001The September 8th, 2025 board of education meeting is called to order. The board welcomes everyone present. The Witchaw Public Schools will be the premier district of choice and inspire each student and staff member to thrive and to become future ready within the greater community. This is a business meeting of the board of education and we are pleased that you have taken time to join us. For the roll call, all board members are present. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Our color guard tonight is from the Southeast High School Jerotc program. Please stand for the presentation of the colors followed by the pledge of allegiance. Color left. Ma'am, >> present our ma'am. Permission to post the colors. Ma'am, >> you may post the colors. >> Thank you. Ma'am, order arms. Colors reversed.
002March. Color guard outward face forward arch Post rear mark. President arms. >> Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Order arms, up face, forward. Mark. [Applause] Thank you to our color guard. Tonight we have two public hearings. The first one is the intent to exceed revenue neutral rate and this public hearing is open. The state statute requires the board to hold a public hearing on the intent to exceed revenue neutral rate in the 202526 budget. The purpose of the hearing is to hear and answer objections of taxpayers relating to the tax rate in mills in the proposed budget which exceeds the revenue
003neutral rate by providing the by provided by the Cedric County Clerk. Members of the public who have registered to speak in accordance with the requirements published in tonight's agenda may address the board. Following receiving of the statements by the public, the board president will close the public hearing. The board will have the opportunity to ask questions if necessary. Following the public hearing, a resolution authorizing a levy of property taxes to finance the 202526 budget exceeding the revenue neutral rate is required after the public hearing under the KSA79-2988. Do we have any public speakers for this evening? >> Linda Runner. >> Welcome, Linda. Go ahead and come on up. A speaker's comments will be limited to the budget, but will not include personal matters concerning the district employees or matters that would violate the privacy of
004students and will be limited to three minutes. Yeah. Come on up to the microphone right here. Right there is perfect. Thank you. >> Hi there. Can you hear me? >> It's for the online audience. >> Oh, okay. Well, the taxes on my house has gone up and the is because most of the education on my taxes and my taxes has gone up in the last six years a lot. But they don't do nothing. I mean, I don't know. I don't know why it's going up because they don't do nothing to the streets or nothing like that to keep the streets up or the trees and I don't have kids and they keep raising my taxes for education. I've never had kids. So, I don't understand why they're raising my taxes for the kids when I
005don't have kids. I think the people with kids should pay the taxes for the kids because I've never had kids. And for 50 years, I've been paying taxes for the kids. I don't know what else to say. It's sad. It's really sad that they're not doing anything with the taxes that I'm paying for. And I've already paid 2025 taxes, but they still don't do nothing with the streets or the trees. And so what do they do with this money that that all these pe all us people are paying taxes for? What are they doing with it? I don't see anything. Well, I'm not sure what else to say. Thank you for being here. >> Uh if I think they I think some of these kids need to have some more uh niceness to people instead
006of all these killings because if that's what the schools are going to nowadays, it's not right. It's just totally not right. There's something needs to be done in these schools so these kids aren't killing everybody else. It's so sad. It's going around every place and it's the 14 year olds, the 15 year olds, the 17 year olds, and they're all in junior high in high school. What is happening? Are the Is it the teachers? Is it the schools? What's the scoop? I mean, if that's what the education is doing to the kids nowadays, what's going on? Is it the parents? Is it the kids? I mean, where are the where the kids are getting this from? And they're going to our schools and they're still doing this. It wasn't like this when I was growing
007up. I I I graduated 73. We never seen this kind of stuff in schools. Never. Ever. >> Thank you. Thank you, L. We appreciate you being here tonight. You guys have a good evening. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Next speaker. >> Welcome, Mr. Mayor. Belair. >> Thank you. Good evening. So, as uh our chairman has just said, I am the mayor, Jim Bina. I am the mayor of Bair. uh USD USD259 uh serves the west side of Bair and the east side is served by USD 375. So we appreciate that 2259 has expanded access for Bair residents to Eley Elementary and Northeast High School. This is a start to move closer to serve Bair students in the way that was originally promised by the USD 259 in support of the 2008 bond issue. But people
008all over the state are crying for property tax relief. As mayor, I get it. I fully understand the struggles of balancing tax relief while serving the needs of others constit our constituents. Next year, USD 259 will retire one bond, but this budget replaces the cost of that bond with an increase in general property tax. This is just a shuffle. USD 259 will collect more money, but no longer has the bond payment. So 259 also has declining student population. So it's hard to justify increasing spending while the stu student population is in decline. In Bair we have been reducing our mill levy year-over-year for the last five years. All while population increased by about 25%. This year our projected mill levy decrease is 1.484 mills. Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying we're reducing our budget or taxes.
009Our budget will reduce the mill levy, which may result in reduced taxes for some property owners. USD259's budget effectively increases the mill levy 2.011 by shuffling the bond payment decrease to operations. Of the six taxing authorities that comprise my property taxes, US259 is only one is the only one to effectively increase projected mill levy. the only one of six taxing authorities and you represent 33% of the t property taxes that I pay. I have developed a formula for targeting budgets in Bair. I have taken last year's budget and divide it by last year's population. I then multiply that per capita budget by the consumer price index for the next year. I then multiply this inflation adjusted per capita budget by the current population. Our 2026 budget is slightly over this target, but the formula gave
010our city staff a target of budget development to instead of following the traditional process of grabbing all the increases in property assessed valuations. I suggest that D259 adopt a similar budget process for targets only replace the population with the number of students. I believe you will find that you are growing your budget faster than the rate of inflation, maybe faster than the rate of growth in assessed valuations. A group did an in-depth study of WOGE analysis of the city of Witchaw. Maybe a similar project would be appropriate for USD 259 as we can help. We need we if you need help, we we help you with changes. Thank you for your service to 259. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Latona, >> that was all for revenue neutral. Okay. Are there any other public comment
011speakers for the revenue neutral hearing? Seeing none, >> you may make a comment. Um I kind of feel like on the revenue when you look at a lot of what the issue is about you know it's are tearing down small schools or we're building more schools but if you go online and you look at what the say proficiency you know the math proficiency rate is of the high school it's an embarrassing low 13% that's just half of That's less than half of what the state average proficiency in math is. I think our focus is not should not be on buildings and and uh tearing things down or you know all of this. If we can't get the proficiency up, it's it's only at 20% for English, 13% for math. Um it and it's just the
012endless tax uh homeowner pay pay and my taxes have gone up uh on a very small two-bedroom onebath home uh $19,000 in this year that I peeled. And of course that's a phone conversation you won't win. But my taxes have gone up, you know, 10% in 2020, 10%, 7%, 8%, 6%, 16% last year and are we have less students? what why we're going down the path of more buildings or getting rid of old buildings when we're not achieving the real goal which would be an education. I feel the focus has really drifted and people are not you're not focused on what the important part of this is. Maybe uh the whole accounting department for USD 259 is off or maybe you're not focusing on education but that's embarrassing low. I'm I mortified when I read
013looked that up. 13% in math and I and my taxes just go up and up and up and the idea of tearing down schools is done. The the amount of students we have has gone down since 2015. I've done a a ton of research on this and I just don't agree. If we don't focus on curriculum, what are we focusing on, right? Do we not want to have the best kids we can uh educate? Should that not be the goal? It should be the goal. And I don't know if anybody else agrees with that, but I can't see my taxes going up to prod buy more, build more, buy more when we're not producing a good we're not our proficiency rates for what the students are learning isn't there. It's not there. It's embarrassing low.
014That's what I have to say. I'm tired of >> And can you ma'am Ma'am, can you state your name and address for the record, please? >> Sure. My name is Cassie Dolinger and my address is 1715 North Meridian. >> Thank you. Next. >> My name is Joanne Huard. My address is 1143 South Governor. And I'm a homeowner. I believe as a baby boomer um we all look up uh look to growing up and uh living the American dream. that's owning a home. But within the last few years, it those increase in taxes have literally made it very impossible. Uh in the last few years, I have paid over $50,000 uh in taxes. I have appealed and appealed for year. Um the last four years, uh I lost. This year I kind of managed to win.
015It's a win-win. Um, my neighbor across the street, um, she owns she and I, you know, I'm not going to give her address, but she owns, she has a patio, she has a balcony, her house, and a swimming pool, and she just pays 2,000 more than I do. And so, you know, and I am approaching uh being senior uh where I'm ready to retire. And I think there should be some type of relief for seniors. I think we have paved the way as pioneers. We have been great examples as baby boomers. I think there should be some re relief for us. And that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> Any further speakers? Okay, seeing none, I move that we close this first hearing for the intent to exceed revenue neutral rate.
016Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion made by Diane, seconded by Julie. All in favor, raise your hand. Oh, wait. We got to do roll call vote. I'm sorry. Uh for the roll call vote, uh knock. Do you >> Oh, not for this. >> Not for this one. Okay, my apologies. Uh we will do the hand raising for the vote. So all in favor raise your hand. Motion passes 70 for the second public hearing of the evening. It is for the proposed 202526 budget. The public hearing is now open. The state statute requires that the board hold a public hearing on the proposed 202526 budget. The purpose of the hearing is to hear and answer objections of taxpayers relating to the proposed budget and for the purposes of considering amendments to the proposed budget.
017Members of the public who have registered to speak in accordance with the requirements published in tonight's agenda may address the board. Following receiving of statements by the public, the board president will close the public hearing. The board will have the opportunity to ask questions if necessary during the finance presentation. The board will be asked to adopt the 202526 budget following the public hearing. Do we have any speakers for this evening? >> Jessica Amir. >> Welcome Jessica. >> Thank you >> members of the board. Superintendent Belafeld. Good evening. My name is Jessica Amir and I'm a leader with UTW, a Witchah resident, a teacher in the district, and my children attend Witchah Public Schools. I have a vested interest in the success of our schools. The success of our future community depends on our schools, teaching
018our students. I'm here to speak to you this evening about an issue that affects staff and students alike in the vast majority of our buildings. Consistent air conditioning. It may not seem pertinent now when it's between 60 and 70 degrees outside, but a few short weeks ago, there were classrooms across this district whose temperatures were over 80 and 90 and in one case I know of per personally 100 degrees during the first week of school in the gym at Trudell. Our school service center stepped up and needed repairs were made. But the reason I'm speaking to you is because this is an issue we see year after year. A staff member from my building, Wilbur Middle School, said that for the past 14 years, one air conditioning unit in our building, continues to fail, making
019their rooms unusable when temperatures are high. And we do have staff in our building that have health conditions that make it impossible for them to be in their classrooms. For any of you have been a teacher, you know how hard it is to pick up everything on a dime and move. But I will say, I'm fortunate to be in a building with gregarious staff. And during those times, there are flurries of emails from staff members across the building saying, "My room is available during my plan or during my lunch at this given hour, and I have this many seats available so that staff can teach their students somewhere that it's a bearable temperature. Folks that are nervous about spending need to be reminded that teachers working conditions are student learning conditions. If you want to
020get a taste of what it's like, imagine your job is to finish checking all your email in your shed. That's what the temperatures are like. So, whatever it is outside in these places that don't have controlled heat and air, you've got high humidity and you've got uncomfortable temperature. It's not what we want for our students or our staff. If we want our students to be successful, they need to be able to learn in their classrooms. and if their classrooms are unbearable, there won't be learning taking place. It's worthwhile for us to look into a more permanent solution to air conditioning problems that have been persistent year after year. Thank you. >> Next speaker. >> I don't have any else. Seeing no further speakers, I move that we close the public hearing for the proposed 202526
021budget. >> Second. >> Motion made by Diane, seconded by Melody. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. This public hearing is now closed. Lona, next item. >> Good news. Witchah public schools financial services team recognized for effective reporting efforts. >> Okay, Kelly. >> Sure. If Addie would Sorry, you were hiding back there. If you would come forward, uh we have some great news to share about uh our accounting team that does such a fantastic job for our district. >> Good evening, Board of Education Superintendent Beldeldeld. I'm honored to be here this evening to recognize some of my staff for their contributions for excellence in financial reporting. Um this is kind of a theme recently uh transparency and accountability in financial reporting and it's something we take very seriously. um Witchah public schools financial
022services team for the 33rd year in a row um has earned national recognition for excellence in financial reporting receiving the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the government finance officers association and the certificate of excellence in financial reporting from the association of school business officials. These awards are the highest form of recognition in government and school district financial reporting. They reflect the district's strong commitment to transparency, accuracy, and clear communication of its financial position. The GFAOA award is based on the district's annual comprehensive financial report for the year ending June 30th, 2024, which met rigorous standards for clarity, completeness, and public accessibility. The ASBO notes um state that receiving the award is recognition that a school system has met the highest standards of excellence in financial reporting. This dual recognition is a
023testament to the expertise, diligence, and integrity of our entire financial services team and truly staff across the district who support all the financial endeavors that go into spending the uh budget we have. Um so I'm honored to be able to recognize all that hard work tonight. And I'd like to bring forward some staff um from not just the accounting team where we have a very large division, multiple departments. Um, and again, like I said, we have lots of staff across the district that are involved in all all of our financial pro uh processes that contribute to our success in achieving these awards. So, I'm only able to introduce six names to you this evening um that are the key leads of some of our departments. So, um first up, April Webb, who is our financial
024reporting and project manager. Um Denise Fluco, our federal programs manager. Uh, I don't believe Holly Wilson is here, but she's our grants administrator and takes care of a lot of the local gifts and grants. Katrina Cosner, accounting manager. Nancy Iverson, the director of accounting controller and assistant treasurer, and Tabine Aad, the director of budgeting. Congratulations are certainly in order for these very hardworking staff. We're honored to have them on our team. >> Thank you guys very much. Appreciate all your hard work. >> Okay, next up, uh our interim CHRO, Susan Willis, was going to come and introduce um our appointment for our Native American Indian Education Program specialist. So, I'll give Susan a second to get up here. >> Anyone see? >> Welcome back. >> Yes. Good evening, President Albert, Vice President McCrae Miller, Superintendent
025Milfield, and members of the board. Yes. Serving in my interim capacity as chief human resources officer, I am pleased to announce the hiring of Veronica Gillette as the new Native American Indian Education Program specialist. Veronica brings with her 13 years of experience serving Witchaw Public Schools Native American Indian Education Program as a parent involvement worker. She is returning to the district with a clear vision for strengthening the program's offerings and is eager to collaborate with staff, families, the community to ensure that the Native American Indian Education Program becomes a premier program within Witchaw Public Schools. There she is in the back there. We look forward to the positive impact Veronica's leadership and experience will bring to our students and families. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. And last but not least, I'll have Rob
026come forward. Um we were named a distinguished school district and received a national award. And I'll let Rob explain it. >> Yeah. So um every year ISTY issues uh three awards to three different districts um small, medium and large. And the things that outline the distinguished district award usually are around technology but this year is the first year that there was a merger between ASCD and ISTY. So this is both a reflection of leadership as well as technology. So whenever I think about Witchaw, I think about innovation. If you look at what we have across Witchah, we have some amazing partnerships and some great things that are happening in this city. Uh I'm grateful to have been able to go to San Antonio to kind of talk about the things that we are having. In
027fact, next month we have a a national Kosen site visit here where we'll have about a hundred people from across the nation coming to do a site visit here to see the things that we have going on. Whether that be the empower ed uh teacher leadership fellowship that we have that smokeokes a part of whether it be our partnership with WSU around applied learning where we have applied learning students doing uh work with us and for us and learning in that environment to creative minds and alternative learning environment where you know we have students learning by doing and uh learning through project-based learning activities to um you know so a lot of our innovative practices that we have just in the district, whether it be AI guidelines or AI policies and our and our movement
028toward intentional use of AI. Uh I think we're a beacon in the Midwest and I'm grateful to be a part of this district. >> Thank you, Rob. I would say, yeah, let's give a round of applause. >> So, the the two the two acronyms if we don't all know, uh IST is the International Society of Technical Educators. So it's kind of the the nationally known tech organization. They've merged with ASCD, which is really the curriculum gold standard. I mean, that's the curriculum association across the nation. So, um, to receive a national award, um, this this is a pretty darn big deal. So, >> I've been in education 26 years, and this is the biggest award I've ever seen a district receive. Rob, if if the community wants to understand and learn more about why the
029Witchaw public schools received that award, how would they go about learning more about that information? >> Um, they can reach out to me. Uh, my email address is r dixon rdicsd259.net. Um, also, uh, follow us on, you know, some of the social media. you'll see daily activities that we do, whether that be around creative minds or around uh the things that we're doing around technology. Um I I just think Witchaw is this place that people don't understand and it's an amazing place to live and and be a part of. So, >> okay. So for anybody that wants to learn more about kind of the innovative technologies that are happening in the Witchaw public schools, this is Rob Dixon and feel free to look up his contact information on our website and reach out and he
030gives great tours uh whether it be at the learning lab downtown or at our new uh future ready center called Hack. Um it he gives great tours. So that would be a great place for people to start to learn about the innovative technologies and things happening in the Witchaw public schools. >> Thank you Rob. >> Awesome. [Applause] Okay, Latona. Next item. >> United Teachers of Witchita. >> Welcome, Katie. >> Hi. Do you mind if I move this a little bit? >> Yeah. Sorry. >> Good evening. Um, good evening, President uh Diane Albert, Vice President McCrae Miller, Superintendent Belafeld, and members of the board. Um, it seems like we've had a pretty good start to the school year. We've been in school for almost a month. Um, educators when I've talked with them, they're really happy
031to be back with their students and their focus remains on giving them the best start possible to the school year. Uh, we'd like to start tonight by thanking Susan Willis and Vicky Manning in HR. They've been responsive and supportive and we really appreciate some of those new initiatives that they are rolling out to um help with some staffing issues. Um and we also appreciate payroll working into the weekend to fix. There was some issues with the prek supplemental that they they worked on. So um we appreciate that. One area that we feel and teachers feel still needs some clarity is the Department of Justice um settlement that code of conduct. Teachers are working hard to implement it, but the purpose of this code of conduct is consistency. We're hearing that sometimes administrators are taking level
032two incidents and they are being addressed with level one consequences. That lack of consistency is exactly what created these problems before. And so we want to make sure that that agreement is being followed as intended. And so um we wanted to share that with you and we'd like you to kind of follow up with that. We also have heard a couple of building level concerns. Uh, one Jess Amir already brought up. On hot and humid days, our classrooms can feel very uncomfortable. The temps are frozen at 74 degrees. When I started, we used to be able to go up and down like 2° and now they're frozen right at 74. And the humidity, especially in some of like our multi-level buildings, like taller buildings, can make it very, very warm. So, I guess I was
033trying to see is there a way that we can adjust temperatures slightly on those days so that teachers are complaining like I'm drenched in sweat by the time I get off work. So, not today though. Today's been lovely. Um, at some elementary schools, we've also been hearing that recess has been scheduled for 3:50 in the afternoon. Um, I think that families in and educators all agree that recess should be a real break for kids. And when you put it at the end of the day, it doesn't serve its per its purpose. It's lost that break time. Um, and if you look at uh research on the brain when you're teaching um reading or math, those breaks are really good for for our kids. And um so doing it at 350 really doesn't seem to to
034help. Um, finally, uh, last time I was here, I talked about those continuum, the continuum program, uh, and those concerns. And, uh, Dr. Evans and, um, Nikki Seely has invited me, they've invited me to visit some of those programs next month, and I just want to say I appreciate the invitation. I feel like there's a lot of work to do, but we're very thankful for the chance to work together to support our educators and students. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Katie. Latona. Next item. >> Service Employees International Union. >> I do not see Esau. Is anybody else here from SEIU? Okay. Seeing no one. Next item. >> Public communications. >> Okay. Do we have >> Patrick Murphy? >> Okay. Uh, let's see. Public communications. So, we want to thank the public
035comment speakers for joining us tonight. And if you have signed up for public comment, you will have three minutes to speak. And we kindly ask that you acknowledge your aotted time. And we encourage you to share your thoughts openly and honestly, but we ask that your remarks remain focused on school related matters and are respectful and constructive. The board will listen to your input, but will not respond during this meeting. However, we are listening and may follow up as appropriate. And we welcome our first speaker. My name is Patrick Murphy. I um live in North Emporia. I want to address the uh NAPAC and the newly appointed director. I'm here today to direct to address some recent decisions made by the administrative body of USD 259. These decisions offered what can be construed at best
036as an indifference towards the the native students in this district and at worst a malicious attempt to cover up the corruption that was incurred under the leadership of the former director. After the review of documents obtained through a core request, it was determined that investigation should be done. The FBI is currently reviewing the documentation and the US attorney's office will determine whether or not charges should be filed. And whether or not those charges are filed is not what is important to me. What is important to me is the fact that the newly appointed director of the Native American Education Program is among those named in the investigation. Beyond that, there are parents of Native children and members of this body that have been subject to intimidation through threats of physical violence and slander by the
037present and former leadership of the NAPAC. This group is directly connected to the newly appointed director This group of people has denied the native parents of their rights during the last election of officers in an effort to ensure that they could influence the outcome of the election and maintain control of the NAPAC board. Actions I personally witnessed. Their self-serving attitude towards this program has shown undeniably when their expenditures were revealed earlier this year. The request uncovered that 90% of the $160,000 grant went directly into the pockets of the former director, his family members, and other v other individuals like the newly appointed director. After other expenses were paid, the kids got a whopping 72 cents per child. There is much there are much more suitable candidates for this director position. This selection is not only
038inappropriate, it is insulting. It will continue to erode the relationship between the native community and the school district. It has undermined the educational experience of the students it is intended to serve. Understanding the historical context of a Native American education is crucial to fostering trust and building effective partnerships. Following through with this appointment demonstrates a lack of understanding of the historical implications of this decision. It is clear that the panel was made that made this decision was improperly formed biased towards this individual. This person is not is a close associate of the last director and is also directly connected to individuals that were that corrupted the NAPAC elections earlier this year. While I understand this board does not control the hiring beyond the superintendent, I wanted to bring this to your attention and go on
039the record with this information. I find it very hard to believe that this body was unaware. >> Thank you, Patrick. Uh there will be followup. Um, thank you. >> Next speaker, Latona >> Holly, >> welcome. >> Oh, is it possible to put the timer up there? >> Uh, I don't have a mechanism. This >> Don't don't even worry about >> soon. We'll we'll have a timer. >> Got one on my phone. Uh, just a refresher, I'm Kendra Holly. I'm a registered respiratory therapist with the state of Kansas certified asthma educator and I'm a lifelong asthmatic. I'm always up here uh with the board championing for albuterol in schools. Uh just a quick refresher, statistics show one in 10 students in Kansas has asthma. the uh we recently got the bill passed where witch public schools,
040the state of Kansas allows all school districts to stock emergency aluterol in their schools. It's not a replacement for a students inhaler or nebulizer. It would be an emergency situation. They forgot theirs at home or they brought it and it's empty. Uh the handout I gave you is uh my recommendation for an inhaler. An inhaler is a much quicker administration route for albuterol. Uh I actually have a person a little quick. My I guess he'd be my great nephew was going to miss a day of school. I was coming home from work. Was he was going to miss the day of school because of his asthma. His mother had given him his inhaler. He took it a couple of times, wasn't working. She then tried his nebulizer. Still didn't seem to work. 12-hour shift, hour
041and a half drive. I said, "Okay, I'm on my way. Let me go see." First thing I did was I saw his technique. I said, "Okay, I can tell you what's wrong right now. You're using your inhaler improperly. showed him how to use it, administered it, he was able to go to school, which is why I am for uh inhalers as far as the administration route of albuterol. The last page of the handout I gave you is my information because I am willing to work alongside USD259 to get these things done. I uh am going to work on seeing if the state of Kansas will pay for the spacers, which is the handouts that I gave you for the inhalers. Uh if not, my next step will be I'm going to go to these hospitals
042all around Kansas. Hey, we need these because I feel buildings, technology, all of that stuff is great, but I guarantee you it would have made a big difference in my life as a student of USD259 had I had an inhaler available as a backup at school. Now, I'm looking by my clock. I got about 30 seconds left, and I can tell you I've talked longer than it would take to treat an aszmatic child with an inhaler. So, that is my push. I'll be here next month with more information because I'm not going to stop until we get this done. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, sir. [Applause] Is there another speaker? Okay, seeing none, next item, >> college readiness. >> Okay, Kelly. >> All right, I'll invite Dr. Dr. Hatfield uh solo. Dr.
043Hatfield solo. All right. You know, you got a team over there, so I didn't know who was talking. So, we're here talking about uh college readiness and goal number number one and two kind of both. Yeah. >> All of the above. >> Yeah. You're always doing college readiness. So, all of the above. >> Good evening. Uh good to see you all again. It's been a minute since I feel like we've done an academic update. Uh and so it's good to see all of you this evening and excited to talk about um college readiness and what that looks like in Witchaw public schools. Um a little storytelling, a little data, maybe a whole lot of fun. We'll find out. So um just a reminder um goal number one of the strategic plan, which is really where
044we're going to focus on tonight, is increase academic achievement and graduation rate. So there's two parts to that goal, right? Because there's an and sign in there. Um, and so we're going to ground a little bit of the conversation in graduation rate, but spoiler alert, we're not going to leave the other side of that and sign alone tonight, which I think um is something that's probably the most exciting. Um, because a lot of times we look at pieces and parts instead of the entire goal all together at once. So, we're going to ground the discussion in graduation rate and then we will move forward. Um, here is just the last four years. Obviously, we do not have the class of 2025 yet. In fact, kiddos from the class of 2025 may still be working um
045towards graduation and be considered an on-time graduate. They have through the month of September. So, we want to make sure we give them as much of time as possible to do that. What you can see on the screen um is both Witchah Public Schools and the state of Kansas. So, a few reminders. The first reminder is that the Witchaw Public Schools goal um is to get to 85%. That's the Witchaw Public Schools goal. the state of Kansas, for those of you that follow what their strategic plan is, uh their goal is to get to 95% as a state as part of their leading the world um in education. Um I want to point out a few highlights uh for you. Um the 84.3% that you see for the class of 2024 is Witchah Public School's
046highest graduation rate ever. Um, coincidentally or not so much, the 89.5 is also the state of Kansas's highest graduation rate ever that they've had for the class of 2024. Um, so we are working on closing that gap uh between us and the state of Kansas. As we go, the state goes. Um, so the state should be very excited about the progress that that we are making. Um, the state has has had a 1.6% 6% increase in their graduation rate from 2021 to 2024. Witchaw Public Schools has had a 6.3% increase. That's not literally subtracting them. That's percent change. So new minus old divided by old times 100 is how you get that calculation. So um we're going to pull out a couple of the um subgroups to look at. Uh next we're going to look
047at free lunch. Uh we're going to look at students free lunch. So, uh, we, uh, have again, um, showing you the Witchaw public schools and the state graduation rates. Um, we've gone from 75.4% to 82% um, for students that have free lunch. The state has gone from 81% just a few years ago to 84.7. Uh a couple highlights again. 82% of graduates uh for free lunch is the highest that Witchaw public schools has ever had and the 84.7 is the highest that the state of Kansas has ever had. So in that four years, the state has a 3.8% change um increase in graduation rate and Witchaw Public Schools is an 8.8% change in graduation rate. Last, we're going to lift out the graduation rate for students with disabilities. uh both Witchaw public schools and the
048state. Uh so we've gone from 74.3 a few years ago to 81.9. Um the state's gone from 81.1 to 84.1. Um surprise surprise, the 81.9% is our highest graduation rate ever. The 84.1% is the state's highest ever for students with disabilities. Also, the 84.1% graduation rate as a state for students with disabilities is the highest in the nation. Kansas had the highest graduation rate of students with disabilities in the United States uh for the class of 2024. Uh the work that Witchaw public schools did is a substantial part of the work of that 84.1% that we have as a state of Kansas which allows us to be at the top. So the state in that time 3.7% increase and Witchaw public schools 10.2% increase. So, I show all of that to you because it is
049part of the goal, increase academic achievement and graduation rate. But there's been some questions similar to uh this one on the screen floating around the universe. Huh. Are high school graduation rates a valid success indicator? Legitimate question. All questions are legitimate questions. Um but um which graduation rate particularly for Witchaw public schools is exceptionally important for us to consider. I'll tell you a quick story. Um when I was a student in high school um getting close to my senior year, that's actually when my family decided they were moving to Kansas. Um my dad got transferred here. He he works for Cargill. So I did not grow up in this area and they said, "Hey, we got to move to Kansas." And I was like, "Oh, people live there." I didn't know that that was a
050thing, right? Chicagoland area. You weren't real sure, you know, what uh what was in Kansas. Um but I remember asking my mom, hey, you know, are we going to do graduation party, etc., etc. Because they, you know, we were packing up a house and moving. And my mom said, "No, we will never have a graduation high school graduation party for any of you because that is a basic expectation of your life." That is the expectation in my household, right? That is the expectation that I grew up with. That is not the households that all of our students grow up in, which is part of the reason, a significant reason why graduation rate is a massive measure of success for Witchaw public schools. Class of 2025, we don't have their data yet, but we do have
051their data from the senior survey. 18%, let's basically call it one in five for easy math, are the very first in their families to graduate from high school. 18% are the first person in their family to earn a high school diploma. That is changing generations of families and that's changing the economic future of Witchaw public schools as we have more as of Witchaw public schools and the city of Witchaw as we get more graduates with a high school diploma. Class of 2025 40% right 40% two in five are going to be the first in their family to enroll in either a two-year school, a four-year school, or a trade school after they leave us. 40%. The households that some of our students grow up in look different than the household that I grew up in.
052I was very fortunate to grow up in a household that had that expectation of me. Right? But we have to recognize the massive measure of success for our students when they are the first. Being the first anything is really hard. Being the first anything is really, really hard because all of a sudden you go from that pressure is not there to that pressure is there, but in a good way because now other people can see me do this in my family and they can do that too. Seeing it, being it, that's a real thing, right? So breaking through and being the first in your family to graduate from high school, being the first in your family to enroll postsecary is a huge deal. And that's why graduation rate really matters for us in Witchaw public
053schools. If you're in a district where your graduation rate is 98%. Is that really the thing you're probably looking at to determine your success? Probably not, right? There's a lot of other metrics you need to look at, but graduation rate for us is absolutely something that we need to look at. A little bonus tidbit on the end. A few years ago, actually, when Kelly took the superintendent job, uh we had some senior survey data and Kelly talked about our percentage of kids um that were leaving high school and they didn't know what they were going to do, the unknown, right? And the statistics around what's most likely to happen to you if you walk out of high school and you don't have a plan, what's most likely to happen to you? You end up incarcerated
054or you end up dead? Those are terrible things. We don't want those outcomes for our kids. And that 89% leaving high school with a plan, they're going to the military. They have a full-time job. They know what post-secondary institution they're going to. 89% of our kids walked out of high school with a plan. That's a substantially higher number than we've had the last couple of years, right? And so Tim and Laura did a presentation last month about what Zello means and what individual plans of study are. that that 89% is directly tied to having students have an individual plan of study that works for them as an individual. So, just wanted to give you those three pieces. I'm sure those numbers will come back when we get 2025, class of 2025 data. Um, but wanted
055you to see those to really ground why graduation rate is super important to us. But for our friends that maybe want to argue that, let's talk about all the things that are in front of that and sign uh increasing academic achievement. Because here's spoiler alert again, our data is going up everywhere. It's not just the graduation rate that's going up. So, we are going to examine pieces of data that are connected to academic achievement that are not graduation rate. We're going to really do an investigation on that and sign right there. It's not an or, it's an and. And two things can be true at once. Our graduation rate can be increasing and our academic achievement can be increasing at the exact same time. All right, so let's dive in. First, we're going to just
056flash up a couple um assessment scores. Um, notice 2025 says TBD. We do not have them yet. Also, the cut scores are different. The test is different. We're not going to get into a debate about that right now. I promised Kelly I'd keep my soap box over in the corner uh for that. Uh, but we don't have that data yet. Um, we hope to have it soon, but they're really not comparable um to the previous. So, if you look um our level ones 22, 23, 24 um were decreasing. Are we happy that those are the numbers? No. But are we happy that they're going in the right direction? Absolutely. Um the first thing you have to do uh to turn a boat around is to start turning the boat around. And that's what was happening
057with our English language arts. You can also see the steady increase of level threes and level fours. Um so we've had an 11.9% decrease in our level ones over that three-year span and and an 11.9% increase um of our threes and fours over that same span. Um, here's an interesting chart for you, maybe to dive a little bit into the state assessment score. So, what you see along the bottom is actually students divided out into level one, level two, level three, and level four based on their state assessment score. And then we are determining what their average ACT score was and what their graduation rate was. And we have it for us and the state. So, how do we read this? If you look at level one, okay, Witchah public stu schools students who scored
058a level one on the English state assessment, keep in mind they take that when they're sophomores, right? Um, their average ACT score is a 13.7. The average ACT score across the state for students who score a level one is 14.4. Okay. The average graduation rate for a student in level one in Witchaw public schools is 75.4%. And the average graduation rate for the state is 77.5%. So I think that right and you go level two, level three, level four. What's actually interesting about this data is if you took the old cut scores in the old level twos, right, which was where all the debate was was the old level twos. the top half of level two actually had performance data that matched the level threes, which is why they wanted to re-examine the scores is
059because the level two kids in ACT and in graduation rate were performing more like the level three kids, which is why they wanted to reexamine. You'll see similar metrics with math here in a moment. So, >> further explain that. Yeah. >> Um kind of expand on that why that is. >> Yeah. So your level two, right? There's the debate about the level two. Is it proficient? Is it not proficient? Is it proficient? Is it not proficient? Um first of all, a score on one test on one day at one time doesn't determine your ability to succeed or not succeed in life, right? But your K in level two, right? when they dropped that cut score and created level two however many years ago, right? It actually created um a debate over that level two and
060is it proficient or is it not because the middle of level two, the top half of those kids actually their data more matched the level three kids. Whereas the bottom half of level two was like, okay, these students are performing similarly. They're performing similarly on state assessments. They're performing similarly on the ACT. They're performing similarly graduation rates, etc. Uh higher still than the level ones, right? Level ones was still here. Bottom half of level twos were here, but if you took the top half of level twos, they actually matched the level three kids. Um and so that's a big reason why the state had to re-examine um these scores just because of that level two debate. Kelly, you want to get in on that? I'll give a much more straightforward a couple examples from my
061own life and I've shared a couple of these already, but I think this clearly defines what's going to go on in the next month with the cut scores. Um, >> uh, I have a daughter who's in college now, um, got a two on the state assessment, which is not proficient. Lauren's talking about there being a debate, but there really is not a debate. When you guys vote for the needs assessment, you vote on threes and fours, right? We want to get 50% of our kids to threes and fours. So, by the state's definition, a two is not proficient. Okay, so my daughter gets a two on the state state assessment in the same subject area gets a 31 on the ACT which puts her in the top 95 percentile in the nation gets a six
062out of seven on an international balora test international score. So me as a parent, I've got three data points. I've got an international one, a national one, and a state one. And the state one is not in line with everything else that's normed. And I think ACT and I think international bracket, they know how to write tests, they know how to give tests. So I think we can trust that data. And the fact that my student wasn't proficient according to the state as a parent, I think that's the state doing a disservice to me as a parent. I should know accurately how my kid is doing. >> My son, same thing. Gets a two on ELA, gets a 26 on the ACT, right? So, making this make sense, it it really doesn't. The scores, the
063cut scores are out of whack with reality. And every parent should be thankful that we're aligning this so that it gives us accurate information. Is my kid ready for college? That's what I want to know. And hopefully the state with a lot of expertise and they put a lot of work and time into this and I know we have Witchaw public schools folks that were involved. Um hopefully these new cut scores are much more accurate so that parents are give an accurate snapshot of how their kids are doing because that is not what we've been doing. Right? Me as a parent I don't value that score much because it seems so out of line with all the other data points that I have as a parent um that are reliable and important. So, >> perfect.
064>> There you go. >> Yeah. All right. Let's look at math. Um, our math data is not as good as our English data. That doesn't mean we need to hide the math. Oh, sorry. Go for it. Knock. >> Sorry. Quick question. Um, can you go back? There you go. So, for the ACT score, is that a composite of English and reading or is that just like the composite of the everything in general? >> Is that a composite? Say that one more time. >> ACT composite. >> It's their composite score, not their English ACT score. Yep. Their composite. Yep. I uh asked a lot of our research and intelligence people for the data and so at one point we did talk about give me give me the breakdown of all the individuals and the composite on
065the ACT and then I realized I might have been pushing them over the edge so I said I'm just kidding just give me that composite we'll be good we'll be good we'll be fine yeah so all right let's look at math our math data is not and state assessments is not as good um as our English data but that doesn't mean we want to hide that means we at least know where we need to get better because when we know better, we can do better. Um, I would also say for this, uh, we've adopted a new math core curriculum and a new math intervention curriculum since those scores came out. And so I'm excited to see how we have started to turn the tide just a little bit and how we can progress um, even
066faster now as we get teachers and students into the new curriculums that um, our learning services team has vetted and adopted. Um, so we have had from 22 to 24 just a 0.9% increase um um in level ones and then a 7.4% decrease level threes and fours. Again, those aren't the numbers we want to see up there, but again, no better, do better. Um, and that's what we want to see and we're anxious to see what those 2025 scores look like. And just for um posterity, here's your similar breakdown of your math cap versus ACT versus graduation rate. Um, just like you saw for English and the math state assessment had similar data as the English state assessment in that those top half level twos m their data in all of the other metrics other
067than the state assessment actually matches kids that performed in the level three category instead of um level two. So all right, let's talk about AP enrollment. Okay, AP being advanced placement. Okay, U. So we offer everything from advanced placement biology to advanced placement calculus to advanced placement psychology to advanced placement government. We have a whole categor uh catalog of AP courses that kids can take. What you see on the screen in front of you is just Witchah public schools data and what it shows in the blue is unique kids and then the red is how many AP classes they were enrolled in. This is not broken down by class of this is broken down by school year, right? Because you have juniors and seniors, couple of sophomores, AP environmental science, you'll get some sophomores in
068there. Um so um these are by school year. So you can see in 2122 um we had 1,150 kids took an AP course and they accounted for 1,678 AP classes, right? Because most of them, right, were taking probably more than one, right? So as you see, so you can see over the last four years how both the number of students enrolled in AP courses has gone up and the number of courses they are enrolled in has gone up. So for kids in four years, we've seen a 26.2% increase in unique students that are enrolled in AP courses in high school. And we've seen a 47.4% increase in the course enrollments. So the actual courses that they are enrolled in, that is substantial numbers. Okay? And when you take an AP class, you get to choose
069whether or not you're going to take an AP test. So, let's look at some AP test data. Okay, what you see on the right, the blue, is AP exams taken and what you see on the right in the red is AP exams scoring a 3 plus. But I want to go back and call your attention to something because you might be going, "Okay, Lauren, why last school year were there only 714 AP exams taken if I'm going back there were 2,474 kids enrolled in an AP class?" That's a legitimate question that you might be asking for yourself. So, why might a kid not choose to take the AP test even though they are enrolled in the AP course? Well, there's a variety of reasons. one a number of our AP classes you may also take
070for concurrent credit. So if I'm like I'm not feeling real confident on the test, I would rather have my grade taken over time instead of a test, then they might say, I'm going to take this for concurrent credit instead of taking the AP test. Right? There's no reason to do both. Then you're just costing yourself money, right? So some kids are going to say, I'm going to take this for concurrent credit. I'm not going to take the AP test because I already got the college credit through taking concurrent credit. There's other kids I'll never forget my AP chemistry teacher a long time ago, Mr. Dishell. I will never forget the very first day of AP chemistry. He said, "If you think you're going to major or minor in chemistry, don't take the AP test." Mr.
071Dichell, why are you telling what? That seems weird. Why are you telling us that? When you take an AP test, your base, you don't get that credit in high school. they just or in college they just say you don't have to take that class in college. And he said if you're going to major or minor in that, you might have some gaps because you didn't take chemistry 102 on the college campus. You just got it waved. You didn't take chemistry 2011 on the college campus. You just got it waved. And if you think you're going to major or minor, you might not want to take the AP test in that because you don't want those gaps to show up if it's something you're going to major or minor in. So, those are some examples of
072reasons why kids might not want to take the test. Others, kids are like, I don't I'm not a great test taker, so I'm really interested in challenging myself with this class, but I might not be interested in taking the test. Right? So, some examples of why those numbers might not match. Why a 3+? Well, a 3+ is a post-secary asset. Remember those things uh that are coming back in our lives. If you get a AP test are scored on a fivepoint scale, so you can get a one, two, three, four, or five. three, four, and five are what will get you college credit in some form on an AP test, right? So basically all institutions will recognize a three or a four or a five and get you credit in some way, shape or form.
073So that's why we picked all the exams that are scoring a three plus. So what do we notice in just for the state isn't on here, but I'm giving you some information. In 21-22, 49% of the AP exams taken by Witchaw public schools students scored a three, four or five. For the state, it was 62%. Okay. In 2223, 50% of Witchaw public school students who took an AP exam scored a three, four, or five. For the state, it was 66. 23 24. 68% of Witchaw public school students who took an AP test scored a 3, four, or five. For the state, it was 69. Last year, 70% of Witchaw public school students who took an AP exam scored a three, four, or five, which means they got college credit on that test. And the state
074was 74%. Right? So, what do we see? Four years, we see a 52.2% increase in the number of exams taken. We see a 117% increase in the exam scoring a 3+ and we see a 42.5% increase in our pass rate pass rate right if you will okay there's really not a passing of an AP exam but if we consider three plus passing of our pass rate these are pretty substantial numbers um and here's the crazy thing AP isn't very large in Kansas compared to some other states because we have such a robust junior college system. So Kansas like I'll be again I told you earlier I grew up in the Chicagoland area. I only had heard of one community college. I I was like what? So then I moved here and I was like well
075they're like in every county. This is wild. It was fascinating. So concurrent credit wasn't a big thing where I went to high school. How did you get your college credit? You took all these AP tests and you took all these AP exams to try to get the credit because that wasn't a thing there because we didn't have that robust junior college system that the state of Kansas has. So the state of Kansas kids are at an advantage. So that sets the table for let's look at concurrent and dual credit. Okay, concurrent and dual credit are on the screen. A lot of people think they are synonyms. They are not. So let's do a little bit of definition work here. It's about where you take the class. So concurrent credit is you are taking the class
076at your high school with your high school teacher and you are getting awarded college credit for it. That's concurrent credit. Dual credit is you are taking the class at a college and coming and getting high school credit for it. So they go opposite directions. Okay? Okay. So, it's about where you're taking the course and who you're taking the course from. Concurrent credit, you're taking it at the high school, right? I taught pre-calc trig, right? All the kids that took that for college credit with me, right? They were getting concurrent credit. Okay? Kid wants to take calc 1 at Butler over the summer and then add calc 1 to their high school transcript. That kid's doing dual credit. Okay? That's the difference between the two. So part of this is because we've become a lot better
077at tracking it. Let's admit that. But let's look at concurrent and dual credit. So again, you see in the blue, those are unique students. So that's kids that we know are taking at least one concurrent or dual credit course. And then the red is dual credit course enrollments. So that's just like we saw with the APs earlier, right? You can take multiple concurrent or dual credit classes just like you can take multiple AP classes. So what do we see? We see a 243.9% increase in three years in the number of Witchaw public schools students who are taking a concurrent or dual credit class. We also see a 256.1% increase in the number of courses kids are taking for concurrent and dual credit while they're in high school. Okay. For post-secary assets in concurrent and dual
078credit, you have to have nine or more college credit hours to get the post-secary asset for concurrent or dual credit. What you see on this screen are credit hours because course enrollments and credit hours are not the same thing because I might be enrolled in one course, college algebra, but I am getting three credit hours for that class, right? or a very popular one, AP Chemistry. I'm enrolled in one course, AP Chemistry, but I'm getting five credit hours for that class in college. Right? So, what we've seen here is actual credit hours our kids have earned over the last three years. So, we went from just over 2,000 credits earned three years ago to over 8,000 credits earned by kids in Witchaw Public Schools this last school year. That equates to a 258.9% increase in
079three years of college credits. Okay. And then like I said for post-secondary assets, you have to have at least nine hours to count. It's nine plus. So if you have 248 hours, you still get one post-secondary asset, right? If you've got nine hours, you still get one post-secondary asset. So what you see here is these are kids, individual kids who got nine or more college credit hours in that school year. So two years ago, we had 80 kids get nine or more college credit hours. This past school year, 305 Witchaw public school students got at least nine credit hours just in last school year. That's not their whole career. That's just in that school year they got nine plus hours. Right? So again, 281.3% increase. Substantial changes in the work that our students are doing
080at the college level. All right. Okay. Let's talk about ACT scores for a minute. Okay. Witchaw Public Schools offers ACT for free to every single junior. Um we've offered that for a number of years and we offer that in February. Um for juniors to come in on a testing day and take the ACT. Uh what you have on here is kids who scored a 21 plus compared to the total number of kids who take the ACT. 21 plus is there because that's the post-secary asset is 21. That's what the state set. That's what we're measuring. Okay. Keep in mind, we offer this to any student. Okay? Kelly mentioned this at a previous board meeting. I don't remember how many months ago, but sometimes we compare like ACT scores in Kansas versus ACT scores in other
081states, but Kansas offers it to everyone. There are some other states that they don't offer it to everyone for free. And so, those aren't really like comparisons because they don't have 85% of their senior class take the ACT like the state of Kansas does. So, in 2023, we had um 351 kids, which is about 15% of the kids that took the ACT got a 21 or higher. Then in class of 2024, it was 443 kids or just over 19% of kids who took the ACT. And then the class of 2025, we had 521 kids get a 21 or higher, which is just over 21%. So, our post-secary asset achievement rate is going up year-over-year. We've also had more kids take it year-over-year and more kids get a 21 or higher. So, in kids that have
082taken it over three years, we've seen an 8.3% increase. Um, in kids that have gotten a 21 or higher, we've seen a 48.4% increase. And then in our percentage pass, if you will, pass mean getting a post-secondary asset, we've seen a 36.7% increase. All right. And then work keys joined the party uh two years ago and work keys is a workplace readiness assessment. Um you can get a bronze, you can silver, a silver, a gold or a platinum. The state considers silver plus a post-secondary asset. So the kids that you see in the blue are kids that got a silver or a gold or a platinum. Right? And once again you can see we've increased the kids that are taking it. We've increased the kids who are scoring a 20 or a silver or higher.
083And we're increasing the percentage of kids who are earning a silver compared to overall test takers. So 75.9 increase of kids taking it, 81.8% increase of kids getting the silver or higher, and then a 3.2% increase of kids who are earning that asset. And Kelly might want to say something about bronze and silver maybe. >> Well, yeah, I just wanted to to bring up um Textron Aviation gives this test to new employees. Uh I think that's relatively new. Their standard is bronze, so the post-secary asset is silver. Um, but when one of our kids goes to Textron to get a job, they don't say, "What did you get on the state assessment?" They say, "What was your ACT work key score?" Right? So, we're trying to, and I'm leaning into your next slide here, uh,
084we're trying to align with things that are actually relevant to industry in our area. And uh Spirit, I don't know what Boeing will do, but Spirit also uses the work keys along with a lot of other smaller industries. A lot of the um oh apprenticeship programs to the unions use work ACT work keys and things like that. But um just wanted to bring that up. >> Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. It was really interesting to hear Textron tell us, hey, we consider bronze meaning check mark, whereas we don't give our kids a check mark unless they get a silver or higher. So that was that was interesting data um for them to provide to us from that. Yeah. So, and then Kelly's referencing the next one, which is credentials. Okay? And credentials are
085a wide variety of things, but these are industry recognized certifications. So, credentials are everything from food handlers all the way through automotive service excellence, which is like I had to ask my CTE friends. I said, "Which one do you think is the hardest one to get?" And they were like, "We think this one. This is the hardest one." That's relative, right? But I was trying to provide a a span, right? food handlers all the way to automotive service excellence in what we can do. So what you've seen here are the credentials earned by Witchah public school kids within that school year because once again could kids earn some in their sophomore year and some in their junior year and absolutely. So this is just within the school year and you can see the massive jump
086um especially this last school year in our kids that are earning credentials. Uh we have 25 CTE pathways where most of these credentials are coming from. Um, you might have heard the number 27 last year. KSDE combined three pathways into one. So, we still offer all the same classes. They just combined the pathway. So, we don't The kids didn't lose out on anything, but KSD kind of trimmed it down a little bit in case you're curious. So, what you see there is almost a 100%. It's 96.5% increase over four years of credentials earned. And then, um, every single one of those credentials is a post-secondary asset. every single one. Um, so that's pretty amazing. Uh, we well, we're kind of arguing a little bit with the state. The state trimmed down their like this counts
087as a post-secondary asset credential versus this is still a credential. So we're we're in a little bit of a a tiff about that. It's okay. We'll it's it's a healthy tiff. Uh, so so circling back to where we started, there's a giant and sign in goal number one. And what I wanted to show you today is that it is an and it's not an or. And that two things, increasing academic achievement and increasing graduation rate can be simultaneously true. And I am happy to answer uh any questions that you have. >> Before you do, I just wanted to point out one other thing and that's relevant I think to this conversation. Um, and that's uh something that you hear sometimes uh and I know I've seen on some social media about this idea that um
088if a student gets a a one or a two on the state assessment, they may be functionally illiterate. You're starting to see that a lot. Um if you get college credit, ACT credential tests, ACT work keys, ACT scores, you're not functionally illiterate. And I hope one of my goals would be to to graduate kids that understand when you say maybe, you're being deliberately misleading, right? Everyone in this room may be functionally illiterate, right? That's a true statement. It may be true, but it's completely misleading. Right? We know that's not true. We know we have room to improve in reading. There is no doubt about that. You guys have been focused on that. But it is also true that just because a kid gets a one on a state assessment does not mean that they are
089illiterate. And we have all sorts of data to show that that is the case. So we've got work to do. We are not perfect. Our kids need to do better. We need to increase our scores. Um we're headed in good directions in a lot of areas. Uh but it is not true that our kids we're graduating kids that just are flat illiterate. Um it's a very misleading statement. Lauren, with a lot of these numbers, so going back to slide 20 for the credentials earned and and you show a lot of uh like in 2122 we had 2033 credentials earned. Can you give kind of a baseline of how many students we have in each class? Because yeah, >> I'm trying to set the stage of how many students uh are actually getting these extra. >>
090Yeah. So in this particular slide, this is by school year instead of by class. Now, are you do you have a lot of freshmen out there earning credentials? No, they're not high enough into the pathways to really get to those courses, right? So, but you're looking around 13,000 high school kids every year, right? If you take the freshman out of that, you're looking at, hey, you're somewhere over 9,000 kids that are potentially earning these credits. Yeah. These credentials. >> We graduate about 3,000 students. >> Yeah. roughly. It's pretty easy to just say there's about 3,000 kids in every grade level is is probably the easiest way to look at it. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Melody. >> Thank you, >> Lauren. Um, the more that I listen to the presentations on increased academic
091achievement and graduation rates, you know, the more I learn and I one question and then a commentary. So the question is what would you say is is um factor for the huge increases particularly in um AP both uh placement and enrollment the tests p placement tests as well as uh concurrent and dual credit and of course post secondary asset >> and um not so much ACT scores but definitely ACT works uh work keys what would you say is primary in terms of why there is such a huge increase so I would give a few reasons one I would say is a streamlined approach for our district in how we're going to message and tackle a lot of these things right so several years ago right we didn't have an ACT testing day, right? But it
092was one of the thing the high school principles were like, it's really hard to create a conducive testing environment when the other kids are trying to go to class and we've got to have these other rooms of kids trying to take an ACT work keys or something like that. So we said, we can fix that. How do we create a better testing environment? Well, only the kids that are taking those high stakes tests are there in that day and we send everybody else home so that we can create a conducive testing environment and give the kids to the greatest extent possible for us the optimal conditions to be there and be the number of our our campuses that on testing day they're like, "Hey, pancakes for kids right in the morning." And they've got assistant
093principles out there working the grills so that a kids can have a full breakfast. Um they could also purchase one, right? Uh but well, we don't make our kids pay for breakfast. They could also show up and grab one, right? But trying to create conditions within the system of Witchah public schools that allows the individual students to be as successful as possible and take advantage of those opportunities. I I do think us saying, "Hey, we're going to look at weighted grade point average." I think that has made a difference. Before there were some kids that were like, "Oh, I'm gonna weigh the riskreward of taking that class that might be a little higher." But now the risk isn't quite as high for some of the kids because they get rewarded with additional grade point average
094points if they take an honors or an AP or an advanced course. I think that that matters in some kids decision-making. >> Three years ago GPA >> two Holly two >> two or three and >> the years start running together. So >> ACT testing day is probably about four years old. Work keys >> work keys is only is only three years old and work we've only given the work keys for three years. So last year, right, you saw that massive jump in work keys because we put a lot of energy and effort into telling our kids, here's what the work keys is. Here's why you care about it. Um, we even had to tell that to our teachers because I never took the work keys, right? It's a new assessment. And so a lot of
095our staff, let me include myself in that, were like, what is this thing? Uh, and we had to do a lot of education around why that's important. I think we're getting better at helping kids, hey, concurrent credit versus dual credit versus AP. what's best for you in your situation. I think it's about creating um systems that allow us to get that message out to the individual kid in the individual high schools. >> So 22 23 we switched to uh added weighted GPA. Yeah. >> So what I would what I would kind of sum that up as is that we are hugely intentional >> Yes. in how we um corral and um encourage and then support students in being successful in each one of these indicators of success poor education. And then that that just takes
096me back to what one of the speakers uh said earlier and and I hear it I hear it all the time where most persons in the public will focus on low proficiency rates just constantly. I'm one I used to until you actually get into our system and begin to look at that is not the only criteria that you need to be looking at. And in fact, just as uh Kelly, superintendent has given an to me a glowing example and I have some examples too that you get a two on your showing up as two and profic proficiency but yet you're scoring high in these other academic um criteria. So I think the more educating, the more information that we as a district take seriously and are intentional in showing that we understand that our proficiency
097rates are low. In fact, we understand that the national proficiency rates are low as well as our state proficiency rates are low. We recognize that. We want to improve that. However, please take a moment and educate yourselves to learn that there are multiple very important and impactful um measures that we should be looking at. I mean, it really is that simple, but we the onus is on us >> to continue to do this. >> So, thank you. >> I would say two things to that. One, I appreciate you lifting up the intentionality. when you see those stair steps over time, stair steps over time like that consistently from slide to slide. That doesn't happen on accident. You can accidentally get a spike in a year, but you can't get stair steps over time by accident.
098So, I appreciate you lifting up that intentionality. And I don't think we can say enough times. Here's that old comic about right if you judge an elephant uh on its ability or what is it? If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it's not going to score very well. But that doesn't mean the fish doesn't have skills, right? That is so often what we do um to not just our students but all students is because we want to judge them on this test that measures something that they actually don't have skills in. Yeah. >> Thank you, Melody. And also I want to point out that uh you gave a great example of listening to what the people at the building level are needing and requesting and then responding to that. And
099so that is something that I know that we've been trying to do a better job of uh on a continuous improvement model is what I always say. Um so for building level staff uh please continue to bring your ideas forward because we are listening and we are trying to respond appropriately to suggestions and needs at all levels. knock >> for uh for SAT the old score was the old score was 2400 um and then the new score was uh 1,600 um but like you know there's a way you can could convert that u I guess my question is when we're talking about like this transition uh from how uh state assessment scores are going to be um classified side, uh, if you will. I'm curious like if there's a a conversion, if you will, between
100like, hey, uh, here's what, uh, proficiency scores would look like um, in previous years applying like this new like approach from 2025. Well, I don't want to get out of pocket because Holly might come over here and tackle me. Uh, and I don't want to get on her bad side, but there is a there's a state meeting that a bunch of us are actually going to attend on Wednesday to learn more information about all the things connected to the new cut scores and what does it mean and is there a conversion of sorts. I think we always have to be careful of a conversion no matter how it's supplied, if it is supplied, etc. So, I don't I don't want to speak out of turn and out of pocket. Um, I'm gonna I'm going to
101wait for that meeting on Wednesday and abstain from anything else. Yeah. And I would say I think the October board meeting I think we'll have enough information to provide some sort of update. It might be more robust in November. Um but they are different. It's a different test with different standards and different questions. So um it'll be different even the the 300 being the middle kind of the middle mark between the two and the three that's all the scales will be completely different too. So, uh, more to come on that, but, um, I don't want to overpromise for Holly, but maybe October, maybe. We'll see. >> Maybe. >> Speaking of overpromising, maybe tomorrow. >> And then, uh, my, uh, last question. Um, would it be appropriate to say that for a student who scores a
102one on the state assessment, whether that's for math or English, that they are also uh less likely to score um a quote unquote high score or a sufficient score on the ACT and also less likely to graduate. >> Absolutely. They are absolutely correlated. Um I think where we get in trouble is where we do causation, right? like you scored a one, therefore you can't. And we start saying what people can't do based off of score on one test. But yeah, they're they're absolutely correlated and I think you can see that correlation on the charts that showed the levels as you move up and the corresponding ACT scores and graduation rates. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I would say sorry I would throw out there too one of one of the other key factors I feel
103like is relevance. So the how relevant is the activity to the actual student? um an ACT score, which is dollars, like literal dollars if you're going to college. Kids take it several times. Uh even get tutors even, you know, whatever. Um a credential test. If you don't pass OSHA 10 safety, you don't get to go to the lab. So, you've got to pass that test. So, there's relevance for that as opposed to a state assessment your sophomore year that you've you've probably taken what would it be 18 state assessments at that point in your life as a student. and it may not feel very relevant to what you're doing. So um we see a lot um and we wouldn't necessarily be a lot different probably um on things that are in our life. Um if
104you need the job and you got to get the score to get the job, you're going to work really really hard at that because it's relevant. So I think that's another factor. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Um I just two quick um observations. I found it interesting that in the survey for the class of 2025, the two largest groups that were helpful to our students throughout high school was number one the classroom teacher and secondly was parent and guardian. And then if you look at our uh rate of free lunch which reflects our poverty level which makes parenting harder. I think it's very clear what this what this board has been trying to do with our budget is to support our teachers. And really that's one thing that our bond is about is about providing uh
105space, innovation space, uh correct environmental controls, uh correct uh places for kids to learn and the fact that uh when we talk about where is this board focused at, I think it's clear and it's important that we continue to keep our focus in these uh two areas. So, uh that really stood out and I think it shows as a public body whether you're a city council member or a county commissioner or on a uh cemetery board. It's all about focus. And so uh I think what this report shows is the focus that we've had the last four to five six years has actually produced results and we can't take those results for granted and we are not going to be satisfied till we not only meet the state but bypass what the state does and
106definitely be the best in this region. So that's just two things that really stood out to me on this report. Thank you. I appreciate we're going to bring this back like so when we do graduation rate data, but man, are our staff champions or what? They I mean, every single every single employee group, right, is down here showing up in a huge way for our kids and for our high school kids to be the ones like they they are the ones that made a massive difference for me. That's that's pretty powerful. That might have been my favorite part of the the entire survey was seeing um how much love our high school kids gave to our staff and their recognition of how much that that staff does for them every single day. even though we
107might not always act like that's true >> for since we're educating you know and recording this one thing that the and we probably need to make sure we tie together the post-secary assets the 21 on the ACT the nine credit hours um silver or higher on work keys are now graduation requirements right like so those you have to get at least two of those to graduate and that isn't class of 26 That's class of 20 >> 28 >> eight. Okay. I keep looking for help. My phone of friends over here. Um uh but that so it it isn't as though well graduation rate is this and you can just do whatever with that and then there's these things. It is part of graduating these post-secondary assets. Now kids have freedom to pick which ones AP
108tests are part of that. Yep. >> Okay. >> AP test participating in athletics and activities. There's so anyway, I just want to make sure that that connection is there. That graduation, the state of Kansas has decided that you really need two things. You need a piece of paper that's a diploma and a piece of paper that's a something else. A transcript from a college, a credential test, a silver work keys or all all and you guys have seen the list, but I just wanted to make sure we tied those two things together. They're not really It is and, right? It's not they're not separate. They're the same. >> Okay. And Lauren, um, we've talked about work keys, but can you explain to the audience more about what work keys is exactly and how it's different
109and how it's also very relevant because we do talk a lot about uh, college andor career and so we do have a lot of students that go right into the workforce and so why why is work keys important and relevant in the college. >> Yeah. So work keys is basically a an assessment about what your job readiness is to enter job readiness. So you know the regular ACT which most people are familiar with there's a reading section there's a math section right u there's a science section etc in the ACT work keys there are sections like applied mathematics right which would be um math skills that you would need um within the workplace right understanding maybe taxes or documents like that that there's workplace documents is a section on the ACT work keys so can
110you read these technical pieces of literature related to the workplace and understand what you're supposed to do with those. And then the levels, the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum is basically your preparedness right now to do a certain percentage of jobs in the workforce. Um, so uh that's that's really what the workplace is very jobspecific assessments. Um, it is not what I call it's not like a naked math, right? Naked math is like 3x + 7 equals 4, right? That's a naked math problem. like it's just a it's just a problem that's out there and like what why why do I have to solve for X right an applied mathematics problem they would give you some context try to figure it out and that context is going to be within the workplace as an example
111on the works >> okay very good thank you >> Julie >> the other one on this sheet >> yes >> that I enjoy seeing is the one about plans after high school graduation >> and how important We realize that that is to have those plans and the percentage uh you know of the four-year college, the two-year college, the technical or trade school, the military or the full-time job, >> but only 11% unknown. And of course, we want to get that even smaller. >> Always always a work in progress, right? Cross the finish line, make a new one. That's that's what our job is. >> Yeah. You also for you guys at the board, you have the individual school versions of this. Um I think that's a fascinating data set. Fascinating data set um that you
112might want to peruse at some point. Um and and you can right like when you look at those percentages of first in your family to graduate from high school and you watch them shift from building to building to building. Very eye opening. Not surprising really, but very eye opening. Yeah. Because I do want to remind people when we talk about numbers, these are human beings that we're talking about and we're talking about preparing them for their future. And sometimes when we take a snapshot of somebody, that doesn't always dictate their future. That that shows where they're at in a certain place in time and maybe where they were that day. Um so let's not forget that people have the potential to change. They have the potential to grow and and we do want to encourage
113that. And so when we talk about numbers, let's not get lost that these are these are individual human beings that we're talking about um and trying to unlock their potential. So seeing no further questions, thank you Lauren. Great presentation, great conversation and we look forward to having future updates. >> Latona, next item. >> 202526 budget report and adoption. >> Okay. Welcome Addie. Whenever you're ready, Addy. >> Okay, great. >> Um, well, good evening, board of education members, superintendent Belafeldeld. Uh, my name is Addie Lel. I'm the chief financial officer for the district. Um, I'm pleased to be with you this evening. I actually have no new information. We're going to just kind of recap the budget development process. um talk about how we've put some budget in place to help remove barriers for students. Um
114I love Dr. Hatfield's um story about how our ACT scores have gone up over the last few years. And I think that's exactly the story of what removing barriers for our students means as soon as we take the the cost of the ACT um and the uh the testing environment and and make those equal opportunities for all of our students, seeing what our kids are capable of. That's exactly what um that's exactly the work of our budget and and the development process that we do to try and help remove barriers for students. So, we're going to go over that information this evening. My hope is that um we adopt some resolutions and ultimately adopt the budget as it was proposed at the August Board of Education meeting. So I will maybe jump into our presentation.
115I for one am looking forward to being in our formal board space next month. I um appreciate my colleagues uh ability to stand through her entire presentation. I'm going to opt otherwise. So, um, so we are here, this is the final step of our budget process, um, where hopefully we will move to adopt the proposed budget. Um, in order to appropriately, uh, capture all of the necessary details for the statute related to building needs assessment, I'm just going to repeat for the benefit of the board some of the actions that we've taken, some of the decisions that we've made um, in light of, um, you know, the estimated time it would take for all students to achieve proficiency. Um, we're going to see where the the just reiterate when the needs assessments were provided to
116the board, that the board evaluated those needs assessments, and then get into the weeds of how we use those assessments in the approval of the district budget. Um, so the board answered question one of the building needs assessment process. Um, and these needs and barriers have not changed tremendously since this statute came out. Um the board's done an excellent job in categorizing this based on stakeholder groups. Um and so this is published on our website. We've listed out different barriers for student, staff, parents, and community. Um overcoming barriers. So this is the building needs assessment work that our our building based staff did. Um and they did lots of work with site councils, with their building leadership teams. um captured lots of opportunities for input on our budget process in terms of what barriers exist
117and what resources might need to be put into place to address those barriers. And four themes really emerged from that building based work. Um those were really around teacher and staff recruitment um including just pay and benefits in general for all staff um training as well as retaining ESOL sped um sped staff and pair professionals mental health and social emotional needs um including resources to address those needs. Additional CST which we um define as counselors, social workers and psychologists and other social emotional learning programs. Um, parent involvement and support was one of the four themes. Having active opportunities for parents and guardians to be included in their school communities, family engagement and resources for students and families. Um, and the final theme that emerged was attendance issues around chronic absenteeism and tardies. So, just to
118recap kind of a very high level of our budget process. Um, we have a large budget. It requires a lot of people. It requires a lot of input. It takes a full budget team uh the entirety of the year to put together the budget. Um but if I could summarize it in four steps um this would be it. So we we kind of evaluate all core services for schools. That means every single school is going to be afforded the opportunity to have a kindergarten teacher, a first grade teacher, a second grade teacher, a principal, a custodian, a nutrition service worker, etc. that those are just the basic bare minimum needs of all of our schools regardless of the um the at risk or um overarching needs of any particular student group. So we make sure
119that every school is provided with those core services. Then we evaluate uh required services that we need to provide for special education students as well as ESOL services for um ELLL learners. So those include additional teachers, para educators, counselors, psychologists, social workers, speech language pathologists, nur nurses, etc. Um then we really look at specific populations and there's no one answer um that applies to every school. Every community is different, every leader leader is different. And so there's not one answer that solves even the same problem for two different school communities. And so we really have to evaluate meeting the needs of atrisisk students through an individual building process which is our building needs assessment process. Um we get requests for tutors, intervention programs and curriculum, summer school, um extended learning opportunities, extra classroom supports, CST,
120which is your counselor, social worker, psychologist, and additional behavior positions are some frequently requested items through that individualized building needs assessment process. um anything that's left is used and and generally all of these pillars kind of line horizontally and vertically. So our program spending aligned to the strategic plan. Um right, it a lot of those initiatives are the same as the building needs assessment requests are the same as supporting our special education and ELLL learners. Um it's all related to academic improvement um and achievement for our students. So, so finally, um, we put together, uh, kind of a big recap, a big 10 recap of all the things that we invested in, um, to, you know, based on all of the feedback that we got from our individual buildings. There's nine boxes, the 10th being,
121um, the wage package that the board of education offered to our negotiated unions this year um, which was a compensation package of 5.47%. So, that was kind of the big tenth item. Um, some of the other budget actions that we were actually able to take in this year's budget that's proposed to be adopted this evening included some additional core services for schools, newcomer supports, um, an expanded district-wide ESOL program, um, additional counselor, social worker, and psychologist positions where we could, additional behavior supports for schools, unified prek classrooms in four additional schools. the new community schools pilot that's taking place in six of our schools. Um some small groupoup instruction paras and a big expansion of our everyday labs um to help address attendance issues in schools. So those were the big 10 items um that
122are reflected in the budget that's proposed this evening. So questions for um the the BOE to answer your the final question of the building needs assessment process is around the time it may take for all students to achieve proficiency above level two. And so after receiving the building needs assessments back in the um for the May board of education meeting um we reviewed all of the data. We reviewed the state of our state assessment scores um made some recommendations and some and proposed some thoughts around how to answer this question. And at last uh our last board meeting, we were able to come up with a range of um the district goal being 32 to 50% of students performing at level three and four by 2030. This uh accounts for a 2% increase year-over-year at
123a minimum for our students to achieve that goal. Um, additionally, we like to align the answer to this question um to our strategic plan goals as well. So that way everything is in alignment. And so that involves decreasing the percentage of students scoring A1 from 47.6% to 44.6% by the spring 2025 third grade reading assessment date. Um, so those those were the answers that we uh elected during the August board meeting. So again, I don't have new information on the budget this evening. Um, our total budget net of transfers. Um, and and the two things that the board is really approving this evening is the total legal maximum by fund as well as the mill rates for each fund individually. And so our total proposed budget was 1 bill9,854,676. And we have a flat mill
124rate again of 51.387. Um so this reflects the board's commitment to um taking a conservative approach to the district's mill rate. Um we did not increase our mill rate. We did not decrease it this year. It's flat uh compared to last year. This board has um taken every opportunity to reduce the mill as we have not needed it to support the district's budget. Um, and so this mill rate reflects um that that as well. I love this pie chart. So every year we bring how much of our operating budget directly impacts students. This year 87.2% of our operating budget goes directly in the classroom. Um 53.5% in instruction. Um we have to have lights, we have to have transportation, we have to have food service, right? All of those things are required for our kids
125to attend our buildings during the day. Um, so you have a very small percentage that still go to some of the things like maintaining our facilities, uh, business and operations support, general administration for the district is very low at 1.1%. Um, so a huge portion of our operating budget directly impacts students and I think that's important to to celebrate and get excited about. Um, finally, just >> Yeah. Can you describe uh or what's the definition of other support services? >> So, it's um this is based on a state code. It's a technical answer. The um pieces of the budget that go into that line item are related to the child care development centers on our high schools. So, it's a community service. It's um that's that's what that it's still still kids just not all
126Witchaw Public Schools kids. So hopefully to wrap us up um and then I'll turn it over to the board for questions. Some of our proposed budget highlights include um a total budget of just over a billion dollars with our operating budget sitting at $615 million. Our budget is balanced. Um we don't celebrate that enough. The fact that Witchaw Public Schools is always able to propose and adopt a balanced budget. We have no remaining budget deficits that will carry over into any future fiscal years. The base state aid per pupil is up to 5615. Still the lowest mill rate in 15 years at 51.387 mills. Our compensation package did outpace the three-year average CPI. So we were able to offer um staff a 5.47 compensation package this year over the 4.4% 4% CPI increase that we
127got to the base state aid per pupil. Um and federal funds for atrisisk students are still anticipated for fiscal year 26. So with that I'd like to turn it over to the board for any questions ahead of um motions. >> I have a I have a question. Um I was at uh district advisory board for commissioner how today and he had shared some everyone's budget season you know all everyone's going through this right now. He shared mill rate data from all of the cities in Seduick County and I was amazed at the at the range. I had no idea that some cities were like in the 30s and some were in the 60s. I mean a big big range. So could you tell us you know we are here operating for the kids of Witchaw
128public schools but at the same time we are essentially in competition with surrounding districts right just like our cities are. They have to decide how do I come be, you know, be more competitive as a city. How do we how do we rank as far as mill rate goes with our surrounding neighbors? >> If you look at the surrounding suburban districts, we are the lowest mill rate in comparison. Um I don't have all their final figures for fiscal year 26. Um but we've been the lowest for as long as I've been um a part of the district. So we sit at 51. I would say Andover is between 67 and 68. So, if you live in the Andover suburb, you're going to be paying more per in in a mill rate for your property taxes.
129Um, we are the lowest by far. >> And we do have on our website, you want to tell people where to find the the budget at a glance because there is >> Absolutely. Um, >> you guys put a chart in there every year. >> We do. Um, so on the Witchah Public Schools website, so usd.org/financiallervices org/financiallservices. If you scroll down just one full page, you'll get to the location where we have all of our financial publications. We try to be as transparent and accessible as possible. Um we publish a our own version of a budget at a glance, which we hope is an an effort to simplify K12 school finance. Um and so we do give figures for surrounding districts and the mill rate history which again celebrates the board's commitment to offering property tax
130relief wherever possible. So also one of the things on there just because people always have a lot of questions about the budget and and school finance you would be hardressed to find something more complicated than school finance. And so on that same budget at a glance document, you can also see the spending per program and what portion of the budget that is and then also the percentage of that portion that's restricted. So can you go over restricted funds versus unrestricted funds at a high level? >> So about 80% of the funds we receive are restricted by purpose. That means that either local, state or federal government has defined the expenditures that we can utilize those funds for. um atrisisk services for students is a $130 million budget that has some of the most restrictive uses
131on it. In order to do it, it has to be on a very small list that's approved um through multiple different boards through KSD, through the the state board of education. Um so it's very restrictive. Federal funds are that way, nutrition service funds are that way, special education funds are that way. most of the weighted funds that Witchaw Public Schools receives ends up being spent and transferred over to a restricted purpose and that's again 80% of our budget. Um so you'll see those figures by program. Um and there's definitions for unrestricted and restricted. That just means that 20% of our budget is available to do things that are um you know that to support things like operating costs or transportation increases um things of that that nature. So we we're very limited in terms of
132um what we can do with those funds. They have to be sent spent on certain students for certain services. Thank you, Hazel. >> Yes. I'd like to address earlier we had a speaker uh comment that um all of her taxes are going paying to the school board. Do we actually receive all the money that's labeled schoolboard on the tax bill? Can you explain that how that process works? >> So if you live in the Witchaw public schools boundary, you likely have um three taxing jurisdictions that show up on your property tax bill. Witchaw Public Schools has four separate mill levies that we assess. So, it's not easy to read on your property tax statement or on the estimated revenue neutral rate tax statement that probably went out in the last two or three weeks, I
133would say. Um, so we do get remitted all of the funds that are related to the USD259 mill rate on your property tax statement, but we are one of two to three other municipalities or government entities that may be levying taxes on your property taxes. So, we're not the only ones. >> Melody, >> thank you. Um, when looking at and I am in the um budget at a glance booklet also um for anyone that would want to know this is pages six and seven, budget foundations. So, just as >> last year's budget, >> yes, it's last year's budget. Um, but I have kind of a basic comment and and question. Capital budget reserves. It's the very last item that they're going to see. And so last year it was 54 million.1 54.1. A lot of
134persons are not clear on what a district should be doing with those dollars. Typically, how are those dollars utilized? So, um I don't have the page in front of me to reference the exact exhibit from last year's budget that you're speaking to, but I'll try to give a general response to the question. So, when we have capital outlay reserves, um we have to fund the capital outlay budget for six months before we get any kind of reimbursement from either state aid or property taxes. And so, we have to carry some reserves and capital outlay just to cash flow the start of the year. Um, if we're talking about capital outlay in terms of budgeted funds and not cash reserves, um, we do keep a budget of capital outlay funds. You may see on the notice
135of hearing that went out for the 2526 budget, our capital outlay budget was, um, $129 million. That does not mean we are going to spend $129 million. It means that we have budgeted some capital outlay reserves just to make sure that should the district have some extraordinary or emerent need for one of its facilities, we have the budget authority to um to enact and to use those funds to support any repairs and maintenance that may be needed. Um so there's kind of two different answers to that question. We have to have capital outlay cash reserves just to make it through the first six months of the year and be able to afford the ongoing business of the district. We also have to have budgeted reserves in capital outlay to make sure um that Luke's team
136um can can act and and support our buildings when they need to. >> And I would just add to that u because believe it or not sometimes state andor federal dollars do not come in in the appropriated um timeline. So therefore, we're still having to pay those bills so that reserve can aid us in doing that. So just wanted to be able to add that. Thanks. >> Thank you, Melody. Julie, >> um, another just general question for the public. Uh, one of our speakers earlier was talking about how much their taxes have raised and yet you specified in your presentation that uh we didn't increase our mill levy. So can you explain that? And then secondly, um give an illustration for if uh you have a certain s um property value of home, um what
137your typical tax payment would be based on that. >> Sure. Um so our mill rate stayed flat, but that does not mean that everyone's assessed property value stayed flat. Some of the property tax owners in our jurisdiction on average received an 8.7% increase to their assessed valuation this year. That doesn't mean everyone did. Um I know I certainly did. Mine was larger than that 8.7%. I'm happy to pay my taxes to support uh Witchaw Public Schools um the city of Park City where I reside um and all the other municipalities. Uh I was a I was a student once. I do have students in Witchto public schools. Um, as a community, uh, you know, people work and and are all trained and benefited by by public education. Um, and so, yes, while we are keeping
138the mill rate flat, we do still have to capture some of that assessed value increase because just like our property tax owners expenses are increasing, so are ours. Our salaries are going up. we have to offer teachers a CPI increase to their salary um just to retain uh qualified highly qualified staff in our buildings. Um we our our transportation costs our utilities costs all go up just the same as they do to our taxpayers. So the median home price right now in Witchah is around $200,000. So last year, if your uh the appraised value of your the yeah the appraised value of your home was $200,000, that means if you had an 8.7% increase, it's in the $217,000 range. Um your property taxes last year, I think, would be around $1,9. and they've gone up
139to um essentially it's $857 per month in additional property taxes just due to the average assessed value increase of 8.7%. Um it's not a straight across metric, right? Um like mine went up far more than the 8.7. Some didn't receive any property tax increase this year. So, um, it's hard to to apply it across the board or calculate specifically how it will impact each individual taxpayer. That is the benefit of those revenue neutral tax statements that go out. It helps to give a picture of what may happen um to your taxes based on our estimated or proposed mill rate. >> Thank you, Julie. um just to go over and explain some of the things and processes that we take when adopting the budget because this is not just the last few meetings that we use
140to adopt the budget. This is really is a year-long process and I always say a continuous improvement model that we we try to take. And so for people that don't know what the building needs assessment is, it is for a printout, it is it is this book that we go through, the board does, and it's a a couple pages for each building. um each learning center in our district and we go through and all the buildings answer the same questions and that's how we learn and hear from their building leadership and their site council what their needs are. Uh what what their recommendations for the budget would be um what do they need in their building to be more successful and meet the academic needs of the students in their building. And so if you
141go back to I think it's slide seven um yeah for the questions of the BOE on what recommendations and allocations should be taken to address and remove barriers that information comes directly from the building needs assessment that comes from having conversations with building leaders with teachers with paras with all of the building staff to find out what do they need to be successful because it's not just the district staff saying here's what we're going to do to make sure that we can be successful. We're going out to the teachers that are actually with the students day in and day out what you need to be successful. And it's not a perfect model, but we are we are trying to continue to improve on that. And so leading up to that, Kelly, can you talk about
142what we're doing this year to also get more feedback from the building staff and to try to continue to improve upon that model as we constantly look at our budget and look at philosophies of how we can be more successful to meet the academic needs of students? >> Yeah, I I'd be happy to. So, you know, when we talk about barriers, that's a that's broad, right? I mean, that's a broad term. What are the barriers that our students have? um they have barriers in uh learning English, they have barriers with disabilities, they have barriers with attendance and transportation. Um but we also focus on what are the school barriers like I need an extra para in my classroom or I need behavioral supports because students have more behavioral needs than they used to. Um we
143have uh I'm trying to think of the things on the list. Uh oh, unified prek, ESOL, right? Like so what are the internal barriers that we can control? But when we create the big book, we kind of ask it in a general sense and we get all sorts of different um responses to that. We heard a a teacher speak tonight about barriers, barriers of poor climate control in her classroom, right? That allows it's hard to learn in that environment. So, um we've committed this fall to breaking out the needs assessment into a really a facilities needs assessment. And Dr. Noble and Gil Alvarez and I are dividing up all 90 buildings and we're going to go on the road and we're going to go to every building and talk to every staff and hear directly
144from them. Uh we did a pilot kind of a guinea pig with with one elementary school and we came with our couple things that we thought uh was on the list and they said, "Well, actually, you know, you were going to fix this part of the roof. The whole thing needs fixed because it leaks here and it leaks here and it leaks here." Right? Thank you. That's what we needed. we needed to hear that. Um, and so, uh, to really engage in that level, um, at the building level with the people that are in the trenches doing the work, uh, is critical. And I don't think we should do that just one time for facilities. I think it's really an ongoing there's a curriculum discussion, there's a finance discussion, right? Um, and everybody doesn't know
145all the ins and outs of all the details of it, right? You don't need to be able to fix the HBAC to say, "Hey, the HBAC doesn't work." Right? So we can hear that feedback and then give it to our team of experts to fix. We can do the same thing with finance. We can do the same thing with curriculum. Um we do it probably the best with curriculum in a lot of ways with uh piloting textbooks and getting feedback and doing surveys and every professional learning that we do. We get feedback from staff on those. Um, but I think we can be much more present and much more intentional and instead of just a kind of a procedural checkbox needs assessment that we've been doing, really try to make it true authentic engagement. Um,
146and it's not that we haven't done that in the past. I just think we're being more intentional than we've ever been. Can you also explain how we're what our philosophy is for aligning the budget to meet the students academic needs? Because a lot of it we're meeting required needs um from either federal regulations or state regulations, but what is our what is the overall philosophy of what we're trying to do to accomplish and increase student outcomes through the budget? >> Yeah. And it's uh it's building based which makes it challenging. at the bottom of the pyramid is that, you know, kind of base. Everybody gets everyone gets a principal, everyone gets a custodial staff, everyone gets nutrition services, right? Everyone gets a base level of everything. Um, but if if you drive through our community
147often, um, the Bair neighborhood has different needs than, um, Harry Street that's at the corner of Broadway and Lincoln, right? Those two schools have very different needs. And so we try to allow the buildings to help us with making those decisions, right? There is a base that we want everyone to have uh you know a standardized level of education, but then as some buildings need more, that's where we're providing more. And we're trying to do that both in the classroom, but also within the community. Um community schools, I think, is a is a great example of that. um that there is really something more than just what goes on in the classroom to help get our kids ready. U they have to be at school. They have to be fed. They have to um feel
148safe. All of those sorts of things, too. So, um that's it's a little bit different um than just, you know, putting money into into a a singular classroom. Um but it's an investment, I think, in our kids holistically. Uh because you can't teach an empty chair, right? So if kids don't show up to school for whatever reason, we're never going to make the gains that we want to make with our students. Um we have to have kids that are there. And so we feel like a stronger community connection can really improve that um that trust with the school, but also the uh the ability for kids to, you know, the barriers of attendance that are also the case. So um I'm not sure if that exactly answers it. Yeah, I I would our budget is
149so big and I think we heard tonight from a couple of comments that what are they getting what are taxpayers getting out of their investment because as taxpayers we are compelled investors whether you want to invest in the tax in the school system or not we are investing in the school system and so I think when there's a disconnect between what they're paying in taxes and what they're seeing then I think we need to be a little bit more explicit in what our philosophy is and in raising student in educating students And I always say unlocking their potential um because I think there is that disconnect and so trying to paint a a more vivid picture of what that looks like. >> Yeah. I think I think two things. I think one um I think
150most of us probably the majority of people in this room had somebody invest in us in our lives and we are where we're at because of that. We most of us attended a public school or a public university at some point in our life. we were able to do that because somebody else footed the bill for us to be successful, right? And so I think there's that component to it that there's an obligation to our community that if we care about the well-being of our kids, if we care about our teachers, that we need to support them, right? Because somebody supported us. So I think that's one piece of it. The other thing is what Lauren talked about and and really um if you follow our board meetings, if you watched our board meetings, what
151we're trying to do is really align with helping our kids be successful after high school and be successful after high school within the Witchaw community. So, we value what Textron or Ascension Via Christi, we value what they care about more so than we value what somebody in New York or California, whatever, cares about. We're trying to align with what they want. What they want are the things that Lauren was talking about. Give us kids with college credit. Make sure they have these credentials. Make sure that they're able to to get a blank score on the ACT. They're not asking us for what is their state assessment score, right? So, not that that isn't valid, but we are really trying to listen to our community and say, what does the community want? What do they value?
152Well, they value kids that show up. They value kids that work hard, that get off their phone, that right, can can fill out a resume and can apply for a job. We're trying to help our kids with all of those things. Uh, keep in mind that one out of five of our kids, they're first in the family to graduate high school. So, there's not a lot of social capital for a lot of our kids to know how to navigate the world beyond high school. So, we're really trying to get them prepared for that, get them connected with work-based learning to our community so that our community sees the value. Um, and I think if you talk to, you know, the HR department at Textron, I think they would say Witto Public Schools is getting a
153I don't know about A+, but a solid A, maybe a minus, right? That they would hire every single one of our kids that attends the Future Ready Center and finish 100%. They would hire a 100% of those kids, >> right? that those those students that get through that program, um, one of them was just telling me the credentials that he earned just by being there, right? Just by the test that he takes while he's there, he got sixth place in National Skills USA just by printing out his credentials and turning them in. He didn't do anything extra. He just did the future ready center program. So, we are really trying to align locally with what our industry needs. And that doesn't mean entry- level jobs for everybody, right? that I don't want to we're not
154look at all the AP tests we're taking. Um 11% of our students I think took an AP test and passed it. Uh that's pretty pretty incredible. Um so we want post-secary success. We want entry- level success. We want kids going to tech school. Really what you were saying just to achieve whatever the potential is, right? Whatever goals that student has for their family, we want to help them get there. Um, and I think we're we're doing a very good job of aligning locally with our business and industry um, in order to make that happen for kids. >> Very good. One of the other comments that I heard tonight from the public speakers is the school is taxing higher than the city and the county. Can you talk to the number of employees and the number
155of students for Witchaw public schools compared to Cedric County and the city of Witchaw? Uh, >> and I know there's other taxing authorities and everything. Um, I I certainly do not know the number of employees um the city or the county have. I can quote our numbers. Um, we employ approximately 5,500 full-time equivalent employees, 8,000 at any given time. If you include kind of temporary, part-time, or substitute employees, we pay over 10,000 people a year. Um, our you operating budget is 615 million. We are um the largest municipality in the area in terms of the size of our operating budget. Um we love to quote that we're the 10th largest city in this in the state of Kansas um just because of our size. Um so I hope that answers that part of your question.
156>> Yeah, I think most people don't understand that the Witchaw public schools usually employs about twice as many people than the city does um and more than the county. And so when they see USD 259 listed four times on their on their tax bill, it often leads to confusion and we do tax more than the city and the county as well. And so can you also explain I know Hazel had mentioned it but USD 259 is listed four times on the tax bill. Can you kind of walk through that briefly just for further explanation? >> Yeah. Um, so we uh we actually have five different mill rates, but the way that the c the county lumps a couple of them together. Um, so you've got your 20 mills of general fund. That's state statute that's
157mandated by state statute. We have no opportunity to change that. Um, you've got your LOB, which is a factor of um your general fund resolution. I I hope we are able to adopt this evening. Right now, our LOB is proposed at 33% of our general fund. And so we levy local taxes for that. Um there's 8 mills of capital outlay. Um again that's the maximum amount that we can levy for capital outlay and I would never recommend in the seat considering the huge backlog of facilities needs that we have to levy less than those eight mills. Um we also levy for bond and interest payments. Those those are debt service payments obligations that the district committed to from the 2000 and 2008 bonds um that we have future obligations to pay. The final bonded interest
158payment is um set for fiscal year 29. And so the mill rate we have established is in service of those future obligations. We also have a very small mill levy for um some special liability which is some um board fees, judgments, etc. So, um, those five get consolidated. The supplemental general or LOB fund and the special liability go to one line, but those are the four lines that you see and they add up to our total mill rate. >> Thank you, >> Stan. >> This question is for you uh u president and superintendent and our board clerk and our chief financial officer. Can I combine these three uh recommended actions into one motion or do you need three different motions? >> I think we need three different motions and then Got it. >> Everybody will
159have to >> because we don't have the roll call feature available. I have to take a roll call vote for the two resolutions. So >> yeah, >> I appreciate your concern. [Laughter] So with that, I see no further questions. Um so so with that I'd like to recommend uh action one of the three and that is district administration recommends the board adopt resolution 20 20253 expressing the property taxation policy with respect to exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate for financing the annual budget for 202526. Second >> motion made by Melody, seconded by Stan. What I'll do is I'll I'll say the board member's name and just say yes or no for the vote and uh our board clerk will record that. So Knock, >> yes. >> Hazel, >> yes. >> Diane, yes. Melody, >> yes.
160>> Stan, >> yes. >> Julie, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> no. >> Motion passes six to one. Recommendation action two of three. District administration recommends that the board adopt resolution 2025 04, a resolution to authorize the supplemental general lob budget percentage at an amount of 33% of the 202526 budget. >> Second. Motion made by Melody, seconded by Stan. Knock, >> yes. >> Hazel, >> yes. >> Diane, yes. Melody, >> yes. >> Stan, >> yes. >> Julie, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> no. >> Motion passes. 61. And recommend recommended action three of three. District administration recommends that the board adopt the 202526 budget as proposed. [Applause] Uh motion made by Melody, seconded by Julie. >> Knock. >> Hazel. >> Yes. >> We don't. >> Diane. >> Oh, we can just do a hands. >> Yep. >>
161Okay. Uh all in favor raise your hand. >> Motion passes. 52. Okay, next item. I believe it's consent. Okay. for the public's information. The purpose of the consent agenda is to help the board handle routine matters efficiently so that the board can spend more time reviewing, monitoring, and discussing the educational issues of the Witchaw public schools. Students academic success is the top priority for the board of education. Board members review these items in detail during the agenda review workshops held at 10:30 a.m. on the Fridays prior to each regular board meeting here at the AAC building. These workshops are open to the public, but no action is taken. The workshop is for discussion and questions only, and your presence is always welcome. Is there a motion to approve consent? >> And I was going to
162second it. >> Okay. Motion made by Kathy, uh, seconded by Stan. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. Six to one. Latona. Next item, >> Kansas Association of School Boards Delegate Assembly. Let me get down there. Okay, so the purpose of this is the Kansas Association of School Boards, also known as KASB, annual convention will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Witchaw on November 14th through 16th, 2025. During the convention's delegate assembly, the annual business meeting of the association, delegates will elect the KSB president-elect designate and determine the association's legislative positions and priorities, which will be held on November 15th. We would ask that the board we would ask for the board to appoint a delegate and an alternate to represent the district at the 25 2025 delegate assembly. >> Kathy, nominate Julie
163Edric for this position as delegate. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Motion made by Kathy, seconded by Melody. And is there a recommendation for a uh looks like I think we need to have a >> alternate. >> I recommend Melody. >> I second it. >> Okay. Motion made. Uh well, hold on. Let's do the first motion first. Uh so motion made by Kathy uh seconded by Melody in favor of Julie. All in favor raise your hand. Motion passes 70. The second motion uh was made by Julie, seconded by >> Melody. >> Hazel, sorry. Thank you. Uh for Melody to be the alternate. All in favor, raise your hand. You're not going to vote for yourself. A motion passes. 70 Lona. Next item, >> reports and requests. Superintendent report. >> Okay, you're up. >> All righty. Got
164a couple things. Um, one of the things I wanted to highlight uh was in our consent agenda tonight and um some of the administration from the classical school just left because you voted they voted in affirmative for it. I did want to bring up selling of two of our buildings that we have listed, Payne Elementary and Clark Elementary uh a few months ago a while back. We went through a u we have a standing committee that's deals with our closed buildings and we have a scoring rubric that every offer that we get um as we go to sell them goes through the scoring rubric and um we engage community members that are neighbors to the facilities about the use of them. So tonight, uh, you all voted 6 to1, uh, to vote, uh, to sell,
165um, Clark Elementary to the classical school and, uh, what was formerly Payne Elementary to Pixius, which is a, uh, youth mental health, um, support facility. Um, so the exciting part about this for me is that uh I feel like uh the engagement with the neighbors around these uh buildings uh were really what led us to to settling on these two offers. Um that these two communities uh will be good partners that will be um will keep the school site intact for the most part. Um, and uh, the the constituents we talked to that uh, live around these areas, we're excited to have these groups come in. Um, so I wanted to highlight that. Um, and we'll be sharing more about that here in the next week. Um, state assessment scores. Um, Nak asked the question.
166It is a little bit of a moving target as far as when. The state board of ed, they've already established the cut scores. Um, they meet again this week. So, we're not exactly sure when we'll have public uh new state assessment scores. And this year, I keep looking at my friends. This year's scores are baseline anyway. Um preliminary. So, you'll we'll keep you updated on that, but watch for that because there'll be more uh information coming on that. Um uh a couple updates on enrollment. We still have uh kids coming in, kids coming in to enroll. Um that's obviously something that happens all year. we do uh expect a decline. We'll wait until September 20th to really roll out uh the impact of that and you know what grade levels and what areas of town
167and all that kind of stuff. But um we have seen just early kind of anecdotal broad brush. Um a lot of our schools with significant newcomer classrooms um those schools are are down in enrollment. So um I think that some of the what we've seen over the past few years uh high in influx of refugee immigrant population uh has decreased for this year. Um and then the last thing sorry one more thing oh the last thing I wanted to to lift up um was about uh another thing on consent agenda. We have talked we had approved a number of um community partnerships with that too. So I talked about community schools uh earlier tonight, but we have a number of mentoring programs that uh work with our youth and our and our schools too. Um
168we can't do this without the entire community, right? Um and I think, you know, we talk about Diane, I appreciated that you talked about, you know, the aren't just numbers, these are human beings. Um, in the same way, you know, these aren't just taxpayers, right? They're our neighbors, right? So, thank you to the taxpayers for supporting our kids. It makes a difference. Um, I know I know it's challenging and I know, you know, I I I understand where the where the community members are coming from, especially on fixed incomes, and we hear that a lot. So, I understand the challenge, but our kids are worth it. Um, we are going to do the best we can to take those resources and be efficient with them and make the most out of them and get great
169outcomes for kids. Um, but I do just want to say thank you to the community for stepping up and supporting our kids. Um, our kids are worth it. We got a lot of them with a lot of needs. Um, we didn't we didn't hit on this much, but you know, we have about 25 or 20% of our students have a disability. About 20% of our students don't speak English as a first language. We have challenges. We have significant challenges. Um, and we need a community to help us uh to achieve our goals. So, uh, thank you to the speakers that were here tonight and the engagement we've had. Um, but thank you to the taxpayers for helping our kids. >> That's it. >> Very good. Latona. Next item. >> New business and board of education
170requests. >> Are there any requests from the board? Okay. Seeing none, next item. >> Adjournment. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. >> Second. Okay. Motion made by Kathy, uh, seconded by Melody. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. We are adjourned. Thank you.