USD 418 Board of Education - Special Meeting - December 8, 2025 at 6:00PM

001[music] Heat. Hey, Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Oh, [music] good. >> [music] [music] >> pretty. >> Okay, >> we're going to call the meeting to order and our gavl is missing. So, it's just my voice giving us that. So, if you'll join us 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. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, we're going to move to 1.3 and um like to move to approve the agenda with the removal of item 3.2. >> Second. >> All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Any oppose? No. Carry 70. Thank you. So, I wanted to take a point of privilege just to kind of capture where we

002were last week to where we are today. And I had um quite a few people asking about what was that that took place last week. And what I want to explain is that we have statute to follow as a board, which means that none of our decisions can be made outside of and behind closed doors. So what we have happened here in our work sessions and our regular board meetings are um it was a good dialogue, hard dialogue um and some challenging things before us. So I just wanted hopefully that helps clarify maybe why it maybe felt different for some folks um is because that information that we're talking about and receiving happens here at the board table. Um and so if that helps um for folks um we just don't do work behind closed

003doors. Um the Kora re you know um statute requires us to do the business um before you um the public. So just uh hopefully that helps with everyone. Um, and so we're we're going to receive uh several different reports and presentations today as we uh make plans for what happens with our facility planning uh moving forward for our long-term um planning. So we will move to 2.1 and >> we have a couple of agenda items and actually since one of our presenters is here I'll just we'll transition first to Dr. Tomlinson. come on out and we'll hear uh from uh KASB Christine Nette here in a moment, but uh invited Dr. Tomlinson to join us and he'll I will uh walk through the executive summary. So, Dr. Tomlinson is with K12. You know what? I'll

004let you do that. I can do that. >> Share who you are as I'm pulling this information up. How about that? >> Okay. Uh first of all, thanks a lot for having me here and thank you so much for reaching out to our company to provide the service for you guys. So uh for those of you who aren't aware, Excellence K12 is the company I represent and what we do is we help school districts reach out to their communities to get input on what communities want to see from their school district and how they'd like to see their taxes affected uh one way or the other. So, uh, it's important for us to tell you that what we do is try to help bridge that gap between what the community wants and what the school

005district provides. I do like to emphasize that this is your data. This is your community speaking. And my role is really just to help you understand what the community is trying to convey to you. So, that's what I that's what I plan to do tonight. I know we had a chance to speak a few weeks ago. Um, so I think you've heard a lot of this data before, but I I still want to go over that again. And I also add some other pieces too. And then if I can answer any questions for how you can apply what we surveyed and what what we think your community is saying uh to how that relates to how maybe your facility uh plans and change may have changed over time. So I know there's been some it's

006kind of evolved with time as you guys have gone through this process. So we just want to make sure that we're able to convey uh what we see from all of our school districts that we do this service for. Uh we've just over 250 school districts through Kansas, Missouri, uh Iowa, uh Arkansas, even one in Oklahoma. So we're excited about uh being able to work with McFersonen. So we'll get right into it. Um one of the things I want to mention is and I this is important for the community to understand too is you are very interested in getting a higher degree of confidence level. So we did sur completed surveys in your community. That's a higher percentage than any other school district we've done before. So, I think that speaks to the board's interest

007in making sure that you're listening to what people are telling you and you definitely want to make sure that you're engaging them as stakeholders in this process. So, I think that's a really important thing to get right off the top. If you talk a lot a little bit about areas where you scored really well. Okay. So, we start off with a grading section and the top areas here as you see on the screen there. preparation of students for college vocational training or employment is your highest ranking. So your community feels very strongly that the education that students are receiving here uh they're very happy with that. Uh the safety of students also scored very well. The quality of education those are three great things to have that really speak to the community's uh faith in

008what you guys do as a school district. So those are very uh complimentary for what you have going. If you take a look and go to the next page here, um, areas for improvement, I'm going to summarize some of these paragraphs for you quickly. And the second most common response we received is, I don't know. I don't know. Okay. What that means is there's a large chunk of your population that isn't informed enough to be able to give us some results. Okay. So that's why when we talked uh before I think the number one opportunity for the board and the administration is going to be communication. It's going to it starts with this process where you're asking them for their input, their opinions, but it has to continue past that. So we're going to come

009up with some recommendations for Dr. Vincent and his team of how you can communicate what the survey said. So now we've asked people what they want, what they think. It's really important that we give that back to them. we have to go back to the community a second time now and say we listened here's what you said because of what you said now this is what we plan to do if you're able to do that effectively you should see that I don't know shrink and those should be that that's the group where you're going to need support in order to pass any types of issues okay that's really what the next few paragraphs there talk about in the executive summary I won't bore you or read it to you but that's really the essence of

010it. Um we did have a very high percentage of people say that they would support um some of the projects that we surveyed at the time. Um the biggest issue is going to be what the projects were wasn't necessarily as important as what the tax tolerance was going to be. Okay? And I know that's one of the things we wanted to test. So we took a look at three different options when we did this survey. We looked at one option of uh having a brand new high school and converting the elementarymentaries from four to three and then using one of those elementary and repurposing it for some district initiatives. Uh then we looked at just doing the uh keeping the high school the way it is but doing some work on it and renovations but

011still doing the elementary configuration change as well as some work to the middle school. Uh and then we looked at just doing kind of bare minimums on a no tax increase possibility. We then went from those three question main questions and we added taxes to each of those to say well the cost of each of these would be what? And then we take a look at what the difference is. Well, you would expect if someone said, "Hey, would you like a brand new high school?" A lot of people might say yes. Then you say, "Well, here's what it would cost." Not as many people are going to say yes. You would anticipate that. That was normal. We saw this is very normal with most of the schools we worked with. You your drop in percentage

012was very much in line with what we see. The difference was is there wasn't enough of a support for the taxes on either option one or two uh to probably pass that if it were the election were today. Okay. Um, it's possible on the second one it was going to be close, but you're going to have to do some work on your campaign to make sure that people were well enough informed that they understood what the package was, how it impacted them, what it would cost, and what they would get for their money. Um, I do believe that there was the opportunity to pass that if you did a really good campaign. Okay? I think that's going to be the key is your outreach. The one that had the most support when it came to

013taxes was a no tax increase. That's also very common. It's what we see with all of our districts. That's going to be the one that's most likely to pass because people want if you take a look at those results, it was consistent in there that people care about your facilities. They believe that the school district, a good school does impact their own property values and they want to see good fiscal management from their school district to make sure kids are getting the best they can get. So, those are all great things. um where we see some opport maybe I'm anti-mic voice it's coming out Bill remembers this so Bill and I go way back I don't know if you guys noticed or not but I had problems with my microphone in my presentation before too

014I held on to the mic too strong um where was I talk about the community's belief in the school district and the impact that it has on property values um but it also came down to the same there's too many people who weren't sure. So, there's a large number of stakeholders in your community that need more information and they need to feel more comfortable about this before they're going to vote to support increased taxes. So, that is really a high level summary of why the recommendations from our organization would be the way you plan to run between now and election day is going to dictate whether you're successful or not. Okay. I would argue that it's I feel pretty confident that you would be able to pass a no tax increase. I believe you had

015around $60 million ballpark for that no tax increase. I think that that could pass today if it were run. I think if you have a tax increase, you're going to have to do a campaign to help get that to pass. I think that's where the question mark's going to be. Um and how effective you are in that in bringing people in. Um I've got a number of different ideas in school districts. I'm a retired school superintendent myself and I've passed a number of uh bonds and levies in my career and I'd be happy to share those with Dr. Vincent. Um give him every piece of information and all the tips and tricks that I've learned, mistakes I've made over the years uh to try to help you guys get that across the finish line. So

016um I commend you for the work that you put into this. I think it's the most critical component of passing these is twofold. One, people have to feel as if they're included in the process. They have to understand what they're going to get for their money, and they have to have trust and faith in you that you're going to execute what they're asking you to do. The whole where I see most school districts make a mistake is they don't do a good enough job of circling back to the community after things are being done. So, as you complete things, as you're doing some of these steps and improvements, I highly encourage you to come up with a very targeted plan to make sure that everyone in your community knows, hey, you asked us to do

017XYZ. Look what we've done, XYZ, and here's the result, and here's how kids are benefiting from that. If you're able to take that next step, that's where we usually see success. And it will set you up in the future for future elections because they'll say, "Hey, those guys listen to us. They took our input and they did what exactly what we hope they would, what they said they would do. And if you do that, you're going to build trust within your community and you're going to have ongoing support for future elections or campaigns or initiatives that you have. So that is really a synopsis of what we were able to do and when we spoke with your community. Um, I will say there was a lot of pride in the school district according to our

018survey. So, I would anticipate the opportunities there if you can successfully navigate how to include all of your stakeholders. One of another thing, I always hate to leave this out, but we always see people, you think that, well, we communicated that to them. Well, it doesn't matter if you think you communicated it to them. They have to feel like you communicated to them. And too often times, we rely too much on school emails, school social media. Well, that's where everybody gets most of their information, but you have a very large number of stakeholders in your community that don't have a connection to the school district or don't follow those. So, how do you in how do you increase your communication to those people that aren't directly connected to the schools? That ultimately will decide your

019success. So, that would be I'd be happy to answer any questions about our company, our services, or what my impressions of the data were. Do you guys have any of those? I'd be happy to speak to those as well. As quiet as I've ever seen, Bill, I've only twice. So, on page three, where it says support or opposition for potential projects. Okay. Option [clears throat] three had 72% saying they'd be more likely to vote in favor of the bond issue. And um option two had 57%. So when you look at kind of reliability, the 57% still gives you some pause. >> It doesn't because that's option that was going to be which was option three there. That was the >> option three is no tax. >> That was no tax, >> right? >> And since

020there I would still have confidence that if the second option were what you were taking to the voters that it would probably pass as long as you had a good campaign. Okay, >> you know, still close, right? But it's I would feel comfortable that you could get that to pass the get the right campaign. The difficulty is going to be is we're going to have to make some inferences here because what we went with the survey isn't exactly how your facility plan has evolved over time. So, you're going to have to figure out how much is that positive or negative. I will say this, when you have two questions go on a ballot, I like having two questions for one because I think the no tax increase usually gets across the finish line to be

021frank. Uh any tax increase is always going to be more difficult obviously. Um so you don't sink the no tax increase if you have everything all in one. So you're probably pass. So I personally would really spend a lot of time on the tax increase and make sure people understand specifically how much is this going to cost people. Help them with that. give them some visuals uh to say, "Hey, if your house is worth this much, this is what it'll cost." And maybe give them multiple. Here's our average, but here's >> right >> some other areas just so it's easier for people to see. Um that's going to be the next step. And then effectively communicate the difference between um where you guys started off with your facility plan and what it's evolved to and

022why. Why has it changed? like, "Hey, we took a look at this and we listened to you guys and you guys said you wanted this." So, we came up with a plan where we could fund more on a no tax increase so we could actually save you money, but in return, what we're asking for is this smaller amount of raise where we'll still get a huge bang for our buck. To me, that's what the message should be. That help? >> Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Well, it looks like uh gave us a thorough a big document and we appreciate um the community um the engagement in in the process and we're kind of in the middle of it. We're not finished. So, right. So, thank you. >> Well, all the work is yet to be

023done is what I would tell. I don't know how many of you have been a part of a election before for to raise taxes. Uh it's quite an an endeavor, especially for your administration. It's a lot more work than people realize behind the scenes. Uh but [clears throat] I would really encourage you to um overcommunicate. I would include your staff. Maybe have some additional staff meetings where that you can actually answer their questions directly. Uh they're going to be your best spokespeople. Um people will listen to their kids' teacher and believe in that voice much more than they're going to listen to Dr. Vincent or even members of the school board. That's who they know. That's who they trust. And if they're if they feel confident with the information, they're able to share that, it'll

024help your community be more informed voters so they can do what they think is best for their community. >> Well, thank you for all your uh information and your analysis. >> Well, if I can ever help in any way, I'm always available. I know I've told Dr. Ben Smith 247. Anytime you need me for anything, I'd be happy to help. I want to see you guys be successful. Um, that's why I do this now is I had a career of doing this for one school district and now I get to do it for a bunch. So, it's very rewarding for me and uh really to see you guys get everything done you want to see. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good to see you. Good to see you again. >> Much kinder

025to you here, right? >> Yeah, actually you were now. I think of we will now invite uh Miss Kristen Majette up. Uh she is going to share your notes. It's great to see you. We're glad you made it safely. Um we're gonna I'm gonna she's going to connect her power there just as a little bit of a reminder and I'll let her do um again thank you to those who attended the KASB conference. One of one of the really cool um resources that we that several members learned about while we were uh there in November was this concept of a thought exchange and we and obviously Miss Majette will share this but we had a tremendous amount of engagement with that >> and um it was a great opportunity to uh have our community weigh

026in on this as well. So, uh, now >> sure if I need to >> I'll turn it over to you. There you go, Kristen. Sorry. >> Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I apologize for my delay. There was some sort of catastrophic thing at Casey's that took me a half an hour to fill my tank with gas on the way. So, I apologize, but I really am so glad to be here. um and excited to share the results that were fresh off of the um I don't know digital press at 1:00 a.m. today um on Monday. So, we have worked a very tight deadline, but I'm excited that we were able to find a week to do this um this thought exchange. So, I'll get started. um a little bit about the participation. Um and

027as you know, we were looking at this as a way to um give people a full chance to it's sort of like a quick way to have a lot of big active town hall meetings. Um and town hall meetings are a lot of work and trying to get people to be in the same place at the same time is really challenging, especially the week after Thanksgiving. Um, and so this was a way for us to do that. I want to say that the participation, as Dr. Vincent said, was off the charts. Um, very, very exciting. What that means is that we know that the higher the rate of participation. It's kind of like elections. The more people who vote, the more likely that outcome is going to represent what the voters wanted. The more people

028who participate in the thought exchange, the more likely this is going to reflect the ideas and opinions of your community. So there were 832 individuals who went in and participated. Um there were 71 thoughts submitted. That's sort of if you all experienced it, it's sort of like a comment or a you know this is what I think. Um so it was about8 per person. Um as it got further through the week we had fewer thoughts being submitted but many more ratings. I think people just realized that the things that they would have said were had already been said. Um so instead uh well or in addition to submitting people then are taken to a series of thoughts that have a star and the ones that you say yeah I agree you click the star otherwise

029you scroll. What that allows us to do is as um people are starring um other thoughts, it helps us know what a lot of people agree on, which is really helpful. I'm sure as a board you can appreciate when you find areas of agreement. Those are very helpful. Um interestingly, um Thought Exchange considers anything in the 15 to 20 um thought ratings per thought to be the gold standard. >> [clears throat] >> uh the person had 53 [laughter] instead of 15 to 20. So you can see just the incredible amount of time and investment that your patrons and staff put into their participation. You have a lot to be proud of. Um it it it was really remarkable. Um, the most previous one that I did that really was surpassed by every explanation, um, that

030gold standard was 29. And the [clears throat] people at Thought Exchange were like, "We've never seen a 29." And I emailed them this morning. I'm like, "Have you ever seen a 53?" Because that's what we got. Um, so a quick note about moderation. One thing that I love about Thought Exchange is that any it has a a machine moderator that's monitoring it all the time and if there's any sense that there's a an individual's name or something personally identifying it automatically pulls it from the thought exchange flags it basically makes it so that it's not visible to the public and then I get an email that says is this or is this not you know something like Eisenhower or Lincoln those are names names and so I was approving as quickly as I could um

031the ones that were not there was nothing um inappropriate about them. Um the ones that we did not approve that were flagged um either were identifying an individual um and you know you wouldn't allow that in your board meeting. So we felt like from a public um discourse standpoint that we really needed to protect individuals of any sort. um any cruel or harassing language that you wouldn't allow at a board meeting. And then anything that was wildly off topic. A few times I wasn't sure. And I would text it to Tony and say, "I'm thinking this, but I want this seems off topic, but maybe I'm missing something." And we would say, "This is not going to give the board any information on the decision that the question that was being asked was what factors

032in should the board consider when putting together a facility plan." So something for example maybe about curriculum is is not it's off topic. It's not going to help you make a decision about a facility plan. So that's how we handled that. Um [clears throat] a quick spin through the demographics. You can see that the vast majority of the um 700 some people who participated do live in district boundaries. That's really helpful um because it makes the rest of the data um meaningful. Um at one point um I think on day three perhaps um it was exactly half and half employees and patrons and I was really glad to see that the patrons increased because obviously we we want to see a lot of employees participate. the number of employees was north of 300 about 320

033um I think that's a really that says a lot about your employees that they trusted the process and and wanted to participate um and then the rest of the um participants were not currently employed. The last thing we asked was for people to describe their role right now. Um, most, unsurprisingly, most have students um, enrolled in the school district right now. Um, some do not. And then other was a a smattering of of, you know, a grandparent or other things. I didn't see anything that was noteworthy in the other that I would have created a different group. Any questions on that before I pop into the priority factors? So, we had hundreds of comments, thoughts is what we're calling them, that were being rated. And so, one of the things that we want to do

034is think of all and they're rated um most liked, most starred to least. So what I'm able to do is to work with the analytics tool and basically analyze the top 100 is what I did. Um that's about 20% a little less right around 20% of the total number. And um I asked what recurring themes were most evident in those top 100 rated thoughts. I also checked it with all thoughts. it was pretty much the same, but I felt like the top 100 were really a better indication of what your community was really resonating um with. So, there were six themes in no particular order. One is safety and security and that was all around facilities. I I didn't get I didn't see anything that was safety security that was different than facilities. uh educational

035quality and class size, transparency and communication, facility conditions and maintenance. So, and and there's a little bit of more context in the report, the printed report that you have. um but concerns about the current condition of facilities and the maintenance needed financial responsibility and long-term planning. So if you spent any time in the stock exchange, I don't think that you anything on this list surprises you. And quite honestly, these are the same themes that came up in other um the other research you've been doing. So to me that's a really validating um opportunity to say what we've heard be what we thought we've heard before or what was collected in the survey um in November um is playing out here also in a qualitative analysis. So, one thing that thought exchange allows us to do

036too is of the however many 700 and some um thoughts that were submitted, it is able to um monitor what it would consider sentiment, positive, this is a positive comment or a positive thought, neutral or a negative thought. Um, and examples I think I included in your report, but the idea is not that it's like hooray and boo. It's more the sentiment of if somebody is wanting to is hopeful or wanting to contribute versus someone who is kind of down and out, nothing's going to change. Um, one of the things the well and here are some themes that were in the positive sentiment. Um, one is safety and security. People who there was strong support that for initiatives that would prioritize that. So people were saying I get on board with this with safety and

037security, commitment to educational quality, desire for community involvement. They want to have a seat at the table when they can. They want to be part of the work. They want to have their voices heard. Um, and when we think then about the negative sentiment feedback, we're looking what that tended to be um were these themes. trust, um, a lack of trust, um, you know, poor facility conditions or troubling facility conditions, um, questionable financial management and a concern about job security for the employees and staff of the district. Um, one thing that I noticed, and I, um, I shared this with Dr. Vincson earlier today, this has been a very, um, everything has been in one day. I saw the data first thing this morning. I put the report together and the deck and I drove

038here and now I'm talking about it. So, it's all been kind of in a short period of time. Um, but one of the things that I was a little bit surprised by um was that the negative sentiment actually cut across the entire like it was it was broad. It wasn't a narrow group that we could say this group has bad attitude or this group doesn't like the way things are going. it was more like concerns that were sprinkled across groups that also were supportive. So I think understanding the negative sentiment as something that's not we can't say well it's it's this group or that group or these 15 people were just being keyboard warriors. So I was kind of looking for that do we have especially with the intense participation and the emails that I

039was getting day and night every day of the week. Um, I was really relieved last night when I realized that this that the thought exchange would be closing at 1:00 [laughter] a.m. Um, but the I was looking for can we pinpoint that these are that this is just the grouchy guss putting all these grouchy all these grouchy comments and the answer to that was very obvious that no it is there are concerns that um kind of infiltrate all groups there's I would say also positive against across most groups I didn't look at that as closely um I was mostly trying to get a feel for for the negative sentiments. So, um I think that's important because it really is in the in the Kansas Leadership Center, we talk about factions. It's not one faction that's

040irritated or angry or unsupportive there. It's every faction has its pockets of concern. Um so, just something to think about as important. Okay. So, a few conclusions that are also in the report that you received. Um, as I've mentioned earlier, the thought exchange results that we received um, today really do validate the other research and engagement that you've already done. These were the same things that we had previously read in the report that was just presented. We read that last week. We got a a draft copy of it. Um, when I say we, uh, Wendy Johnson is has been working uh, with Tony and with Dr. Vincent. She um just joined KFB's team after retiring from 25 years at in Witchaw public schools. She her calendar didn't allow her to be here tonight, which is

041why I'm here. Um but she has a lot of experience both with the facility challenges that you're facing um a decision to close schools and and run a bond and and all of those things. So, she brings a lot of insight. Um, but what she and I this morning met and discussed what we were seeing in the thought exchange and we agreed that this was really exactly what the same kinds of things that we had taken out of the K12 excellence report as well as what we had heard was discussed in the community um facility meeting. Uh, I'm not using the right facility, what was that? >> Planning sessions. >> Yeah, the the facility planning sessions in September, I think. Um, so that's really good. That tells us that there's not a group of people

042who haven't had a chance to be heard or if they have been heard only once, it fits into a meaningful um quilt of ideas. Um, understanding community sentiment truly is essential as a board to understanding what your next steps will be. Um, we have and we are always happy, Wendy and I, to hop back into thought exchange. We have a million ways that we can um, filter and cross reference data. Um, I didn't want to, it would be impossible to go through even a tenth of it with you tonight without you all just having your eyeballs swimming in your head by the end. Um, so really focused on the key takeaways, but if there's anything that you're like, we want to know more about X, let us know because we we might be able to

043to, you know, figure out a way to do that. Um, but understanding community sent me and that it really is not one faction. It is um there are lingering negative sentiments um across all factions. Whoops. Oh, why that just Oh. Oh, and then decisions about future action should be made um with priority consideration given to these areas, which is what if there were a ven diagram of everything that Wendy and I have heard about the feedback that you've gotten so far and we added thought exchange in these are the the the areas the three areas that are consistent across safety and security of the facilities, student learning and financial stability. So, one of the things before um before I get to jump to the end and and take your questions, one thing that I I

044think is that I took away from the thought exchange, but also looking at the data that or the report from um your November survey is that unity is not easy in a in a lot of communities. I would say that that's the case in Mcerson as well. There's some um and I live in a small town. I've been there for 20 years. Um and um my husband teaches and and actually there's a big to-do tonight in our town at the city council or the city commission because people are really divided and mad about some things. For once it's not the school district. Um but you know it's important as leaders to realize um that what happens at this table sets the tone for everything else in the work that you're trying to do. So finding

045a way to create unity at this table will go a tremendous distance when you're asking the community to come together around a a sacrificial plan. something that is going to cause you know require everyone to make sacrifices whether financial um or otherwise and that is going to be um really important. I will also say um with nothing but respect for for the board and the the decisions that you are being forced to make um for the future of your you know the solveny of your district. Um, closing a building is incredibly difficult. Um, it is never easy and doing it at the same time as a bond is going to be and very challenging. Um, I [clears throat] do believe that the unity that this board can whatever shreds of unity you can work together

046um are going to go a very long way. Uh, I know it's not easy and I'm not I'm not asking anybody to go a bridge too far, but I do think if thinking about individually and as a board where you can find common ground and do the sacrifice that we're asking the community to make, um, doing doing a little bit of that at this table will I think will really set a good example. Um, so one last thing, we have a report to the community as well. Um, this is this is just it's hosted on the thought exchange website, so it'll be there for until we if we ever take it down, but it'll be there for for as long as we want. Um, it's really a cool report because all of the thoughts are

047there and people can keyword search. You can go in and type um, you know, safety and it'll pull all the thoughts up that pertain to safety. You could look up any of the school names. you. I'm trying to think of what else might have come up. Um, you [clears throat] know, student learning or or anything like that elementary versus middle versus high. Um, it's a really great interactive tool. And what I appreciate about it is that the report that's going to the community doesn't hide anything. It shows the same um information that I shared here with a little less analysis, but it shows exactly who the participation and demographics as well as um the the thoughts and it does allow people you including you to select or filter the thoughts. I want to just see

048what employees thoughts were. I just want to see um you know you can you [clears throat] can manipulate it a little bit that way what you're able to see. So I encourage you to to um to visit that to share it. I know that Tony has a plan to tomorrow to make sure that the link gets to through all the channels that the invitation went to. So if if whatever email list she has or or um weights that she has of of whoever was invited is going to also receive the results um tomorrow. So any questions or anything that I can um even jot down to get more information about? I'd be glad to do that as well. >> Kristen, thank you for pulling this together so quickly for us. I think my one question

049as a board member is can your team uh help us with a plan to restore trust? >> Yes. I think you know trust is a piggy bank and I this is not as good of a analogy now that we stopped making pennies but people don't have pennies so pennies are more valuable than they used to be I guess. Um but you know trust comes with little tiny interactions and so that is going to be doing what you say saying what you do and doing what you say. Um you know I live with teenagers and if you have ever lived with teenagers or do now you know that trust is broken and it's not restored overnight. It is a lot of small if you you know break curfew or whatever it's not the first night coming

050home on time. it's a few months of coming home on time or communicating if you're going to be late. So, you know, it's thinking about what can we do each day as individuals to be more trustworthy. Um and then also yes, we have already um begun a um a support uh arrangement where Wendy is going to be working with Tony on a regular basis um through the next few months and really looking at how do we take the data that we have now from the thought exchange and the um survey and how do we really use that to inform communication and develop talking points. One of the things that I really love, I wish I should have had a good example of this in my deck, but thought of chain will actually identify um opposing

051groups, oppositional groups, and then find the common ground. So the opposing groups, one might be student safety and one might be student learning. And then it will say these are the things that both groups care about. So if we talk about and this is just a madeup example, but if we talk about student safety, we're going to lose the student learning group. If we talk about student learning, the people who care about student safety are going to tune out. And so it can provide a the insight into these groups. Here's where they overlap and here are the ways that we can talk about both things. Student learning is still important. safety is still important, but how do we talk about it in a way that resonates with both groups? Um, so we'll we'll work with

052with Tony on that for sure and helping um understand and build. There's nobody I would when I worked in in Odora for 12 and a half years a communications director, Wendy is the person I would have wanted to come and work with me [laughter] on any given project. Um, so I know she's going to be a tremendous help with the added knowledge of of doing the, you know, the downsizing of facilities and at the same time as a bond. So that's kind of a long answer, but I think those are going to be that's the starting place for trust. >> And Kristen, I think, you know, for us as a board because, you know, we are an extension of the district, but we're also, you know, an extension of our community and so we build

053that bridge. And you know when I hear that and I've you know just now a board member for 2 years but it was kind of a long for the journey as things started to percolate in our community around a lot of mistrust >> and I think for me as a board member I don't know what I need to do to create more trust like I don't know where the distrust is coming from and so like that's I mean really we can't we can't change if we don't understand what's going to be helpful for our community. Yes, you're you're absolutely right. And I think it's important for everyone to think about. So, what is really cool about board members is that you bring a circle. You probably I don't know you all um but you probably

054each bring a different circle of influence to this table. And I'm sure there's overlapping um but I'm thinking of one of the board members in Odora, um who was on the board for several years. She knew people in our little town that nobody else was connected to. And so we would always make sure that she had information to share because we knew they would get it for her and she was very good at sharing, you know, in different ways. So thinking about who your circle of influences and how do you share updates, how do you um have, you know, how do you handle questions when someone asks a question? Um, how do you say, "Let me I'm not sure the answer. Let me find that out and get back to you." Or do you say

055beats [laughter] me? Um, you know, I think looking for how do you be a act as a connector? People have frustrations and challenges all the time because these are their kids. Um, I think of times where I have turned to a board member because something has gone wrong or been handled poorly. Um, I'm looking for someone who will listen to me, who will keep the confidential things confidential. Um, and who will report back to me, you know, what I need to do or what I should do. So I think problem solving as you act as a problem solver thinking about um being incredibly trustworthy in the small matters. Don't gossip. Don't take you know this is obvious but don't take executive session things back because you might like the tea but you suddenly know that

056that person is not going to keep anything private. So keeping you know the things that are private private um handling people as as people we are concerned. Um I think anytime we dismiss groups as being affection or oh it's them again um even if we don't say those words out loud our tone and our demeanor um can communicate that. And so I think being curious and I actually saw that on your wall here. Um a curious inquiry using curiosity um when someone says and sometimes I can say just from personal experience sometimes being trustworthy is being able to hold two different experiences or two different realities as both true. Um, maybe the kindergarten teacher I didn't like at all, was terrible to my child, and the board member I'm talking to wants to say, "Oh

057my gosh, that was our family's favorite teacher of all 12 years." That board member is going to do is going to be trustworthy to me if they can hold those two truths as at those two experiences as true. So, thinking about in your personal interact because it's really interpersonal interactions. Um, that's super helpful to me. >> Well, that like I've got lots of things turning in my mind that you can look at doing differently. >> Yeah. And I think it's really just thinking about, you know, ask yourself when you're driving or um, you know, for me, you know, getting out of the shower and putting on makeup or brushing my teeth for 2 minutes. I have lots of time to think. Um, thinking about like interactions and what what is it? When do you feel

058like the person you're talking to is trustworthy? Thinking about going to the doctor's office or the dentist or um daycare pickup? Like what are things that happened to you that you're like, "Man, I would I love going there or I I'm so thankful for my doctor or I'm so thankful for that new daycare worker because, you know, kind of unpack that a little. um dissect it in your mind and think what was it about that interaction that really made me feel tr like I could trust them. So any other questions? That's a great one. And that's hard work. I mean if we had a magic training for that or a magic we'd be in every district every night. We'd be doing board meetings um constantly. It's it's it's work and it takes time. Um and

059one and I shared this with with Dr. Vincent earlier when I was hired in my position in Odora in 2006 um I didn't know much about anything and um what I what I did know was that there was a big to-do with the board and things had gone badly and there was a protest petition on our capital outlay um circulating that were like about to have enough signatures or something um and I didn't know what that meant um at the time. I know now that it would have been devastating long-term to budget. Um, and it was because the board had decided to use capital outlay dollars over like had saved capital outlay money for like 3 years, let's say, to build a new stadium cuz we really needed a new stadium um for safety reasons.

060and the community caught wind of this and said no, you know, that's where and they started a community protest or the cataly protest petition. Um, and when I look back, the reason that the community said no was because yes, it had been discussed for 3 years at the board's table and and it doesn't make its way from the board. This is a meeting for you all to communicate with one another. Um, fast forward about 5 years, 6 years later, we had a very unfortunate um, arrest that took place, a teacher who um, later went to prison. Um, and amazingly, we had sent um, I don't know like maybe 4,000 emails about this the misdeeds of this teacher who was arrested um, for a minor. And um I was shocked that not one of those emails

061was forwarded. It it was like 3 days before I got a call from the newspaper um and they had heard because the arrest had happened in W. Someone from the WA Eagle called the reporter the Journal World. So that's what trust looks like is and we went from a, you know, a protest petition to hard news that went to a whole lot of people that normally would forward emails who didn't. Um, but that took that was years of um consistent effort. Um, and it wasn't like every day, but it was it was it's a long time, but it's so worth the journey. So, that was kind of a long speech. Sorry. Anything else? Well, I'm going to hang around if it's all right and and happy to visit after the meeting or or if you

062take a recess. So, thank you so much for the opportunity here. >> Thank you. I think you're quite amazing to have 832 participants in a week's time. >> And you know, there were 667 on Friday at like 4:00. And I told Tony, I'm like, you might kind of change things up and just remind people who haven't participated to go. And I was amazed when I saw that number this morning. >> I just appreciate willingness to the community for participating in uh you know, continuing the conversation. So I thank you. >> Yes. Well, thank you for the opportunity. >> Well, does board need a break? What break? They're asking for a break. 5 minutes. No. Oh. Oh, I thought you said yellow. Keep going. Keep going. Oh, okay. I misunderstood. >> I explain Mr. Cash >>

063and you can get synced up to it. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, Mr. Cash will present kind of our final version of the long range plan and seek to answer any questions you have as well. >> So, thank you. appreciate it. Good to see you all again. Um, I wanted to just go through this one more time if that's uh what you wanted to do. Um, and just kind of go through the the points of uh uh of the long range plan. But I I first wanted to start with um this um and it's uh this was asked of me last time we got together about how did we get to where we are and I think from the two first presentations we had tonight you can see where it came from. It really came

064from the community cuz it's echoing the same things we just heard in the two surveys and thought exchange. uh it's the same themes over and over again, but this is you know where some of these things were asked when did these first come up and a lot of them when I started to go back through that data really came from staff members when we did our staff survey and then we sat down with administrators and interviewed them a lot of these ideas really came to the top then then our first committee meeting committee meeting number one where we had an open dialogue of tell us what is important to you and we had all those responses is again it was reinforced what the teachers and the staff had told us. Um and it's the same

065things we've heard earlier uh secure entry storm shelters uh safety and security educational first and you know making sure we got the best educational facilities for our kids was very important. Um uh you know we talked a lot about you know how do we consolidate from uh four buildings to three um and that came up in the admin interviews um and they had a lot of uh comments about that. They understood the challenge to the district was but they had a lot of concerns as well. Um the renovate and expand the high school uh in its current site was something we heard a lot. The community poll and the committee uh in the committee's guidance um the preserve the stadium, the PAC, the roundhouse that goes to you [clears throat] know in you know making

066sure that the dollars of the communities invested already in those resources were honored and protected. Um but the reduced operating costs and improving efficiencies was also one of those key uh things we heard over and over again uh from the committee. So you know it's it's with as we go through this process over 4 months we have a meeting and meeting and meeting and you start to lose track of where do these things where do these ideas come from. Uh it was a good exercise to go back through it. Uh but the secure entries you know was the first thing we heard from the principles and staff that was a big topic and then as we went to the community and asked they all reinforced that. Uh so we knew that was a a number

067priority and we just saw that from the two last presentations safety and security was the number one uh thing we heard. um you know the taking care of the buildings and the condition of the buildings was in again was in the staff surveys the people who were living in those buildings but we also saw it again in the community raw data uh from committee number one. This is a big topic that they uh wanted us to identify. The the flooding issue was something that was on top of mind uh when we started this process in August and September. And so we saw a lot of that in the staff and admin uh surveys, the community comments again and the community analysis uh as we went through the all the thoughts that we got the input

068that we had received as well. So, it just reinforces, I think, what we've uh heard tonight um that these are the main concerns of the community. They've stayed throughout the whole process. They have not really wavered. Uh we haven't had a lot of 180s um or even been really uh slight deviations. Those are the been the main concerns we've heard uh from the very beginning. Um would you like me to go through the top points of the long range facility plan? Yep. him. Oh, I wanted to touch on this point. There was also another um conversation or question about capacity of the buildings. And when we did our grade report card, uh some of the buildings said, "Well, you're at 72% capacity or 80%. I can't remember the exact numbers." And there was some confusion

069over that. Why does this building not look like it's being capacity? Well, you say it was how the buildings were used at the time we did the analysis. So if they were using the classroom for an office space or they using the classroom for you know large classroom for sped or some other resource and not a classroom we still took it out of the the use as a classroom. So the uh that analysis makes it look like the building is not being utilized to its full potential. Uh what this does for you is it shows you how many classrooms are in every building that it's a standard learning environment at each building. And if we added 22 kids to those classrooms, the capacity of each one of those buildings. Now, we know that's not the

070way the buildings are going to be operated. Uh we're not never going to run at full capacity and we're not going to use every classroom for standard learning environment. Some classrooms are going to be used for other district uses and we know that. But this gives us our optimal ability. So, and then great schools, we have capacity for 1,900 students. 19 1,914 students. uh our total enrollment this year is 951. So we're about using about 50% capacity potential capacity in each of the buildings as we are today. uh and then I layer layered in each uh grade level uh that is an enrollment from this grade year and then if we [clears throat] uh use all the sections available, how many sections are available to us if we layered the buildings and and this of

071course has variables to it of how many would you use in this building and would use that building for sections. But if we optimize that at 22 students per at the max, how many brick sections we actually need in each building. So how many we have available and how many we actually need at 22 students. Uh and you can see that at the very bottom of that chart, the average class size for each cohort uh using that section. There may be times where you go up to an eight section and a grade that cohort. There might times you go down to a six or five, eight, who knows? what the future can bring. But this just gives you an idea of the user utilization potential in each of your buildings as they are to as

072they're designed, not how they're used today. Does that answer that question? >> So Dwayne, to just kind of cuz there was some other information that community members were looking at that, you know, said that this building had this capacity. What I think I heard you share with us tonight is that when bedrooms are being used or a classroom is being used for something else that we pulled those out, >> right? >> Which wasn't an accurate picture of utilization as we would as we would [clears throat] look at it in this way, >> right? Every every every time the classroom is not used as a standard environment that affects the current utilization rate of the building. and we saw that a lot. So, um just through the high level kind of uh what the long range

073plan um says and what it and again I I'll reiterate that this is a long range plan. This is not the plan that is going to take care of everything today or the proposed bond issues, but the long range plan the district would like to move to. So, uh, we have three preK5 elementary schools, uh, in this study and that's what we're headed for right now. But we also have in the long range plan, we look at a 56 78 center, right? That is in the plan. But we know that in this first round, we're probably, you know, we're looking at doing a 6 7 8 traditional with the ability to go to a five if we need to if the grade schools fill over full or the community wants to move in that direction.

074But in an effort to save dollars and be as fiscally responsible as we can, we're just biting off the 678 right now with the ability to go to a 5678. Um and that aligns with the RSP study. You know that going from 4 to 3 is the the main mover there. Um we talking about a modern 6A campus at Eisenhower. It's a great building that has the ability to really uh serve as a middle school. It's the only building that has that ability without building a brand new building. uh and saving a tremendous amount of dollars that the communities are invested in that facility that can be uh used as a move forward in a middle school. Um which is a great use of the resources the communities are invested in that facility. And here's

075the plan of what the floor plan potentially could look like. Again, we have not had any meetings with staff or community members or teachers on what that building would look like, but I wanted to build a representation of what that could look like. The gray box is what would have to be added to make it a fifth grade uh 6th, 7th, 8th building. So we would build that first phase which was mainly science rooms uh specials and uh athletics at that middle school uh performance spaces to uh make that a middle school today would be that first phase >> Dwayne with this you know uh longer range vision of adding fifth six is that going to keep separation of kids is does the abil the building have that ability if we went that direction >>

076it does and that's what's another beautiful thing about Eisenhower is that way that facility laid out and it already operates with those age group kids in it so that the uh east wing is already used by fifth graders and it could easily be used by sixth graders. So without a lot of reinvestment in that area of the building, it works really well as the fifth sixth grade center. Uh and then the west wing would be the second 8th center or the middle school. So it really does kind of with all that vegetables in the cafeteria and stuff in the middle where they have the shared resource. >> So if you were to construct this the that grade area would not be constructed in the bond if we passed it >> if if the present bond

077plan, right? It would not. >> So what is that going to cost down the road to have to add that addition or does it make sense to add it now? >> Um we know what it would cost now. It would be I'm going have to go back through our notes to see exactly what that cost is. What we did average that, but that would when we were talking about 105 million, $110 million was in that range. So, we go up another 15 to $20 million. >> Yeah. >> 15 to 20. >> Yeah. Yep. But in the future, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years, it is going to be more expensive. Yeah. Yep. >> Uh here's a just a look at the floor plan. uh just a little bit more of a closer look at that.

078And then the the building itself uh what it would potentially look it would look like it was always uh intended to be part of that building. It fits really nicely on the campus. It's got all the parking and the uh the support from the athletics to the north which is they're all positives u on on making that building the middle school. Uh at the high school, uh we heard a lot about, you know, we we'd love to have a new high school. We heard that in surveys as well, but when we started adding the dollars to it and the complexity of that, it just didn't gain a lot of support. But we did hear a lot of support of of saving the the middle, saving the PAC, saving the athletics that we've already invested dollars

079in, but making a new school as much as we can for kids. So, what we would propose is we would retain 180,000 ft² of sunk investment in that facility and all the infrastructure that's there already and then add 90,000 ft of new high school space where the kids spend predominantly most of their time in classroom spaces, labs, science, career and tech ed um you know all those types of opportunities that kids uh really want in a modern learning environment. Uh, and it also gives them a new common space, new kitchen, cafeteria, a media center, all those amenities and a secure entry and a secure space. Uh, it addresses all those concerns. We get a lot of weird rid of a ton of doors in that building. They're there now. So, safety and security is heightened

080that just in that move alone way more than what they have today. Um, you know, that's all the classrooms and things and also and the plan we're talking about is fixing that permanent uh permanently fixing the flood and drainage issues on the campus. Uh, so we don't have those issues ever coming back term. Um, and we're going to preserve all those investments I just talked about that are already there that are all good spaces and just need some of them just need some maintenance and uh some modification to fit in with the new building. And here's the site plan proposed. Again, this is proposed. When we really get into the design of something like this, we're really going to spend a lot of time and look at it. We'll bring in engineers. We'll talk about

081how does it and contractors. We'll talk about how does this actually happen? How do we keep kids safe as we're building this building? How do we keep it as efficient as we can so we can stretch our dollars and get more bought with the budget dollars we've got identified? We hope you know through that good planning process we can do that stretch our dollars farther what we have budgeted today. Um and here's a blow up of that you know the addition really um encompensing the roundhouse on the west side or the east side and the north side uh connecting to the PAC so that those classrooms are not connected and not separated from the roundhouse. So all academics, core academics is on the east side of the roundhouse and athletics is on the uh north

082and west of the roundhouse, creating a much better flow to the whole building and circulation. There's a lot of blind spots in the high school and out a lot of places kids can go to. This really kind of eliminates a lot of that. Way more better sidelines and better circulation throughout the building and more safe environment. Um, you can also see how we've improved the parking and the bus uh loop to the front of the building. So, people aren't having to walk so far from the parking lot to get to the front door in a rainstorm, snowstorm, or an event. Grandma and grandpa who want to come to a baseball game or basketball game, they don't have to walk that far from the parking lot. Get ADA parked right up at the building. Uh and

083here's [clears throat] a you know proposed floor plan showing how that those classrooms would really be to the east side of the uh the building with the technology to the north and the gym to the very northwest. The community the board looking pieces would be to the south southwest the media center the commons and that part that creates that that front door to the gymnasium and events and then the front door to the PAC as well. uh the second floor as a proposed how that would work and that really kind of lends into now how that nestles in against the roundhouse with a front door and new front door. Uh the academics behind the roundhouse this twotory element that kind of really circulates that really we really champion the roundhouse, you know, and reset that

084clock on that building for generations. Um, again, it's just a small little video showing how that what that building potentially could look like, right? But potentially cuz we'd have to, like I said, I hate doing these kind of things, but I know from what we've talked to a lot of people in the community, they want to know how's this work, what does this really even look like? And we want to give them that good information of this is potentially how it could work. So they have a good confidence about, well, we could do something that would work for them. >> And Dwayne, the reason for the potential language is because when you start to tear into sites, there are many unknowns. And so the task would be for us to keep our community updated anytime

085there were changes or >> Yes, 100%. And I think that but it's also the the reason I like to use the word potential and we'll use that a lot through the bond campaign is uh because we [clears throat] want to hear from the people who are going to use it, right? We want to hear from the students. We want to hear from the teachers. We want to hear from staff and input from you and input from other people in the community about the design of the building. I I don't like doing this without their input. It's not u we want their that's the best design of any building is the people who are using it and teaching in it living in it having their input and say and then to your point we don't know

086a lot of things at this point but we will find those out and it'll you know adapt to it as we go. Uh so what does this do for us as a a long range plan? It's fewer buildings, which means lower operating cost. More modern facilities equals lower operating costs. Improve energy efficiency, more stewardship of your dollars. Right size facilities for enrollment. So, more full, they're more opportunity for programs because now everything's right size. So, we have a better efficient building, more money efficiently, and we have a better culture inside those buildings when they're right size. and it supports that long-term fiscal health that the community in surveys and the data that you've reached out to support uh and that's what the community asked for what we've heard many many times they want a new

087high school and I think this is the best approach to get in that high school for the dollars that the community is willing to invest at this time uh it protects around us and the PAC those costs it gives us safety and security solves the flooding we're being fiscally responsible We're putting a plan together right now that is a really good deal for what they're going to get compared to what we could have bought in the past for a [snorts] little little less of a tax impact per household. And I think that's what they're talking about. And how can we do that is because the district has been fiscally responsible able to get more or less through the $62.5 million. no tax increase gets us a huge step forward in this process. So now the

088smaller ass that that when what we've asked in the past gets us a lot of the same things we have asked for in the past but it gets it for a smaller ass which is a positive and that's something we heard a lot about as being we want all these things but there is a price limit that we're willing to invest and we think we've hit a pretty good balance on that today and it and it ensures that operational efficiencies they have all asked for. So just not, you know, uh asking the community to support you in tax dollars, but also that you're, you know, we're going to be really efficient on how we operate our camp our district and rightsize our district so we're more efficient in our daily operations. And this plan delivers

089on all those. Part of that long-term uh fiscal responsibility is what once we kind of do all this work to these buildings, we kind of reset the clock on them. Do you have a plan in place now to maintain them going forward? Bringing up capital dollars uh through this process and now we're not being reactive in our capital dollar plans and chasing our our tails or our ben frame of our car as as Sherry talked about. you know, now we have a new car. Now we just need to take care of it and we need to, you know, we've got a remodel car and we need to take care of it. Um so we would really uh strongly uh support that that notion that you put in an asphalt plan, a roofing plan, the HBAC

090plan, interior finish upgrades so that when we put on a brand new building your let's say it's a high school and we change out that system, the mechanical system, there's a lifetime there's a life cycle on that that mechanical system and you have to start planning for when the end of that life cycle happens. so that you have a plan in place and you put away dollars and been real prudent with your dollars and how you do that is with a a plan that's in place and I know the district is uh going to work on that. >> So that's good. >> What is MEP? >> Oh mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. Sorry. Yep. using an architecturist speakers should be more planned with educators. >> We had all these academics. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >>

091Um so u and then there's a district consolidation right as well. So as we um move through this process, the the plan that we have set forth uh takes one building off potentially two uh [clears throat] with the middle school and this building for sure because we have space for those kids to move into. Now we can walk away from two buildings that are uh costing the taxpayers dollars to operate and maintain today. Uh so we're are efficient there. We would like to see go farther uh through that capital dollars savings. You know, can we um rightsize our bus farm, get something that's maintenance under one roof, be more efficient in how that is done. Um you know, walk away from the park building potentially and whatever that plan is. But keep your, you know,

092as the long range plan evolves, there's more opportunity there to be more efficient for the district. Uh we think it's a balanced responsible student centered plan and that's always something that we really want to make sure that you I think that one of the big positives this plan is that every kid gets something. It's just not about the high school kids, it's just not about the middle school kids. It's for everybody and that is a huge um step forward. [clears throat] Uh it's a it's a plan for everybody. Modern learning environments, operational savings, neighborhood based elementary schools, future ready middle school and high school, and strong alignment with community values. And there's I like to make a comment. But when you first started working with us, you had broader scenarios like go to two elementary

093schools, you know, look at the possibility of a brand new site 88 or somewhere else. >> Well, you listened to us and the community and said that's a little bit more than we can bite off right now. >> Yep. >> And I'd just like to say as we go through this process in the future, we may have something similar like that. I like the word you use, potential. I think the community needs to realize that as we go forward, there could be some changes, but not many from what you've outlined here. I appreciate the scenario you went through here. That's good. Thank you. >> But I mean, you you threw a lot of ass 3 months ago. [laughter] Now, where we are, we've got that kind of narrowed down. And the two questions on the

094ballot on ballot will be centered on the high school and getting some security stuff and then the other additional ask is doing all this other stuff you talk about, right? >> Yep. But we see it as one plan with two questions. And I think that is as if as we move forward that's the message to the community. It's one plan and two questions. And I think we talk about it in that way. Uh we and Dr. Donaldson talked about it a little bit as well. It's you know that um it's how that message is we got to tell them what the benefits are and the lot and be honestly a lot of the operational efficiencies and the district efficiencies come with the second question. It's that allows us to close the middle school and allows

095us to walk away from this building and some other things we can do that. So that's important. It's one plan, one district plan, put into two questions. And I think that communication strategy that we use and really overcommunicate and make sure everybody has good communication and we're not uh hiding anything or have a a secret agenda on the side. Builds that trust and that transparency that they so desperately want. Any other questions? seeing any. Thank you. Oh, wait. So, I thought last week we had discussed moving the safe and secure entrances in the athletics between the two questions and I see it's back the other way. >> You're right. That is I took the the You're right. It is. I took the Y. >> Yep. That's >> the new language has. >> Yes, it is.

096Okay. >> That's another example how things evolve. >> That's right. Y All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to uh motion to approve the district's long range facility plan as presented. >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor say yes. Any opposed with nay. Carries 70. Thank you for the approval of the long-term plan for the district. Do we need a break or is everyone good to keep going? >> Short break. Five minutes. Good. Sound. [music] Oh. >> [music] [music] >> Oh, [music] heat. >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> supposed to be eating. They are. I don't even know what Oh, you made a candy. >> Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] >> Like I bite it. [music] >> [music] >> Yeah,

097I think that's a lot. Just push it back. We're done here. >> Okay, we're back. We're going to move to 2.2. On this on this next item for the board's consideration is the formal resolution for setting the ball for March 3rd of 2025. But a question came up earlier and I want to draw your attention to a couple of things. So, this is the official um action that would need to be taken and then I'm going to highlight um some information for the board's awareness and for well probably anyone that are out there. But let me just draw your attention first. So, the question that was posed there at the end would be what items then are included in in project number one. And so at last board at the last board meeting specifically some

098things were rearranged. And so you can see here that item B um for Miss Sparks Point is to construct furnishing equip safe and secure entrances at Lincoln and Roosevelt schools. As you'll recall uh Washington already has one of those acquire payoff etc. and make all other necessary improvements. somebody gets to say, you know what, I'm not going to touch that. I'll let somebody else critique me on it. Um, Latin legal language. The So, that's the first item. So, that's from the board's discussion a week ago. A second item then is those items all in are in option two, but I really want to make sure the board's full awarenesses is drawn to this clause right here that is highlighted in bold and italicized. So these the as was mentioned by Dwayne um in his earlier

099presentation is that this is two questions one by two questions. The first question is uh needs to be successful in order for question two to be successful. So this isn't um where one goes to the polls and votes for uh between option A or B or X or Y. This is understood that option one and so and you can name it there is the electors of the district authorized and the electors authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to finance cost project number one. So this is a contingency. Question two is on a contingency there. Question one can pass and two could be unfortunately unsuccessful but question two could not be successful unless option one. Okay. So, just know that as you're calling this officially this evening, that is in fact um the ballot language

100and that's what you're proposing um or that's the action that you're taking to set the ballot language as you call this election for this upcoming March. [snorts] What questions could I answer or as the board considers actions? Something to note on this, I mentioned it to Dr. Daniel earlier. It it is roll call. There's only a couple of those that we do that way and this is one of those so that the clerk can make sure he captures uh those by name for the voting record which will go in the supporting documents that we'll submit to ASD and uh and others. So when people ask about the one and two options, >> right? >> It's very easy to say you can't have option two without option one. >> Correct. That's correct. >> The legal jungle

101model that >> I really like the way you said it. >> It's vote yes. Yes. And you can't have question two without one. >> Yeah. I think we really got to hammer that home because several people I've talked to said it gets confusing when you have two things on there. >> It certainly can. >> We just I think that's one thing we got to really be aware of. >> Yeah. And [clears throat] to confirming that the March bond assures that we can do the tax neutral. >> Yeah, great question. So the purpose behind a March bond is so that we'll know then in March what the total outcome is for um for how do we budget and plan for going into the to the next fiscal year. Yes. further questions. >> I will go ahead

102and make a motion here as we have it in front of us. I'm not hearing any other discussion. Um, and so I'll go ahead and read that and a reminder as we go through. It'll be a roll call. Um, and I'll call my name and then it's a yay or a nay as we go through that. I'll I'll go through that again after I read this. [laughter] Um, so a resolution authorizing and providing for the calling of a bond election in Unified School District number 418, Mcverson County, Kansas, McFersonen, for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of the district separate questions issuing general obligation bonds of the district, authorizing application to the state board of education for the authority to call the bond election and for capital improvements, state aid, and pro providing

103for the giving of notice of the bond election. your motion. Second. >> Okay, thank you. So, we have a motion and he has second that and we will move to um I'll call names and I'm going to start with uh Jeff Johnson. >> Yes. >> Harry McCain, >> yes. >> Uh Rebecca Press, >> yes. Uh, Bill Gro, >> yes. >> Sherry U say >> yes. Thank you. And um Chelsea Bush, yes. Laura Vanderhook, yes. That um is adopted. Thank you for that. >> Anything else, Mr. You need on that? Got everybody. Thank you for that work. We'll move to 2.3 >> 2.3 I'm sorry. Yeah, 2.3. Um I'll just share with you the same information uh here and then see answer any questions. But uh the action before you on this item is to consider

104uh specific action to transition from four elementaryaries to three beginning in the 20 or 2026 27 school year with Eisenhower Elementary being transitioned in preparation for a reconfiguration into a future middle school in alignment with the long range plan that was just adopted and the language that will be on the ballot should both of those items be successful. um and continue uh to allow us to make plans towards the district's $1.75 million savings goal uh savings target which was uh which you set last officially took back into set at the previous board for the previous board meeting. One thing to clarify um for this and I I posed this question or Ben posed this um which is you know and there was some dialogue around it. In the event the question is posed exactly as

105this in the event that question two was to fail are you going to do what are you going to do with Eisenhower? The answer is not as straightforward, but for the board's sake, the first thing we would do with anything being unsuccessful would be go back and try to gather as much feedback and data as we could to try to better understand why it wasn't supported. But from a logistics standpoint, there still remains items that would that provide opportunities for us to consolidate services to that type of a location and make sure that we're utilizing that space um and leveraging it as a district asset and we would be able to then start thinking about what other um potential changes may need to u be considered. So the the short answer with that is that

106should something your action tonight what we'd be seeking would give us direction and we would proceed and the action on this would make sure that that next year we're in a three elementary system and Eisenhower Elementary will be being prepared for a transition to the to a future middle school at whatever point that comes. We would hope that it would be successful in March, but at whatever point that would become uh the future middle school, that's when that would officially transition all the way over. Otherwise, it would be used as a district facility. Um, and we would make sure that we're working on other aspects of that said, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, we'd be seeking action on this item as well. If if that would happen as you laid laid out

107there, can we have another bond election in August then after we've listened to the community again? So the question that's a great question. My understanding is actually that it's that the law that said just for clarification I want to look into this to be sure but there's I believe what it did was really said that a special would be could be held in March and it made that consistent across the this original statute always stated that you could have you could have one special in a calendar year and then you would still have the general I'm sorry the primary and the general to still have uh elections on and I believe that remains true. So that's the long way Mr. Ga was saying I [clears throat] believe the answer to that would be yes August

108could be November could be um and really the following March could be a potential as well because you would have been past your 12 council. >> We mentioned that this is special. Have we told the community what it costs to run the special bond in March? my I don't know that specific number and I don't know in what manner that is shared cost across all groups that are doing it and again I'll have to verify from a with the law change and what the cost is. So that'll I'll have to bring that back forward. I believe the yeah I'll just bring that forward that next week. >> I can have that for the 15th. Yep. Okay, I'm seeing that we're perhaps questions answered. >> I just want to comment that um I appreciate the conversation

109we had last meeting. Uh it was hard, but we needed to have that conversation. Um the followup with the surveys and that was very helpful. I think that that conversation caused a lot of engagement which uh we're seeing the information from that and that was helpful too. This is hard for all of us and we we know we have a budget issue that we made a decision around but we also have an opportunity for facilities improvement and so all of us have had to wrestle with weighing that through. Um, it's hard to reconfigure an elementary and yet it seems to be best in line with what the community has worked on, what we're hearing in the survey and what will work for us financially and uh matches well with facility. So, just wanted to say

110that that that um I know many of you have been talking with some and this is hard. We we've all been pondering this and um just been wrestling. It's not about favoring one elementary school over another and and it's about what works the best financially and how how it all comes together. So, I just wanted to make that comment >> and I [clears throat] was kind of on the same with Jeff. Um, I appreciate everyone's hanging with me for the last week while I digested everything, but looking at it strictly through a financial lens, Lincoln made the most sense to close. All intents and purposes, that's what the data showed. But for the sustainability and everything with our district and the longevity that we need to set our district up for, I get why Eisenhower

111makes sense. While I don't agree with closing Eisenhower, it's a very productive school for the longevity of the district. I felt that that was the best option for us at this moment in time. I just also wanted to share that we received many emails from families for um Washington, Lincoln, Eisenhower, and for some of the uh unrest that we've had in our community that Christy shared with us tonight. I just want to personally thank all of the families because I felt like they were very, very kind, very um they were advocating, but I was super proud of our families. Y >> um and you know so uh we didn't re I didn't receive any emails that were uh attacking or um it so that just speaks well of you know our students and their families

112in our district. Um this is hard. It is hard. Schools have identities. they have they have meaning [laughter] and a lot of people position home ownership around a certain idea or dream for their kids. And so um thank you Jeff and Chelsea for you know pushing pause and getting what you needed so that we could create unity here. I think I heard Mr. Grove say earlier today that if you have kids currently in Eisenhower and they have to go to one of the other facilities soon they will be middle schoolers go back to a middle school and the other point that I would make is what Dwayne said in essence you have a new state-of-the-art middle school for $20 million versus building a new elementary school for 40ome million. >> It's a financial savings and

113area the community will still have a school. >> Well, we definitely are weighing and have been weighing. our community is weighing and it's weighty all this challenging and change any magnitude is challenging um so I appreciate uh hearing from everyone and yeah echoing the what I heard the challenges and the difficulties but at the same time recognizing future forward um and um ensuring that we are executing our longterm strategic plan that we have said as a district that we um own and we need to carry that forward as hard as much of this has been and will be for some time. With that, I'll make a motion to approve the transition from four elementary schools to three beginning in the 2025 2020 2026 2027 school year and designate Eisenhower Elementary School to be transitioned in

114preparation for reconfiguration into a future middle school consistent with the adopted long range plan. >> Need a second. >> Any other discussion? Sure. >> Yes. Sure. >> Any other discussion? All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Any opposed with no. Did everybody vote? >> Are you abaining? Okay. That's why. Okay. So, five six one with a one is abstain. Thank you for the, you know, the long good um digging in um through the work. Um and I we appreciate the community's investment in our staff um in the process and we will continue this work. This is not um there's much to come in this conversation. Okay, we're ready for 3.1. Motion to go into executive session to discuss a proposal being considered in contract negotiations with teachers pursuant to the exception for employer employee

115negotiations under the Kansas open meeting act and the open meeting will resume in the boardroom. Which time do we need minutes? >> 15 minutes. Um the executive session will include the board superintendent, assistant superintendent, and executive director of special education. Second second all favor say yes. >> Any opposed with no? 7. >> [music] [music] >> Punky. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> You're back live. >> Okay. Motion to go into executive session to discuss proposals being considered in contract negotiations with teachers pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations under the Kansas Open Meetings Act. And

116the open meeting will resume in the board room in 15 minutes. The executive session will include the board, superintendent, assistant superintendent, and executive director of special education. Second. All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Any Okay, that passes 70. That we'll have 15 minutes of executive session for negotiation. >> Turn this off. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. N. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> just [music] me. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Sorry, we didn't get in there quick enough. >> Go patient. Motion to go into mine didn't >> motion to go into executive session to discuss proposals being considered in contract negotiations with teachers pursuant to the exception

117for employer employee negotiations under the Kansas open meetings act and the open meeting will resume in the boardroom for 5 minutes. The executive section will include the board superintendent, assistant superintendent, and the executive director of special education. Make a motion for second. >> Second. >> All in favor say yes. Yeah. >> Yes. >> 70 or five minutes. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Thank you for the work today. Um we will declare the meeting. >> Thank you all. We have a legislative meeting. >> [music] [music] >> Oh, [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> day. Hey >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music]