decisions are made. And so um Isabella coming tonight hearing her voice and her being in the room and you guys being here, um that was really the whole vision of student board was that um it wasn't adult-driven and adult-centered, um but it was student-driven and student-centered. And um you guys uh before you realize it, probably. Before you real realize it, you're going to be making decisions. You're going to be leading things. You're going to be in charge of stuff. Um
060and so we need to get you ready for that. That's part of our mission at West Springfield schools. So, I know Melody would be proud of this today and proud of the work we've done. So, I'll pass it off to Dr. Hatfield. >> All right. You guys can sit if you want. Get comfortable. Landon will be up here in just a second. Good evening to all of you. Uh for those of you that haven't had that have had the opportunity to observe um these amazing young people um and their colleagues in action, um I'm I'm pretty sure that's probably was an inspiring moment for you. For those of you that haven't had a chance, I'm I really encourage you to try to come out. You are an observer only. You don't get to participate in
061the process. They are in charge um not not the adults in the space as as Kelly said. And I just want to lift up the the evolution um from the Superintendent's Advisory Council to the Student Board. Um it's been really cool um to see um the brainchild, Kelly's brainchild, and Dr. Myers' uh brainchild, and the work that they have put in um to make this come to fruition. And these students have been the ones that have made it come to fruition as fast as it has. So, we're really excited about them being here tonight. Tonight, we have our um student board officers here to present to you. Um they are going to give you a summary of what they've done as a student board in 2025-2026. Uh they are also going to talk about the
062committees that they work on. They're going to talk to you about their committees. All of you have committees, they have committees. We used the extended break to talk extensively about the work of a board. Um so, that was actually pretty cool. Um they're going to talk to you about the Winter Leadership Conference, which these student board students planned and put on for all of the other leadership students that attended this conference from Wichita Public Schools. So, they're going to talk about that. Um and then they're going to talk about what's next for the student board. So, with you tonight, we have student board president Landon Horsch Child, who's behind me. We have the student board vice president Jeremiah Olguin, who's over here. And the student board secretary, Kamora Potter Potter, and they uh they have
063some great information for you this evening. >> Well, good evening. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Uh like she said, my name is Landon Horsch Child, and we are the student board. Um and so, you're probably like, "Who are these people? You know, what are they doing here?" And And so, the next slide actually gives you a a perfect example of who we are. Um I'm Landon Horsch Child, and I have the honor to be the president of the student board this year. I was the secretary last year in its first term. Um go ahead, guys. >> Good evening, board. I'm Jeremiah Olguin, the vice president. I'm very fortunate to be able to have gotten elected, and I'm very proud representative of my school. I did I just notice there's a little bit of
064a tiny uh typo. I represent South High School. >> Hello everyone. My name is Kamora Potter and I am the secretary of the student board and I am a senior at Northwest High School. And we also have a few other few others on our board here. If you guys want to stand up and show yourselves. >> Right away there, you see Sophie in the middle. Um, if you want to go back to that slide before, Sophie leads one of our committees. We have three committees this year. She leads our drug committee that kind of attacks problems in the schools specifically vaping and smoking. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Um, Zane couldn't be here today. He's actually working so is Lilly. Um, but they lead their own committees too. They were elected fully
065democratic process. Um, and and so it's awesome. It's it's cool opportunity. And so we actually were at Miss Lily Woo's state of the city last night and then we had a board there. Um, it's the volunteer show and so it's you know, talking about volunteer opportunities and we were talking to people and so a ton of people asked me this question. Um, what do you who are you? Like like what are you talking about? What is this student board? And so what I tell people is is we are the board that represents 45,000 students to the Wichita City Government and Wichita Board of Education along with the Wichita Public Schools. And we do that through 40 students. So four students from every major high school inside Wichita and that includes Imagine Academy and Chester Lewis.
066And so they all represent their schools and those students serve on boards. Like I said earlier, we have three boards. We have a policy board, a community board. Excuse me, a community board. There we go. And then we have a drug related board to attack those issues in our community. Our whole goal is like when we say 45,000 students, a lot of people. And every one of those students has a name and every one of those names has a story. And our goal is to represent every single one of those stories on our board and that is high school students, it's middle school students and it's elementary school students on top of the amazing pre-K pre-K kids that we have in our schools. And so those students are our goal and we're their voice. >>
067Thank you, Landon. So, our first board that we want to introduce to you guys is my personal favorite and that one is ran by Zane who couldn't be here today. Um this is the community outreach board and what this board's goal is is to bridge that gap between the neighbor the um the neighborhoods and those easily accessible public schools. And what we want to do is just plan some more events for the community and more social social gatherings. Um one of my biggest concerns is that in America, third spaces are on the on on the decline. Third spaces include just casual social gatherings that you can freely attend or like non-privatized and easily accessible. And one way that we can easily address this issue is through a student board by having student-led initiatives that are
068easily accessible and fun. Um not only that, but when these events are student planned, this will increase students uh school spirit because I do believe that anyone anyone could tell you that school spirit is also on the decline. So, if we're having more events ran by students and our friends, people are going to want to show up. And in Gen Z terms, we need more functions to pop out at. This is one of my favorite boards and that is our goal and mission. >> Yes, so the very next one is our drug and mental health um health committee. What we focus on is really raising awareness and promoting um education whenever it comes to substance misuse and substance misuse prevention. We like to gather um on a monthly basis with our board to really evaluate
069what these core issues are within our schools. As you all know, within each school is a completely different culture and and vibe and way of going about the issues that we see. So, what we like to do is gather those different perspectives and have those difficult conversations to see what we can do best to not only help our schools, but to help our district as a as a whole. One of the biggest things we really want to focus in on is safety, creating that safe environment where students are not able to just you know, feel comfortable in their spaces, but are truly able to learn. Through that is our advocacy for different strategies, um whether that be a bit more transparency within our hallway uh policies, whether that be with Excuse me. Um whether that
070be with different policies, outreaches, or through simple research. You know, asking different schools, "What is going on in your classrooms? What is going on in the hallways? What can we do?" You know, asking those tough questions opens the door for us to be able to find those creative solutions. >> Yeah, and then finally our policy committee. And so, you guys are going to love this one. We look at everything you do. And so, every single policy that you put on that website, we're looking at. We're doing it all the time. That's exactly what they're committed to. And so, the goal of that committee is obviously to look at policies and see how they can get better at the student voice in them, but also just like to be involved in the conversations. And and I
071I have to say, you guys do a great job of of being involved with us. I I know many of you come and show out at our meetings. You have tough conversations with us. Um I can text Diane just straight up and be like, "Hey, what's going on here?" And that's awesome. And so, that that's a powerful and that's amazing. And that's exactly what this board does. Um you also see a little bit of food there. We love food. And we've learned that breaking bread is really important, especially when talking about a lot of policy. And so, that's just a that's a quick thing there. Um and that is also very specific with financial policy, too. I know a couple of our students, myself and Ananya, um we serve on the financial committee for Wichita
072Public Schools. And so, um they slammed down this big book of just financial records. And we're like, "All right. Okay." Um but we've learned and and we bring that aspect to our meetings as well. And so, kind of our big hitter this year, I know like with a board like this, you want to see fruit. And so, one of those pieces of fruit that we have is is the WSU Leadership Conference. And so, I I had the honor of being kind of the point man and organizer in that, um working with Ms. Cammy Kennedy, the head counselor at East High, and then Ms. Macy Neal, the head counselor at Northeast. Um and they did an incredible job. And then so I'll explain a little bit what this is. Um we get 250 students um from
073like all high schools, but also middle schools. And they kind of bring different um groups of students based on on their sizes. And they come to WSU. WSU just basically kind of gives us the area for the day. They give us a bunch of classrooms and a the big Rhatigan Center. And then we just go in there and we teach kids leadership. And it's not adults teaching kids leadership, it's students teaching students leadership. And so each one of our high schools had a different leadership uh area that they talked about. And so East High talked about communication. They played some fun games. Um I'm I'm pretty sure Southeast did something kind of on the same page. I know Northeast uh talked about teamwork and collaboration. Like it's everything to do with leadership and they asked
074really difficult questions. Um you see a lot with these conferences and you guys probably know, you go to a meeting that can be an email. And then it's like we don't want that. We I want students to actually figure out how to lead. We want don't want to create uh you know, leaders of tomorrow. We want to create leaders of today. And we have some of those leaders that just need somebody to like invest in them. And that's exactly what this conference did. It was a ton of fun. We had uh Chief Sid Newby from the Wichita Fire Department. Um my favorite thing was he he came there, gave a presentation, and you know, when you give somebody a mic like that, you don't know if they're going to talk for 5 minutes or 25
075minutes. And and and Chief Sid smartest guy I know, comes up there, talks for 10 minutes, and and his key line was just kiss. Keep it simple, stupid. Because leadership is simply just serving the people around you and listening to them. Um students just want to be seen and heard, and that's exactly what this leadership conference did. >> So we do have some future plans coming up, and that is going to be um we are going on tour. And no, unfortunately, it's not a concert tour. It's something even better. We are going to be touring at our local middle school and high schools, and possibly some elementary schools. Um what we want to do is a student panel of our board members, not just us, but everyone, all 30 of us. And because this is
076I mean, what better group to do this than organization that's built up of students from every single Wichita public school that we have, right? So, we're going to go back and we're going to spread the knowledge. Um, we really want to encourage um, students to be aware of the opportunities they have, whether they're going into ninth grade or whether they're junior, sophomores, or freshman looking to get involved because we're all involved in drastically different things. And we understand completely what it's like to feel like everything is being gatekept. A lot of people don't even know about the board we're on. And so, what we want to do is spread the awareness and get more voices on this board because it is increasingly becoming selective. And then we're also going to be partnering with the Mayor's
077Youth Council. Council, do you want to >> Yeah, absolutely. I'm very fortunate to also serve as a member for the Wichita Mayor's Youth Council as the chair for the Wichita History Committee. And one of the biggest things that I'm I believe in is there's no need to reinvent the wheel. We have many talented and bright students within our city. And if we can connect those amazing resources, why not do it? So, in partnership with the Mayor's Youth Council, we will be doing a river cleanup during um, a little bit before Riverfest where we can connect all of our youth in Wichita to be able to help our community and kind of build those bridges that we might not see. Looking very uh, very much looking forward to that. >> And the timeline of this will
078be like within the next two months. So, very, very soon. >> Yeah, and now before you change, I'll add. Obviously, you're looking at some amazing people up here. Um, we're all graduating. And and so, sadly, we would like to stay in the schools as we legally can't. Uh, they won't let us back. And so, um, we're all graduating, so we have to pick new people. And so, that process is starts at our next meeting this Thursday. Um, you know, people start running for uh, election and so they'll all of these practically all of our positions, I think, are being you know, somebody new is going to be running for it because we're all graduating. And so, for the future plans, it's going to be a lot of new people and a lot of new ideas
079and there's a lot of new leadership. And so, we're really excited for that and we'd love to if you guys came out on Thursday to kind of see that process. Yeah, and so kind of we want to summarize today two big simple words is just thank you. And I know you guys probably are don't hear it enough, right? You guys do a difficult job and and you we just want to say thank you. You show out consistently. We love your support. We love you guys seeing you guys everywhere. Love hard conversations. We love the easy conversations. We love being able to laugh. We love you guys for giving us this opportunity and for having a board for making students' voices be heard and just I mean, I think you give us an inch, we're going
080to take a mile. We're going to keep walking forward and that's exactly what this board does and we're currently thankful for it. You guys want to say anything? >> Absolutely. He took the words right out of my mouth, but something I really need to extend my gratitude for is this this board looked really good on my college application. So, I want to thank you guys so much for creating this and I mean, not only does it give me a platform, an opportunity to truly express my my leadership and my passion to make change. It looked really good on the college app. Every single time, you know, I mean, whenever there was a meeting, I knew I don't got to pack a lunch. I don't got to go buy a lunch. You guys provide it for
081us. Thank you so much. >> Definitely, um, I got to I got to second that. But truly, from the bottom of all of our hearts, thank you for seeing the potential within our youth to allow us, like Lyndon said, to not be the leaders of tomorrow, but to be the leaders of today. I feel like being on this board and being able to have access to things like this really opened open eyes to just how important our voices are. So, truly thank you for opening my eyes to that. >> And I think we're open for questions. I don't know how this works, but we're ready for you guys. >> Yes, they are very ready for You know why we gave them space? We're all going to work for them one day, so we're very thankful
082that you gave them this opportunity. Remember who let you come up here. But, they are happy to answer questions and then Dr. Christie Meyer, who is the staff sponsor and in in charge of this group, if you have any questions that you need to direct to her toward her, I I can have her step up here. She prefers, of course, that the students answer, but if you have any questions that might be better answered by her, we can also have her answer those. So, thank you guys for your time and and I'm sure the kids would be happy to answer questions. >> have at least two questions. Amy Warren? >> Um so, you guys are all graduating. Congratulations. I was wondering if you would share what your future plans are and Kamora, you are already
083said that this was good on your application, but if there's something else that we could try to support to help other students either take advantage of this opportunity or get them to the level that you guys are cuz you guys are all obviously just gold stars, amazing across the board. Let us know how we can help with that, but I'd love to see what your What are you guys doing next year? >> You guys want to start? >> Yes, so I'm very fortunate to have gotten accepted to the College of Saint Anselm in uh New Hampshire. I plan to study public policy and international relations and I'm also on the pre-law track. My end goal is to work internationally with businesses to help focus on education for those who, you know, don't have the most
084access to it. But, as for what you guys can do to best help, you know, students like us, invest, truly invest in those high-risk students. Because although what we see on paper is true on C and and problems, for lack of better words. Behind Oh, excuse me. Behind all of that are bright students who have untapped potential. Um you know, at South High, I have seen and I have heard the reputation and rumors that we have. But truly, South High has some of the most capable, competent, and accomplished leaders and leaders to be. So, one of the best things you guys can do is to help us help them. >> Mhm. >> Very good. >> Emmy, you have to follow that now. So, go ahead. >> I don't know if I could top that, but
085um I'm going to be going to Rice University in Houston, Texas, and I did get a full ride scholarship that pays for housing, >> that pays for housing, food, travel, and even like a little a little bit extra, you know? And um I'm not going to gatekeep what scholarship I got. I got the QuestBridge scholarship. >> Mhm. >> Remember that. Tell everyone you guys know. I've been working my butt off giving presentations at school to all the freshmen, to all the juniors, to all the sophomores. But unfortunately, the same response I keep getting is, "Oh, I'm not good enough for that scholarship." Or, "Oh, I'm scared of rejection." So, I want to share one of the biggest lessons I learned from this very competitive college application season. And one of And that is don't be
086afraid of rejection. Put your Put your name in every single hat there is. I applied to 20 schools. And I got rejected by more than half. I didn't get the Coca-Cola scholarship. I didn't get the Rudd scholarship. I didn't get the um uh the Gates scholarship. But QuestBridge gave me a chance because I did not give up. And now I have a full ride to a top 20 university in the nation. So, please, next time any of you guys feel like not trying something because you're scared of rejection or you feel like you're not good enough, think again, cuz you are. >> Thank you. Now I have to follow that, so thank you. So I I plan to go to KU in the fall and study business management, and I'm proud to be a Timothy
087O'Shaughnessy scholar. I got that award earlier 2 weeks ago now, and so advice for you I was talking to my mom about this. Obviously I have a lot of cool opportunities, wear suits, and every time I put on a suit my mom fixes my collar. And so it's kind of an illustration, but like she shows up just for the small thing every single time. And and I know she's always going to fix the collar, right? Until I have to go to KU and then I'm going to put her on FaceTime and she's going to have to fix the collar. But what I think is valuable for you is is just continue showing up for our students. The new leaderships that is going to walk into these doors, especially for student board, they they like you
088don't know how many students are like, "Oh my gosh, I just met, you know, Knock, or I just met Diane, or I met these people. I don't I'm on a first name basis with them. Oh my gosh." Right? And they meet Miss Woo and all this stuff and they think these people are so far out, but they're really just a text away. And so making that prevalent to students so they know that like you guys are right here and that you're accessible because I know you are and that's your whole job and then you you live for that kind of stuff. And I just want those students to be able to know that. And so there you go. >> Thank you. Knock. >> Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you Kelly. Thank you Lauren
089and thank you Chrissy. I mean, you guys were very instrumental in bringing this vision together and especially creating a space where you guys especially know that your >> voice matters. >> Um you know, something I've told you guys that you know, I've got to just say it out flat out. I work for you. I I work for you. You guys are my boss. And so uh uh Amy Warren said she asked the question I was going to ask and then I was going to ask another question about life advice, but then you guys answered that question about life advice. So the next question I have and you wanted a hardball question, right? Yeah. Okay, okay, so And you know what? Uh Sam, if you're okay with it, can we loop in those three student board
090members in the back there cuz if you're okay with it, can can we loop them in loop them in as well? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Better to come up here. >> Okay, so my question uh my question for the six of you um uh what would you change about your school uh or our school districts? >> That's a tricky question. >> Um when you're saying changing, you mean by just >> Like to make it better. >> How to make it better? Honestly, there is a lot of I want to say cultural differences between a lot of our schools, but there's so much disconnect between staff and students that it becomes a tug-of-war affair. Like it's never like we're never like truly connected uh like across the board. And I really advocate that if we
091are going to be a student board, if we're going to be a community, if we're going to be like a district, we need to be united as much as possible. And having like being able to have us as student boards give you our input and our um ideas and you implicating them and you actually taking them in consideration and then bringing them back to your principals and then your principals bringing them back to your teachers and your teachers bringing it to the classroom really helps us really like relay our message. So, when it comes to changing, we got to be more united. >> So, this is going to sound kind of far-fetched, but my best response to this question is to completely flip the perspective we have of guidance counselors. Um I can't speak for
092all the schools, obviously, but at South we have two types of counselors. Well, three, but I'll just focus on two. And those are our college and career counselor and our academic counselor. And the thing about our academic counselor is they are responsible for creating the schedules for all 1600 students. They're responsible for the mental health upkeep of 1600 students, academic success of 1600 students, and so on. But the problem with that is you that's not humanly possible. No one person can ensure that 1600 adolescent kids are, you know, at their best all the time. So, what I ask is to shift the perspective of what a guidance counselor is and possibly introduce mentors within USD 259. Programs like Big Brother, Big Sister, and things of the sort are great opportunities for you to connect with
093direct leaders who can help mold them into who they are meant to be. Whenever I was going through these problems, and I'm going to be honest, I may look polished now, but I was a mess 3 years ago. Um whenever people ask, "Jeremiah, what happened?" Cuz 3 years ago I would not even be able to make eye contact with you guys. I tell them I was given the chance to be put to a higher standard. And because of that I elevated and I'm able to do things like this and travel across the country and speak. What kind of 18-year-old gets invited across the country to speak? That's crazy. But I digress. That all happened because I had the help of mentors. So, one thing I would change is not just having counselors, but having that
094mentor, having that person to fix your collar. Yeah, that's it. Just shifting that perspective. >> You guys have anything you want to add? Phoebe? >> Um I would I would I say that one way that um we can specifically reach out to others in our society is to first off take a look at yourself. I want each individual student to take a deeper look at just not as all of us united, but personally when you start in the inside of yourself how everyone around you gets influenced from that. So say for example something as simple as kindness in my opinion. I think that goes a farther a long way to reach out to others to see that you're there and that you care for others. So I go to East High, biggest high school in
095Kansas. Okay. So obviously there's a lot of students there and it's hard to make hard to check on each individual student and be able to stand up for each of them. But the way that I think I take perspective on it is that I feel like when we when you start within yourself to start seeing how just a little bit of kindness goes a long way. You you can make someone's day brighter. You can make someone's day more influential. That shows how just when someone else has a better day in a kindest day then they start to share that on and I feel like when positive positivity is showcased throughout high schools that's when it's things from deep down start to get better. So I just ask us to all take a look at ourselves
096deep down. >> Um during public comment someone came up here and gave a beautiful speech on why there should be a permanent like a complete cell phone ban. And I don't want to sound like a teacher's pet. I don't want to sound like a goody two shoes, but I would really love for there to be a real phone ban in the classrooms. The reason why is I I mean I feel as though me and many others definitely suffer from a cell phone addiction. I 100% suffer from a cell phone addiction. How about I actually pull up my screen time right now for all you guys. I turned it on last week because I realized I have I I have so much time, but I'm not getting anything done. And I I figured maybe it's my
097phone. I feel like if I'm using it in 30 minute increments like oh I'm being productive, you know, I'm not on it for a whole hour." But, when you're doing 30 minutes every single hour, that is an addiction. So, let me pull up my screen time for you guys. Cuz I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one. All of my friends are online constantly. They They answer all my reals. Okay, my Oh. Okay. Today, it was 6 hours and 40 minutes. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I had like 2 hours before here, and you know, but anyways, on a real note, phones distract the classroom. Phones distract me. Phones distract connection. We are all increasingly becoming more isolated because of our cell phones.
098Remember what I said about third spaces? The reason why third spaces are declining is because we're all starting to rely more on digital at-home entertainment instead of getting out there and connecting with everyone else. So, please, next year, when you guys introduce another phone ban, make sure it's a real one because I can guarantee to you in every single classroom, I can be on my phone. And it distracts me. Thank you. >> You want to add? Yeah, go ahead. >> Uh I am Sofi- Oh, gosh. Hello. Sorry. I'm Sofia McMillan. I'm a senior at North High School, and I'm just going to second on what has been said already. If I could change one thing in my school, it would not be the cultural diversity or anything in that matter. It would be the kindness.
099We have We don't really have a lot of cliques at North High. I do love North High in that manner because it's so diverse and culturally inclusive. But, when it comes to like other schools, and you The fact that we cannot go to other schools' games because we had so many fights. If I'm a North High student, and I'm playing, let's say, Kim Il-sung Northwest, no other schools can go to those games because we had so many problems with fights. That's insane. Why can't we just go support our friends? I wish we would have a better community within this not within like the schools but within the district. >> And they kind of we thank you guys so much for the time to kind of round that out. Um I for me it's two things.
100It's including students in our finances more. I think you'll find that students have a very objective view on finances. And I think um you know, you you kind of have to narrow out that search of who those students will be, but when you sit them on those committees, they really have a voice and they can actually have a say. And that's been a big impact. And the second thing is echoing Kimmie. Um I think high schoolers at my school would kill me if they hear me say this, but phones are ridiculous. And the ban that we had is a subjective ban that does not nothing nothing at all. And so all of our classrooms still have phones in them. All of our classrooms still use AI in the classroom. And so we have to have
101a little bit of a more of objective view on that. Um and the problem is funding. And so sitting again, sitting students on those boards that look at the funding and where it's going. A lot of our funds are restricted, but those funds are we do have a little wiggle room with. Um I I think they would be very powerful going towards school and protecting phone usage. Um guys, thank you so much for today. We're incredibly thankful for you guys. Thank you so much for the time and then the comment you've given you've given us. Um thank you. >> Kiana, did you want >> Thank you so much. >> Next step. Accreditation update. >> Well, that's a little hard to follow, but if there's anything almost as good as accreditation. You know, but seriously, uh
102thank you Holly for being here tonight. Um one of the one of the takeaways I hope we have from tonight is that we do accreditation all the time. Our strategic plan is accreditation and our accreditation is our strategic plan. So, we don't talk about it using the state's language probably enough. Um and I know you all get you all go out to um KSBE events or KSDE events, and I don't want you to feel unequipped to be able to say, "Yeah, we're doing that." Um so, uh we're doing great things. We have a lot to update, and uh we had a cool experience with our accreditation visit, so I'll pass it off to Holly, and she'll take it from there. Flying solo tonight, I guess. >> I would like to say next time let's not
103have this follow the student board, but um I do think it's a great connection to hearing about what their plans are, because while that is the meat and potatoes of what's most important, we can't graduate students without accreditation for them to go on and do the things that they're doing. So, um as an educator, want to take an opportunity to tell you what KSESA stands for. We use a lot of acronyms in Wichita Public Schools, and we use a lot of acronyms in the larger public school system. So, you'll hear us talk about KSESA accreditation or KSESA 2.0 or things like that. So, that is the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation. So, that acronym is around accreditation and school improvement. So, what I hope you walk away with, I'll start with this and end with this,
104that our Wichita Public Schools KSESA School Improvement Plan for accreditation is aligned to our strategic plan goals, and focuses on language comprehension and vocabulary instruction. So, again, I'm going to talk through a lot of things, but if there's one thing I want you to be able to say or understand, it would be that key statement right there. So, as Kelly said, this does really connect to other things. As you know, we have the Kansas State Board of Education outcomes. I provided you with our district accountability report that is posted on our district website, but you can see kind of where we are performing on those key state board outcomes, graduation rate, state assessments, post-secondary effectiveness, things like that. So, is there a metric on everything? Not necessarily, but these are the main ones that are
105seen. So, the state sets the state board outcomes, then we have the key set action plan, which is our accreditation plan, which funnels into our strategic plan goals, which then goes into school improvement process, and down to the building goals and lead measures in our district. So, just want to put that thread for you. We talked through a lot of things throughout the year related to data, graduation, screeners, state assessments, but just want you to hopefully see how it all comes together. So, why does it matter? Um as I mentioned, we want students to be able to graduate from an accredited institution in their high schools, which are public schools. Additionally, it's required by state law. As a public school, in order to receive public funds, we must be accredited. It then protects that funding.
106It validates the diploma that all of these fine students are going to earn later in May, and ensures educational quality and accountability. We don't want to have school over here that is less of an education to school over here. So, this ensures that equality across our system. So, a little bit of a timeline for you. So, you heard me say Keyser 1.0, Keyser 2.0. So, this is a new process starting last year that the state Board of Education approved. So, last year was kind of the beginning of this different process. You have maybe heard of these five-year cycles in the previous accreditation. Five-year cycles are no longer a thing. Accreditation is an ongoing process of school improvement. So, what are we doing from year to year? Um what are our goals? How are we doing
107towards those? So, last school year, what we had to do was to um have an action plan and report and evaluate on compliance areas. So, compliance areas are things like the Jason Flat Act that we have a plan to educate people on suicide awareness and prevention. Um dyslexia screening is a compliance area. There's quite a few. Um so, just are we doing the things that are stated in legislation we must do, um those compliance areas. And then we submitted an action plan that had to be aligned to the school improvement process. Our plan last year was approved. This year, where we at? So, again, we report on compliance areas. So far, they're all good to go. We haven't heard of any that we need to check on. And then this spring, we will finalize our
108action plan. And then I'll tell you a little bit more about this later. They give us feedback on how did we do from last year's action plan to this year on implementation of those steps. So, did we do what we said we intended to do? And what feedback is there? And then you can see moving into next year, then that student outcomes piece will be evaluated. So, they have set standards for graduation rate. Um you heard Dr. Hatfield talk about some different graduation rates between federal and state. And now there's going to be a KESA graduation rate. So, we're just going to get to track lots of metrics, um as well as state assessments and things like that. So, we'll begin to be evaluated on our improvement in those areas as we move forward. So,
109what does this really mean and who's responsible for what? So, as a system, that's the first circle, we must engage in this process and report on the things we need to report, check the compliance areas, submit our plan, do our plan, see how it worked. KSDE then analyzes that information and would present to the ARC, which means the Accreditation Review Committee, when a system might not be meeting one of the standards either in student outcomes in our action plan or in compliance. And I'll show you a little bit more on that in the next slide. And then ultimately the Kansas State Board of Education determines accreditation. So that ARC that accreditation review committee would then make a recommendation to the State Board of Ed if a district is not meeting and needs additional follow-up. So
110what are the options? Fully accredited, accredited with conditions, or not accredited. So what might that look like? This is a lot of information. Not going to read it all to you. But what could happen if we didn't meet the standard in one of those areas? Compliance, school improvement, or outcomes. So if you read that far right column, when you look through it, all of them say systems will have 1 year to address action plan implementation. Systems will have 1 year to work towards compliance. Systems will have 1 year to address data. So we would report if we didn't meet whatever standard we needed to meet in one of those three areas, we then submit a plan. How are we going to adjust and fix that? So those are what those conditions may look like depending
111on what we didn't meet. >> Polly, could you turn this screen back on? The one in front of us. >> I don't know how to do that. >> It said it was on standby. Polly, the student board had it running perfectly. >> Our system is not accredited in this room. >> There we go. Thank you. >> Um so, essentially each year we will be evaluated on these different areas. If we're not meeting the standard in one of those, um we submit a plan, we work on it, and we fix it. So, there's no longer this like long-term working towards accreditation in 5 years. It's just a yearly thing, yearly update. So, you'll hear us also talk about um our school improvement day. So, one of the pieces that we do have to participate in as
112a system is attending a school improvement day. And probably what I'm most thankful for in this new process is they have really worked to put systems of like size, like demographic, and like areas together. So, we are in an urban cohort with Kansas City, Kansas, and Topeka public schools, the next two largest systems in the state of Kansas. So, there's a suburban cohort, and then there are lots of other cohorts that are um schools that are close together so to share what is happening, what's going on. So, we meet every February. You can see our date last year, you can see our date this year, and it's already set for next year. So, February 16th, 2027 will be our school improvement day. And we go and we share how did it go, what was our
113action plan, what did we intend to do, how did that go, what were the successes and challenges, and then ask questions and get feedback from the other systems. So, there are 10 WPS staff members who go, um and I asked them for just some feedback around that day because I didn't want to miss the information we got from the other systems. We take district leaders, we take a middle school teacher, we take an elementary instructional coach, um and some different leaders from across our system in different departments. And really our goal when we go as that team of 10 is to take feedback from our large system to share that with other systems and then begin talking about the draft of our next plan. But I just want to share a few comments that were
114shared from the team because I think it's hard to capture what we do across a full day there and in a system of our size to think about only 10 people going is also hard. So these are just some comments from the group. We had positive comments around our narrow focus, particularly getting all staff on board at both levels. Systems commented about how we have systems in place for professional learning, collaboration for all role types. I would say we are on the keep on keeping on phase. We have a solid start and now we have a chance to make adjustments to keep working towards the long-term goals. The main reminder was to just stay focused on consistency and follow through as we keep rolling this out across the district. One question I asked them is
115what do you want the Board of Education or other stakeholders to know? I hope that all stakeholders realize how intentional this team is about putting students first throughout the process. From the selection of the team members to the conversations we had, what is best for students is always leading the discussions. In a system of our size, it's impressive that we don't lose sight of the most important people, our students. I'd like the stakeholders to know this isn't just about compliance. The KESA process is actually guiding decisions and priorities and is focused on long toward long-term improvement for kids. Another comment was the goal within our KESA plan are significant and complex and meaningful change at that level does not happen quickly. It takes focus, alignment, sustained commitment over time before we see measurable shifts in
116data. Big shifts turn slowly and WPS is a big shift. Our work is intentional, steady, and built for long-term impact rather than quick fixes. And the last one I want to share, meaningful growth requires honesty, reflection, and a shared commitment to getting better. I see that happening across our system. The willingness to engage in challenging dialogue is a strong indicator that we are serious about continuous improvement and about what is doing what is best for our students. And one of the things as I read through this from the team is that's really a reflection of the vision and the direction that you all have set for us as the Board of Education through our strategic plan goals, through our priorities. So, I hope you hear that echoed there, that that's not just feedback about the
11710 of us who went, but that's feedback for you all as our Board of Education. So, last year we shared that we we have to choose a fundamental. There are four fundamentals: quality instruction, structured literacy, balanced assessment, and standards alignment. We wanted all of our educators to see them self in the plan, so we chose quality instruction knowing that's a lever for us. We chose the structure of professional collaboration, and we'll be adding in professional learning this year knowing that they're linked. And continuing on as we've shared earlier, that our elementary focus is going to continue in that language comprehension cycles. We've shared with you some of the data around our early literacy, and then secondary has been focused on vocabulary instruction, so continuing on that. So, we know that school improvement happens in big
118and also small ways, but we also can't continue to change and change. So, wanting to keep the focus there and to improve our implementation in these areas. So, in conclusion, you're going to hear things, federal requirements, and schools identified for support, like comprehensive support and improvement, ISI, TSI. There's all these labels that some of our schools are identified federally. We have an at-risk accountability plan that we must do, and we have a lot of at-risk students, and we have to provide information related to what how we're spending that money and how it's helping our students grow. We have accreditation, and ultimately all of those things should line up. One of our student board members said, "What did they want you to do? Invest truly in high-risk students." So, as we make school improvement decisions, we
119have to keep our kids in mind, and so all of these things are things we must do as a system to be a public school entity, but we have to remember that they do align, and as we can stay aligned, it helps our teachers and ultimately helps our kids. So, again, what I hope you remember is our Wichita Public Schools KESA school improvement plan for accreditation is aligned to our strategic plan goals and focuses on language comprehension and vocabulary instruction. And with that, I will take questions, or if there's anything Kelly would like to add. >> Well, I just wanted to share um that Holly gets 95% of the credit for all that like I mean, it was a team effort, but thank you to Holly. Uh it was a good visit. I mean, it
120was um the superintendents all go, and um it was it was collaborative, and it was impactful, and it was we were able to compare a little bit, which was helpful. So, um it was good. And the teams of 10 and the groups we were in, at least, um we were the only system that had a teacher in the room. Um and Rachel said one of the probably the something that didn't have as much to do with accreditation as it did with everything else, uh but something that stuck with me, hugely impactful. She said, "If you guys You guys being district leaders, if you guys aren't clear with what's going on, there's no way we're going to be clear with what's going on because it it's filtered in you know, so many layers to everything." And
121that really hit home. Like we have to be crystal clear in our understanding and messaging and plan so that it's clear for teachers and we can clear the decks for them to do the good work. But I think maybe maybe it's my my small school roots and accreditation and in a small district teachers are part of the team because you you have to have people on the team and you don't have that many principals so you put teachers on it. But I kind of make light of it but the reality is the teachers that practitioners the people closest to the work are the ones that that know it the best. And so when you have as many employees as we do to pick 10 people to be the team I mean you're never really going
122to get it right but I think we did a good job of ensuring that all levels of the system had voice and had impact and will continue to work. I mean it's a it's a large the comment about a large boat turning is true but we're hoping we can stay focused at the right level comprehension and vocabulary. If we get that right we think a lot of other good things will happen. So that's why we're we're not trying to do everything we're trying to do the right things and do them really really well. So it'll take time we've got work to do still but that's where we're headed. So. Great job. >> Any questions? Good job. >> Any questions? Thank you Holly. Thank you very much. Matona next item please. >> Human Resources Department report.
123>> All right and I'll call up Steven ask him to do a HR report for the new board members. This is something we've done a couple times in the fall since I've been superintendent. We'll probably start kind of a spring fall cadence to this but we get a lot of questions about where we're at with staffing where we're at with recruiting where do we line up with other districts all that kind of stuff. So this intention is really just an overall big picture in the spring where we stand and um then an opportunity to ask questions of Stephen if you have them. So. All right. Uh there we go. Thank you. Any >> Good evening, President Ivey sir, Vice President Hedrick, board, uh Superintendent Beulow, it's a it's a pleasure to be with you. Uh
124this evening I wanted to speak earnestly to the big picture. Each month we bring exhibits to you for approval, hires, separations that are compensation. And I wanted to make sure that we took a moment to give you how all that's coming together, particularly now that we are full swing in hiring season, and we have an opportunity to offer some data, offer some perspective, and receive your questions as well. This presentation I'm going to to try to move at a good pace and acknowledge that there's a lot to to dive into. And so, where you have questions and I don't have answers, I'll gladly take them away. Uh this was a consistent process of refine, reframe, refine, reframe. And so, I hope this finds the right moment, the right tone. Anything that appears to be a
125success in this presentation I want to attribute to my team first and foremost. And I also want to call forward the partnerships that we have that make all this possible. While this may be an HR division update, we could not do this work without the partnerships we started the board meeting with, with Wichita State, Jennifer Friend, Holly Ingram, Tammy Martin is uh a hero of mine. Uh the work that she and her team lifts is incredible. And I just want to acknowledge the great work that's gone behind this and is making all this possible. So, as a quick overview, there are some key questions I wanted to make sure that we provided and spoke to this evening. Uh first and foremost, what is our current status with staffing and vacancies? What is that reality? How
126does our teacher pipeline uh address that? The ripple effect from vacancies and our needs is often with our guest services team and we, having just completed the first semester, it's not it felt like it was moments ago. We completed the first semester. We have some data on that and wanted to speak to the great work that our guest staff are doing. We also just completed our calendar year, which from a healthcare standpoint gives us a great perspective on the viability of our healthcare program and that's instrumental to a lot of our recruitment and retention. And we have spoken frequently over recent months about voice and feedback and how are we how are we listening to our staff and our community. So, I wanted to just name a few things that were really being focused on
127in that regard. A snapshot of our employment profile, we have grouped our 8,000 employees. These are full-time and part-time by six different job families. And as you work your way across, you'll see the employee count. That is true employee count, not necessarily FTE. The number of hires we've made this year and the transfers that we have between buildings in parentheses. And then the turnover percentage year-to-date, that's through February. And then the prior 2 years of turnover for reference. We wanted to give a high-level snapshot of what that has looked like and looks like presently. I wanted to just name a couple of notable items. One, uh with our certified teachers, we have consistently had around 9% turnover. I would love for that to be a percent lower to get into the eights, the high sevens,
128something like that. It would certainly be helpful. Um for urban education across the state, that's a pretty healthy number. The in parentheses on that same line, you'll note there's 480 transfers that happened with teachers between buildings last year. This is both a strength of a large organization. We have the blessing of providing many opportunities to our staff, and sometimes that change in what we're teaching or where we're teaching is really important. And so, we have the blessing of giving that flexibility. That's about 13% of our teaching population, our staff. So, when you combine that with our turnover, there is a conversation to be had about stability and continuity. So, nearly one out of every five teachers year to year is changing schools. And so, that's something that we're paying attention to. And notably, from a
129staffing standpoint, when we have a staff member depart the district, and we have a selection committee come together and recommend hiring someone else from within the district to come to that school, that does then create a subsequent vacancy that moves on down the line. And when you have nearly two transfers for every hire, it does create a bit of a challenge for the early hiring process that we're promoting, because by by necessity, that is moving that final decision further down the line. So, I just wanted to speak to that, and it's not inherently a bad thing, but there are some realities that come with that. Our classified staff, we have about half of that employee count that are paraeducators, and that is a group that is very key to our success in our classrooms. You'll
130note that we have had over 15% turnover the last two full school years with this group. And so, this is one when we go to voice and perspective, we're really trying to be attentive to how do we offer professional development? How do we invest in job readiness when a new paraeducator comes to us? What can we do to to improve the stability in that space as an employer for our students and supportive of our teachers? Our certified guest staff, I wanted to celebrate quickly. We had a job fair uh in January and we now have over 900 guest staff, which is over 80 more than we had in the prior school year and that's been a great asset to us. Our guest staff are uh both fantastic supports. I think someone who steps into a
131classroom on a daily basis. And some and most of the time they have lesson plans, but sometimes they don't. Like there are just emergencies that come up. They do remarkable work. And I just want to acknowledge that and celebrate them. So our current staff >> I'm going to jump in real quick. Can you go back? Just because I want to I want to tie this to something I don't want to interrupt you later. So para para training, para professional learning um has been something that you guys have seen on the building needs assessment over the past few years and it is a direct investment we're making um intentionally this year and into next summer and into next school year. So um again, that feedback loop where we ask buildings, what do you need? How can
132we help? Um I think a lot of paras uh want to do a great job but they come to us, you know, maybe as kind of a blank slate. And so um to provide them with the training they need has been intentional, but that has been the last two budget building needs assessments. That's been I don't know, top five. Pretty high. Number one on one year. So uh just to tie that back around, we are directly responding to the feedback we're getting from the teachers in the field about what they need um and the building leadership team. So just want to lift that up right now. Yeah. Yeah. >> All right, so where we're at at this moment uh as of last week looking ahead to the forward school year, we have 117 teaching vacancies
133that we're looking to fill. We have 60 paraeducator vacancies. The reality of where we are in this moment is we have just over 30 teaching vacancies and uh we're now down to you'll see in an upcoming slide 47 para vacancies. We hired three more this week so we're down to 44. But as we are fully focused on 26-27 right now and right now we're we're trending towards having either the same amount of departures from the district that we had last year or we'll be slightly lower. Historically looking at the past five years we know 40% of our vacancies by the end of February. We know just under 60% of our vacancies by the end of March. From a timing perspective that isn't ideal because our candidate interest is really maximized now. And so we're really
134trying to be attentive to that timeline and and see what kind of conversations we can have about better better syncing that up. Some proactive measures we're taking we have as mentioned earlier a great student teaching program. We have over 140 student teachers that have been with us that have been evaluated by our staff by Tammy Martin our peer consultants getting great feedback on how they're doing and where where our our rock stars are. We've signed 11 open contracts with student teachers. We've been out on the road now with with Emporia State and Wichita State last week 40 recruitment events. We keep moving as proactively as we can but we also know that absolutely every vacancy matters and so we're trying to keep that urgency there. And do our best to get those open contracts in
135front of principals get the get those interviews moving now. I wanted to quickly just affirm historically as enrollment has declined our our staffing has our stewardship of FTE has also followed that trend. And so that is all I wanted to demonstrate here is just to name that as enrollment declines in order for us to maintain financial health. Our finance team works very closely in in maintaining and managing this with us and with our academics teams. And so we you'll see in the blue bars the staff FTE. We hit a peak in 2019-20 and we've slowly been managing that down. We're about 150 FTE less now than we were in 2019-20 as our enrollment has also tapered off as as we've discussed at prior board meetings. Our teaching pipeline is an interesting story. Uh you'll see
136for Kansas here on the on the left and I'll pull up the national data on the right in just a moment. This is data from the Title II Higher Education Act website and the red line is enrollment in education programs. The blue line are program completers. So over the last This is from 2011 to 2024. So you see a dip that ran through and up to 2018-19. And since then the state of Kansas has been doing a great job of getting enrollment up and program completion up. So compared to 2011, we're down 5% in program completers and we are actually up on overall education enrollment. I want to come back to the partnerships with Wichita State and many of our universities and colleges, the alternative programs, um the teacher apprenticeship programs, all the different ways
137that our community can get into into the profession. This is a testament to that work. Nationally, you'll see that enrollment has rebounded. We're now only down 5% from where we were in 2011 nationally, but our program completion has not rebounded at all. We're down 28%. And so when we talk about some of the pain points we have across K-12 education, this is this is evidence of that. I wanted to show these side by side um in no small part to highlight the great work that our colleges and universities locally have done and what great partners they are. Through our pathways, we now have a really almost for anyone, a a path to getting to the classroom. There are certainly standards with with a bachelor's degree with credits um but I wanted to celebrate with our
138future teacher academy uh tomorrow at Wichita State, we'll be welcoming 110 future Shocker teacher students who are interested in the program to Wichita State. And so there is a lot of great work and a lot of seeds being planted to keep our profession and moving the work of K-12 education forward. Before we move on, I wanted to highlight quickly teacher salary comparisons locally and then here in a few slides, we'll highlight benefits comparisons. We are the highest paying bachelor degree entry K-12 organization in the area. We're very proud of that. We also have the highest maximum for bachelor's degree as far as our step schedule and only require eight steps to get there. On the schedule we have in total, we are not the highest paying district. However, you'll note that we only require 14
139steps to reach that maximum. So that is a significant advantage for our for our educators. A few challenges and opportunities I wanted to highlight. The timing and sequencing of separations and hires is really important. We think we think there's a a path to doing some of those uh things better and so or be working on that in the forward school year. You've heard with some consistency that schools that don't have full-time child study teams, that is a very desirable and needed area of support. Similarly, assistant principals in the tighter enrollment, if you're not a three-section school, it is really hard to financially provide an assistant principal and a full-time child study team. We are working through ongoing challenges with paraeducator vacancies. Though that is our highest area of vacancy and need. Um that at 47
140again is down to 44, but the theme from year to year has consistently been job readiness, professional development, investment in our paraeducators. The qualifications and candidate availability in special education continues to be a need for us. Um Wichita State has recently moved in the direction of all our K-6 graduates will also have a special education certificate, so that that is going to help support this need over time. Uh but this is still very much uh a challenge for us as with as with most K-12 organizations. For our teachers hired through alternative programs and just generally speaking, post-pandemic, we're all in a different space. Um we all have very different needs. We all need very different supports coming into employment. So we're trying to be very sensitive to that. For those going through alternative programs, they
141sometimes don't have student teaching experiences. They may not have had classes focused on IEP management or classroom management strategies. So um our peer consultants invest on average 20 hours of one-on-one support with our new hires each year. Our instructional coaches are working with staff consistently. Our principals are really stepping into the into those gaps as instructional leaders to really give what's needed there. But we we have work to do here and I'm really proud of our team and how we've been stepping into this space. That first ripple I mentioned about with vacancies and day-to-day needs, just wanted to highlight here how first semester has trended and gone. Uh this this year our coverage requests have been up nearly 5%, 4.7%. But despite that, our guest staff have stepped in the gap and our fill rate
142reached 84.1%, which is a 5.7% increase. That is through first semester. Um Influenza A and B has have hit us hard. In January and February, our absences were up 13% in January and 19% in February year-to-year, but our fill rate is still over 83%. So I just want to commend their work um and and celebrate the accomplishments that that they're achieving there. Employee benefits, this is the second biggest area of spend we have as a district next to wages. You can see very simply from 2022 where our investment per employee per year was $807. We have now eclipsed $1,000 per year. Healthcare is an expensive uh investment. It is a worthy investment. That increases notably a 6% increase from the prior year, so that's um somewhat good news. We usually plan for anywhere from a
1436 to 8% increase. But of note, this is in total a $70 million annual investment. Our employees contribute about 7% of the financial support for our program. Um looking at the industry, that's about 10% less than most employees in most organizations contribute. We have not changed our contribution rate since 2017. So every year that that goes up 6%, 8%, 4%, the district is our costs are increasing in that respect. We have just under half of our employees enrolled in a $0 base premium plan, which I do not have an awareness of any other organization in the state that has a $0 plan. I could be There could be one out there, but I have not found it yet. Just give you a snapshot of how that looks compared to some of our peers, neighboring peers.
144This is the monthly premium and the annual premium rates for our surrounding districts. Our base plan at the bottom with a $0 contribution, and then you can see we're not the lowest deductible, but with the premium difference, that far overwhelms. And so between this and our higher starting salary, particularly for teachers, uh this is a this is a big deal. Unfortunately, health care benefits benefits being your strong one of your stronger assets, it's it's not easily understood. It's not easily quantified, and especially for new professionals who might be on their parents' coverage until age 26. Uh this can be a hard thing to communicate. So, this is something that we have to do a very intentional job of communicating and promoting. For the first time in a number of years, we had a employee benefit
145survey that we sent out to our staff in February. We have about 5,500 uh benefits eligible employees. We had just short of 1,800 complete the survey. Uh just a couple of things I wanted to highlight here is that uh 77% of our staff agreed that my manager supports my well-being. We've mentioned several times in our meeting tonight how important culture is and what culture promotes. And so I just wanted to highlight uh that investment that our supervisors are making and being leaders of people. Uh we've also 54% of our staff felt that our benefits were excellent or average compared to peers. That was a bit startling to us because of how much we've invested there. And again, this is an education point. And last, uh seeking perspective, listening is really an exercise of um curiosity,
146uh humility, and there's courage uh to be able to acknowledge when we we haven't seen an opportunity and someone's bringing it to our attention. And so, I wanted to highlight just a few areas where we're actively listening, where uh really pursuing our vision of our staff being thriving members of our community. And so, we're similar to the fall, we're getting out to every school this spring in our spring engagement tour, and it's highlighting staff experience so that we can better understand what the day-to-day experience of our staff are and what our opportunities are. We just finished our February benefits survey. Uh we've We'll have our building needs assessment data again soon. Uh you might have might recall in one of our public comment uh sessions, I believe it was in January, that that someone was
147um a bit frustrated that there wasn't an opportunity to give us exit survey feedback. And we listened to that. And we reached out to anyone from January forward who has resigned and is actually still with the district, it's a future resignation. We've put an exit survey in place that will go out every month to staff who have resigned so that we can get that feedback. So, we appreciate them calling that forward. And we'll pair some of that feedback with stay surveys. Give a sub sam- like a small sample of employees who are continuing in employment with us and ask similar questions. So, that if we're getting feedback about management practices from staff who are exiting that we can we can pair that up with the experiences of staff who are staying and see if there
148if there's dissonance or if there's some resonance and that we can we can put something in place to improve our practice. Um we've mentioned Ed O'Malley's book and uh what like the Kansas Leadership Center and Health Foundation have done with a healthy state of Kansas. There are a number of resources we have from retention surveys that like Emporia State has has really helped lead that authorship, a number of great research resources. We're We're trying to figure out what an employee experience survey would look like that would help highlight whether our staff are thriving and and if not, what are some signals that we can get in front of or do better with. So, that that is a a very I feel like cursory, but important update that again, we wanted to offer because we're bringing
149you data every month, but it's in such a fashion that you can't really get much of a a snapshot of the big picture. So, uh whatever questions you have, I'd be happy to try to help with. Um if there's anything something I I don't know offhand, I'll gladly follow up. >> Any questions for Steven? >> I have one. >> Amy? >> Um the 2025 Emporia State survey continues to show that educators in years like 4 to 10 are most likely to leave the profession. Um are I feel like you're doing a lot We're doing We are doing a lot of work to keep those folks in our classrooms. Have you noticed that same kind of a trend here where our younger teachers aren't sticking with it and are leaving the profession and going on to
150something else? >> I want to be I think Yes, we're I think that's what we're seeing. I'll confirm that. We've invested so much in that first year experience. Part of some of a hallmark that we're really proud of is we have about 90% of our first year teachers that stay with Um but over time especially I think year four, that that is a a really critical year, year four, year five where we start to see some um we see some loss. And so, that's Let me confirm that with our through our data, but I I that resonates with her. >> And my other question is about longevity. I feel like in the contract there's um stipulations for longevity. You know, you've been here a while and you know, you're at the bottom of the pay
151scale like I was and I I never got the benefit of the step movement and that kind of thing when there was bargaining um the longevity kicks in early here, doesn't it? I mean, it's before you reach the bottom of the pay scale. Isn't it like I don't know, maybe Katie can answer that. Is that right, Katie? The longevity starts before like at year 10 or something. Year 14. Right. So, that's a good thing because you know, in other districts you don't have that longevity guaranteed. So, you know, maybe it'll bring people here. >> Yeah. >> It's a good thing. >> The gaming? Diane? >> Thank you for the presentation tonight, Stephen. Uh I think hiring teachers and retaining teachers is a conversation that we hear a lot about. So, I appreciate the data and
152the information. Um, we had a public comment speaker tonight pose a question and a what if. And so, I'd like to give you an opportunity to kind of speak in generalizations to that and and you or Kelly I think could could speak to that. Of if you go back to slide four, it shows our current vacancies. So, we do currently have vacancies. But the what if question was if we had a classroom size of 17 students. So, we currently have vacancies. So, if we if we if we posed to have more vacancies, what would that look like with our budget? What kind of financial uh changes would that look like? Could you speak to that on a HR perspective? >> Sure. I believe our current average class size is at or just above 19 students.
153So, if I were to take 3,900 teachers two students per classroom and then work that out to new classrooms, how many teachers that would be? I I believe it would be a little bit over 300 teachers, 300 FTE. Uh and if you were to take that by an average salary of about $75,000 with benefits included, we're probably talking conservatively around $23 million. That's that's really rough, but I think it would be about 300 FTE, $23 million. And that doesn't include the cost of some more paras, some more support teams. Absolutely. Sure. More assistant principals to help with evaluations and day-to-day administration. There's Yes. >> Finding 300 teachers. And finding 300 teachers. >> Correct. Yes, and and finding 300 teachers. That's correct. Yeah, and I think it's important. I know we've heard the number 24 thrown
154around tonight some that the actual average is 19.something. The median is 20. Um so, we do have bigger classes. We do have some on on that end. We also have some on the other end. Um but, our average class size is not 24. Our median class size is not 24. That's just a number we used to make decisions. So, um I should have asked you this before, but this might be information you could share with the board later. Um if you go to the slide that's the comparison with other districts. Um with the steps. And yeah, so another column that might be relevant here is just the average teacher salary and a comparison of that because a lot of our teachers regardless of steps and tracks and bachelor's masters um have a have a lunch
155duty supplemental and extra duty supplemental a coaching job something or other and so we pay pretty well on our supplementals too and that adds to that kind of bottom line so to speak of of the the overall salary so we have a lot of I I I think we have a pretty high average salary in comparison with these two. >> In one of the prior iterations of this presentation we brought in midpoint of salaries and teachers if I'm not mistaken were just over $70,000 was the midpoint now that does not include supplementals it does not include addendum days um anything to that effect but if that gives a reference point that's without benefits. Um 70 I think it was just a bit north of $70,000. All right Steven thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good
156job. Latona next item please. >> Consent. >> For the public information the purpose of the consent agenda is to help the board handle routine matters efficiently so that the board can spend more time reviewing monitoring and discussing the educational issues in the Wichita public schools. Student achievement success is the top priority of this Board of Education. Board members review these items in detail during the agenda review workshop held at 10:30 on the Friday prior to each regular board meeting here at the AMC building. These workshops are open to the public no action is taken the workshop is a discussion and question only time and your presence is always welcome. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items? >> I move. >> I second. >> Moved by Diane, seconded by Amy Jensen. And I
157was told that we can uh use the voting thing now. That's the technical term for it, voting thing. >> It's official. >> They know what you mean. All votes are in. >> Oh, mine didn't show up. >> It showed that there were six votes. Okay, there it goes. Okay. Motion carries 6-0. Latona, next item, please. >> Superintendent's reports. >> All right. Um so I don't know if if Julie and Stan and Diane remember this, but March 9th is a is a pretty big date in my life because 3 years ago today was the day that I was selected to be superintendent. Um so uh it's been a uh >> Changed your life. >> It changed my life in a lot of ways, yeah. It's been a a fast 3 years and a long 3 years
158all at the same time, and you guys probably know what I mean by that. Um this work is really, really important to our community though, and I'm honored to do it. I'm honored to do it alongside you all. Um I know all I can speak for all of us when I say we're going to we're going to miss Melody's perspective on this board. Um she wasn't just the at-large uh member of the board. She really represented the entire community. Uh I do believe she visited every single school. Um and I know cuz I do that every year, that is an accomplishment, and she did it for free while it's part of my job. Um so I I spoke Saturday at her reme- remembrance event and spent some time with her with her family. Um you
159know, I think our goal as a district and as as a board is to continue building on what she has laid. In 2 years she did a lot for our district and advocated in a way that was both kind and graceful but at the same time firm. And um we we knew where we stood at all times with Melody and so she'll be deeply missed and I think we have a lot of work to do to uphold and carry on her her honor. I tell people all the time how much I love this job and I truly mean that. It's great work. These kids are worth it. And I think it's hard to not just burst with pride when you see the kids tonight. From the Southeast kids that made the video to Isabella Isabella
160in her wheelchair advocating for for herself and the rest of our kids. Like we're we're doing a good job. We're not getting everything right. We're not perfect. We got work to do but we're doing a good job. And so I I appreciate you all doing it with me and being alongside and hope that we can continue the work and continue doing good things for kids. So. Thank you. Return to next item, please. >> New business and Board of Education requests. >> I just wanted to quickly say that um tonight kind of ended a a chapter that uh was taxing on the whole community. Um and I believe that we have a bright future ahead of us. I think the public is going to be interested in our engagement process from here on uh which will
161be a new type of engagement so that when it if if this board does decide to put a bond proposal on the ballot in November. The community is going to have a grounds uh a support the community is going to have uh interests and input into that plan from the very start. So, look forward announcements for that on a way for you to engage on our bond proposal in April, May, and probably vote uh eventually probably vote in June uh whether or not we put a bond proposal up uh for November. But, as we close this chapter and it has been sad and disappointing at times, I think the future uh what I've always said is Wichitans are very tough and Wichitans will rally and do what's best for this community for the future. Knock.
162>> Yeah, just uh uh two specific board uh requests. Um the first one um I would like for our district to consider uh participation in the community eligibility uh provision program. It's a federal uh program for free universal uh school meals. Um I'll write that request form real quick. And then the other uh Board of Education request uh would be to revisit our policies pertaining to uh absences specifically uh more standardization, more consistency, um uh yeah, I suppose like better processes around um uh validating and verifying uh those attendance uh those absences uh those numbers. >> Uh Amy. Amy Warren, sorry. >> Um I wanted to put in a board request for reviewing policies 1221 and 1229 pertaining to class size. Uh just as a response to um themes that have come up from our
163our teachers union and um members of the community and making sure that as we have different needs that are coming through behaviorally and um with increased IEPs and things in the classrooms that those are still the class size numbers that we feel confident moving forward with as we plan things for the future. >> And I just wanted to uh uh remind the board that uh these requests if uh when they start piling up like we're starting like they're starting to pile up um we have to be conscious of our staff time and so um there may have to be uh a vote on whether or not we agree to uh we're going to have a lot of staff time needed on engagement in April, May, and June. Uh so uh as the policy reads, the
164superintendent and I will gather and see if there uh needs to be a vote on um uh cuz we I think we're now up to four or five board requests, so um the board may have to make a decision on uh and that's that's the key of every board is you either you can either stay focused or you can go off in a million directions. And um if we can accommodate uh all five of these requests, we will. If it looks like it's going to take more of a time commitment than uh what then after we look at all these board requests that are in uh we may they may come back for the board to vote on. Just wanted to remind the board of that. Any other request or comments? If not, Latonya, next
165item. >> Adjournment. >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. >> Moved by Stan and seconded by Diane to adjourn. All those in favor, raise your hand. I'm sorry. >> No, that's okay. Raise your hands, it's fine. >> Motion carries 7-0. I think we I think we should make the adjournment one by hand. Thank you very much, everyone. >> Yeah, I have useless trivia. >> What's that? >> I have useless trivia to share. >> What's that? >> Um I learned I was going to say it was