001We're delighted to uh continue our conversation that we've had this spring around uh program enhancements. We've really been working uh through the fall to listen to our community um and then around the winter we really uh moved into actual planning for implementation of what we heard from our community. So, you will see throughout uh what we're sharing this evening um a a direct line to what our students, our staff, our parents, and our families told us that they wanted to have in Lawrence public schools. And we know that no one knows that better than those who bring their children and live and work and serve right alongside us every day. Uh so it is so important to align uh all of this work together and that's what's exciting. Just real quickly uh from last month
002uh just as a review for folks that maybe didn't see it. Um very good. Let me just see where is it. There it is. expanding uh preschool offerings into our neighborhood schools. Really are looking at a phased approach and I have an email or two that I still need to respond to. Uh just making sure that folks understand we are doing this uh with our capital outlay funds that are designed uh to help our buildings. So, the couple of classroom uh redesigns that will be necessary will be covered with those funds. And uh students who come from families where there are uh qualifying factors at play will be fully covered with their preschool. And uh students who come from families without that qualification will uh have a tuition. uh that tuition is a fraction of
003what the going rate for daycare is. Uh but we are required uh to really just charge what it costs us. The two locations are Sunflower and Woodlon. We already have emails coming in from parents excited to enroll uh their students in our preschool programming. continuing to do great work at Kennedy Early Childhood Center, that magic location, and also at New York uh Montasauri. The research is clear about the benefits of preschool education. Uh that is a 50-year case that's been made uh by the research. Secondly, really serving our support our our staff, our teachers and support staff as well as offering more programs for students. So the uh flip side of that second planning time for elementary teachers will be a highinterest hands-on standards align elementary science experience. Um, Miss Robersonson uh has been working
004uh with a team of elementary teachers. We'll be bringing an update here during May if the board is willing uh really around the content of that course. It is uh fullcourt press, exciting, relevant, uh critical thinking and all of the pieces and parts of great science instruction. uh strengthening that Jay-Hawk blueprint partnership. Uh board members, I shared with you a couple of Fridays ago, just really a list a listing of the work that our high school principles are doing. They come in and sit with us every Thursday. I just appreciate their commitment and we are opening the door to more opportunities to obtain college credit while still in high school. And we want that door to be open wide to students who may not have ever even contemplated that they might be able to get
005college credit during high school. So, lots more to come on that uh initiative. Then our steam focus at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School that is really based around project lead the way. We've got a lot more work to do with that implementation as we get ready for 2526 and they are intim implementing an additional course next year for all of our students. Um it's very exciting the steam learning that's going on and our data in student enrollment shows that students and our community are interested in this programming. We can already see it in our enrollment patterns. Um, and then finally, New York Monastery, as was planned uh a few years ago, will continue uh to move up and now we're moving into um into uh um into upper L is what we call it fondly,
006but those upper elementary grades of third, fourth, and fifth. So our monastery classrooms will move from what I call little kids, little students to moving into to bigger kids. It's an exciting time at New York Monastery. And now for uh this month, we have a few more things to share. We'll also be sharing a few more announcements during the month of May. We want to keep uh as uh member buyers says to me often, we want to keep it moving. So there there's more good stuff coming. First of all, uh really noting that that AVID implementation that our team has been working on for a few years now will be full across the district in 2026. I think we've been on that path for a while and it's easy to forget that next year is
007the year when every school is implemented. have heard really exciting developments not only at the showcase but just out in the district. Lawrence High is really excited with an an instructor who's coming in uh who's really passionate about this work. So, we're really excited about what's going on there. Two additional elementary schools and really moving toward that full district implementation. Um and if the board is willing, we'd like to bring a brief update um at our next board meeting. Um one of the most exciting steps we're taking is around the fifth bucket in the five buckets of feedback from our community. And you remember members, that was the area of thought that just was about getting our house in order with communication and frequent uh connections with our community with parent engagement. And the tool
008uh that we're rolling out next is called Parent Square. in the communication tomorrow that goes out to everyone in the district. I'll put the link to their website so folks can jump over there and take a look if they'd like. But in short, what this does is it allows us to communicate real time um along all of our student and school club sponsor, classroom teacher, special education, case manager, all of those areas at the school level. It will allow us to communicate in real time twoway messaging if the parent would like that. And then also a single dashboard. Um I should pause for a drum roll. So not 14 apps that parents are expected to get. One for band, another one for art, another one for the sports team, another one for the three clubs.
009not all of those various apps, but all communication in one location from the school. So, when you pull that page up, it lists for the parent each of their students and all of the alerts, school messages, etc. that have come in for each of their students, all on one page. So, we're really excited. We know that implementation will be a process. Um, and we're committed to that process because we're bringing lots of folks who've been accustomed to surviving out on an app uh into one deliverable. So, I'm not painting the picture that will flip the switch and it all instantly be different. Um, but it will be different and we will get all of our team into this. Now, for right now in May, the sandbox is open for play uh for our administrators, our
010building principles, and our athletic directors. And so, you may be getting, for example, Quail Run got a fifth grade um orientation email last week that looked a little different and it came from parent squares. So you will begin to see some little hints that uh things are changing with regard to unifying and streamlining our schooltoome communication. I just want to thank the board members that have led this since before I showed up and what an honor it is to get this out on the street for our parents. It was the number among the top requests, the number one, two or three uh in all of our data was streamlining that communication. Um last uh and this is also very exciting, more exciting than maybe it should be. Uh but I just want to thank some
011students out in the in our high schools and in the community who got my attention around uh the need to get back to the MacBooks for their academic delivery and they shared with me in great detail. I appreciate that they know how to build an argument, to make convincing points, to illustrate examples, which they've showed me, and they've uh demonstrated for me in a variety of ways. Uh but they were clear that to have a better college aligned experience, they needed to have a MacBook and not the iPads anymore. So, uh, there will be a few iPads that will stay out there for specific classrooms where those apps need to occur, but all of our students 9 through 12 for next year will move to the MacBook. So, I appreciate Dr. Ingleick and Miss Frick
012who followed through on how to leverage our capital outlay funds. So, no funds will be used for this implementation that can be used for classroom salaries. We can't uh we can't mix those buckets of money, but we're delighted when we can support our classrooms by leveraging capital outlay to an area of need. Uh while we're achieving that, we look forward and Miss Roersonson and our elementary principles will be bringing forward more information during May if the board is willing. uh we'll have an update on the alignment of less tech exposure uh for all of our students at particularly at the preschool through 2 grade and in fact members that's moving to essentially none at school. We'll be uh not interrupting their brain synapses with tech exposure in those early levels. uh we will phase that
013in in grades three through five uh as would be appropriate. So that's the other side of that. So you can see right here uh preschool offerings, elementary science, Jay-Hawk blueprint programming strengthen our steam and monasteri our district-wide AVID our schoolbased communications unified with the tool of parent square and equipping our high school students with MacBooks. It is a tremendous time and I want to thank every member of our community who took their time to speak up, speak out, answer the survey or respond in any way to us because the data has clearly informed this path and our next steps for moving forward.