001Okay, welcome. The June 9th, 2025 board of education meeting is called to order. The board welcomes everyone present and the Witchaw public schools will be the premier district of choice and inspire each student and staff member to thrive and become future ready within the greater community. This is a business meeting of the board of education and we are pleased that you've taken time to join us for the roll call. All board members are present. And in honor of our moment of silence, I wanted to take a moment to recognize a few of our community members that have recently passed. Uh one uh being my father who I'm very close to uh passed recently. And then another one that was uh an intricgral part of our community here at USD 259 uh was Dr. William Polite.
002And so our community in the greater Witchaw area has lost two great men that were very active in our community. My dad was a very frequent member and attender uh of our board of education meetings. Him and my mom attended almost every one of them. Um so a lot of staff members knew my folks, knew my dad. Um and Dr. Dr. William Polite was one of the first staff members to reach out uh after the passing of my dad. And so with that, please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Our color guard tonight is from the Heights High School, Jerotci. Please stand for the presentation of the colors followed by the pledge of allegiance. Ma'am, permission to post the colors. You may post the colors. Thank you, ma'am. Order. Breathe. Good. I
003pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Right. Nice. [Applause] Okay, thank you. High the Gerotc color guard. Latona, first item, good news, spring athletics update. Stand up to the podium. to the stand. We got some shy guys up here. So, uh, thank you, President Alers, board members, and Superintendent Bellofield. Um, as you guys know, my thoughts that athletics is one of our district's uh largest advoc advocacy programs and I just wanted to give you um some good news about performances that we had at the state level this spring. So, we had four athletes qualify for boys state golf. Four girls qualify for state tennis uh girls state tennis. 18 uh qualify for
004girls state swim and dive. 23 girls uh qualified for the state track meet and 18 boys qualified for the state track meet. Out of those participants um the placements that we received was in girls swim and dive we had two eighth places 7th and 1/5th. In girls track we had 1/8 7th 16th 3 fifths two fourths 4/3 and 1 second. In boys track we had 1/8 37th 14th 1/3 and 1 second. I swear that these are not measurements off of a off of a uh uh measuring tape. Um we did have uh two state champions in the boys track and one state champion in girls track. So with me are the two gentlemen um and coach um the two gentlemen uh that uh that and I'm going to read their accomplishments. Um, so Dejon Colbert,
005raise your hand so so everybody can hear. Um, so he's from Southeast and he won the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.52 seconds. And then we have Tristan Cross from East. Um he won the boys long jump uh with a distance of 22 feet 4 in. He also placed fourth in the 100 meter dash and placed seventh in the triple jump. Um on the girls side, uh Isabelle Enwitch Einitch, I'm sorry, said it wrong. Isabelle Einwitch from Heights. Um, she won the girls 400 meter dash with a time of 1 minute 22 seconds, 22.89 seconds. And she won the girls wheelchair 1600 meters with a time of 5 minutes 37 uh.03 seconds and was uh second in the girls wheelchair in the 100 meter dash. So, I want to recognize her as well.
006So, thank you for your guys' time and thank you for supporting our athletics on all your hard work. Patona, next item, overview and recognition of 2024 25 grants. Welcome, Audi. Thank you. Um, well, good evening, esteemed board members. Um it is uh certainly a rare occasion that I get to stand in front of you with good news around school finance. So I um saw this agenda item and knew I had to open it up for us this evening. Um so tonight is one of these special moments where I get to bring you good news. Um in a landscape where funding rarely meets the full scope of our students needs, our grants department works tirelessly to seek out opportunities that help close that gap. This year, their efforts paid off in a big way. Through stat
007strategic planning and cross-dep departmental collaboration, the team has secured over $20 million in competitive grant funding. These dollars directly support student, staff, and innovation across our district, and we are proud to highlight that work this evening. I'd now like to welcome Holly Wilson, who will share more details about all of the grant opportunities secured on Witchaw Public Schools behalf. Hello board members again. Uh thank you Addie. I appreciate that. Uh these grants that were that we have secured this year will improve facilities, save utilities, enhance school safety, and expand after school programs, support academic achievement, and bring cutting edge technology into classrooms across the district. But the grants department doesn't do this work alone, and that's why we're here. These successes are the result of strong collaboration across departments and schools. Today, we'd like to
008recognize a few of our key stakeholders and collaborators because we know that teamwork truly makes the dream work. Together, we're bringing innovation, equity, and opportunity to students across the district, closing funding gaps and ensuring our students are future ready. First up, I'd like to bring up Denise Fuko for school improvement grants. It's over $2 million in funding to um is it 52 of our schools, I believe? Oh, 32. Well, I'll take 52, but come on up, Denise. Good evening, board members. Um, so I will tell you about some school improvement grants that we wrote. School improvement. You guys have heard about some of our schools that are CSI, ISI schools. The state gave us an opportunity to write some grants to help support some initiatives. Um, I was able to write 53 grants. We got
00951 of them, uh, totaling $2.7 million. and it will affect 30 of our schools. Some of our schools got several different grants. Um and some of the initiatives that these grants are there for some behavior interventionists. Um PAO as you guys all are aware of. Um we have a elementary CSI is coach for um a group of our schools at the GAP program at Gateway. High school mentors, middle school mentors. Um, we were able to also do night school at CET and I believe it was West High and Peacekeeper training. If any of you had a chance to go and see that at one of our school, a couple of our middle schools this year, we'll have four more schools. And then we also were able to get a secondary CSI, ISI coach from those
010funds. So, we look forward to those grants for next year. Would you tell us what CSI and ISI mean? Oh, yes. Sorry. Um the CSI is the comprehensive school improvement and ISI is the intensive support and improvement schools. Um we have groups of those and some of them were actually um ATS schools which were um I forget what that stands for but then the TSI schools which are targeted. So it wasn't just ISI CSI but it's any of our schools on improvement. So thank you so much. Thank you. Next up, I'm going to bring up Lauren Goken. Um Lauren is our program specialist over 21st century community learning centers and she oversees our stealth program. These grants are the cornerstone of our afterchool programming, giving students a safe and engaging space to grow academically and
011socially. We're proud to have added a new site and bringing um bringing on uh urbaning another site. So, please welcome Lauren Goken. Good evening. So this week we have two 21st century community learning centers that are going to be presented to the state board of education on Wednesday. They're being recommended for funding and we're looking forward to that funding coming through. These are going to fund stealth after school for Washington which is currently has a stealth program and then Cessna which is going to create a new stealth program. This is about $1.25 million to run each of the programs for five years and both of the programs will begin in August if these grants are both awarded. Next up, I want to bring up Mr. Chris Esme again. Um, he is going to talk a
012few about the $40,000 grant-f funed initiative designed to train and support some of our coaches. Well, hello again. Um, so before I start, I want to acknowledge Tracy Um, and she's not here tonight. she had some other things going on. Uh but she's been a driving force in bringing this program to USD259. Um so we're pleased to share with USD259 that we were awarded the grant through the Susan Crown Exchange as part of the National Million Coach Challenge. This initiative was designed to elevate the quality of coaching across the country by equipping coaches with evidence-based training modules developed by the Ohio State University. They made me say the Ohio State University, by the way. Um, these modules are uh being implemented nationwide and and we are proud to be on the forefront of this effort.
013The grant provides $40,000 over an 18-month period with the potential for renewal. Over the past school year, we have made significant progress in laying the foundation for this program. We have received uh strong support from Quaca. We conducted a statewide survey to assess coaching needs. We presented at both the Quesacia Coach Clinic and the KITAAA state conference generating interest from districts across our state. Uh we have trained a team of trainers comprising of social workers, counselors, athletic directors, and coaches to deliver the coach beyond modules effectively. This fall, we will pilot the program with the Greater Witchaw Athletic League with plans to expand to other districts upon request. Our mentor at the Ohio State University uh has repeatedly recognized USD259 as a national leader in implementation and development of their expansion project. The rationale of
014coach beyond uh USD259 is a clear uh need to enhance coach training based on survey findings. We have identified three critical areas of focus. supporting athlete mental health, enhancing uh mental stra strategies for athletic performance, fostering an inclusive team environment. Um these topics are especially vital to our rule 10 coaches. Those are the coaches. That's a name that we use. It's a it's not really the right name, but it's a name that we all use. uh for coaches that they just coach and they do not do anything else for our district. Um who often receive the same who do not receive the same level of professional development as our certified educators. Uh we believe this program will have a lasting impact on our students and coaching staff and we're excited to lead uh this important
015work in Kansas. Thank you. Last but not least, I'm going to bring up Mr. Rob Dixon. He is going to talk about um a half a million dollar investment into a couple of our schools in the ways of technology and digital equity. Are are you going to let me talk about it or the uh I'm going to go ahead and talk about one that we shouldn't talk about, but uh we received a DOCU grant for Code to the Future to turn Spate Elementary into an immersive coding school. Uh that was in the tune of about a quarter of a million dollars. So uh that's amazing. That'll be the first immersive elementary coding school in Kansas. Um second one is uh Brooks was announced as a part of our uh commitment to Verizon Innovative Learning. Uh
016they're receiving a Bill's lab as well, which is a little over uh $450,000 in a STEM lab. you all got to visit Curtis's STEM lab. It'll be exactly the same design that actually should start construction here in about a month and a half. And then I think the third one is AI Coherence. So we uh got a $25,000 grant for um Coleman Middle School as a part of Education First. It's a national AI cohort. And through that uh those dollars, we got professional development which has been amazing. and the staff at Coleman have been great. Uh likely we'll spend that 25,000 on uh sensors and vertical farms for the classroom so that kids can use uh basically measuring environmental science mechanisms and using AI to help model uh the right environmental systems uh for the
017things that they're going to grow in those classrooms. So very good. Thank you. Oh, Rob, hold on just a second. Melody, thank you. Uh, Rob, so can you share with um with the board as well as the public what um immersive elementary coding is going to look like practically practically speaking from a student perspective. What I love about this program, Code to the Future, and what you'll see it in the next board meeting, we'll have that purchase, is uh it's a five-year plan, and in year one, that uh teacher is basically a student. Uh they're going to bring in a teacher uh that's certified that will teach coding in the core uh for that year, for those students uh one time a week for each grade level. And then the next year that teacher then
018is shadowed by that coach for a year. And so it will be basically training because you know it's hard to find computer science majors. Uh I I don't think we could ever find one for an elementary school. But this is a way that we can through intention train our teachers how to teach coding in the core. And what that will allow us to do is to build up to uh what you see opening in the fall, the hack, which is the hub for advanced computer knowledge in partnership with WSU Tech. And these students will be ready to code uh at an early age and understand what development looks like. How does it every student isn't going to want to code, but so how does it benefit all students? So it helps kids uh it helps
019our students to create but it also helps fluency in a way that I don't think we understand yet because I see computer science as maybe a way of foreign language right and so it I really think in the end we could look at computer science uh qualifying for a foreign language credit in the future uh I think that is something that as you see tools such as Vibe coding coming in the future, everyone's going to be able to create a piece of software with natural language, and we need more coders to help us uh prescribe and and look at that code whenever there's an issue. I love the concept. Um I'm going to love to see how it actually plays out in that elementary setting because I think I mean there's no doubt that you
020are correct. um that as they age that it's going to be a benefit. And it sounds as though it may be an actual um option andor elective for students as they continue to mature as to whether or not this is something that they would like to add to their their multilelist of um not specialtities but um you know skill sets. Yeah, I think you'll see some amazing outcomes because I think some of these students will create apps that we'll be able to experience and enjoy. Thanks. Rob, could you speak more to the uh uh so this essentially it's um a pipeline uh for computer science and can you uh so you talked about like at an elementary level. I'm curious like uh you know as you go from elementary to middle school to high school
021just like um you know what that longer term plan looks like. Yeah. So uh initially for elementary students a lot of it is if this then that right like there's a cause and there's an effect and it's teaching kids to understand creation in that way. Uh most of it is block coding at the elementary level. Uh but you start to get into uh traditional programming at the middle school level. I think we need to probably spend some time to think about where these kids go to and I I think we've started those conversations uh because that is a a magnet at Spate and so I think we have opportunities to do something amazing at the middle school level as well. Earlier you brought up the uh the idea of uh coding being classified as a
022foreign language. I'm wondering like from um uh in terms of like a coding being like an elective that classifies as a foreign language. Would that be like something that we could do or is that up to the state board of education for the graduation requirement? That would be up to the state. Um for us we could I mean we could offer it um you know how however we wanted to offer it as an elective. Um it would be a CTE credit which is also a requirement for u graduation. But as far as specifically for a foreign language that that decision doesn't lie with us. So, um, the the other thing I would throw out there that hopefully the board and and the community sees, uh, a move toward more intentionality with alignment, that we believe
023that K12 pathways make sense for our our district as a whole. uh instead of having an elementary option that only exists K5 or then a high school option that only exists at the high school that we align these things like environmental sciences like uh computer sciences and STEM um maybe even performing arts uh you know visual arts etc you know on and on. So um we're it it's not a um a thing we want to pivot to overnight. We believe that we need to gradually work in those K12 pathways, but this is a perfect example of what we're what we're trying to do and align. Yeah, a great example that Kelly just brought up in our problem of practice with Coleman. Uh what we identified is kids that come from Airheart are of an order
024of magnitude more ready for environmental science than the other kids that come in. And so when you think about these pathways, making sure that we are inclusive in the pathway going all the way across is pretty important. Any other questions from the board? Seeing none, thank you Rob Holly. I'm going to come back and bring us back to the Department of Energy Grant. Um I know many in this room were able to to listen to our presentation at our community event that we have going on down the hall. So I will keep these remarks brief. Um I did want to bring up Miss Tadana Neil. Um Tadonna has worked a ton on this grant. I want to give her her recognition. She not only helped put this project together for us out of our office,
025did a lot of the data and research, has kept me sane um a lot of the times and she is really leading the front on our community engagement side, our community and student engagement side of this grant, which is extremely important um piece of what we are unfolding. So I wanted to introduce Miss Teddonna Neil and give her her recogn recognition for doing an amazing job on this grant. Thank you, Miss Sadonna. So, as everyone knows, this $15 million transformative projects uh supports energy efficient upgrades at 30 schools across Witchaw public schools, helping us reduce utility cost, improve indoor air quality, and creates healthier and more comfortable learning envir environments for our students and our staff. Sorry. Um the anticipated impact of this grant will be felt for years to come. Once all work is
026completed, a projected savings of $650,000 annually. And over 15 years, we're talking about $12 million in savings that can be redirected back to schools and classrooms. And that's a big thing. We also anticipate a 15 to 30% reduction in energy use at participating schools. But most importantly, these changes will result in better lighting, cleaner air, and improved temperature control. All of which contribute to student focus, wellness, and achievement. The thing I want everybody to remember about this grant is this DOE grant isn't just a facilities upgrade. It's a model of how we align data, equity, sustainability, and student opportunity into one project. It reflects how we can leverage external funding to meet core goals in our strategic plan while investing both in people and place. In closing this out, what I hope everyone sees that
027these are not just grants. They're partnerships, innovations, and opportunities that help bring our strategic plan to life. Thank you all for your collaboration. Thank you to all of our collaborators and thank you to the board for your continued support as always. Thank you. Great news. Appreciate you sharing that. Oh, hold on a second, Melody. Um, great work, Holly. And then I have a question actually for Tadon. So, I I remember Tadon when you presented this to us. I think it was in this room trying Yeah. um that 15 million. It's 15 million um with a four million match from the districts. So it's at 20 million. It's right at 20 million. Um so a phenomenal job. I I did have for a moment I was able to kind of tool through there and see the
028work that we were going to be able to do. And then some of the work we're going to have to add capital out of our capital uh dollars in order to complete the work. And then of course there are some quite a few that um we simply can't do yet. So understanding that there's still outstanding needs um in our district um when you talk to people from a community engagement, what was priority for them? What would you say would be the top three priorities that they talked that people talked about? So we did circulate a uh survey um to the staff, parents and the community and we were happy to find that the um uh priorities for the district also matched the survey results which are top priorities will be your building envelope, lighting and
029controls. And so um those are some of the components that we see will bring the biggest return on investment um in the least amount of time. And so we were happy to see that that matched. Yeah. So people like to see quick results. Yes, they want to see things improve quickly, not 20 years from now. Right. So, and that and we're doing that, right? And and lighting controls and the um the lighting and building controls are going to be across all 30 schools that uh we're touching. And so, all of the schools are going to receive that. Great job. Thank you, ladies. Okay. Uh Hazel, did you have anything? Okay. Holly, thank you very much. Um, please go ahead and email the board all of the images that were there and then for the general
030public, we will have that information also posted on our website so they can see the community uh survey information and then the chart for all the different schools and what we're projecting on doing. So, we'll send it all out. Um, our annual report should be out later this week. We're waiting on the final announcement of the two that we were waiting on official announcement for and then we'll have those available on our website and we'll send them out to everybody as well. Excellent. Thank you very much. We appreciate the presentation. Latona. Next item. United Teachers of Witchah. Welcome Mike. President Albert, Vice President Miller, Superintendent Kelly Belafeldeld, and most importantly, my fellow educators. I uh rise tonight grounded in the democratic promise as old as the one room schoolhouse. Public education succeeds when every voice,
031classroom teachers, parents, students, and civic partners have a genuine seat at the table. Our city's future, workforce, civic life, and economic vitality all flow from that shared table. Over the past month, I'm excited tonight to talk to you about some of the things that we can lean on with promise that I've witnessed. One, early literacy gains powered by teacher design curriculum and tutoring work. Two, a community schools vision forged on a joint trip to Albuquerque that can prove the city, county, and district can follow and row in the same direction. And three, the recent development of the AI task force where teachers, technologists, and students are co-writing policy for the next learning frontier, ensuring innovative innovation serves rather than sidesteps the classroom. These wins show what happens when democracy moves from principle to practice, when
032top- down mandates give way for bottom-up collaboration. But democracy also demands that we confront gaps. And tonight, I'll highlight one, the financial oversight committee's lack of teacher involvement and offer practical steps so that future fiscal decisions reflect the same inclusive spirit driving our literacy work, our community school effort and our AI planning. United Teachers of Witchaw is here not just to voice concerns, but to champion solutions that keep teachers, families, and community partners at the center. Because when every voice is heard, every child has a chance to thrive. And Witchaw stands as a model of civic collaboration for challenging times. Looking first in celebrating the shared progress, I want to go just for a moment into these shared wins. I think it's important just like with good news to celebrate them. The early literacy momentum
033that we see in the district is a shared win. The teacher voices that we see is how the reading opened the world's program and the investment into literacy by the purchase of books for kindergarteners where teachers have helped shape training and coach families on nightly reading. We've seen the reading improvements that are aligned with the district goals. This is democracy in action. its classroom expertise plus parent reinforcement creating rapid equitable gains. Secondly, the community schools vision. The recent Albuquerque visited showed that with teacher leadership and the district working together, we can create schools that can double as health clinics, job training hubs, and cultural centers. The recent Witchaw town hall hosted by Mayor Liy Woo b uh county commission chairman Ryan Batty and board president Diane Albert confirmed the broad civic backing for public education
034and our teachers democracy and action can come into play. Joint power styled partnerships where the city, county, and district let residents co-design solutions that yield up to $15 in social return for every dollar invested in community school services. Third, the AI task force where a teacher-led committee developed by district leadership is providing guidance for the board's artificial intelligence work with students perspectives and family data privacies and equity concerns at its core. Democracy and action, bottom-up collaboration that prepares our kids for tomorrow's economy while safeguarding their rights today. There's a pattern here. When educators and families help design the work, outcomes improve fast. But there is a point of concern and the financial oversight committee is that point. Colleagues, fiscal transparency is essential. But the current financial oversight committee has left many stakeholders uneasy and for
035good reason. First, it's missing a classroom perspective. This has been flagged not just by teachers, but members of the board as well. In the committee's first debrief, board members have openly questioned processes and asked why no certified teachers were seated despite multiple educator applications. Community volunteers echoed that concern, wondering aloud how the committee could weigh resource trade-offs without daily classroom insight. There's a consequence to this. We get discussions of $120,000 software license chosen by district administrators with no one to explain that the same money could fund two bilingual ESOL endorsed certified educators, staff who lift reading scores and lighten the workloads for our overextended teachers. Two, the scope is too narrow and the schedule for this committee is too excluding. The FOC may recommend may the FOC is only going to be recommending one of
036three prepackaged bond initiatives. Yet, its charter bars a lineby-line review of the existing 1 billion dollar budget where genuine savings or red flags would be living. Meetings are also almost held exclusively during working hours, effectively silencing the public who was invited, but also doesn't allow classroom practitioners to be engaged, as well as many parents who work day shifts. And thirdly, a predetermined narrative risk. Absent teacher data priorities can tip toward high visibility capital projects, new marquees, upgraded offices. While lower profile essentials, reading specialists, mental health clinicians, certified behavior interventionists remain underfunded. Families notice when shiny bricks appear, but they're still buying basic supplies and trusts. And this matters because every initiative we've celebrated, literacy gains, community school frameworks, AI guard rails depend on dollars flowing to the right place at the right time. Research shows
037that instructional investments are shaped by educator insight to deliver the highest student achievement returns per dollar. Ignoring that insight doesn't just risk misallocation. It deepens doubts voiced by our own board, community members, and teachers. Doubts that could stall future bonds. And I anticipate push back. There's teacher voice included elsewhere, but budget cuts across every program. If teachers guide curriculum and an AI policy, that is the democratic standard our families expect and our students deserve. But we have from this leadership opportunity using this community schools mindset to create new ambassadors in our building. We already possess democratic structures that mirror the four of the community school pillars. collaborative leadership, expanded learning, integrated supports, family engagement. Our task is to activate them with purpose. First off, there's an easy solution by utilizing building committee and site councils
038as the hub of this community school mindset. Contractual teacher administrative committees and state-minded site councils already live in every school. Treat them as the collaborative leadership engine of our school district, mapping the needs, guiding micro budgets, and aligning our partnerships. just as the full community school would. Second, district ambassadors of learning. Each school recently designated a teacher as a school ambassador. Their charge is to carry proven ideas, family literacy nights, neighborhood health partnerships, afterchool STEM clubs across campuses, and into the wider community. Use these ambassadors. Let them become the most credible messages explaining how future dollars will translate into visible student centered gains. Build trust before we go to the ballot box. And thirdly, transparent sight of state state of the school sessions. Use site councils to host open forum where our educators and teachers
039can present student data, budget impacts, and talk about nextstep priorities to family and partners. Democracy flourishes in the sunlight. Community school research shows such transparency boosts engagement and outcomes for students. By energizing our existing committees and launching an ambassador network, we we turn every campus into a neighborhood hub for shared decision-making, proving classroom by classroom how thoughtful investment and collective voices strengthen Witchah's future. So, I come to you with a call for collaborative action, one codify educator voice. Ensure future district committees, especially fiscal and strategic, include classroom educators from the outset. Two, hold an open budget workshop. Before any bond advances, convene board members, educators, community partners, teachers to review current spending alongside future proposals. Transparency energizes family support and it combats the misinformation and disinformation that gets us away from our goals. Three, draft
040a community schools framework. Charge the existing steering group that exists to add partners. USD259, City Hall, Cedric County Health, United Teachers of Witchah, all crafting a plan rooted in the learning policy institutes pillars and our local needs. Four, replicate the AI task force model. Use a bottomup teacher-driven student- centered structure for the next wave of innovations, career tech pathways, mental health supports, family engagement dashboards. Teachers are ready to stand up and do our part. We simply need a guaranteed seat at the table. Because when that happens, democracy wins, families win, and students win. Which has always solved hard problems by listening first, deciding together, and moving forward united. And tonight, I ask that we apply that tradition, our democratic litmus test, to every committee, to every dollar, and to every initiative. Does this decision amplify
041the voices of those who serve and support our children every single day? teachers, families, community partners. If the answer is yes, United Teachers of Witchaw will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you and our students will reap the rewards. Let's keep democracy alive in every classroom and prove once again that when Witchaw works together, there's nothing our kids can't achieve. Thank you, Mike. [Applause] Platona. Next item. Service Employees International Union. Do not see an SEIU representative. So, next item, public communications, Aaron Andrews. Okay. For the public communications, we thank you for joining us tonight. And if you have signed up for public comment, you will have three minutes to speak. While we don't have a timer on the screen tonight, I do have a timer on my computer and I'll I'll give you a warning at 30 seconds
042remaining and I'll give you another warning when the time is up. We kindly ask that you acknowledge your aotted time and we encourage you to share your thoughts openly and honestly, but we also ask that your remarks remain focused on school related matters and are respectful and constructive. The board will listen to your input, but will not respond during this meeting. However, we are listening and may follow up as appropriate. So, we welcome our first speaker, Aaron. Good evening, everyone. I uh it's no secret I'm I'm here on behalf of OK Elementary. I am a parent. These are my children, Aaron Jr. and Addison. They are students of OK Elementary. Um Aaron has yet to start. He starts this year. I'm excited for him and I'm hoping he is too. Um, Addison, she is, like
043I explained to you last time, very uh enthusiastic, very ambitious in school. She makes friends very easily. Uh, she's very proactive in her class. She's received awards throughout the school year um for being a good friend and and when a child is unhappy or having a rough day, she consoles them. And we've been countless mornings there at the school where she's received awards for that. um reaching out to my community around me in the Riverbend area and Indian Hills also, which is pretty much the same. Um I've gotten proactive. I have gotten my the boots on the ground and me and the kids, we walk around up and down the streets and we knock on about every door and folks are willing to come out and talk to us. Looking at me, they're probably hesitant.
044Looking at the children makes it a little easier for them to come to the door. bald head and tattoos don't really get grandma to come to the door too easy. So, uh, but the kids, you know, they they they're very involved and they were very supportive of what dad is trying to accomplish. I get them excited with the little chant we have. I won't do that here. It's very loud. Um, but the folks in the community, they are very outspoken about this. And there's I mean, and I'm saying 80 years. I've come across folks with 80 years of stories of the neighborhood and of the school. Their parents went there that are no longer with us. Um, they have attended, their children have attended. It it's it's just an ongoing just celebration of the neighborhood
045and the school. You can walk through my neighborhood, you can drive up and down my neighborhood, ride your bike up and down my neighborhood and be safe. Um, it's a family place to be and it's all stemming from the school. The school is so important to us. Um, everybody I've spoken to, about every other person says we moved here to this neighborhood for the school and it's just been so important to everyone there. I encourage everyone to rethink that, please. I We want our school. We want our neighborhood school. We love the school and it's just very important to all of us. Thank you. Thank you, Erin. Batona. Next speaker, Rebecca Armstrong. Hi, my name is Rebecca Armstrong. the process USD259 is going through to address the challenges facing our school, chronic absenteeism, keeping qualified
046teachers, 17.1 profic proficiency scores in math, science, and reading for K through 12 is the wrong one. the community, the frontline workers, the teachers and students, the parents and other stakeholders all need to be brought in together with the intent and purpose to define the issues, come up with solutions. Kansas leadership led an event on June 4th with community members that were concerned about the lack of public accountability and dialogue about the issues facing our community. In this process, the leaders as at this event, city of Witchah Mayor Woo, Cedric County Council member Batty, and USD President Albert all agreed that this intense dialogue collecting ideas and concern from the stakeholders was necessary and important. We were promised that the dialogue would continue, the ideas would be collected, actions would follow. We will see. What
047we know is that the only way to solve difficult problems, Kansas leadership calls them adaptive problems, is to go to the community for answers. This takes time. It takes commitment. It is a process. It is slow, but is the way to handle the kind of problem USD 259 is dealing with. Now, public administration 101 teaches us this. Research shows that a technical solution like the engineering solution of closing schools will not solve an adaptive problem. I have worked for USD259 for seven years. I have never been asked what can we do to make your job better or how can we do this better. This is a top-down structure. Input from employees is done via focused surveys, not open-ended dialogue or discussion. We have inservice days frequently but never have any of them been spent on
048finding out our thoughts. We are told not asked. I am also on the site council. It is led the same way. We are told what is going on not asked what can be done different differently. We are given guided surveys. We watch as money is spent on things that do nothing to make teachers or frontline employees jobs easier or more effective. There is a lot of money wasted on things having nothing to do with the mission of creating students ready for their future. Thank you, Latona. Next item, education strategic plan goal one, elementary and middle school interim goal data update. So, while we're transitioning, I did want to go back to um the grants uh presentation that Holly was talking about. Um the green uh Department of Energy grant um is on our website. All
049of that information, all the schools, all the amounts, all of that kind of stuff. And as we start actualizing the energy savings, we'll have a dashboard where you can track all of that, too. So, um, it's under the finance part, but if you go to the website and just search for energy, it'll it's first thing that pops up. So, anyway, want to give everyone that information because we we went pretty quickly over it, but it's pretty exciting. So, Holly is here to razle and dazzle. So, take it away, Holly. I don't have money to talk about. I'm not that Holly, unfortunately. So, uh, good evening, uh, President Albert, Vice President McCrae Miller, and Superintendent and other members of the board. Um, as you know, we've been coming uh periodically to give you updates related to
050our strategic plan goals. So, as we've wrapped up the school year, we wanted to give you um a final update where we landed um on our interimm goals for elementary and middle school around goal one, which is around um increasing academic achievement and graduation rate. As you know, our large goal is to improve graduation rate to 85% by 2029. We started at 79.2. too. Uh Dr. Hatfield gave you a report on where we're at with that last fall. So, we're going to start with elementary. Our goal, as you know, we started um we shared with you earlier this year that we shifted from state assessments to our uh fastbridge screeners due to the state changing the state assessment this year. So this summer, actually this week, they are setting cut scores for this 2025 spring
051assessment season. Um we have members uh teachers, we have some curriculum specialists, instructional coaches who were selected by KSD to be a part of that happening in Topeka. Um so they're determining cut scores. Then they will rank all the students and we'll know hopefully by September October how we fared on the state assessment scores. So as a result of that, we pivoted to using the fastbridge screeners um this year, potentially also next year um while that state assessment is getting going. So as we look at the elementary goal, we wanted to decrease the percentage of students who are below benchmark. So that is scoring um high risk and some risk on that fastbridge screener that we give three times a year. Another piece I want to remind you for third grade is this is our
052first time giving it to all students. So we don't have great comparison data to last year because we didn't screen all third graders. So next year when we compare fall to fall, winter to winter, spring to spring, um we'll have better comparison data for you. So where we landed, we did not meet this goal this year. Um so we started at 56.6 winter 61.9 and 60.2% this spring. We want this number to go down. Um but again the benchmark increases as we go across the year. So to be proficient and not proficient at the beginning of third grade is a different number than to be proficient and non-proficient at the end of third grade. Um we did have 16 schools meet the goal. I'm going to read those names because that's definitely um an area
053to celebrate. Bostic traditional magnet, Riverside Leadership Magnet, Black Traditional Magnet, Kinszer Elementary, Hyde Leadership International Explorations Magnet, Benton Elementary, Airheart Environmental Magnet, College Hill Elementary, Menah Core Knowledge Magnet, Seltzer Elementary, Price Harris Communications Magnet, Christa McAuliffe Elementary, Gam Elementary, Peterson Elementary, MLAN Science Technology Magnet, and Horus Man Elementary. So, while we did not make the progress we wanted to, we still want to uh give shout out to those schools who did meet the goal this year. Um so, again, as I mentioned, um this is a new goal for us. So, we don't have spring data last year of all our third graders to compare, but we will be continuing to track this um as we move into next year, knowing that this goal around third grade literacy is so critical for what happens um beyond
054third grade. We have shown you um our early literacy screeners in progress over time. Amanda Sharel has uh showed this to you, I believe, four or five times. Um but we still want to remind you that as we look at the early literacy screeners, that's decoding, that's reading the words on the page. That has a direct correlation to the number we just saw. So, as we've been doing the work with letters, teachers learning that um early literacy skills, you can see the progress over time here, and that will begin to trickle into our third grade comprehension measure in a reading and ultimately um state assessment scores and beyond. Um so, just a few things I want to point out because there's lots of colors and lots of numbers on the screen. If you look along
055the horizontal, the different colors, that is a cohort of students. So you can see that progress. So if you take first grade, spring of 21, that first pink box, 31.5% were proficient. These are students who are scoring at proficiency. Spring of 21 increased to 39.9 by the end of their second year grade year increased to 45.8, 52.5, and now leaving middle elementary going into middle school at 55%. So that is progress. we are seeing that trickle up into our secondary schools having fewer students identified for tier three literacy. Um so we have shared this with you. So while we haven't hit the measure we want to hit related to comprehension, we know that this foundation that the elementary um teachers and leaders and administrators have been working on is going to begin set us setting
056us up for success um as we move forward. So factors and what this plays into. Um, again, Amanda Sharel should probably be the person explaining this to you. Um, but assessing reading comp comprehension is a difficult um, task. It is not a discrete skill. Um, and it's also harder to measure because your background knowledge when you read a passage factors into how well you're going to comprehend that. If you don't have the vocabulary, you don't have the vocab, um, and background knowledge, you will not be able to comprehend the text. So, that that early literacy data is the discrete skill. And now as we get become better readers of the word words on the page um we can comprehend to that complex skill to be able to moving from learning to read to reading to
057learn. Um it's not just about recognizing the words but interpreting their meaning. Um and that's also why we begin to measure comprehension at third grade. So K to prek to two is really look looking at those early literacy skills and now how are they doing um being able to translate that to comprehension. Um we need them to be able to read. Um so there's enough cognitive desk space in their brain to be able to comprehend. Um, if you imagine going if you've traveled internationally and you get off the airplane and all the signs are in another language, you don't know which gate to go to because you're trying to interpret the symbols and the letters on the screen and you're just like, "What gate do I need to go to?" You're not ready to comprehend
058in that other language because you're still decoding. And that's that transition our students need to be able to go to from navigating the airport to being able to talk fluently to people in that country. Um, some next steps for us, as you know, we've been having teachers go through letters. This year, they've been working on volume two, which is focusing on vocabulary, comprehension, and background knowledge. We just enrolled all the elementary administrators and letters for administrators. Um, and then also, uh, Mr. Alvarez shared I don't remember when um about our KISSA accreditation plan for next year which is a focus on language comprehension. So taking the skills that our teachers are learning through letters into comprehension strategies and then using that in planning and translation into the classroom. Um we also have updated an instructional
059protocol to align with that so that plan do check act cycle can happen from what we do in professional learning teachers planning and collaborating together go deliver it in the classroom and then come back and reflect on how they are doing and then that's how we just continually get better as educators. So as we shift to middle school this is where we shift goals as well. So we shift to a math goal. So our interim goal again shifted from the state assessment on eighth grade math to a math for eighth grade to decrease the number of students below benchmark from 63% to 59.5. Um so excited to share we got really really close to that this year. We missed it by 0.9. We started the year at 68.1 and ended the year at 60.4. Um
060so about 0.9 um about 1% away from the goal. So across the year we moved 7.7% of our eighth grade students out of non-proficient to proficient which is about 250 students. Um which is as a former high school math teacher a significant number of kids who are hopefully going into high school much more prepared for that entry level course of algebra 1 which is kind of that gatekeeper to how successful high school is going to be for them. Um, additionally to getting really close to that goal, we had 10 schools make progress toward that their specific year-end goal as well. Um, on the AATH um, so progress over time, we haven't been showing you math data since this is a new goal and a new focus area, but similar similarly to the early literacy. Um,
061this data shows you you can track a cohort of students. Um, so we wanted to look at the transition grades with middle school. So how are students doing going from fifth to sixth, six, seven, and eight? And then how are they doing going on to 9th grade? So you can see we still have work to do around that 8th to 9th grade transition, which is why this goal was selected. Um, but another thing I would point out to you as you go down um the diagonal, if you look from sixth to seventh, you see a drop. So if you look at the pink, you see 35.6 go to 7th grade, 33.3. Um, we're analyzing why that is happening. There's a significant portion of things tested in seventh grade that are brand new standards to students.
062So beginning to look at what we can do with teachers around professional learning as well as just analyzing the assessment better to know are we matching our instruction to the things they are testing. So some factors of why we saw this growth. Um this is a new focus area but this is not a new test. We have been giving a math in middle school for a long time. So there's familiarity with our teachers, students and leaders. So it wasn't a new thing like the A reading was for us in elementary. Um so just we have some familiarity with our teachers. So it wasn't like oh goodness I'm testing eth grade on a math. This they've been doing this. Um, we also had a new core and intervention program this year. So, we're very proud of
063our teachers that in the midst of all the new they had, they still made great gains on this goal. Um, some next steps for us is um, Mr. Alvarez shared around our KISSA accreditation. Um, we have an intentional vocabulary routine we're using and you might be scratching your head thinking why are we doing vocabulary to support a math goal? Um, but in any content area, one of the key factors for comprehension of that area is your academic vocabulary. So, we chose the vocabulary routine for secondary, not just for the eighth grade math goal, but also for the high school goal around ACT and work keys because there's so much critical vocabulary in any content area our students are tested on. Um, the the work keys is an applied math, applied reading, applied writing. Um, so
064we know that as they gain better vocabulary instruction across all content areas, we'll see that trickle into areas like math, like the ACT, and other things. Um, and then just continuing to support our teachers in the use of the new curriculum because just because we made it through one year, we know we're still learning how to best implement that as they um provide rigorous instruction to teachers in the core area. So with that, any questions? just you talked a little bit about core. Um define core as far as MTSS model and when we talk about strengthening the core what is that because that kind of came up in both of these. What does that mean? Yeah. if you so when we think about so MTSS multi-tered systems of support the best thing we can do
065to intervene for students is quality core instruction because if we pull them out of core they're now no longer getting instruction at the grade level standards so to then test them at grade level state assessment a reading whatever that comprehension measure or endofyear measure they've not had instruction at that so if you talk to any expert in MTS SS and they're like what should you do to intervene for students? Quality core instruction interventions then help us fill what gaps they might have so they can access that core instruction. So being able to provide students a strong core instruction both in reading or math or any content area is the best intervention that we can do. Um when we think about the goals about quality teachers in every classroom that's good core instruction. So it trickles
066out to many areas. So another thing I'd like to to lift up and feel free to chime in on this as as you want um with the reading you see a trend like that and you think h wow you know that the standards get higher as the grade as the year goes on but we would also expect that proficiency number to go up and not down. So, as as we just, you know, uh, back of the envelope kind of diagnosed, what what could that be, right? What what could that mean? Um, because it isn't that teachers aren't working hard, right? It isn't that teachers aren't trying to get those numbers up. Um, but one of the things it could be, and I'll throw out a hypothesis here, Holly, uh, is the level of rigor that
067we're teaching to. um that we aren't getting deep enough when it comes to the cognitive thinking for kids um deep enough as we should. Now, why not? That could be because they're not quite fluent enough. Back to your airport example, if they're not fluent enough, as the text gets more complex, as the words get bigger and longer, it can be hard for them to to keep up with that comprehension. But it's also possible that the the quality of the instructional materials or um what we're expecting as far as the rigor goes isn't isn't what it needs to be. Um and that could be again another core solution that we look at in core is really challenging teachers to use high highly rigorous uh materials in the classroom. Um and for us to provide those right
068if if that's what we want them to do. So, just spitballing there. But that that's one thing when I saw that that I thought might be at play. The other thing I would add is um you'll hear any reading expert talk about miles on the tongue. So, when you walk in a classroom, who's doing the speaking is probably who's doing the learning. So, we don't want to see quiet classrooms anymore. So, when we think about our English language learners, they need that even more. So giving students opportunities to speak and read the text then that increases their fluency and decoding. So again now I can go comprehend the text. Um but again exposure to rigorous text from an early age. Um it's one of the things that if if any parent asks me what can
069I do to with my kid read to them let them read to you. Like that's how our um the partnerships that Mr. Harris highlighted like getting kids reading and being read to and talking about it, asking those questions. Um that's one of the key things. So just ensure so part of this goal with the language comprehension is also helping our teachers have those tools to provide scaffolds for students that I just as a teacher I'm not reading the text to them that we now have ways to get more students reading aloud to each other to teachers to the pair of professionals in the classroom. Thank you. Knock. Yeah. Could you list out the uh 16 elementary schools that met the end of your year goal of u u like less than 53% non not proficient?
070The 16 is that what you asked? Yep. Yep. Uh Bostic, Riverside, Black, Kinsler, Hyde, Benton, Airheart, College Hill, Menah, Seltzer, Price Harris, Chris McAuliffe, Gammon, Peterson, Mlan, and Horus man. Are there any uh commonalities like in those schools that you know met that goal compared to the uh like the most of the other schools that didn't meet that benchmark? I have not analyzed that deeply to give you a good answer other than to make some poor hypothesis. And then in terms of the uh middle school uh interim goal uh for math, so uh 10 schools made progress toward the your end goal. Did any schools um uh like meet that goal? Yes. I don't have the list in front of me. Sorry I didn't write those out. Um but u one that made significant progress
071which I think should be said is Trudale Middle School. I don't think they hit the goal. Um but knowing that um they had uh a lot of teaching vacancies that we they were able to fill this year. I think last year they had a whole grade level of long-term subs um at a math in math. Um so I know they were able to fill some. I know they made significant gains. uh we can get you that list knock of the specific schools. Thank you. Just just a few observations and then a couple of questions. Holly. Um, and then I'm I'm going to re remark um or respond to the question that knock had uh in regards to what were the comparisons uh the parallels of the of the actual schools that did um meet our
072the goal. Sure. Um, that was one that I highlighted uh two meetings ago, if not last meeting, and I talked about Bostic and how they've literally knocked it out of the park when you look at how well they did um on their assessment scores and uh in terms of of meeting the goal and proficiency. Um, and they don't look that much unalike. They look more alike any school any building that any elementary building that we have. They look more alike. So it's not and and that was the question that I asked us as a board was okay so so how do we how do we take this as a model and it wouldn't just be Bostic it would be probably any of those buildings but how do we use these this building let's take Bostic
073u as a model because they really do um replicate or look like how could we replicate it and they look like our demographics as a building, as a as a district, all the way down to, um, financial needs, um, to race to, um, any of the other demographics. So, so how can we how can we benefit uh, other buildings by attempting to replicate what they are doing different? And if it is that they're already doing the intentional um vocabulary instruction andor um continued focus on rigor, more more rigor in those buildings, how do we maximize on that? How do we exploit that to our to the district's benefit? And um so I'd love to know, you know, h are those conversations being had? I'm sure they are. And and how are they received, you know,
074at other buildings because It's not as though we're not doing it already. Sure. And I know we say this, we say this across our district about how we're doing so many things well. So, so how do we how do we hardwire the good the the the beneficial the what's what's actually reaping us benefits and and re not well there there will be rewards but but benefiting students and teachers how how do we do that so that's that's one but the other thing that I wanted to do is go back to something that um UTW vice President uh Mike Harris was speaking to and that was um how it is that it's so important for us to be able to incorporate um not only a bottom up but align our systems in our district such that
075they're they're communicating with with each other such that they know what is working, what's beneficial, and that they're willing to actually um incorporate what's what's what's working and uh possibly um start to replicate some of those things. And I know each building is unique. So I I I I've mentioned that when I talked about Bostic. So I know there's the culture, there's the environment, there's the teaching uh culture that's going to be different from building to building. However, there has to be a baseline that we can identify accurately and I would think uh effectively begin to put that into uh actions uh such that such that our outcomes are different. So that's aligning and that's bottom up. But there's also, you know, what we're what we're what I'd like to give us another kudos and
076I am talking about USD 259 and actually I'm talking about our our president um uh Diane that there was an insistence that we in that we include at each one of our meetings talking about our goals and how we're meeting them or we're not meeting them. So, I I keep wanting to tip my hat to USC 259 because in some instances, we are not meeting these goals and and it's clear, but as as Kelly has said, it's not because we're not working hard. We're we're working. There are other factors that are coming into play. But the fact that we insist on, and I'm sorry that I'm going on this, but you know, it's just something that is in my mind right now. But the fact that we as a district, the largest district in this
077state with all these different variables that make us so unique in who it is that we serve, why we serve them, and how effective andor ineffective we are that um when you look at the the actual ability for us to share this with the public, that's why I'm I'm loving that I see who I see out here, but I would I'm I am always hopeful that there's even more watching. Um, but it's not we're not trying to be quiet about what we're not doing. We're telling the world, but that's where community schools, so that's what I wanted to weave in community schools. So, not only is it a bottom up, but it incorporates partnerships, key partnerships with with our community such that they are here. They would know who we are, what we're doing, where
078we're lacking. And if you want to talk about the financial oversight committee, what we're who we're lacking and how it is that we in order for us to be the best at at what we do the best at that we have to incorporate effectively other voices, opinions, their actions, their resources, their assets. They have to be able to come into our buildings. And that's what I think that's why I'm so impressed as a supporter of community schools and very um eager to see how are the pilots that we're about to put into place actually do produce uh positive outcomes. So yes, I've pointed all of this at you, Holly, and you've been very gracious to sit there and shake your head as though. Yeah. But I'm saying this to anyone and everyone that's listening. uh
079because it's just it's just on my heart as a board member, as a huge supporter of USD259. I want to see us knock this out of the park as a district and I think and we have the capabilities. We have the ability to do it. So, with that, I will Thank you. That was that was great. I I would just chime in one a couple small things. No, and they're not small, but um maybe pieces of the puzzle that because it's complex, right? Every building is different. Um you know, we we picked out you picked out Bostic a few times. You know, another one that I think needs to be brought up and celebrated is horse man. Um horse man is 86% poverty. Um now their state assessment scores u they were 23% proficient last
080year. uh the state average is is 28. So they're close to it, but they're below the state average. But for them to be on that list of some heavy hitters, right, when it comes to um decades of tradition of academic success with some of these schools, um that's that's impressive. And again, it's educators in all different buildings working really really hard to achieve these goals um to help kids. And so our challenge is how do we help support them to give them what they need? um and and and help support parents to get the kids there because an empty seat can't learn. um we have to have the kids with the attendance rates um uh increasing which not to that's our next presentation but that's a big piece of this too right teachers can't teach
081kids who aren't there so um but yeah it is complex and there is there are many many factors uh in every building that another thing I would add to that you were talking about what are we doing to understand what's happening and places where it's working so one strategy both elementary and secondary office did this year was creating principal PLC's so that they are looking at this data on a regular basis with the principles and leaders. So those conversations that you're speaking about, what are you doing over here at school A? How can we replicate that over at school B? Um so I think just continuing to have that on a small scale and digging deeply into the data with our leaders. Um so nothing I read here is new to any of our elementary
082or middle school leaders. They've all seen this data. Um I do just have to say to Horus man, and I'm going to get this number wrong. I think they had 58 students of their eighth grade class um leave them hitting whatever score they needed to do um for the bilingual piece of it as well. Um so also to their point of they're teaching them two languages. Um so they've started to track that as well as how they're doing when they're exiting Horus man and are they really getting that dual language experience. Very good. Kelly, could you when we're talking about student achievement, can you give us a brief overview of informal diagnostics versus formal diagnostics just so to create clarity for people watching this? Yeah. Um, I think it's uh it's a good point. A
083lot of what we do and and we you guys have heard this enough you you probably are familiar with it, but the you know the screener tests that we give, we give those to everybody. It's kind of like the tier one. Um if we see a student is not on grade level then what we will do uh we will diagnose. So imagine you go to your doctor. I'm stealing Gil's example here. You go to your doctor and your blood pressure is up, right? That's the screener. Everybody gets blood pressure. It's kind of a blunt instrument. It's not very precise. Then you go back or you go to the specialist and they help you to diagnose. So you may do blood tests, you may do an X-ray, you may do a scan or whatever. Um we
084have some formal diagnostics that are kind of if then if you are blank then this will give you this test. Um, we also uh have informal diagnostics and and teachers, I mean teachers, especially ones with experience, they use these all the time. Um, come over here, read to me real quick. I want to make sure you know it it's not a a stutter like a speech type issue or it's not a are you did you lose your glasses? Right? Like those are informal diagnostics. Like just digging in a little bit to see why that issue might be going on. Um maybe your blood pressure is up because you drink too much coffee, I don't know. Um at 7:30 at night. Um that would be an informal diagnostic. Those questions that the doctor asks that are
085kind of just in general helping to to get at a diagnosis as opposed to the the the formal technical diagnostics. Anything I forgot? Is that good? The only thing I would add is just to remind you that diagnosing what hole you have in comprehension is not as easy to diagnose as what hole you have in word recognition because I could read a passage about I don't know something I have never experienced before and my comprehension of that is going to be so much lower than if I read a passage about something I have background knowledge in. So, it could be vocabulary, it could be background knowledge, it could be the words I hadn't seen before, I hadn't heard before. So, the diagnostic piece on comprehension is not as clear-cut as the diagnostic pieces are on
086those early literacy skills. Thank you. Um can you go on to explain how we're using that data to uh provide interventions or to provide next steps like what are we doing after whether it be an informal diagnostic or a formal diagnostic? How are we identifying students to provide them the resources that they need for the help they need to achieve? So that is then where Kelly talked about tier one core instruction that we provide for everyone. Then we use those diagnostics to then decide what intervention do you need. Um so for example we just brought in really great reading as a tier three intervention. So then that says hey you don't know this piece of decoding and I can put you right into instruction based on what you might be missing from that diagnostic. Math
087is not quite as onetoone correlation as it is in reading. Um, but you know, tier three is going to be I'm multiple grade levels below and I have these different decoding and phonics skills I need to fill in. We have programs that are researchbased. Our teachers are trained in them. So, that's going to feel um you're going to hear teachers say this is a scripted program and it kind of needs to be a scripted program because it's like this script is going to get you this skill in whatever where tier one, tier two a little bit. It's like now I'm kind of navigating how far off of grade level you might be. But once we get to tier three, so those diagnostics then say now what medicine or what additional testing or follow-up. The great
088thing about the programs we we use in addition to that is there's ongoing data that the classroom teacher gets of how are you progressing in this? How are you doing as you're working on your short vows, long vows, whatever that might be? And do I need to then intervene even more? Um, so then that gets down to that granular level of studentto student versus whole class. Okay. And then can you explain what support we have for buildings that are not meeting the proficient scores? Yeah. So that's um ongoing conversations um principal supervisors working with principles um really looking at what professional development have we been providing for teachers? How are we providing them time to talk among because sometimes it may not even be every teacher at third grade but maybe teacher A. Hey, your
089class knocked this out of the park. What did you do differently? So, just really taking the data all the way down to the teacher level. Um, is kind of the piece that's harder for us in a system of our size to replicate what Melody was saying of what what are you doing teacher X over there at that school and how do I get teacher C over here to talk to each other because of our size. It doesn't mean we can't do it, but that's where we have to not just have our leaders and instructional coaches, but then take that to the teacher level. Um and then also really diagnosing what else might be happening in that school environment, in that kid's life, um so that we can intervene at the correct place. Absolutely. Okay. Um
090in meeting with a number of staff members over the last few weeks, uh some things that have come out, one said, uh a kind of a troubling statement that and she teaches at elementary school and just let me know that the students they're seeing come in are entering the system at a significantly lower proficiency rate than what we have seen in the past. And so that's adding to the challenges of of the scores that we're seeing. And she went on to to let me know, you know, 18 to 24 months, which they are not in the school system, is really the oral language development. And we are seeing students that are not speaking very well, that are that just are not at the level of proficiency that we have typically seen at the prek and
091kindergarten level. And so it that is just a reality of the situation that we're dealing with right now. Um also in suggestions that and this has come from a number of different staff members that I've spoken with recently. Uh there was a an option that they put out to create a professional day for staff to sit in classrooms that we've identified that they're rockstar teachers and be able to give a professional day to a teacher at maybe another building or the same building. So they can go spend all day in that teacher's classroom so they can watch and observe um see how the instruction is displayed, see how behaviors are are dealt with and just all the classroom management things. And so that was a suggestion that was offered um that seems reasonable and cost-effective.
092Uh another one was develop baseline uh teaching plans. That way for especially for new teachers that are maybe struggling on lesson plans or they're kind of running low on time and they just kind of need a good baseline of I know if I teach this lesson plan to this standard that I'm I'm meeting the standards and expectations for the students and for the district um at large. Uh and maybe create a online library of lesson plans and that could be across all grade levels. but we've got some phenomenal staff and we've got a lot of experience in the district and so that was a way through a conversation that we could capitalize on that knowledge and experience um to not just be siloed in one classroom but to go across the district. So those are
093some I think cost-effective strategies that we could implement. Yeah, I I I've told the team a lot, Rob's heard me say this, I know that um this is Kelly's opinion um that the best professional learning is field trips, right? Right. And it does. And by field trip, I don't mean you go to, you know, seven states over. You go somewhere else and you see what they're doing. As a principal, you just walk around another school and you pick up all sorts of ideas for the way they do traffic in the hallways, the way they manage the lunchroom, uh how they schedule their walkthroughs. That's some of the best professional learning. We I mean, we hire professionals, right? We hire people um with some exceptions with some transitional teachers, but for the most part, we hire
094people that know how to do the job. they need some support. It's it's important to have a strong floor for people that are new or people that may need it. Um but then to to both, you know, support them and challenge them to go above and beyond that, um I think is is what will move the needle for for all of us. So, um I definitely support that. I think, um I texted Lauren to make sure I didn't speak out of turn here, but um Holly kind of glided over the the PLC's, which stands for professional learning community. That's something that we started um that we we started this year where principles go to a building together and they walk classrooms together. Um and and you know look for what what is good instruction, what
095is good learning. Um I'd love to invite you guys to do that at some point whenever we get the schedule set for next year. Um because I think that would be helpful. I mean we're in year one of it. That takes time to build trust. That takes takes time to build system. That is a a really good step in growing principles as instructional leaders. Um norming what good instruction looks like. This building to building challenge that we have sometimes um younger newer principles which we have several um especially in elementary I think the majority of our principles have five years or less experience. It's really helpful and impactful for them to get with other uh colleagues walk the building um and use that as professional learning. And we have to use our size to our
096advantage. I'm stealing Gil's lines all night here. We have to use our size to our advantage. Um, and that's something you can't do, you know, in a in a small district. You have your little school and that you can't go you can't go PLC with other schools like we can. So, I should clarify there. The principal model, I think they called them school stat did happen before that thing that happened in 2020 that we're not talking about anymore kind of killed that. So I don't want to cl I don't want to there was that structure before COVID and then you know we needed people in buildings and keeping our kids safe. Um so just kind of getting back to that structure. Um so newish but did happen traditionally in the past. And then if we
097want um the names of the middle schools Lauren pulled those up. So sorry. which the goal and what 10 schools made progress. Nine of those actually met or exceeded the goal. So Alison, Chris Mcman, Gordon Parks, Marshall, me, Robinson, Drewville, and Wells all exceeded the goal. So they they got, you know, big giant check mark. And then Brooks is the is the 10th one that made progress but just missed any. Okay. And also this doesn't have to do with this presentation, but since Kelly brought up getting the board members into schools more next year, that is something that we have talked about uh before a board presentation. um the board members getting into the buildings to see whatever goal that we're getting ready to be presented on in action. Uh so that way my intention
098is so the board has better discussion um better question asking because we've had an experience in the schools but then it also keeps the board members in the buildings at a much more frequent rate. So sounds good. Thank you. Appreciate Holly. Okay, Lona. Next item. Strategic plan interim goal three progress monitoring report. All right, I will invite up Dr. Hackfield and Dr. Frzy. Um, they are going to share us with us a presentation about goal number three, attendance. All right. Good. Everyone ready? Okay. All right. Um, Dr. Frzy from the elementary office and I are here tonight to give you an update on the interim goal for strategic plan goal number three. Um so much like Holly gave you, let's let's remember what we're talking about. Let's kind of lay some groundwork before we dive
099into um the information. So goal number three is our kind of general summary is our safety and belonging goal. So these interim goals that we're going to speak about reside under the safety and belonging goal. The the big goal in goal number three is about students who respond via our survey um that they feel safe and connected to their school. So that's the overarching goal for goal number three. Um you can see it there in front of you or on the screen. And then underneath that um we have the goal that we're going to talk about now which is the average daily attendance uh for each level. Um we have the interim goal is the same but the numbers in the interim goal are different depending by level. Um you know elementary has a higher
100average daily attendance than middle school has a higher average daily attendance than high school. So they're all starting um in a different spot. Um, I must be honest, the the the goal here was very advantageous. Um, and the Y values in the goal, right, from X to Y, the YV values in this goal were trying to push us all the way back to preandemic. Um, speaking of the thing we don't speak about, like Holly said, um, the YV values in those goals were trying to push us all the way back to prepandemic average daily attendance numbers. Um, those are big jumps. Um if you like if you look at the X to Y numbers right 91.5 to 93.8 89.5 to 93.2 86.7 to 90.5 three and four percentage point jumps in average daily attendance is
101a little bananas uh but we want to stretch ourselves and as long as we make progress we're okay with that. So um just some level setting about where the y values came from. the y values being the 93.8, 93.2, and 90.5 as you go down the list. So, all right. And Dr. Frasy's going to talk to you about elementary, and then I'll come back for uh middle and high school. So, we are very excited that 46 of our schools um showed improvement in attendance this year. So, we were able to end the year at 92.2 for elementary, which we're really proud of. Oh, and I'm back. That was fast. Yeah. Um, for middle school, um, similar, um, we went from 89.5% to 90.3% in middle school average daily attendance, which is a 0.8% increase. And
10212 of our middle schools had a higher average daily attendance rate this year than they did the previous year. A little caveat that I want to throw in about the 92.2 that Dr. Frzy shared, the 90.3 here. Um, we these are pulled from our synergy um, attendance data. So, they are pretty close to what they're going to be, but KSD comes out with building report cards every fall. And we will use those building report cards as the actual final number. So, you might see next fall when we come back and talk about this again and the new goals, you might be like, "Didn't you tell me it was 90.3?" But maybe the the KSD building report card one ends up being, you know, 90.4 or 90 point. It's going to be close. Um, but just
103like graduation rate, when we present to you about graduation rate, we say, "Hey, this is we know it's going to be around this number, but the state has to finalize some things." This data is the same as that. So, I wanted to to level set. If you see a number slightly different from this in the future, it's because KSD has to come in and finalize all the data for the building report cards in the fall. So, 90.3 um for for our middle schools. So, up over 90%. And then our high schools also went in the correct direction and they actually made the highest jump. So, we went from 86.7 um as our average daily attendance number to 87.9. So, 1.2% average daily attendance rate increase. Um, and six of our high schools have a higher
104average daily attendance rate um, from this past school year than they did the school year before that. Cherry's going to come back and talk to you about how did it happen. Um, some of the ways that we want to continue making progress in our schools is this year we started everyday lab notifications in which families received one letter and one text notification um to their home if they were in um need of um an increase in attendance. So, we started that this year and we would like to continue that next year. Um the second thing we'd like to do is uh continue to build staff capacity around attendance um through monthly professional development. This also occurs through everyday labs. Um the third strategy that we have is to decrease the number of students who are
105chronically absent um in our schools. And then lastly, we value um our partnership with the community and we want to partner with them to remove any attendance barriers that um our schools might be facing. Before we dive into some questions, I think it, you know, it's been like a theme. You know, Mr. Harris mentioned, you know, communities and schools. Um you know, Miss McCrae Miller, you you did as well, right? thinking about how we can use our community to help us do this. Kelly mentioned it earlier, it's really hard to educate kids who aren't in school. Um, so getting kids to school, but we don't expect, you know, the bulk of our staff to drive to Timmy's house and go pick up Timmy and bring him to school. Um, we had a grants celebration earlier
106this evening. Denise mentioned the the school improvement grants and the high school mentors and the middle school mentors. this attendance work is a lot of the work that those folks are doing. Um, and so there's so much more connection between all of the things that we talk about than I think you know the regular everyday person who isn't in on it all the time understands um and the intentionality behind all of these things and them connecting together. So I just wanted to bring that to the surface and just one more reason for us to understand that we are community entity and other community entities um can help us with this. So So, one quick thing just a point of clarity um for for the board and the and the community. Um there's there's two numbers
107that get thrown around with attendance. One is chronic absenteeism, which we've mentioned, and one is average daily attendance. So, could you just quickly explain what the two numbers mean? Well, our chronic absenteeism students um have missed at least 10% of the school year. And our average daily attendance is their their attendance um or and the chronic um absenteeism also includes unexcused absences which we learned that our families are still learning that you just can't call in an absence and then only the excused absences count. So if they're excused and unexcused um they count towards 10% of chronic absenteeism and then your average daily attendance is the percentage of time that your child has been in school. Thank you. Did you guys want to cover this sheet or anything or are we ready for questions? Um
108that's for your reference. Um those are the ways in which everyday lab helped us to decrease our chronic absenteeism this year. Um so as you look at that if you have any questions we'd be happy to answer those. Okay. Julie. Yeah. I was um just gonna focus go back to your chart where you had the four Yeah. four listed. Can you just give us some other examples of how community a agencies are helping to reduce attendance barriers because I know there there's so many of them and um you mentioned a couple of things. You mentioned the tutors are very important. Mentors. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, the mentors, not the tutors. And um and then you also mentioned Yeah. So, I mean, think about some of the things that Denise talked about earlier. She talked about Pando,
109right? Pando is an amazing community partnership that we have in a number of our schools and po is meeting the needs that that family has that are outside of what we can provide so that those students have the availability to come to school. So they're doing home visits and things like that. those all of those sort of entities. Love love schools is an example that is partnering with a lot of elementary schools saying what is your biggest need and how can we help help fill it and they part they are kind of the go-between between the partners and the schools the WPs foundation right we have the WPS Foundation now and there's people that want to partner with the foundation and say what's your need how can we help um and some of it's as
110simple as you know they don't have an alarm clock in this house and can we get them an alarm clock and so they come to school on time. Some of it is more complex. Timmy has to drop off his sibling at school before Timmy is allowed to come to school and Timmy's sibling starts school at a different time. How can we work with that family um to try to make sure Timmy is there as much as possible? Those are some examples of various layers of community partnerships that are helping us now and could help us in the future with trying to get kids to school. So are those like groups of volunteer organizations and such that are having Yeah. that are connecting with the school district to Yeah. So some of it like Love Schools,
111you know, they're looking at community organizations. They're looking at, you know, churches that want to come help. It's a kind of a variety of groups. Pando isn't volunteers, but it's a community organization whose role is to help our schools with what their and our families with what their greatest needs are. So, it's a mixture of volunteers and actually community organizations whose mission is partially help students come to school. And then secondly, as far as families, um you've got the notifications to parents about about absenteeism, but is there any work being done with parents relative to raising the cultural standards relative to uh the importance of school attendance? So I think there that's a multiaceted question. So part of it is what everyday labs does is say do you know your student is about to be
112considered chronically absent and that awareness is actually a lot of times the thing that helps them go whoa I didn't even realize that and now we're going to start coming to school. The other thing everyday labs does and Dr. Frzy would probably be able to talk about this better than I can is it offers you an opportunity to connect with resources if you need some help. Um, so it's it's two-way communication which allows them to connect with resources if they say, "Hey, I'd love to get my kid to school, but I need some help figuring out how to do that." Is that fair? And I think too I see this a little bit more at the elementary level than the secondary, but another thing is that that sitebased engagement of putting things in the newsletter.
113Hey, did you know attendance blank blank blank, right? To that parent engagement, that parent education piece. Um, we we tried a year ago, I think, to do some some district-wide graphics and some kind of overall things, but the message lands better when it comes from, you know, the secretary who, you know, right? Yeah. You know, somebody. So, I see that um maybe not extremely systematic. I know that it needs to be, but I see it a lot of our elementaryaries, especially the ones that have made really big gains. Um, Seltzer and Menah and a few of those. So, anyway, I don't know if you want to say anything to that. Yeah, we we've um tried some streamlined communication from the district as well. Um like this year we have flyers on when's when are the
114best dates to send your child to the doctor and they're all dates that are highlighted that were not in school. Um so that families can pre-plan the dates that that they send their kids to appointments. So we're trying to really help families to make healthy decisions regarding attendance through some of the information that we're sending out to them. Melody, thank you. Um, great presentation. I I um I just have to add that when we're talking about um aligning not only systems within our district, but there there will be a benefit to us actually aligning and coordinating all of the different partners and resources that um can we can potentially work with within our community. Those that we currently have in our buildings, there's a there I think that there would be a benefit to and
115I know we did a mentoring um kind of a summit that was absolutely phenomenal. It was led by uh Dr. Polite and uh KLC actually sponsored it and that's where it was hosted at. Um there are so many different and I'm I'm kind of feeding off of of what Julie was um talking about, but there are so many uh mentoring, specifically mentoring organizations in our buildings that it was beneficial for them to actually see each other in one space so that they knew um who they were or how what services they offered and how it is that they they could potentially um not only coales but complement each other in our buildings. But believe it or not, we need even more than that. And so that's where and I I will say again, that's where
116community schools can come into play where you have a site coordinator that will help um coordinate identify resources, needs first of all in that building. Identify resources within the community as well as already existing in our buildings and then effectively uh ensure that that uh the site council is engaged um and engaging the families as well as engaging partners in the in the community. Um so I I think that all of that uh will help in continuing to uh reduce our chronic absenteeism to actually find out what are the barriers, why, you know, are these children um and families uh actually missing this much school. And then I need to make sure that I understand the difference or you know exactly what and I know Kelly has already started it but I don't think I'm
117clear. So there's chronic absenteeism and then there's average daily attendance. So with the average daily attendance is that the compilation of every student in that building? So yes they both can be. So, we used to talk a lot more about chronic absenteeism, but chronic absenteeism is a lot harder of a concept for just the normal person walking down the street to be like, "Yeah, I know what chronic absenteeism is." Right? Average daily attendance is a simpler number because it's let's pretend there's a hundred kids in a school, right? If your average daily attendance is 92% that means 92 out of those hundred kids are there every day. Okay, that's a lot easier to to right to talk about for people to understand. The chronic absenteeism number is not an inverse of the average daily attendance,
118right? So, go back to that example, 92 out of 100, 92%. That does not mean their chronic absenteeism number is 8%. That doesn't Nope, doesn't mean that your chronic absenteeism number is here's the percentage of your kids who have missed 10% or more of the school year. And so that what is 10% changes as the year goes on. Right? If you're only two weeks into the school year and you've missed two days of school, you're chronically absent. But then later on, you're not chronically absent because you didn't miss another day of school. Um so by the time you get to the end of the school year, a kid needs to be absent over 18 times to be considered chronically absent. But I can Yeah. So they're two they're two different numbers. And chronic absenteeism is
119good for us to look at, but it's more complicated for general folks to understand. What does that number mean? Right? So that's why we when we wrote these goals, we said, let's use average daily attendance because I think that's easier for people to understand. Okay. So we're moving in the right direction. Yeah. For average daily attendance. Yes. We're still trying to reduce chronic absenteeism. Yes. because we know that that drastically impacts the whole classroom, not just absolutely the student. And if you improve if you reduce chronic absenteeism, your average daily attendance rate will go. They're connected even if they're not inverses of each other. Thank you so much. Thank you, Melody Hazel. Yes. I was wondering if there is any connection from chronic tardiness to chronic um absences. It's probably more about me than you.
120Yeah, we don't we don't we we record tardies, but it's not a part of the formula that we use for chronic absenteeism or our daily average attendance. And it's it's the same in secondary, right? I can be tardy, but I can be present in class. So if I am present in class then I am a yes for attendance even if I'm tardy. So the two the two numbers are not they're they're not involved with one another. It does bring up somewhat of a point and how the who the responsibility transitions like for a 5-year-old they're not responsible for these numbers being bad, right? That's that's the parents. as they get older that it becomes a life skill, right? Showing up on time, showing up to work every day. As they're older, when they can control
121their their choices more to an extent, um it does transition. So, I would I think that is a much more relevant question at the high school level because at the elementary level, if they show up late every day, right, they probably want to be there to get breakfast, right? I mean, it's probably not the kids uh choosing that. And even like in middle school, for example, if a kid is late to school, the middle schools don't penalize the kid for being late to school because a middle school kid can't, it's not the kid's fault that that the kid is late to school. High school, it's probably more likely you might be involved in that. Um, so middle school tends more like once you're here, can you get to class on time? Um, whereas high school
122is no, we expect you to get here on time every day because a lot more of this is in your control. Now, do they all? No. Um, and that's something that we're always going to have to work on is is being on time when you're supposed to be is something is a is a life skill that we need you to have. Okay. Knock. How do you operationally define chronic tardiness? Because like with chronic absenteeisms, like if you miss like 10% of the school years, is it the same for chronic tardiness or like how does it work? That's that's not a there's not a chronic absentee chronic tardiness is not a thing that we have a definition for because it's not something that we calculate. Yeah. Chronic absenteeism and average daily attendance are tracked at a
123state level. Yes. So we all everybody that's accredited reports those up to them. We don't report chronic tardiness. Part of the strategic plan goal three. Could we track tardiness? Should we? Um that's a great question. I mean, I I think it's funny because I think our strategic plan and its current format is fairly unique and how it's very blurry between all the different goals. Um, because it it's possibly it's possibly about safety and belonging. It's possible that kids would be tardy because they don't feel like they belong. It's probably more likely part of life readiness and career readiness, right? Uh getting getting places on time. Um, so it could make sense that it it would live live there. attendance, not tardiness, but attendance is a post-secondary asset at Yeah. You have to have 95% or
124better attendance to earn a post-secary asset as a high school student. Yeah. But to look at tardiness for that would make would make some sense. I mean, that that does make sense. It's not only showing up to work, showing up to work on time, right you all. Just kidding. Okay. Seeing no further questions from the board, thank you guys very much for your presentation and the information. Um, and thank you for the the one pager on the everyday labs that is in some of our schools. So with that, Latona, next item. So 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 discussing the educational issues of the Witchaw public schools. Students academic success
125is the top priority for the board of education. Board members review these items in detail during the agenda review workshops held at 10:30 a.m. on Fridays prior to each regular board meeting at the AACH building. Now, during the summer months, those dates do tend to change a little bit because this building is closed on Fridays. So, please visit online to verify the date, time, and location. Um, but these workshops are open to the public, but no action is taken. The workshop is for discussion and questions only, and your presence is always welcome. So, with that, is there a motion to approve consent? I make a motion to approve. Motion made by Kathy. Second. Seconded by Julie. All in favor raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. Patona. Next item. Association of school boards. Appointments for board
126of directors and legislative committee. Let me get there real quick. 7.3 Oh, there we go. Sorry, there's a lot of tabs open on the computer right now. It won't just take me there now. Okay, almost there. Here we go. Okay. So, the purpose of this is the Kansas Association of School Boards, also known as KASB, reserves two seats for Witchaw USD259 board of education members to serve on their board of directors and legislative committee. The board of directors is the governing body, while the legislative committee helps to craft legislative priorities for the association. The USD259 appointments for the 2425 were board members Julie Hedrickk and for the KSB board of directors Melody McCrae Miller and for the KSB legislative committee. We would ask the board um to make these appointments for the 25 and 26
127board of directors and legislative committee. Are there any thoughts or comments? Julie and Melody, I think you guys have both expressed a desire to continue on those terms. But I do have a question. Yeah. We did not renew our membership with I thought Yeah, we did. We did. We did uh I think two months ago. Yeah. For KSB. Yeah. What did we not renew? KSAB did not renew with NSBA. Okay. But I But we as a as a local board, we did renew with KS Oh yes, I'm good. I don't I don't know that it's super important, but my understanding was our current appointments went through the end of calendar year, not based on school year, but I could be totally wrong. I'm just following the script merely reading how it's written out. So I'm
128so I'm assuming the way it's written out it is per school year. Um but I can double check on that. Well, and however it works, it's I'm sure the folks will start at the time they're supposed to. So, okay. So, are we supposed to make a motion to Yes, we do. There's action that needs to be taken on this. So, I'd like to make a motion to keep Julie and Melody on this. Okay. Motion made by Kathy. Second. Seconded by Melody. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. Latona. Next item. policy 1231, artificial intelligence. So, this is a new policy to the district. And last month, Rob Dixon came up and shared some information regarding this. Are there any questions or comments? Tonight, we will not be taking action, but we will take
129action next meeting. Oh, I'm sorry, Knock. I I I have too many screens open, but knock I was wondering if uh Rob could speak to the uh like the guidelines committee uh for the you know for this uh artificial intelligence. Sure. Um we met this last week as a committee and had uh several teachers there as well as parents. Uh I really enjoyed our our conversations back and forth. We have uh another meeting uh actually two meetings in July that we'll meet uh and actually I think it's the last week of June and then another one in July that we're meeting at the learning lab. Those are uh open to the public. Um I can send those dates and times for you. Uh so you can attend those. We'll have lots of conversations. I think
130we'll refine and have something hopefully ready uh for the start of the school year this next year. Just a quick point of clarity, that is not the policy. Correct. That is two separate things. We're creating guidelines for elementary, middle, and high for both staff and students. Yeah. Just the the reason why I brought it up um like any concerns I would have uh regarding the policy. I'm hoping that it would be mitigated with the development um of the guidelines, especially when it comes to you know like ethical uh like intentional usage of AI. I would say in terms of the uh policy uh itself under uh administrative implemental procedures uh number three uh personally I would like to see language in terms of uh like you know mentioned uh students and staff shall receive support
131in developing AI literacy including when and how to use AI as well as an understanding of its foundational concepts of computer science and other disciplines. I guess this is like semantics. Um I I I would love to see language in terms like when not to use AI and like how not to use u AI again like going back to like you know like responsible uh usage of it but again it is implied. Um uh I think you'll see that knock in the guidelines. Um the primary reason for the policy is to protect us from a data privacy standpoint both for staff and students. So yeah, and in that regard from a student data privacy standpoint, like I I'd be fine with the uh the policy as is. So thank you, Doc. My apologies. I believe
132this was discussion last time. So if you'd like to take action on these two policies at this meeting, that's fine. I think we'll leave it as the uh agenda states. So we'll take action next month. Okay. Okay, seeing no further discussion that will be moved next month. Do we do we need to approve this policy for this next one? Okay. But it's okay. Um just trying to keep prevent from changing midstream. Uh next item. policy 3460 and restricted reserves. Okay. Uh as last time we had a presentation on this last month. Are there any questions regarding policy 3460? Okay. Seeing none, is this something that needs to be approved for staff at this board meeting? Okay. Then I I would prefer to stick with what the agenda says and take action next month. Uh I
133guess is the board in agreement with that? Okay. Very good. Latona. Next item. Executive session attorney client privilege. Okay. Okay. I move that the board go into executive session for the consultation with the district's general counsel, which would be deemed privilege and attorney client relationship for 30 minutes following a five-minute break. The executive session will include all board members present and general counsel Dan Lawrence, Superintendent Kelly Beerfeld, Chief Human Resources Officer Sean Hudith, and Assistant Superintendent Lauren Hatfield. The open meeting will resume here in this boardroom at 8:35. And one one quick thing just as a kind of ongoing practice leaving our phones out of there if everyone's okay with that. Don't don't bring your phones. I need a second though. Seconded by Melody. Uh all in favor raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. We
134are in executive. Uh what room are we going to? Leona. We'll be the board will be in room 109. Uh please be efficient. Okay, the board is back from executive session and I move that we extend the executive session for another 20 minutes. The board motion made by Diane, seconded by Julie. All in favor, raise your hand. I. Motion carries 40. We are back in executive session. Okay, the board is back from executive session. Latona, next item, superintendence report. Kelly, give me one second here. Okay. Um, well, I wanted to um address a a topic that has been um uh in the media and in the in our environment um these last few weeks about graduation um in the class of 2025 here at Witchaw Public Schools. So, um you know, we've had um uh
135we graduated 3,000 students um a couple weeks ago from all of our 11 different schools, I think. And um we take a lot of pride in that, right? That's that's a huge number of kids. Um that's very exciting for a number of families. Um, unfortunately, you know, we we had um a couple anomalies, some situations that came up that as soon as we um found out, we immediately started to investigate. Um, and I think it just needs to be said publicly that the integrity for which we we give diplomas uh is of utmost importance. There's there's nothing more important. Our teachers work very hard, our students work very hard to um to meet the goals expected that from you all for graduation. Um that is those are your board expectations and requirements. Um and so
136it it is um essential that we uh do not tolerate any kind of unethical behaviors. Um that we hold a high standard for data that when when we report data, we reported a lot of data to you tonight. Um, some of that data didn't make us look great, but it's important for us to be transparent and honest. We can't get better and we can't fix things if we don't admit that they're broken. Um, so, uh, it was unfortunate. Um, we we've taken some action to to come out and send a message that we will we will deal with these things if they come up. Um, regardless of of what's gone on uh, in the past. Um, you know, I am adamant, I know I know Lauren and secondary office is adamant, um, that we we
137hold a high standard when it comes to this. Um, with that being said, um, you know, we were, uh, we were the talk of of different uh, circles. Um and one of the circles that and I haven't spoken much about this with you all uh but one of the circles that this topic our gra specifically our graduation came up was the uh school funding finance uh formula committee that's been meeting for the last six months. So um if you're not aware um the school the current funding formula expires in 27. Um, so there is a group of representatives, uh, superintendents, senators, um, and folks up in Topeka that are working on, uh, figuring out what to do next with the school, uh, finance formula. And it was put out there by one of the representatives,
138um, that, you know, maybe graduation doesn't mean anything, right? That this, you know, I think she referred to it as just babysitting, that that's all we're doing. And I I was really happy to see two different senators from different political spectrums, Senator Ericson and Senator Petty, uh, both speak up and say graduation rate is an important metric for us to use when it comes to knowing if we're being successful as school districts in Kansas. Not necessarily tying it to school funding, but it was in the that was the conversation that was being had. Um they both said that uh graduation rate is important that graduating is important. Your life as a human being in America is not the same if you don't get a diploma as if you do get a diploma. It's it's it's
139lifechanging. But it's not an eitheror, right? It's not either you graduate or you have the academic skills to be successful. Because that's that's a bit of what the babysitting comment was, I think, aimed at was we're just handing kids a diploma and there's no academic expectations. The reality is it's both of those things, right? We need to have the academic standards. We need to have high academic uh expectations for kids that the diploma has to mean something when they cross that stage. But the diploma also is important, right? If a kid knows how to read and is uh proficient in algebra and they drop out, that's still not good, right? We need both of those two things to be true. We need the academics to be true and we need the diploma u for the
140student. Um and and so some of what I hope you guys see and I hope um our our patrons and constituents see um is that in the state of Kansas th this is not a new discussion, right? The reason we have post-secary assets assets as part of graduation now is because of this this thought um that I don't necessarily always agree with that the diploma isn't isn't worth anything right um the reality is that the post-secary assets are a way that we know that kids have the academic skills the work ready skills that they need for the future. Um so that's that's goal number two for us. That's part of why we've been reporting on it. part of why we've been uh celebrating that. And the truth of the matter is in the in the
141core of this funding formula discussion, they're talking a lot about state assessments. State assessments. That's what we need to look at. We need to look at state assessments. Um go talk to some employers about what they value in their employees. And I bet state assessments doesn't hit the top 10. They don't care. They don't care about state assessments. What What do they care about? They care about post-secondary assets. They care about um goal number two. They care about credentials. They care about college credit. They care about life skills showing up on time. Like th those are the things that they care about. So that is a big part of what we're trying to do. Um that if you have an Eagle Scout, um that's worth more than a two or a three or a four
142on the state assessment, right? That is worth more of that. You would be surprised when you look at our student board kids who are phenomenal kids. How many of them get ones and twos on the state assessment for us in Witchah? I think it's important to ask why that is the case, right? Why do our kids why is it possible that our our kids are more likely to get a one or a two uh on the state assessment than other places? Um, and I think I think it ties back to the IPS and the five-year plan and the post-secary assets and all of that stuff in goal number two because when you're a sophomore and you take the the English test, uh, as a sophomore, it has no relevance and no bearing to anything else
143you're doing. Um, kids, you know, Befeld kids, uh, they're in, they know you just try hard on tests, right? Um, doesn't matter what it's for, doesn't matter what happens, they they're just going to do their best. But a lot of our kids, if there's not a reason, it's really hard for them to connect that. So what happens when they get in a career path and they have a credential test in front of them, they care about that job. They care about their that's relevant all of a sudden. If you can't pass the OSHA 10 test at the Future Ready Center, you don't get to participate. So you better pass that test. And you know what? Our kids can read. Our kids can pass that test, right? Even if they got a one as a sophomore
144on that state assessment, they can pass that test. It doesn't mean they can't read if they get a one on the state assessment. Right now, do some of those kids struggle academically? Absolutely. Right. I'm I'm painting a broad brush here. But what we see is when kids get in that career path, when they get into the college credit classes, the credential tests, look at our work keys data. Look at the our work the kids that can get silver, gold, or or platinum on work keys far outnumbers the kids that get a one on the state assessment. Why? Because it's relevant. And that's a probably a much better metric to be measuring by. Um, it came up in the discussion. It came up about ACT, about NAPE scores. NAPE's a national test that gets used. These
145might be better metrics than the state assessment that we spend all this time on uh discussing. So, I'm not saying it is necessarily. I'm not saying that this state assessment doesn't have any relevance, but um I think you can see in our kids a lot of times that they get into their high school years and it clicks finally where it's relevant and it's meaningful and if I don't pass this then there's a consequence to it and suddenly they're achieving, right? They're achieving and I think for for again painting a broad brush for a lot of our kids that's what it takes. It takes some sort of relevance to something outside of their world other than your English teacher said this is important. Get on get on the computer and in one day your senior year
146or your sophomore year um we're going to judge your entire high school career off of of that. Um I think that's a that's a little misguided. So um I think it's important a you know to to summarize um we hold a high standard. We are going to deal with it when we see issues, when we know about issues that we're not going to sweep them under the rug. We are going to deal with them and we're going to deal with them uh in a way that maintains the integrity of the process. Um it isn't just a diploma and it isn't just academics. It's both. Both of those are critical and vital for our kids to be successful. Um and our kids are showing through goal number two and through a lot of the post-secary assets,
147they are showing that they are academically ready for the workforce um for the jobs of the future. We have a ways to go. We have room to improve. There is no doubt. Um but it is not the 14% or the 17% that was quoted tonight. That's not at all accurate um with the reality of what our kids are able to do. So um again, I know we've all talked about this. If you have other questions about any of the graduation stuff, um, feel free to to hit me up. But, um, I think I think that's what I wanted to say tonight. So, thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Latona, next item. Business and board of education requests. Are there any board of education reports or new business to be had? Kathy, something that I would like
148to say. Okay. And I speak on for myself. The reports that have serviced alleging unethical practices aimed at artificially inflating graduation rates need to be addressed. These allegations not only undermine the trust placed in our educational system, but also cast a shadow over the integrity and future prospects of our students. Academic achievement should reflect genuine learning, hard work, and dedication. By engaging in dishonest practices to manipulate graduation statistics, we risk the devaluing the accomplishments of students who have earned their diplomas fairly and jeopardizing the district's credibility. More importantly, such practices fail to address the root cause of educational challenges and instead create a facade that neglects the true needs of struggling students. This behavior teaches the students that cheating is acceptable. As an elected board member of this district, my belief is rooted in the
149unwavering certainty that education serves as the cornerstone of a thriving society. It is both a privilege and a responsibility to ensure that our schools embody the highest standards of integrity, provide equal opportunities to every student, and foster an environment that prepares them for a future built on merit, competence, aspiration, and honesty. This past week has brought forth a wave of unsettling feedback from retired educators conveyed through emails and phone calls. Their words resonate with a troubling tone as phrases like this has been going on for years and finally someone got caught come to light. Such remarks have stirred a mix of emotions within me leading to a deep sense of disappointment and frustration. The recent circulation of a survey within the community regarding a potential bond issue being placed on the November ballot has stirred
150significant concern. Proposing a bond issue at this juncture raises critical questions about the district's priorities. It cannot be overlooked that the district is currently grappling with profound challenges, including the arrest of a teacher for sexual misconduct involving students and allegations of grade manipulation to secure diplomas. These issues shine a harsh spotlight on the integrity and ethical standards within the educational environment. Matters that demand immediate and unequivocal action to float the idea of a bond issue amid such turmoil is ill- advised. I am ready to support any efforts aimed at restoring integrity and trust within the community and school district. And I hope my colleagues agree with me. I believe that addressing this issue head on will not only repair the damage done but also set a powerful example of accountability for future generations. Thank you,
151Kelly. Yeah. So, I wanted to to just make mention and I think um you brought up several things other than just the graduation rate um with the the other teacher situation. Um, it's important, I think, that we that we make sure we um know the the tool that we're using to to fix the problem, right? Um the bond issue would not be intended to fix the graduation rate. Like those are the bond issues in intended to fix the long range um facility needs for the district. So, um the and I hope that from what I said and you know other conversations um you do feel like we are addressing the graduation rate stuff. Um but you know you you know where to find me if if you have more concerns. Um I do want to
152say also this came up from another board member. If if there is another concern right if you hear what oh that sounds weird then let us know right. Um, this was not the easy road to to do what we've done these past few weeks. That wasn't the easy road. The easy road would have been to just ignore it and and sweep it under the rug. Um, but we're I'm not about the easy road. Lauren's not about the easy road. We're about doing it right. And I that's why I heard you saying we're about doing it right. And so we want to make sure we continue to do it right. So yeah, let us know if there's other other things that need to to be looked into. So seeing no further requests, Latona, next item. Adjournment.
153Motion made by Melody, seconded by Kathy. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. 70. We are adjourned. Thank you.