Regular Board Meeting - March 10, 2025

001[Music] Well, I guess you'll just do a test. We're just testing our sound if everyone can hear us or hear me. And just a reminder for our for our folks at home, it's actually this is this small mic is actually a very powerful one. So, let's see. Like with Shiloh, he's got to like tap it a couple times, then he comes live. But I could hear that. So, say something if you would. Good evening. Yeah, good to see you. I would encourage everybody to get closer to him, but high one minute. Sherry likes to get real close. Just make sure you're speaking in extra good. Yeah, it's not five. It's not five anymore. 6:00 just now. Okay, we're going to call the meeting to order. I'll stand with the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge

002algiance 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. Okay, we have our um need for approval of the agenda and consent agenda. So moved. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Thanks. I carries. Thank you. Did you get that? Okay. So, we have um comments from the public. Uh Miss McCain. Hi. Thank you for um allowing me to speak today. Uh several of us are familiar with each other already, but for those of you who I'm not yet acquainted with, my name is Kieran McCann. I use her and th pronouns as my third person pronouns. Um I wear many hats in this town. I am the president of McFersonen

003Coalition for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity. I have the privilege of working part-time at Twice told Tales and I'm also the elected chairperson for McFersonen and Marian County Head Start Policy Council. um is comparable to the ones you each occupy today. Like you, I also have a duty to our community to do right by our students and various other stakeholders. I'm dismayed by the circumstances necessitating my outreach today. However, I remain hopeful this opportunity can serve as one which frighten brings our community closer together at a time when so many would rather see us driven apart. The past few weeks have been full of worried students, upset parents, and motivated community members reaching out about the sudden confiscation of the book Flight of the Puffin by Anne Braden in the middle of a teaching unit. The

004first person to tell me of this was actually my employer, Katie, who now owns Twiceful Tales. after hearing about it from parents and educators alike felt motivated to support those most impacted by the sudden upheaval by trying to supplement from the position of a dedicated invested member of the McFersonen community. If you've not yet taken the opportunity to read Flight of the Puffin, you may not be aware that the first character readers are introduced to, Jack, is relatable to the majority of our community. He becomes motivated to action once overhearing administrative uncertainty revolving around funding and the future of his small community school. This sets off a chain of events wherein Jack has his public address misinterpreted and spun outside of his control. Strangers interact with him differently based off of what they were told

005about him. Other characters experience a variety of hardships between school bullying, critical parents, and homelessness. What ties all of these stories together, though, is one character whose rebellious pastime is dispersing index cards across town with anonymous words of encouragement and kindness for anyone to find. She hears about Jack's statement to the state's education department and sends him a postcard with kind words. This creates another chain reaction, resulting in a collective community healing. I think this eloquently illustrates the transformative conversations we're all capable of and I'm personally experienced time and time again in the work that I truly do for our community. For example, my new friendship with Katie. By all surface assessments, we've had plenty of pause to be suspicious of each other. Instead, we both took steps towards trust and working together. What we've

006uncovered in the past few months is unexpected, refreshing, and it has the capacity to be more and more common. Provided people are given the opportunity to talk to each other. When we lack the ability, capacity, and opportunity to talk to each other from our experiences, we find there is less and less to be afraid of from each other. Something I think we can all agree on here is that we just want the kids to be all right. We want them to be safe. I'm not here asking you for anything more than your consideration and a genuinely heartfelt invitation. Katie and I have collaborated to host a community discussion this Saturday at 400 p.m. at Twice Told Tales over the book that has been confiscated from the schools called Fly the Puffin. I sincerely hope you

007will join us in witnessing the power of conversation amongst neighbors. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, appreciate the comments. Um, we are going to move into the donations report. So, I'm just stealing yours um donation report. Just want to point out again and this is uh you'll see these periodically come through and so just want to really draw the board's attention too I hope as email or as the as board docs chooses to catch up with me. Um as as you all know each year periodically we'll see uh large donations that come from the McFersonen booster club to our activities programs. Those are um just those are not just to um for example specific sports or anything like that. Those are to all of our programs. And you see in their total amount um being donated

008towards our students um over $30,000 in a single um instance here. So just want to draw the attention. There's also many gifts. There's some other gifts aside from that. would like to draw the attention that that Booster Club always does a tremendous amount um offers a tremendous amount of support for all of our programmings. Um and we're just very thankful for for them in addition to u those other donations. So uh unless there's specific questions, I we would be seeking approval of the donations tonight. So moved. Second. Any other discussion? Have one question that I don't know the answer to. Um, how does the booster club find out what the needs are? That is a great question. That is a great question. So, they partner with and and honestly I I would have to get

009back a more specific for you, but they partner directly and hear from our coaches, hear from our uh sponsors on their specific needs. Um, and in addition to their meetings, I believe uh Mr. who's in attendance at each of those meetings and can speak on behalf of what he's able to see. So, through a significant partnership, they're able to to do that. Um, but you know what? For the sake of giving them very specific, keep an eye out on the week of the report. I'll give you a little more detailed response later. Yeah, these just seem very like usually we seem more general. And so this one just caught me that there very specific needs um or options to enhance maybe our programming which is wonderful. So any other okay all in favor say I.

010I. Any oppose? Same sign. Thank you. Well I appreciate the the work of the booster club and um the efforts to continue to enhance and provide the programming to our students and community. Absolutely. Superintendent report. I'm going to update. Come on. How come Bill, what do we got to do to get this like this? Um, I'm going to update you on a couple of things. Um, really just want to provide the only thing I have written for you here. I'll I'll talk through it here in a moment, but a couple of things just to be aware of. And, um, I actually searched. So, if anything has occurred yet this evening, I wouldn't be able to speak to it. But I I know some of you in addition to me fairly often will get questions about

011what will happen if the Department of Education goes away. Are you getting that question? And so just to to provide a little bit of uh clarity around um just some work that I do um and and what the state does uh weekly is we meet on a a statewide uh Zoom meeting with every superintendent, director, board uh principal um with Kansas State Department event on Thursdays. We are on a Zoom with them. Each week they provide an update to us that sounds a whole lot like the update I'm going to give to you, which is we don't know anything more than uh you do, but as soon as we do know, they will certainly keep us posted. The reality is that a couple of our program a couple of federal programs are already outside of

012the US Department of Ed anyway. Things like food service already funnels um through Department of A, that correct? Yeah, Department of A. So, um, some of that isn't, uh, there's already a couple of items that just really aren't going to be of concern. The reality also is, depending on what what an executive order would specifically state, the the removal of the Department of Education isn't by its own right a removal of funding. Um and so really what that would just change is the who the money would flow in what entities would the money flow from to the state level and then ultimately out to schools. Um so I only offer that because I know there's been a lot of questions over the past several really over the last 6 weeks I'd say. Um and uh

013that is again as I learn more I will certainly let you know. weekly we meet. Um, and to this point there's nothing that's been um, stated from that that anybody at KSD is aware of u, beyond that. Soon as that changes, I would let you know um, as I do with other issues of that nature. The other item that I point out is that we are in full swing with the Kansas legislature. Um our biggest um item right now is um just budget allocations and and what that what's currently being proposed. So uh we're pretty fortunate to have our senator Senator Michael uh is on the on the Senate Ways and Comm Way ways and means committee and uh that tomorrow they will see what some initial budgets were that were presented. something I would

014just point out is that um is a concern with what it what they'll take a look at is that the what ultimately came out of committee u for funding really it actually created some reductions in this fiscal year and it didn't meet the necessary state it cut special education funding that had originally been in the been in the proposal. Um what that means is that if it were to be uh moved forward as it currently stands, we would not be within federal we as a state would not be meeting the federal obligation for maintenance of effort. Um and so they they have some work to do. Um again the good news is that we have uh Senator who is always hard at work um for us and so been in communication with them and we'll

015see tomorrow they um will convene as a ways and means committee and review that information. So encourage everyone who is interested in reaching out to do so. Um but just know that that's those conversations are ongoing. again uh in April uh when we convene for the next board meeting I'll provide an update for what we start to to have a clear picture on it's still right in the middle but uh we'll be there soon enough final item that I just wanted to really draw the board's attention to and I just tried to capture it here um just to try to make it as uh short and sweet as I could um just as a reminder the power school cyber security incident that occurred technically it occurred in December, December 22nd, 2024 is actually when it

016occurred. Uh we we became aware of it in January. This was, as you see there, a national issue, not just uh it was actually an international issue, not just USD 418. Um something that I do want to point out though is Power School's taking their corrective action. They're working with regulatory agencies and uh most recently um they've provided identity and credit monitoring services to all individuals that um were affected. So several many of our parents across the system would have received um an email probably a week ago and we communicated out as well um letting them know about that credit monitoring. Ultimately what the key update is and I'll show you this. is they brought in a group called Crowd Strike who conducted an investigation and in their in Crowd Strike's investigation they confirmed that

017no additional concerns existed beyond the ones that that we initially knew about in January. Uh that's a positive thing because um it it's potential the concerns were were there other issues uh that they were unaware of and what they determined was that there was no evidence that other issues emerged. They've obviously notified I put them specifically the US and the and Canada were the two um nations whose whose clients for power school were impacted by this and so they they're working with US and Canadian regulatory bodies. And then to to the point that I made earlier, they're offering identity and credit monitoring. So if you have anybody that reaches out to you and says, "Hey, what does this mean? What what can I do?" um that is there's a they have until July 31 of

018this uh 2025 to um enroll in that credit monitoring and if power school let me put it power school is regularly reminding them of that to them. So final item there is just that um obviously powers school immediately implemented structured access controls and increased security monitoring for our systems. Um and we have some additional cyber security measures including multifactor authentication and system audits which all of those are positive things. Um, anytime you add the multifactor authentication, it adds an extra step and sometimes users can get frustrated with that, but it's it is by design to help avoid these kinds of things in the future. So, long story short, I've provided for your bruising desires for the future uh the full crowd strike um document. And if you and as you're reviewing that, if you have

019any questions, by all means, reach out to me, let me know. But this just captures in a few more pages the information I just think it's there. Are there any questions about anything that shared be happy to help? Um, is this the time to talk about in your weekly report you had what Tai and Randy and Bill did? Does the public get that information? Well, that's a Oh, the my my written reports that I published right along. No, you put it out on the weekly report and then you had the four bullets under there. One from Tai, one from Bill, right? Giving an update on what's going on. Uhhuh. And I thought there was some really good information in there. Yeah. That is important for our community to know. Sure. Yeah. So to answer the

020question, I was like, what? So see, so for those of you out there, um we we will often utilize so I provide I have our directors provide me a written reportly. I then provide that to the board. We will then um for our communications for our newsletter. We will then in that month share out information like that to get provide updates and share that out and our newsletter goes to um all of our staff and out to um out to all of our parents um across our system. So the short answer is yes. That uh has been provided to to the board from a weekly board perspective and then much of that will be shared out in our newsletters uh in the coming weeks as they as we proceed through the month. If though uh

021maybe more to the point cuz um if there's as we get move through as there's more specific items that emerge and facilities conversation is one of those here shortly then obviously we we have those directors engaged in those conversations as needed to well is there a specific question of some well I actually the short answer is sorry I didn't clarify the short answer is no actually if we've not talked about something that you had as a question. This wouldn't be the best time because we've not talked about it. I wouldn't be prepared to offer the best answer possible, but I'm certainly willing to receive questions if you have them. Well, some of the information in there couple of agenda items we have today. Okay. So, that'd be a good time to talk about during the

022agenda items. Thank you. You bet. Dr. Vincent, can you tell us with back to the um cyber security power school? I know we were looking at our insurance. Does this impact? Did it impact our insurance claim? Like what's the financial? There has. Yeah. So, we did communicate with our our insurance on this and it has not impacted our claim. This has been 100% borne the burden borne by power school. Um, and if that were to ever change, we would certainly keep you this group of people updated on that. But at this time, no. But yes, it was communicated and and reported as needed. The only other question I have related to that issue was you said if parents are being communicated through powers school, is it through email? Is it on their power school when

023they have to go to the power school because I need to know it is through the email that is connected to power school but it is being sent to them to that address. For example, if you had a Gmail account as a parent and you were one who was impacted by this and what I what what I can't speak to is and is totally feasible is that some in our system were impacted and some were. So some may have not been impacted by it and therefore they're not receiving communication. That's totally possible. Uh but it will come as a directing them from powers school to their email accounts associated with um powers school. You bet. And did we know they've notified all parties? To my knowledge, yes. Yep. Good question. Any other questions for Dr.

024Vincent? I do want to go back to Bill's comment earlier about the communication. We talked about at a previous meeting that only certain people in our community get the newsletter or only certain people see that. Have we looked at different avenues of getting that out there? I know we had talked about the senior center maybe dropping off a few copies so they can read it there or you know the newspaper was another option we kind of talked about but we want to make sure we're addressing everybody within the community and not just parents. Yeah, you bet. So um well actually a couple of things. anybody outside in our community can access the newsletter and we've had several that do that. We also did print uh we do print them off and and take them to

025Cedars and um I don't know that senior center has been on an official stop yet but um yes we are looking to do that just provide that broader perspective and access. Yes, good questions. Thank you. Appreciate the report. You're welcome. Okay, we're going to move into old business. We have student fees 5.1. So, this is returning. I do want to just clarify. So, for the board's sake, we did make based on the feedback that we received, I just want to remind you of a couple of items and then um I will show you or talk to you about a few of the adjustments. But just as a reminder, what's built into our proposal is free and reduced. Those students that are identified through the free and reduced lunch application already are receiving a 0%. I

026mean their their fees are waved reduced 50%. That's as it currently stands. In this we've added that additional layer of those folks and I shared about that in our last meeting. And then we have those 100% full We do have sub fees that are can't and won't be included in it and those are things like activity passes, participation fees for activities as well as instrumental rentals and uh AP course work. So this is just kind of the reminder on that that's the same structure. Nothing on that has changed. um hearing some of the feedback and I want just want to kind of provide a little bit clarity around what's being proposed and what you're taking action on is we have built this out through 30 2030 31. We are seeking approval of these items that

027are proposed here which would move and it's and as a reminder this moves to a flat rate at our middle and our high school. And so at the elementary we would have a $90 uh fee starting out. That's a little bit less than what we were originally in our in our previous one doing. This is a I believe a $5 increase from where they were at last year to this year. Um, and then our flat rates would be for middle school and high school the same. It would be $160 with a $200 technology fee. And the same thing at the high school. That is um down slightly um from where we were at in our previous um recommendation, but I feel like we felt like as we ran it, I just want to really quickly

028go back through here. you felt like it was what what could what ought to be presented for approval and what we could be able to support we hope uh you'd be able to support it as we move in as we think about not just next year but how that could impact it. So you see there that our initial balance and and with those monies falling in and the end balance would be at the end of next year right a little over half a million by 2627 with the same uh plans you'd be a little over 400 and just the main reason I'm going to run ahead here creeps back up a little bit for 2728 and remember 2728 is the one where as we throughout this process. There's always going to be an evaluation process

029that needs to occur as we get closer to 27 28 because 28 29 remains the area where it gets down really close to being um expended now. So this does not include any infusions of money like additional efforts to have you know general funds or LOD or something like that go there. Um but it certainly would do two things. it would be we believe feasible um for families to support in the upcoming year. We feel like it lays out a structure that could be supported in the years ahead and we feel like it allows us to better track as we move forward over the next few years. This is the proposal that we would be offering for approval. What questions can I answer? So, I was out when you guys talked about this last month.

030Um, so I've got a couple questions. So, we spent quite a bit of our escort funds updating the curriculum, right? So, this what you're showing now is just projections to keep up and keep updating them or why is there such an increase in all of this? Yeah, that's correct. So these would be yeah what we've included in here are for future years would be the um yeah the the re what's the word I'm looking for the renewal essentially of those of those curriculum across the system. They just seem to all hit at one time. So I was curious if we couldn't update at different times to kind of help stagger it out so it's not a big impact just in that 28 year. And to be clear, that's a that's a very good question and

031it's it's a part of I think what what needs to be considered as we look forward through the through the remain years and naturally one of those you know there is going to be a big hit because of the way that uh because of the way that we adopt it so tightly. So as we think about those years we can we'll definitely be looking at those types of strategies. May I answer something? You absolutely can. Um, a couple things to consider too is um, you want to come up and Sure. Um, a couple things to consider when we adopt curriculum. Um, is that we sometimes get better deals if we adopt three, five, whatever, however many years. So, we've been intentional about going with the um, you know, the best deal, and that could be

032at 3 years, that could be at 5 years. And not all curriculum companies do them the same. So it might be a three deal, it might be a five, it might be a six. So that's also influenced what we've done. It just depends on um where we had the better deal for each one of them. But then also um just organically going through the process of when we adopt if they're not quite ready yet. Like science took a couple years. So those two things come in to play as well. So, we did keep those things in mind knowing that it's going to kind of all come at once, but at the same time, we were able to get way more um textbooks and resources within the time frame that we adopted because they will give

033you a better deal depending on when you adopt and how long you adopt. So, but that's a good question. So, now that you're up here and you explained that, are there outside resources that can help supplement the cost of like is there foundational or grant funds that we should be looking at? Like I don't know the answer to that, but I'd be curious what we could do to explore that. I just when you talked about the overtime buying and it's there's fidelity and there's research and all those things, there might be some other options we could look at perhaps. I mean, I think we'll definitely be digging into finding other grants and things like that now that Esser's done, but typically not for core resources. Is there anything available? Our ed foundation has helped with

034our SPS program and several other of our curricula curriculums in other areas. But for gened, typically that's a it's a hard find for grants. Thank you. this the set in stone through 30 31. So I can't change it. I can't clarify it enough and so I'm going to try to what's being proposed is for 2526. That's what you're taking action on. And in an effort to provide you a vision for what where it will go. I'm trying to provide you those that's why it says projected. That's what I was hoping to help you. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was thinking about you when I put that those the headers on that. I wanted to be clear. We're asking for approval of 2526, but we include that there so people have an idea of where we

035go. We we helped offset that this this if remember of all those fees which we really wanted to be able to continue. So that's why this staggered and look longterm so we can have a better hopeful plan of what can we do to manage that because I think this board really wanted to look at how can we not have a lot of impact on um the individual family um and that funds leading into my next one as I'm concerned you know I'm a family of multiples and so $280 to enroll my kindergarteners seems really high to me and so I want to make sure that we're not hitting families that hard, especially at the elementary level. I know when you get into middle school and high school, you've got extracurriculars and extra things that they're

036doing, but at the grade level, like I would really like to see that capped and maybe we spread the fees out further onto the older grades, right? I know that doesn't seem fair as the kids get older, but I just think $140 projected out seems a little steep for our families. Well, I think that kind of what I would say is that I think what it what it does is it creates a conversation where those types of things and and it also creates a situation where where then at this table too when it comes to again the point of this is for us to see that this is without any infusion of any kind of additional resources. So in the future and we'll flash forward to 2829 let's say that will that might be a

037time where some intentional focusing of any available you know some new monies or or some amount of budget allocation might need to be deliberately placed over there so that we could hold student fee cost down and still support the same purchases. But fortunately, we're not in that position today. But 27 28 a couple few years out, we'll be in a we'll we need to be having those kinds of conversations in the next couple as we proceed through the next couple of years. Yeah. Is is there a plan for a concerted effort to be sure that parents have this information even before end of school year? Yes. cuz there was that was part of our conversation before was that parents need the opportunity to like prepare for this big expense because they've got school supplies, school

038clothes, all of the things, school pictures always hits right, you know, so all of those pieces. Is there is there a plan for making sure? Yes. And you're playing a part of it. That's why we brought it forward the way that we did and that's why we've had this dialogue. I mean that sincerely is to say that's why we're bringing it forth for for acceptance at our uh February meeting now for approval and that'll be a continued part of how we do it in the future so that we can so then once approved uh coming out of spring break we'll be able to start communicating out for parent for parents and families as you look ahead to next year and and there's going to be I would anticipate a lot of folks that are going

039to be thank very thankful for this work because they know at middle school and high school this is the flat rate we you know some of the things we heard at the beginning of the year was man I had to tell my kid to un you know to go switch classes because we couldn't afford to do these you know two or three things this changes that and now they can get into the things that they enjoy that they want to try and that um and that doesn't need to be a barrier so yes is a short answer but I appreciate you letting me in a little bit too I do have one final one you Um, you have the USD418 reduced. Do we have an income bracket? Cuz I know it's public knowledge. We can

040go find the pre and reduced and all of that, but what is the bracket? It's not posted in here. So, kind of where do those families so they know whether they qualify or not or have an idea if they could potentially qualify for that? We could uh yes is the answer to that. In fact, what we did um to to gain it was it's so it's built on a bracket, but it's also built on house number of households number of members of the household. And so for that metric to be consistent, what we did was we took we took a look at the really consistently across the board. um those that basically for our sake of knowing who might qualify for that we did a consistent two member uh inflate moved it up to members

041and that then became the methodology for identifying. So I'll have to think about how we can best communicate that but yes is the short answer. So Shiloh it's 135 for free lunches and 185 from 135 to 185 for reduced. So then, sorry, will you say that again? So 135 135% of the federal poverty guideline, right? And under are your families that would qualify for free lunches, right? Then 135 to 185% of the federal poverty guideline is reduced. And so, you know, if we could help families understand here's where you go figure out where you fall on this income range. Is it 225% of the federal poverty guideline? might be a way for us to really simplify that so that families can quickly identify, hey, I have a 25% um uh reduction available to me. So,

042and I think the key benefit here is that we're going to the key benefit here is is that even though it may not result in them from a federal perspective getting that, we then still internally will be able to offer them support. Yeah. And that's something I've really kind of put this proposal on. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think also uh when it is time for a moment and I was thinking today uh there's a couple of uh social media platforms that draw a lot of eyeballs and really I don't know if we make a video. I don't know if we explain because what happens is is we all know in school districts across America by the time kids hit high schools families kind of get lethargic of turning in all that paperwork. But

043what happens is the student fees add up and then we have problems at graduation. And so I don't know how we market that in a way that more and more families realize I know your kid doesn't want to eat the lunch anymore. They want to walk across the street to their house. Um but this is really important. So yeah, I think that becomes a really interesting that is a that is what you just captured there is one of the absolute toughest realities for our secondary students particularly high school. Um so I say secondary because it starts to it doesn't really even start to fall off. does a little bit in the middle school, but it is high school that um and it isn't just a McFersona on, but it is something that, you know, kind

044of irregardless of outside of our boundaries. Um we are still seeing it here and so how can we get them get families to recognize it is more than just uh about the free lunch program. It's about ways that we can help provide support almost consistently just for this group's awareness. As we encounter people who um are in need of support, we're able to offer that um support to them, but it's a lot of others that go unnoticed, I guess I would say, or they're not expressing it expressing it or or whatever. It's not because of exactly what you mentioned. So, yeah. Very good. Thank you. are those fees that are listed in the proposed there will be a ratio by the free and reduced free zero reduced. Yes. Is a technology fee also that way

045or is it also that way I believe? Yes sir. Two questions. I make a motion to approve the 2526 student fees proposal. Second. Any other discussion? just want to say I really appreciate the thoughtful um discussion about how we are looking at our community and the various needs and and the time we've taken and are taking and continue. I think that's important that our community knows that we're we're not just rubber stamping. This is something we're going to continually to look at and find um options that are best helpful, but encouraging also that our families do reach out and use the resources that are afforded to um help make every family successful in our community. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Thank you. Good discussion. strategic planning. What two strategic planning

046strategic planning I uh just as a reminder for you first off as a thank you to you. You I was reflecting back on it. It's been a busy couple of months uh and this timeline helps to to showcase that. Um we have an excellent turnout. see some familiar faces in the crowd tonight um who were able to join us for the fac the focus groups back in January. Um and uh certainly appreciate each of our board members that were able to participate in those as well. Um and then in our uh work session here this what couple of weeks ago um what helped us make a ton of progress. I just want to remind us though the whole time that we've been presenting this um this timeline we have said that we would target acceptance

047and approval for March and and April and as we talked about it the last time or the at the work session um we're not going to let that timeline dictate how it's brought forward. And so, um, just as a reminder for you, uh, as a board, we will, our district leadership team is meeting tomorrow, um, to take all of the feedback that we learned, um, through through the work session, we will lay out or try to better lay out the action plans. So, as those drafts get renewed and updated, then I'll share that out with the board. Um, and we are targeting bringing that back for uh, the board then at our April meeting. So whether that's for information or for acceptance and approval, um it's uh really just more for the sake of knowing

048that that's what it'll be coming to you. So we're targeting next board meeting for that to be in front of you. Um yeah, like I said, pause there. That's really um thank you again for the work. Um and we're we're really close. That's what uh I'm really proud of as we reflect back on it. I think we will be, especially as we set out on this um school year, this was a key item and and we knew coming in maybe March, April wasn't what we'd hit dead on, but we knew we'd be close. So, as we get ready to close out the year, we'll be in a good position to start laying a foundation for next fall. So, any questions about that timeline for strategic plan? to the summary that you're going to do tomorrow.

049Will you put that in some type of a document that we can review prior to that meeting? Absolutely. Yep. Okay. you will what you'll see what you what my intent and I guess I'll communicate it out um if I'm not if if something changes our goal is to to capture um clarify words smmith whatever you want to call it the strategic plan and the action plans and then actually our goal will be my goal is to provide that to you for review for for two things individually as boards to members to take a look at that. Provide me any edits or things that we missed and also then um see anything that needs to be clarified and then yes to be able to share that out. Our goal is for you to have that for

050a few weeks here before the April meeting. Do we feel like we're ready for it to go to uh the DT and really start? I mean, it feels like okay, here's the marching orders. go give us a plan on that. You know, have we really looked deeply at our vision and our mission statement? Um I visit schools all across the state and there's some schools that you walk in and it's like, "Yes, pretty generic." Mhm. And there's some schools that you walk in and you're like, "Wow." Yes. Um that really has heart to it and it feels personal for people and you watch people that are excited about that. And so, you know, that's my I mean, I see a lot of good compilation in here of information that we put together, but do we

051feel like we're ready for, you know, that to happen? So, I would clarify that at the work session, there was a lot of really good feedback. And I think that what I encourage you to do is sit with that that exact thought process for until you see the updated version because um we're going to take all of that information, put it into it. Certainly as as this board continues to reflect on it, that's always going to be a consideration. Well, here to be clear, I guess I I kind of in naming that we plan on bringing back in the April meeting, this is what we heard from the board through the work session. This is what we've heard from our community as we've we've gone through this process. Did we get it right? Are we

052missing anything? And here's how we see this playing out from an action step perspective. But these action steps are going to continue to be refined even beyond the board's acceptance and then approval. We'll be bringing that those kind of deeper action steps back. So it's a nuanced way of saying a little bit yes and a little bit to be determined. So just could I ask clarification? Are you are you asking for us to the board are you recommending that we're needing to look because we've done some work on during these discussions on the mission? I missed that collaborative session and so you know and I haven't talked to anybody. I called Shiloh um and so I feel like I'm missing some you know some experiences that we had and what I don't want to do

053is rush something through just to get it done because then we have that and that dictates a lot of things for the next few years. So we don't have a set at the board of a deadline for this. We want good finished product that we are going to have for the the long term of this. Right? This isn't a short-term plan. This is a very much meat uh and potatoes of the work that um Dr. Vincent and his team is going to but also with the community, you know, and the structure of where are we moving uh students. Yeah, we're not this isn't finished yet by any means. So, do we need another collaborative session with us once they kind of bring us back an iteration of that? I kind of think so because we

054had a lot of questions in our group that we still wanted answers. It was a lot of and it's in there, but it was putting it back onto the students and where does the students fall into this and we felt like there were some categories that were lacking that still. So I personally think that if you guys want to meet and put it together and get what you guys feel, then I think as a board we should do one more. Well, we could target I mean part of the we so how do I work with board officers to come up with some possible ideas on how to best do that? We could do something during the April board meeting. We could consider a special session or something like that. Let's board officers. We can consider

055that. I really don't want to delay it any further. We've pushed it down the road. the progress and I felt like we all had a lot of good feedback, but I also felt like there was a huge gap between what I saw and where I feel like we need to be and I would appreciate another collaborative session. So, if we don't want to impede progress, maybe some more on on So, I again I I I think those are all great this these are all great comments. I think in particular that's for me it doesn't surprise me given that that is how we left the 24th. So our team will work on that. I'll share that information out. I think we'll one or two things will happen. We'll have some a little more clarity or we're

056going to have a little bit of both of these. We're going to have a little more clarity and we're going to have more questions and so then we can work to as board officers to target some possible work session either as an additional one in April. um or we can take a look at how we want to structure things. I think going with that, Dr. Vincent, what does it look like for our community members, stakeholders to as they've been watching and participating because it's been both and some are not fully engaged yet, but they're now starting to hear or wanting to know or want to give some input. What's the catalyst still at this point for community member um feedback or suggestions? Well, I I believe the in I mean the short answer to that

057will be that's as we start to bring those forward that's a great opportunity to start offering comment. I mean again we'll share that out um particularly with those who participated in the community events. Um so without giving a direct answer on I think there'll be a couple of different mechanisms. I just think it's important to make sure that we can continue to make sure that public you know sure that knows that there's avenues to as as we try to bring this together as the next what's McFersonen about education. I would also comment our stakeholders are more than just the people that were able to show up on I agree. Yeah. I'm not which we're grateful for those people that took out and showed up and it's so difficult, right? There's there's a lot more. So,

058yeah. Don't hear me. Uh just because I identify No, I just want to make sure broader scope. You bet. If we have another collaborative section, which is why I'm here, I'd rather it be sooner than later. Perry, I'm so curious like help me like when I sense that you're like, I don't want to impede this any longer than we have to. How come? What am I missing? What you're missing is items related to facilities. I think the two items that showed up very clearly in those sessions were retention of staff and facilities. Yeah. Well, we've talked about it numerous times and we cannot rush the process because we want to make sure we get it right. So if it and we've said all along if it takes us a little longer to get us to

059the perfect plan, that is where we're going to go. We I so I don't I'm not going to rush it and I'm not going to keep going and just pacify something and say, "Yep, it's good enough. We're going to go." I want to make sure that we're doing it and we're doing it right and it's going to benefit everybody within our district, our teachers. That's why we got to start before we can finish. I I I would be happy to do an end of March meeting, too. You know, something that we can get pretty quickly. I mean, I would I would be in favor of that because I don't I I don't think there's anything stopping us from doing that if we try and coordinate some calendars with these guys. So, be on the lookout.

060We'll we'll communicate um through um email and and and be quicker about our conversation of the day. the the no my only comment on on that is it is to add to that and the reason I said look if you'll let us if you'll let me work with our board officers um our DT is convening on that tomorrow the end of this week we'll be um you know two days off for for folks and clarifying needs to occur there's spring break in the way there's so I what I would absolutely hate for the board to do is establish you know in their in our minds or even certainly in and writing a a work section that we can't get to quick enough. Well, I mean, get the materials to. So, um I'll work with the

061team tomorrow and certainly I'll partner with board officers as we learn more or as we kind of clarify things for tomorrow and and as we see where we're at, share that out and start talking about what might be some dates to target. And we can always target early April, too. I mean, there's options. So, okay. We we'll we'll be as swift as we can with communicating calendars. So, look at your calendars, folks. And we'll there's a lot of work and I appreciate, you know, this board, our leadership team, our community um because we we do want um to set this up for success on all levels. So, um it's a good discussion. We'll move to facilities and work in planning three. audience. I'm going to attempt to not have to lean over and talk into

062this if you're okay if I'm talking like this, but I'm going to be sensitive to your needs because if you aren't hearing me, then by all means, let me know that. Um, I just wanted to provide a couple of things here. Um, just for clarifications for next steps for, uh, work really as it relates to facilities. Talked to the facility committee. um heard back um from everyone on this. Let me name what's ultimately really offered for board discussion. But a couple of things that that as the facility committee has been working try this as the facility committee has been working over the last throughout this year there were really just a reminder there were two things that the board um I would I would say task that committee would do and there really was that

063that group's responsibility to to do which was identify the most urgent needs and come up with some solutions and then start thinking about a path forward on our longer range plan. The board took action on the committee's uh plan to move forward with the HVAC um the our most urgent needs. We're excited that work will occur this summer. We'll have some of our more critical areas um will be updated um so that we'll hope hopefully be in a position to have more strategic longer range conversations um across the district. So the group felt like we've done a good job in that regard. Now we need to shift our focus towards um how do we prepare for long range planning. There's a couple of things that I would say and these are your first two that

064I that are offered here. There's a couple of things that just need to be named out loud or at least decided at the board table out loud um for moving forward. And one of them the first one is um which is uh highlighted there is that um we were in an agreement with DLR group to provide architectural support for the bond the previous bond work. Um our agreement was that we would be able to have or that we would remain committed to them for three um attempts. As you're aware and as those that are in our community are aware, we've met that obligation and we were we were unsuccessful. So, it's first recommended that we uh trans to just name that the board's intent to transition away or if the board's desire would be to

065remain, then we would reinitiate conversations. I want to be very clear. I've not heard from anyone here. I think that that's a pretty straightforward process. it's a good opportunity to think about getting a new set of eyes on the problems and uh start to evaluate what potential solutions are there. So that's the first task. The second one, second option that's offered here is to along with that if we do pay a and we the boards agrees that we need to transition away then then that lays the found what I would I guess think is the most appropriate path forward is to task the facility committee with outlining what an architect selection process would look like and ultimately with overseeing that process. So there's work still to be done on that, but did you just broadly

066name that it's their their responsibility to do? So those are the first two. I'll just name the third one um since it's there and then really it's intended to offer opportunity for dialogue by the board. Um it's recommended that we there's a couple of things. So RSP is a demographer group that is going to be that has and I've included the the proposal here for you. Um, we're only currently bringing forward the recommend recommendation to approve the enrollment study, but there are other aspects of within the proposal that the that I'd like the facility committee to take a closer look at and really think about like a utilization study and even boundary studies. Both of these things really all three of these things are are things that we've needed to have a close eye on

067um and uh can be really fruitful information for this board to have an enrollment study just name a couple of things can help as a first off with a lot of different things not just facilities but we played an integral part in helping to inform and and I'll use as an example and I I know that I'm sure you hear diverse perspectives as Well, but some in our community will tell tell me, well, you know, ouru our school age population is is shrinking. There's not, you know, birth rates are low and we're not going to end up having uh, you know, school age children. The days of the '9s are are a thing of the past. And and I will encounter people who will say, you know, once McFerson in college starts laying the foundation

068for just how big a $1 billion endowment will be, we're going to be the size of Manhattan. Well, I'm not a demographer and I'm not the person who knows how to do it. But RSP works with school districts across Kansas and across the Midwest to help them evaluate what have been their past trends, what are the data points within their community, and what might be some things to help inform it. And for for us the recommendation would be to we would be seeking approval on uh the enrollment study to help lay that initial first step for not just facility planning but just ongoing decision- making. So uh facility committee members or anyone else want to interject? I'm going to turn now to you. And really it's intended for board dialogue. We I think if we

069could have some form of action on the fir the the first two could be joint and then the third one could be by itself or however the board would do it. It would be um it would be nice to have some action directly from the board tonight to help equip the facility committee with their kind of steps. So I'll pause there to help answer any questions or just open it for facility committee members. anything to add or I would almost like to bring forward the building utilization and the capacity analysis too because I think that that's going to be critical in our next steps what we need for facilities. I think without that we're going to be kind of going at it blindly and I would really like to know what their options and their

070from an outside perspective what they feel about our buildings. I was in a district today that was projected to have declining enrollment and then they opened up several housing uh additions and they were able to call back their person. I was just at lunch listening to them talk. I didn't even bring up that we were looking at this and they're like we were able to call them back and they were able to help us understand what that was going to do and they said and and it it is spooky how close they get. Right. So I I concur Chelsea on that and I've always talked about the the boundary analysis. I kind of think we do need to shift our boundaries, but to me that's not a huge impact right now as far as going

071forward with our enrollment. We know that we've got the building capacity, but that could be something we could do later. But I really think we should do the first two. I would like to see that too cuz I'm just fuzzy Shiloh as why we would need boundary work. And so I just don't know in my mind I'm like we don't need that. We sure But so that would just be helpful for us to understand deeper. Like Brandy said earlier, do we get a package deal if we buy all three? Can we get a discount? Can always call them and ask. Can always ask. I will. I'll actually I'll pause. Thanks. That's great feedback. Thank you. I I don't I guess I'll name it. I I would welcome taking moving forward with both of them. I

072think to that point that I think that for sure we need a first step for enrollment, but utilization I think would be good and they if if RSP knew that that was our desire to move forward with both then then they'd be prepared to start presumably as early as possible on both. So in the literature this company provided they say a 5 to 10 year. What's our like 5 years seems very narrow in uh projection forecast for me to like sit in this conversation? So is 10 the furthest out they go? Like I I need more of that. Maybe you know all that already but maybe I didn't capture all of that in the material. There's a lot of various information in your grade. Um, but I'd like to see the longer longitudinal, you know,

073what's that look like in and I know some of this is hard maybe. I mean, right now we've got turnaround. So right now we've got uh many more people which is a short term not a long term and that we have eb and flow you know every so many years with that and then a bigger and so will they take those components into consideration and like there's lots of other variables I I would only speak to my previous I only speak to previous conversations with demographers about how um they're at the end of the they are just use able to utilize the data that's available today to try to give the very best. So I my typically what you'll hear from them is that they're willing to provide some projections at the 5year mark and

074through the 10ear mark because that's where they feel like they can provide a better idea of it and then typically much beyond that. Um so they'll do but like they'll do the whole like a decade worth for us. Is that what will I can certainly ask for clarification on that to clarify that. Yeah. I mean I think we for me at least it would be goes 5 years. Yeah. Yeah. But in one piece it says a five to 10. So I wasn't sure. Yeah. I think you'd want to go beyond. Oh I don't think so either. But what it's five seems very it's like short like that's tomorrow. Yeah. I was going to say that's a month away. Um but I would not strategic planning for the 10 years. So okay just keeping it Yeah.

075Yeah. I would also support building utilization and capacity just we've had so many facilities conversations feel like that definitely is a key component. I guess I'm having some cognitive dissonance around, you know, this much needed work and a strategic plan around facilities, you know, so maybe it's just my brain's having a hard time working that out, but you know, we start to develop a strategic plan around facilities and then we have these guys come in and they give us some really important ways to look at our future. Is that fuzzy for anybody else? Can you It's a little fuzzy for me just being honest because you're saying strategic plan about facilities which so I want to be careful because we're doing the district strategic plan and then our group is really we are on the

076early early stages okay of what what I would call long range planning which is going to no doubt include some kind of facility solution now but looking longer term terms. So for me where I see this really falling into line is this is a rich data uh research that can be conducted by really high quality experts that have helped to influence a lot of other places in similar ways to give so many of the times the questions that come up. I feel like as you're making decisions, this is the kind of information that can help to inform it and it can be through experts who have who know the work and know what to dig into. So that's I I see this as falling perfectly right now, not just for the facility committee's work, but

077also just future decision making consistently. I will clarify. Let me add this and see if it cuz I'm kind of fuzzy on it too cuz I know that we talked about a lot in our last work session. kind of where I got hung up is we were talking about facilities and all of that in the strategic planning. Mhm. So it's like it really does go hand in hand. And I kind of see like how can we finalize strategic planning if this is now part of that instead of being two totally different projects that we're working on. And that was one of our main questions at the very end of the last work session is how does this tie into facilities or how does facilities tie so big into this? We didn't quite understand that. Mhm.

078Oh, Sher, you were there was one particular thing and I think the action steps that we saw really focused on facilities and growth in facilities, but we felt like there was a lot of areas missing as far as it related to the student. And so when we have a key portion of our strategic plan directed towards facilities, would we not want this information before we're making final decisions on that? I think is what I'm hearing. I would I think this will help to inform it. I mean th both of these things that we're talking about I believe we could move forward and could help. I think how I would actually name it is I think as a part of a strategic plan and this is action step okay that yes and I think as you

079we move forward on selection of architects it's going to be valuable information extremely for them as well that that's helpful like we're not you know some of the action steps we're not making decisions around you know what we're doing with facilities what maybe a um study of this of this type would help us understand these would be action steps that would help us and then we would add on after we figure out from the rich data mining. Yeah. A more strategic approach to um what we think our community needs long term. Okay, that's where I was kind of hung up. Great. So, we haven't talked about DLR yet. Um, I'll start that piece of the dialogue a little bit because I am one to discontinue that relationship and not renew that. So, you need more

080of why I think we um we have a time to part and and and start with a different group, whatever that looks like. Um and well I think they got caught up in a situation called co then maybe push too fast to do some things but I still think it's time to move away and I don't see any problem with ending our current relationship and inviting them once the facilities committee has established a clear rubric for evaluation of architects if they are interested in in meeting that rubric and evaluation. There's no reason why we wouldn't look at them again. I would struggle with that just being very transparent. We struggle right I didn't say we'd approve. I just would I'm just letting you know where I sit in that and being since I was here

081for a portion of that to where we were that kind of experience on that. But yes, does everyone that the bell was rung? So if anyone online is hearing that there's a bell outside the building came by to say hello. So, um, but yes, we there's that's kind of going down further than we are, but there's a bid process that's always um reviewed and and afforded to various vendors and all of that. So, I wouldn't want to put where we're going with any of that. That's I think we're too far down the road for the conversation yet. Jeff, would you mirror Laura's sentiments on that? Yeah, I'm curious too, Jeff. Say one. You you were you were also here. Do you agree with those sentiments? Yeah, it's it's time and I I think several things

082too, but they've had a significant change in their staff that was focused towards this district and if we continued with them, they would have to completely regroup and we're not familiar with them. So, it makes sense to to start fresh. I I I would hope we could um draw from someone closer. I think that was one of the things we learned with the distance them being in Kansas City, although that wasn't impossible. Uh they weren't readily available to be here for, you know, quick meeting or, you know, other things. And so, um and I think there's a little different mindset from the urban area and designing schools and we're a rural school. We we need to grasp that mentality and so we need to be looking at a architect that has that thought for us.

083I know other districts have done this. Mount Rich did it a few years ago, others. And so having having someone new look at that I think be very helpful. You ready for a motion? Yes. I'd like to move we approve the first two bullets. I'd like to talk more about the enrollment. So I'm moving we approve the first two bullets on the facilities committee. Second. Any other discussion on item one which I just want to name. I think that's helpful in this is transitioning away from the current architect of DLR that would discontinue that um relationship that we've had and the task facility committee with um the architect selection process. Um and and we are not saying at a board what level what that is right now. So just so that's also so that's fair.

084Okay. And this is where I'd like to interject Mr. Freeze's report maintenance needs. Before we get to discussion though, let's let's get the second and then we'll get into Okay. Okay. Very good. Okay. Yes. Go ahead. Mr. freeze detailed the serious problems we continue to have at the high school plus at Eisenhower our newest building which is 30 years old. I've had people say I can't believe it's that old already. And I said well that's why we have to look at our facilities cuz you know we're kind of behind eightball maybe. I don't know. But information that was in Mr. Frieza's report is very important for our community to know. That's what I wanted to say about that. Yeah. I mean just to cl just to add to that I mean just for for clarification

085sake our at the high school in the last uh I say last five weeks we've we have been uh regularly chasing sewer issues after sewer issue after sewer issue which anybody that knows what sewer lines backed up um is like in a large area. It's not a pleasant experience for anybody involved in it, whether that's student, staff, or the individuals who get to to work on it. Um, each time we run into it, it's an infrastructure issue, and that's what was was highlighted specifically. Um, and then to the point that was made really, not that you get a pick when you have significant droughts, but but the drought that the state of Kansas in particular, this area has dealt with over the last decade to 12 years, um, is my understanding from those in that

086industry has resulted in a tremendous amount of ground shifting um, which is playing an integral part in things like that and then pipes breaking. So when we had uh water bubbling up through the concrete just north of Eisenhower a couple of weeks ago, those are those become immediately emergent problems that have to be addressed. But I think to Bill Grove's standpoint here is that those are examples, consistent examples of the the tremendous need in existence. Is that a fair way to reach out? Do we need to I do want to add too that we've also been doing stuff at the middle school. We have been working on the ropes. That has been a topic too. People were talking about rubs needing fixed. That is something that Bill's team has also been working with Ray constructure

087with roofing on that. So that is being addressed as well. I just want to put that out for people to notice as well too. Yeah. And I think that's important our community understand all the efforts we've done to improve facilities because that was one of the criticism for the bond issues going down taking care of things. Well, we're on the you know I think we're making good improvement there and I appreciate the facility committee's work on that. It's good. I you know what I have found and I don't know I mean part of us wants to just stay out of some of the um community dialogue that can be really really uh chaotic such as our um Facebook public right to know site. But one thing when we had some issues come up several years

088ago was just the reality that if people just went in there and pl like posted facts and thanked people for their comments but posted facts. But it's interesting because we're not really all supposed like we're not supposed to be in there together. And so, you know, is there a way we can strategically help? Because there's a lot of things that get said in there and people just don't know. And they read it and they're like, "Oh my gosh, that's horrible." But there is facts about things that we're doing. And I do think that that is something that with perception being on our strategic plan, you know, how do we get really clear and and kind and safe, but also informative with our community on those things? That's a fascinating to bring up because we have

089obligations as board members and we represent so the community sees us if we post in social media or any other way how we communicate even if well take Jeff cuz I'm just looking at him if he posts then the community repres thinks that he's representing the entire board as an example you know um so there's a fine line that we all have in that role be it in social media or be it any other communication right that we have. So that may be something for our next meeting Dr. Vincent to kind for us to get some some guard rails or understanding and what that means for all of us. I don't know that we have um the time tonight to spend or at least we weren't prepared for that but it is something that um

090we've uh been Dr. Dr. Vincent and I have talked about a little bit about what what does that look like for um and helping the community also understand our roles and then if we do um do some of this uh it can put us in a a challenging position also. Um so just some good considerations for us to talk about. I would I would love to see that come up just because I mean I think we can get thoughtful. I think we can also look at legalities but I think the the say nothing approach has hurt us for far too long. So we'll we'll put that on our next meeting what that looks like so we can all so come prepared to think about questions and needs and we'll get some legal guidance too um

091on that think um because there I know I have visited with on that just to get so I know it's delicate is but we want to communicate you know also so don't see that I don't think want to look at that as that we're not able to communicate. So I say the last question that I have regarding build report is the plumbing problems we address outside but now we also have internal ones that are connected to the urinals and toilets. Is that related to this or is this related to other problems that we're having in the school pertaining to children flushing things that shouldn't be flushed? Well, there's always challenges with people flushing things that shouldn't be flushed and that continues to be challenges that that um that are probably be again beyond McFersonen, but

092really just as a continual reminder of the challenges that exist with aging infrastructure and and sinking infrastructure and um so yeah, I want to be clear on a couple of things. Uh Bill, did you have anything to add to that other than what I've shared? I think it's conf I think it's important to realize that the infrastructure as he mentioned is aging and um well actually let me can I clarify just so that we're using the appropriate language is actually obsolete. Fair. Okay. Part of the sewer that we're getting into is completely obsolete. You cannot even get ti we can't tie this stuff together. So, I mean, it's not aging. It's completely out. It's obsolete. And so, that's the level that we're dealing with on a consistent basis. And so, part of it, it's that

093it's it's um even the what what some would call newer technology is settling and causing problems. The specific one that you're referencing about urinals um is an issue of urine solids if you will uh salts u deposits calcification um completely over the years completely plugging a certain area and we were able to repair that particular issue by uh running some very uh strong chemical down and even then we didn't get it completely cleared but enough to where it was functional. because we were almost to the point where we were having to rip out the wall and and completely run all new plumbing in that area of the building. But um it's just a um one one thing that I think that people come across or think think about is that you know well why doesn't

094it work? It it worked all these years. Well, there's so many variables that play into why it doesn't work anymore. Um just just forformational, we've replaced numerous toilets uh in the in the last uh three years just because things are outdated. They don't handle what they're supposed to. So I don't know if that helps. No, I think I mean it it helps tremendously. Um so yeah, I mean honestly as we continue through uh the you know as we especially as we look towards next year um and thinking about how how do we help elevate you know some of these items that are already clear this is more than an appropriate setting to have this kind of dialogue. But we'll be thinking about how to be as intentional as we can as we're bringing updates forward

095from the facility committee um so that um kind of everybody can be prepared and aware of what are some of those challenges and what are some of these key questions. I would remind you that we do have a a motion in a second and I know that you're well aware of that. But any other questions for Bill on this? Thanks. Thank you. Any other comments? Well, and it's important. Absolutely. Yeah. Don't don't ever feel like we are stopping conversation either. So, but with that, since we got a lull, maybe we can uh All in favor of these two first two items is all we're looking at at the moment. Sign of an I. I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. carries. Thank you. Okay, we have the third component. What would the board to the enrollment

096study? What is the cost for the entire study? Did reference 13,000 for one aspect of it? It's 13,500 for the the first aspect of it. 25260 for the other one. 25260 for the other. So, both of these will be money well spent and can be afforded. There you go. Um, to be clear, um, you can see one there where there's an analysis, but there's no tours. The option two is what's being recommended. That's after in talking with them specifically. So, that's the reason that would be the number. So my quick math on that 135 and 25 2560 is going to be 38760. The the benefit of moving forward with the utilization is that they can gather that and they can start to be um highly informative. You know something that was mentioned to me earlier

097question that I received was what you know what is the benefit of this? Well I don't know about you all but we I regularly get asked about are there other ways to utilize the buildings and I say yes I'm sure that yes there are systems that do it but this is a system who's who comes in and knows all of the metrics to evaluate to help provide clarity around that. So it's not just a yeah we could do that and then what it's you as decision makers have then the knowledge now you have the data to say here's how that might look here's what some specifics would be so I think that's my guess is why that was raised to forward um so yeah I mean what is there what is their time frame does

098this take to do this whole study uh it's on page 35 five. So, enrollment analysis analysis by May and building utilization and capacity analysis April to May of this year of this year. So, it's almost like they could be doing them simultaneously. So then by the end of May, middle of June, we could have a facilities meeting around maybe what they came up with possibly. No, June might be pushing it. We might be July. I don't know how long it takes them to kind of uh the they would be able to provide that data to us. Let's assume end of May 1st of June would that would be highly valuable information and we could as a facility committee review that and you could hopefully perhaps honestly in our June work session we could target a

099review of that. That'd be good. And actually that would be as I name that, I'm going to throw in something actually that I think that that would be a great target if you were to move forward with with this approval. Um because typically we've we've reviewed our student data on the 24th and state assessments. Um this year with tweaks that they did at the state level, we won't have that data available really until late summer, they're telling us. Um, and so that would create this type of a of a opportunity would create a great dialogue at our June 2014. I want to be clear. I'm saying the 24th. I feel like that's the date, but end of June session. the boundary analysis. Um are we do we think we are missing students that belong in

100USD 418 and that would be or what is it because of which buildings? What's the great tell me more? Yeah, tell us more about the use. I will say um I would my recommendation would be to hold off on that exactly as it's been proposed and the rationale for that is um a boundary analysis would be is going to be highly valuable if we want to start thinking about when we start thinking about where is the growth in our community where's the future growth going and do the existing internal really when you say boundary analysis, that's really looking at your four elementary schools to say is because of our structure in and where our boundaries lie, are we seeing a disproportionate number of students as a result of those ending up in the Eisenhower district

101or the Lincoln district or or any other area? And so, um, it doesn't feel I think that we'll build utilization and and as as the board would continue to plan longer term, a boundary analysis would be highly advisable. But at this point, I think that you're right to say there what is that about? The answer is I think that's later on the process. I just when reading it and trying to understand what boundary I think I'm thinking about you know the boundary between us and district geographic um and and knowing that that is something that has to be looked at from time to time as residents go up and and where those are. So thank you. There other questions about the enrollment study. Typically, you don't put this out for bids. Why only this company?

102This is a service. So, um, in fact, to be completely honest with you, well, this is a service. So, um, you don't have to bid out services in the state of Kansas. That's interesting. So, we have the opportunity to to go ahead. Are we doing a motion to approve or a motion to accept? And we could say for $38,760 to perform um the enrollment and utilization study. So moved. Any other discussion? Yes. I'd like to make a few comments. Um in Mr. Rhodess last report, he talked about some planning for next year enrolling at the high school. You're going to recommend three less teaching positions. I assume you did that thinking of current information about enrollment. Correct. So I have all the information I need for enrollment. We've declined 250 students in the last four

103years. Couple board meetings ago, you gave the enrollment of all our grade levels. Four grade levels at the high school around 170, right? below seventh grade, no classes larger than 150. But that's enough information for me. I don't think we need the enrollment. I'm sorry. Facility the building analysis, that's a different deal. I think I I would I the only thing I would interject is that what's really difficult and this year was an example that was was an interesting reality is that in the past we've been able to even we've had a pretty decent ability to predict what our kinder numbers would be coming in. We predicted that we'd be at 130 and we saw 111 students come in. So I feel like it would be it it feels like a really good time not

104only just for information to have relating to facilities and what future decisions may be but to get a demographer someone who has that expertise to help not just for knowing what we need to know now but also to project and provide u predictions for the future. So I I appreciate that. I just would offer the the trends and the forward p projections um is what I think would be highly valuable in addition to the utilization doesn't offer that service their uh their methodology of provide of providing enrollment predictions is similar almost exactly to that which we've deployed here locally as well um and it's been equally as accurate um going to KSV So I mean what what is really intriguing to me is the thought of our college of mcfersonen college and what they are

105doing right um because Shiloh would they be able to give us hey if I mean so so would they give us some variables some reports that say if this happens then here's what we've seen occur in other communities in a in a 10-year period this doesn't happen here's the trajectory that you're on and like I said the community that I was with today they had declining enrollment was what they were predicted to have and then all of a sudden there was a housing boom out there right from some from some developments and their organization whoever it was came right back in and said this is what you need to prepare for and you know they've got a thousand new kids sure I would say I will absolutely pose the question to them about okay yeah

106the document here says it includes historical enrollment data birth data, developmental activity, demographic trends, facility capacity. I'm on page seven. Um, and other data sets unique to the district, which I don't, that's a catchall to me, which means I mean I like are they'll probably ask you about it and it's like sure that you know are they going to bring in information from like St. Joe's and and those numbers or um homeschooling and virtual school like will and McFersonen college expansion I mean let's pointedly ask that because with um do you so to Bill's point do you think if we just kind of if they were like yeah we don't really know how to predict for the college that's what they said let's just play that scenario then I would wonder do we need that

107enrollment part okay and if we had that enrollment part even if we didn't need it would it be helpful for our community bill to have some of that data from besides our own analysis internally. So I think from my perspective exactly what you just said is I think they've got the expertise to to give us a better idea of how that how something like Mcferson College and and even some of our industry and and also known housing improvements can impact our student enrollment. But I think in particular being an expert in that area to provide for you the very best information that I think is needed especially as as as we embark on the next step of long range planning. I think it would be invaluable. I don't disagree that there's a lot of unknowns

108today that can help help to to make us feel comfortable with certain amounts of decisions, but especially as we go into long range facility planning, I feel like an indepth highle analysis by this group would be to the board's benefit. And I like in here too because it says the enrollment analysis can be done by the area or by the facility. So, we can kind of even drill it down and think if we're going to plan, let's say, for a new high school. Okay, well, we don't need this large, we could do, you know, we're projecting to go here. I I think that would just give us a lot more detail so we know what to plan for or how to plan for the future. Okay. All in favor of the I I. All opposed.

109Same. No. Appreciate that. Good discussion. Look forward to receiving that information. Okay. We're going to move to 6.1 - bids. Uh I'm going to try to make this as as plain speak and short and sweet as possible. The - money's made available. I've included it there for you. This ensures connectivity. Um we which we do by adding student devices are upgrading the VOIP uh phones and installing our IP based uh PA systems across the district. ultimately what does and in addition we had uh we put to bid our managed internet broadband services um as well here's how I would describe it we're going to spend this money anyway what does I say we're that's actually not necessarily but that let's just assume a district is true results in a 70% reimbursement back by making sure

110that we're we're uh submitting and and that we can receive the the -ate funding. So we have those uh funds the that what's really presented to you annually is the recommend recommendation and the results of those that bid and in the case of our bids for this year um you see that reach solution was the uh best bid through the evaluation process in all three of the uh categories. which is why it is being proposed that we uh that the board take action to motion to approve the -ate bids by reach solutions as presented. So moved second discussion Dr. Vincent would they reach would they have had any different because there's a bit of a variation between these three. Um, is there I don't know. I'm just wondering that be ethically did they have information

111that others didn't? I assume no. No. I just Yeah. want to name that. Yeah. Question. Any other comments? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Look at the 25 26 proposed calendars. How about I tee it up and then I'll let Mr. Rhodess So just as a reminder the uh through the word with negotiations it was agreed upon uh well it was agreed upon uh with a 70% ratification. I'm making up that number. the teachers all uh it was voted in favor to do 20 minute addition to the day for 2526 school year and the reduction of eight school days. So as a reminder and then the board took action to also approve that. The next step that occurs is to make sure that a school calendar is created um that

112reflects all of the requirements that are built into the negotiated agreement. So that is what Mr. roads along with the calendar committee has done and that's what's being presented to you this evening. So with that in mind, Mr. Rhodess, I'll turn it over to you to share about the process. Yeah. I um Yeah. So um after the February board meeting February 10th where that was approved for um inclusion in the negotiated agreement for the reduction of eight contract days then we met later in the month of February um to convene the calendar committee to look at that um to develop that for next school year. um through that negotiations process. Something to remember was that it wasn't strictly that it included a reduction of eight contract days, but specifically those were student contact days. Okay?

113So, in other words, it wasn't a combination of some student contact days and some professional development or collaboration days or work days or or any combination of all the above with that. Okay. So um so the work really focused on how do we reduce those days. If you remember there was a survey that went out to families um on behalf of the board to gather some feedback on that negotiations item of would that be supportable by families to reduce the number of days. Interestingly the feedback on that was roughly the same percentage as it was with staff. It was about 7129ish um on both of those. A component of that survey also was asking uh families for feedback on preference for where they would like to see those days removed from the calendar. Um it

114was pretty split. There was three options in that front of the calendar, back of the calendar, start of the year, end of the year and distributed in the breaks in the middle of the year. And the feedback was pretty split one and two uh start of the year, end of the year with that concept of extending breaks during the year, a a distant third place. And so that we really use some of that in the committee. Uh Chelsea was part of that committee, too. So we used some of that data um in our work to start building that calendar. Actually, Tony was fantastic in helping getting some things prepared for the committee to look at. So, um, she helped me get, um, three different calendars kind of drafted up for us to look at. So,

115we weren't just starting from absolute ground zero with that, too. And so, with those concepts of taking some off the front, some off the back, um, is where we landed with this calendar. So, some of the tweaks to that were, you'll see we obviously start later. So, that first student attendance day is in the week in the week following where we would have started this year. what would be the corresponding date this year would have been the 13th where we were at. And so, you know, you're you're a few days later than that. So, that first half day of school is the 19th. That would be 12:30 dismissal for students as has been standard. Um, so we pushed back a few days at the beginning and then at the end of the year um where

116it falls on the Friday following all schools day. So the 15th is that last half day. And you'll notice that the 18th then is the typical flex work time for staff members on on that day. Now, as we were trying to work through the calendar, I'm going share something with you that was a little nuanced to this that we had to tweak a little bit and working with the calendar committee. um by just simply trying to reduce days on the front and the end, it gets a little messy. You want to try to make reasonably clean beginnings and reasonably clean endings. So, where we were falling in trying to get days divided up, we were actually falling on the 18th to be the last day of school. That would have been that yellow where the

11715th is a yellow. Well, here that felt like a really bad idea to ask people to come back for a half day on a Monday. Okay. So, um the tweak to that was if you look in April, this would be something new for the count. Well, much is new for the calendar. Eight less days is very new for the calendar, but but a little tweak in April would be that the 6th, April 6th was listed um as a corresponding collaboration day from previous years. Next year, April 3rd will be Good Friday. And so committee recommended looking at April 3rd as a collaboration day. So it's not a student attendance day, but that would be a collaboration day. So we gained back a student attendance day on the 6th and that allowed us to move that

118calendar forward in May one day and get it finished by the 15th. Right now I that's Good Friday. I I tried to ask repeatedly of people in the room too. Does that feel comfortable for folks as well because that'd be a change in what has been standard and there was that that was people gave thumbs up each time I asked that question on on that um use of of uh April 3rd with that as well. So um so that's where it shook out. We didn't end up changing anything related to um Christmas break was corresponding dates. Then um Thanksgiving break will continue to be the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at this point as well. So that wasn't a discussion item um for us. We did look at a number of different things to just try to

119get those front and ends to line up well, including looking at those parent teacher conference days, but there's there's some nuance to that too that that that uh is challenge too. And so um felt like we gave it a a pretty good effort here and and made some sense out of where we started the year with kids and where we ended the year with kids too. did do a little follow-up work with some folks too to get some more feedback after that point of um like prek for example. Dr. Vince, if you scroll all the way up there with August, September there in the middle um got some feedback there for what made sense for first half day of prek and first full day of prek given that we reduced some time at the start

120of the year. Um I I did not have a thought on what that need prek needed to answer that question. That's kind of an independent component of the the bulk of the calendar that questions I could answer for folks on that. So Ty, when you said I mean it was primarily it was USD48 staff that was around the table that really said because Good Friday has been a day that folks have typically not been in buildings. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I have no opinion on that one way or the other. It's just that I'm I guess I'm surprised and and not good or bad. Not any of that. But um so yeah, and I've been down that road before and looking at calendars actually in in situations where we were needing

121to make up time in my previous job too in some past years. And um you know um that was that was a spot on the calendar that was a no for us. Um this seemed like um a palatable compromise and had some folks in there that would have a have an opinion on that too that that gave thumbs up to that idea of it just being staff on that day and not kids. So and it was all buildings were in the room. So we had all levels of support for it and you know not any questions to that Ty but I would say we've received some feedback around sports and you know just some real kind of concerns with that. Um and the one thing I would say is thank you guys for your hard

122work on this calendar committee. It's not a easy committee to be on especially with these types of changes this late in in the um uh school year and it's something that we're trying for a year. So if the community liked the addition of the minutes and want to continue with the 8 days next year we could probably look at some other things that went well and didn't go well. So yeah based on the feedback we have had or maybe some of you have had even more than that. I don't know how what folks have had. I I am wondering about us slowing this down. It's it's on our agenda as a um approval today, but um wonder about let's slow down. I think we have a little bit of time that we can do that.

123Not a lot of time because we do need to um but I it might be helpful. Um so that's one. And the other question I have, where are we based on this year's snow weather and other needs to close buildings? Was that discussed at the calendar committee level of what do we do? Um we I heard a lot from our community about that issue. Um and we don't put a lot of extra days in um to help us. So I just wonder let me kind of clarify on that. I that's the So we build in about four snow days. We built in those uh the same this time. two buildings ran over. Uh four buildings are fine. Elementaryaries are fine. Middle school and high school have added the minutes which we've done in the past

124to finish out the school year and we'll meet our time. So that's not really the responsibility. Well, that's really not the responsibility of the calendar committee to to know that. That's our our product of us working to make sure that we have the 1116, which is really what the negotiations team has done. Um on the front end, we will have about two hours less next year um overall when compared to how we start the year or uh with a with this type of a structure. Um but really that this structure up here is going to be the exact same. And if we have a really hard winter like we had this year, we'll end up in we could end up in the same position. But um I guess that that'd be my clarification on snow

125days. I have a question. What where does end of year on the proposed calendar compare to end of year? Last year or this year, Sherry? Yes, this year. One week difference. Yeah. So, it's one week. Okay. I just want to also note that this was one thing that we did go back and forth with quite a bit is graduation now does fall on all schools day weekend. It falls that Saturday. But I said I was like people are going to have more family in town. A lot of people come in like yeah it's good, it's bad. I mean we're going to get it both ways, but I just want it to be out there that it does fall that same weekend as all schools stay. It's also I'll just name in the county. We talked

126about this beforeman school year just because they're in the county. That's basically how what their calendar looks like this school year. So, our neighbor to the south of us, the their last day of school, it actually looks almost identical. They're they have to come back, I think, for maybe a half work day or whatever their workday structure looks like, but one week after all school's day is the last day of school. So I think our all to say the calendar committee did a nice job of creating a solution that isn't is very in much in alignment with other area schools um and meets the the number one issues meets the agreement that's been settled. Yeah. The the third document that's in there is the calendar accounting. If you're super into that, feel free to check

127that out. But that's a um document to use to make sure we accounted for the right number of days per the negotiated agreement on that too. So uh Sher to clarify too the actual the corresponding last day our last day is the 22nd this year. The corresponding last day is the 21st on that proposed calendar. So it's a it's a it's a four days. Yeah. Yeah. I know I already asked this, but I think it's good for since I've had people ask me um the reason we didn't start after Labor Day and and move to where some districts are and allow for Could you answer that? Yeah. So, yeah. So, I mean, if you look on the calendar where Labor Day would fall, where we're actually starting school next year and where Labor Day is,

128you're you're actually still two more weeks to get to to Labor Day. And so, um, you can do all kinds of things with a calendar, but there's trade-offs to everything that you do, right? So, I mean, we could start at Labor Day, but we're going to go to Memorial Day or after with that, too. And and and um most folks in educations would agree better education happens early in the year than late in the year. Okay. And and uh um I would I would tend to feel that way um in in my experiences, too. So, um that or or you have to add significantly uh larger amounts than the 20 minutes a day, you know. So, some some schools that have um more restricted number of student contact days, we're going to be at 7

129hours and 20 minutes next year, they may be doing 7:30, 740, 7:45, um 750 in some cases. And then you start getting into those numbers where they're getting into the the 4 day school weeks uh with that too. So, um, so yeah, it it would be a that that would be a big shift to do that. Yeah. And we also worked really hard to balance the number of days between semesters to kind of keep them even. That was a big topic that we discussed quite a bit, too. Yeah. And and I don't I probably most of the time calendars don't shake out exactly even. I mean, it never did in my in my previous job, but we stayed within the balance that has been typical in previous years, too. So what would be the unintended

130consequences of us accepting this tonight versus approving? The number one is that we will not be able to finalize professional development schedules. We will not be able to start inviting speakers if we wait until April. The dates that are on this calendar will likely be can be very likely impacted. Um so that's always becomes the greatest challenge. That's why a future version of like in the past we've actually tried to get this done as early as January. So that way and um so the challenge with it being uh delayed and that's those are just the internal workings um but the external workings we know we have had multiple families posing questions of hey when when are we going to know what the school calendar is? I just had one individual talking about their um an

131employer here in town was wanting to know what the um calendar looked like so they could plan on what because they have to be strategic about how they offer part of their staff breaks and when they do that. So an unintended consequence for delaying until April would be all those things mentioned. Okay. So you're closer to the source. Well, here's some of the feedback that and I think that people because we're putting this out here are noticing that it's different. So, just so that we're clear, the reason we're doing this is because negotiated out eight student contact days, which we've talked about before, I'm disappointed with that. I have a hard time thinking that 20 minutes added each day is going to equal eight contact days. We're going to try it for one year. But

132to answer some of this, some of our coaching staff wants to know about activities, how you know, school will be out and some of them will still be involved with activities. So you talk about that as a group starting a little later delays and things that way. Some families are asking, "What about summer school? We've got a longer period in the summer. Are we going to support?" Well, what about things for student meals? Things like that that kids are used to. we're cutting eight days out that they won't have a chance to have that opportunity. And we talked about what we might do to address and support some things in that map. And uh so those were a few things that I think now that people are aware this is a different calendar and why

133um how will we address some of those things? Coaching, activities, family needs, meals. Yeah. Well, that that relates the question. Have you decided when the extra 20 minutes is going to happen? This proposal doesn't speak to that, right? So, that is that would be so the calendar committee's job would be just strictly to determine the days and where they're located on on on the calendar. Okay. So, where our professional development days are, where our start of the year, end of year, all those things. So the actual minutes in the day will be a greater conversation that I think will start with a DT level and it can and expand to other groups or feedback with that too. But that's that's separate from what we'd be talking about with calendar the 20 minute the 20 minutes

134is going to be discussed with with our district leadership team. It's completely separate from this. This is what is the school calendar going to look like now that there's a negotiated agreement item that both sides have agreed to that says 20 minutes will be added and 8 days will be taken off just tired of this. Yeah. So, I'm kind of on the side with Jeff is we did draft this, but after some of the concerns that have been brought to our attention or that have been raised, I kind of also feel like maybe we should pull this back, have one more final look at it, make sure as the calendar committee before we actually settle on this. I know it'll derail a few things, but again, I'd rather make sure we're getting it right and

135we're everyone's going to benefit from it. Chelsea, how do you think the calendar committee feels about that? I don't think they were aware of some of the comments that we got or some of the questions that were raised. So, I think bringing it to their attention and getting their input like Shane is on that committee. How does this relate to sports? I mean, these kids are getting out 2 weeks early and have to come back. What is 4 days early? Well, it's not two, but your seniors are graduating on the 9th and if they make track or make state, then they got to come back. The only thing I'd interject that I think that you're going to run into is really about the only way to that I think the calendar committee is going to

136be able to shift anything that's going to help to overcome what was intended. It seems like from the the outset was to specifically start later and specifically end earlier. That was always a part of it. The only way that I can envision the calendar committee is going to go from here, take feedback, is to potentially shift the start of the school year down a little bit more, which is going to result in people still coming to school for those additional days. And I'm just naming it now. That doesn't shorten the summer because those are still the same number of days. So the same number of time being out is still going to be true. and you're going to hear from a different set of coaches that are worried about prepar preparation for fall sports. So,

137I only name that to just say there's I think that I'd echo a comment which was because this is change we're hearing a lot. It's why the board uh and and the team at the negotiations table did the right thing to say let's take a look at this for one year. Um our team will support whatever would be decided at this table. I just want to be clear that the biggest thing internally for us is that we will struggle with being able to lock in dates for professional development which is u filling up as we speak. That that's my number one concern. And it's hard on families to plan. I mean that is a very real thing too. People a lot of people plan trips and families and those things I mean six to nine

138months in advance. So, well, that's why I would disagree with you, Shiloh, about they're not related. Parents find out if and I don't think school's going to start 20 minutes earlier. You don't think you'll have some push back from parents? Um, we have nothing to do with the calendar. That won't have anything to do with the calendar because it'll have everything to do with the school day. So, will we have push back? Potentially. We're not if we were to add 20 minutes at a certain time, I'm not going to disagree with that, but it will have zero impact on understand, but in the minds of people that they're related. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to make sure that the board is equipped with the right information when you're making a decision. 20 minutes

139and where it'll fall has no bearing whatsoever on the calendar. Do you anticipate this negotiations will start and you've done this one aspect in the years we've held for quite a while because we didn't know what that is there any issue that could change that calendar that you know about? Um no. Um, and I think the way that it was agreed upon, I mean, it states it very specifically for the 2526 school year. It's the sunset on that. And and the provision that goes with that is that we will revisit this topic in January of next year. So, we'll re we'll we'll we'll have the negotiations team together to look at, okay, was adding 20 minutes and reducing 8 days, was that successful? and by what metrics do we want to consider success? There's going

140to be a really good conversation there to be had um to determine do we like that, we want to keep that or do we punt it and go to something different, go back to what we had before or some new idea with that. So there I mean I think those steps have already been agreed upon for that and and I wouldn't I don't anticipate because that's such a specific thing in the negotiated agreement that we've already handled. There's nothing else that I could anticipate that might come up this year that would affect that. Yeah. Yeah. I did hear you say something that I really appreciated, which is there's eight less days of student contact and have we looked at what supports are needed for kiddos that are our summer lunch program? Are we going to

141be expanding the time that we do that? I would like Bill to speak to that because summer I'm curious to know we'll be able to start it earlier. So each year we do a uh a plan that's approved by the state and we're actually looking at some I guess differences or variances for this upcoming summer uh already. And each year we flex that based on whatever the need is, whatever employee staffing we have, that type of thing. And so um basically we do an in-house evaluation of of what the need is versus what our capabilities are. And then we base that uh the offerings that we do uh based on the calendar and the and all those other variables. So in this particular setting it would be uh okay so we let's say we have

142a longer period of time where it goes farther into the beginning of the school year. Then we would look and uh again those same variables and talk to the state about what they would approve as far as our program is concerned and then we would we would go based on that. Just for information sake, last year we had uh less people interested in working longer into August. And so based on our our labor variable, we we didn't offer as long of of meal service into August. Um this year, I would assume uh I don't want to speak without checking with with things, but the assumption would be then we would offer school meals further into August to meet that need that you're you're referencing. But it's not a guarantee that that could happen. That's just

143I think it's likely. It's very likely because again it's based on the need and I and we do have quite a few people that are interested this this year. So just if you're asking for my best shot from the hip, it would be yes, we will meet the need uh based on the longer period of summer time. Can you clarify that bill for us based on the need of staffing to facilitate the delivery of the foods and prepare preparation not the need of the band like so there there's a lot of different variables but to answer your question directly yes it it has been the decision has been made on staffing prior in prior years based on what we were able to put together as a program uh was concerned with that said I I

144do believe we have the staffing this year or two to put that forth and and meet the need for a longer period of time. If we don't is that something that can come back so we can problem solve with the community if there's like I don't know what because I know there's federal rules with the B essentially um we would submit our proposal for the program and the state would sign off on that. I don't think that they would ever make a decision based on on number of days. it would be more based on what we submitted. Uh whether it be how we served the meal or the components or that type of thing, what we had proposed. Um knowing the desire of McFersonen schools, our administration and this board, I'm quite certain we will

145meet the need. So yeah, I just would hate to see us not provide a need if if it was based on not having staff to meet I think, you know, the the need of nutrition. Something I'd interject is that we've been essentially I don't know about necessarily from an award perspective, but we've been a specific McFerson public school and the work that we've been able to do in terms of meeting the needs of our community has been a highly recognized model for across the state. So kudos to Bill and our team. I mean, hearing what you're saying, we're going to make sure that we're we remain a program that meets the needs of our kiddos. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. I would say that our calendar committee and our negotiations teams have put in a lot

146of work. I don't think we're going to get a perfect calendar that's going to please everybody. I'm concerned that we kind of put our our system at a disadvantage for multiple things that are truly important um by pushing this down the road just a little bit. It's one year, you know, we'll learn a lot. Um, so I would like to see us vote on this tonight. Yeah, it's a matter of are we approving or are we uh accepting? And so, and the reason I brought up looking at acceptance is the tension of of where we're at with this coming forward and making sure that we do have everything. Um, you know, I I appreciate that. Can I make a motion to approve? I second. We voted out and I'm okay with it. Yeah. Any other

147discussion? I tried to find it, but remember we had 562. I was trying to find uh community members that responded to this. That's a really I mean that's a I would think that that's a really high response rate. And we had 69 or 71% were in favor of doing that. And then they had some ideas about where they wanted to put. And I think you guys really looked at that, didn't you, Chelsea? Okay. Yeah, I that survey I questioned that at the time because I don't know if that was duplicate homes. I I just don't know on face value when I look at the surveys sometimes that we get that it's not both parents or caregivers in in there and making sure we're getting the the widest. And I know it's up to individuals who

148select to respond and not respond and we can't do much about that, but it always I always wonder what the skew is on on some of that data. So, no, I I my piece on it was making sure that we um this was fast in shift and it had to be um where we're where we're at, but that we're doing our due diligence as a as a board to make sure we're analyzing. I'm not saying that the committee and negotiations team hasn't done work. Um, but there still seems to be even with a sunset questions. I want to make sure we as a board give it the efforts that we need. Any other comments? Well, my preference would be to accept this and take one more look. But if I have asurances that we're going

149to address food service needs, those kind of things, talks with talks with our coaches about, you know, activities and schedules as well as summer school. We didn't get to that. Are we going to expand summer school? Are we going to keep it about the same? Are we even having it this year? Summer school. Summer school has summer school had had in my time here not existed prior to ESER funds. they we utilized ESRE funds in order to support that program. Um and actually run into some staffing issues honestly similar to it. So as ESRE funds have run out, we don't have anything built specifically to target summer school for this this summer. That would have been true um regardless of this school year's calendar. However, um looking forward to 2627, we could start having conversations

150around what that would need to look like. Again, that's concerning. We'll just have a whole group of kids fall further behind. You know, I think it'd be good to have dialogue and take a look at the data around summer school. And unfortunately, the reality of summer school is that um there's a lot of people who appreciate summer school. There's not a tremendous fact. The research that is that looks into summer school actually doesn't you doesn't show a a convincing sadly an impact for it for the positive. So actual education research doesn't necessarily say that. We recognize that a few of our kids will have four or five days less of support this year than that they would have had. But as we look forward to I think those kinds of things. I want to be

151clear though as I say that just because that's true for 20 summer of 25 doesn't mean that we can't take a look at some options for summer 26 which is really when this would be impacting us. So I want I just wanted that to be known that I'm hearing that feedback and we can take a closer look at that for sure. Oh yeah. I mean, part of that across the whole calendar for this is we're going to need to have that where we're at with the student success um with these changes and with the curriculum that's in place and where where are we going with it. So, that's going to be important to the overall where we go. So, we remember we're looking for that data to come at the end of the first semester

152also of this next calendar. I'm also interested in what the gap does, what having a bigger gap does to student retention. So any comments? So we we have on uh table right now a motion to accept approve. I'm sorry. So motion to approve. Um so let's uh go to a vote on that. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. I. Thank you. Good discussion. There's so many variables for us to make um count for. So, okay. We have an executive session. [Music] Five minutes. Well, let's see. It's 8:07. 7. You want to come back in in 8 minutes? 8:50. 850. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Much fun. back actually. Okay, we have um executive session motion to go into executive session to discuss an individual employee person to

153the non-elected personnel exception under the Kansas open meetings act and the open meeting will resume the board meeting uh in 10 minutes. 8:25 8:25 the executive session will include the board superintendent and assistant superintendent so all in favor say I oh yeah sorry any oppose same sign carries thank Okay. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Pack. Oh. [Music] Oh, heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Data. Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm just trying to encourage you to finish it. We're going to do a minute. Yes. Okay, we're done. So, I move to approve administrator and director contracts as presented for the fiscal year or the school year 2025 2026. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Say sign. Okay. Routine

154items disposition of minutes and report. Uh I'll skip ahead unless there were questions about the minutes. Um this is the time of the year just as a really more as a reminder for you as we reach spring break all spending we ask that they that they've pro provided a budget for how they're planning on spending for the rest of the year. So we'll monitor this very closely as we move through the rest of the school year. Um we remain on target. Um so nothing really more nothing to update beyond that. Um just that as we get through now through the end of the year, we will um continue to monitor that obviously. Um payment of bills um very standard for this time of the year. Didn't have any questions on those um course of my

155question other than a question. Thank you. other than a question which was posed which I'm going to look to see how we can do it just to help draw out some some better information and we've heard it here today and I appreciate Bill Freys being here but also Bill Grove sharing the questions which is can we create a way to tease out or at least demonstrate show to you as a board that here's some of the ways that we're spending a whole lot of resources on unexpected facility issues as opposed to planned u so we're going to talk I'm going to talk with our business office about that. Whether that's how that's included um for future conversations will be to be determined. But that's a good that was a question that came up. One other

156question that has continued to come up, I guess there were two questions. Thank you. Uh a question that continues to come up it gen has come up is uh our mileage reimbursement. So, the vast majority of our mileage reimbursement is for McFersonen County special education uh staff who um who travel all around the county. I know that that's been looked into multiple times um in each time that we've looked in to it. It's not really very practical and it's actually even less affordable to have a fleet that we would use. Um, so just know that that is a part of of it is a part of what happens when you run a uh when you're a host district or a cooperative. Um, but anyway, those are the items. I think those are just helpful so

157that we are understanding how the funds are being and why they're being utilized the way they're using and that we are looking at how do we manage our expenses and what resources we have and that we're looking and continually look at the ways that we can manage that. Yeah. I mean the thank you for saying the prime example is some might say well why don't you just pinch down and just stop doing mileage re or like not do mileage reimbursement. It's like well they have to travel to provide the services and if we don't provide the services we're in violation of the IB. So it's a product of how we make sure that Melissa you have anything you'd like to add? We also generate about 80% reimbursement of those costs. So the total bot dollar

158that it costs the cooperative is not the dollars that you see on the reimbursement but it gets coped back as a reimbursement. Good point. Yes. Just so the audience is 100% understands the the other part of that reimbursement. So thank you Mrs. for bringing that to us. If you are the routine items, I just had a really quick question and this if that's not the time, please tell me, but we I've just noticed like our spending and stuff on the PE cards is there's a couple things that I question on there. Do we have access to see the itemized receipts? I would just be curious like what we spent $8,000 at Amazon on for special education. I'm not questioning. I'm just curious what it is. So that would be something I would like to have

159more. So those those are the types of to answer your question. Those are the types of things if you see that send it to me and you as a board I can help get that information. We can absolutely track that information down. The thing that you'll notice and that's why February and then March you'll see these again is because what we've asked them to do is make sure that again with this the budget or the spending we've asked them to take care of things that they know that they need. And so you'll see them moving in particular moving forward in February and March, you'll see those types of things said. But yeah, I mean any any one of you as you review bills, if you have those questions, send them to me and we can

160provide some clarity approval process for those larger purchases. 100%. Motion to approve the routine items. Need a second. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Same sign. Okay. Future meeting. Same same two items we referenced and exactly what we've talked about and I think that that's important for for everyone to hear to know, but certainly our community sees that as well. Just some announcements. Parent teacher conferences are taking place this week. So, uh, that's always a a a great time to make sure we're connecting with families. That results in Thursday and Friday being traded out, so there's no students um that'll be in school. Uh, actually, no, no one will be in school on Thursday and Friday of this week. The McFersonen High School Bull Popups play on Wednesday uh at 4:00.

161So, they'll be up in Salina and we hope that they win. So that way we can spend part of our Friday and hopefully Saturday being at the up in Salina. But um otherwise here's something for you to just give you an idea. I always say tomorrow is spring break which means the next day is the end of the school year and then the next day will be July. And so here's like the best example of that and I think everyone can understand that. But um we have a busy we have a busy you know nine weeks 10 weeks ahead of us and a lot of really good things going on. Um final item of the day is just one. Yeah, we've got one more executive session. So um motion to go into executive session to

162discuss proposals being considered in contract negotiations with teach with teachers pro to the exception for employer employee negotiations under the Kansas open meeting act and the open meeting will resume in the boardroom. How much time do we need? Five minutes. Five. Okay. See, so why don't you do come out at 8:40. The executive session will include the board superintendent, assistant superintendent, and executive director of special education. Need a second. Second. All in favor say I. I. opposing [Music] sign. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] I transition in this spot just so you're appreciate everybody and all the good work and conversation. Call the meeting ajour facility that's on Thursday. Yeah. Yes. Thursday. See you Thursday. Thank you. I'll call you then. Is that what

163you wanted? Yeah, he's got one. I think he was hoping he would be able to make sure I seen that. I truly appreciate it. [Music]