Board of Education Meeting - August 4, 2025

001Okay. The August 4th, 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 the 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 Northeast Magnet High School Jerotc program. Please stand for the presentation of the colors followed by the pledge of >> allegiance. [Music] Ready forward march. Turn colors colors. Permission to post the colors. I car [Music] the colors. Please arms. Ladies and gentlemen, please

002join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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 ready. Cut. Post. [Applause] Thank you to our color guard this evening. Latona, first item. >> Good news. Future ready starts here. Read to succeed. >> Okay. >> Invite Amanda Shershel to come on up and her special guests. Thank you for coming tonight. This is like month two of good news that I get to bring you. It's very exciting. All right. I am here this evening with Mary Kayvon. She is a read to succeed reading coach at Peterson Elementary and I will let her chat here in a minute with you about the impact this program has on

003her and the school she serves and the students. But I do want to give you just a little bit of information about Read to Succeed and what that is in case um you do not know. That program focuses on helping children to read at grade level by third grade which is our goal one in our strategic plan. Um, volunteer reading coaches are matched with students at selected buildings and they come weekly to read to those students for 20 minutes. They provide reading support and encouragement to help them to improve their reading skills and this simple act helps them stay on track in school and life. It was actually founded by Women United which was a small subsidiary if you will of the United Way. It began in 2015-16 at Gardener Elementary with 22 volunteers. Currently,

004we serve 22 schools, but we will be expanding to three more schools this year. Um, and we're averaging about 200 volunteers at those schools, 200 to 225. Um, at its height though, which is I think something we all would like to get back to, we had as many as 427 reading coaches in our schools here in WPS. So, I'm excited to introduce Mary Kayvon to talk about the impact she's seen through this program. Thank you so much uh for the invitation and um giving me a chance to talk about something that is so much fun. Um I probably should should uh what can I say? Well, it's just fun. Okay. How's that? I've been volunteering at Peterson for four years. Uh in that time I've served uh two boys and three girls because one year

005I did two dates, two two students. Um I also volunteered at uh Dodge Elementary uh back in 2019 and I've been a uh bigs in schools volunteer. So me and schools and kids were like that. I'd like to uh share three stories with you uh about some of the students that I've worked with uh uh over the over the uh past four years. First story is about a little boy. Uh this little boy liked Dogman books. Uh I had no idea what Dogman was, but uh I learned quickly. Um and and what they are, they're illustrated stories, and there's a whole series of them. And so, uh, you might think illustrated story, cartoon, you know, pretty simple, but but there were some hard hard words in there for him. And so, when we'd run across

006one of those hard words, he would, um, you know, stumble across it. We, I'd help him with it. We'd we'd pronounce it and then he'd understand what it meant. And then I'd write that on an index card. And I put that card in an envelope. So, the next week I'd come and I'd pull out a card from the envelope and say, you know, do you know what this word is? and he'd he'd say it. And the next week I tried. So pretty soon he he told me, "I want to see all of the words." So when I'd come, I'd have to show him all of the words out of the envelope. And he was so proud of himself at being able to pronounce them and understand them. So uh it it was it was just

007very encouraging to me that he wanted to learn and that that little little tip uh helped him do that. The next fun experience uh taught me that reading is not just about reading. Uh I had a little girl who uh wanted to make a robot. I don't remember exactly where that came from, but I said, "Okay, if we finish this book, we'll make a robot." And so while she while we were working on the book, I was doing some research online. How do you make a robot? I found uh a way to do that using an empty toilet paper roll. And so when it when the time came for her to make the robot, I first of all wrote up some some information about robots and then I wrote out the directions. And so while

008we were reading, uh she was also learning about the robot and then she learned how to make a robot. Uh she was so so happy with that and it was really kind of cute. I wish I had a picture of it. The third story uh I want to share it was with a little girl um and uh we were reading a book that featured a little black girl as the the the key key person in the story. And the little girl was experiencing some uh prejudice in her school. And before the book got to this conclusion, my little reading buddy said, "Your color doesn't really matter. Anyone can be beautiful." I said, "Right on, girl." Um, you know, we kept reading and sure enough, you know, the book got got to that conclusion as well.

009But along the way, there was another part in this in the book where and the story where um some some of the girls were trying to figure out who was whose best friend. And uh as we were reading about that, my my little student looked up and she said, "I never knew reading a book could be so realistic and exciting." And I said, "You are absolutely right." And that's how I'll close. Reading is realistic and exciting for the students that I've worked with, for me as an adult, and for all of us. And I'm really happy to be a part of Read to Succeed. Thank you. I love that reading is not just about reading. I'm going to show you guys. I know you guys are back to the screen, but you might have this

010slide where we're at right now currently. And I also want to share that Logan and Amy from United Way who help run this program are here this evening with us as well. and they've been a tremendous support as I've learned come into read to succeed and learned myself about the program and how we're helping our students to um become proficient readers. The buildings that are not on here are buildings we just added. So we are going to also continue to serve these 22 but add Price Harris Kensler and Eley um into this next year. So I just want to thank you for letting us bring a positive story of success to um you this evening. And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them and so are they. had to make sure I

011was on the mic. Mary Kay, could you come back up for a moment? >> Yes, that was wonderful uh to listen to particularly the last uh story that you shared. I just wanted to say that the students that you are reading with um they don't know the jewel. They do. they know the jewel that they have, but maybe the public probably doesn't know the jewel that they we have reading in this program. And when you talked about how you um wrote out the stories, >> wrote out the directions for making the robot, I'd love to see it because I know how you write and I can't I can just imagine that it was probably pretty perfect. So, >> well, thank you. >> Thank you so much for all you do. >> Thank you. Julie. >>

012Um, good to meet you. Thank you for your stories and your uh service to our kids. >> Um, could we also meet the other two community partners? >> Hi everybody. My name is Logan Bradshaw and I'm a director of community impact at United Way of the Plains. >> Good evening. My name is Amy Holly. I am the volunteer engagement manager at United Way of the Plains. >> Thank you. Thanks for your contribution as well. >> Absolutely. Thank you guys very much for what you guys do day in and day out and thank you for dedicating your time to serving the students and thank you for creating creative ideas to enhance engagement, to enhance learning. Just something simple as cards with a word and an envelope is a very creative idea, but that little guy is

013never going to forget that. And you've probably changed the trajectory of his life with something just very simple and basic, but then also giving him the attention that that he really deserves. So, thank you guys every for everything that you do. Kelly, >> if I could pick on Logan real quick. So part of the reason why we did this this time of year is because you need volunteers, don't you? >> Yes, we do. >> So tell us how we could get involved. All the people here care about kids in our district and I know they're going to come sign up because they care about kids in our district. So tell us how to do it. >> Sure. So if you go to unitedwayplains.orgretosucceed there and scroll down about to the middle of the page, there's

014going to be an interest form that you can fill out. And so when we open up priority registration, uh we will send it out to everyone who filled out that interest form and we plan to open that up next week. Um so if you're interested, please um feel free to fill out that interest form so that you can get notification when priority registration opens up. >> Thank you, Logan. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you ladies very much. We appreciate everything you do. Okay, Latona. Next item. >> United Teachers of Witchita. >> Welcome, Katie. >> Hi. Good evening. Um, President Albert, Vice President McCrae Miller, distinguished board members, and Superintendent Beldel. Our educators are excited to kick off the school new school year tomorrow, and they're truly looking forward to welcoming students back next week.

015We're starting this year with a lot to celebrate. We appreciate the continued dedicated time during inservice for that annual policy signoff. I know last year super superintendent Beldeldeld made a commitment and we agree that that respects staff time and ensures important district policies get the attention they deserve. We're also grateful for the additional staff addition of certified staff to the financial oversight committee and the partnership with the community school advisory committee. UTW Vice President Mike Harris visited the new coordinators this morning and said it was energizing, inspiring. It was an energizing, inspiring start. We are also going to expand our reading opens the world $10,000 book grant from AFT to include a community school this year. Um we've partnered with uh several different ways this year to support the goal of third grade proficiency and

016literacy. But one way was that um we helped this summer was helping our teachers with the state requirements for the seal of literacy on their license. This summer we sponsored a practice prep course for the seal of literacy that's needed for all elementary teachers by 2028. Uh last I heard 15 out of the 15 participants that took the class and took the practice passed the assessment. Um that helps support our elementary educators with the new reertification requirements by the state. As we begin this year, we do have a few key concerns. We still have some questions about the DOJ code of conduct and how it's going to be implemented in buildings this next week. we've received some questions and we really haven't had any communication from your team on um what that looks like. So,

017we would appreciate some of that. So, when people call us with questions, we're on the same page and we know how to answer those. We also were wondering about next steps for the continuum schools, especially where we feel like the pilot programs struggled with uh staffing levels. So, we haven't heard heard back if that was has been adjusted, but we would we would appreciate to hear some more information on that. Last year, there was extreme heat in some buildings. For example, Trudale classrooms reached 90 degrees and that made the start of the school year incredibly difficult. While I know you you um addressed those issues as fast as you could, they really point to larger facility challenges. We still have many middle school gyms that lack air conditioning while the nearby suburb districts have these

018features. Um I just wanted to bring that up again. And I know I bring it up always in the summer, but thinking about our students and our staff that are working in these gyms, it's very, very warm. Uh, we hope that you're working on some way to address these costly maintenance concerns that are really needed in our schools to support our students and staff. Sorry, with this computer here, I'm okay. Um, I did want to say thank you to Julie Hedrickk for raising the issue of high school enrollment numbers. Uh this was something we've heard about often over the last few years, especially at Southeastern Heights, and we do feel that overcrowding is a safety issue and that that needs to be addressed. So, thank you for bringing up that concern. Uh I wanted to

019remind everyone to do their civic duty tomorrow and vote in the primary. Um and there's no staff meetings before after school because it's election day. Uh we're entering this year with optimism and a shared per purpose. I know that when we work together, we can do great things for our students and families. So thank you >> Latona. Next item >> Service Employees International Union. >> Welcome Esau. >> Good evening everyone. President Albert, board members, Superintendent Belliff. I uh have a couple things. Uh recently we were able to do a food drive uh with the SEIU membership across from the Union Hall at West Douglas Park. And we raised a pretty good amount of uh food that'll be donated to Mario's Pantry. And for those of you who don't know, Mario's Pantry was the pantry that

020for a long time was run through the United Way by a gentleman named Mario Cervantes. And um he's recently retired, but the unions are doing what they can to keep that pantry going. Um, I would also like to uh thank you guys for what you have done with the WPS Foundation. Um, I think that's a really good solution where the other organization that was a part of that had been failing miserably for the past couple years and uh we really appreciate you stepping up and uh contributing to the friendship fund in the way that you are. Um because at this time of year, unfortunately, I get lots of calls from paraprofessionals and secretaries and people who had those two or three months off during the summer. And because of reasonable assurance, they're unable to collect

021unemployment uh throughout the summer the way a Walmart employee would be able to or any other private employer. Um, so you know, a lot of times we send them to Mario's Pantry and a lot of times we tell them to reach out to the friendship fund, but uh, the friendship fund really only has three opportunities in a person's lifetime or career with the district. And so after about three years of getting assistance in the fall, uh because when they start back, they haven't had a job for a few months or the job that they have had pays so very little that they're behind on their water bill, they're behind on their power bill, they barely have gas and grocery money for the first month they're coming to school and working. And so I've given each

022one of you a packet and I'm pleased to announce that on July 24th uh Senator Edward Marky um from Massachusetts has introduced a bill in the US Congress to raise the minimum wage for support workers and paraprofessionals to $30 an hour. Uh this would allow them to make $45,000 a year and it would put them in a much better bracket. um so that they could support themselves and they wouldn't be in these dire straits when the summer ends. And so uh I'd like to encourage everybody on the board and anybody who'd like to take a public stand and say that they'll support this. I'd love to see it. Um, if you don't feel comfortable doing that though, perhaps you could reach out to Congressman Estus and tell him that in between his Facebook post uh

023bragging about how many people have been deported, uh, he might step up and see what he can do about getting pair of professionals and people a higher living wage uh, for taking care of our kids so well. So, thank you very much and I appreciate you guys giving me a chance to talk this evening. Thank you, >> Lona. Next item, >> public communications. >> Okay. For people that have signed up for public comment, we thank you 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. Typically, we have a timer displayed, but our superintendent will be keeping the time. Uh we encourage you to share your thoughts openly and honestly, but we ask that your

024remarks 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 we may follow up as appropriate. So with that, Latona, who's our first speaker? >> Kendra Holly. >> Good evening. Welcome. >> Um, refresher. Some of you may remember who I am, some of you probably don't. My name is Kendrael Holly. I, uh, was attending board meetings to uh, champion getting Albuterol in our schools. I'll give you a quick refresher. I am a certified asthma educator through the National Board of Respiratory Care. I've been doing that for almost four years now. I am a registered respiratory therapist through the National Board of Respiratory Care and I've been doing that for 16 years. I am a lifelong

025asthmatic and as of June I've been doing that for 50 years. So, >> wow. I've got a little bit of passion for what I do. Uh, as I stated, if you remember, I was championing with the board to uh support a bill to get aluterol as an emergency medication in our schools like they do with uh Narcan and the EpiPen. And uh please, if you will join me, I'd like to give you guys a round of applause because as of July of 2024, the state of Kansas has allowed us to stock emergency aluterol in our school for our children. I think that's a big deal because statistics show one in 10 students in our public schools has asthma. So that's I mean just a quick glance around here six to seven people in this room

026would suffer from asthma. So that's really big deal for me. My next step warning because I will be back. >> You're welcome anytime. >> My next step is administration of the albuterol. How are we going to do that? There are two ways you administer albuterol. One of them is through an aerosolized nebulizer and the other one is what I keep on me at all times which is a meter dose inhaler. This is by far the quicker way to administer and there is something that uh is very necessary with this which is a spacer. So when I come again, I'm going to bring you paperwork regarding those because we get the medication and we're going to give it to them. So that is my next fight for uh our schools. Thank you for your time. >>

027Thank you very much, >> Latona. Next speaker, >> Charlene Marvin. Welcome, Charlene. >> Um, well, it's on the Native American program, and I c really I come here today with a really heavy heart. Last time I was here, as I looked at facial expressions, I felt like my words were falling on deaf ears and what I shared was really of no interest. But I'm here again with hope. The Indian education program was going great with the leadership we had. So much better than in the past. The students were having fun and learning so much. And your actions have really hurt them. As the saying goes, if it's not broke, don't try to fix it. That goes for this situation. Previously, it was stated that you dismissed the staff due to the budget cuts but keeping

028the program. Again, after talking with the state level, they assure me that the budget was not the issue. This is one more thing that makes it sound even more political. It's like someone did not care for the dismissed person or persons and one of their own people in the position. So, we get mixed signals here. And not too long ago, I was approached by someone that I didn't really know. And evidently, um, they knew me and told me that they had got to look at a budget, the finances, and etc., and they knew, but I didn't want to hear it by hearsay. Uh people in the community though have shared that and I will quote they can no longer trust you unquote and that's sad. So in ending the community has the right to know

029what is actually going on not just a few. And we would like the truth please. Thank you, Charlene Latona. Next speaker, >> Walt Chapel. >> Welcome, Walt. >> Thank you so much. I'm gonna wait for you folks to get the hand out. >> I'm sure you can reset. >> Go ahead and start, Walt. >> As the previous speaker was saying, you must be able to work to build the trust back in the community. And you folks are doing a tremendous job. Most of you are all volunteers, obviously. I've sat in your position many times and I find it very difficult many times to figure out okay where are staff recommendations coming from. Can we follow the money and find out where we are with our budget? Can we see how it actually helps students learn?

030And what I've done today is to work with the county clerk's office to find out how much will this district receive in additional funding as a result of the bond. not the bond, but the increase in appraised value for property. Now, you folks have a mill levy currently of 51 mills. And what I'm concerned about is that because of the increase in property values, and what I've shown here is from the county clerk's office, there's an increase of almost 9% in value for 259. This is not countywide. I had it broken down specifically for the school district. So when you follow the money, you find out that we're having a major increase, not by raising the mill levy, but by because we have now property in this city and this district will benefit with a

031major increase of $16 million. That money is going to come in whether you raise the male levy or not. Now, maybe that's how you were going to plan to to fund the bond. I don't know how you came up with 450 million. You're going to keep the mill levy the same. But my concern right now is that we should say to the taxpayers, first of all, we're going to reduce spending. Secondly, we're going to keep mill levy down at least two by two mills to 49 as opposed to 51. And what I'm also suggesting is that you make sure that we prioritize having the kids learn employable skills, that you put your focus in the budget on how it is we come up with these ways to make sure our kids can leave our high

032schools prepared to go out and earn an income. Now, if you'll do that, you'll help a lot of property taxpayers. Many of you, four of you are running for reelection. And it's important for you to be able to go to your voters and say, "We're very conscious of the fact that we've charged so much right now, over a billion dollars, >> and we'd like to make sure that you folks are able to have our kids come out proficient. Thank you, Diane. You're a good timekeeper. I'm not sure you listen well, but that's all." >> Latona. Next speaker, >> Rebecca Armstrong. Welcome Rebecca. >> Did you start? Our school district can be transformed by establishing a bottom-up approach, organizing each unit within a district as a unit within itself, part of a larger group. So still

033accountable to the mission and values of the whole, but working within their environment in which they are operating. This will help bring about sustainable solutions for our challenging times. Taking these inservice days to listen to employees instead of telling them will help transform our process and provide the change we need to address the perilous times we are in. This is the beginning of my eighth year. Tomorrow I start back at Northeast Magnet as a PAR educator. It will be inservice for a week. There will be little to do until the students arrive. So much of our time is just doing time not adding any value. We no longer have a room to prepare as paras. All the rooms are taken with five new teachers and we have no space assigned that is functionally our space.

034So there is nothing to prepare. We will introduce ourselves to the new teachers. Ask others if there's anything we can do to help and catch up. It is a top-down structure. There is no space for dialogue, problem solving or sharing ideas. Paris Paris by contract must report five six times a year on a Friday before the holiday for 3.5 hours. There is no students. So we just sit around, help others clean, kill the time. If the principles had the authority, as a unit should, the principal could decide how we use that 3.5 hours instead of HR. We could be present during parent teacher conferences nights or other school events to help. That is value added time far preferable than putting in our time a prison term on that day before the holiday per contract. As

035a person with a formal education and management and business as well as leadership training in in Manhattan and in Witchah, Kansas, I know we can do this better. There are a lot of opportunities to save money and address the many challenges facing our schools. But first, the process needs to be created that honors, collects, engages, and listens to the voices on the front line. I know what that looks like, and my experience at USD 259 definitely is not that. Our management process is an old and inefficient one that is known to be costly on all levels. There are other paths forward that find solutions to our very challenging time. It starts with listening to your people, not telling them what you want them to hear. >> Thank you, Rebecca. Latona, next speaker, >> Trish Hileman.

036>> Welcome, Trish. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, members of the board and Superintendent Beldeld. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I want to begin with gratitude. gratitude that our mill levy is not being raised this year. Um, and that our schools continue to receive funding increases through rising valuations. That said, I also come with hope and a request. You didn't get off that easy. That you more clearly demonstrate to the public how you're working to find cost savings, pursue efficiencies, and steward taxpayer dollars wisely. Witchah is a community full of resourceful and budgets savvy people. We stretch dollars every day. So I urge you to fully leverage tools you already have. Your financial oversight committee, site councils, and listening sessions, not just for appearance, but for real impact. When community members and staff

037bring ideas forward, follow through. If the idea is being used, say so. If it's not feasible this year, explain why. Every time you follow up, you build trust. And trust builds support. And that includes support from your own employees. I believe we could have had more buyin last year, even within district staff, had these engagement effort felt more authentic. I also want to raise a concern about the way the proposed 2026 bond issues being discussed. Please do not frame the bond as a fix for operating budget challenges. A bond is a mortgage, a big one. It's a tool for investing in long-term assets, a future ready center, early childhood programs, air conditionings in every gym. Those are worthy goals. Be clear about what you're asking for and how many mills it will require. But please

038do not tie the bond to the facility's master plan in a way that makes people feel like they're being asked to vote against their own neighborhoods and or schools as the plan has objectionable parts such as school closures and tearowns. That's not the way to build community support. It shuts down meaningful discussion and leads people to believe you're not open to questions, which I know many of you are. We all want our schools to thrive. Witchah public schools offers the best educational opportunities in the region. I believe that when students attend, engage, and have support from adults at home, I believe your leadership plays a crucial role in helping that make that success possible for every student. So, please lead with continued transparency, the humility that you as volunteers have always shown, and a deeper

039commitment to listening. It's the smartest and most powerful investment you can make. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trish Latona. Next speaker, >> Melinda Wear. Welcome, Melinda. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. I have no prepared remarks. I'm really have more questions. This is in I am a Native American, fullblood. Uh I'm a product of USD259. I've gone to school here all my life. Went to Witchaw State University and um I'm concerned about the Title Six program for the Native American students here in Witchah. There was no programs available like that when I went to school. Uh I had great grand nieces and nephews that have gone through the program. They loved every moment of it. it was very beneficial to them. And I

040guess like I said, I have more questions as to who administers the title six program. I understand it is a federally funded grant. Also, how the selection of a director or staff is done. Um, it has never really been explained to me, you know, the operating function of it, how it went about. And I guess I'm looking for transparency and uh also who does the hiring for the director and the staff. Uh what are the salaries? What is their operating budget? What are they allocated? I've worked at at Witchaw State University for vice presidents and deans. I know a lot about federal grants. You have to be very very careful about how you spend that money and they only appropriate it for certain amounts. So, it's very hard to try to uh get away with

041spending money that is not yours. And so, I had more questions in regard to the um um the relief of the last director we had and he was let go and his staff. And I don't think that's ever really been explained to the Native American community. And I'm not I'm really looking for truth. I'm really looking for honesty. That's how I was raised. And I expect everybody to be that way. I know it doesn't happen that way, but that's how I was raised. So, I thank you for your time for hearing me tonight. Maybe I'll be able to come back with more prepared remarks next time, but I just have more questions, I think, in regard to the program. So, thank you for listening. >> Thank you, Melinda Leona. Next item, >> education individual plan

042of study report. >> Okay, Kelly, you want to introduce Sure. staff? I will welcome up uh Tim Hamlin and Laura Barker. We're going to talk about individualized plans of study, part of goal number two of the strategic plan, part of our stateboard outcomes as a state of Kansas. And now that they've walked up here, I'll quit talking and they can take it away since we get her pulled up here. While Laura is doing that, uh good evening, members of the board of education. Tim Hamlin, executive director of college and career readiness. I'm joined here this evening with Mrs. Laura Barker. She's our individual plan of study and work-based learning specialist for Witchaw Public Schools. This evening, we're going to present an overview of the individual plan of study, which is more commonly referred to as

043the IPS, and how that operates within the Witchaw public schools. >> Where am I going? >> Slideshow. There we go. It's my goal this evening that through our information, we're able to help you better understand some of the information that we share with different community groups, groups when we talk about the IPS, some of the tools that we use. We'd like for you to kind of get an idea of the scope and sequence or activities that our students from sixth grade through 12th grade experience during a school year. We also would like to show you one example of a possible electronic portfolio and then hopefully you will be among the first to learn of a new feature that's going to help parents access their students information on our on the school website. So or on

044the district website. So that being said, we're going to start with let me click it here. There we go. Okay. We're going to start with a one of the tools that we use is a short video. It's about three or four minutes. This was produced by the Kansas Department of Education. And I feel it's important that you have the opportunity to view this video because, as I said, we do use this when we go and talk to different community groups, say Rotary, the Hispanic Advisory Council, students, and parents. It also was posted on our district website. So, I just again I think it's important that you have the opportunity to view that. I'm apologize that you may have to get a crick in your neck here trying to see it, but it's important that you

045see it in case you are at any point ask questions about it. So, we're just going to play this. Like I say, it's relatively short and it is from KSDE. >> Hello, welcome to the module on individual sight. With the invention of the global positioning system, GPS for short, the paper map has become a thing of the past. Instead of wrestling with a large foldout map as we're speeding down the highway today, we simply plug in an address and the GPS leads us to our desired destination. And if we prefer not to take the suggested route, the GPS provides us with options. In many ways, an individual plan of study, also known as an IPS. It's like a GPS. It's a tool students can use to plot a course that will lead them to their

046destination. However, an IPS allows for something a GPS often doesn't. Students are able to define their own idea of success and build a plan to get there instead of having their destination selected for them. Today's job market requires employees to have a higher level of education than ever before. In fact, by 2020, the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce predicts that more than 70% of the jobs in Kansas will require a post-secary credential in addition to a high school diploma. 70%. So what does that mean for the student who doesn't graduate or who doesn't earn a post-secary credential of some sort? The likelihood of those students ever making it into at least the middle class becomes slim at best. So why an individual plan of study? To lead the world in the success of

047each student, each student must be able to identify what success looks like for him or her. The IPS is the tool and process designed to do just that. It helps students beginning in middle school and their families build a plan that will help that student identify and explore talents and interests. A lack of planning has derailed many people and projects over the years. Our students are no different. Extensive planning is critical to the success of any worthy endeavor. In some cases, a student who graduates high school and doesn't immediately enter college may be better off than a student who goes straight into college with no plan and drops out before graduating. that student now has no degree and is titled the debt. Think about how different that outcome would be with the right plan in

048place. To recap, an IPS is a product developed and maintained by the student beginning in the middle grades, a process adopted by the school to assist the student in developing a meaningful IPS, a means for a school to personalize learning for each student. Let's talk for a moment about the components of an effective IPS. First, a good IPS will help students identify talents and interests related to broader career fields through the use of multiple interest inventories. Over time, patterns will begin to emerge, which creates an opportunity for dialogue and exploration. Students and parents should meet with school professionals at least two times a year to review the students IPS and make adjustments. Next, a list of all high school courses mapped according to career interest areas. This helps the student identify and select courses needed

049for particular career areas. In a sense, providing them with the opportunity to try before you buy. Chances are, if you don't like science, veterinary science may not be the most rewarding career option for you. No matter how much you love animals, an effective IPS should include a post-secary plan. Now, I know what you're thinking. A post-secary plan for a middle schooler? They change their minds as often as they change their moods. It's never too early to start exploring all the options for post-secary education. Not all careers require a 4-year degree. Some may require a two-year degree, while others may require the completion of a certification. Understanding requirements help students and parents make better informed decisions. Finally, an effective IPS will include an electronic portfolio that includes the students projects, assessments, resume, job shadow summaries, etc.

050Students are then ready to share their best work with prospective colleges and employers. So, we've talked about what an IPS is. Now, it's time to talk about what it isn't. An IPS is not meant to track students into certain educational paths aligned with certain careers. It's also not meant to culminate with an 18-year-old making a career decision. It's simply a tool and process for the student to chart his or her unique path by exploring or trying on careers in a more authentic manner. Just as important as identifying areas of interest, the IPS process also helps students identify career areas that do not interest them, helping to narrow down the field when they're ready to make post-secary plans. Want to learn more about individual plans of study or trainings taking place in your area. Visit the

051KSD website at www.ksde.org. Thank you for your time and attention to this module on individual plans of study. [Music] All right. Oh, no. Here we go. Panic. Laura, I'm going to let you do that while I ask a question. Pop quiz. Is the IPS a process or a product? >> Exactly. We view it as both. um what you have in front of you, I did there was a handout distributed to you. And on that handout that kind of shows the process that our students in Waw Public Schools follow from sixth grade through 12th grade. Presented on the screen in front of you now or behind you actually are the four basic steps of the IPS process. What you see on your handout starting in the middle are the grade bygrade highlights. So, for example, in

052sixth grade, there's a breakdown of the areas of focus that students in sixth grade will uh pursue or be exposed to during that school year. We have all from 6th through 12th grade there for you. Um, this document is in much much greater detail. It's actually about 10 pages in length, but I was told that that was not ideal to hand as a handout. So, if there are questions about that and you would like more detail, we certainly have Mrs. Parker here available and her contact information is on the bottom of that document. So in sixth grade they start out basically just kind of getting an idea who are they. In the 12th grade it becomes as you would anticipate each year it should become more sophisticated and more detailed and more narrowed down. So

053in the 12th grade the students do uh produce what we refer to as an electronic portfolio. And with that being said I'm going to have Mrs. Barker kind of joined me here and explained show you one example of an electronic portfolio. So, >> okay. Again, on the screen behind you is a is a senior at South High and her example of her senior portfolio. As you will see, she did this the first semester of her senior year. And so, you can kind of see some of the choices that she's making when we look at the personality styles and the learning styles on the first um two slides here. So, this is something that you'll see she started in in sixth grade and they're learning these. So, they take some quizzes, they do all kinds of

054different activities to hone in. Um, in sixth grade, they're learning what different personality styles are. And then throughout high school, they're identifying which ones are me. And then eventually, we're tying it to certain careers and interest and things you might be able to do and be good at with those personality styles. Same with the learning styles here. She learned that she's a visual and an auditory learner. Um, her interests are she's kind of honed in on her interest and and what that she likes. And there's there's I 250 interest that kids can select plus there's blanks that they can add in their own interest. And then we get more into again the 10-year plan. So, in addition to that, just exploring who you are, what careers you're interested in, we also talk about what you

055want your lifestyle to be. Um, a lot of times, you know, we tell kids, "What do you want to do career-wise?" Well, there's 7,000 careers out there, and they might only be exposed to 10 of them. And by the way, there's another hundred that are going to be here next year that we don't even know about. So, a lot of times looking at this and what your plan is and where you want to be in life, um, really helps the students, too. So she's talking about what kind of family she wants to have, house, travel, money. That is all part of this component. She taught um elementary school teaching as her first career option. And then she gets into what kind of ed what it takes to get there. What are the expectations of that

056of that job? And then we do try to get everyone to come up with at least one backup plan. If that doesn't work out, what's next? And so her number two choice was TV reporter. And the same information goes on her portfolio for those um the expectations of the job. And then now what? So then we now we get into how do you get there? And so you can see that this young lady has she's going to apply for the university scholarships, FASA, ACT, select the school, graduate, figure out where she's going to live. Um she has her top college choices here. She actually has marked what schools that she's already been accepted to, what scholarship she's applying for. And then there's links in here to her personal statement, to her resume, to her scholarship

057essay. Um, so that is what the product looks like. Um, and I think oftentimes when we talk about IPS, we get into what is the product. Um, one second here. Let me get back to our slide. Okay. Um, so that is an example of a portfolio. I think where sometimes we fall short in connecting the dots and I'll get into kind of ways to improve that is like with the workbased learning continuum because we have all we have this scope and sequence that you're going through this this this and then you create this senior portfolio but starting in elementary school we do career awareness activities we do career exploration and then as they go on we're doing career preparation but we've got to make sure that every time we do a field trip that we

058tie it into their individual plan of study. Um, a lot of times we do things that we've done forever and we don't tie them into the career or to the future of the students. So, being more intentional about all of our work-based learning experiences and how they tie into your individual plans to study. Um, and we can do that. One example that I think of is we do eighth graders take a trip to Witchaw State University for a women's basketball game. Well, we did that for several years and then we were like, well, what if we have them drop them off on the other side of Witchaw State and before they go, we get into Zello and we do a whole a whole lesson on what is Witchaw State, what kind of degrees can you

059get there, what to expect on there, and then have them walk across the college, then go to the basketball game, and then they go back. But now they have that college experience and that IPS. So maybe when they're a junior and senior trying to look at colleges and deciding, they're remembering their trip to to Witchaw State. So really trying to be more intentional about a lot of the great things that we already do in our district, but tying it directly to the individual plans to study. And so kind of some of our improvement plans for this school year is IPS conversations at every level of work-based learning. We also have created some consistent lesson plans. Um, Zello is a really great platform that we use, but there's a lot of lessons. And so, at some

060of our buildings, it became kind of a checklist. You know, you have to do this, this, this, and this. And, um, that wasn't really giving the students the all of the information. It wasn't promoting the conversations that need to happen with caring adults. So, we've kind of we've came up with consistent lesson plans that will be district-wide, and so they will look the same. We also have a lot of students that are going from one school to the other. So, they're getting the same message across the board. Um, also our five-year plan. So, our eighth graders come up with their five-year plans and kind of their draft of what courses they're taking. We'll continue that strategic goal plan. Um, our IPS data, we do a lot with that. Um, an example of kind of like

061target marketing. So, the workforce center had camp hype this summer and it's an opportunity for 16 to 20 year olds to go to different camps. They have everything from IT, health care, manufacturing, um, finance, and so we would use the students IPS and just kind of do everyone's invited, but we used to just kind of post them around and try to spread the word to parents. Well, now we're specifically going in and saying, Kelly, I see based on your individual plan of study that you're interested in healthcare, this camp might be a really good fit for you. Um, so we really try to use the data and that helps our teachers and our students like, oh, whoa, they're looking at this, they're looking into this, this really does matter. And then we are doing some

062parent link, which is our kind of our parent communication system specifically with that. So, when our eighth graders are doing their career interest, we're now sending a a parent link to eighth grade parents and said, "Did you know that your eighth grader um did an interest inventory that they learned about careers that match their interest? Ask your student what careers they're interested in." And kind of just trying to promote future ready conversations outside of the classrooms and with their parents. So with that, communication is always a challenge. Um there's either too much, too little, it's not necessarily in the right form for people to be able to access it. So one thing that uh and I am in no way an expert here. So when I was looking, scanning the room, and Rob Dixon is

063not here, so my anxiety level just went totally up. But anyway, um it's my understanding this is something that we're trying to do to provide for parents so that that trying to access their students information is is easier. It's a one-stop shop basically here. So it's going to be referred to as family hub and individuals whatever their preferred way of accessing information on the internet be it Google Facebook so on so forth they're able to go through any of those LinkedIn but then what they are able to access would be something like this so they're going to be able to rather than having a password for all of those different uh icons that you see there they'll have just a single sign on and beyond ond that that is where I'm venturing into areas I

064am not expert enough to really say um I do believe having children myself uh and having a multitude of passwords it's it's kind this will be very nice so um yes well there you go so I will take all credit until let's talk about that um but I do my closing remark on the IPS the one thing from the video that I think is incredibly important It's as equally valuable to determine what a student is not interested in as it is what they want to. I used to teach chemistry and anatomy physiology and I every year would take my students to a cadaavver lab and by George we'd have people going in they wanted to be doctors and they came out they were going to be pastry chefs. They had no no interest in that.

065So, but that's incredibly valuable to learn that prior to the tremendous expense one invests and time. So, with that said, we were happy to uh to answer questions if we may. So, um I got a great job. Uh this was super informative. Um we heard earlier about a desire for us to align our budget and align our resources in order to help kids become ready, right? So either one of you could you talk about what else the you guys pass uh the agenda item and consent for Zello for the program. We do that every year. What else do we do to invest in this to help uh ensure this is systemic and all kids have these opportunities that you're describing? >> Okay. One thing uh Laura kind of alluded to it but she talked about

066those consistent lesson plans. Um, we have I did go through the Perkins grant this year to try to find a way to that's going to require someone to do a whole lot of work to come up with those consistent lesson plans across the district. So, through the Perkins Fund, I am able to basically provide a supplemental to that individual. Um, I really like what she said about because I was thinking initially that well just at this school maybe this gets done, maybe at this school, but you have a kid that may go to both. they bounce back and forth and so providing that equal playing field I think is going to be important. You want to add anything additional to that as far as additional activities? >> Well, I think just kind of the focus

067on the workbased learning. So we used to kind of have IPS and then workbased learning over here and we are kind of really working to make sure that everybody understands that the workbased learning continuum and all those steps are part of the IPS system and so to make sure that we have those consistent conversations. I think the parent piece so when I talked about those parent links that used to be something that we were like hey you guys can do this at your buildings and we had a couple buildings that were excited about it not so much other buildings. So if we do it from a district standpoint, then maybe then then it's going to make sure that every single parent, everybody out there is getting the same questions and the same message. So I

068think those are the two biggest things that we're doing right now to consistency across the district. >> Laura also indicated or kind of alluded to that we'll take the data from Zello and let's take an eighth grader for example transitioning rising to the ninth grade. They may have entered or produced some data that said this one particular pathway might be of interest to them, but they have no idea that that pathway is even there or that exists or what it entails. So, we will intentionally go and find that kiddo and and share with them those opportunities. So, bye. >> Thank you. And um we support camp hype with some fun some people and we support every building has a IPS coordinator that's a supplemental. So there's, you know, there's resources that have been invested over

069the past few years into this beyond just that. Um, are are you ready to talk about the big career fair or not? Not yet. >> Well, if you're bringing it up, I will. >> I'm excited about it. So, I would love for you to >> I guess permission. So, um, >> I have come to the microphone. Oh, yes. Pick it up for our online viewers. So part of my job um well part of my role I'm I'm part of the futures fair board which is a big community college event that we do in Sedwick County and we bring about 110 different universities and we invite last year there was 69 different school districts that came and so we've done the career fairs here um as our own individual USD 259 thing um but there's a

070lot of schools that do that and we're kind of trying to steal human resources people So, we have partnered this year with May School District and the Witchaw Workforce Center and we are putting on on April 22nd, I guess this is the big announcement, but we're having a communitywide career fair at Century 2 in a partnership with USD 259, May's school district, and the Witchaw Workforce Alliance. >> So, again, trying to prepare our kids, give them opportunities um if that's what they choose right out of the gate. And I can say it is going to be two part parts as well. So we kind of had these career fairs and our seniors go to it, but it was kind of like, oh, you don't you're not going to go to college, come to the career

071fair. So we plan to invite sophomores and seniors because going straight into the workforce can be a plan. It's not only the backup plan, but a lot of times they don't know about all the local employers. So sophomores will come to do the more of the exploration piece and then seniors will come to hopefully connect and find employment. >> See, I didn't know that. That's awesome. and we will transport that transportation is a barrier for many of our kiddos and so we will provide transportation to Century 2 and from each of the the base high schools and so we're excited about the new opportunity and the new spend that Laura is going to put on this. So >> just another way we're aligning resources to uh make kids future ready um and the last thing

072I would say which is not a question um but what I what I really love about it was one of the early slides the idea that we're talking with kids about their strengths and passions. We're not just saying what job do you want, but what are you good at? What do you like? What do you want to do with your with your future, with your family, with your house, with all that stuff. Um, and I believe, um, as a parent and most parents I talk to, these are these are the most important conversations we have with our kids more so than what was your score on that test last year, right? What do you want to do? What are you good at? What what kind of experience do you want to have after high school?

073um whether it's college, tech, school, whatever. So, um I'm very excited about the parent engagement. I think I do believe our parents will get will get very engaged in that. So, great job. >> Very good, Julie. >> Okay. So, I really enjoy this sheet here where it kind of says grade level by grade level what that what the students are doing at that level. Um and I I trust she's not watching the board meeting and isn't going to be embarrassed. Um, but I have a family member that is in that just finished eighth grade and is moving into ninth grade. And since I'm a board member, I know that we do this plan of study process with all of our students in the district. So, I kind of regularly ask her, you know, well, what

074what are you what are you talking about in your plan of study conference with your teacher? I I also run into her teacher that she does this with regularly at Panera. And so I'll have that same conversation with him. And um she continues to tell me she has no clue what career she wants to do. She has no clue what her skills are. Um, so what happens with those kids that kind of fall into that thing of they're trying to go through this process of doing this but are still just totally struggling with any kind of sense of direction or sense of passion or you know the things we're striving for them to discover. Well, if I if I had the panacea or the absolute answer, I would not be here. I would be on

075the beach somewhere. However, that is a reality. We have many many many students despite all of the resources, the opportunities we put in front of them that they still are uncertain. I would say, and we weren't really supposed to uh we weren't going to show a whole lot of data tonight, but it is interesting if you look in Zello, you'll see the eighth grade the careers that they're selecting and they're the professional athlete, the actress and all that. It is interesting to see as the students mature, you see mature responses and more realistic careers starting to show up on that data. Um here there's my full disclosure. I am taking a kiddo August 17th to a school which will remain nameless. Um and I am not certain that he is 100% sure of what it

076is that he wants to pursue. But um my hope is that he will uh continue to take some of the lessons that were learned in in his individual plan of study and apply them and think oh that's what they were talking about. So care to add to that please. You >> well I would also add that all of this falls under our career and technical education or in partnership with them. And so although she might not know she's taking some classes that will gear and guide her towards that. So if she's taking some you know culinary classes and no I don't like this again we were saying it's just as important. So she switches maybe some business classes and the objective of those classes is very I mean it is a broad we might think

077culinary you're going to be a chef but really it's every component of the restaurant management of that industry and so she's seeing all those and so I hope that within her elective classes or her CTE classes that she's taking over the next few years that will help her hone in and make a decision. And I mean I also always say there there's so many options. We have kids do we tell them exactly what they're going to do for 13 years and then the 14th year we're like pick something and they're like oh my there's I mean there's so many choices. So I think the narrowing process is what we're trying to do. Everyone might not leave with exactly what they want to do but if we can continue to narrow it down for them and

078make it easier for them. They're going to be on the right path. you were looking for a tangible answer, I would say this. I stopped asking a young people, what do they want to do a long time ago? And I simply ask, what do you like to do? >> And the lucky people find a way to do that and make a living with it. There's make a living and make a life. And we hope that you can do both. So, but good luck with that. I think I think it's a great program in in spite of the fact that my granddaughter is struggling. >> Thank you, Julie Hazel. >> Yes. So, we have a lot of students between sixth and 12th grade. And I was wondering um when they who follows up and monitors or

079mentors them from each grade going to the next grade, are they monitored and followed up and updated on a regular yearly basis? And can you explain how that works? >> So there are I mean yes we do we do follow as far as the when we do our data I mean it will show lesson completion. It also say shows engagement. It shows how many times they're getting on. So when they're going at different buildings we do different things because sometimes it's the exact same person who's going with you from one grade to the other. Other times it is it it it's the switch and the transition to a new teacher, which is part of the reason why we thought that those consistent lesson plans that look the same everywhere would be a good would be

080a good place to go. And then making sure that the information that goes into Zello and that the parents are looking at and all the teachers are looking at is there because I think sometimes we don't know maybe that person is not their advocacy teacher that they relate to. But when we have it when the way we have Zello set up is that any of their teachers in any of their classes. So their person might be their social studies teacher. And so if we can get to where we're building this culture of everybody's asking them about their IPS. The um the portfolio that I showed was actually in the English class. So that was a component that was done in the English class. So the idea of this is that it's a schoolwide initiative, not

081just a specific advocacy class that this teacher is who you're sitting with, but that it could be that that it's a conversation that you're having with your CTE teacher, with your English teacher, and with your advocacy teacher. >> Okay. I I think one other unintended result of the post-secondary assets being a graduation requirement um I think that there will start to be conversations be it through advocacy or other classes where hey where are you on your post-secary assets and part of the individual plan of study you can understand how there are credentials that you could earn if you take certain classes so I think just more awareness I think that it's a big ship this process to get it going. But I do think the more that English teacher uses the terminology IPS, the math

082teacher, the basketball coach, all these people in these young people's lives, the more common that language becomes and used, I think the more powerful this is going to become. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Hazel Melody. >> Thank you. You know, I I really do appreciate the um explanation and everything that I'm seeing and hearing. It's it sounds wonderful. I'm only concerned about those that kind of either drop off or get lost. And you know, I love it when you say instead of asking what do you want to be, what do you what do you like? I mean, I love that. But the question would be who's asking that question? And I recognize that what you're wanting to do is really universalize this kind of sort of within our district where it's so common.

083I mean, everyone is asking, "How about your IPS? Where you at in this process? How can I help you with it?" But we know that that doesn't happen. So for those students that either a get lost or or b they don't know or c they're not engaged. What about them? >> Again I don't have the 100% answer but ideas in my head are individuals that I think I think a building principal can be a huge huge influence on students in their building. I also Lee Casper, I know Lee's not here and I don't know if you're Lee is starting her second year as the head of counselors in our district. Wonderful person. I'm really excited and think that she has rapport with counselors at all grade levels that she's going to have some ideas. Um

084it won't be Laura or I. The reality is we don't have that relationship with every student out there. Um it is going to take individuals where the student attends every day. uh there's got to be some adult in that building that they trust, that they have a bond with that's going to take an interest in that kid. So, we absolutely don't have a 100% on that. We need to get better and look forward to ways to try to to do so. >> And so, when you're tracking this though, because I think that's what I heard that we actually are able to pull up who has done what and at what p point they're at, >> right? Do you who follows up? >> So we What part of what strategic goal is the chickens? >> Um

085goal two. >> Goal two. I was going to So and it is actually something that we've built in. So we did we're like and I'm like let's have future ready conversations and but how do you make sure that that's happening? So, we actually last year was the first time within Synergy, we actually had check-ins where teachers have to go in with a list of questions in regards to IPS and post-secondary assets and they're checking that they had that they had these conversations with the kids. And so, we have tried to not only monitor it on the student side, but have some some accountability on the teacher side saying, "Yes, I have talked to Melody. I've talked to Stan. and I've talked to Julie and and I have had these conversations with them. >> One last

086question. So, uh, Zello, that's what we talked about before really I thought was was Zello. So, now is this kind of um not substituting, but is this over is this like the umbrella for everything? Is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes. IPS Zello is just one tool within the IPS process. So, um yeah, and Zello, there are different platforms that different districts use, but uh I think Zello is probably the most robust and um four or five years probably in Witaw. I'm it's only year three so I don't know for sure but uh >> I would say I don't know when we're going to share it with you guys but we have some data from the senior survey so I don't want to again I want to out all the surprises but um we collect

087sorry Lauren is >> this is this tonight >> oh next month >> well I don't have the actual numbers but we're around 80 to 95% depending on the high school of seniors left high school with a plan. >> So, we're not at 100%. But to your point of like, what about the ones that slip through the cracks? There are some still, right? There are kids that just flat say, "I don't know." Um, but >> I think that number is I could say with confidence that number is way higher than when I graduated in high school. >> Most of us didn't know, right? Well, didn't have a plan other than >> go to college. And college isn't a plan, right? Laura says this all the time. Like, college isn't a career plan, right? other than to

088just get out of school where you're not coming. >> That's true. >> But um >> all of it. >> That's what I needed to hear. That's exactly what I needed. >> Well, Lauren will have a lot more in September. >> There she is. >> There. I did a teaser. I just did a little teaser. >> I go in and talk to eighth graders and ninth graders about this stuff. I mean, they're not always like, "Oh, great. We want to talk about this." But our seniors and our juniors are saying, "We need more of this. Why didn't you give us more of this?" And we like, "We did. You weren't listening. and you didn't listen until until your junior and senior year. So, >> I also think on the strategic plan, and I know we're way

089over, so we'll we'll get at, but last year we reported to you that the five-year plan, and Laura had it as one of the bullets. We had 100% of the eighth graders do complete a five-year plan. So, that's the first year we've attempted to do that. We were successful in doing it. It's going to be exciting to see how that maybe bolsters Kelly's numbers >> when those students become juniors and seniors. >> I need to hear the numbers. Thank you. >> You bet. >> Very good. Oh, wait. I did have a few more questions for you guys. >> How are we alerting parents to this? Like, if I'm a parent of a student in the district, how do I know about this? >> And I almost got away from the podium before you asked that.

090So, I anticipated that question and I really debated how to respond. We've built a process, a system, a tool, but I am going to go back. This may not be the popular or the right answer but every single building the population the climate the culture is so unique that it would not we can come up with a single sign on but I honestly think this has to go back to the building you that principal or that staff they know their parents they know the methods of communication that are going to be effective um so I would say we have 88 buildings there's 88 ways that they're trying to reach out potentially to parents. So, that's not necessarily the best answer that you wanted, but it's the honest one in my opinion. >> We have a

091we have a very complex system here and so one-sizefits-all ideas are not often solutions, >> right? >> So, thank you very much. Um, great presentation, great amount of information, and we look forward to uh next month's meeting for a little prequel of information then. So, uh, thank you guys very much and we appreciate it. >> Good luck to the granddaughter. Hope my kid figures his out. >> Okay, Latona. Next item, >> secondstep report. >> All right, we're going to welcome uh Amanda Shershell and Justin Castle. Amanda helps us with elementary curriculum and Justin with secondary curriculum and they're going to give us an update on Second Step, which is part of strategic plan goal number three. Good evening again. I am here to talk with you guys about SecondStep, but I did want to formally

092introduce Justin Castle. Um, so when Holly Ingram took the assistant superintendent of learning services job, Justin stepped into the secondary executive director of curriculum and instruction and he's doing great. Give him two big thumbs ups because this is his first board meeting tonight and he's got it. Um, we are here to talk to you about Second Step. But as I was listening to Tim and Laura, I was writing some things down and I went ahead and grabbed their handout, too, because I think you'll see some threads between what we're going to talk about and what they just talked about. I'm so sorry. Thank you. >> I have one more. Make sure people you're the best. So I wrote down words like goal setting, decision making, real world readiness, and I thought about what skills it

093takes to be able to do that within the IPS umbrella. Um, and I thought about honestly executive functioning skills and um, the need to put a plan together for their future is really important, but that takes a different set of skills. And where do we start learning those skills? We start them in elementary school in prek as soon as we get kids in. Um, and we do that through programs like SecondStep. So second step is a program that we consider our core curriculum for um character education development in K through 8. PreK through 8 is available and preK also supplements with what we call little red door. So this program began in 2017 at the elementary level and it onboarded at the middle school level in 2019. So we've had it for a number of

094years. Um, and it actually does for me fall under both goal one, two, all goals one, two, and three. Two with what we just talked about with Kelly, um, Tim and Laura. One because it actually supports academic success and three because of the safety and belonging theme. So, I know that employers today are looking to hire technical skills, right? They want people who can do data data analytics, AI and machine learning. They have technological aptitude, but they are most certainly also still looking for people who can communicate effectively, who can think critically, solve problems, work with others, and manage their emotions. Um, and what we believe in here is supporting the whole child in Witchaw public schools, which includes ensuring that our students are equipped early with those necessary competencies to ensure success. Um, I

095was also scribbling down soft skills, but then I crossed that out. Second Step teaches necessary competencies for the workforce. So I am going to share with you a little bit about elementary and then I'll let Justin share what it looks like in middle school. So second step increases skills as you see on the screen in academic perseverance, pro-social behaviors, positive relationships, and school climate. But I also think it contributes to growth mindset, goal setting, managing our emotions, having kindness and empathy for others, and problem solving. When we support students in these, we also see positive academic outcomes. What this looks like in the classroom for elementary K through5 is a daily time on their instructional block schedule of 20 minutes. They will have 20 weekly 15 to 30 minute lessons across um this span of

096the year. There's brainbuilder activities, engaging handouts, extensions, videos, and even puppets in prek, which is very exciting for the the little ones. Um, we also think about the who teaches this and that might be a question you have. So, in elementary, this is taught by the home room teacher. So, if I'm in Miss Albert's class and she is my teacher all day for fourth grade, she's the one who's delivering these lessons to me. I'll let Justin talk about middle school. >> Thank you. Um, Second Step from middle school is also a researchbased program designed to improve students uh, skills such as growth mindset, goal making, um, emotion management, uh, responsible decision- making, managing relationships, and social conflict. Um, the studies show that these skills can help improve um, academic performance, promote positive relationships, and reduce

097emotional stress and negative social behaviors like peer conflict. Um in middle school um the the program is taught uh through the advocacy class by the advocacy teacher and programs like second step support the creation of positive classroom and school climates which is critical to uh meeting strategic plan goal number three of safety and belonging. And because we teach second step in grades K through eight, students develop a common set of skills and strategies uh that can be practiced and used and reinforced throughout their their career um in grades K through eight and in the community and even at home. Um and since it's consistent uh curriculum across um every school, it doesn't matter which school they attend, they'll get they'll get the same information. Both uh elementary and middle school have what they call unit

098topics. Uh you can see here that there are four units in each topic. And we'll look at one from kindergarten, fifth grade, and seventh grade. Um in kindergarten during the growth mindset unit, uh students will will go through lessons and learn about uh called watch, listen, and learn. Why we pay attention, mistakes are okay, and practice makes better. In fifth grade, during the emotion management unit, students will learn what are strong emotions, what is stress, planning for change, what can I change, and making a change. And for seventh grade during the managing relationships and social conflict unit, uh students learn what makes confl conflict escalate. Uh keeping your cool in conflict, conflicts and perspectives, resolving conflict, and taking responsibility for your actions. Teachers have digital access to complete these lessons and posters with common second

099language uh to use in their classrooms. you have um we just unpacked we have that handout for you too that was within your handouts. You also have a general elementary handout and a middle school handout as we were discussing that has more information that we um didn't put on our slides tonight but you can definitely refer back to. So second step aligns really well to other initiatives that we've done here in Witchaw public schools as well as resources that you can get either nationwide or at the state level. I'll start with u restorative practices. So it has the common goal with restorative practices of safety and well-being um but also connectedness and relationships to the adults at the school and to other students. And then we have Castle Competencies and this is the nation's leading

100organization advancing the development of character and personal development skills for all students. That's what their website says and they have five skills um around that wheel that we really want to support students in. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. And actually you'll see those threads of those five competencies all the way through the second step scope and sequence K through eight. We also look at the social emotional character development standards that the state of Kansas puts out and we created our proficiency scales long ago using SECD standards as well as castle resources and that's what our teachers use to plan and assess for these skills. And then second step is that core curriculum they use to teach those skills K through eight. Some uh additional supports that we receive or have put

101in place to help our teachers teach this curriculum include online access. Uh teachers, coaches, and building administrators can assign lessons um for these classes and then we can see which lessons have been completed so we can track that. Um, additional workshops are available for teachers and leaders to look uh to review, refresh or learn more about the components of the program. Um, family communications have been developed um and we can send those home uh to explain what's being taught in this curriculum and those are available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic and several other languages. Um, our second step district support team is made up of Chrissy Mate and Kel Kelsey Steel and they have developed a secondstep uh scope and sequence uh with links and startup guides and additional activities that they can give

102to to teachers um that are aligned with our other initiatives such as the the readalouds and and and belonging lessons as well. And last but not least, for our part, we're excited because we just found out that in August um Committee for Children, which is the publisher of SecondStep, is going to be providing with us with tiered lessons um as part of their our contract with them. So much like we've talked to you about RTI or MTSS and academics with some, few, and all. Some kids need all kids need the core, some kids need just a little bit of extra support, and a few kids need intensive support. They're actually going to be providing lessons now for um the few and the sum, which is exciting because it's just been a core resource in past.

103So, we're excited to just see what that looks like. Again, that doesn't get released till this month. So, we don't know what they look like, but we're excited to share those with other people in schools that support social emotional development, such as counselors, social workers. It could be used for small groups or even individual one-on-one counseling. Um, as always, we like to bring you a practitioner of um the content we're bringing. So tonight, I'd love to introduce a teacher from Washington Elementary. She's been standing back here and I forgot to introduce her earlier, so she'll forgive me. Um, and I worked with Hannah as a first year teacher at Clark Elementary. She started in April. I want to say she was a late hire. Um, and just blew me away. And she is still doing

104wonderful things in public schools at Washington. I'm glad to have her here tonight to talk about the impact. Wow, what an introduction. Thank you so much, Shel. Good evening, everyone. Um, like Amanda Sharel said, I'm Hannah Evans Mendoza. I work at Washington Elementary as a fourth grade teacher. This is my 11th year in the district. So excited to continue to excited to continue the work. In my classroom, I teach Second Step. Second Step is a curriculum that provides lessons on things like growth mindset, goal setting, empathy and kindness, and problem solving strategies. Sometimes students do forget that teachers are humans too. And sometimes as teachers, we forget to look at students as more than just a test score or a data point. Through second step, we can use this time to provide a safe space

105for children to speak about their struggles, their concerns, their experiences with their peers, and learn to communicate effectively. It's time uh it's a time to receive age appropriate lessons in self-control and emotional management. Have you ever said no to a fourth grader who has asked you to sharpen a pencil at least three times? If not, you will see the importance of emotional management. My students get a chance to practice building confidence and skills in working together. Second step can look like team builders, many lessons or games, circles or readalouds, group activities, quick writes, or my students most favorite, journal time. My students and I enjoy this time and it's daily allotted for us to stop and reflect about how our class is interacting with one another and how our room is running. It gives us

106that time to build relationships, solve problems, and create that sense of belonging with one another. Um, my students and I enjoy this. Oh, sorry. As a teacher, this time gives me the time to look at my students perspectives as little humans. and I model how to build trust and show them how to have empathy for one another. Speaking for my students, it teaches them appropriate coping strategies and ways to set goals and outlines how to be positive contributing members to society, not only in our classroom, but in our community as well, which is one of the goals of public education. What I teach in Second Step, we practice throughout the day. lunch, recess, even field trips to exploration place. We want them to be college and career ready. And if we're wanting this for them,

107then skills like Second Step teaches them along with everything that we do academically are equally important. Thank you for your time. [Applause] And I think we'll illustrate with an anecdotal story from a middle school teacher who was unable to be here tonight, but shared some words, too. >> Yeah. I asked Chrissy Mate if there was any any teachers with a with a second. Hold on just a second. >> Okay. >> Can you give us five more minutes? Maybe. >> Totally fine. Dad can do that. So, I asked I asked our middle school lead coach, Chrissy Mate, if there were any any success stories out there and and she had several, but she wanted me to know about this one, middle school teacher at at one of our schools. And it was about a seventh grader

108and I I reached out to the teacher and asked if I could share their story. And she told me that she got to know this student as a sixth grader through an extracurricular activity and then had him in class the following year as a seventh grader. And some seventh graders have a hard time um understanding that you need to be nice to other people. And he was very vocal about his lack of caring or feelings for others if they didn't directly impact him. And she said he was he he could be hard um with with other kids and and and with adults. And uh she said that there were two different secondstep lessons uh where he got to talk about how he could congratulate classmates if they got a better score on an assessment for

109him or than him and and how he could encourage people that hadn't done well. And she didn't think that those opportunities would have would have came around in class without a curriculum like this. And and she said it brought tears to her eyes and she wish she could be here tonight to tell you the story herself. All right. What questions can we or Hannah answer for you about second step? >> Thank you, Amanda. Uh Justin, and especially Hannah, I guess this is a question for uh Hannah. So, for the second SEC step curriculum, uh to what extent would you say there's uh flexibility or rigidity in terms of like adhering to the curriculum? Is it like, you know, like you have to like go by the books on it or like, you know, can can

110you speak more to that? >> Um, as an elementary teacher, I think we as teachers have to be flexible. Um, because like we say, every class is different and ability levels. So, I think it does allow a lot of flexibility. Um, like I said, sometimes we'll turn the questions into a game. Let's pass the ball and take turns to answer questions. My students have really taken to can we answer these questions in our journal and then share with a friend. So it allows a lot of flexibility and we love the reflection time that it gets at the end because it kind of allows us to make it our own. >> I would add to that not that the scope and sequence is flexible too. So if I have a class who's particularly struggling with peer

111conflict, but the next thing in my scope and sequence is emotional management. I might jump ahead a few lessons to that peer conflict. I know they're both tied together just because that's the need that's presented at the time. Um, so we do allow flexibility in what's right in front of you that you need and you can jump around um to get and even go back and retach lessons you've already taught because they need more practice. So that's a really good question actually. Um when we first started implementing this program um right away teachers and I was principal at the time uh teachers came to me and said advocacy is only 25 minutes. It's not enough time to get through this and and there's questions that kids ask that are that are a little off script.

112How can we how can we put more time into this? And we talked about it with our building leadership team and we came up with with basically a second day of it. So we delivered the lessons as the curriculum intended on the first day and the second day we moved the desks around, got the kids in a circle and then really had some deep discussions and that's and that's where the teachers found the most value in it because some something magic happens when you take take the table and desks away and you sit in that circle and and you're staring at people and this is your home room class, kids you see every day and and you're a trusted adult that you check in with first thing every morning and have real real conversations about

113character and empathy and how to treat other people and all those things that they may or may not get outside of school and and the teachers who really did that um made connections with their kids if you wouldn't believe and and we saw kids go the stories from sixth to eighth grade with kids um and and how much they improved as people um this this had to have a huge impact on that. And then for uh clarification, so second step is in all of our elementary and middle schools now at this point. Okay. Uh yeah, so Second Step uh to my knowledge probably is like one of the most heavily researched social emotional learning programs. There is a lot of empirical support for it. Like um I think just like one of the studies I

114was looking at previously was like, hey, there's like a $11 return on investment for every dollar invested. And Second Step or you know again other uh social and emotional uh learning programs. So I guess my question is more so for USC 59 uh is that you know going back to our strategic plan especially when you're talking about um like academic achievement. I'm curious uh like you know what kind of data do you guys use to like you know measure uh you know to the extent possible because obviously there's like so many other things right that affect academic achievement but um uh you know how do you measure success like how do you operationally define success when it comes to the second step curriculum? So I mentioned um I mean the most obvious answer is we

115do grade um the employability skills in secondary but the behavior skills in elementary through our proficiency scales which are directly correlated to the social emotional character development standards from the state of Kansas. So teachers are expected to add those grades into the gradebook at a certain cadence depending on the grade level um including our exploratory teachers. So they often provide grades as well. So that's one um data point if you will of measuring success in these not soft skills but necessary competencies. Um I also think that you can see it in student behavior. Um I believe that you know we track things like office referrals and suspensions and all of those things that are outcomes of incidents that happen and what we don't see is all the proactive things that our teachers are trying to

116do to prevent that. Um, and when we have a student who may have a history of um, those types of response to behavior, out of school suspensions, detention, whatever, and they start to improve because they're learning the necessary skills to not get themselves into those positions and make those decisions, um, that that's another way that we measure it. It is much harder to measure um, these competencies than it is to measure whether a student can add and subtract. Um, but we do have ways. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> if I could step in. Oh, for sure. >> Um, and data is great, right? As a district, that's what we have to go off of. Um, but when you get into those classrooms and you're talking to those teachers, I had two off the top

117of my head. I had a habitual stealer. And so, we had to sit down as a class and we didn't we didn't know who it was. And I had a student say, "My mom worked really hard to buy me the pins that somebody took from me." And we worked really hard. we went to the store really late and I really really loved those pins and somebody took those from me and the next day they reappeared in the student's desk. Or the student that literally goes to PE every day and causes chaos to the point where my students are not enjoying what should be every kid's favorite time. >> And then when we have that conversation, we say, "What you're doing is hurting us." And we we don't like that. And that student says,"I don't like

118being picked last." That instantly that day solved that problem just with the time that we took during second step to have that conversation. Okay. If we know you going to tear everything up because you don't like being picked last, how about we strategically make sure that you are not last, maybe not first, somewhere in between, just not last. It's the time that we get for those conversations that change the dynam dynamic in that classroom that people may not be able to see every day, but it does work because when else can we talk about it? When else can we take that time? Not core. >> It's it's that necessary time. >> Thank you, Hannah. Thank you, Noc. Uh Kathy, >> thank you, Hannah. Make him the team captain, then I'll be happy. >> Yeah. Um

119Hannah, thank you. It's teachers like you that help students have memories, good memories. And those little kids, they're so precious and so vulnerable. And the second step, you're teaching them life skills. And you know, I ask I wonder if any of you have a story about second step overflowing into their family life away from school. Um because you know when the student is ready the teacher appears and to me students are my teacher uh as an adult we can learn so much from our students. So have you heard of any stories about that? Have you ever thought about offering it to their parents? I mean have a parent student class together with second step and Justin welcome. >> Thank you. Can I actually tell you that last night at the dinner table, we have uh

120family dinners every other Sunday with my dad and I have a sister who has a sophomore at East and going to be a sixth grader in a few weeks at Wilbur. She was at Peterson. They both went to Peterson. Um and Second Step actually became a topic of conversation because they asked me, "Auntie M, what are you doing tomorrow night?" Um they wanted to go to the pool at my house, but I said, "I have a board meeting. What are you talking about?" And I said, "I'm going to talk about Second Step." And both of those girls could make connections. even I mean Finn's a sophomore at East and so it's been a couple years removed that she's even had this curriculum um and she could make connections back to the skills that she was

121learning and be able to talk about that at the dinner table. Do we have room to grow? Should parents start asking how a second step today? Absolutely. But I do think our kids hang on to those skills and when the opportunities present themselves um right now they're probably mentioning it, but I think that's a good point to kind of build a bridge a little bit with our community and our family um about those skills transferring >> and it would be great if at our elementary levels with our PTAs and even our site councils if they were aware of this also um because it it can't help you know empathy can be learned um and It's not coddling the student. It's teaching the student life skills. And that is what I appreciate in the circle time.

122I'm a substitute for elementary. So I understand that circle time. Even though I do everything that the teacher says, do this, do this, and I check it off. Yes. But getting in that circle and having that time to talk, those kids see you as a person like they sometimes forget to. So thank you. This that's great presentation. Thank you, Kathy. Melody. >> Yeah, I I just have a a couple of things that I wanted to add. Um, so Kathy, when you say does it does it reach outside of the classroom setting, I can I can affirmatively say that I see it all the time. um when you're around certain young people that you know are in the district because their behavior is different than some others, they automatically step in and make these right decisions

123uh or andor explain why it is that you shouldn't be doing that, what what's a better way to do it. They really do work their way through it. So, I think I think that it's more perverse pervasive in our community. If you're around students, you can you can see it. So, I'm just thankful that we're continuing to do it. One last thing, Hannah, this is the most quiet I have ever seen you. If anybody knows Hannah Mendoza, she that's all I can say. You are Yeah. No, you she is magnificent in the classroom. You should watch. You should just go and watch. >> Thank you, Melody Julie. >> Um I I love your stories, Hannah. Um thank you so much for sharing them. Um and those personal stories and the personal antidotes are the way

124that we we really can see how the program is working. However, we are data driven in this district and um so I was a little confused as we as we were going through the conversation I realized that at the elementary level of course the students classroom teacher is the one that this curriculum is a part of their day. And then I learned as we went on that at the middle school level, they get it in advocacy class and their a advocacy teacher is the one that uses this curriculum with the students. But then I was confused whenever you said that all of the teachers give them a grade. >> So explain that to me. >> Sure. So in elementary so Hannah would give a grade on the character uh personal character and social scales that

125we have um but then also exploratory teachers PE art music and library would also be responsible for giving additional grades on those scales at certain quarters of the year and secondary I'm going to defer to Justin. >> So the grades for second step are only in the advocacy class by the advocacy teacher at middle school. So, and we we put out a schedule that matches different employability skills with different lessons. And we we we'd line those up and and make sure that we cycle through several of them. So, they get a grade based on their participation in these lessons during advocacy by the advocacy teacher. So, other teachers don't give them grades for second step throughout the day. That's a good question. >> Yeah, that that clarifies it. That's kind of what I was confused

126about is how do how do other teachers give the grades? >> Okay. Thank you, Julie. Uh Hannah, I just want to say thank you for uh joining us this evening at the board meeting um to share your experience. I think it's valuable information and insight that you share with us. Uh a few questions. We've gone over, I think, what's working and kind of how this program works, but I would like to ask from your perspective, what are ways that we can improve this? >> Well, since you asked, >> I did. Um, when the slide came up about the different tiers, that really excited me because I think a lot of the time, especially seeing in my building when we have those high need kids that need that, you know, higher level of tier instruction or

127even small group or even one-on-one, um, we kind of defer to our counselors and when you have a high number of those high need kids, it's hard on them, too. So hopefully with this new system that we are going to put in place um it can kind of put it back in our hands because again when we have that time with those kids especially the ones that are high needs that helps build that relationship and with that relationship they want to please their teacher they want to make their teacher happy and they want to make themselves proud and so I think that goes handinhand with the academics. So I'm really excited to learn about that. So, I think that would answer the question is just getting more information in teachers hands about the upcoming roll

128out. >> Okay, very good. I just made a note to myself to follow up with you in the uh near future to see how that's working out for you in your classroom. My next question is is from your perspective, are there any resources that you need um to make this more successful? Knowing that time is not always an option, um I think some resources is would be allowing people like yourselves in the buildings and actually see what it is and what we're doing and sharing with the community why it is so important. I know um we can add politics on top of this and whatever else, but it this is not political. when we see the behaviors in adults our age screaming at baseball fields they didn't have second step and so this is important

129because even it's small victories too I had students who would I didn't do it wasn't me I didn't do anything wrong to literally at the end of the year she said I know I did it I know it was wrong I'm not ready to apologize yet maybe by the end of the day probably like four or five before I go to stealth I That is what we call progress. And so hopefully by fifth grade, she is able to come down a little quicker in her emotions and processing through. But how else in the environment that she goes home to every day would she be able to process those emotions? Otherwise, that student that I got at the beginning of the year could go her whole life behaving that way. And that's not okay. So where

130else can they build these school build these skills at school? So that's just my two cents. >> Very good. No, I appreciate it and I appreciate you sharing honestly from your perspective. We will get the board scheduled to view uh second step in action in classrooms and so that will happen. We'll get that scheduled sometime in the first few months of school. So thank you for the recommendation and suggestion. Um and then we'll we'll give some feedback on that as well. So uh great presentation this evening tonight. Um Hannah, thank you so much for joining us. uh please feel free to reach out to any of us um as you enter into the school year and see different things happening and feel free to share the wins, the successes and then continue to share ways

131that we can improve this and if there's any resources that are needed um to make this more successful. So, thank you very much. We appreciate you guys. >> Appreciate you. Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. Knock. I'm I apologize. I I was not doing a very good job looking at my screen. No, I was just going to say Hannah, we're going to we're going to come stop by your classroom. So, >> yeah, >> room 210. Ask a few of them. I think they've been You are welcome anytime. And our building is always welcoming to anybody who would love to come. We won't always throw you into a house gathering starting off, but we would love to have you all. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you, Hannah. Latona. Next item. Budget report authorization to publish the

132notice of hearing and intent to exceed revenue neutral rate for the 2526 budget. >> We got Addie here tonight to update us on the budget. Take it away. >> Um, awesome. Thank you. Um, good evening, esteemed board members, superintendent Belfeld. My name is Addie Lol. I am the chief financial officer for Witchaw Public Schools. I'm going to get this slideshow started. Very good. Um well, first of all, I just want to say what a privilege it is to work with so many brilliant educators who gave us two excellent presentations this evening. They're doing the hard work of um day in and day out of of doing the things with the kids and um so it's an honor to be here to talk about the budget that's supporting all of the activities that they're working hard

133on. Um, I can't say mine will be as interesting, but we'll try to keep it lively as always. Um, so here's a quick update on where we're at at our budget timeline. We're almost at the end for the 2526 budget year. Um, this evening we have a couple of milestones. So, we need to fully wrap up uh building needs assessments so that we can get into how we use the building needs assessments to bring uh the proposed budget for the 2526 fiscal year to you all today. Um so after today, we will hopefully establish a uh budget and revenue neutral rate hearing and then plan to adopt the budget on September 8th. Um, and so we'll go ahead and jump into the first part of our presentation, which is building needs assessments. Um, the last

134time I visited with each of you on building needs assessments was about I think it was May 19th, the board meeting on May 19th. Um, so it's been a little while since we've circled around on this topic. Uh we do have requirements as part of the budget process to review building needs assessments, review state assessment data, um reflect how we use the building needs assessments in the approval of the district's budget. Um we also have to answer three questions and we're going to kind of finalize the responses to those questions this evening. Those three questions are what barriers must be overcome to have all students achieve proficiency um which is levels three and four so above a level two on state assessments. What budget actions, recommendations or reallocation should be taken to address and remove

135barriers? And if all those budget actions are implemented, we have to estimate the amount of time it would take for all students to achieve proficiency. So a level three or four on state assessments. Um to answer question one, we kind of confirmed what barriers we believe exist in our schools. Um these barriers haven't changed materially since the establishment of this building needs assessment process. I will say I think it's a very thorough list. We've designated barriers for different types of groups, student, staff, parent, and community. And we've all agreed that these barriers remain and are still things that we are trying to overcome in our schools um in the 2526 school year as well. Um when we uh walked through the building needs assessment process with uh building principles and they engaged site councils and

136building leadership teams in this process. Um they kind of had four overarching topics for what budget action should be taken in order to address the barriers that we've established in the previous slide. Um some of those budget actions include teacher and staff recruitment and retention. a lot of mentioning of increasing pay benefits and training as well as retaining um highly qualified teachers for ESOL special education and paraprofessional staff. Mental health and social emotional needs was an emerging topic as well. Um requests were made for resources to help address mental health needs which include additional counselors, social workers, psychologists and other social emotional learning programs like Second Step that you heard about this evening. Um, we heard a lot about parent involvement and support, active involvement from parents and guardians, which is not necessarily something we

137can buy with our budget. Um, we can support family engagement initiatives as well as resources for students and families. We also heard about uh attendance issues. So, chronic absenteeism and tardiness being a a source of things we needed to invest in to improve and remove barriers. Um, I want to get into a little bit of how we align our budget with these student outcomes uh to meet the needs of these these students. And we went over this a little bit in May as well, but I think this is um a good recap of some of the comments we've heard this evening. Um, so at the very bottom of the pyramid and how we look to provide necessary services for all of our schools, we we look at what core service we have to provide. Every

138elementary school has K through5 teachers to support the enrollment at that building. They've got a principal. They've got clerical staff. They've got custodians. They maybe have security. They have nutrition service workers. Um, we have to provide utilities and transportation. All of the policies and state statutes that we're held to, that's kind of where we put our core services. We must provide those things. And when our schools don't have them, we make sure they do. Um, if enrollment uh pops up in one school and they need an additional kindergarten or second grade teacher, we give them one. um if they have additional students that need to enroll in PE at the secondary level, they're going to get another PE teacher. Um we evaluate those needs on an ongoing basis every single day. Uh the budget office

139processed through 500 budget changes and requests last year. So these reallocations to provide core services at a fair and equitable level across all schools is happening all the time. Um the next level is kind of that the uh special education and ESOL services for students. So students that may just need some additional contact hours or some mandatory special education support on an IEP. And so those get evaluated by each of those programs and resources are placed um based on the needs of the students that are in those schools. Um the next level up is kind of where we get into this building needs assessment process. So we're getting lots of feedback from staff, from building leadership teams, from site councils, from building principles on what are the specific needs in those buildings. Um, we said

140this tonight, it's not a one-sizefits-all solution. Two schools experiencing the same barrier may not have the same solution to that problem based on the strengths um the students, the demographics in their building. And so each building is um left to tell us what they need in order to remove the barriers in their schools. Um, some of those things may include tutors, intervention programs, additional curriculum, summer school or other um extra learning opportunities, additional classroom supports, extra counselors, social workers, psychologists, or behavior positions are a lot of what we see in those requests. Um, and and above that, kind of above, but all the way down and through is the work to um to accomplish our strategic plan goals. So, they all kind of align. Um they're all they're all considered as we look at budget

141requests and um requests that principles are making in order to remove barriers with their students and staff. Um so there's there's one question of what budget action should be taken and principles have a plethora inless things that they need in their buildings to help remove those barriers. We have a limited budget and so we can't always meet every single request every year. Um, but we do a darn good job with limited resources by finding efficiencies to be able to then reinvest those funds into things that are going to make a difference in our schools. And so, um, the top 10 things, you see nine boxes on this slide. The tenth is, um, a substantial wage package this year. So, that was kind of the overarching big budget ticket item. So, the remaining nine are, um,

142some additional core services. So, we had some expansions in some schools. Um, Eley is becoming a K6 this year. Um, Northeast Magnet is growing in their the total number of students they're uh accepting in in each grade level and so they needed some additional classroom supports. Um, Pleasant Valley Middle School, Curtis, Franklin, Irving, Wilmer Me Heights are all schools that receive some additional supports because of changes in enrollment and those are things um spanning from additional classroom teachers to security um to school administrators etc. Um, newcomer was a big focus of this year's budget, making sure that newcomer class sizes were not bigger than our regged class sizes. Um, a lot of concerns coming out of of newcomer classes that are busting at the seams as students are transitioning into um their home room classes

143needing to ensure that they have supports that will follow them. And so, um, fixing that newcomer class size issue was a priority in terms of removing barriers in our schools. And there's a whole list of schools that got impacted by that initiative this year. Um, ESOL, you've you've heard about an ESOL expansion. So, we are now every single one of our schools offers ESOL services in some way, shape, or form. And so, the secondary level um now is is receiving students and providing ESOL services. In addition to that, we've also right-sized some services at elementary schools. So, we've got some various elementary schools impacted, but uh many secondary schools receiving some additional ESOL supports to ensure that every student, no matter what school they're attending, is going to get some ESOL services. Um counselors, so

144social workers or psychologists, you may uh hear us use the acronym CST. Um when we refer to these particular types of employees, uh this is year in and year out probably the number one request we see on building needs assessments as additional CST team members. And it it it differs from school to school depending on what allocations they have of each different employee type. Um but where we could, we tried to provide additional CST to our buildings if it was the right fit to remove their barriers this year. behavior supports. So, Gam, Harry Street, Mueller, Jackson, PEV, Middle, and Ortiz all received some additional behavior supports this year. Um, behavior behavior teachers um or paras that that just support the those activities in schools. Um, unified prek, this is an exciting one. All of our

145prek classrooms in the 2526 school year and beyond are unified. And that means they're all um able to accept students that have IEPs. And so all of our our pre-K teachers have unified licenses. They have two pair of educators that are in there supporting kiddos. And so these last four schools were the remaining classrooms that we had in order to have a fully unified system. Community schools, we were able to invest in six schools. Washington, Kovven, Anderson, Adams, Dodge, and Stanley. These were all schools that indicated that they wanted an investment in um family and community engagement and were selected based on um their ability to to engage with a community school specialist to um start to deploy some family engagement opportunities. And so we're starting with these six. Um got to start slow and

146and slowly add in. So we're excited to see the results of this particular initiative through the year. small groupoup instruction paras. So there's a a plethora of schools that receive some par educator support. And on the attendance initiative, we've now expanded everyday labs to 45 schools. That's an item you will see on tonight's consent agenda. >> Hop in on a couple things here um that I think are relevant. I'm going to tie a couple of this uh points back to the workshop on Friday. Um some things that came up, but one of the things I want to point out, this does not feel very top down. This feels very bottom up. This feels like we went to buildings and we listened to buildings and they said, "Here's the things we need and then we're aligning

147our budget with that." So that's part of the needs assessment process. I do I would say though part of what lacks in the needs assessment process is maybe the swath of people that that even know we do that, right? Is mostly the building leadership team um that does that. uh but we took the process that was provided by uh KSD and the legislature and that's what we've been doing and we've we've been workshopping is that the right one right so that's something we may change in the future because the other thing that's going on is uh as Gil shared on Friday and Latana that community schools are working on their own needs assessments right um and it probably won't be very divergent from the things that they've already determined but but maybe we'll find some

148things that show up there Um you will also notice that of the of the nine squares plus the salary increase um there are no facilities issues on this right but we do get facilities things that come up on the needs assessment right we get if only blank worked I could you know we could teach better we could do our job better right so that that is relevant to this but a different problem that we need to solve right so I want to make sure you know one of the things that Kathy mentioned on Friday uh was a a driveway a secondary driveway at Black Elementary that was on their needs assessment, right? But we don't put it as part of this process because this is more about aligning with the academic achievement and not necessarily

149the facility plan. Um the other thing that I do want to point out that I think is critical too um that that can be forgotten pretty quickly, a lot of this all of this is staff. Almost all of this is staff. These are people costs, right? And so what we've done in my now starting my third year is really aligned people in the buildings to support kids while we've right-sized people that aren't in buildings that support the buildings. So 55 reductions of positions over the past two years that weren't in schools while at the same time and it isn't you know we didn't add a hundred social workers or anything like that but a few every year especially based on need. So sometimes people say, "Well, look at your staffing. You have you increased staffing

150over the past few years." Well, that's true. Yeah, we have increased staffing over the past few years in the school buildings, right? That's that's what they've told us they need. Um and at at the same time tried to rightsize in the non-attendant centers, like I said, um which I think can get lost in the in the shuffle sometimes. So the needs assessment is about buildings and supporting buildings and we look at it as a district and the whole budget and really try to align the whole thing with it. So anyway, that's it. Anything you want to chime in on that one? >> That was an excellent recap. Um >> so we've now answered two of the three required questions that we must answer for our budget process. To answer the third, I need to invite

151a colleague up, um our assistant superintendent of learning services, Miss Holly Ingram, to review some state assessment data with you all. Hello. Uh, so back in May when Addie was sharing this with you from the start, um, our deputy superintendent, Mr. Alvarez, shared some of this data. So, I've just pulled a little bit of this out at a few of your requests just to highlight again where we're at as far as state assessments. So, this is from our 22 uh 2023 and 2024 spring state assessments for ELA. Um, so we wanted to look at how is Witchaw Public Schools performing compared to some of our peers. So the first two districts after WPS are two larger urban districts um and then the last two are large but suburban districts um in in our state in

152the state of Kansas. Um so you can see in 2023 um our level one two three and four for ELA and then at the bottom table 2024 for ELA um as well. So on level one and level two, we want to see those numbers go down as we move more students into level three and level four as those go up. You all have seen this data, so I'm not going to walk through the specifics, but on this next slide, um that second table shows you the change in percentage. Um so green is where you want to see the change. So you can see for us in Witchaw, other than a slight um increase in level two, though I can argue a slight increase in two is actually not bad. If we're moving them out of

153ones, they're probably not going to move out of ones all the way to three. Um so that's not really something we celebrate, but we know it's progress. Um so you can see that for us in Waw Public Schools, we moved in the right direction in three of the four categories. and then also where those um comparative districts moved as well. So this is around the state. We also wanted to look a little closer to home. Um so three neighboring districts as well as a private district how we fared in comparison to those as well. Um, so again, same numbers for us for Witchaw Public Schools comparing 2023 to 2024. And then you can see those percent changes um, as well. So, as we looked at those changes, I've highlighted who did the best out of

154these comparisons. Uh, so the top are the urban and suburban districts, the bottom are the neighboring and private district. Um so Witchaw public schools in what we have compared for you here uh did the best in two of the categories. So the largest percentage moving students out of level one and then the biggest percentage increase um in level three. So we often um we just throw out numbers of how many what percentage is proficient on state assessments. Um but when we talk about actual percentage of students we're moving um so I'll show you here um what that actually means as far as students. Um so like I said we made growth both in level one and three our performance is continuing to improve also moving more students to proficiency because we know that is what

155is reported publicly. It's what we get judged on if you will. Um and also just the the um often thrown out thing that private schools are um doing better. So we're even showing better improvement there. So just to put it in comparison, so a neighboring district with just shy of 8,000 students um 1.85 percentage growth is 148 students. But in Witchaw public schools with over 46,000 students moving just shy of 2% that's 886 students. So when you when we just show percentages, sometimes we forget about how many actual kids, how many um kids are sitting in our teachers classroom that is and how many different teachers, how much staff um is having an impact on that. So just wanted to highlight um often we throw out percentages, but seeing it in terms of how many

156kids we're talking about um I think is critical. So, as we get to this third question, um, you had discussion back in May around how you would want to answer these. So, this is just to remind you of what our answers were for 2324 on the building needs assessment going into this last year's budget planning. So, you can see those at the top. And then in discussion from May, I believe it was uh Mr. researcher who recommended that range as we think about what's realistic growth to get to by 2030 is likely about a 2% but we always should try to shoot for more. So he suggested that range of 32 to 50% and then our goal around decreasing um the number of students in that level one. So we're still waiting on the spring

1572025 scores. I actually just looked it up. The state board of education will approve the cut scores next week at their August 12th meeting and then we hope to start getting some scores cross all our fingers and toes September they've promised by October so we can actually see where we landed um on that goal. So before we go further any questions related to data or things like that? Holly, can you uh go over briefly kind of the history of the the changes that we've made with instruction for staffing specifically with the investment that Witchaw Public Schools has made in letters training >> and go over the timeline of that because these scores are from the 23 24 school year and so uh we invested and teachers started taking the letters training in the 22 23

158school year. So, can you kind of give an a brief overview for people watching as we're talking about these scores of what was going on prior the investment in letters training and kind of the schedule of that? >> Yeah, so prior to ESR funds, we had been doing a very small cohort of teachers through letters training um with some of our own professional development funds, but it's really hard to scale doing 30 to 50 teachers every year. um Amanda Sharel and her team they had been starting to work on that. Uh so then with the infusion of Esser dollars we were able to largecale we knew um as we looked at research looked at the changes we needed to make in reading instruction that we wanted to get all our teachers through that. So with

159that infusion of ESSER funds we're able to take all of our elementary teachers um we allowed them two years to do volume one. It's a heavier lift. Uh Dr. Hatfield and I uh did that learning ourselves and um it's it's graduate level work. So we provided our teachers time to do that in their professional development across two years and then last year worked through volume two. Um and so I don't know the exact percentage of where all our teachers finished up and some are still finishing new hires who came in in process. Um but really that's not necessarily a curriculum but it's how to teach reading. It's understanding what's happening in the brain. It's understanding how the brain learns so that as we take the curriculum to the students, the teachers have the understanding in

160the right way to teach things, how to identify gaps, how to assess um so that we are providing students the most researchbased approach to how we teach those foundational literacy skills. Um so I would say that's the biggest thing historically that's happened in that time frame that we've done. Um but as we've done that systemically with our teachers, our leaders have also been learning alongside. There's letters for administrators, our elementary leaders have been doing and some of our secondary instructional coaches and leaders are doing as well, just as we know reading isn't just solved by third grade. We still have learners who may have gaps after that just so we can systemically support them beyond just the third grade goal. >> So go ahead, Kelly. I was going to point out a few things. No,

161go go go for it. >> Because uh the state of Kansas has adopted the the seal of for literacy. So, can you explain kind of the timeline of that? And we Witchaw Public Schools is actually a leader >> in that that we did not have to have the state tell us to do this. We were proactive in implementing this. And so, can you please share about that? >> Yeah. So, starting in July of 2028, all elementary educators, special ed, I don't know the list of who has to have it. will have to have the seal of literacy on their license to be a highly qualified teacher. And one of the approved ways to get the seal of literacy on your license is through completing letters. There are other opportunities uh Katie Warren referenced one um

162you can there's a practice exam you can take. There's some of our staff um the union has set up some study sessions and workshops to support staff in that. So that's another way. I think there's another uh similar type of graduate coursework you could take. So we heard about that change in lensure I believe about a year and a half ago. Um so that also helped us try to encourage as many staff to complete letters um while we had those SR dollars in place knowing we wouldn't have the uh funding flexibility to do a systemic way beyond that. Um and then I believe this graduating class from the universities is the last class that when they get their teacher certification lensure may not have it. So starting in 2026 when they take their practice pre-ervice

163teachers coming into the field they will have to test for it. But our existing staff, because we were ahead of the game, didn't have to go back and take other coursework, didn't have to go back and do another test. We do have some staff that maybe they didn't finish and are doing the test option. Um, but for the majority, we've been able to provide that through learning letters. >> So, when we started with letters training, it was just one year prior to when these test scores, this data has been pulled. So I just want to draw attention to the fact that when we have seen information presented to the board on like say our fastbridge scores we are seeing significant growth in those areas but that is more current data. This data is old. Um,

164so I I want to highlight that for people that we've the district has made some significant changes in staffing training and how instruction is being applied to specifically address the literacy levels in our students. >> Yep. Another piece I want to highlight that Amanda Sharel and their team have worked on, I believe we have like 37 local facilitators, meaning in Witchaw public schools staff that can provide. So with letters, there's an online and reading portion you do individually, but then there are eight days of training. So we have a large number of our own staff that we also made sure that we could sustain ongoing learning as we hire new staff. um just because regardless of what happens with lensure we still wanted to be able to sustain that um beyond. So I think in

165addition to that trying to forecast beyond so we're not just setting here there's not money how do we do this um as new staff come in because I don't know what the state of Oklahoma is doing I don't know what Colorado is doing we we will still probably go back to that smaller just cohort who needs to get letters um like we were doing before we had um everyone going through it. >> Very good. Thank you Kelly. Yeah, I just I'm glad you brought up what Katie Warren had mentioned too because it this is a big deal, right? It doesn't Oh, you have to put something on your license. To us, it sounds like not much, but this is a this is a big deal. Could we have uh gotten to where we are with

166letters without the funding to support it? >> No. The Addie doesn't give us that much money in our professional development account. >> No, no, no, no, no. >> I'd like her to. >> No, no, no. Hold on. I because I'm being serious here. It isn't Addie who gives us the money, right? It's it's Topeka in Washington who gives us the money, right? >> So, what's that? >> Locals. >> And locals, right? So, could we have someday somehow trained everyone in letters with the current level of funding? We could have >> the increased funding that came with ESSER allowed us to do it quickly and we're seeing the fruits of it. >> So, it's not up to us to determine that funding. It's up to other people to determine that funding. So I think it's critically

167important that you as the decision makers understand as we make decisions about mill rates, things like that. This directly impacts kids in learning, right? Y >> just want to make just want to lift that up. >> Yeah. I think before we were funding about 50 to 100 staff members and the last number I heard Amanda Sharel say was,900. So it would have taken us 19 years with our own money. >> Thank you. >> On an estimate, don't like it might be around there. Very good questions. Okay, seeing no questions. Addie, >> that's my cue to proceed. Um, thank you, Superintendent Bilafeld, for having my back on not blaming Addie for all the money problems in the district. Okay. Um, so, you know, we spoke, we've now answered the three questions. I have to recap those

168at our next board meeting as we go to adopt the budget. We love repetition. Um and so we'll just in the minutes of the meeting in which we adopt our budget, we'll just recap all of those decision points and um we're in within the adoption of our budget where we um expended and reallocated some resources. So you'll see it one more time, very brief highle overview. Um, so let's get into the meat of tonight and the numbers and some required tasks that we have to do in publishing some notices for the public. Um, so tonight I have kind of a finalized version of the proposed budget that we're bringing to you. Um, I kind of want to talk about the the stages in which we kind of plan, estimate, finalize the budget, and then go

169to adopt the budget. Um, sometimes these terms and phrases get confused and so I just want to add some clarity. I start in uh March going through revenue estimates with you all. So we kind of have a starting point for um how much we have to cover just our fixed operating costs. So those costs like transportation and utilities that we know are going to increase every single year just to provide the same level of service. No additional services, just the same level of service. We have bills to pay just like everyone else. And our bills are increasing every year as well. And so we have to pay off pay for those fixed cost increases before we start to evaluate what we can invest in things like a wage package or in some of the amazing

170initiatives that we've chatted about this evening. And so we have to do res revenue estimates. And so um in March I came to you with a proposed estimate uh operating budget, sorry, for our um general fund and our supplemental general fund. And we thought that was going to land around $619.5 million with a general fund budget of $465 million and an LOB or supplemental general fund budget of 154.3 million. Um, as we've finalized enrollment estimates, uh, property tax values, um, and looked at cash balances, we've got the kind of the final version of what the general and supplemental general fund are going to look like. And for fiscal year 26, we're proposing a general fund budget of $461.7 million and a supplemental general fund budget of $152.9 million, which is um 614.6 or 7 million.

171In total, it's almost $5 million less than the estimates um that we brought to you earlier in the year. I like to talk about this because the numbers and facts changed. Um, and so as we go from the progression of March's information to today, I just want to clarify what facts changed for us. Our budget is nearly 100% a factor of enrollment. Our general fund budget is based on the number of students we have in front of us or the one-year look back in the in the kids that we have. So, our waitings come to us with current year and we have a flat adjusted FTE enrollment that comes to us and we get one year's look back. And so as a district that's declining in enrollment, we are almost always going to use that

172one-year look back in order to calculate our budget, but we are limited 100% by the kids we have in our buildings. And so for us, um, that kind of top that adjusted FTE budget for fiscal year 26 is 42,890.6 students. That very first line, it decreased by 1.1 FTE. the um auditors got audited and they took 1.1 FTE from us between March and today um our weighted FTE which does not include special education. I separated that for tonight's presentation intentionally. So this is things like uh at risk so uh free lunch students, CTE contact hours, bilingual contact hours, preK students, they generate current year waitings. And so th those are the types of students that are generating some extra funding for Witchaw Public Schools. those waitings for fiscal year 26 are 26 thou for fiscal

173year 26 is 26,691 FTE. Um so we we increase that from the information we brought to you in March and that's intentional. We always want to estimate high. We want to make sure that we have enough room in our uh operating budget to not have to come back to request um amended budgets if additional students were to report to Witchaw Public Schools by count day, which is September 20th. Um so we always estimate a little bit high to make sure we have wiggle room in the budget. If we go down to that third line, that's the weighted FTE for special education. Um this is one when we were talking about revenue estimates in March that sped was going to be funded um with some additional dollars. We were going to have some increases in our

174transportation trans special education transportation is funded at 80% and so anticipating some additional dollars for special education. Um, so we were estimating waitings for sped over 13,000 right now because um, the state legislature only put $7.5 million into special education. And as you will see on a later slide, our budget alone for special education increased $9 million. Um, so the amount of money they put into sped didn't even cover the increases at the at just our district. Um so we had to drop the amount of funding that we're going to receive through special education state aid from that 13.2 to 11.9 um almost 12,000 weighted FTE for special education. So that was a big big decrease from um what we anticipated in March. Um some of that comes from we get reimbured for different pieces

175of sped. I mentioned transportation is at 80%. We also get reimbursed for employees um who support uh students with IEPs. That amount that we get reimbursed per employee dropped from $30,800 per per FTE down to 29,600. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you have over,300 FTE that qualify for reimbursement, it ends up being a very material number. And so that's a a large area where we saw um that that waiting piece decline for us this year. Um so ultimately our total waitings are decreasing from our original estimates by 744.73 FTE. Um so that's a big majority of where the change comes from and what we estimated in March versus what we're proposing to you all today. And of course the supplemental general or LOB budget is a factor. It's a product of the

176general fund budget. So if the general fund budget is dropping so is the supplemental general fund budget. It's 33%. And so they're they're directly proportionate to each other. And so anytime we see a decrease in general fund, we're going to see a decrease in supplemental general. >> Sure. >> Just going through the descript especially on the special ed because I think this is important. >> So if the funding is the same or I mean $7 million more then why is why did this drop? So, if this if the funding is the same, then why why would it >> Well, in March when we came with estimates, we believe the legislature was going to fund special education. Um, they were going to get some additional funding. We were going to get reimbursed for all of our

177transportation expenditures and our FTE at the same time. And so now, as legislative session has, um, you know, landed on that final $7.5 million figure, we are still going to get reimbursed for transportation, but then that money has to come from somewhere and it's coming out of the staffing. Um, so anytime general fund or u special education is not funded, we have to use funds from general fund in order to support those initiatives. All the staff we employ are are performing required services, so we have to fund them. We're just not getting reimbursement for them. >> Thank you. >> Um, so now I have our total budget which is net of transfers. This is a figure that you will see on your appendix one in your packet. Um, it's called the notice of hearing. We

178sometimes refer to it as code 99. Our total budget for the 2526 fiscal year is over a billion dollars. This is kind of a cool benchmark, not going to lie. Um, the first time in my career with Witchaw Public Schools that I've been able to say our budget is over a billion dollars. We've always been just slightly under um a billion for the last couple of years. So, our adopted budget for 2425 was $970.6 million. We're at $1 billion million for the upcoming fiscal year. This is a difference of $39 million. Um, and again, just to reiterate, the operating budget, which we already talked about, and when I talk about the operating budget, I'm talking about general fund and supplemental general fund. Um, and so last year, our adopted budget was $594.4 $4 million and

179we're proposing an operating budget of $6147 million which is an increase of about $20.2 million this year. And the operating budget is part of the total budget. I just break those out because the operating budget funds a lot of those weighted funds. So breaking out some specific funds uh just to see um some of the values that will be on the notice of hearing that will be published hopefully in the paper next week. Um our atrisisk budget increased by nearly $3 million up to $137.3. Special education um our special education budget increased $9.9 million. And so when again when the legislature is only putting seven and a half into um the pot for sped, we're going to see a decrease in the level of funding for special education. Um Witchaw public schools in general, I

180will say, makes up about 10 10 to 12% of um of the the state's budget. And so when just our budget alone is more than the amount that they're putting in, everybody across the board is going to see a decrease in in the levels of funding. Um capital outlay. Last year's budget was 115 million. This year's is $129.7. That's an increase of 14.7 million. If you recall, an action taken by the financial oversight committee was to transfer uh approximately $17 million over to capital outlay, and we have budgeted those funds this year um for some one-time facilities needs. And so that's where that most of that increase is coming from. Um, bond and interest is just a slight change as we're um getting into the last, let's see, three or four years of of debt

181payments. So, um, $845,000 in bond and interest. Federal funds. I have good news tonight. We do anticipate receiving all of our federal funds for our atrisisk programs. Um, and so those are budgeted at $47 million, which is an increase of 2.2. Um, capers is a big fund. Capers is something that passes through our district. It's a big number, makes up a big proportion of our budget. We get the funds and the same day the state takes it back out. Um, and that's just to fund the state's pension program for our employees. Last year, our budget was 61.2. This year is 57. This was anticipated as we kind of right-sized the district last year and reduced our total FTE. We anticipated capers to reduce. So, it's it is a slight reduction of $3.8 million. Um, prek

182up slightly just due to salary increases, $200,000. Bilingual. Um, this is where you see some support of the newcomer and uh district-wide ESOL program expansion. And so that million dollar increase there is supporting some of those programs. And then CTE budget increased about $458,000 as well. Um, let's talk about mill rates. Um um a mill in Witchaw public schools generates about $4 million. And so our mill uh this year is proposed in order to support all of these pieces of the budget, our mill is proposed at a flat 51.387 mills. Um if you look at that topline general fund, those 20 mills that is set by statute. We cannot adjust that amount at all. we must collect 20 mills from our local property taxpayers to remmit that back to the state and they disperse it

183through all the districts um to support different pieces of state aid. Um the supplemental general fund, again, this is a a a direct proportion of the general fund budget. And so we have to have a mill that supports that budget um to backfill any state aid, right? Um, we talked about that at the July 7th board meeting that our state aid was our percentage was dropping and so we have to generate property taxes in order to backfill that revenue to support the budget that's needed to fund all the initiatives um that we've gone over this evening. And so that mill is 17.618 for fiscal year 2526. That is an increase of 1.842 mills. You may recall um last year we intentionally bought down that lob mill to offer some property tax savings to constituents. Um

184otherwise the 25 mil rate would have been higher as well. Um capital outlay. I will always propose eight mills when we have um a deferred maintenance log as big as we do and we're turning away facilities requests uh just to meet the the need just the the repairs and the breaks and the emergency projects. Um we have to levy eight mills in order to support the huge portfolio of buildings and facilities needs we have in this district. Um bond and interest, you'll see a large reduction here. We're taking the bond and interest down from 7.511 mills down to 5.5 mills. Bond and interest is something a mill that the board has to establish every year in order to afford our upcoming debt payments. And that 5.5 mills is what we need in order to fund

185our debt payments. Um special liability a slight increase here to from 0.1 to 269. Um, so just a slight increase with the goal of keeping that mill rate flat and um, passing along as much in property tax savings to our constituents as possible while still being able to afford all of the great initiatives that are going into the improvements in graduation rate, the improvements in state assessment data, um, the improvements that we hope to see through family and community engagement activities. Um, we have to have a mill to support those budgets. I decreasing resources means decrease staffing, decrease people in our buildings. Um and and so I'm not I don't know how we increase scores but decrease supports. We have to have a mill rate that supports the budget. Um let's talk about what this

186means for local property taxpayers. And again, there are multiple municipalities that levy property taxes. Witchaw Public Schools is not the only one. So this is just a picture of our mill rate and what it will do to a median home price um owner in in the city of Witchaw. So right now uh the median home price is around $200,000. Uh last year with last year's mill rate of 51.387 which is the same as this year's um the estimated property tax would have been $1,940. Assuming an average and again this does not apply to every property owner. Um, some may see higher, some may see lower than the average of 8.7% increase on their uh, appraised value. But if we apply an 8.7% increase to that $200,000 home and apply our mill rate of 51.387, the

187estimated property tax bill is going to be $1,1123. This is $857 on a monthly bill for a a homeowner. Um so the action the board will take on the mill rate um is very minimal and again if appraised values had not increased neither would property taxes. Um I have the mill rate history for you this evening. Um we have 15 full years on this chart. I think next year we might have to start cutting some years off. I'm not sure we can fit too many more. Um but again flat with last year's mill rate. This is still the lowest mill rate um we have had in a 15-year span. So, this board uh and previous boards have always taken a conservative approach when possible to pass along property tax savings to constituents and you can

188see that on this mill levby history chart. At every opportunity, the board has taken action in the approval of the annual budget and the mill rate um to do what we can for property tax uh property taxpayers in the city of Witchaw. Um, we always prioritize student success. Superintendent Beerfeld spoke about this. We went over the top 10 things um that we funded with the budget this year. And you can see it wasn't facilities. It wasn't business and operations. It wasn't general administration. It was supports and staff in schools um that are being put into place to meet the needs of students and to remove barriers in our schools. And so I I love this chart every year because this is the true commitment of everyone in this district for how we prioritize student success

189and outcomes. 87.2% of our operating budget directly supports students. Um so you can see that outer circle breaks out kind of all those different uh component units of um of our budget. So 53.5% is instruction. Those are your teachers, your parent educators, um some community partners that are coming into schools to provide additional educational opportunities for students. So that's 53.5% of our budget. Um a lot of those mental health needs and social emotional supports live in that next red box. Nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologist, speech pass. That's 10.5% of our budget. Going down from there, the proportions get a little bit smaller. General administration for Witchaw public schools is 1.1% of the budget. It is very small and you can see that inner circle on this chart the the blue part is that 87.2% um

190and all the related categories that are going to directly to support students. The red piece is the very small proportion of things um that may be like your facilities maintenance um your business and operations and your general administration. Um, we do have to have payroll, we do have to have HR, we do have to have operations. We are a large district and we need some of those services to help provide things to schools. Um, and so we some things I, you know, we say don't directly impact students, but you still need them in order to have running schools. Um, so I just think this is such a a tribute to uh the board and the the adoption of the budget and and how we prioritize student success every single year by maintaining that high percentage

191of our operating budget directly in the classroom. I want to close us out this evening with some kind of six overarching highlights. Um, if you remember nothing else about the fiscal year 26 budget, we can remember maybe these six things. Um, our total budget is over a billion dollars and our operating budget is around $615 million. We are a huge system. We can do anything. We just can't do everything. Um, our fiscal year 26 budget is balanced. By making some hard choices and doing some prioritization this year, we no longer have an operating budget deficit. An operating budget again remember is the supplemental general and general fund budgets. That doesn't mean that we have all the funding that we need in every other budget. We have capital outlay budgets, right? Where um no matter what

192we do, we're never going to be able to afford all the needs of our facilities and our buildings. Um but our operating budget is healthy and we no longer have an operating budget deficit. So that's a great highlight for fiscal year 26. B state aid per pupil is up to um which is a 4.4% increase over um the previous fiscal year. We have the lowest mill rate in 15 years at 51.387 mills. Our compensation package on average for our benefited employees through all of our negotiating units outpaced the three-year average CPI increase. So that compensation package this year was about 5.47% 47% over that 4.4 that we received through Bay State aid. And another piece of great news, we are anticipating and are fully budgeting our federal funds for fiscal year 26. Um so this

193evening um I am hoping that u we're we're recommending to the board that you authorize the publication of the notice of hearing and the notice of exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2526 school year in the paper of record. and we'll establish the budget hearing and the revenue neutral rate hearing for Monday, September 8th at 6 pm at AAC. Um, and with that, I will pause for questions and discussion. >> So, uh, I want to say one thing before we jump into questions. First off, great job. Um, very clear and informative. Um, one of the ways that this this discussion um, especially I'm thinking of essentially from you know January until now like especially in the bond issue vote um, is about the the term that's used a lot is that it's you

194know these taxes it's hurting taxpayers. Taxpayers are really hurting. Um, so you need to lower the mill because taxpayers are getting hurt and you hear that word a lot hurt, right? Um, I don't believe that most Witchans only solely care about the dollars that they pay in their escrow. I believe most Witchans care about their community and their their fellow man and their other kids in our community. So, if all you define in your life as this hurts or this doesn't hurt is your bank account, yeah, sure, okay, maybe this hurts. I don't think that that's how most people define it, though. And so keeping a mill rate that's flat I think does is responsive to feedback we've gotten. Um but we exist as an organization to teach kids to read to help prepare them

195for their future to get them future ready to get them jobs in our community. That's that's what we need to do. That's what we're here for. Um and not one taxpayer is hurt if we do that really really well. Right? They don't get hurt by that. It actually benefits them because crime goes down in our community. Our economy grows. We have more uh lower employ lower unemployment, uh more economic development, lots of in intangibles that are that are benefited. Plus, in a district where 80% of the kids are are experiencing poverty, um you know, 4,800 experiencing homelessness, a thousand are experiencing uh foster care, um 20% aren't speaking English. those kids benefit even more if we do a really really great job and add even more to our community. And I don't think anyone's hurt

196by that. I don't think the reality is we're not hurt when we invest in that way. Now, it's our job to be really good stewards of that money and spend it wisely and do do good work with it and show outcomes. letters training I think is a great example of when you infuse dollars into a system we can take those dollars and we can make things happen quickly and uh we turn the tra trajectory of the district pretty quickly with that investment and that came from Dr. Thompson and the team before me that all predated me. But I think it's proof that investment matters, right? That it isn't hurting us to pay $8 more unless we only define hurt by our pocketbook. And I think most witchins, probably the vast majority of witchons, define it

197in a different way other than how it gets framed a lot of times in the newspaper or in the media or on Facebook comments or whatever. So, um I think it's important that we we continue to talk about value. You did a great job of it. Um but think of the the themes tonight. Uh second step, we fund that out of at risk dollars, right? That's directly impacted. Um the the ability to do that is directly impacted by the funding that we get. Without the funding, the taxpayer may feel less hurt, but we aren't able to do those great things that uh Hannah and the team talked about tonight. And the same thing with the individualized plans of study. So, investment matters. Um, and I just wanted to articulate that because I think um, again,

198walking away, these key points I think are really important. Um, but we have to define, we have to make sure that we're framing this as the value that we provide to the to the community, that we're we're genuinely helping kids uh, get ready for their future. We're not 100% successful, but um, we're we're successful more times than not, and we're we're increasing our outcomes and showing it. So, thank you. Thank you, Kelly. >> Thank you, Kelly. You know, all of us sitting up here at this table are taxpayers. We pay taxes, too. And I can't get this. Okay, there we go. I think after the um testimonies that we heard tonight, I think that that helps I think it helps put um what we're investing our money into. It's people, its children, and it is

199their future. And I think that in that frame that makes that makes me happy because that's where I want to see my tax dollars go to right now. I don't need to talk about anything else. I just want to talk about the kids and I want the second step is great. I would love to see that. I do want to ask that the um the state aid per pupil is 5,615. That's what the state gives us. What do we then add to that? What is the total aid that we give per pupil? >> Uh so I don't So that's state aid and that's what we get per pupil in terms of the funding the general fund budget. >> But that's not all it costs for a student. Isn't there a total figure somewhere? >> So

200like per pup of cost >> 17,000 is it 18,000? >> Is that making sense? And it's it is in the >> we break it down by building in the building needs assessment the book that you have. >> We list out the per pupil cost for each school. >> So So it's different. >> So you have an average out >> um >> the average amuse. >> Let's get a calculator. Yes, >> it's Yeah, some of our schools are are more efficient, right? >> efficient than others, but it factors in special ed and all sorts of things. So, >> so budgeted funds, which is again not all state aid, it's got federal funds, nutrition services, special ed, were budgeted for $21,000 per pupil. Um, in terms of the average amount that we spend per student, again, it

201depends vastly on the school, the size of the school, if it's a high school, if it's an elementary school, it can be anywhere from um, $9,000 per student to um, I would say on average $15,000. If we're just talking about operating dollars, so not debt payments, not capital outlay payments, um, you know, for technology or one-time facilities. We also have some schools that cost us 80 to$90,000 per student, um, because they're staffed onetoone. So, um, it just depend it it's such a wide array depending on which school you're in, which kind of goes back to that it's not a one-sizefitsall solution. Some schools can operate with less staff more efficiently because maybe they have a bunch of veteran teachers. Um, maybe they have really great programming. Some of our schools have a lot of high

202needs kids that need ESOL supports that have IEPs. Um so the amount per student um on average it's you know it's it lives somewhere for our district between 13 and $15,000 per school. Um but that is such a wide difference depending on what type of school, what what's the demographics at that school, what are the needs in that school. >> And I think it's really important that we um verbalize that at this table. Uh because what the community just now heard was they pay $21,000 per student. So that's every student. And I think that if we follow that up in the framework of per building the needs and I think there's going to be more transparency and more understanding from the community which might you know oh okay now I understand there's such a lack

203of understanding not necessarily communication but understanding they these are regular people they go to work 8 to5 Monday through Friday and they don't understand why is it $21,000 per student but it's not that for every student. So, I I wanted to just make that clear from the table here so that everybody in Witchah land could hear that. >> Well, and that's the budget per student. We don't always necessarily spend all of the budget either, right? We budget for um some extraordinary circumstances, too. So, there's some wiggle room in the budget. Um and I I have two points of clarity I'd like to take the opportunity to make there. Um if anyone is interested in going to find a particular building and the amount that we spend per student out of the operating budget, those links

204are all on our um our web page. So on the financial services web page, all of the building needs assessments are posted. So you can actually go and see the responses that each individual school provided for the building needs assessments as well as the KSDE accountability report. and that has a whole slew of statistics and demographics. Um, as well as the average amount that it costs um, per student to run that school. Um, and on the back side is also all of the state assessment data broken out by different demographics as well. So, it's an excellent resource for the community if they want a one-stop shop to be able to see what the building in their neighborhood wants and needs from them and also if they're curious about the the funding it requires to fund

205that particular school. >> Thank you, Addie. Great presentation. >> Thank you. Um my second so my second point I did want to just chat about um your appendix one which is really the purpose of tonight's budget presentation. We've got to get this um code 999 notice of hearing published in the paper next Wednesday and so we'll need your approval to do that this evening. Um I think it we made mention right uh and I kind of went through the mills maybe I can get connected again. Um, so we went through the mill rates tonight, right? And 20 mills out of our 51 we have no control of. And so if we look at what that is levying locally, that's $5.7 million um that we have no control over. It it has to get levied. It

206has to go to the state. So looking at last year's revenues, and this is on your appendix one on your um your exceeding the revenue neutral rate at the very bottom, it gives you the total taxes levied excluding the general fund. So you have last year's figure which is around $129.6 million and this year's figure which is $131 million. Um so we're about 9.8 in terms of total property taxes that we are levying over what we did last year. If you remember from our July meeting, we also went over the fact that state aid the state aid rates are decreasing. >> That amount of revenue was $ 8.4 million. So there's only about 1.5 million that the district is receiving locally from those advalorum property taxes. Um that's over and above what we had from

207last fiscal year. Um that that flat mill rate this year is um just kind of keeping us at a at the level to be able to afford what we had the year before. Because we've found efficiencies because we prioritize programs. we were able to fund nine of the the 10 top things by finding efficiencies and and places in the budget um to refocus dollars on student outcomes. So, I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify that point, too. >> Thank you, Kathy. Julie, >> I just want to uh piggyback on uh what Superintendent Beiel said about and about thinking most of Witchans are are not hurt. And I would also go above and beyond that to say that I think most witchons are um are pleased with the the many results that they receive from

208Witchah Public Schools. The many things that we listed um that that are kind of that are that are very tangible. They seem like intangibles, but are very positive community results from the investment that we make in public schools. And to go back to your um example that you've put for us relative to the medium home appraisal value, um you know, giving up two Starbucks coffee coffees a month, um covers >> Just one now. Okay. Uh, giving up one Starbucks coffee a month um gives me as an individual taxpayer that investment in our public schools and in our community and in our children, which is what we as board of education members care about. We care about the our kids. We care about um all of our kids in um in our community and we care

209about improving their um their their possibilities in life from education. So, I would like to make a motion that we approve your recommendation. You'll have to put it up for me in order for me to it's a long >> to repeat what it is, but um I move that district um that we do those things that are on your slide >> just for the record. Can you go ahead and read that for us? >> Okay, I'll go ahead and read it. Um, we the that I move that the that we authorize that the board authorizes the publication of the notice of hearing and the notice of exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2025 2026 school year in the paper of record and establish the budget hearing and revenue neutral rate hearing for Monday,

210September 8th at 6 p.m. at AAC 9003 South Edgemore, Witchaw, Kansas 67218. >> Second. >> Motion made by Julie, seconded by Stan. We still have further discussion, but we do have a motion on the table. >> And before Stan goes, I want to piggyback on something, Julie. So, we're piggybacking on each other now, just to give some other perspective. So, for the capital outlay, uh, 8 mills, $200,000 house, that's the house we kind of use as the example, right? That's $184 um a year for a taxpayer. So if we wanted to replace HVAC at an elementary school, it takes 16,300 $200,000 homes to do that. So that eight mills and as you add these up, right, it seems like lots and lots of money. That eight mills for cappa outlet only gets us not only

211$184 for a family is a lot of money. But when you start $184 doesn't buy much when we need to fix a lot of things. >> So just to give perspective, you'd need 2100 uh other homeowners at the same cost to replace windows at one elementary school. And those aren't our big schools. So >> the context is important, right? We talk about big numbers, but the context is important for the individual. Um, and some pe people pay more than that, some people pay less than that, but um, and that's just in one year. So, keep that in mind. >> Thank you, Julie Stan. >> Um, no, I was just, uh, in to make a motion. >> Okay, very good. Melody, >> yes. I just have a couple questions and it's back on which screen am

212I on? Number 19. Um so when you look at the total budget of 1 billion >> 900 1 billion 9,000 >> million 1 billion 9 million >> 1 billion 9 million >> 8564 >> and60 that difference is $39. 999,196 and 403. >> Then for the operating budget, we're at the 614 million 651,138 with a difference of 20,000 20,212,027. Can you all I need to understand is how do we make up that difference again? So the operating budget, that second line is part of the total budget. >> Okay. >> Um when we talk about operating budget, that's where we get all of the state aid related to waitings. So all of the waitings for atrisisk funds, special education, CTE, bilingual, they all go through general fund. And so we recognize um those expenditures through that operating

213budget. Um we just take out transfers. So that that net of transfers is the important thing to remember there. So that $20 million is just part of the total operating budget. The other pieces are made up of capital outlay budget increases, federal funds increases, um the decrease to capers. So there's some ups and downs uh that take you from that 20.2 million up to that $39.2 million. Um so it's just slight changes in funds. Um some of those were listed out on the next slide so you can see the the ups and the downs. I >> a lot of them are federal funding sources. So like nutrition services is mostly revenue for student meal fees. So that's not like state aid or property taxes that comes to us directly from the federal government. Um there's

214some pieces of special education that are federal funds. You've got your actual federal funds budget that saw an increase of $2.2 million. Capers had a decrease. So that's not a figure that's included in the operating budget, >> right? How did we make up the difference? That is there is a difference. There's a $39 million million plus difference. Correct. >> So 20.2 million of that is from that base state aid increase local property taxes. So the remaining is I would I would sum it up to federal funds. >> Oh. So okay. So if I'm looking at the budget book, where do I find >> outlay? Um, so you you'll see it on we've tried to make it simple because if you're looking at the budget book, they don't make it easy. They don't give you a

215figure of last year's budget to this year's budget. They give you last year's actuals to this year's budget. And so, um, the slide that's following that total budget net of transfers where we've listed out some specific funds, um, that's where we tried to make it a lot more clear to where some of those big swings were coming from. um within that right at risk, special education, pre-K, bilingual, CTE are all kind of part of that operating budget figure. So changes in capital outlay, bond and interest, federal funds, nutrition services are where where you will find that um that other 19 million or so in the change in the budget, but you will not find that anywhere explicitly on your code 999 because they do prior they do prior year actuals to current year budget. Um,

216so we try to just give a more clear picture of how much the budget is changing because if you look at the swings between actuals and budget, they're much larger. And so this just is makes more sense. >> Okay. So for not only clarification, but for simplification, if if an individual that's listening, how do they see that? How do they understand how we cured that difference? Because there's a difference in last year's budget and this year's and 2025 and 2020 2025 and 2026. >> It's an increase. We're getting more funding. >> We're receiving additional >> That's what I needed to hear. >> Yes. >> I Yeah. So, I'm just saying that's a difference. It doesn't mean that it's a deficit. And I said cure, but that's what I needed to hear and understand was and

217I think anyone else because if you're looking and you see the difference, you're wondering, okay, so how did how did we make it up? Where where did it come from? And so you're telling me where to find it? Where's what's the majority line item? What's the majority of where we're getting these dollars from? Besides, I understand four 4.7% increase in per pupil um enrollment. What else? >> So, all of our budget, right, is funded by taxes of some sort. >> Yes. >> Sales tax, state income tax, federal income tax, local property taxes. We have a very small proportion that's from private donations or interest income. Um so, when we calculate our budget, it's all as a product of enrollment. We get state aid, we levy local property taxes. Um, state aid is a combination of

218property taxes, sales tax, and income taxes. And then we have all of our federal funding that comes to us, which is federal income taxes that uh come to us and filter down through pieces of legislation. So, um, in some way, shape, or form, all the revenue is being generated because some sort of product of enrollment, and we're receiving funds from different sources depending on which fund it's from. and most of that. Let's see if I'm going back to number 20, then that's where I find the additional dollars. That's I just >> You got one more slide >> to 21. >> Sorry. There you go. Does this add up to >> Yeah, >> this is just specific funds. This is not all your funds, right? It's not all >> because I added it and it did.

219It's not Yeah, it's short. Okay. So, that's what I understand now. And for anyone else that might have been listening, I think it's just important for um for us to be as clear as possible and then to simplify it as much as possible because most people are not going to be able to you know to actually keep to understand how we get to the bottom dollar. So the basic is our budget increased. We received more income from these different pots and that's how we're able to actually balance. >> That's right. >> Thank you. >> And I am some people because I am so grateful that Addie is here to explain this too because I I'm one of the people that's >> and I am too. I mean, you know, I I I'll ask a question

220quickly before I leave trying to figure it out and say, >> hm, >> I'm going to ask something that I think is in the same vein that I'm hoping we have like the Susan Willis telepathy here, you can pick up what I'm putting down. Um, so on if you go back one slide, the difference uh that on the operation operating budget, the $20 million increase um is actually only a 3.4% 4% increase, >> but we gave a staff raise that was well more than that. That's right. >> So, how did we do that? >> So, um again, by prioritizing programs, making some very strategic choices. Um I think you'll recall back, I think it was my May presentation, we went over the 50 plus admin center FTEEs that we reduced in the budget this year.

221um that allowed us the wiggle room to both invest in some of those uh the top 10 initiatives as well as offer that wage package to staff. Um so and again it's 3.4% because we're always declining in enrollment. So even if the Bay State aid is increasing by 4.4% this year with a 1% decline in enrollment, we're only going to see that 3.4%. Um, and so it's it's a a strategic choices always every single year doing the work to become more efficient so we can invest dollars in things that are going to impact classrooms, which is staff. It's staff salaries. Um, staff salaries make up 70 to 75% of our budget. Um, so by making those choices every single year, we were and this year specifically, we were able to outpace that percent increase on

222state aid um by by doing those things. >> Thank you. Yes, great answer. And so by finding efficiencies uh throughout the past year, we've been able to give more of that back to all staff, not just teachers, but all all staff uh that are benefited. Um and I think I can speak for for the both of us and uh for the leadership team that this is something we'll continue to do u moving forward. We'll continue to look for efficiencies. Um we need paychecks to get out the door. We need air conditioning to get fixed when it needs fixed. um we need uh food for kids for breakfast and lunch, right? We need some of these things. So, there's always going to be some operational costs and some operational overhead. Um but we have found uh

223ways we can either uh outsource at a cheaper rate or or insource. Honestly, it's things that we used to outsource that we could hire somebody to do. Um we we'll continue to look for all those efficiencies so we continue to become uh leaner, more efficient, um and therefore more impactful for kids. So, And those are some of the complexities that um we as the largest school district um in the region come across. And then when you when how do we get this information out? I can remember us talking about that at one of our um workshops. How do we simplify it? And I think Kathy always gets back down the brass tax, you know, the just the basics. How do we make this as basic and as simple as possible because it is a very

224complex institution that we have here? Um but by trying to simplify it I think also helps us to be more not only transparent but also to build trust in this community because most people once again simply do not understand andor um make up things you know it's they it's just it's a challenge. So thank you So, [Music] >> school finance legislation was not designed to be simple and so I am open to any recommendations on >> this was the simple version. >> This is the simple This is the simple version. This is the simple version. This is the simple version. >> I could make this real simple. Uh Kelly made it very simple for me when I was trying to really understand this. If you go and you buy something for $100 and you're going

225to pay 7.5% in tax, it's going to be $7.50. If you go buy something for $200, your tax rate still 7.5, but you're going to pay more because you bought more in what it cost. So, that was that simplified it for me. And and it I am not a math wiz like you are. And so, you know, thank you for that very elementary um vision for me to be able to go ahead and grasp it and understand it. And Hazel's laughing at me. >> No. And and and the question is then, did your taxes go up? >> No. >> Right. >> Well, you paid $15 and it depends on how you look at it. So, but the tax rate didn't go up. >> I wouldn't had to anything. >> But, but for you all, what

226what you have the ability to control, you have controlled. So, taxes didn't go up, right? that you don't get to control the valuation, right? That's not up to you. So, not at all. >> Okay, Addie, I do have a few questions for you. Um, and these are just for clarification purposes for anybody watching or listening right now. Um, can you explain operating budget versus total budget? >> Yep. Um, operating budget, uh, those are revenues specifically related to just our general fund and supplemental general fund. Um so both of those are limited by a product of enrollment. Um and then both are supported by um well the LOB then is supported by local property tax payments. Those two funds uh make up how we fund our weighted funds. So special education at risk bilingual CTE prek

227um that's how we fund those those things is that operating budget. And so that figure is when we talk about new money to um invest in things like new initiatives or staff salaries through a wage package. Um those are the funds that we have available to to do those things. So it's important to break those out um because that makes up the operating budget which is all the day-to-day activities that go on in our schools. The remainder the um remainder of the total budget includes things like federal funds and things like capital outlay uh bond and interest which is debt payments. And so those don't those aren't necessarily day-to-day activities, nutrition services and um federal funds that deploy some intervention services and some extraordinary um things for our students and staff are. But um yeah,

228it's uh it's um I'm sorry I'm losing my words here. Um it's it's important to to to find out what the difference is. Um yeah, I've lost my words, so I'm just going to pause there. >> No, you're good. It's it it gets late sometimes. Uh do you have your code 99 sheet out? Okay, excellent. I just want to go through a few line items that have seen some significant growth. >> Sure. and discuss those for a minute. So, >> first is I'm gonna go by the code line first because I think that might be easier to find. So, code line 15 >> and it's labeled virtual education. >> That's right. >> And we are seeing uh a few million dollar growth in that line item. Can you explain that? >> That's right. Um so,

229we budget the cash in the virtual funds every single year. So that way if the virtual programs have needs to purchase some additional technology for students um they have the budget available to do that. Also there's a cap on enrollment and if we are able to accept some additional students in the virtual program by bringing on new teachers we want to make sure that we have the room in the budget to add those teacher salaries um to you know as enrollment is panning out and and families are being welcomed back to schools um we can add staff salaries if needed if the program expands. Virtual is one that fluctuates through the course of the year and so we may get to the middle of the year and have more students being interested in transferring over

230to the virtual program. So we just like to budget that cash to make sure we have room to cover all of the initiatives that might come into play over the uh upcoming fiscal year. >> Okay. The next line item is code 22 and that's labeled extraordinary school program and we're seeing a significant increase in that. So and again on the code 999 column uh the the middle column is last year's actuals. So it's not necessarily budget to budget and that this is the one complaint I have about the code 999 it makes it challenging. Um if we look at how much the extraordinary programs fund increase from last year's budget it would not be as significant. Um this particular fund is extraordinary school program. It's latch key. Um we refer to it as latch key

231in Witchaw public school. So it's our afterchool care program. Again, we want to make sure we have wiggle room in the budget should additional programs be needed at different schools or if a particular program is um needs to grow, we have room in the budget to add staff to support the program. If they have some one-time needs related to new um toys, equipment, technology, um field trips, etc. that they've got the space in the budget to do that. It's a completely parent-f funed program, so we don't use any operating dollars to support that afterchool care program. Um so it it maintains itself. >> Very good. Thank you. Uh the next line item is code 26 labeled professional development. >> Professional development um is something that is uh called out from our building needs assessment work.

232Uh you saw that in terms of all the responses that principles gave. Training for teachers and pareducators is one of the top responses that we get every single year. So when we have the opportunity to put some urine cash over into a fund, professional development is a very easy choice. It allows um the our assistant superintendent of learning services to invest in some additional training initiatives, right? Um that that cohort of of teachers that still need to go and get their letters certifications for their licenses. It's not free. We have to put funds somewhere in order to fund that. Um and so cash can go into that professional development fund. Um, we want to again make sure that if there is a one-time initiative, a big summer training, um, a big investment in letters is

233a great example. We were very fortunate to be able to use funds to do that the first time around. Um, but as needed, if there were additional one-time training needs that were coming up in this fiscal year, we want to make sure we have the room in the budget to fund those. Um, and so we've we've just budgeted all the cash in that fund to ensure that we have a decision-making authority to to do those onetime things. >> Okay. Very good. The next item is code 35 labeled gifts and grants. >> Um gifts and grants is a combination of multiple different things. So we do receive um some state funded grants. So the mental health intervention team or MHIT you might have heard it called is a um state grant that we receive in that

234fund. So we get some reimbursement for mental health liaison as well as some pass through payments to our community mental health care centers. Um, so those grants come in there. Schools also receive donations. And so as schools receive donations over $1,000 or more, those come down and we budget them so schools can spend them in the upcoming fiscal year. So they have um a large cash balance of kind of prepaid donations at their discretion to spend for unrestricted purposes. Um, you may have heard in the last year or so we got the Witchaw Public Schools Foundation up and running. And so we're very excited to have budgeted some extra dollars in this particular fund as the foundation is starting to grant some of their first awards out to our schools and our district. Um, and

235so we're anticipating some revenues as well from the foundation that make up part of that $15 million budget. So this sheet shows the different funds and the codes, but it does not show the funding source. So I just want to be clear for people watching that this these could be federal funds, these could be local funds, these could be state funds. These are all the funds that are are funneled in for totals. >> That's right. >> Okay. Um those are the questions that I have. Uh seeing no further questions from the board, we do have a motion on the table. And so last call for any other questions. Okay, seeing none, uh we will go ahead and vote on the motion. Um all in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. Thank you, board members.

236Uh Latona, next item, >> consent. >> Okay. and 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 of 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 only w is always welcome. So is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion made motion made by Stan, seconded by Julie. And before

237we vote, uh I think Knock, did you have a question or something that you wanted to say? >> Yes, it concerns uh P1230 accept acceptable device and communication use by staff, students, and the district. Uh this consent item is moving the uh previous personal electronic device policy uh to a new place. there's not going to be any changes to the personal electronic device policy. Uh this consent item was introduced because of uh changes to the student code of conduct uh policy. So I preface with that by saying that uh personally uh when it comes to personal electronic devices, I do support a billto bell uh personal electronic device policy for all grade levels. Uh if you look um at the youth mental health crisis, if you look at the literacy crisis, if you look at

238the nationwide declines in standardized test scores even before the pandemic, much uh a significant portion of that is directly implicated uh by the advent of social media, by the increasing digitalization of all aspects, all facets of uh life um and society and just like this commodification of attention attention and time by uh big tech uh just based on the research um you know the literature I've read the experts I've talked with my own research I I think I've increasingly come to the uh realization and conclusion that our school district does need a more comprehensive does need a more restrictive uh policy when it comes to personal uh devices that includes uh storage requirements. Um I will say though that uh from a transparency perspective, from a communications perspective, from an implementation perspective, it would it

239is too late uh to make any substantive changes to the person electronic device policy for the 2025 2026 uh semester, specifically this upcoming uh semester. But uh long term I am hoping our district, our board of education can have some meaningful dialogue and uh meaningful followup and actions in terms of how do we address uh you know the role of problematic technology usage uh and its effects on academic outcomes, its effects on behavioral outcomes, its effects on uh physiological uh physical health outcomes. wanted to um thank you knock a lot of that was shared at the workshop um and just for clarity sake and when we use the the terminology bell-to-bell um the current policy is elementary and middle school essentially is bell-to-bell even though we don't call it that that's that's the policy that

240we currently have so really what we're talking about is high school I think um just to just to summarize a little bit um and I think we're very open to as far as staff go whatever whatever feedback data uh information we need together for the board to make decisions in the next few months, we're we're happy to do that. >> Okay, very good. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Um, and seeing Oh, Kathy, >> thanks. >> I was just going to wait. I want to echo what Knox said. Um, I did some additional research on cell phone use and if we want to be in alignment with our strategic plan number three of um, safety, there is studies that show that cell phone use for our kids during the school day um

241because it's all day then basically is is harmful for them academically, intellectually um, and I I I echo knock again, bell to bell um, just get rid of them And the feedback we got from Dr. Hatfield said that teachers were very happy about not having a cell phone in their class. It's a distraction to the students as we all know. It's a distraction to the teacher. We all know and it's even a distraction to the child that's using the phone. And um I think that we'd see a lot of behavioral issues decrease without those cell phones. And um there's only 9% in in this one study that I found who perceived positive effects from students using cell phones in in schools. So I just wanted to echo what Knox said and I am in favor

242of further dialoguing this in the next several months perhaps making a change in policy for the second semester of the school year. And just to be clear, uh, as the superintendent said, basically elementary and middle school, we have not been using the terminology of bell-to-bell, but it is a no cell phone policy at at those levels. So maybe part of the discussion is we adopt that same language to clear up any kind of confusion and create some clarity around that. But we did have a pretty robust discussion at Friday's workshop regarding cell phones. And so we will continue those conversations as we move forward. So seeing no further questions from the board, we do have a motion uh to approve consent agenda. For all those in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. Latona. Next

243item. >> All right, Kelly. >> Well, I have uh used up all my talking chips tonight. I feel like I've uh I've talked a lot. I have used all my words. I just had one last thing that I didn't have a chance to say that I wanted to well two things I guess. Um an update on staffing uh heading into uh first day of school which is next week. Um we currently have 66 vacancies. We have a couple in the pipeline. Hope to get that number under 60 u before we start the school year. Um we've hired 355 new teachers for this school year which is a great number but still have some vacancies. Uh and this time of year we we typically have vacancies. Um, so we we have a lot of long-term subs

244that that are in the pipeline and ready to fill those roles. But that's a question that I get asked a lot. And the other thing is um our second annual it's going to be a rally at the roundhouse this year instead of rally on the river um is Wednesday at 1:00. Um and if you all want to come at 12 12:30 um there'll be a WPS has talent competition with some singing. Um there'll be trivia, there'll be frivvality, dancing, all sorts of fun stuff. Um frivolity, yes. Um and we do have an exciting keynote. Dr. John Eert is the uh uh he's from Baylor University. He leads the school of educational leadership there. He's going to be our keynote and talk about um happiness and joy and grit and optimism and how to instill that

245in our kids. So uh excited about having him on hand on Wednesday. So with that and then um all teachers are back tomorrow and students are back uh Thursday. So we're here. It's it's it's it's it's time. It's time. So thank you. That's all I have. >> Very good. Thank you, Kelly. Uh do any board members have any new business and board of education reports? >> Just welcome back to all teachers, students, staff, everyone. I'll be so happy to see everyone in the buildings. So happy. >> Thank you, Melody. Julie, >> um yeah. Um last month, um I asked Superintendent Bill to provide all of us information on enrollments at the high schools. And in following he he sent that information out to all of us very promptly. and in a follow-up conversation with him,

246I've uh found out that there has already been some implementation in regard to that and then also there are some plans for the future. So I just wanted Superintendent Beiel to share that information. >> Yeah. Um so many things happened that I we sometimes forget to update you all on all the things, but um Lauren, I'm going to call on you. At Northeast Magnet, we added five teachers this year. And is that right? So, um, one of the things we've been talking about over the past couple years is increasing the capacity at Northeast Magnet. Um, well, not the capacity, it has capacity, increasing the enrollment. Um, so we've done that um, in a strategic way over the past two years, adding teaching staff to that. Um, and I believe we'll have a freshman class of

247200. 225. We've added we've accepted 225 freshman in Northeast Magnet. This will be the fourth consecutive year we've accepted 225. So with the goal with some attrition that we end up with Northeast Magnet being right around 800 kids total. >> Thank you. So that is something I'm not sure you guys have been updated on. Um the idea being, you know, our our enrollment trend has been really um somewhat interesting because we have uh for our high school numbers um we have increased enrollment. Um last year was our biggest uh group of high school students um in since 2000. So in 25 years um we're we're well above 13,000 high school students. So in order to help with some of these uh over capacity issues both at heights and southeast we've done that in order to

248absorb some of them. Now will that be a perfect science as far as boundary goes? Probably probably not exactly but it does help. Um and then as you know this this fall we're going to be looking at uh boundaries in a general sense um and talking about um how to monitor that. We'll probably wait till September 20th to see what numbers look like, who's actually showing up to school um as far as enrollment goes, and then make some determinations about where to go from there. So, I'm glad you brought that up because I'm not sure if that update was out there for everybody. So, >> Thank you, Julie. Kathy, >> yeah, I just want to say again, Melody, you're right. Welcome back to a new school year. I'm excited about this. I I think this

249is going to be a great year. I I just feel like we're turning the corner from those C days, the COVID days. We're turning the corner with that and and that makes me excited and I mean I get to go back to school, too, because I'm I'm a teacher and I get to get into the classroom this week and I'm excited. >> Very good. Uh seeing no other comments, Latona, next item. >> I'd like to make a motion to >> motion made by Kathy, seconded by Melody. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes 70. We are adjourned. Thank you.