Good evening, everyone. The regular meeting of the Kansas City Public Schools Board of Directors for 08/27/2025 is called to order. Lisa please call the roll. Kearls. Here. Foley. Here. Ford. Here. Jackaway. Here. Kendricks. Here. McGee. Here. Cortez. Here. Before we begin this evening, Ricardo Flores is here with us as our interpreter this evening. Welcome Mr. Flores and if you could share, your announcement. Can you hear me? Oh, yeah. Okay. Hello, everyone. My name is Ricardo Flores. I will be your interpreter for this meeting.
I will interpret everything that you say. So I will ask you to please speak to each other directly at at a good volume, clearly, at a moderate pace. Try to pause often if possible, and please refrain from having side conversations or from interrupting each other. I will let you know, in any case, if I need you to slow down, raise your voice, or if I need any sort of clarification. My goal as an interpreter is to convey your messages from one language to another accurately, impartially, completely, and without additions, or modifications. So thank you for your patience. Thank you, Mr. Flores. Do we have any I think we don't have any active outstanding items but we
are waiting on a response, correct? Not at this time. We're not, we have an open item but we're waiting for the board to close the loop, not for the team. Correct. Sorry, I didn't articulate that well. The next item on the agenda, public comment. We have one individual who's indicated they wish to address the Board this evening. As a reminder, public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. We invite public comment during our regular business meetings allowing up to 10 speakers per public comment session. We'll call on individuals in the order they signed up. No substitutions are allowed and
comments must be appropriate for business and family friendly setting. Inappropriate language gestures or personal attacks are prohibited. Patrons are reminded this is a public forum and comments relative to individuals are prohibited. And comments about specific individuals are not encouraged in this public forum. So, I just appreciate that and I apologize in advance. If I get up and leave, it's not because of something somebody is doing or saying, Ms. Ford will take over the meeting. The speaker is Ms. Tracy Pruitt. Welcome Ms. Prewitt. Thank you.
Okay. Good evening, board chair Cortez, board members, doctor Collier, and everyone else who's here tonight. I'm coming today to represent the staff at Success Academy at Knox. We work in the elementary alternative education program for KCPS. Our building is technically not a school, but a program provided for students in our elementary schools within the district who display the behavioral issues, which make it challenging for them to learn in their home school. We have had a Dean of Students in our program for at least three years to assist with administration,
which serves as the brains and the educational leadership in our building, the staff, which educates our students and the students themselves. Our Dean of Students position has served as the heart of our program. Our Dean has built the Dean of Students has built strong relationships with the students, staff, and their families and many of our students look up to that Dean as a father figure. The dean has provided positive interactions with our students as well as corrective interactions when necessary and that dean position has also helped to lift the morale of the building
staff. It's challenging to work in school with, children who come to us feeling like they aren't wanted and that they don't belong anywhere. On the second day of school, we were called into a meeting and notified that the dean position was being removed from KNOTT's And the staff members were devastated. Our dean is currently filling another FTE position in the building and we have some positions that are open, but they're working on filling those positions. And the staff at NOTS wants to encourage the district to rethink that decision and
restore the Dean of Students position. The district stated that our numbers don't require the Dean's position. And let me tell you the numbers. We serve students who have assaulted staff members at their home schools, students who run out of schools and out of the classroom and disrupt the learning environment, and even students who have brought weapons to school. Last year, our principal and a mother were chased around the front entry of our building while we were on lockdown because her child had brought a knife to school, and they were there for an enrollment conference. Fortunately,
the district found a placement for that student that was not with us. But it is unfair to count our children the same way the district counts students at the neighborhood schools and at the signature schools. Our children have extraordinary behaviors and trauma and don't count as one. A few short months ago, I sat in the audience and watched the board approve $700,000 for the Mandarin program. The dean at our building would cost you nothing. It's just a matter of shuffling some paperwork to give that title and that position
back to our students and our families that need that spot. We have felt that loss in the last seven days of school, now eight days. I hope that if you want to communicate with us, anyone is welcome. We're ready to talk with leadership, but we're just asking for a rethink on that position in our building. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Pruitt. The next item on the agenda is the District Advisory Committee or the DAC Report. Andrew Cox. Okay. Hi. Hello. Good evening. My name is Chantae Carey,
and I have the honor of being this year's DAC co chair. I will be speaking on behalf of Andrew. Thank you for this opportunity in allowing me to present our first district advisory report of the school year. This year, DEC is off to a fantastic start. On July 22, we held our first annual retreat where we voted on officers, approved dates for our bimonthly board meetings, and updated our bylaws. On August 6, we held our first exec board meeting where we concentrated on how we could help support our parent leadership organizations and began to lay the foundations to start one to
start those who don't currently have one at their schools. Every school face liaison or link coordinator should be contacted within the next thirty days by our exec board team with current information on how we will move forward. DAC has already started our community engagement outreach where we have made ourselves ready and available to serve our families. We have attended this year's enrollment fair and KCPS Back to School Fest. Our next event will be Caring Communities Day for link A LINC sponsored event next
Saturday, September 6 from eleven to three at Montessori Youth and Family Life Center. Lastly, I would like to invite everyone to our first DAC meeting, Wednesday, September 17 from six to 07:30 here at the Board of Education. Dinner, childcare, and Spanish interpretations will be provided. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate the service that you provide, with the DAC and keeping us informed. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Doctor. Collier. Alright, thank you. Good evening everyone. Tonight for the superintendent's report,
I will, share a few announcements and then we will have a video highlight looking at our first day of school, followed by our school year '26 academic focus. So it'll give you a sense of what we are looking at for the year academically, and then we will have an opening of schools report. So starting out our first day of school, it was a success. We had an incredibly smooth and successful first week of school here at KCPS, and the energy across our buildings was nothing short of inspiring. Here are just a few highlights that we've seen. Staff members going above and beyond to support one another and to ensure a very
strong start to the year. Schools actively engaging on social media and keeping families informed and connected. Teachers incorporating fun, welcoming activities to ease students into their curriculum. Principals and vice principals stepping up to provide extra care and leadership for their teams and families. And then our central office staff working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep operations running smoothly and I would just add many of them also out in buildings that first week of school. Our schools embracing creative themes and trends to make the first week exciting and memorable
for our students, and then our buses running on time and transportation teams keeping routes efficient and reliable. We had no major issues reported this year for the start and really just great energy and collaboration and a shared commitment to the excellence that we are all striving for as a community. I personally visited around 15 schools last week and I saw outstanding work happening from day one. From our classrooms to the cafeterias, to hallways, to front offices, The dedication was clear, and I'm extremely proud of this team. And I would say all of our team members regardless of the position that they
hold. Our team members were there, boots on the ground, and really giving their best this year no limits to our efforts, to our care, and to our success this year. Next, KCPS celebrates national recognition of five high schools that are ranked among Missouri's best. The 2025, '26 US News and World Report rankings are in, And Kansas City Public Schools has reason to celebrate. Five KCPS high schools have earned spots on this year's prestigious list of best high schools in America. Those include Lincoln College Prep,
Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, Central High School, East High School, and Southeast High School. Take a bow Lincoln College Prep Academy. You're officially the number one best high school in the Kansas City Metro, Missouri. And Lincoln also ranks number three best high school in the state of Missouri and number three in Missouri for college readiness. The recognition reflects Lincoln's unwavering commitment to academic excellence, student achievement, and college preparation. Meanwhile, Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts also shines on a state level earning number
35 best high school in Missouri, number 19 in the Kansas City Metro, and number two within Kansas City Public Schools. These rankings are more than numbers. They're a reflection of the heart, the talent, and hard work that define our KCPS community. So congratulations to all of our students, educators, and families for this incredible achievement. We're gonna keep that momentum going. KCPS is continuing to be on the rise. And then finally, we want to talk about KCPS Loves to Read. I want to remind everyone that literacy continues to be our number one big rock
and we are about to launch our KCPS Loves to Read for this school year. We're just a week away from the launch of our new season and the theme for September is belonging. We'll kick off with several exciting events across the district. One of those is KCPS Loves to Read Block Party on September 16 at Southeast High School, so mark your calendars. Plan to be there. We'll have student and staff read alongs, inspirational videos for students from prominent local figures, book lists focus on social emotional skills of the month,
guides for parents, and more. Literacy is liberation at KCPS and we're excited to take things up a notch in our efforts in the new school year. So those are my announcements for the evening and now we're going to have our video highlight. It's the start of a new school year at KCPS, and the energy is electric. From the moment the doors opened, our schools came alive with laughter, learning, and the buzz of new beginnings. Students poured in ready to take on the year.
Staff greeted them with high fives, hugs, and smiles. Superintendent doctor Collier hit the ground running, visiting classrooms across the district to cheer on students and staff, and to see firsthand the joy and momentum of our first week back. And it wasn't just our KCPS family bringing the excitement. Casey Wolfe and the chief's cheerleaders made surprise visits, sparking cheers and selfies. Royal's mascot, Slugger, joined in on the fun too, reminding us that learning and community go hand in hand.
Inside our classrooms, the spark of curiosity was immediate. Elementary students dove into building concepts with blocks while high schoolers hit the gym and the field, staying active and engaged. Students told stories of their summer adventures, and staff shared what inspired them over the break. Teachers and staff are already challenging students and each other to dream big with no limits, to set goals, to reach higher. Because at KCPS, we believe every student has the power to achieve greatness.
This first week back was more than just a return to routine. It was a celebration of potential, of connection, and of the incredible year ahead. So welcome back, KCPS. Let's make this year an unforgettable journey with no limits. Okay. So we we truly had a wonderful first day, wonderful first week, off to a smooth start. So at this time, we're going to have our school year '26 academic focus, advancing literacy and proficiency and future ready learning and that will be presented by our Chief Academic Officer, Doctor. Latonya Franklin.
There we go. That was nice and loud. Thank you, doctor Collier. Good evening, board chair Cortez, superintendent Collier, board of directors, staff, and community. And let's see how many times you will hear no limits and boots on the ground because I'm going to say it now. That is our theme for the year. No limits, boots on the ground. We have had a great start to the school year, really thinking about this theme of no limits. And, I'm always excited to talk about the start of the year and our academic focus. But before I begin,
I do wanna just take a moment to, acknowledge my current team who's here this evening. Mr. Neal, as you know, is the assistant superintendent. And, Amy Washington, doctor Washington is our, new assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and professional development. And then, doctor Wayman Irvin is our school improvement officer for secondary schools. He found his way back to us. And I just wanted to acknowledge this team because they are very instrumental in the work that I'm getting ready to share this evening. So I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them.
But, yes, we are advancing literacy proficiency and future ready learning, which is nothing new, but again, there are various ways that we intend to continue to improve literacy proficiency in the district. And this presentation is also aligned to several relevant policies. Board policy 1.1, high achieving critical thinkers, that our scholars demonstrate proficient and advanced performance on state assessments and demonstrate significant academic growth each school year. We're also significant academic growth each school year. We're also focusing on literacy,
numeracy and critical thinking skills. You'll hear that through this presentation. And that our scholars will be socially, emotionally and academically ready for kindergarten. And, of course, policy zero point zero, our equity policy, providing each student the necessary supports to achieve at his or her highest potential And acknowledging that educational equity is the intentional allocation of resources, instruction, and opportunities according to need. And then finally, our strategic plan,
Blueprint 2,030, Commitment one, which is our learning commitment. So tonight's presentation will focus on opening of school. It's a lot of professional learning that we have to kick off the new school year. From there, I will take a deeper dive into the actual focus, advancing literacy proficiency and future ready learning, and then take a look ahead at what's occurring in the district in future, presentations. So we kicked off this school year with our Leadership Institute, spent five lovely days with our principals and vice principals.
And while it may seem like a long time, we did have a lot of learning occurring in that time. It made for an exciting, informative, engaging week with our leaders. And just a couple of things to highlight, Doctor. Collier did an amazing job of kicking off the Leadership Institute, talking about us having no limits and really challenging our principals to think outside of the box and be innovative with their leadership and making sure that our students and our teachers are getting everything that they need. We also focused on effective tier one instruction and PLCs.
And so you'll hear me talk quite a bit about effective tier one instruction, which is really at the foundation of our focus this year. But I really appreciate that we always have principals who are leading professional development that week. And the feedback we get from other administrators about those sessions is really, really great. They love hearing from their colleagues and so we always make sure that we make time for principals to provide PD to their colleagues. That's one of the highlights of the week. And then we had a keynote speaker,
Principal Kafele. He did end our week. He shared some important highlights and strategies from his book called What is My Value Instructionally to the Teachers I Supervised and has a lot of experience with principal leadership and culture and climate. And so our teachers had some really key takeaways, from that keynote speak speaker. After our Leadership Institute, we move into yet more professional development because this is the time that we have that is uninterrupted time that we can spend with all of our staff developing professionally
and we don't have to worry about students and we can maximize all of the things that we're getting ready to implement throughout the school year. So our new hire orientation, again, we were there to kick off and greet that new staff. Doctor. Davis, this time, provided a presentation around belonging. I personally got a lot of positive feedback about Doctor. Davis' presentation. But we also talked about our instructional priorities, culturally responsive practices and trauma informed practices. And then from there,
our Professional Learning Institute, that is all of our staff members starting their professional development. Teachers are all back. We had a principal Kafele did a keynote for all of our teachers, critical questions for inspiring classroom excellence. So again, talking about those high expectations in the classroom. All of our teachers also received a copy of his book. And then we started taking a deeper dive into some of the instructional, curriculum conversations and trainings that are happening this school year. So more focused professional development by our curriculum coordinators focusing on curriculum,
our Apple training, and other programming that we have occurring in the district. So that was just a highlight of the professional learning that occurred at the opening of school. And so moving into our focus this year, you'll hear me talk about some key areas: Effective Tier one instruction, this literacy focus and our five big rocks, and then future ready learning. None of these things are new, but they are at the heart and foundation of increasing student achievement. And so I really wanted to take an opportunity to talk about each one more
in-depth so that you have an understanding of why we continue this work, so you'll hear the rationale, but you'll also see some data that reflects, why this work is continuing as well. So, of course, our long term goals drive this focus, so these are our strategic plan, goals, commitment one. And as you can see I've highlighted just some of the areas there and some of these goals you'll hear me talk about in terms of where we are, but throughout the year you will hear references to all of the things incorporated within
these goals. And then short term intended to measure our progress towards meeting the goals are our key performance indicators and some similarities to what you saw last year, but also something something's added because again we're really targeting that Tier one instruction. So you'll notice that while we always want to see increases in performance in our I Ready diagnostic, we're also talking about rigorous and engaging Tier one instruction and multi tiered systems of support. Additionally,
there's the targeted literacy instruction and of course our professional development that's all aligned to the work that we do. And our focus, as I mentioned, is also data driven. So what you see reflected here are just some data metrics to show you the progress that we've made and, typically this is not always a data focused presentation, but I know that that's something that we want to see and I think it's important to recognize that making a data driven decision is that these things are working
and so we want to continue and expand on what's already in place. And so, as you can see, there's our APR. We obviously have talked about the improvements there, but also included just some map index scores. Now, these are from 2024. The 2025 scores have not been released yet but we will be sharing those as soon as they are available. But what I wanted to show reflected here is that in all of those content areas you do see that there's been progress made. And I think that's important because typically you don't always see growth in every content
area, but I think it's important to acknowledge any growth movement in the right direction is what we want to see. And then also some academic progress as it relates to I Ready. And so what I did with this data, which looks a little bit different than what I've shared previously, is just targeted tier one scores, so students that are performing at or above at, on, or above grade level, and not coupling that with our tier two or tier three. So this is really students who are on or above grade level.
And as you can see, again, an increase in the students performing in Tier one from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five and also an increase in math as well. And then finally at the bottom, it's the students that we talked about previously who were participating in high dosage tutoring. So these were students where a vast majority of the students were starting in tier three. Over 75% of the students were in tier three. By the end of the year in the spring, we had 17% of those students who were on or above grade level and of
course, you know, we had quite a few students who had moved into, Tier three. And so just taking a moment to acknowledge and not saying that our scores are exactly where we want them to be because they're not and I will talk about that as well. I do want to acknowledge that things that we are implementing are having an impact and we want to continue that great work and expand as we can. So here we go. We talk about effective Tier one instruction. We say that's what we want to see, but it really is the foundation of all learning.
Effective tier one instruction is the most important factor in improving student achievement and ensuring equity in education. And if we're talking about any strategies or initiatives and we're not starting with effective tier one instruction, we're missing the mark. All of our students receive high quality instruction that's on grade level, standards based, and culturally responsive. That's first. Effective Tier one instruction promotes mastery of learned skills and that means when we see growth, it is continuous growth.
We don't see this up and down pattern in student performance, mastering the standards. High effective tier one instruction incorporates high yield instructional strategies built into our district curriculum, increased student engagement and motivation and so as we're doing our observations that's what we're looking for, Not just teachers teaching, but students actually paying attention and learning. And then finally, the importance of effective tier one instruction is that it minimizes the need for intensive intervention. And I think it's important to talk about that because we do invest a lot
of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy in intervention because we need to. But at the same time, while we're intervening because we have students who need those interventions, we should also be shoring up our tier one instruction because we cannot intervene our way into student achievement. And so part of this work is ensuring that we're all clear about what it means to have a multi tiered system of support. What does tier one instruction look like? What are the supports being provided for students who are receiving tier two supports?
And then what is needed and required for students who need Tier three supports. And so this is just a view of that and I've shared this previously but I wanted to bring it back, for this presentation because I feel like this is year four going into some of this work and as we're starting to see bits of progress, it's not enough. And one of the things that we have to concentrate on is what does whole group Tier one instruction look like right out the gate every single day in addition
to, applying our intervention supports. So that's a peek at that. And then as Doctor. Collier mentioned, literacy is still at the forefront of our work that has not changed. It has to stay that way because literacy in education is the foundation for all other academic learning. Literacy proficiency is one of the most critical skills students can develop and extends beyond the classroom and that will never go away. And so, that is why literacy is still here, that's why it's a part of our focus and that's why it remains our number
one big rock. And so I did speak about the work that we still have left to do in spite of the progress we have, but less than 50% of our students are reading at grade level or above grade level and that's not okay. And so that goal, that target has not gone away. We want at least 50%. So I wanna be very clear, not hitting 50%, at least. We don't want we want more than 50%, reading on grade level. And then also just recognizing that the importance of literacy proficiency extends beyond the classroom.
And so we hear lots of statistics about literacy proficiency or the lack thereof, not just in schools but also in our city. And so tackling that now is important and that's why we have such an intentional push on our primary grades and ensuring that our students are coming into third grade proficient readers. And so speaking about that important work, as you can see our five big rocks are here. That first big rock literacy, just a couple of things that we've continued to do and then a few things
that we've added. We are still continuing with our writing across the curriculum and it did my heart good to hear parents reflect on one of our board members talking about seeing evidence of the writing across the curriculum in her child's school, in the work that her child is bringing home. And that's really the best compliment for us. We want to know that these things are really happening in our schools because it's important that we're not just talking about it but we're actually doing it. Our letters, Science of Reading Professional Development has expanded to third grade this year.
So we have new kindergarten through second grade teachers participating and then we have new, third grade teachers who are participating. K-two teachers who have only completed one year, they're also participating in their second year. We also started Aspire Science of Reading Professional Development for our sixth through ninth grade teachers. Although not required, it really is kind of a pilot of sorts that the state has pushed out. We did have some teachers and staff that volunteered to participate and so we are getting ready to build out a plan to see how we can get ready for
professional development to continue for our middle and high school teachers. Our high dose is tutoring. So we are currently in the process of RFP presentations that start tomorrow. So we will be selecting a new vendor for the twenty five-twenty six school year. And what we hope to do this time is expand our reach. And so we know that this is a great opportunity to do that. We, as you can see, impacted over 1,100 elementary students and over 500 middle and high school students and I'd like to see
that multiply this year and not have to multiply the cost. So, that's what we're going for. We want to do more but not spend more. So, and additionally, I want to also highlight our partnership with School Smart KC. We do have our literacy for all partnership with them, which also brings, K-three literacy coaches into five of our schools this year. And so, in addition to our building instructional coach, they will also have a literacy coach whose primary responsibility is to support literacy,
teachers, literacy with families in those schools. And so, we're excited about that and can't wait to really monitor and see how that impacts literacy instruction in those buildings. And then, of course, the other Big Rocks, I'm not minimizing that because we still have a lot of work that we're doing in all of those areas. I'll talk a little bit about I Ready. We are expanding I Ready so that will also impact our math big rock. Additionally, our culturally responsive teaching practices, we've not gone away from that. Continuing the professional development and that Ready for Rigor framework,
which really helps with the Tier one instruction. Social emotional wellness, our principals are gearing up for some training and we've also had several BISH trainings occurring in the district. And then parent family engagement and specifically for our academic team, we just sent letters home, hopefully they were received, around I Ready because we really want to make sure we're informing parents when these assessments come about. Additionally, Doctor. Collier just talked about the KCPS Loves to Read. We will be starting our CIPD curriculum nights and our exceptional education
advisory committee meetings. And so just a few of the things happening within the academic division as it pertains to parent family engagement. And then the other part that I mentioned in addition to tier one instruction and literacy is future ready learning. And again, it's nothing new, but this is an opportunity to really leverage the things that we're doing because we haven't talked about it a whole lot, but I think it's important to speak to the, the gravity of what this work is and what it looks like in our buildings. And so,
while it's not in this presentation, throughout the year, possibly in this next presentation, we'll talk more about some of that future ready programming that we have in our schools related to career readiness and college readiness. But I did just want to highlight the real important piece about this. It's really about integrating academic rigor, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and digital fluency. So these are the things that we are striving to incorporate into our instruction to help make sure that our ensure that our students are future ready.
So it is a combination of that real world learning but also that foundational knowledge and so it's really both, not one or the other. So we'll talk more about those programs, in a future presentation. And then what's new? So I wanted to separate out some of the new things, so that I could give it a little more time and attention and I spoke about the Aspire Science of Reading PD, but I and I also mentioned the I Ready Reading and Math Diagnostic for ninth and tenth grade and that's really important because in looking at the data we've noticed
that we do sometimes see a decline in some of the upper grades of middle school and into ninth grade. That's partially why the state has initiated the Aspire Science of Reading Professional Development because we recognize that this work doesn't just rest with elementary teachers. It really needs to expand to the secondary levels. And so teachers will be able to see how students perform and really be able to diagnose those areas that they need to target. And this will be an opportunity for students at the secondary level to get some
of that small group instruction or we taking the, I Ready is just not appropriate for them. And so this is the assessment that students will take and it also is coupled with personalized learning as well so those students would not take I Ready until it was appropriate for them to take it. And then we have some really strategic structured professional development, for our interventionists. So as we're talking about literacy and all these people who are really working with students around reading, we want to make sure that they have the supports and professional development that they
need. And so our I Ready, consultant will be working with our interventionists, our instructional coaches, and our secondary teachers. So there will be a specific focus on those groups. And then we have a principal boot camp professional learning. Our principals have spoken and they talked about specific things that they feel like they need more professional development around, so we've allocated some time for that during the school year. And then our SIOP instruction, while not new, don't think we've talked about it too much, but that's also occurring, this year. We've had several,
schools that have trainers that have been trained and then those trainers are training others in the buildings. And so just wanted to just share just some of the things that we have occurring in our building that we know are important, things that we have not done but we recognize that we need to do, that we know will have an impact on student achievement. And, what else is new? It's our district wide instructional coaches and so you heard a lot about instructional coaches, but now we will have an instructional coach in every school, which is important because as you can see here this is an opportunity for us
to elevate student learning by strengthening teacher effectiveness. And so we want teachers to feel supported. We want there to be a dedicated person in the building who has time to go into classrooms, do one on one coaching with teachers, provide professional development and so forth. And so our instructional coaches will be working with our CIPD department. Monica Nance will be supporting them and providing opportunities to go into schools, do walk throughs with them, make sure they understand the curriculum.
So we've got a whole plan lined out for our coaches and I'm just very excited that we have this opportunity because it's just one more way that we will strengthen the system and that's by building capacity in people. So it's not a thing, it's people who can do this work. And looking ahead, so this upcoming presentation in October that's on the road will have all the data we could possibly take in. So we hope to have our MAP and EOC data,
so I did have to put tentative there. Doctor. Ford made sure I put that there because I didn't wanna say that we'll have it if we don't. But if we do, it's gonna be shared. Our kindergarten readiness, so we are right in the middle of kindergarten readiness observations and so we'll share those results at that October meeting. Our fall I Ready diagnostic results and that will be broken down by various groups like we did the last time. So you have more detailed data. And then just some additional, professional development updates, feedback from teachers, sessions we have throughout the year and then other programming updates that we've probably not
shared as much about previously. We want to bring that into the space so you can hear more about those other programs that we have in our district. Alright. And then I will turn it over for questions. Thank you, Doctor. Franklin. I'm gonna start to my right. Mr. Jackaway. Yes, and I, apologize. I wasn't as familiar with Aspire. Could you just share a little bit more? You referenced a few times that being tied with the state. Was that something that was developed by the state of Missouri or that's a separate vendor that the state is encouraging districts to use?
And then how culturally responsive do we feel it is given the yeah. Sure. So Aspire is through Lexia, the same company that does LETRS, and so it really is just an expansion of LETRS for older students. And just like DESE, the state, encouraged districts to, take on, LETRS professional development. They did partner with Lexia to provide, LETRS trainings, for teachers. The same is occurring with Aspire since they already have that partnership with Lexia.
So they're doing the same thing, just kind of pushing it out and getting a feel for how teachers are receiving it. They kind of describe it as a pilot of sorts and so we have some teachers and, coordinators that are in different cohorts. So it's not fully developed yet, but I think this is an opportunity for us to help inform that. As far as it being culturally responsive, it really is talking about the science of reading and how do we best serve older students. And so it's not necessarily a curriculum or strategies, but just tapping into kind of the brain and how students learn at that age
and what's the best way to approach students who are not reading on grade level or have those gaps. Brittney. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning the writing across curriculum. I was the one I saw that in my son's fourth grade class last year, really working with those fourth graders, making sure that their first, their handwriting is good and their writing makes sense. So much that the fourth grade students wrote, their writings I took with me to the Advocacy Day. So our, elected leaders got to see that. So it's always nice to see something that you mentioned show up in a class
and see our teachers really working hard. Shout out to Ms. Williams in fourth grade for that. I saw improvement in my son's handwriting. Hey. And, a question I have for you, I wonder what kind of resources, do we give our Tier two and three families who are, to work on at home to really push what they're learning, at home, because, you know, we're working on it in the classroom. So do we offer, like, any resources to help the parents, through their homework or any other curriculum that we send home? We have a plethora of resources that can be shared with families.
I think the one thing that we've got to do a better job of is making sure they actually get home. All of the curriculum resources that we utilize have some parent engagement component. And so, I think the work for us this year is really maximizing that. How are we getting this information to our families? What's the best way to do that? But we certainly do have access to those resources, so we'll tap into that this year, for sure. Thank you. And and my last one that, caught my attention is the BIS, the Behavioral Intervention Support Team.
Just quickly, what does that training look like? I know we heard in public comment, like, sometimes there's behavioral issues in certain schools. So what exactly does that training look like? Is it every year? Is it twice a year? So, I'm stepping a little bit out of my academic realm, and this is a little bit of Josie's territory. So, Josie, I'm just gonna let you take it. We have several schools in the district that are identified as BIS schools. They go through training. They send their staff for the past three years intensive summer training for five days, and then they take that information back to the school.
We also have a BIS consultant that last year they met twice a month, reviewed behavior data, helped, attend some of the MTSS meetings to help put behavior intervention supports in place for students. They work closely with teachers and meet with them one on one, attend PLCs. When a child on their list comes up, they they work with them. This year, unfortunately, because of budget cuts, we are only able to allow them to have one consultant visit a month, but that is ongoing throughout the year. In fact, we have one of our business principals here, and she just requested if three more of her teachers could get that training.
But it really teaches some foundational, partnerships with the students, how to respond, what do we say when a student makes a bad choice, and we can do it. It's totally aligned with our restorative practices, though. Thank you. Tanisha? Thank you for, your presentation. I know this was the kick us off for the year. Yes. So, I always look forward to your follow-up presentation that gives us, more data. I also appreciate us continuing to focus on literacy. I know we saw SchoolSmart's most recent third grade proficiency data. So it continues to be a thing,
that challenges us. One thing that I'm really curious about, and this is probably a follow-up maybe for Ms. Thompson. I would love to be able to quantify. I know this is a priority of ours and has been for the last few years. But I would love to be able to see what does our financial investment look like as it relates to, what we are spending on literacy. I would love to be able to see that at a glance. I know we can kinda piece it apart in different ways, but I would love to be able to see that overall and potentially even be able to drill down what that investment looks like by school to be able to
compare. And it could be our investment as well as the SchoolSMART investment or other grants, that we are receiving. I would love to be able to know what that number is to be able to share that. That's all I have as a follow-up. Thank you. Jameka? First, I'm giving out compliments. I know, right? BIST training, when that was brought up, I have to say, when I worked in Hickman Mills, I was not looking forward to our BIST training that we had to go to, because I'm like, yet again, they about to give us a mess that we're not actually gonna implement,
and it's just gonna be over your heads, and we'd really like for you to do this. But the first BIST training I actually had was with you. And after that training, I said, I like that lady. The way she presented this information and the way it works in the classroom, and I pushed my school to really implement that, and it did make a difference. So I I wanna give a shout out to you because I am pretty sure that the the BIST training that we are having came as a result of you saying this is something we need. If not let that sit in the space even though it's really not true.
I'm glad that sit in the space. But, but maybe the the the push forward has happened. But I'm gonna say Sam. Honestly, like, I you know, teachers say all the time, we gonna hear what they got to say, but then when we get to our rooms, we do what we need to. But that was a training where I was a strong advocate that this will actually make a difference if we do it. And so I just appreciate that part. So giving out compliments, especially you. So Thank you. Yes. And I'm hoping you were giving them at least a a little bit of the training that I got to experience.
I've not had the pleasure of doing that. They are missing out. Okay. So now I gotta get to my serious questions. Okay. So I have several that I will submit, but I'm gonna ask two now. For the five big rocks. I know we get a lot of information and the district tries to do a lot of things as far as, parent and family engagement from this level. But we have struggled with that. And with board policy KCA, it says that when it comes to the engagement, the district's responsibility is to the district advisory committee to establish SAGS. And then the principal's responsibility is to establish a regular way of communicating with families
and then have monthly meetings according to that policy. So my question is, I like the Five Big Rocks and the engagement we're doing from this level, but what directives have we given to principles or expectations around communication or engagement with the five big rocks or even what's new with, like, the instructional coaches? Because maybe that's not really important to families. But I do know that when we understand that the district is doing things to support our teachers and support our students, it builds confidence in in KCPS and what we're doing.
So, I'd like to know what directives have we given to principals? If we haven't, you know, what are we expecting to give to them around that? And, you want my second question now, or? Let me answer that one first. So, yes, this is an opportunity and typically when I share kind of the start of the year presentation, this is our opportunity to then start pushing that out and packaging this in a way that makes sense for schools to then share with parents. And so we want the information to be aligned to what we're doing, but we also want it to be user friendly. So it wouldn't look like this,
but what should it look like when principals are sharing information with families? And so what we've learned is that it really is our responsibility to package things in a way where principals don't have to do that lifting. When we send a slide deck, and this is just what I've noticed, if I send a slide deck and all they've got to do is plug in the numbers, that makes it easier for them. They know that what they're saying is exactly what we should be communicating as a district. And so I'm just using that as an example of what we can do, what we can better, do as a team to support our principals in providing some of that information for
them so they don't have to put it together. And so that's one of the Things that we are doing this year, spending more time getting those materials ready and then providing guidance on here's the best time to push this out. Here's here's a letter that you can attach with that. Here's a a good take home packet that we would recommend And that requires our CIPD team and school leadership team to do that work. So that's the work that we're planning this year. Thank you. Okay. Last question. Oh, which one? I'm gonna go The easy one. I don't know that I have an easy one for you.
I will let you pick which one you wanna answer. Okay. So, for the five big rocks, we had talked about, the high dosage tutoring and how we were looking at a new vendor. And so I wanted to know, with the looking for a new vendor, do we have information on the impact that our previous vendor had or, like, information as to why with the investments that we made so far, we wanna shift? Like, the data and or research, or whatever it is you have that led to that? Or, for the instructional coaches, like, I know we're going into every school, but how are we making sure that our instructional coaches are actually strengthening the teacher
effectiveness and not just in the buildings, but we're not really seeing that teacher development occur? Okay. So twofold. Either one. Okay. So I might try to tackle them real quick. So the RFP process is really a process that we have to go through. So it doesn't necessarily indicate that the previous vendor did not do a great job or anything like that. In fact, they can also participate. So it's just a process that we have to go through and then selecting a new vendor. So we had a two year, agreement with the last one, and so now we're moving into a new agreement. So that's really why that's happening.
And then, as it relates to what was that second one? Instructional coaches. Okay. And so to your point, and I talked about Monica, Nance, supporting coaches. And so they are receiving professional development all year long. And I will be working with them as well. So I wanna be in there and also provide some support and guidance because we have a variety of coaches in different stages. New and beginning coaches, veteran coaches. So how do we make this experience meaningful for them? How do we monitor and support them as they're going into classrooms? And so we do know that that will look different depending upon the skill set
of the instructional coach. And so we've committed to developing professional development that is differentiated to meet the needs of the coaches where they are. And then we'll do walk throughs with the coaches to calibrate what we see in classrooms to then further develop their skill sets. So lots of things planned for them. It's a big old handbook of things that Ms. Nance has in store. So we feel pretty confident that although this will be the first year, there may be some growing pains. I do think we have a good plan in place to start with that will
provide them with the professional, development that they need. Thank you. And thank you for getting all these, I guess, frameworks in place to be able to help us to really, gauge the effectiveness of our investments. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, as always for your presentation. One of my questions was about Aspire as well. So thanks, Josh, for that. I guess kind of related to that, you know, when the when the DESE makes a recommendation, do they ever put any financial incentives for man, the treasurer now. Do they ever put any financial incentives for districts to adopt whatever their recommendations are?
And and then are are we able and, Erin, I'm just asking. Don't be mad at me. Are we off offering any kind of incentives to those who are volunteering to participate in this? So actually, yes. So this is a big initiative for the state. So the Science of Reading is something that they've invested in. And so even with our LETRS training, we do get a reimbursement for any costs associated with teachers having to participate. So subs or anything like that. So they do get our teachers get a stipend and then the state reimburses us
a portion of that. It's not the full amount. With Aspire, because it's new, we're not paying anything. Again, they want to get feedback from us so they can further develop. So I would say yes. I do feel like they are committing to investing in the science of reading and increasing literacy proficiency. And I think this is one way that they're doing it. Alright. Thank you very much. Trisha? I have so many questions, but I first wanna stress, again, in case nobody, anybody in the room, isn't sold on Aspire, I don't know the exact data, but I've read that only, like, a quarter to a third of secondary students nationwide receive evidence based research backed reading
support. So this is incredibly important, and I'm really proud that we're sending any teachers to this training and can't wait to hear more updates on how many of our secondary, school teachers are doing this because it's life changing for students that are still struggling and don't receive the support they need. So I just wanted to say I appreciate, all updates about that. My questions are surrounding the vision for SIOP, which is sheltered instruction observation protocol model, another evidence based research validated approach for multilingual learners. But it also benefits, monolingual or English only learners, so it's great instruction model.
The first question is, is our SIOP model fully embedded in tier one instruction so it benefits all students regardless of language background? So right now we are in the training phase, so that has just started. Ultimately, that's the goal because we do recognize that this benefits all students. And so in order to make sure that all students are receiving it, we do embed those into our curriculum. We we just haven't gotten there yet. We're still in the training phase, but ultimately, that's where we want to go. And that leads me into my second question. We so I won't ask what percentage of teachers have already received the professional development,
but is there a goal that we've set already to see what percentage of all the professional development, but is there a goal that we've set already to see what percentage of all teachers, not just ESL or ELL teachers, but teachers, district wide will receive that? Yes. Okay. So, listen. Doctor. Davis is going to talk about that. So, but just on the surface, we did develop a phased plan. So our goal is to make sure it's expanded across the district. Of course, we couldn't just do that right out the gate. Mhmm. But we do have a very comprehensive plan that doctor Davis will share that highlights that. Okay. And then I'm assuming you will also talk about systems that we'll put in place
to ensure fidelity of implementation of those types of models. Well then, I'll wait on that. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Alright. Thank you. Oh, my questions were all covered by my colleagues, so thank you. And thank you for getting us started in the academic year. Alright, thank you. Alright. Thank you, Doctor. Franklin. Now we're ready to move to our next presentation. Paint your slides, please. Okay. That would be you, Doctor. Davis. So, we'll have our opening of schools update and you're gonna hear from several of our senior leaders, that are gonna share information, particularly pertaining to their area.
So I'm gonna turn it over now to Doctor. Davis, our Deputy Superintendent. Alright. Thank you and good evening, Board Chair Cortez, Superintendent Collier, members of the board, audience. It is our privilege to present to you an update on the opening of schools for the twenty five-twenty six school year. I will say that this year's start has been marked by a strong preparation, collaboration, commitment to success of our students. And so it really has been a cross collaborative effort, all departments, hands together, boots on the ground, working all summer long toward everything from facilities readiness to finalizing student schedules to engaging
families to, installation of new technology. So we're going to provide this update tonight. It's centered around opening of schools by the numbers. So you'll not only see what we've done, but we'll try to quantify that with some numbers as well. Tonight's presentation is aligned to our mission, just really upholding that promise of an equitable education experience. So all students are thriving socially, emotionally and academically in our system as well as alignment to policy zero point zero. So we're gonna start with enrollment. You'll see that we had an effort to verify every family's address throughout the summer.
We're proud to say that as of August 22, we had more than 14,000 families that verified their address. We're continuing those efforts, throughout this first few weeks of school to get others verified and you'll hear more from other colleagues around some of the implications around making sure we have those correct addresses. Also, there were a number of events in addition to the packed, families. So we had our admissions office in our Westport Conference Room over the past month. Every single day if you happen to come through,
you would see lots of cars on, on 20 Ninth Street as well as a packed room of families coming in to either receive support for, going through that reverification process or enrolling their new student. Additionally, we had some support days in each zone where if families couldn't come to us, we went out closer to them in proximity to provide that support. Our Language Services department provided additional support specifically for multilingual families. And also on a Saturday, we had an enrollment day at Central High School where more than 500 families were
in attendance. When we look at our numbers, we are well, as of August 22, of course, these numbers go up each day. We were at a little more than 15,000 ks-twelve and a little bit more than 16,000 pre ks-twelve. Also, in looking at our nontraditional programs, currently we have 33 students enrolled in middle college as well as 300 students enrolled in our adult education and literacy courses. And to language services. And so our language services enrollment, we had about four eighty one pending, last week.
Those have likely gone across the finish line. So we're roughly around 4,300 families, enrolled in language services. That's a significant portion of our school district. Also, our international welcome center helped to enroll families who are new to the country. Our language services department also supported admissions in verifying addresses by making more than 2,000 calls over the summer, particularly to support those schools with high multi lingual family enrollment. So to our SIOP model,
we had 79 of our ESOL teachers trained, but then also two zero six other school based staff throughout our district in this first year to roll this out system wide. So our, new model for language instruction, it really is to serve students where they live in all neighborhood schools. And so we talked a lot about that last spring. And so since we have more students particularly in the central and southern parts of our boundary that may not have opted in to some of the SIOP training in
the past, we're now These are the schools we prioritize in training them this year. The goal was doctor Franklin stated is to, saturate all of our schools, 100% of staff embedded into tier one. And so this is phase one to to, roll that out. To your question around how are we ensuring fidelity, as part of our plan because it is new for many of our schools, our language services team goes out and supports teachers. So in addition to the support that's inside the school, they have also site visits where they're continuing to provide additional support beyond the workshop.
As we look at our post secondary access and student success, we're seeing increases in our early college academy program whether it's the one at UMKC or MCC. So that is an 11% increase in, dual enrollment programming. Well I'm sorry. We have 174 students in our dual enrollment programming which is ECA. But even within our dual credit programs, which are housed within our school system, we show an 11% increase in dual credit. So dual enrollment and dual credit,
we're seeing increases. And then we had 57 I'm sorry, 58 mentors trained over the summer to join our existing mentors that will come in and provide that additional emotional and, instructional support to our, students in our mentoring program throughout the year. As we look at a lot of the preparation that our guidance counselors went through over the summer, not only being trained in multi tiered systems of support but also with five zero
four implementation. So we have a heavy emphasis on that. This year, we are seeing an increase in the number of five zero fours and so we want to make sure that we have a well structured process to, from beginning to end. And so there was ample training on that, for this upcoming year as well as all of the 5,200 plus schedules that secondary counselors distributed. Moving to student support, 110 new hires as well as 38 BOE staff were trained in our district's foundational
trauma awareness training. So as one of our big rocks, we're looking to be restorative and so this is a foundational step in that. Also, our investment in Lightspeed Alerts, I believe you may have been presented with that on last year when we purchased that. So that software monitors a lot of our students, search, for anything buzzword AI searches that to make sure that there's any threat, you know, that a student is wanting to harm themselves or a threat toward the school. An alert is sent to our principals and so our principals were trained on that.
It allows us to then have a restorative, response to support that student in the event that there is a threat to the student or school safety. Number of other trainings occurred throughout the summer. I will say that as we look at our vaccinations, ninety three percent of our students have all of their shot records up to date to start the year, which is extremely high. It's the highest number we've had in recent memory and so that's a testament to our student support team and our nurses as well. And then last,
at our last board meeting, the board approved the printing of the updated student code of conduct, which includes the electronics device policy. So those have now been printed. We're distributing those in multiple languages. It will also be available on our district's website. And so, my final slide is around safety and security. And so we just started with our district safety task force to look at what are some investments we could make that would increase the safety and security of our school system. And so,
we did move to purchase the, mobile weapons detection towers. Likely, if you've gone to Rose, Kaufman Stadium or Kaufman Center for Performing Arts, you'd likely walk through this. Even at Starlight, this is a, something that's being used for any gathering with large crowds. So we'll have this at all of our athletic venues, so basketball courts, football fields. We'll also have it at our performing arts venue, which is the auditorium at Paseo Academy. So when we have our big fine arts showcase, we'll have that set up there as well.
And then also, we've printed more than 2,500 of our standing operating emergency guidelines, typically known as red and green books in our schools. And so we have fresh new copies that will, will inform for all of our instructional staff what to do in the event of any crisis. Of course, we do a lot of training but it's there in a manual for reminder. And the reason we have the red and green is that if we have to evacuate the school and when the principal stands on the football field and looks over six, seven hundred students, the staff can easily turn to the green side to say I have all of
my students accounted for or I can flip to the red side to signal to the administrator that, there's a situation. Alright. I will turn it over to mister Jordan Gordon, chief operating officer. Thank you, doctor Davis. Good evening, doctor Collier, board chair, board members, KCPS community. I'm excited to give this update around the general readiness for the, division of operations. We're gonna jump right in with people, people first. We're excited to share that this year, we had a 115 new certified staff hired. At the start of the school year,
we started with just eight certified vacancies. That is you know, we challenge I challenge the team going into the year. I think doctor Collier still holds the record for two three. Three vacancies, back when she was our chief of HR. So we haven't trailed her yet, but we're getting closer every year. But this is really a momentous time when we look at where we currently sit with the teacher pipeline shortage. And then operations vacancies, on average by department, we had fewer than 10, and that would be our custodial or food service or maintenance areas. So facility and operations,
we did a lot of great work over the summer to set the set the course for what what is gonna be a wonderful trajectory around building renovations and improvements to our overall schools. We're highlighting a couple of projects here. These are roof work. We had a total of six that were slated for this summer. And here you can see the the, finished product of a lot of great things happening there. Looking at our, facilities renovation. So here in front of us, we have our King And Carver campuses where we were able to to, improve our secured entry, in the front office areas.
And then we also did some, gymnasium improvements with just lighting and then painting and then also new windows at school. So that's just to highlight a few of those. And this is really, kinda getting to the core of what our focus is. As we travel forward, we wanna make sure that from the curbside that our buildings are reflective of the pride and the energy and the great things happening on the inside. So this is an example of that limestone cleaning that we were able to do at East High School. I'm excited to share that we're slated to get this done at a number of
schools that will happen before we go to winter break so that our families across the district can start to see this type of elevation to our building facilities. And then also, improved standards and building cleanliness. This was a highlight for us going into this school year. We got tons and tons of great feedback from our teachers, our staff, our building administrators as we welcome back our great people back into the buildings. It's just around the overall brightness and the cleanliness. I charged the team this summer to, we're gonna really dig deep. We're gonna do our absolute best.
There are some things that are gonna be covered by the bond and can only be covered by the bond. But there's a lot of things that we can do to better strengthen and improve the general aesthetic and cleanliness of our schools. So, through a collaborative effort in bringing in some additional supports, we were able to partner with our maintenance staff and our custodial staff. And I really wanna call them out because they did a phenomenal job working around the clock to cover a lot of territory and a lot of square footage district wide. But this year, there was a lot of synergy between their efforts. So here, we were able to get a lot of,
important cleaning done. And then also, all the way down on the far right there, that's Southeast High School, just a paint job and ensuring that all of our lighting, our bulbs are adequately filled and working properly. And this is the summer work at a glance. So at a high level, the work that we that we endeavored this year was just shy of $50,000,000 in total projects that we are continuing to do. And important to note that these items are what we've covered from our operating budget. So these are projects that are happening concurrently and in addition to the ongoing bond
efforts that we're, starting to kick off this year. And then transportation. We can do everything we can, but if this thing ain't running, it shuts us all down. So I'm really proud to, acknowledge the progress that we've made this this second year with a partnership with Zoom. Again, this year, 100%, actually, 125, coverage this year. So we had maintained our surplus going to the school year. At the start of this year, we had an increase of students that were, routed for the for day one. And those are our families who were able to complete the reverification and opt in
prior to that July 30. And then just coming out the gate, we wanna be fully transparent. Week one is what this data reflects. We know that our standard is 95 plus percent for both AM and PM. So as we work through the mechanics and the learnings and the communication with just the first week of school, This is an area that we're we've already had conversations about. How do we continue to approve and make sure that all stakeholders have the pertinent information to keep our system running seamlessly? From a parent perspective, so 80% parent utilization,
which we got a call out from from Zoom just around our intentional efforts and our concerted focus to make this a priority. We know that there's a distinct difference in end user experience when our parents have visibility via their app versus those who do not who do not. So we we're constantly pushing and layering communication around download the app, download the app, download the app. This app is giving our parents access to real time information. And even as we may have some, students that were late, we verified or opted in with access to the app,
that routing update, completing that process, we're able to get that done within seventy two hours with direct messaging to those to those families. And then, of course, the important part is what did our what was our parents' experience? So Zoom does their force, their forced messaging that allows parents to give us direct feedback around, their first week experience. We only captured the first five days here. But still important to know 4.8 out of five stars. We don't live at the 4.8. Our conversation is surrendered around where those commonalities are those areas of improvements that we
need to strengthen. A lot of that have, from the first week just transparently has come from things that we can do to further enhance and improve, closing that gap for those families who missed that deadline of July 30. And then Child Nutrition Services kicking off with a lot of new fun menu items at the start of this year. These are pictures that were taken at a few of our schools, over the course of week one. Wonderful participation in lunch this year. We actually had a really high in comparison in the last two years of lunch, participation. And then looking at, things that we plan to roll out this year.
So we are in the process of finalizing a grant opportunity that would allow us to partner with local food providers to ensure that we can close that gap from farm to table and offer, the freshest and highest quality food products to our students. And then on the right, this is by backed by ultimate demand of our secondary students. There was no option going into this year not being able to offer a la carte items for our students. They made it very, very clear. And through the void of not offering these types of these types of offerings, you know,
we we've we've now gotta strengthen and reset some behaviors to ensure that we can remain compliant as a school district in this space. Oh, that's that's not me. Any questions? Oh, at the end. I'm sorry. Come on, Scott. Our next speaker is gonna be Scott Jones, our Chief Technology Officer. Good evening, everyone. So this summer, we've been very busy putting in a new phone system in our school district. And what I'd like to do is kind of take you back to two and a half years ago. We had, we moved two data centers, one one hundred and fifty foot underground, underneath Worlds of Fun,
and the other one underground out in Lenexa. They're now redundant and they can talk to each other, and we can do backup, and we've done disaster recovery. We did that for business continuity for the school district. Last year, we put in a new network. The network that we have would not handle the new technology that, we had to do to get the school district up to speed. So we went from a one gig to a 10 gig network, and we put in about 1,100 TVs, interactive TVs in all the classrooms that the teachers can use at their discretion, and they connect over the wireless. So our previous network couldn't handle that.
Now, this year, we're going from an on prem phone system, which sat in a closet down the hall to a phone system that's in the cloud, and then we're also about three quarters of the way through deploying an intercom system. So the technology use in the district is growing rapidly. In a couple weeks, we're gonna look at maybe going to a a 100 gig network next year, so, for for our Internet, which most of our applications run on. So we are growing and I would just like to say anybody listening here, you come to KCPS, you're gonna get a good device,
you're gonna get current technology than any other school district. Nobody's gonna outdo Kansas City Public Schools when it comes to our technology and the advancements that we put into that. So, in addition, there was talk about us going to an all Apple school district and getting Apple distinguished. We're still in that process. But I'm happy to say that as of today, we just finished our device deployment and all kids, k through 12, will have an Apple device with the exception of some business and finance and HR people that are heavy Excel users. They're going to still have their Windows devices.
So the service desk has been very busy. We've handled seven fifty seven tickets. You know, August is a very busy month with all the onboarding. We've put some new TVs in our pre k classrooms. So, even pre k now, if they wanna use the technology, they have them in their rooms. We've deployed some new gaming devices, for esports. We have a vision that I think it'd be pretty cool at some point in time to go to our Paseo Auditorium and see kids compete on, esports. I know Jordan has half of it,
and I'm he's handling the facilities part of our Paseo Auditorium, and I'm handling the sound and the lights part. But, I'm I'm happy to say with his help and the contractors and the people that have been doing the work, come October 1, we're gonna open the new Paseo Auditorium, and Sprint Center will have nothing on KCPS when it comes to that auditorium. I remember once when I first started, Doctor. Collier was up giving a very important speech and the lights kept blinking on and off, and I'm like, I'm not even gonna make it a year here. I'm gonna get fired.
So, we, we've made a substantial investment, thanks to you, in our Paseo Auditorium, and, it's really gonna be a shining star for the for the school district. So, with that, I will turn it over to Nicole Collier White, our chief communications officer. Thank you, Scott. We will round things out with back to school communications. And so my department really started back in May. We partnered with the admissions department to really kick off and start talking about reverification, everybody's favorite topic. So we do kind of various means of communication with families, really starting with digital communication.
So that means updating our website. That means dedicated enrollment pages, email campaigns to current students, letting them know, Hey, school starts August 18. Please don't lose track of us over the summer. Social media posts across all platforms. News media coverage, which we had several across the summer. Interviews just to kind of amplify the message of KCPS and talk about, Hey, summer school is ending in July and then you gotta come right back and restart a school. We do direct outreach, so we actually partnered with admissions. We emailed postcards out to our current enrollment. So that was sent to about 15,000
families. Just reminding them, you need to reverify. Transportation is attached to your reverification, and so we sent that out before that enrollment fair that happened on July 26. We also did targeting messaging through talking points and phone blasts. We serve a diverse population. A lot of times, talking points is the main point of communication because they receive it in their preferred language. So we try to do that, target it, for families so they know about transportation, of course, the personal electronic device information, and then reverification. Phone calls from secretaries and face liaisons. I know doctor Davis mentioned,
that language services also did over 2,000 phone calls. They all kind of had that same list. Language services took ones that spoke different languages and then everyone else were really split between secretaries and base liaisons and they called all summer long. And then when we hit July and we started looking at the immunization rates and those folks that hadn't reverified, maybe those who had signed up for transportation last year but not this year, nurses, secretaries, base liaisons, whoever were in the building, all twelve month employees were really digging down deep to make those phone calls in July and early August because we wanted as many kids as possible to register for
transportation. Huge, huge, huge. And then event based engagement. So we had school based enrollment days where our enrollment team actually went to different schools across the district just trying to meet people where they are, and they answered questions, they did enrollment. We've heard a lot of principals say sometimes it's the technology. It's Infinite campus. They don't know how to open it, can't remember their password. So when you have our staff go on-site, they can actually answer those technical questions and support those families. The board of ed, of course, we had walk in registration. Doctor Davis mentioned we opened up the Westport Room, welcomed everybody inside.
Enrollment fair at Central High on July 26. KCPS Fest on August 2. And then, of course, we have a whole week of back to school nights where folks can go in, get their information. We also provided information about reverification, transportation, the personal electronic device updates. So just focusing on the first day of school, getting folks ready for back to school. We did several back to school newsletters, so that reach was over a 143,000 views. We did a very specific back to school website, kind of with an FAQ, bell times, do you need to wear a uniform, transportation, all of those pieces of information.
Text messages, emails, again, about verification, immunizations, personal electronic device, and transportation. Very, very specific. And then phone calls again from secretaries, face liaisons, to unverified families. So if you were verified and you were like, I didn't get all these phone calls, that's because you were already taking care of business. But for folks that maybe didn't get the memo or they just needed more time to get all of their stuff together, we made sure our staff were making those very, very specific phone calls. And then the first day of school, we had a lot of amazing coverage. So just last week, our Instagram was up 89%.
We had 99,000 views on the week. So a lot of content interaction, people liking photos, sharing, just really excited about the pictures and the tours going on. We had coverage from KSHB, FOX four, Channel five, KCUR, Channel five, radio stations, people just going out into our schools, learning more, excited to share the story of KCPS. And then our Facebook, we had 250,000 impressions all last week and then 25,000 clicks, which is an increase for us. So we're just excited that people wanna know about KCPS, are interested in what we're doing and how we're kicking off the school year,
and then sharing that good news with others. And with that, me and my colleagues, all of us, collectively together, will answer questions. Don't don't say that. So thank you to, Doctor. Davis, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Jones, and Ms. Collier White See how they do? Okay. Just a second. For your presentations. I'm gonna start to my left, Tricia, and we'll work our way across. I have a question for every single one of you. So do you come at me to ask one of those? They're quick questions. I did just want thank you everyone for your, in-depth presentations and really great updates. I did just wanna start with a compliment, and I won't name the school or the counselor specifically,
but I can't stress how good of an experience one of my students had with her middle school counselor and implementation, not only of specifically of her 05/2004, but just, like, struggling as a 13 year old. I really truly think that she made the difference in my co enjoying to continue to learn. And so I know I've named that to her building principal. I've told that to other people specifically, but, I love seeing updates about our our counseling department. So speaking of mental health, I did have a question, around the youth mental health first aid training. I saw that 65 teachers had taken that training. For those that are not aware,
it's like an eight hour course. I've taken it as a parent. It highly recommend for anyone if they haven't done it. Is there capacity for more staff members to do that? It's just such a long training, and I'm not sure if if there's time during the week is my first part of the question. And then have we ever considered partnering with whoever's doing the training now to offer it to parents at a school based level to see if we can get more parents taking it, to support their kids and their kids' friends. I've had that experience for sure. So Yes. I was gonna answer the first part, but go ahead and answer both parts. Yeah. What is it for everyone? We actually partner,
and so we get that training for free. And so it's a great program. The challenges are limited professional development days, and so we try to hit it hard during the summer months when, we don't have to pull people from their schools. And Yeah. As we know, we have limited professional development days. But since the training is free, we can offer it as many times as we're able to get staff to be able to join us. Okay. Thank you. What was the other question? Sorry. Have we considered offering for parents or community members if that person considered that, and we have tried a couple times at a different a couple different SAC meetings.
Mhmm. Didn't have, the turnout that we'd hoped, but we're going to keep trying and offering. And that's all we could. We could just keep offering it. Hopefully, the word will get out, such as yourself telling parents how great this is and the resources. So help us spread the word. You know, I will. We would like to continue to try that. Yes. Thank you, Josie. The next question is actually a parent submitted question, and it was covered in Jordan's presentation, but it might be a Josie question. So, just come back. Come on. You know I love asking you questions. So this is actually around a transportation issue. If and when a student has been picked up and there's a significant delay, like kids are stuck on a bus for thirty five,
forty five hour long if there's, like, a car accident or something like that, do we have a policy on whether or not parents can pick up children from buses? Because they asked me, and I was like, if I were deciding that sounds not safe, but is there a district policy regarding whether a parent can go to the bus in the middle of the route and pick up their child? So we under emergency circumstances, we do have protocols in place that if if the bus is unfortunately in an accident that, we we need notify parents immediately, then yes. We we would allow that under any daily or routine delay circumstance,
because of the safety precautions and ensuring that there's a proper process to support it, we wouldn't, we wouldn't support it. But, on day to day delays, parents should receive that updated route route update that says, hey. Your bus is fifteen minutes delayed. It may be due to construction or something. Okay. Thank you. And then, Scott, you had to mention TVs in pre k classrooms. So, I have had parents I have had parents ask me about this before, so we're just gonna discuss it. It's a very polarizing topic. It is. My question is, if a if a parent if a pre k parent is concerned about the amount of time their pre student is receiving screen time that may or may not be instructional,
do they direct that question at the pre k teacher or the principal, or do we as a district have some sort of guidelines on percentage of time using screens in pre k classrooms? It comes up it does come up a lot, you know? I was looking over but, my my my colleague stepped out. But we have addressed that to end limiting screen time particularly at the, early grades. And so to your question around if a parent has a concern, they should address it to the principal and all principals have been addressed with that. Perfect. Thank you. The last one is, really just a compliment to our comms team and apologize that I don't open every email you send me and that I was delayed on verifying enrollment.
But I did receive lots of emails and talking points before the school year even started, and so that was incredible. The amount of communication I've seen as a parent community member has skyrocketed in the past years, but I thought it was very clear how back to school was working. Many people asked me, like, hey. Do you know when such and such school goes back? And I'm like, you can literally Google back to school KCPS, and there's a whole website. So I thought that was incredible, so I wanted to compliment your team. I do have a question about does the TalkingPoints platform give you the ability to read, like, open rates on those messages? Are we able to see what percentages of parents are actually opening those,
like an email would? So we can provide that to you. But, yes I just think that would be interesting to see if if, parents are opening that and paying attention to all the messages that you want. Wanna see that, like, in comparison to, like, emails or just in general what our app is I think just in general to start, just to see how effective it is. I'm a big fan of talking points for the language access alone. So Yeah. That's it. That was quick. Easy. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Marcus. I I just have one technology question. You were saying we're we're in the process of going to all Apple devices. I guess, I'm kind of wondering why. Like, is I mean, with I mean,
I mean, because I as a person in the corporate world, we're definitely not there. That's still considered the realm of the creatives and, our, like, is I mean, is there a trend in education to be one platform or the other? The device is way more secure than so the iOS operating system is way more secure Okay. Than Intel. And, you know, we have, like, Patch Tuesday, you know, once a month where Microsoft sends out, you know, updates. People have to take those. If they have an Apple device, it just gets pushed when it gets pushed and they just get it and it
it's it's much more secure. Now, I I don't wanna speak on doctor Davis' behalf, but he's witnessed some, amazing results with spatial learning and different techniques to teach children. Like, so for example, instead of saying, can you write me a paper? Can you take your iPad and go show me, something about gravity instead of writing a paper about gravity? Right? They can go out and they could, you know if you drop a 100 pound sack of feathers and a 100 pound sack of concrete, which one hits the ground first? Well, can you go show me that that's true that they both do that?
I'm getting out of my zone here a little bit on that part, but Yeah. So it was a process and as part of our blueprint 2030 rollout, Doctor. Collier had a vision for STEAM elementary schools. And so that started us down a path of really researching what could a technology infused classroom look like and so forth. And so a team of us did go out to Chicago to visit Apple and saw some of the instructional, programs that they had that could enhance student learning. They also came here. We engaged some of our principals and had some input from them before we rolled
it out. We started with with three pilot schools and we've continued to monitor the implementation in those sites. It was successful. Principals raved about it. Our digital learning team provided support to those schools. And so after that, that's when we decided to move forward and roll it out system wise. So it was kind of a gradual turn with that. Okay. Thanks for that background. I appreciate it. Everyone else, wonderful job as always. Thank you. Mica. So this goes to everybody. I had the opportunity to speak to the secretary of the teachers union.
And she told me this was the best rollout of the first week of school that they have ever seen. So I wanted to give y'all that. I was gonna call or send an email, and I was like, no. I need to tell them that at a meeting. You guys, she said she normally has to sit and she's just taking calls all day during that first week. And she said she was surprised that she was able to get other work done. Her phone was not ringing. So to everybody involved in all that work that went beforehand to make sure that
our students had a really good experience first day, you did a great job. And even KCAFT gave y'all a huge compliment. Because, you know, they get the, It's a mess! So, they are not usually very complimentary, but she was very, very complimentary of how we did with our first day of school rollout. I I also got to attend the, Lincoln's back to school event, Lincoln Middle, where they were given the devices out. That was a learning process on how we were able to distribute them. But the families, like, so many showed up. And even though,
in the process they were learning because it didn't go as quickly as they thought it would and we might have some issues, everybody, like, how they reacted to it, how the staff responded, how the students were able to get what they needed, It was really awesome. So again, wanna give you kudos there. I do have a question about the gaming computers and eSports. I don't know what that is. And so I really wanna understand, like, what is the eSports thing and the gaming computers, and why is that really important to our students in instruction? Some universities now are offering scholarships for gaming.
So, picture an auditorium with, I don't know, seven or eight kids sitting there on their, yeah. Okay. It's a team effort, we will tag in. So the e sports is something we wanted to launch even before the pandemic and due to budget constraints, we didn't launch it before. And so, here in recent years, primarily through the bills grant, we now have some funds to to move in that direction. And, it's something as as mister Jones is indicating, districts are offering it all over the country, even, you know, Columbia, Missouri, north of the river,
colleges are providing scholarship. And when we went to visit, schools in Compton, everybody's doing it out there. Kids are competing in it. And think of it this way, all these tech companies are in their backyard. So it gives students a a way to actually apply all of this, digital learning that they have and so forth. So we're doing it and our students last year at Central High School came in, I wanna say, second in the nation second in the nation at, to a school in Brooklyn that was focused on technologies like a, as it was something something Brooklyn School of Technology.
But Central High School beat out everyone, made it to the championship. And so our students are buying into it. They love it. They're thriving. And so we wanna offer as many opportunities for students if not everyone's not a football player and everyone's not gonna be a what have you. But eSports has appealed to quite a few of our students. And so it opens up additional opportunities for them to engage. Love that. Thank you. Last thing, for the school websites, I know when I first got on the board, we were talking about, like, redoing the website. Uh-huh.
When I went on to try and find information, like, looking at the actual school websites, there was, like it was really difficult to find information. Most of the links just went back to the Yeah. District's web page, and it wasn't specific where it went. It was just general. Yes. And so, I just like to like, I know we were supposed to be working on that. But when will we You actually approved a contract in June for for Apogee as our new company. We're designing what it's gonna look like now. So I actually meet with them on Friday to look at what a potential school website will look like.
We're gonna do a soft launch in January, show DAC, show parents, show people like, just everybody can give feedback and then officially launch it, in May for next school year. So we are on the train. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Foley? Okay. My first question is, talking about us becoming the Apple district. I wanted to know, do we still have access to certain Microsoft products? I don't wanna age myself. I went to a college, a high school where we all had MacBooks and Apple products. When I went into college, it's like I didn't know how to use these things anymore.
Yeah. We have So if there's still access to that for students? I think we have well, no. We got about 13 or 14,000 Chromebooks, but they're about ready to go into life. And we'll always have we'll always have some. We use them as a backup for some of our testing as well, because I think, there's one test that we take that doesn't work on Apple operating system, so we have Chromebooks and cards for the kids to take those tests. But we'll probably always have some of it in the district. I need Excel or I will die. Yeah. She's threatened to take my budget to zero if I don't, if we should We gonna keep it in there,
Erin. Yeah. So she's always gonna have a Windows device. And I think my last statement I know I said it again a few weeks ago at our, executive session. I'm going to be annoying, but I really want to work on us to troubleshoot the issues with the Troost and Long Fellow cohort transportation code. We are on two weeks of, carpooling. I don't know, I'm one and done, so it's crazy seeing my Jeep become a van for my neighborhood. So I I just really wanna work on getting towards that. There is no student's got no family's got any follow-up updates for that.
So they're still in the wind, and we're working on getting kids to school for week three. So I just wanna push some communications to the families. Let them know what's going on because we have three parent car riding groups and I know my Jeep can't become a man anymore. No. I I appreciate that feedback. We hadn't heard it at that volume. That is a a student code issue that, as we roll off to the next year. But nonetheless, we did convene shortly after we were we were notified of that. So I'll look into that right away. That should have been resolved once we updated all of that for those for those
families. It's still an issue? Yes. We'll take care of it. Thank you. And, this is just a comment for Nicole. I can never get too much communication. So thank you for get sending out, being on top of the e yeah. Being on top of the emails. And I really love the back to school postcard. That's that was really fun for my son to get something with his name on. Seeing that he's going back to school, it kinda scared him a little bit. But I was like, hey. School is starting. And my last comment is on the youth mental health first aid. It really enlightened me seeing that for, our our staff members.
I went through the program, and, there's a lot of free programs out there too that we can direct staff members to. And if you go to one, you have a chance to become certified. Like, I became certified in teaching to my neighborhood. So really push those opportunities to, our staff. It can be even a way for them to make money on the side teaching this to people in the community. Thank you. Josh? Okay. Well, I'll just continue the love fest for a second. But I always anticipate getting a bunch of emails at the beginning of the school year about things that have gone wrong. And I have not gotten any this school year.
So I think that that is wonderful and speaks to all the work that y'all have put into starting off this school year. Right? I did wanna, highlight, specifically some of the facilities updates that have been made. I got the opportunity to attend the Suburban Balance event over the weekend, their Ed Summit, and I saw several teachers and building leaders. And many of them were speaking to just those small differences that made just a huge impact, to their building. So I'm just really proud of us for taking those steps to do those subtle,
changes. So kudos to your team. Also kudos to CNS. My child likes to tell me every day how the food was, and he has been so excited to talk about the menu and the updates. Even their social media is active. I follow their social media, and they've had a lot of wonderful updates on there, so I wanted to highlight them. And the last highlight, they weren't really included in the opening of schools, but I think that link needs to be highlighted as our before and after school, partner. I have seen them involved in the opening of schools in a way that I
haven't seen previously. They participated in back to school nights. I saw them before school and at drop off on the first day of school. I've seen them make updates to their security and sign in and sign out. And so I think that they have also played a huge role in our opening of schools, and I really, appreciate how that partnership has evolved. We do have a representative here. We have mister Sean Akridge here from Lincoln. We'll let him stand up and take a bow and let him we'll have the the hard workers at at Lincoln before and after. Yes. I do have a question,
from a security standpoint. Hopefully, this is okay for me to ask in this space. But with some of the deployment of the towers at specific facilities, are those going to replace the metal detectors? Or is that in addition to? So the metal detectors are in our secondary schools. These are excuse me. Specifically at our athletic spaces where we have large crowds coming for football games and so forth. So they will not replace but they will enhance to the degree where we really didn't have any measures except for,
you know, these hand wands for crowds of 600. So this allows everyone to have more assurance that there's not someone, you know, in this crowd of 600, that may have a weapon. So Got it. And it doesn't replace the hand wand. So that's still happening and we have the towers. Got it. Got it. Got it. And is because that's something that's new, is there any communication we anticipate sending out supposed to let people know that they might see this new thing or we would not wanna do that because I might Everyone knows in law, they can't have a way to go to school property. So we're just a joint heir adhering to law.
Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. And we're with my friend, Mark. And then we got people, on-site to address any violators. So we'll Yes. I'm happy. That's all I have. Thank y'all. Josh. Similar. I echo my colleague's sentiment over here. I will highlight specifically transportation. This is my third, start of school, and it's the first time that I've not gotten any emails. I had to get one text and one phone call, but no emails. So great job. Seriously, great job. I would have one question about the foundational trauma awareness. It looks like we had a 110 new hires that went through that,
and we onboarded a 115 new certified staff. So am I interpreting that correctly that we had nearly a 100% go through? Am I doing that is that is that the right way I should be thinking about that? Yes. That is correct. We embed that into new employee orientation. So my my curiosity is around the ones that missed. Is there kind of a makeup for those that didn't experience that? Or Yes. So and the, the, trauma team, they offer these trainings throughout the year. So as new employees are hired throughout the year,
they will automatically go through it. And then others who may have missed it also have opportunity to come back and go through that training. And so it's it's it's they even last year, they even had trainings on Saturdays and folks showed up to to attend. Is that, like, an expectation that are required to do that? Or It is a part of our expectation, a foundational awareness around what is trauma, how do we respond to it, and so forth. It's one of the, core tenets of what Okay. A case you guys employee should have. Thanks a lot. I just want to make sure that there's not some burning follow-up. I really Well,
no, I mean, look, this is always a long meeting because hearing about the opening of schools, is a big deal. Thank you to all of you, to your teams, to really every single employee of the district who made this a great opening day. I scared the heck out of a family that lives across the street from a building that I was going into at 70 Second I think it's planned out, I can't remember the cross street. And there were three kids waiting for the bus. And I was like, Where are you going to school? And then I realized that I'm a stranger!
And they're like, We're going to school right across the street! And they're pointing at Hale Cook. And I was like, Yes! So, you know, every single encounter but I do think that there were probably a few phone calls. Why are you talking to these kids? But they were excited for the first day, their parents were excited for the first day, and all over the community you really got a sense that that it was a great day to start. My neighbor across the street, as I kind of waved, held up her phone so she made sure that I knew she had loaded the app. So, because last year she didn't.
So, thank Thank you to the whole team and, we look forward to more in the future. I think the next item on our I feel like we should stand up and applaud but then we never stop. You know? So truly, thank you. Next item on our agenda is the Board of Directors Report. Monica Curls. So we have our monthly financial report which is the district's financials through 07/31/2025. So We have it up? Okay. The revenue expenditures on this report, reflect the approved, FY 2026 initial budget, which was approved by the board,
June 11. And then it also reflects the, amendment one, which is the budget changes. We will have an amendment one that will reflect the budget changes through December 25, which will be presented to the board in February. And then the budget, there'll be an amendment two with the budget changes through April 2026, which will be presented to the board in June, of 2026. So that's just the normal cadence of our board approvals. Our local income, which is makes up half of our budget, mainly comes from property tax dollars.
Wait a moment. Yep. I'm not breaking. So Jackson County sends the tax bills to property owners in October. We're supposed to pay by the December. Normally, pay in December and January. And then for FY '26, KCPS establishes the operating levy, which will be happening at our, September 20 September is it twenty fourth? Yeah. Twenty fourth. Yeah. Our September 24 meeting is when we'll set, the budget levy for, for the school year. And currently, our levy is 4.9599
in order to support the district's operations. Year to date local collection is from the earnings on deposits and grants from, like, the Block Foundation for college access, Verizon for digital learning, and JE Dunn for, career and technical education programming. We expect to collect county income, in August, which is all money they've collected though, we'll collect in August for stock insurance, in March for the state assessed railroad and utility, and then June for fines. As for state income,
our basic stool funding formula, of course, goes to the charters. Year to date state collection is mainly due to transportation revenue reimbursement. Federal income is our second largest source of in, income. Year to date federal collection is mainly from Medicare revenue reimbursements. And so then you have the visual representation of our budget. Okay, next, we have our expend expenditures. Salaries and benefits, make up the largest part of our expenditure budget. We're at one, we we are at one point,
zero six. The school starts in August. Majority of KCPS salaries and benefits expenses are for certified staff. Services and materials, we are currently at 6.13% because it's the beginning of school year. Payments, were made primarily for property liability insurance and tech, technical technology supplies. And so we can look at the visual representation of that. And then next, we have our certificate of participation. So this is for capital improvements.
Our certificate of participation is like the, home equity loan that we basically got, that's helping us to fund some of our, initial capital improvements to complement the addition the other capital improvements related to the bond. And so here we show our professional fees, primarily have been Hollis Miller, which is our architect. Yes. So that's why I'm you know, you gotta design the building before you start building it. And so most of those expenses are related to them. And in addition to,
we have expenses related to the construction of our King Building for Hollis Miller, JE Dunn, and Navigate, which is our owner's rep, for that work. And so our current balance from the COP is, almost $90,000,000 So next, and I think this is a new one. So this is related to our general obligation bond. Some of this covered up. So we are gonna be discussing, a or making a motion today to approve the sale of those initial sale of
those bonds. So that'll come in a later discussion. But these are some of the expenditures we've already had related to, some of the capital improvements were, related to the bond. And so next is, the general obligation bond. And this is talking about the portion that goes to the charter schools that participated in the bond effort. So it is gonna be their total effort was about 15 their portion is 15,000,000. We separate the our administrative fee related to us,
the work we have to do to support the funding. And so they will also have a issuance of the bond, and then they will go to sale. And then they'll be able to use those proceeds for those capital improvement projects with their organizations. So we don't know what the details of the sale are associated with that. But the actual proceeds will be less the, the face proceeds will be less than the face value of the bond issuance, because it depends on potentially less than the face value because it depends on market
conditions. And so that may affect how much of that 50,000,000 will be available to, the charter schools. The same is true of the district funds, but we'll continue to be be transparent in what those amounts are. And then related to the treasury I'm gonna have to open the my view of this wasn't showing all the pieces. You want me to do it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, no. Just the other one. It was just all. So this month, we had securities that matured. These securities were purchased during the month of January 2025 for approximately $10,000,000
each, and the securities matured on July 3, twenty fourth and twenty fifth for a par, total par or face value of $25,000,000 And that is it related to the treasurer's report. Were there any questions, comments, queries? I'm gonna check with my colleagues any questions. I actually have one. Okay. Let's use the COP as an example. As those funds sit custody or sit in an account, the interest that's earned on the unspent balance, is that reflected back into the available proceeds for the COP or is that going
into general revenue for the district? The the available proceeds for the COP. It stays within that program. So that number will fluctuate based on our interest income. Yes. Okay. Sorry. I know that at some point we had talked about that but I couldn't remember. Thank you. Mocap is our investment, company for our COP and our GO25A and, MOSIP, it will be the one for the charter schools. We have two different investment companies. Okay. Thank you. I guess kind of along those same lines, so since it stays in that program,
does that mean we would use that to pay down the money quicker or could we use that in those investment funds for capital improvements? We decided to use it for capital improvements. Okay. Yes. Alright, thanks. So, yeah, that's Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda, we have, I have a few notes that I'll just send in the Friday update just about scheduling and, some refresher and things like that. We have two items on the ad hoc committee report that are here for board action. The first is the twenty twenty five,
twenty six legislative priorities. I'm gonna turn the floor over to Josh Jackaway. Thank you. So at our last Government Relations Committee meeting which was on August 5, so prior to actually our last meeting on August 13, we as a committee, voted on and reviewed for the rest of the Board to be able to spend some time looking at the recommended by administration legislative priorities. So the action would be for us as a board to collectively vote to make these our, legislative priorities for this next year.
So then we can pass these along to, Jean Berger and Associates to use on our behalf, throughout this fall and into the next legislative session. So were there any questions or discussion that was different than what we spoke about at our prior time related to those. Go ahead. I have a question. And, it's from discussions that we had previously in the old government relations committee. I know we had talked about before potentially having our legislative priorities vetted with our
families that we are gonna be asking it to go down with us to, lobby on lobby day. And so I was wondering, were we able to, implement something where we can engage them around this this year, or is that some still something that we're working toward in the future? Yeah. So after we spent some time discussing it, it felt like that the opportunity for us to engage is actually us starting with, hey, these are what the administration in partnership with, our lobbyist who's kind of an expert in this area thinks is going to be
what's coming up in the next legislative session. And then what we'll do is then, based on that, spend the time during the fall semester actually educating our families who will be going down so that they'll actually be much more comfortable in sharing this. We're even gonna be able to make the, legislative day of action or advocacy day, whatever, we wanna to terminate it, will be a market value asset that our students are gonna be able to receive credit for. So during this fall year or fall semester by us having this approved in advance,
those students will actually get more kind of resourcing and education around that. So when they're talking to legislators, they'll be more versed in what these issues are as well as how that personally impacts their school. I appreciate that. But the question was really more around, like, them being able to help us and understand the process of selecting those legislative priorities And, like, kinda like we do with the budget, where we have our budget priorities. We take them to the community and say, well, what's your feedback on us selecting these priorities? Here are some that we maybe didn't select,
and these are the reasons. And then have them be able to give us feedback on what they feel we should have. Now that doesn't mean we're changing it based on that. But do we have an opportunity to engage stakeholders around that process? No. Because the way that we've done that in the past has been through the DAC meetings. And so we did this work during the summer. There was no DAC meetings that were actively happening that that that would have been a a part of those discussions. And so, really, the feedback that we got from Chris is that the longer we wait on doing this, the more it puts us at a disadvantage.
And so we wanted to be more proactive and be able to seize on his expertise and influence as well as by us doing it at this point. It allows us to actually educate people, in the district around what these issues are. Instead of kind of in previous years, it's been really kind of a rush at the last minute whether that's been on the buses or a week before trying to help people understand like the nuances of what these would mean and what legislation that could be passed would have an adverse impact. So this gives us now a longer lead time to do that work of that
education and hopefully with that even an increased response in terms of advocacy today because we're going to have more people who are going to feel comfortable. Oh, I understand now why going to Jeff City and talking about these issues is really important. So I don't know if that kind of answers your question of why we kind of shaped it in the timeline the way that we did. I appreciate that. Still gonna ask. At some point, as a board, especially since we've been really focusing on our engagement, that we find a way to really empower our families to really understand this process and be able to help select priorities.
I do remember a time when DAC used to select priorities that were not the same as the district and advocate for those, and we were trying to move more towards us working together to do that. So I I understand why now that's not the case, but I would still, like, really push for us to really think about how we begin to engage people in the process of selecting those priorities so that they are reflective of all of us, and that they understand it rather than just going to them and saying, this is what we've selected. We need you to advocate, and here's why. Yep. Okay.
Would you like to make a motion for approval of the legislative priorities? So, I would like to make a motion that we would, accept the priorities that have been recommended for our twenty twenty six year. Is there a second to the motion? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Is there any additional discussion? On these priorities. If not, Lisa please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. Minkie? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. I'd like to say thank you to Josh as the chair and to,
the other two members of the committee for the work in getting us here. And I think as we start to think about that timeline it will give us opportunities to address the questions that you raise as well. So, next item is, sorry now I need my glasses. I recognize Tanisha Ford with regard to approval of the KCPS Policy Committee Charter. Tanisha. Alright. Colleagues in your binder should be a draft of the policy committee charter that was developed by our committee. This was also shared in a previous Friday update.
And then our at our last board meeting, I referenced this committee charter and asked for feedback, questions, revisions, all of the things. As a reminder, this document outlines the purpose, responsibilities, and scope of policy committees work. The Charter is meant to serve as a guiding framework for how the committee will support the full board in carrying out our governance responsibilities while still allowing us some flexibility as a committee as we begin our work and learn more as we get started. So since there was no feedback received,
what you all have before you is the most current, draft. So unless there are questions at this time, I'd like to move that the Board adopt the Policy Committee Charter as presented. Is there a second? Second. The motion has been made and seconded to approve the Policy Committee Charter. Sorry. Is there any discussion or any questions on the motion? I'm just going to note one tiny little correction at the end of the second paragraph. I think the FC reference is still in there, and we just need to change that to PC.
The very last sentence of that second paragraph. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, Lisa, please call the roll. Kirls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Thank you to, Jamica and Tanisha in, getting this work moving and, appreciate the effort. The next item on our agenda is Policy and Governance. All right, the administration recommends approval of the updates and revisions to the administrative policies BBBA two, board member qualifications,
BBBB two, school board ballot issues, BBF, school board member ethics, BDDF two, voting method, DJFA, federal programs and projects, and IGBB, programs for gifted students based on changes in the law. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the new updated and amended administrative policies that will be identified in the Board Policy Manual Appendix D BBBA 2BBBB2, BBF BDDF2, BJFA and IGBB. Would someone like to make that motion? So moved.
Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the updated new updated or amended administrative policies as earlier referenced. Right. I'm not saying them again. Are there is there any discussion on the motion or any questions? Yes. I have a question. So for these policies where we're getting the recommendation, these are all ones that are the recommendations are being made based on changes to the law? Correct. Okay. Thank you. But it's all stuff that we have to do legally. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley?
Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Regular business items, Doctor. Collier? Alright. Our first regular business item for the evening is the sale of Series twenty twenty five a General Obligation Bonds. The administration recommends approval to ratify the public sale of Series twenty twenty five a General Obligation Bonds for $60,000,000 that will finance renovations, rehabilitation, new construction, and other capital improvements to certain KCPS facilities. Engagement information includes development of our Blueprint 2030 plan,
our ten year capital plan which included twenty twenty five COP bonds, and with participation and feedback from our steering committee and more than 6,000 staff, student families and community members. Thank you Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the resolution as recommended by the superintendent gratifying the public sale of the general obligation improvement bonds series 2025 A in the approximate amount of $60,000,000 The resolution is to be adopted in full, verbatim as presented and without amendment.
So move. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to ratify the public sale of the general obligation improvement bonds series 2025A in the approximate amount of $60,000,000 Any discussion? Any questions? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Foley. Yes. Ford. Yes. Jackaway. Yes. Kendricks. Yes. Zinke. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The motion is adopted. Congratulations everybody. Alright, our second business item for the evening is, the Housing Authority of Kansas City KCPS agreement. The administration recommends approval of the lease agreement with the Housing Authority of Kansas City
to serve an additional 34 head start students at the Columbus Park location. The not to exceed contract amount of 21024¢ will be funded from the Head Start federal grant. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the lease agreement between the Housing Authority of Kansas City and Kansas City Public Schools to accommodate an additional 34 Head Start students at the Columbus Park location? The total cost of the agreement is $21,000.24 to be paid in monthly installments. So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the lease agreement with the housing authority
related to, the Head Start location in Columbus Park. Is there any discussion on this motion? Yeah, I just wanted to point out the reason this was put on the regular business is because I'm actually a member of the Housing Authority of Kansas City's Board of Commissioners, so I'll be abstaining from this vote. Thank you for advising us. Is there any other discussion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Abstain. Foley. Yes. Ford. Yes. Jackaway. Yes. Kendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The motion is adopted, Doctor. Prollier. Alright, our third business item for the evening is Music First LLC.
The administration recommends approval of the three year agreement with Music First to provide music education technology tools to KCPS educators and students. And not to exceed contract amount of $192,850.38 will be funded from the Operating Fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the three year agreement between KCPS and Music First LLC to provide music education technology tools to music educators and students? So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the three year agreement between KCPS and
Music First LLC for Music Education Technology Tools. Is there any discussion or question on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier? Okay, our fourth business item for the evening, Lyric Opera of Kansas City. The administration recommends approval of the service agreement with Lyric Opera of Kansas City to provide vocal lessons to students at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, Lincoln College Middle School,
Central High School and Paseo Academy. In addition, Lyric will provide theater arts courses at Central Middle School, Central High School, and Paseo Academy. The not to exceed contract amount of $196,500 will be funded from the operating fund. Thank you Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the agreement between Kansas City Public Schools and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City to provide vocal teaching artists in residence at a number of our high schools? So moved. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the agreement between KCPS and the Lyric
Opera of Kansas City to provide vocal teaching artists in residence, at a number of our high schools. Is there any discussion on this motion? I just have one question. We don't have it at all of the schools and I'm sure there's a reason. So how were the schools that are participating or receiving that service, how were they selected or identified? This was solely based on need. And so, if there wasn't a teacher available for that class, that's who received that support. And what we committed to was ensuring that we did not have a loss of programming from the previous school year.
Thank you. Are there any additional questions? I'm gonna make a similar note to the one that Ms. Kearls made earlier. I serve on the Board of Lyric Opera Kansas City and I will abstain from the vote. Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Board? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. Pinky? Yes. Cortez? Abstain. The motion is adopted. Okay. Our fifth business item is Yellow Dog Networks, Incorporated. The administration recommends approval of the renewal of the service agreement with Yellow Dog Networks to provide firewall and Internet security. The not to exceed contract amount of $271,605
will be funded from the operating fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the agreement between KCPS and Yellow Dog Networks Inc? As, within the amount of $271,605 So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the agreement between KCPS and Yellowdog Networks, as described earlier. Is there any discussion or any questions on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Carls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted,
Doctor. Collier. Okay. Our sixth business item is Waste Management of Kansas, Incorporated. Administration recommends approval of the first renewal of service agreement with Waste Management of Kansas for trash removal, disposal, and recycling services. The not to exceed contract amount of $275,000 will be funded from the operating fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the Trash Removal, Disposal and Recycling Services with Waste Management Kansas, contract with a not to exceed amount of $275,000 So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve
the agreement with Waste Management of Kansas for Trash Removal Disposal and Recycling Services. It Are there any questions or comments? Discussion. Lisa, please call the roll. Corals? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGhee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier. Our next business item is Pinnacle Solutions, LLC. The Administration recommends approval of the three year agreement with Pinnacle Solutions to provide pest control services. The not to exceed contract amount of $285,000 will be funded from the operating fund.
Engagement information includes bids for this service were issued on 05/22/2025 and closed on 06/10/2025. Overall, there were two bidders of which one contract was awarded and that is Pinnacle Solutions. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the contract for Pest Control Services with Pinnacle Solutions LLC in the amount of $285,000 The agreement is effective beginning 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026 with a three year agreement and two additional one year renewal options.
So moved. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the contract for Pest Control Services with Pinnacle Solutions LLC in the amount of $285,000 Is there any are there any questions or discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier? Okay, our eighth business item is Communications Technologies, Incorporated. The administration recommends approval of the agreement with Communication Technologies to provide physical security towers
for metal detectors, outdoor facilities. These towers are designed for portability and will be deployed at both indoor and outdoor events across the district, offering a level of security that was previously unavailable. The open gate towers can detect a wide range of weapons, significantly enhancing safety measures for students, staff, and any visitors. The not to exceed contract amount of $300,217.15 will be funded from the operating fund. Engagement included following a competitive request for proposals process. Communications Technology Technologies was selected from a pool of two qualified vendors to provide mobile
physical security towers for the district. It includes 15 mobile open gate towers, training for staff, software and essential equipment, batteries, chargers, handheld metal detectors, hard rubber bases and stabilizers. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the agreement between KCPS and Communications Technologies in the amount of $300,217.15 for physical security towers for metal detectors at outdoor facilities. So moved. Second. Motion is made and seconded to approve the agreement between KCPS Communications Technologies for the
physical security towers. Is there any discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kurls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted, Doctor. Collier. Okay, our ninth business item for the evening is Victims of Crime Act Grant, also known as VOCA. The administration recommends approval to accept the VOCA grant, federal grant of $344,021.5 to support and provide services to students who are victims of crime in order to
reduce the severity of the psychological, emotional and impact of victimization. The grant contract amendment is extended for the period 07/01/2025 through 09/30/2025. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to accept the grant award for the Victims of Crime Act grant in the amount of $344,021.5 So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to accept the grant award from the Victims of Crime Act funding in the amount of $344.021.0.5
dollars Is there any discussion or questions related to this motion? I just wanted to know, usually they also I mean I know it's a plus, but sometimes they also put that it's revenue. So can can we just make sure to note that in the future if it's a plus to our that we somehow distinguish that from other things that are debt related. Thank you. Okay. So noted. Any other notes or questions? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Howard? Yes.
Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted, Doctor. Collier. Okay, our tenth business item is Rainbow Center. The administration recommends approval of the service agreement with Rainbow Center to provide instruction and related services to students with special education needs for the school year of twenty five-twenty six. Rainbow Center is a DESE approved private agency. The estimated cost of $400,000 will be funded from the operating fund. Thank you, Doctor. Pollard. Is there a motion to authorize contract SA26009 with Rainbow Center
from 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026 with a not to exceed amount of $400,000 So moved. And seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to authorize the contract with Rainbow Center. Is there any discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted, Doctor. Boyd. Okay, our next business item is Logicalis, Incorporated. The Administration recommends approval of the First Amendment to the agreement with Logicalis for a
new district wide intercom digital signage system. The not to exceed contract amount will increase from $1,498,999.43 to $1,714,335.87, an increase of $464,336.44 and will be funded from the operating capital projects fund. Thank you, Doctor. Pallia. Is there a motion to approve the amendment to the original agreement between KCPS and
Logicalis? The amendment is in the amount of 464,336.44. So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the amendment to the original agreement between KCPS and Logicalis. Is there any, are there any questions or discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Kendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted, Doctor. Conner. Okay, our twelfth business item is the Panorama Education. The administration recommends approval of the three year agreement with Panorama Education for the cloud
based student success platform using AI across multiple data points for comprehensive data analysis to include early warning predictive analysis, multi tiered system support, identification, and access for evidence based intervention strategies for reading success plans, mathreading intervention plans, and MTSS plans at the district and the building levels. The Panorama student success platform will allow district and school level staff to access multiple data sources in one central location.
The not to exceed contract amount of 521,000 320, I'm sorry. $521,320,000,000. That's worded strangely. Will be funded from the operating fund. Hold on. Let me look at this again. 1,200 for miles. Okay. Because it has million on here. That's what I was trying to figure out. Okay. So I'm a I'm a read I'm a reread that. I'm a scratch out the million. Okay. The not to exceed contract amount of $521,320 will be funded from the operating fund. Engagement information includes, principals, district department leaders,
high school students, and those were their our summer interns, grad coaches, the AFT union president, and teacher representatives participated in a live virtual demonstration of the Panorama student success platform to provide feedback on the utility and benefit of this platform throughout May from May through July 2025, with plans for school year '26. Each group was allowed to ask questions and to provide feedback, and then all demo participants agreed upon the purchase of the Panorama student success platform. Thank you, doctor Collier.
Is there a motion to approve the agreement between KCPS and Panorama Education for the cloud based student success platform using AI across multiple data points for comprehensive data analysis in the amount of $521,320 So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the agreement between KCPS and Panorama Education, for $521,320 Is there any, are there any questions or is there any discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes.
Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. Mickey? Yes. Cortez? Yes, the motion is adopted, Doctor. Collier. Okay, our thirteenth business item is Sherwood Autism Center. The administration recommends approval of the service agreement with Sherwood Center for the exceptional child to provide instruction and related services to to students with special education needs. Sherwood Autism Center is a DESE approved private agency and the estimated cost of $700,000 will be funded from the operating fund. Thank you Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the service agreement with Sherwood Autism Center in the
amount, in the not to exceed amount of $700,000 So moved. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the service agreement with Sherwood Autism Center in a not to exceed amount of $700,000 Is there any discussion or are there any questions? Please, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Foley. Yes. Ford? Yes. Jackaway? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGhee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Proyar? Okay, our fourteenth business item is The Quality Roofing Company. The administration recommends approval of the amendment to the agreement with Quality Roofing Company for
roof replacement at Gladstone Elementary. The not to exceed contract amount funded from the Operating Capital Projects Fund will change from $3,191,400 to $2,109,400 a decrease of $1,082,000 Thank you Doctor. Collier. And there was some MBEWBE participation for this at 1.42%. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve Amendment one at Gladstone Elementary with the Quality Roofing
Company in the deduct amount of $1,082,000 So moved. Second. Motion is made and seconded to approve the Amendment one at Gladstone Elementary with the Quality Roofing Company in the deduct amount of $1,082,000 Is there any discussion or questions on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Foley? Yes. Ford? Yes. Jack Way? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Doctor Collier. Okay. And our final business item for the evening is control service company. The administration recommends approval of the contract with control service company for the installation of
automated logic control system upgrades at Central High School, Success at Knott's, and Pitcher Elementary. Control service provides energy management system services and temperature controls on 28 sites with partial or full temperature controls in our sole source vendor. The not to exceed contract amount of 1,832,493 dollars 943 will be funded from the Operating Capital Projects Fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the installation of automated logic control system upgrades at
Central High School, Knott's Elementary and Pitcher Elementary with Control Service Company in the amount of $1,832,943 So move. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the contract, with Control Service Company in the amount of 1,832,943. Is there any discussion or questions on this motion? Only, I don't know if this matters, but you said Knox Elementary instead of Success at Knox. I know that's how it reads on this stage. Oh yes. So just to make sure we Sorry. That was my error. Sorry. That name of the school.
Success So Central High School Success and Knott's. Mhmm. Pitcher Elementary. My apologies. Any other questions or comments? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Foley. Yes. Ford. Yes. Jackaway. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The motion is adopted. The next item on the agenda is the, are the consent items. Is there a motion to approve consent items G1 through G55? So moved. Is there a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded to approve items G1 through G55 on the consent
agenda. Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Foley. Yes. Ford. Yes. Jackaway. Yes. Kendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The consent agenda is approved. Lisa, are there any new action items? Yes, we have two. Okay, as a reminder folks, Lisa will send you the draft of what she heard and if you would please either respond with any corrections or release or if you feel the question has been responded to just let her know so that she can take it off the list.
With that, we come to the conclusion of our agenda for this evening. So if there is no objection, meeting will be adjourned. Our next meeting will be the Board Policy Monitoring Workshop on 09/10/2025.