001the meeting of the wichita board of education is now called the order i welcome everyone present the wichita school public schools will be the district of choice in our region where all students and staff are empowered to dream believe and achieve i'm pleased that you've taken the time to join us and now join me in a please and a moment of silence thank you very much now if you'd rise for the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance 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 thank you very much dr mike statement on yes statement about the covet 19 boe meeting format my name is mike willamy clerk the board this regular public meeting of the wichita public schools
002is taking place at the north high lecture hall 1437 rochester in wichita due to governor laura kelly's state of disaster emergency declarations concerning the covet 19 pandemic and pursuant to authority granted under kansas administrative regulation 16-20-01 as well as the board of education's concern for the health and safety of the public except as described in the boe agenda under the public communications section the public will not attend this boe meeting this meeting is available to be viewed live by the public in the following ways wps tv on cox cable channel 20 the district's website at www.usd259.org forward slash tv online and live stream apps for phone roku and apple tv by searching wps tv after today's meeting a recording of the meeting will be available on cox cable channel 20 and the wps youtube channel
003the boe agenda for this meeting was published on april 29th at www.usd259.org forward slash boe under the boe meetings agendas and minutes tab the news media also received the main agenda and a portfolio containing the appendices revisions made after publication but prior to this meeting were updated today at noon this version is being displayed at the meeting at this meeting all board members district staff and presenters will identify themselves by name and position before they speak to assist the public in following the meeting at regular boe meetings public comment shall be allowed only during public communications on items on the boe agenda or items within the jurisdiction of the board speakers will be called into the lecture hall to address the board at the podium after addressing the board speakers will be required to leave
004the north high lecture hall in the school there will be an executive session at the end of this meeting the following procedure will be used concerning the executive session a motion will be presented by a board member that states the subject matter and the justification under the kansas open meetings act for going into executive session the motion will state the time the board will return from executive session the live broadcast of the meeting will not end until the board returns from executive session and adjourns the meeting thank you thank you dr mike and for those who are fans of dr mike we wanted and recognized this voice for many years we wanted to recognize dr mike tonight this is his last full board meeting with us after uh many years as a board clerk i
005just wanted to read just a few of his career highlights and dr mike if you want to get if you would like to go to the podium and at the end uh say your goodbye to us and maybe introduce patrick that would be great okay dr mike willamy and patrick could you head over there with him or do you have to take notes dr uh mike willamy started with our district in 1980 as a teacher right here at north high uh he taught for four six years and then was uh taught out of state for four years till 1990 he came back to us in 1991 when he returned to teach at alcott then went back to north uh shortly after that he transferred to a teaching specialist position in the amac in 1996 working
006as part of the community as communication office uh dr mike willamy was selected as clerk of the board in june of 2003 and he has now served in that position for 18 years and i've only been a pres the president of this board for a very short time since january but i can tell you i knew he was really important before i became president but once you become the the president you really an officer you really start to realize how critical it is for the function of these meetings for dr mike and several others but dr mike we appreciate everything you've done for this district we will miss you we know you will be at our special brief meeting in late may but you'll be transitioning so i wanted to give you a chance to
007say goodbye to like i said all your fans out there who've listened to your voice all these years and we may try before this month is over try to get you to do the read along with dr thompson because we are con we know you have a different voice other than the board of clerk voice so we may just try to do that one time just see how you read a children's book to see how that goes but dr mike i'll turn that over to you now and i hope you'll also have a chance to introduce who is going to be replacing you and happy retirement thank you it has been a pleasure to serve the wichita public schools the board does tremendous work for the district unpaid work and i'm delighted to have been
008able to work with you and with superintendent thompson superintendent allison interim superintendent martin libhart and superintendent winston brooks following me in this job will be patrick and patrick greene will be starting actually at on the may 24th board meeting he will facilitate that noon meeting and i will be watching from a distance and after that patrick will be soloing with joe lo with joseph bowen at the june 14th meeting so thank you and good night the public the public demands that these meetings are done professionally in an organized way and believe me if it wasn't for people like dr mike and his commitment there's no way we could do that so cheryl logan yes i just want to add a few words to what's already been said because i i'm sure the public does not
009realize how much work goes into getting school board meetings on the air and and out to the public and how many things mike you have done that are over and above what we need to do uh you know bringing in board members at off years because somebody left setting up all the hearings that have to go and and and helping us through that it's one thing after another after another and you have always done it with great professionalism and i so much appreciate that and thank you for all your hard work and your commitment and you you're behind the scenes people don't even realize that those kinds of things are going on but this board couldn't function without someone like you and you have done an outstanding job thank you thank you cheryl julie well
010i am a fan of dr mike so i have to have the opportunity to say something to you personally dr mike we have had the pleasure of working together for 18 years when you came on as clerk of the board we worked together as employees and then for the last four years with me on the board and i know from my employee work how hard dr mike has always worked to take care of all of us to make sure everything goes smoothly and we're all serviced at the board table and all of the agendas are accurate and correct and consistent and dr mike has done an awesome job and is a great colleague and friend and i hope you have a great retirement maybe in a couple of years you'll decide you want to come
011back too or not perfect julie thank you ernestine mike you've been a good friend to me not only on the board but as a we've known each other otherwise too outside in our church and not only are you good at your job you have a droll sense of humor that sometimes i miss this very past week when i injured my leg and i told him i was going to have to miss a meeting what was it you said you said you didn't think the world would come to an end well he didn't say quite like that he said it and he says i think it will the world will go i think it will keep on rolling and i said i don't understand what you mean and he said it was a joke [Laughter] he
012has been my friend so when i don't understand things or when i needed to know anything i could call him and even if i wanted to find somebody else in the district that i couldn't locate and couldn't connect i'd call him and he'd say let me tell you the number or let me connect you and i thank you for your friendship and i thank you for your control sense of humor thank you thank you ernestine and for that i and then we'll just put dr mike willemy right back to work dr mike next item please okay good news facilitated by wendy johnson from strategic communications good evening president reeser superintendent thompson and members of the board it is my pleasure to be here tonight to introduce two good news items and as grand and glorious
013as they are i must admit i will look forward to the day when we have more students than we know what to do with standing behind you and amongst all of us we however have a grand opportunity to recognize pardon to recognize the students who have benefited from the expert instruction mentorship and support of our teachers and i think it's fitting that as we begin teacher appreciation week we have a chance to recognize students who have been so impacted by our teachers i also have to give a nod to dr mike who has been a colleague and friend for 20 years the uh he was there when i walked in the door and started this job so he's been a part of this journey and dr mike i will appreciate you greatly we're doing this
014a little bit different tonight again we told you last month we were going to have live good news items tonight since we have so many students involved in both of the good news items they will both be taped our first item will feature shannon benoit who is with us this evening in case you have questions afterwards to introduce you to the students who are recipients of the 2021 kansas seal of biliteracy proficiency which is just a remarkable accomplishment following that amanda kingry our newly appointed assistant superintendent of secondary schools yay we'll step to the podium and give you a live introduction of our class of 2021 scholarship recipients and then you'll have a chance to look at the video screen again to celebrate those students as we have the chance to watch i would add
015finally the agenda says that we'll have a brief break following the presentation but without students here i would suggest that unless you feel the need to to do so we could continue on with the agenda so two great items to celebrate this evening and without further ado we will allow you to recognize our students who have received by literally buy literacy proficiency direct your attention to the screens please good evening i'm shannon bennett the executive director for wichita public schools for esl services i'm excited tonight to be here in front of you to announce the testing information for the prestigious kansas civil bi-literacy award students who have attained a high-level proficiency in one or more languages in addition to english earn this recognition and distinction this year 104 students obtain their syllabi literacy the syllabi
016literacy is a nationally recognized award that the kansas state adopted in may of 2016. in conjunction with wichita public schools it gives us award to recognize a student's high level of proficiency in listening speaking reading and writing in english and one or more language it is a statement of accomplishment that recognizes a student's readiness for career in college and for engagement as a global citizen recognition for attaining functional proficiencies in two or more languages becomes part of the student's high school records the certificate these children have earned will offer more job opportunities help with college admissions and provide credit for college courses possibly students could also have an advanced placement in college classes as well this will make him or her more marketable in the workplace congratulations to our 104 students who received the seal
017of by literacy this year [Applause] all right good evening president racer vice president mr blankly superintendent thompson and the board we're glad to be here this evening kind of like wendy said last a couple weeks ago we had an opportunity to celebrate all of our amazing teachers and so today we're going to take an opportunity to celebrate our seniors so as we work to empower all students with the 21st century skills and knowledge necessary for success we are preparing our students to be future ready through college and career opportunities we have learned for this success to occur it takes a team our college and career coordinators and counselors work to prepare and help students understand their post-secondary opportunities our principals represent their outstanding faculty and staff who work faithfully to make sure these type of
018opportunities can occur and we have to recognize the work towards graduation starts well before high school and district employee employees from pre-k elementary middle school as well as high school all play an important role in our work it also takes a family parents grandparents family members thank you and thanks for sharing your students with our educators and partnering with your schools for the success of your child unfortunately also like wendy said we are not joined by our amazing seniors this evening but we still want to honor their post-secondary achievements so our seniors are in high demand by many colleges and universities across the state and country before we recognize these seniors let me share a few statistics with you 2815 that's the number of students to graduate with the 2021 senior class of wichita high
019school that's an increase from last year of 2550. 585 that's the number of students receiving scholarship offers for next year that's also an increase from last year which was 552. and lastly 35 million 527 251 and 42 cents that's the amount of dollars in scholarships awarded to the class of also up from last year which is 21 million 384 551. so as we recognize these students you will also see a picture with the student's name and the college or university they plan to attend these students represent the top scholarship recipients at each school and or any student that received over 40 000 dollars in scholarships or more so here are principles to introduce our students good evening my name is leroy parks and i'm the principal at chester lewis academic learning center and i'm proud
020to announce our scholarship winners for the 2020 2021 academic school year we would like to recognize the following students from wichita alternative high school olivia webster will be attending cali college lacey parmenter will be attending butler county community college mikaya keith is undecided at this time elizabeth verdejo is undecided and sunny besconer is undecided at this time attending butler county community college from the chester lewis learning center jesse fear from the town east learning center danny hall will be attending wichita state university caitlin yale will be serving our country in the national guard and heidi guerreroka cervantes is undecided from the adult learning center nathan miller ayala is undecided we'd like to congratulate these top 10 winners from chester lewis academic learning center and all the winners this evening and we wish them nothing but
021the best my name is sarah richardson and i'm the principal of wichita high school east the first and original high school in wichita kansas and i am excited to announce our top 10 scholarship winners from the class of 2021 here at east high school who will be the 143rd graduating class of east high school the entire class of 2021 has earned a total of 12 million 757 thousand dollars worth of scholarships we are so excited and proud of them we have miss juliana malaco who is going to attend marymount manhattan college jonathan balderas who is attending yale university mara hose who attending the milwaukee institute of art and design rachel lawton who has yet undecided she has too many offers austin parcell who is attending trinity university aaron akins who is attending the united states
022air force academy laura smith is attending baylor university in the fall azario ao is attending the university of texas at dallas tuki 2 is attending wichita state university and 2 on when will be attending the university of missouri in kansas city here at eastside we are so proud of these 10 scholarship winners as well as all of the scholarship winners from the class of 2021 from wichita high school east the 143rd graduating class of this beautiful high school good evening i'm amanda young program manager at education imagine academy this evening we would like to congratulate emma wendt for her scholarship to washburn university and elijah waters who will be enlisting in the national guard and we would like to also congratulate all of our graduates this year hello my name is eric philippe and i
023am the proud principal and 1992 graduate of wichita heights high school our top scholarship award recipients are sequoia williams kansas westland university eisenhower scholarship recipient elizabeth mccullum will be going to sterling amarion wilkins will be attending millikin university kennen monroe will be going to mcpherson college lanai randall will be attending southern illinois university silas limes will be going to newman university kaden dirksen will be attending barton community college carmen mealman will be attending butler community college sanaya moore will be attending howard university tyra jennings will be attending langston university and we'd like to add zach berry as our wichita state university wallace scholarship recipient congratulations to our top 10 scholarship recipients as well as all of our heights high school scholars hi i'm stephanie wasco principal at wichita north high school and i'm honored to
024be here today to introduce our top scholarship winners at wichita north high school our first winner dailene french will be attending university of chicago blanca rivas will be attending colgate university kyrah james will be attending wichita state university bronwyn reedus attending friends university yalitsa arroyo attending friends university hannah wassel attending friends university vivian garcia attending wichita state university finnegan eichbauer attending kansas state university anna e palacios attending wichita state university priscilla castaneda attending wichita state university mia perez attending pittsburg state university and emmanuel gallardo attending wichita state university congratulations to our top scholarship winners at wichita north high school and all scholarship winners at north hi i'm principal matt kriesman from northeast magnet and i'm here to recognize our award winners or our scholarship winners daniel kelly for the university of southern california isabella abbott
025for emerson college ashton standifer for friends university kayla lee for colorado school of mines briana williams is undecided zoe davis for college of the ozarks allison ramstock for newman university macy escalada for the kansas city art institute perez espinoza for the university of denver shabnam muhammadappur for new york university peter percaro wichita state university messiah barber for kansas state university honesty swan for wichita state university and hashem syed for wichita state university thank you and congratulations to our top 10 scholarship winners and congratulations to all of our other scholarship winners at northeast magnet hello my name is eric hoefer holdeman and i am the principal at northwest high school it is my honor to announce our top 10 scholarship winners zaire atkins jc corcoran david duncan brendan green josiah hill ashley linsecombe todrick mcgee braden
026verbeck julius bolden and what to colomo congratulations to our top 10 scholarship winners and congratulations to all of our northwest senior scholarship winners good evening i'm kara leady principal of wichita south high school home of the titans and we'd like to congratulate all of our class of 2021 scholarship winners and our top 10 scholarship winners at wichita south high school are miss kiana davis she will be attending wichita state university mr kevin smith attending baker university marleni meja molina baker university cynthia miranda baker university lyric dara wichita state university jesse mejia wichita state university finnegan costner wichita state university adeline lee undecided serenity brooks wichita state university sierra doyle lyons wichita state university elysia newborn pitt state university ani perez pitt state university congratulations to our south high scholars well good afternoon and greetings board
027members my name is ben mitchell and i am the proud principal at wichita southeast high school and i have the great task of reading off our top scholarship recipients for the class of so first off will be abril vasquez ortiz who will be attending kansas wesleyan university next we have cyprus sally who will be attending friends university next is delaney agnew who will be attending butler community college next is hendrix lovett who will be attending web institute next is jayla harding one of our hoopers who will be attending butler community college next we have john dang who currently is undecided on where he will be going to school next we have mark gonzalez romo who is also undecided at this point next we have melinda mojica who is going to be attending colby liberal arts
028college in maine and next we have nazanin casiro safar i've practiced that several times and as of right now nazanin is undecided next is thu nguyen who will be attending wichita state university next is vietwin who is currently undecided and last but not least is another one of our basketball players wesley atkins who will be attending the university of saint mary's all right go buffs good evening my name is mark jolliff principal at wichita west high school here to share our scholarship winners tonight and our top 10 scholarship winners first is cassius williams attending emporia state university juan pedraza friends university elizabeth romero lopez newman university alazar guzman tayo newman university anastasia stanton barton community college kaya taylor university of kansas lindsay espinoza pablo newman university maria perez herrera newman university university of kansas dariana
029hannah wichita state university and aiden young cali community college thank you to all of our students and all of our scholarship award winners we are extremely pioneer proud of you and thank you for all your hard work as a west pioneer are we good okay it was on before but whatever um okay shannon now you had just get ready yeah would you come to the podium and tell us uh the different languages that are represented by the students who have received this bi-literacy proficiency award yes so we currently have 105 language or 104 languages in the district but there were about seven languages that we tested so spanish turkish vietnamese lao oh i didn't have it written down i didn't bring the biliteracy stuff tonight so because i have other sorry about that um there's
030two there's two languages i'm missing because we had seven but yeah that was amazing so thank you very much yeah it was great the kids did a great job that sounds like it and then i just also want to re-emphasize that i heard um you can sit down okay that i uh heard 35 million total and 21 million total last year so that's is a huge increase almost fifteen fifty percent getting close so um anyway congratulations to our students and families and principals and everyone that has uh participated in that process that's amazing dr thompson i just want to give a shout out to our staff who work with these students every day to work on these scholarships um that's a lot of work and commitment to philant weathers filling out those fascicle forms it's
031all of the above the things that you're talking about those scholarships that's a tremendous effort that happens in our schools and i just want to thank the staff for their efforts well and our our staff are teachers from kindergarten up all the way through high school are contributing to our student success so there are a lot of great teachers that have been involved in that process and i'm going to give a shout out to our classified folks as well because there are a lot of people that support students and it's just not teachers it's everyone that's in that building that gives those kudos and that boys and mentoring opportunities and you know serve those lunches and everything else those folks also need to be commended in this work and be part of the celebration as
032well thank you ben so talk about a fundamentally weird year to graduate high school and of course our state's motto is at aspera at astra per aspara to the stars through difficulties and i think these students and all our 2021 graduates have really shown that they have achieved through difficulties for sure this year so extra congratulations on that thank you for saying that cheryl yeah i i just it's wonderful to see our top 10 and they're great students and we're extremely proud of them from each of the buildings but there's a lot of other kids that got scholarships too and we're equally as proud of them and i think the fact that we have increased our graduation rate this year by almost 300 kids is also another kudo that we need to send to the
033district and to all of our staff to make that happen i am just sad that we don't have the room full of kids you know i am looking forward to the time when we can personally look in their eyes and thank them and say congratulations because we are extremely proud of them they've done great work and they need to feel like we're patting them on the back even though we don't have them here to do that thank you cheryl and i think we can go ahead and proceed with the agenda dr mike next item please continuing under reports service employees international welcome esau good evening everyone president reeser uh superintendent thompson and board um i just was thinking so much about the how that was a great segue because you know these kids have actually
034endured something that many of us haven't and it's been such an abnormal year to see them get their scholarships which is a normal thing that we look forward to brings to mind that we are getting back to normalcy that we are getting back to where we need to be and uh i truly appreciate all of you uh recognizing all of the staff for that and uh so i'll make a little point around town you may see some signs that say school district employees deserve essential pay and it has seiu at the bottom and it also says that city of wichita workers deserve essential pay and while we know that this may not be a financial possibility we're putting that message out there because we believe that all of the usd 259 employees and all of
035the city workers from administration the school board all the way down to the uh the people who do the smallest jobs in the district have all really stepped up this year and done that so when you see those signs i don't want you to necessarily take that as an attack and and a demand for more money but a sentiment that i wish more people in our community uh set back and thought about because while i don't want to take anything away from police and fire and ems you know they tend to get all the kudos but most of you have been able to have fresh water through this whole process and most of you've been able to flush your toilets and most of you have been able to find some way to at least keep
036your children stimulated and people are out there looking and making sure folks are getting fed so that's that's the unsung heroes that i'm glad you guys are really speaking up about and uh you know with that being said we're getting really close to the end of school here and getting almost to some normal things happening this summer and i just heard on the news they were looking at 12 to 14 year olds for vaccines so you know by fall we could have a great portion of our population vaccinated and be ready to get back to as close to normal as we've been in a long time so we just appreciate everybody's efforts together on that and thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening thank you esau dr mike next item report united teachers
037of wichita mr brent lewis hello members of the board superintendent thompson i am privileged to be here representing the dedicated professionals of the united teachers of wichita during teacher appreciation week it wasn't long ago that the month of may seemed far off in the distant future this year of uncertainty and disruption that turned much of life upside down seemed like it would never end even in the face of such unpredictable and difficult circumstances our teachers were steadfast and determined to provide the quality public education we expect for our children through it all as a teacher here at north high and a parent of two wps students the unwavering commitment and ability of my colleagues to overcome the many challenges and obstacles they faced came as no surprise to me i appreciate them greatly president biden
038said it well in his national teacher appreciation proclamation i have seen firsthand the dedication selflessness and vision of our nation's educators they play so many different roles they are mentors who guide with creativity and care they are mentor advocates who fight for students needs role models who help students dream and dare more boldly and leaders who tirelessly support the families and communities that depend on them we are the professionals you count on to empower our children who are the future of the wichita community your teachers pour their hearts and souls into their work and are deserving of your appreciation and to show your appreciation to our hard-working teachers i ask this of you listen to us ask what we need to be successful in a rapidly changing world not just our highest flyers who win
039awards and praise on a regular basis but the rest of us too listen to the parent who is still upgrading or working on lesson plans well after putting her own children to bed ask what she needs to be successful in the career she chose because of her own passion for learning and for working with children but is struggling to balance with her own family life here what she needs to ensure that teaching is the sustainable career she desperately wants it to be over her lifetime ask the under the radar young go-getter what support she needs to feel empowered to grow into a highly effective experienced teacher right here in usd hear her desire to be a leader in her school and community while fully embracing her role as a classroom teacher listen to the professionals
040who get the job done in our classrooms every day we know what we need to be successful in the day-to-day grind to keep education on track in our schools teaching is a labor of love we want our life's work to be this foundational work that we do on behalf of our students in our community the greatest appreciation you can show your teachers right now is to listen hear us when we tell you what we need to have successful sustainable careers right here in our wichita public schools thank you thank you brent dr mike next item please under public communications we have one person registered to speak thank you presenting to us tonight is mr matthew farrenbaugh i hopefully i said your name correctly yeah you did thanks for having me tonight thank you we look
041forward to hearing your words well my name is matthew farabaugh i'm a proud father of two beautiful children at district 259 today i have a couple issues i would like to discuss first the curriculum before common core was implemented in 2010 schools were taught american values life skills basic math english writing cursive the constitution but that's a thing of the past common core was implemented to take out certain parts of history restructure math reading writing and to federalize the education system through testing i suggest parents research what common core is and who developed it on january 11th you guys had a virtual board meeting let me just start with a definition intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not is natural biologically grounded feature of physically
042distinct subgroups of human beings but socially but socially constructed category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color the theorists hold this hold the law of the united states to be inherently racist in so far the function to create and maintain social economic and political inequality of whites and non-whites disguised under the phrases of diversity inclusion equity and microaggressions is critical race theory this needs to be abandoned immediately and replaced with the pledge of allegiance any future or proposed changes should be made fully aware to the public now we get to the masks with what we have known all along masks do not work and they do not save lives recent and old studies from stanford cambridge notre dame university of london and many more tell us what we have known all along
043it does not stop any virus i suggest everyone go to these university websites to research for yourself don't take my word for it the studies show the complete opposite of what the mainstream narrative said mass can cause severe physical and psychological damage to my children and they need to be immediately removed the public and parents need to be fully aware of these studies in closing this is not confirmed it's speculation but there's been talk that children will need to get a covid19 vaccine to return to school next year i urge everyone to research what a lipid nanoparticle and spike protein is before receiving this experimental vaccine to make this mandatory is breaking federal law u.s fda code 21 section 360 bbb and this is a violation of the nuremberg code of ethics no experimental drug
044or shot shall be forced coerced mandated or manipulated into taking and the right to refuse or accept experimental medication or shots upon informed consent my children are not subjects to the state we elect you to make the right decision so why have we gone in the wrong direction myself and all parents need to start holding elected officials accountable to their duties thank you guys for having me tonight thank you mr farrenbaugh we appreciate your opinion dr mike next item under education avid advanced advancement via individual determination presentation the purpose of this presentation is to share student success data and plans for expanding the partnership with the avid center please see page six of this boe agenda for the avid continuation agenda item this presentation is for the board's information dr thompson well my colleagues are
045in their spaces so i don't need to steal the thunder i'll just turn it over to my colleagues and they can introduce themselves and take it from there thank you all right christy o'toole's going to be my assistant this evening thank you for stepping in tonight christy president research superintendent thompson and members of the board thank you so much for the opportunity to highlight our wichita public schools avid system and share some of our most recent success stories with you my name is michelle drumright and i have the great honor and privilege of working directly with our district leadership on the continuous improvement of our avid college and career readiness system over the past several years your strategic plan has helped bring focus to the district work and we are excited to show you how
046avid plays a role directly in impacting this plan so my cheering squad in the back is going to help me maintain my time limit of 20 minutes so by doing that you might see me looking at my talking points more frequently than i typically would but um as i've been told before from my advisors at wichita state university i tend to be an overrider and an overtalker so to honor everyone's time tonight i i'm going to begin on presentation slide number 11. as you're flipping through the slides that you're going to see on slides from slides 3 to 10 have been included just to provide you a highlight reel if you will showcasing the strengths of our teachers and our students who have overcome many uncertainties we have faced over the past year so if
047you could just flip through those and take me to slide 11 christy thank you the avid college and career readiness framework provides us with a common language and understanding of what the necessary skills experiences and attributes are of the students what they need to possess in order to successfully realize their college and career aspirations moreover the framework includes specific adult behaviors that help pave the way for student success when used as it is intended the framework helps inform district and school leadership toward ensuring that college and career readiness is available for all of our students you're going to see that the framework contains three structural components sorry christine can you take me back to the framework thank you first the four domains that drive instruction or the drive schools are instruction systems leadership and culture
048the second are the elements defining college and career readiness which are rigorous academic preparedness opportunity knowledge and student agency and third the adult behaviors that promote college and career readiness you'll find on the bottom of that pyramid insist on rigor break down barriers align the work and advocate for students no matter what post-secondary path high school graduates choose students must develop certain essential skills to design their future their own futures some of those skills include critical thinking collaboration reading writing and relationship building the development of these skills is rooted in the belief in self if students believe they are capable there is a foundational confidence to learn and a resiliency to overcome setbacks our job is to ensure that students are prepared for the opportunity to enter a four-year institution if that is what they
049choose to do the core of avid at the secondary level is the avid elective class students typically apply to be in the avid elective while in middle school and continue enrollment through high school graduation this is how the avid elective is intended the data i'm going to show you highlights our continued avid senior success and the positive impact that the avid elective has had on our students oh i got wonky the next three slides show data from the class of 2020. this data has been relatively consistent with our avid seniors for well over a decade avid students are ambitious when it comes to preparing for post-secondary education they understand that taking rigorous courses and exams will better prepare them for the rigors of college they have a strong work ethic when it comes to college
050readiness and nearly nine out of 10 are completing the requirements necessary to get into a four-year college their commitment shows in their pre-collegiate test test rates which are nearly 100 percent of students taking a pre-collegiate exam for the second year in a row 100 of our avid seniors have graduated on time from high school it is important to note that since 2006 when avid senior data was first collected in the district our seniors have maintained an average graduation rate of 99.5 percent while looking at the data on this slide i'd like you just to keep in mind that schools shut down for the last quarter of the student senior year yet still we had 83 percent apply and 80 percent of students accepted into four-year colleges the next two slides highlight college enrollment and persistence
051data the class of 2018 was selected in order to show the persistent persistence rates so research tells us that students who enroll in college their first year after high school or more are more likely to graduate from college than those who don't according to a 2020 national student clearinghouse report the immediate college enrollment rate for all high school student completers across the country was also 69 percent in 2018. this means that our avid students who represent students who are traditionally underrepresented in college enrolled in college at the same rate as all student populations across the country according to a 2020 report among the students who enrolled in college as a first time undergraduate student in the fall of 2018 76 percent persisted into the fall of 2019. again when we look at our data we
052see that 80 persisted so of all students our persistence rate of our avid seniors is four percent higher than the national average of all students since our first avid school implementation in 2001 right here at north high school we have been improving outcomes and providing access to opportunities for traditionally underrepresented and college students you can see that mark right there on our wichita map in 2012 we brought on our first avid elementary school and ever since we've been building an infrastructure to decrease variability and ensure opportunities for all of our students moving to full district avid implementation will help ensure all district students are what they sorry that all district students get what they need to be college and career ready because all educators will understand their roles in helping students reach those outcomes vertical
053articulation for all schools and students will result in more successful transitions to middle and high school which will strengthen through alignment of teacher practice leadership support and students increasing readiness for the school year to come the foundation for district right avid has been laid through our work with all schools and administrators over the past two years three of these things include what's shown on the slide first there have been ongoing efforts to operationalize the theory of action for college and career readiness second a focus on the avid school-wide domains in order to transform instruction systems leadership and culture and third in the last in the last year we began establishing wicker as a pk 12 foundation and a tool to align our language and instructional practices across the district at all levels our partnership with
054avid provides many benefits including professional development a suite of resources and ongoing support to ensure an impact that maximizes our return on investment avid is not one more thing to do rather this work across the district and within schools aligns with our goals and is intended to accelerate and enhance the work that is already occurring your commitment to avid continues to make a direct impact on our long-term goals while empowering educators to activate their teaching and learning their leadership in ways that establish equitable and rigorous learning environments for all of our students in honor of this evening's focus on senior success i want to close by highlighting one avid graduate from each of our high schools that offer the avid elective these students have demonstrated resilience by overcoming adversity from this pandemic and the schools
055shutting down during one of the most critical times in their academic journey meet anaya anaya has been enrolled in avid for six years she graduated early as a valedictorian of north high school and she's a first generation college student as you can see she's received several thousand dollars in scholarships she does plan to attend wichita state meet juan he was also enrolled in avid for six years he's a recipient of several thousand dollars worth of scholarship offers as well he's also a first generation college student who plans to attend friends university meet gabriella from east high school again she's been enrolled in avid since middle school 4.0 received several thousands of dollars worth of scholarships she's a first generation college student and her career goals she wants to be a physician's assistant meet viette he's
056been enrolled in avid for five and a half years he's a student body president at southeast he plans to attend ottawa university and his career goal is to start and franchise his very own business and then invest invest and invest meet sequoyah williams from heights she's been enrolled in avid for six years as well she's on the varsity volleyball and varsity cheerleader she plans to attend kansas westland and her career goal is to be a veterinarian meet kiana from south high school she's been an avid for three years has been offered several thousands of dollars worth of scholarships and her career goal is to be a computer engineer and pursue a career at microsoft or sorry rob possibly google headquarters and our last our last senior student is zachary who attends northwest high school he's
057been enrolled in avid also for six years he has received over 3.3 million dollars in scholarship offers from over 25 different colleges and universities his college goal computer science and finance and he wants to go into cyber security many thanks to the board and our district leadership for supporting our work and for providing this opportunity to celebrate and share a few success stories with you this evening how'd i do michelle am i under 20 that was a goal that was wonderful nobody really took the time huh can i answer any questions for you this year yes cheryl yes thank you for the excellent presentation i i have been looking forward to this because avid's been around quite a while and and we need to see this data so thank you for bringing it my my
058question is in regards to the graduation rates from college because you have the two years do we follow our students all the way through graduation we we do have the capabilities to do that yes okay because i've never seen that data and so it would be interesting just to know what that was yeah i would love to get that data for you okay it's powerful um the persistence data in the students that do go on to their second year of college have a very high rate of opportunity to graduate that's what i would guess but i just haven't seen it absolutely also this is a program that we have available in all of our schools elementary middles and highs we do not currently but we hope to in the future okay so we're moving in
059that direction and the board's uh agenda item tonight will help us do that that is correct okay thank you very much thank you cheryl ron roberts house district six so kind of going off what cheryl was talking about um so when if and when all schools uh get the uh avid curriculum and instruction and all that the resources are available for all students regardless if they're in avid is that correct that is correct we have there's basically two elements where we focus one is on school-wide instructional practices and systems culture and leadership focus and the other is in the avid elective so the data that i presented it's easier to tell a story from students from the avid elective and the way that we collect data but yes what we're hoping for is the school-wide
060impact of avid in all of our campuses and you said it's been around for over 10 years it's been in wichita public schools since 2001. oh okay and avid is a national organization yes it is okay they're the ones that provide all the resources for us to to use yes sir okay thank you very much thank you ron i had a quick question well first off i want to thank you for putting the faces on this report many times for the average citizen out there it's good to put the faces on what this program actually does and and how they succeeded in it there was two stats on there that i just wanted to repeat that i thought was amazing um the hundred percent graduated on time and secondly the eighty percent that has prese
061uh in this one particular year that persisted into the second year of college uh you know i think many school districts and many programs out there can get you into college but obviously they've had some foundation uh to actually persist beyond just the beginning of of going to college and that's and i i agree if we could get the information from like cheryl mentioned about even beyond the second year that would be great as well so good job on that uh my question is do you could you explain a little bit more about because one thing that i think we've done better at than what we used to do in the past is preparing studying skills uh when i graduated high school we did a really good job of getting people into college but i
062don't remember much training on how to study and then by the and obvious anybody who watches me probably realizes i didn't study that hard but it's because i didn't really have the greatest studying skills that i i wonder if you could maybe expand on that just a bit yeah one of the things that we're really proud to be able to do is provide the opportunities for teachers to develop and have a depth of understanding of how to develop students and how to provide those opportunities for our students so it's very intentional planning around those instructional strategies and including and especially study habits and study skills time management and just it all wraps around into that individual determination and work ethic that we help students develop for themselves thank you dr thompson i'm going to talk
063just a little bit we do co there's there's an interesting thing that the commissioner of education has given to us called the effectiveness rate so our school district every year gets a report that tells us how our students have persevered through college past the first two years so we the the clearinghouse and the work that we we that the state is allowing us to keep will allow us to be able to determine the effectiveness rate of our program within our district if you recall a couple years ago we actually won an award for that particular piece for the district and for the students that we serve we were kind of a little bit higher than the effectiveness rate that we were that they had projected for us to be able to accomplish those things so
064i know that we do keep track of that and one of the things that is important for us as we continue to keep working on this track of college and career readiness is to teach these kids these kinds of skill sets because it's easy to kind of give up on things when when they get hard and how do you push through and we were talking about that as a group about this year with the pandemic and how we've watched our kids grow in that area like none other so we are hoping that this uh this newfound skill set that our students were forced even our families were forced to kind of move into that this will help us to be able to push through things a little bit differently and help kids to to really
065build upon those skills that they've received this year to build even further on those skills on how to continue to persevere when or be resilient as the words as we talk about in our world so i think that this is another good example of what happens when those kids have that resiliency especially being the first time graduate or you know first person going to college in your family and able to kind of keep pushing through you got lots of cheerleaders but sometimes you have to get that inner stuff inside of you that makes you come out to be able to keep pushing through so i just think that this is a great program that will allow us to continue to embed these types of skills and momentum with our students to be able to keep
066pushing past that two years and beyond thank you ben ben blankley district one um i think uh uh my colleagues have made this point uh but i wanted to reiterate it again that um this is very data driven this uh this program and this set of strategies and i know internally we as a board have been pushing for that kind of accountability for the public dollars that we're spending and externally we've got people looking at the choices that we're making the things that we're putting in place and saying okay you're funding this what what are you achieving and i think this is one of those programs that we can consistently point to and say this is achieving all we wanted and more with the dollars that we're investing and i'm going to just kind of
067reiterate avid is not necessarily a program it's a system that we use for college and career readiness so i don't want people to think that we're buying a program because we are not buying another program because programs is things that you have to it's extra stuff on top of extra things what you're doing is you're supporting a college and career readiness system that will allow us to be able to look at instruction and what happens in instruction how do we you know teach at those higher levels of three and four we're looking at leadership how are we building not only the principles but we have teachers that are leaders within our school district we have all kinds of leaders how do we use our leaders to help us leverage uh student achievement for students you
068know you look at the culture what kind are we building a culture of college and career going folks within our so all of these things and do we have we built that system to allow us to be able to do that so we're not buying a program we're really buying a way of being kind of like what what do we want and when you look at that theory of action which is that little thing with the funnel it really gives you a clear picture of how to build the infrastructure in a system to be able to ensure that we have college and career going people and when they leave us they're leaving us with the skills and you know on both sides whether there's the social and emotional and that all that peace there employability
069skills alongside of do they have the academic pieces and we think that this system is something that we can use and look through this lens of that system to help us to be able to narrow our focus some and be able to then focus on the right things and do them right and we believe that this system will be able to help us because we have data that says that if we do this that these are the things that our students can accomplish and be and when they leave us so that's what i want to make it clear that we're not buying a program we're really buying a system and we've incorporated it in into our system thank you julie julie hedrick district two other of my colleagues have talked about their um favorite data
070points so i'm going to point out another one that i think is most impressive and that is the students that have been highlighted these success stories of these particular particular students how many of them that have received all of these dollars of scholarships and great gpas and have career plans that include college and careers how many of them are first generation college students and i think that's just really impressive this program i know is one that that is particularly geared towards those students which nes wouldn't have necessarily been encouraged by their families to be college bound because of the fact that maybe they are a first generation college student so i just think that is extremely impressive and i think the stories of these particular students just as our stories that we heard of students
071earlier tonight are really impressive and showing how much success we produce as a district thank you julie that's a very good point the very first generation college students will make a huge difference in their families life and their own lives and the community so i think that's that's excellent point christy or dr thompson or michelle if you had any final conclusions because i don't see any more questions i appreciate uh this presentation thank you so much thank you so much for your time i'll give that other information to you as well i'll go back for the 2018 those students would not have graduated yet but i will go back to 2017 or 2016 and get that data for you that'd be wonderful thank you thank you dr mike next item consent we will start with
072mia this time mia do you have any consent items you'd like to pull i do not julie julie hedrick district 2 no consent items to pull thank you cheryl cheryl logan at large i have no items to pull stan research district four no consent items to pool bin then blankly district one no items to pull ernestine ernestine krebel district three no items to pull ron robert's house district six i was looking at uh under programs d2 newcomer curriculum for middle school and high school and then i just had a comment after we voted for everything once we're done excellent thank you i will entertain a motion to uh adopt the consent agenda except for the item that ron pulled under d two um julie hedrick district two i uh move that we approve the consent
073items other than the one that was pulled cheryl logan at large a second moved by julie seconded by cheryl to approve the consented giant agenda items except for d2 i can't make my work oh you got it you got it you got it motion carries 7-0 d2 is the newcomer curriculum for middle school and high school ron yeah i just wanted to find out um i was already mentioned how many languages we have spoken here in the district and i was just wanting to find out exactly how this curriculum uh will help all the newcomers and just i guess esl as a whole is that correct um hi shannon benoit executive director for esl this actually is going to be an a specific program for newcomers in middle school and high school glad you asked
074there's several different ways this is going to support our students first of all it's going to provide high quality non-fiction reading opportunities for them it's also it has a robust opportunity for real world listening practices in the content areas which our program is needing a little beefing up in right now it has a well-sequenced scrambler instruction in practice it also has real world high engaging visual literacy opportunities that are not available right now currently in our newcomer curriculum it provides instructional materials at a more accelerated pace with engaging activities to help students meet the english language learner standards and it also has appropriate online supports for both the teachers and the students the visuals and the articles that are represented are represent people from very diverse backgrounds and also it's easy for teachers to follow
075as well as differentiate from and we currently sorry i'm sorry so i'm just going to ask if it's something that they can you know really differentiate really spread out into i mean obviously if we have 100 what was it 105 languages uh spoken then yeah we currently have 104 languages with 100 countries of birth we have about 7 499 esol students um our top five languages are english spanish vietnamese swahili and arabic and i did bring some information for you guys tonight i brought some eso enrollment trends by schools i thought you might be interested in seeing that kind of goes along with this and also um languages at each one of our sites so that you could see where some of our higher higher populations are for different languages that we serve okay thank
076you very much yeah appreciate it and i appreciate ron uh pulling this item because i had just a real quick question on it too shannon or dr thompson if she wants to answer um is our newcomers with english as a second language is that has that number been increasing decreasing or stable for the last several years and i'll let dr thompson or shannon answer we've been pretty stable for the last several years our esol numbers overall have decreased we've decreased about 693 students last year with our kelp results because that the students went into monitoring status i'm not sure if you're aware of what um transition and monitoring students are so i can explain that if you want me to really quickly sure yes okay so our transition students they tested proficient in kelp and
077they're placed in transition for one year but they still receive contact minutes so they still receive support from either a teacher or a parent in the building our monitored students then are they've passed the kelpa they've completed one year of transition and they come out of esol sort of out of esl services at that point so basically passing the kelpa students are removed at that that point of achievement thank you shannon i appreciate that and i appreciate that clarification any other further questions on this item if not wrong would you like to make a motion yes uh as do you want me to make a motion then come back to the comment yes okay unless the comments related to this item no no it's okay go ahead ron so i make a motion that we
078uh proceed with the newcomer curriculum for middle school and high school and i will second that motion moved by ron rosales seconded by stan reeser to approve d2 of the consent item motion carry 7-0 ron i've just wanted to find out about uh on under consent again uh c bids purchasing there's a number of things items on there that are related to technology and i was just wanting to find out from dr thompson as far as you know we got this was like a technology heavy year yes a lot of money was spent and so i just wanted to find out what is going to be our i guess exit you know once the students are leaving what's going to be the process um are we going to keep the same stuff or exactly what's
079going to happen with all yeah we we spend a good chunk of our time uh today actually having some intense conversations about what that will look like and so we did come to some consensus of some how things would go and so i have will invite my colleague up to share with you uh our plan thank you good evening rob dixon chief information officer uh you know this year msr is is way different for us than any other year even in the future and so uh taking a look at how we get those devices back for msr students is probably our heaviest lift we'll be offering some time in a half day there toward the end of the year to get those devices back but give them the most access to those devices to complete
080all their work toward the end of the school year another thing that will shift this next year is we'll focus on ipads we've made some significant purchases here in the last month of where we'll basically standardized on pre-k through three ipads and then fourth grade on up uh the hp devices that we've been purchasing all of those devices will have access to a sim card enabled modem so that then through some other grant opportunities that we have we might be able to light those up next year to offer digital equity and access where it's needed and so we'll standardize on those two models that'll help us be more efficient from a support model we also are working with rti our partner to disinfect devices over this summer re-image and re-deploy for the fall that's a
081significant task with about 47 000 devices being done over the summer time okay well thank you very much i just wanted some information on that and we do not need a motion on that particular item since it was already approved but any other follow-up questions uh from what ron's comments were on that seeing none we'll move on to the next item dr mike under policy flight one first review proposed consolidation of learning services policies as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate boe policies administration proposes the following consolidation of learning services policies current policy 1805 student assessment update aip2 and add aip 78-9 policy 17-9 needs assessment delete because content is covered in 6002 summative assessment program delete content is covered in 1805 6003 formative assessment program delete content is covered in 1805 and 1790
082evaluation of instructional program update department name this item provides for the bird's first review of the above policies are there any questions or concerns or recommendations on this first flight we will not take a final vote on this first review of the above policies but this would be a good time if you have any if anyone has any concerns or questions ernestine i just want to know what the old name was and what the new name is going to be dr thompson assessment and research office okay there another was there a name before or a department before or was it just scattered it was called evaluation and instructional program oh okay thank you so it's uh basically some house cleaning uh provision changes to these affected uh policies i move that we accept we don't
083need a motion to on the first on the first review but i will definitely you hold that motion ernestine and i'll definitely get you on the next time i do the same things don't worry about it dr mike next item under operations and finance none submitted miscellaneous superintendents report dr thompson um thank you for a few moments to share uh several updates um it's amazing to think after this unbelievable year that we're preparing for commencement ceremonies for more than 2 500 graduates so this is going to be an exciting month for us this is always an amazing time we've been working with our seniors for now uh we've been kind of out not well out but since march last march about 18 months so we know that these students have really worked hard and persevered
084through and uh this this time as you know today is the kickoff for teacher appreciation week and our teachers again are simply amazing and we thank you teachers those of you who are listening listening thank you um because we we have we have just been through a lot and we want to make sure that we recognize you for all of the things that you have had to do for our students and so and for each other we are going to be celebrating our teachers all week as we are in out in our schools and i hope that you tune in to the rwps social media channels and take part in the celebration and wishing our teachers the best if you have time any board members as you share your remarks this evening you might want
085to take a moment to let our community know how wonderful our teachers are and maybe even a teacher that impacted your life if you would like okay so the u.s news today next i want to applaud northeast magnet and east high school for being celebrated by u.s news and world report as two of our state's finest high schools northeast is recognized as number 10 and east as number 26. we couldn't be more proud of our teachers and staff and students and our school communities that make these students outstanding learning institutions principal creaseman and richardson congratulations to you all and your your staff and the students for such a tremendous honor behind every amazing high school of course is outstanding kindergarten teachers like myself right so we have we want to take the opportunity to invite
086each and every one of you tomorrow night tuesday may the 4th at 6 00 p.m we're holding our first ever virtual intro to kindergarten families will have a chance to learn critical information to help students be successful in their first year and so you know i remember those days when we drop our kindergarteners off and what to expect when we drop them off and have our tissues as we cry as we drop them off if you want to be involved and during this question and answer session you can take the link and log in to visit our website at www.usd259.org kinder k-i-n-d for more information and to access this virtual event but if you just go to our facebook pages or our twitter accounts you'll be able to get that information there and last and
087finally i'd like to take the opportunity to also thank dr mike dr mike oh as we graciously call him dr mike but his name is mike willamy and he is amazing i remember coming into this job and being very very fearful of board of education meetings and mike kind of said i got you know in his nice way really what he was saying is i got you and you've had me for the last four years and i don't know what i would do without you you keep me straight you you make sure that i don't end up in orange jumpsuits as i always laugh about it it's just the truth i mean he just keeps me you know because things i did not know that would cause me to have lots of grief uh he's
088able to guide me and keep me on track um i know that you will enjoy your retirement i know your wife has great plans for you and i want you to enjoy every moment of your retirement because you so well deserve the opportunity to close your eyes and rest and not be looking at board agenda or policy number 1805 uh i i know that you will miss us as we will miss you um you could always come back and take me to lunch during the summer months and get me up to speed on what's happening with you but again congratulations on your retirement job well done dr mike wilming and i look forward to seeing our retirees and our longevity honorees next week when we host our annual retirement celebration at botanica i think that's
089going to be a neat little thing and i told wendy i said mundy you think we can do this all the time so she just looked at me said you never know so i think it's going to be really cool to have the opportunity to be at botanica such a beautiful place to be able to honor our retirees and try to do something a little bit more a little different to be outside and to be safe and a place where we will enjoy and celebrate our people so i look forward to seeing all of you there and thank you for the time thank you dr thompson mike willamy next item please board of education report request and this time we'll start with ron yes i just wanted to thank mrs wasco here at north high
090for hosting the governor and all her staff and especially the drum line it was uh really good to see and i know the governor really enjoyed it but uh just thank you to her and all her staff that helped entertain the governor and show off our beautiful facility here at north high and also um mr curtis over at pleasant valley middle school uh dal d'amibo and veronica gillette uh for their exhibition of native american tools to the uh his seventh grade and eighth grade class uh native american tools and artifacts really impressive so i appreciate that that's it thank you ron ernestine i don't have a report ben ben blankly district one i want to say congratulations to uh the east high aces on their 13th annual aces in the community um they did a
091little differently uh media services did a great video that you can check out on youtube um of it it's it's really short it's really cool i wasn't able to be there uh but uh but i was able to see the video and it looked really awesome um and i'll probably be dialing into intro to kinder as you all know my my kiddo's been in remote kinder this year um but uh he'll be going to physical school in the fall and so a lot of the things we'll need to know um and so so i'll be dialing in just like every other expectant parent um and speaking of so dr thompson you mentioned um maybe uh thanking a teacher that affected our lives um in particular so today i had the uh opportunity this afternoon to
092help facilitate kiddo's remote learning from home and so uh so i was in the kitchen you know getting you know weeks worth of dishes finally done and and kiddo's in the in in the office on his uh on his ipad because of course he's a kindergartner um interacting with his uh his teacher and his classmates and uh it was overhearing and it was a and and i heard something and i had to like step back and go remind myself that this was a kindergarten first grade combined classroom this wasn't like middle school or something because i hear the teacher say an enzyme is a specialized protein created inside a living creature to facilitate a chemical reaction and i was like what and they were talking about how bees convert nectar into honey and this was
093just it wasn't like any big you know robust species this is normal this is normal curriculum for for these these kindergarteners and these first graders and so you know as an applied scientist myself i was like what have i been missing you know being at work and well he's he's going through all this and i was just super impressed um and it was just a small moment in in in that in that afternoon um but it happened just this afternoon and i thought that was really awesome um not that i was entirely surprised because you know i have a high expectations for my my child's education and i i was blown away so you should give a shout out to that teacher sarah i should uh marcy balovir is his kindergarten teacher so thank you
094thank you ben stan reeser district 4. um if if i tried to take the your advice dr thompson and mention the teachers that had the biggest impact on me we would be here till midnight so there's so many that had had a big influence on my life and i appreciate all of them and i tell you the best part about this job is when i get a chance to share a room with educators and i'll frankly tell you i do not feel worthy because the talent i see every day in our classrooms with our teachers just blow me away and i am so thankful to just have this small little role to support them and to listen to them so thank you teachers cheryl i asked if i could say my teacher because she actually
095continues to be a substitute in the school district and i want to recognize her she was my kindergarten teacher and her name is nancy garvey hello ms garvey because i know you're watching me because she tells me she keeps up with me and watches me at school board meetings so she was in my kindergarten teacher and i was a kindergarten teacher because of her because i love the way when i would walk into that door every day as a kindergarten i thought i was the best thing since sliced bread because of the way she greeted me every morning when i walked into that door and she made me feel so special that's why i wanted to be a kindergarten teacher when i became a teacher because of nancy garvey so thank you miss garvey cheryl
096yes i i think we've witnessed tonight and and are going to particularly through this week how we have changed and adapted based on the pandemic um you know virtual kindergarten um bringing kids in and parents in in a whole different kind of way instead of having them go to their schools uh the longevity piece where we're going to be doing it outside and and greeting our our people that have had 10 and 20 years experience and also our retirees um our scholarship winners tonight you know as much as i love to have the kids here at least we got to see them and so that's great and and that all leads up to this teacher appreciation i think every single one of us i grew up in a small town not in wichita but my
097teachers also influenced me to become a teacher and and teachers don't realize the kind of influence they have on on kids i think for a long long time but i happen to have a student that was in third grade my very first year of teaching in 1967 who still corresponds with me and that means more to me than i know it does to her but i'm not the only one lots of our teachers have that and we can't say enough how much we appreciate them and what they do for us and how they help our kids even in a year like this year where nothing was normal and they just rose above and did what they needed to do and kept the kids going and thank you thanks to them thank you cheryl julie i'm
098going to also acknowledge my most significant teacher and i'm sure he's been retired for years um but that was mr jimenez at wichita high school west usd 259 wichita high school west he was my honors history teacher and i talk about him often and the impact that he had on my life and i know all of us have been impacted greatly by teachers and i want to appreciate and acknowledge our the teachers of wichita public schools thank you thank you julie mia um i just want to acknowledge um i have a an eight-year-old grandson who i'm helping raise and he hates school i i'm going to change that he hated school he was so excited about not going physically to school this year and but his teacher and i i'm so sorry i cannot remember
099her name because he's going in person now but his teacher just activated something in him um and i i sat in a couple of times and i enjoyed her i loved her energy but i don't know what she did to that little boy but even when he was tired and was grumpy with me and his dad he just whatever she's doing i'm going to get her name and i will mention it as soon as i remember she has made such an impact on my eight-year-old grandson who literally just did not understand why he had to learn stuff so i applaud all of you teachers my teacher that i remember who made an impact on me who inspired me to become a teacher although i did not complete that task her name was mrs campbell she
100was absolutely beautiful she was she made learning feel effortless and when we made mistakes she did not tolerate the bullying she was not mean she was just loving and so you guys do make an impact any any teachers out there that's watching you make such a huge impact i'm one or two days over 25 and i just i still remember mrs campbell so i i appreciate you guys very much thank you mia ernestine well i'm not i wasn't going to make a report but i want to thank all of the behind the scenes p people who handled all of the technology that could instantly take 49 000 students and turn them into instant learners of on technology and 7 000 employees to be able to be on technology and be on the internet overnight i
101mean it really was astounding we took a five-year program and squashed it and all of those people that put that together i want to thank all of those teachers who said what i'm i i don't know how to use what and all of the people who patiently taught them and all of the teachers who patiently learned and then said oh i get it yeah we're rolling along this technology year we have jumped really five years as as far as and when people i just makes me furious when people i hear them say we've lost a year all of the things that the students and the teachers but specifically the students which is our chart have learned they have learned compassion they've learned tolerance they've learned how to cooperate across an electronic media now think about
102all of the businesses out there who have been trying to say can you please make the people know how to work in teams can you make your employees know how to work with others think about what they've learned this year about that there's they've learned academics but they were going to learn those in the school but in addition think about what all of these technology helpers have caused our students to be able to be ready for the future i feel so excited about the programs that this district is going forward with but just forced into we came up smelling like roses thank you ernestine dr mike next item new business see no new business we'll move to the next item which i'll let dr mike uh announce and then have ben make a motion on
103executive session ben blankly district one i moved the board recess into an executive session to discuss upcoming negotiations between the boe and the service employees international union and to discuss negotiations between the boe and united teachers of wichita pursuant to the employer employee negotiations exception under the kansas open meetings act and the open meeting will resume in this room at 8.05 a second motion and seconded motion carry 7-0 we will reconvene at 805. education is reconvening no necessary action from a result of the executive board executive session dr mike next item move to adjourn ben blankly district one i move to adjourn ron rosales district six i second moved and seconded to adjourn uh we'll raise our hand in favor all those in favor say uh our eye or raise your hand motion carries 4-0
104with ron rosales ben blankly stan reeser and sheryl logan voting yes we are now adjourned thank you