001next item is report of the superintendent of schools Dr Swift thank you uh Madame President members of the board and all who are joined uh joining us tonight in person and remote we're just happy to have everyone back uh from the spring break week and really grateful uh just one second do oh there it is very good thank you really grateful uh for the support of our students teachers our school teams our parents families and Community thanks to everyone for your hard work and partnership in support of our students um as we enter this chapter between spring break and the end of the year we really do adjust uh our Focus uh on two uh priorities first finishing the year strong we've had a great 2014 25 school year we want to finish strong and
002then secondly setting the table for a strong next school year so you'll be hearing a lot uh this evening and over the coming days about enrollment for next year about programming uh we really have a lot uh to accomplish over these coming uh days and weeks um let me just see if I can get there we go I really want to thank everyone for your flexibility and support in navigating the challenges of this historic winter uh it is nice to see the weather moderating and yet uh we had to make some adjustments so I know everyone's aware of it by now we started today with our first day adding 15 minutes uh Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday 25 minutes to the end of the day on Wednesday and then just a reminder April 21st all schools
003are in session May 22nd is a full day uh no longer a half day and then May 23rd will be our final day of the school year and on that day we'll be on an early dismissal schedule I know that our principals have each sent out the exact report times morning and afternoon uh so we uh reference you to those emails to make sure uh that you have the the days in order uh we have so many student honors to celebrate this evening uh here you can see our young adults at Community connections at pinky they took first place in Johnson County Community College job Olympics many of our students brought home individual medals from competing in career Readiness and work Place skill events job Olympics brings together over 500 students with special needs from
00440 uh different schools uh our high school journalists um have been busy and continue to just uh shine free state and Lawrence High School competed at Kansas Scholastic press Association Regional contest featuring the best in student journalist from nearly 1,800 entries from across the state students demonstrated their writing design illustration photography video and Reporting skills at 11 Regional competitions 82 schools competed in 26 categories Lawrence High earned first place in the ad Astro region with 208 points and 49 individual placements Free State plays second in the Pioneer region with 175 points and 44 student placements congratulations to Barbara tholan and Jared scha who advise our outstanding student uh journalism programs at Lawrence High School and Free State High School I'll be over uh in an interview with one of our student journalists to um Wednesday
005and just really appreciate uh their their excellent work uh the Free State team plays third in the stock market game sponsored by the Kansas Council for economic education Kimberly Hawks is their business teacher and the students names are listed here on the slide LHS senior Zaden cromedy presented her independent study results in the 59th annual Geological Society of America's South Central section meeting in Conway Arkansas she was the only high school student to present at this meeting the conference brings together scientists from Academia industry and government who study the rocks from or reside in Kansas Oklahoma Arkansas Louisiana Texas and Mexico's Gulf Coast State Zaden was one of over 400 contributing authors and presented research with Dr Diana Ortega ARA from the Kansas Geological Survey Justin Fairchild is zayan's proud science teacher at Lawrence High
006School Southwest Middle School Math team uh received eth place at the state math counts competition the students names are are listed here in addition to winning the chapter competition two years in a row Ruby Jang received fourth place at the Kansas state competition and will now compete at Nationals representing Kansas on the State team in May Deb hostad is the team's math teacher Arabella Gip you've heard about Arabella often she proudly represented the boys and Girls Club of Lawrence at the Kansas Youth Of The Year competition March 11th in Topeka where she finished as a state runner up Arabella is a fixture at the club since kindergarten she shared a profound connection and transformative experiences with the club through what is now her senior year at Lawrence High School Lawrence High won the 6A Kansas
007State Scholastic chess Association tournament March 15th at Emporia State University Dwight saers led the LHS team with a 10th Place individual finish congratulations to all of our elementary middle and high school chess players who earned medals and congrats Lori I know you and other teachers are involved in that effort I I want to thank our retired uh School staff I really appreciated the opportunity just prior to spring break to get to hang out and meet with members of the dou Douglas County Association of retired School Personnel I updated the members about our current District initiatives and invited their suggestions and involvement we are especially grateful that several in this group of retired staff members continue to be in our schools frequently some of them almost daily to substitute teach and volunteer in our schools special
008congrats to Lauren schools Foundation we are getting excited and revving up for their celebration of their 40th anniversary um their mission to provide resources that Inspire learning enrich teaching and enhance opportunities for all students Educators and staff in Lawrence Public Schools we just really appreciate the generous support of our community and the foundation's excellent work to channel that support from the community directly uh to our district uh Kennedy Early Childhood Center will host an early childhood Family Resource fair from 10: to noon on April 19th this is a wonderful opportunity for All Families of young children and will feature activities resources food and drink Kennedy and New York monu will also share enrollment information during the resource fair so parents can in one stop uh get a lot of their preschool information for the coming
009year uh updated on uh this chart it's kind of small to read but you can see it on uh your display members these are the updated analytics for our two ways that we work to keep our community informed and engaged I was really thankful that that midmar email about the time that some folks were checking out for spring break we were up over 38,000 responses with a 7 minute average uh open open time R time on those messages uh finally this evening members were really enjoying the beautiful artartwork in our boardroom gallery and I just want to give a shout out to all of our middle schools our four middle schools um in recognition of Student Art month have put together uh this display and many thanks to those art teachers for their work uh
010both to uh help our students develop their art and then also to bless us by showcasing that artwork here in our boardroom I thank you for the opportunity to share this report and for the honor to serve the Lawrence Public Schools thank you