Well, everyone, thank you for, using this time wisely. Welcome back, for the regular meeting of the Kansas City Public Schools Board of Directors for 09/24/2025, call to order. Before we do roll call, I'd like to invite, doctor Connie Palacios up to make an announcement, please. Good evening, doctor Palacios. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Connie Palacios, and I will be your interpreter for this meeting. I will interpret everything you say. Please speak clearly at a moderate pace.
Post often, and please, refrain from having side conversations or from interrupting each other. If I need you to slow down, I will make this hand gesture. If I need you to raise your voice, I will do this gesture. If I need clarification, like this. Okay. Lastly, my call as interpreter is to convey your message from one language to another in partially and completely and without additions or modification.
Thank you for your patience. Kearls? Here. Ford? Here. Ricks? Here. McGee? Here. Cortez? Here. No outstanding action items. Correct? Okay. The next item on our agenda would be public comment. But I do not have anybody scheduled turned in for public comment, so we will proceed. And I don't think we have a DAC report this evening. So, with that, I'm gonna turn the floor over to doctor Collier for superintendent for the superintendent's report. Alright. Good evening, everyone. For the superintendent's announcements first. KCPS is in the news for empowering our students' futures.
Kansas City Public Schools is proud to be in the spotlight this week for launching the College and Career Decision Making Incubator, a district wide initiative that equips middle and high school students with tools to make informed choices about their futures. Developed in partnership with the Alliance for Decision Education and funded by the Kauffman Foundation, the program integrates decision making strategies into core subjects, helping students weigh college and career options earlier and more effectively. This expansion builds on a successful pilot at Lincoln College Prep and responds to a
growing need for financial awareness and long term planning. Counselors and students alike have voiced how critical it is to understand the financial impact of college decisions from tuition to major changes. Training begins this fall with students engaging in the curriculum by spring, just in time for decision season. We're grateful to our partners and educators for championing this work, and we look forward to seeing our students lead with confidence, clarity, and purpose. Next, we wanna highlight the NFL celebrates East High School senior Jaden Lopez.
We are proud to share that East High School senior Jaden Lopez has been selected to represent the Kansas City Chiefs as their high school tackle nominee for the NFL Latino Youth Honors Program. This prestigious recognition presented in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation celebrates student athletes who demonstrate excellence on the field, in the classroom, and within their communities. Each year, all 32 NFL teams nominate one male and one female high school senior for this honor. Kaiden's leadership, academic achievement,
and commitment to community service made him a standout choice, and we are thrilled to see his impact recognized at the national level. To celebrate this achievement, Jaden and his guests were invited to a private tour of the of the GI field that Earl had on Tuesday, September 23, where Chiefs running back Isaiah Pacheco surprised him with another local honoree with tickets and a special recognition experience. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Jaden, his family, and the East High School community. And then finally,
we have a video highlight this evening, and, we just want to commend our CIPD team on a great turnout for the season kickoff of the 2025 season of KCPS Loves to Read. We held a block party on the beautiful front lawn of historic Southeast High School where we welcomed families, staff, community members, and more to celebrate the love of reading. Here's a video highlight of special moments from that event. Right. Well, what a wonderful event as we continue to elevate reading across our school system. At this time,
we're going to have our 2025 tax levy update, and that will be provided by Erin Thompson, our chief financial officer. Hey. Good evening, board chair Cortez, board members, doctor Collier. Earlier tonight, we had our public hearing on our 2025 tax rate hearing. Under board policy DC, we must comply with state statute of to have a public one public at least one public hearing for the tax levy. And, also, we have to make make sure that we complete this by October 1 so we
could turn that information into the county and to the state auditor's office. Under article ten, eleven g, Kansas City School District can go up to 4.96 for our tax levy. We've always used for past twenty six years 4.9599. Everybody remembers that. This year, since the assessed valuation went up, we are proposing a voluntary rollback of 10¢ to our operating levy to assist taxpayers. We're proposing 4,000,000
to help us with our, schools, our capital, and our schools for renovation. That is a 61¢ debt for debt service, only for debt service. We cannot use it for operating, that's totally separate. So, our total proposed tax levy for 2025 is 5.4699. We received from the county, Jackson County, the September, the assessed valuation for 2025. And that is our 5,500,000,000.0 that you see here. Last year,
our assessed valuation for 2024 was 5,100,000,000.0. So you take the variance and that's a 476,683,400 an increase of 9.33%. And our footnotes here, we're just saying that, a tax commission has, requested that each year no higher than 15% increase for residential. We have no variable for commercial yet. No, no decision on a tax commission. Of course, the county yesterday did a proposal that that also be 15%,
no higher for commercial. But nothing from the tax commission yet. We do know under, appeal is about 1,200,000,000.0. So, the difference in this 476,683,400 is additional revenue to us of approximately 20,000,000. So, our proposed operating tax levy is the 4.4599. The voluntary rollback of 10¢ gives us a net for general fund of 4.3599. Our capital projects fund, we've increased to 50¢.
That's for the COP that we originally had in the budget of the 15¢. We increased it 35¢ to cover capital projects that our immediate needs, such as, one of them I know of is roof repairs, that's all I hear all the time from operations, for a total operating fund levy of 4.8599. So, the 10¢ voluntary rollback is about 5,500,000.0. So, for a homeowner who owns a home of 100,000, that will be a savings from, if we had been 4.95
to the 4.85, that's the savings of about $19 annually that they will receive for a house of 100,000. So, I'm gonna have our Chief Operating Officer come at this time to go through some of the immediate needs. Thank you, Ms. Thompson and yes, Ruth, Ruth, Ruth. When it rains it pours in some of our spots. So, there's still a need and what we wanted to highlight here is just, reminding our community that based on those assessments we did pre bond about a year ago, we identified 1,250,000,000.00 with a b billion of existing building needs.
With the passage of our our bond on April 8, we're certainly on the right path forward to help address some of those deferred maintenance and, system wide efficiencies. But even with that, one of the challenges and complexity that's come with that is our needs versus the available dollars to support those funds. What we are doing as a team working with our CMs and our Architect and Design team is that we're constantly prioritizing what we're able to do and how far we're able to stress those dollars within the schools based on the allocations that we provided each of the schools in the community at large.
So what we have here is, identified some immediate needs that we can, execute this year with the approval and support of this this levy that will help to shore up some of those gaps that we were able to identify through that assessment process and ensure that we're able to kind of marriage and pair a lot of the existing renovations work that we're planning to do. So the this is just a snapshot that these are greater than this but certainly based on what is scheduled ahead, these are in excess,
separate and apart from those bond dollars but they certainly would go towards those larger building and infrastructure needs that we have. And technology also has additional needs. We're looking at replenishing some of our iPads and our laptops for students and teachers of $3,000,000 So, the grand total, 19,000,150, will be used on these immediate needs this school year. Finally, we're proposing for '25, tax year '25, operating fund levy rate of 4.8599,
which includes that 10¢ rollback, and the debt service levy of 61¢ for a total tax rate levy for 2025 54699. At this time, I'll turn it over to Doctor. Collier. Just a few things I wanna say before we go into questions. As superintendent of the Kansas City Public Schools, I want to begin first. Anytime we're talking about our finances and budgets and revenue, I have to pause a moment to say thank you once again to our community for your support in approving the debt levy and investing in our facilities,
that serve our students every day. That was a critical financial decision, and a powerful statement of shared values. You affirm your belief in public education and in the future of Kansas City's children. Thanks to that recent passage of our general obligation bond, we now have $424,000,000 to begin addressing long overdue facility needs. While we're deeply grateful for that support, we have to remember that it covers only a fraction of the nearly $1,250,000,000 in deferred maintenance across our schools. Our buildings continue to need new roofs,
fire alarms, and mechanical systems, as we heard about in the presentation. KCPS also relies on local property tax for nearly 80% of our budget. Currently, that funding supports everything, operations, capital outlay, and debt service. It is the lifeblood of our district, yet annually, access to those funds are delayed. For the first six months of each fiscal year, we operate using reserves, so at times our reserves do appear to be high, but we have to remember, that we don't we do not receive state allocation, and so the allocation is directed to local charters.
I also want to remind us of the very challenging budget season that we just experienced, in response to proposed federal budget cuts, and we are anticipating that those will reoccur, and the proposed assessed valuation at that time, we were forced to make some very difficult decisions in order to bring forward a balanced budget. The budget that we brought forward was not necessarily what we wanted or ideal but it was in response to the information, the financial information, that was available to us at that time. Due to the estimated increase in the updated assessed valuation from Jackson County,
KCPS is receiving additional revenue, as we saw in the presentation, above what was originally projected in the spring. So, in response to that, we are now proposing a voluntary rollback of our tax levy by 10¢ from 4.9599 to 4.8599 for tax year 2025. This adjustment represents a $5,500,000 reduction in potential revenue for the district and it would save taxpayers. This adjustment serves as a meaningful gesture gesture of fiscal responsibility coupled with community partnership
and gratitude. The revenue received by KCPS will be directed toward immediate operational and technological needs in our schools, totaling $19,000,000 that will directly impact our students and staff. This recommendation reflects a careful balance honoring our community's investment and support while also responding to the uncertain financial conditions and immediate district needs. Thank you. Thank you Doctor. Collier, thank you Ms. Thompson. I'm going to ask my colleagues if they have any questions. I'll start to my left.
Monica. I just wanna thank the administration. I know that in our finance committee meeting, we were asking some very challenging questions. And I really appreciate the thoughtfulness that the district took to really analyze the numbers, take a deeper dive and to decide to, make the adjustment that they did. I just for the community, I I think it's important to recognize that that this reduction is not a permanent reduction. There will be times in the future that we might have to go back towards,
closer to that, max of four four point six that we're allowed to, budget. And looking into the even further future, maybe coming to the community directly just like every other district does and asking them to approve that levy. But I hope that this is a recognition of the one, my faith in the district, and I hope it is also a representation that the district is really wanting to be a partner with our community and recognizing what it is that that they're dealing with financially in these kind of challenging financial times that we all find ourselves in.
So thank you, doctor Collier and to Aaron and the rest of the team. Tamika? I have questions. First, I do wanna, acknowledge I'm wearing my Central shirt today because Central is the oldest high school in Kansas City. It's 158 years old. So, shout out to Central. I said I would do that. I know I'm not supposed to right now, but I did. Alright. For, the commercial contested taxes that we had, or the ones that they're saying they may not pay, is it normal for it to be that high, for it to be $979,000,000 out of 1,200,000,000.0 that they're contesting? No,
it's not normal. This year, it went up by 25, over 25%. So, that's why just like when residential went up by that amount, you have more protest taxes. Okay. So this is just, it didn't, did it go up for commercial before? No. Or was, okay. So this is commercial's first time and that's why we're seeing what we're seeing. That's correct. Thank you. And then, for the immediate capital needs, I know that that we have them, but they weren't broken down here, not expecting that in this presentation. But I would like to know, like, do we know what projects we would be focusing on for those amounts?
And, how are we making stakeholders, especially those affected by them, aware of the changes that they could anticipate? Yes. We do. We do have a itemized list of where those where those dollars and what schools they would they would be allocated towards. And then our plan is to incorporate this into our engagement series. So as we go out and talk about school renovations with schools and families, this would be a a separate aisle line item that we can call out, to get feedback and consensus around as well. Okay. Thank you for that. And please, when we do that, can we separate what the bond is and what it is that we have done
with the levy so that people are very clear that we need it both, and they are not one and the same. Thank you. Tanisha? Echo what Monica just shared and her mic dropped, on that. But I'm I know we don't typically, share anything after a tax rate vote. I wonder because of the unique ness of this moment if there'd be any value in that particularly highlighting the impact to, taxpayers and why we made that decision. Yes. We've actually already internally discussed doing some type of press release to let folks know, about our decision to roll back.
And I will, third, those comments. I know that the process of going through, that analysis is very challenging, especially when the data from the county shifts. So thank you for, spending the time and taking the chance. Can I, also just shout out to Gail McCann Beatty in the Assessment Department that helped us with some additional data? I really appreciate that, that helped us to make a more informed decision. So thank you. Okay, if there's no further questions, thank you Ms. Thompson. You're welcome. Thank you, Erin, Ms. Thompson, and the budget and finance team.
Right. I was I was coming to them. Yes. Because they they spent a lot of long hours, you know. I I appreciate their work because they they take the the finances of this district very seriously. Erin and her team, they really monitor things closely and they really think a lot about what our needs are and so I just wanna say publicly I appreciate what you all do and thank you all for being here this evening to accompany Ms. Thompson as she presented. Gotta I gotta announce the next presentation. We have doctor Davis standing here, our deputy superintendent, and he will be joined by Marcus Harris,
Major Harris, our director of security. They will be providing our school safety and emergency response, update for this school year. Thank you, doctor Collier, and good evening, board chair Cortez, members of the board, again, superintendent Collier, members of the audience. It's our pleasure to stand before you this evening to speak on a topic that is paramount to Kansas City Public Schools and that is school safety and emergency response. Tonight's presentation is aligned to the following policies, Course policy zero point zero and that it is the responsibility of the school district to provide each student with the necessary supports that he or she needs to reach
their highest potential. Also, this presentation will be aligned to the administrative policies that you see on the screen. EBC one around emergency drills that says that our district will, develop drills for fires, tornadoes, bus emergencies, bomb threats, etcetera, And, particularly active shooter situations. Also, EBCA says that we will maintain a crisis intervention plan that will assist our administrators and faculty with dealing with any crises that may arise. Also ECA, Building Ground Security,
which simply means that we will routinely inspect our district's property and bring to the board recommendations that might enhance security in our school system. And then also, JFCJ, Weapons in Schools, which simply means that we will have processes as well as consequences for those who may possess weapons on school property. And so, next I'd like to introduce Major Marcus Harris. It's been a, quite a long time since we provided a, safety and security report. So just to give a little bit more information about Major Harris,
not only has he led the security department here in Kansas City Public Schools for eighteen years, but prior to that he had a distinguished career with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department for twenty seven years and retired as a division commander. Ladies and gentlemen, Major Harris. Thanks for the introduction, doctor Davis. Okay. Good evening, board chair Cortez, board members, and superintendent, doctor Collier. So the safety security department has a twenty four seven year round responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for our students,
our staff, and our stakeholders that are part of the community that are part of the Kansas City public schools community. And that means providing safety in the classrooms, at our athletic venues, and even at special events like the event, this summer. Doctor Carter's, KCBS Fest were handed out 5,000 book bags, filled with school supplies for kids returning to school. So the department is made up of armed and under armed officers that are supported by the integrated security system that includes security cameras, metal detectors,
x-ray machines, visitor management system, emergency notification system, and emergency wire emergency notification radios system. So these officer also have a class a license. So officers with a class a license actually have police powers. They had the same police powers as a law enforcement officer here in Kansas City. But one limitation, it is only good on school district property while conducting school district business. It doesn't extend to the public streets. So here's a snapshot of the charter of the of the second security department. I just wanna talk about the,
shaded areas in green. You will see that we have, 74 are full time employees, 35 are armed, and 34 are unarmed. The 35 armed officers, also ride around in patrol cars, that you see, and, they work twenty four seven. So, unfortunately, hazards don't happen during back in hours. They happen at all times, you know, in the middle of the night, on the weekends, holidays, and so forth. So if somebody always on duty, I wanna point to the dispatch operation center. They support those officer that are out on the streets twenty four seven communication,
communicate by being on duty 247. So what that means is that when somebody calls the Kansas City Public School Security Department, you're not gonna get a voice mail. You're gonna get a live body, somebody that can address your problem. And then third, box I'd like to highlight, the SRO officers. So the Kansas City Public Schools has a MOU with the Kansas City Police Department where they provide us with six officers, two at Northeast, two at Central, and two at Southeast. But that MOU goes way further than just a signed piece of paper. It it is a partnership.
I mean, these officers have been with us for ten years, and and they're committed just like we are to keeping our kids safe. So I think our department is pretty good, but we can't do it by ourselves. You know? We have to have help. So we depend on early warning centers like Courage to Report. So which is formerly called Missouri's, School Violence Hotline. But in, 2021, they moved to Missouri Information Analysis Center, which is a 247 operation. So now we get information, from Curtis to report, 247. So if you can see the the commonality there,
247, get information, 247, dispatching information, 247, operation will be able to respond to that information. Uh-oh. Back. Oh, and I also like to talk about our grass root merged area warning systems, which is our communities and our neighbors that live around our schools. They are looking out for us, and so they will call dispatch unit anytime, and I say, hey. There's some suspicious activity going along. So I didn't wanna leave them out. So so when we hire officers, they don't come ready to do this job. And so when you think about security, most people think about securing buildings,
securing parking lots, securing assets, But we go further than that. We not only have to secure those things. Those things are important, but we also have to safeguard the emotional and social well-being of our children. So we had to be trained to know how to do that. You know? We had good intentions, but we had to be trained. And so these are some of the healing center trainings that that we have. I won't go over all of them. It's trauma informed care, choices, youth mental health first aid, implicit bias training by doctor Davis. But the one that I really like on the bottom is a trust based relational
intervention for an institution of child development. And, doctor Karen Purvis, who's affiliated with that, and this is quote. She said, when you connect to the heart of a child, everything is possible. These are the typical things that you would think a security department, post department would train in, active shooter training, ballistic shield training, CPRA, first aid, crisis casualty care, situational judgment, armed barricaded person response, defensive driver training because we're on the streets twenty four seven driving these cars, defensive tactics, mandatory vector k 12 training, that's put on by the human resources department,
and the Syntychex Spad Alert training. So a person once said, I don't have to ask you what you're doing, what your products are. I just have to look at your money, see how you're spending your money. Well, I think it's loud and clear here. We spent well, you guys spent $7,700,201.57 for it for for for equipment. And, this equipment is crucial to us doing our job, and I just wanna do a little show and tell thing to show you how this equipment works. Cruiser one to dispatch. Cruiser one. Go ahead. How do you read me? Cruiser one,
your loud and clear is nineteen eighteen hours. What color jacket does the superintendant have on? A beautiful magenta. Thank you. So this is this is that $7,000,000 working. And, so we here, and we see everything. You know? So we wanna thank you for, you know, spending the money and investing in in that technology. I wanna talk about some of my recent technologies, the x-ray machines, the ballistic shields, the OmniGo dispatch reporting system, the 15 mobile gun detect gun detection towers. So the ballistic shields, and I'll get into the rationale later.
And then, of course, you see the preexisting equipment, which which you guys have provided us for years. So the rationale for the 15 open gate mobile gun detection towers so you probably ask the question, what major? What major decide to buy this stuff? You just wake up in a whim and say, I'm a get it. No. So we did research on the Department of Homeland Security recommends the use of metal detectors for screening at various locations to detect weapons and contraband. The mobile gun techs and towers are considered essential for screening large crowds at sports stadiums and entertainment venues. X-ray machines.
Again, same thing. Department of Homeland Security does not issue that recommendation for against x-ray machines in schools, but rather provides technical information and guidance on their appropriate and effective use as part of a layered security approach for screening small bags and package at entry points. So this says a lot about the Kansas City Public Schools because it's not something we gotta have, but it's something if you if you do have, it's a great thing. So we just don't get by. You know? We try to excel at what we do here. OmniGo dispatch, it's OmniGo is a software,
which is a, paperless reporting, software and a CAD dispatching aid, program. This is really important. This is a game changer. So Omicron is critical to security operation because it acts as the central hub of communication, coordination, and rapid response to incidents. The plat our platform offers comprehensive tools for incident reporting, safety training, and compliance tracking, allowing the security department to maintain safe school environments. Omegle provides a centralized database for report writing, statistic collection, and management of reporting as for the security department. So this data that we get out of,
OmniGo, in law enforcement, we have what we call a problem solving model called SARA, which stands for scan, analysis, response, and assessment. So we get we scan this data from OmniGo. We analyze it, then we do a response, and then we assess it again to see the response that we did if it worked. And if it doesn't, we start that problem solving process all over again. Ballistic shields. The US Department of Homeland Security does not directly issue a blanket recommendation for ballistic shields in schools, but rather acknowledge the benefits of such technology and active shooter prevention. So many schools are required by state mandates,
such as Texas, house bill number 33 known as the You're Valley Strong after habilistic shields available for emergency situations. So we have these. We wanna thank you for that. So the new way of thinking of responding to an active shooter, it used to be you go there, you wait till the police get there and decided. It's not like that anymore. So if after shooter appears in the school and our officers are there, we're going to the threat. And so this helps us, and this gives another tip of them to to help them do that safely. So we wanna thank you for that.
So if you look in the lower left hand corner, you see department vehicles, optical, data, battery, software, emergency, radio equipment, and strategic. And so he said, did this stuff really work? Well, you can see the statistics here right here. So, our average response time from school year 2023 to school year '26 is four point four minutes and forty seconds. And now that granted the register in the first, you know, couple of months in the school compared to the Kansas City Police Department response time, which is eight minutes and forty eight minutes and forty six seconds as last reported
in August 2025. So, and now this is not this is not for all calls. This is for emergency calls, like shootings, fighting, crisis. You asked why about the hall pass picture management system. You is it really working? Well, you can see it works because you can see in the numbers in red, those are the number of people that we identified as being, sex offenders on the sexual registry list. You see Anderson one. I won't go off the numbers. You can see seventeenth, the BOE, but that's probably the ones that we caught asking doctor, Cardio for permission to be on school grounds.
So so the red and green book. So people ask why we have the red and green. Is it necessary to have? It is. So case case, you guys are required to complete one fire drill per mile, two tornado drills per year, one bus evacuation drill within the first first two weeks of school, one after shooter lockdown drill per year to supervise our local law enforcement officer. And when they do these drills, they are to be recorded on a report. So we created this book, and it and, it's not written in, it's not written at the level of PhD. It's written at a sixth grade level.
So and that's on purpose so that anybody can pick this up in an emergency situation and know how to respond to a to a, crisis event. Other data. So you see the department vehicles intrusion alarm system, visual alarm camera system. Is this stuff working? Yeah. So by by those, three things there, we can find out in school year '25. We had a 138 unsecured open and prop doors, which is not a good thing. And school year '26, so far, we've had 71 unsecured and open and prop doors.
So based on the information that I just shared with you, we do we, come in with five goals and objectives that we wanna do. Goal number one is to train 100% of our school staff annually on emergency response procedures, partner with the human resource department to have all staff complete annual Vector Safe Schools training, provide annual training to all school administrators traders on emergency procedures. Goal number two, to ensure 100% of schools are performing to require monthly emergency drills. Send out monthly compliance reports to school leadership. Send out memos if not compliant and provide more training to administrators to help them
reach that goal. Goal number three, increase all pass users to a minimum of 90 cent 90%. Send out monthly usage reports to school leadership. Provide more training to office and staff if needed. Goal number four, maintain the average response time for Cape and security patrol on emergency calls under five minutes or less. And goal number five, reduce the number of pop up doors by 75% each year until we reach zero incidents. And so, I I gave you guys I don't know if you have a copy of the, Raider Broom Book. So this is this is what we're gonna be really working hard on this school
year to get the word out, stop the prop. You know, when you have a decent shooting, you have to have a lot of time for you to get through open doors. And so with that, I will turn it over to doctor Davis to finish up. Thank you, major Harris. Alright. So you saw the five goals that we have for safety and emergency response. As we look at our progress toward meeting those goals, we're quite quite pleased with the emergency response training. We're doing that annually training. All of our staff, the principals are leading that training at their building site. When we talk about the emergency drill completion,
that is approaching, so we're gonna continue to work on that to make sure that, every school is completing every single required drill. Because if we don't practice, we won't be prepared in the case of, an emergency. And so we're we're we're approaching with that one. If you notice some of that data, you saw that some schools had very high usage and that means they're using it faithfully. Every visitor to the building, we saw some other buildings, had very few, numbers of usage, which increases our risk that maybe we were not catching a visitor that should not
make it past the, front office. And so we were going to work to increase hall pass usage across all campuses. And then with Go four, you saw the response time. Our officers are making it, quickly because we have officers in every zone, in the patrol vehicles, and we're able to get particularly to those elementary schools that do not have site based officers. And so it's important that we have a, quick response time. Maybe something going on in their parking lot, something around their perimeter. And so we're very pleased with their response time, and we want to continue to to be,
exemplary in that area. And then you saw the data on prop doors. It is, unacceptable that, in this day and age with what we saw in Uvalde, Texas and, that's how that active shooter made entry into that school building, we cannot run the risk of a prop door or an incident that will be preventable. And so through the campaign and through working with our, safety task force, we meet quarterly. And that on that task force, we have legal, communications, IT. We have several principles on there. Student support is a cross departmental, collaboration around all things safety.
And so PropDORS will be a part of that, and we'll discuss a not only a campaign, but also how are we monitoring as we, continue to wanna reduce those those prop doors. Recommendations for continued or improved effectiveness. We will continue to provide those healing center trainings to our officers that, major Harris spoke to. It's important that we not only look at safety by, you know, what we're, you know, let's say protection from what we fear, but also protection for what we love,
which is our students and making sure our officers are prepared to, to meet those social and emotional needs. We're gonna continue using the Omnigo software. It's been very helpful for us to not only, quantify, all things safety data, but then we're able to to, notice those trends and respond. That's how we set goals, that you saw earlier. And then, I believe we had about four years ago a third party analysis and audit of, our security procedures to see where we may be vulnerable. We need to do that every three to five years just to make sure that
we're keeping up with, what what is standard for protecting everyone that's within our doors, our students and employees and visitors to our buildings. So next steps, as mentioned, we're gonna meet as a safety task force and, create a monitoring plan to move these goals forward. We'll work in partnership with school leadership as well as our principals, and then we will continue to monitor to ensure that our systems are working well. So as we mentioned earlier, many times we may define safety and school safety in particular as things that are
physical. You know, so metal detectors, it's emergency drills, it's the cameras, it's the radios. But safety is also something deeper. It's also emotional. And so we are very cognizant of the fact that for many of our students, they walk a tight rope, you know, between hope and fear. And that fear could stem from just walking around in neighborhoods, playing on the playground, being on a metro bus stop, particularly for those, who come from immigrant families and communities. And once that fear is in our students, it then enters our classroom.
And so we're very aware of that fact. You have in your binder a protocol that we developed because we know that students are afraid. Ever since the, executive order a year ago that removed schools from being, safe zones away from immigration enforcement, we did see a dip in attendance. We saw it in our data, and so we're mindful of that. And so we're working that is a challenge to us making sure that all students feel safe coming to school, being at school.
And so, that is something we're working with. And, again, we're training all of our staff on that protocol. You have that in your binder as a reminder. A second challenge is this paradox of conducting active shooter drills. It's something we have to do because we refuse to be unprepared, and we've seen far too many headlines that we can't ignore. But at the same time, we realize that when that announcement comes on and says, hey, you got thirty seconds and we're going to go into an active shooter drill, some may see that as resilience,
but for some students, that's residue. It's a reminder of, violence that they may be aware of in their communities. So we have to balance protecting our students with also understanding that this sometimes traumatizes some students, but it's something we must do when we realize that is the situation. So as we, really work intentionally to redefine school safety is not just something that, we're trying to lock out, but it's also something around what are we bringing into our schools. Hope, courage, trust. We wanna make sure we're taking care of our students and our,
staff in a humane and, emotional way, not just from a physical safety point. And so that came through in Major Harris' training points. And with that, we'll open it up for any questions. Thank you, Doctor. Davis. Thank you, Major Harris. And before we start with questions, thank you to your whole team who's here tonight. We see your team regularly and we're very grateful for their, presence and their support. I'm gonna turn to my right. Ms. Ford, any questions? Thank you, Doctor. Davis for the thorough presentation and thank you again to the Safety and Security team
for all y'all do to make us feel safe. I do have a question that's related to what you just shared about the opposite effect on the lockdown drills. I know this is not unique to to KCPS, and it's a challenge you're still working through. How are we thinking about addressing that challenge? So we we certainly need to begin to have those conversations with students rather maybe if it's through a tabletop exercise. Up until this point, it's been a lot of adult conversations around what preparedness, why it's necessary and so forth. But we certainly need to bring students into that conversation.
Because as we think about, wanting students to feel safe Yeah. But if we're having two to three drills, that is a constant reminder that a shooter may come. You know, how do we balance that? Because that's a reminder that maybe I'm not at the safest school. And so we certainly want to make sure we're talking to students. We also, recognize that we have to balance that with care. And so also, it's a team effort. So we have safety and security who are going through trainings, but we also have counselors who support, you know, through this, tier two and our trauma clinicians through, tier three. And so we need to be able to,
meet students where they are with any questions, concerns they have. But certainly, one of our next steps is inviting students into that conversation rather than we assume they understand why we're doing this. And I would just add on to that and also add, conversations with our families. Because for some of our younger children, they may not be able to engage in that conversation and really understand and that's where some of the family members can help us, convey the importance of those drills and what to expect in those. I remember being a principal and having those and some of our younger children,
it really did traumatize them. I remember getting calls from family members and so one of the lessons I learned from that was before we would do that, we would send something home to the families to say, We're going to have this drill today. Please talk to your children about it. So we definitely wanna make sure we don't forget that parental, aspect of it that's important as well. Thank you. And then my second question, this is probably for you, Major Harris. I was just at a conference a couple weeks ago with Doctor. Collier and Ms. Kearls and we had a brief conversation about how KCPS needed to be out and
about presenting more about the things that are happening, well in the school district. So that makes me think about best practices within safety and security here. I just heard a lot of great things. Is there anything you feel like would be elevated as a best practice or something that you're really proud of as it relates to what we're doing well here? I would think, concentration on the social and emotional well-being. Most, departments don't keep organizations that do security work, they do focus mostly so most most, agencies that, do security work, they're mostly focused on tactical things.
But we here understand, like, doctor, you raise my vitamin? Yeah. No. Okay. I'm alright. As you can tell, I'm not a public speaker. Okay. So, so I think we we go the extra mile and try to preserve and safeguard the emotional and social well-being of kids for, one of the things that kids are afraid when you do the drills. But I really believe if kids trust in you and they believe in you and they come from around you, then that takes away some of this thing. You know? So they don't look at the uniform. They look at they look at major hair.
They look at marks. They look at these officers, and they know I'm gonna be alright. You know what I mean? So so that's what I highlight for us is our commitment to the emotional and the social well-being of these children. Miss Kendricks? First, I would like to point out that there are some people who, when I went to, like, a event at a school, were saying some really mean things to me. This is my opportunity to tell. You know who you are. No. I'm just kidding. Some people were like, what is she about to say? Okay. Seriously, thank you. To Doctor. Davis and to Major Harris, thank y'all so much.
When I got this presentation and I was going through it, I got a little emotional because I think this is probably, if not the first time, one of the first times, that as a board member, I have read through a presentation and gotten the research and the information that led to the decisions, as well as the things that we are measuring, and that they are actual things that we can measure. And then, like, the explanations and every like, it was more than I expected. And I truly, truly appreciate it. And most of the time when I'm up here, I will tell y'all,
Hey, I'm missing this. I like to see that. Like, so thank you. I just thank you very much. I had one question, and I think it's kind of, along the same lines as what, my colleague and Doctor. Collier shared. So, I know there are some decisions, when it comes to security or safety and security where we do engage our students and our families. And then, there are other decisions where that is not, optimal. So, what direction, are staff given who are responsible for that with regard to, what decisions should be ones where families are included or students are included versus those
that they move ahead with without engaging? Yes. Thank you for that question. And so, as a standard of practice, anytime we're rolling out something new, we take great care to make sure that we first ensure that our administrators and staff understand what this new process is. And then we will always include our families and our students in that. And so, that's for something that's new such as the immigration, protocol that you see, such as the electronics device, policy that we rolled out. Some things that we have not included families on such as,
what board member Ford brought up is that we have not brought our families in on this conversation that we had here tonight. And so we realize, from your feedback tonight that we need to do that and not assume that everyone knows why we do this. And so I was speaking with principals, I guess, about a week ago and I asked, you know, I said, who in here is young enough to have attended Where there was an active shooter drill. I personally am not. But for our so many of our kids, they don't know a school year where they didn't have this as part of their reality. And so we may be making assumptions that everyone understands.
And so, what we need to do is not always assume that everyone in our atmosphere understands why these things are necessary. And even if it's not new, still engage people in the conversation to give them an opportunity to hear and to ask questions. Thank you. And my last one, it's really to say a thank you to all the security folks. And, a comment on the social emotional that you all do. When I saw NAMI or CIT training that was from NAMI, and when I first started doing social work, that was one of the first projects I worked on. And so, I was very excited to see that those are the kinds of things we're using
with our students. And I think you can tell when you walk into our buildings or you go to the events that are held, the interaction of the, security personnel with the families, with the staff. It demonstrates that they are getting the training they need to make an impact beyond just, telling people you gotta follow the rules. So thank you again for all of the work put into the presentation, all the data collected, and all the things you are doing to ensure that our students are safe. Ms. Gross? Hi. I also just wanted to, acknowledge and show my appreciation for
the recognition of the importance of psychological safety when we're talking about security. That I think that is, you know, worthy and something that a lot of people aren't necessarily, even in the education space, aren't necessarily considering. So I do look forward to see how, how that continues to evolve. And, also wanna, once again praise, Major Harris for his distinguished career and definitely appreciate all his service to the district as well. I almost wish I had gone first because I'm gonna answer, Board Member Ford's question as well.
I, in my professional career, have been in every single district across the metro when things go really wrong alongside families and a lot of those are disciplinary hearings and a lot of those involve being mistreated by SROs. And it's not within districts. And as recently as this month, I accompanied a parent and watching the video footage of how, even when a student is upset, are treated is horrifying. And so I tend to be standoffish or have a little bit of mistrust because a lot of our communities are over policed, right? And we know that to be true nation,
right? But I know that that is not the case within KCPS. And before I was on the board, I had the opportunity, and I do wanna shout out by name, Sergeant Espinosa at at the Northeast High and Middle School. He and his team spent two hours with me answering questions so I could better advocate in those situations, and I got to deeply understand training. And while standing there talking to them, I could see his team greeting kids by name. Or one was visiting. He was helping from Central, so it wasn't even a school, but kids that had transferred were, like, running up and hugging him. And it was really eye opening. It really changed my mind that,
really, there's a lot of relationship building, and that's what our kids need. Like, yes, our buildings need to be protected by active shooter drills. Yes. All of those things are true, and kids need a safe person who's on their side, but also telling them to get their butt to class or, like, follow the rules. And the kids react really well to it, and I wasn't expecting that. My kids wear, like, a lot of spiky, metal y jewelry, and they come home with new nicknames from their escaros sometimes, and I just I don't think that we should downplay that KCPS really is leading that in this metro. I know that to be true, and I can't name names or give examples for privacy of the students I've accompanied,
but I really think we excel in this, and I really wanna thank your entire team, because it's so vital. It can it can completely upend a child's life to be mistreated in a moment where maybe they're not acting right, but there needs to be a trauma informed, safe way to address it, and I think that our team does that exceptionally well. If I could just commend Major Harris. He, for many years, maybe through your entire time for being here, but I know it, in the last five years that I've been aware of it, he has sent all of our SROs to training to the, school resource officer, conference so that,
they're able to have that relationship centered, focus in school. And so I want to commend Major Harris for that investment. I'm I'm just gonna add one other comment and I would echo much of what my colleagues have said. The other piece that I would observe is the it seems like a very, holistic approach that it including the technology aspects. I spend a fair part of my day involved in security planning, and sitting in on calls and in conferences learning my way through it over the last decade and finding that balance of the human and the relationship and the presence
and technology without it becoming fully one or the other, is very challenging. And I really do wanna commend doctor Collier for building a team that seems like it has many aspects, right? Security is all about layers. And the use of technology but not the overdependence, right, on only technology. So finding that balance of the human and the and the digital, I think is really critical and I appreciate the the approach that the whole team has taken to to allowing that to happen. So thank you. Thank you.
I just wanna echo, what all of our board members have said. Doctor. Davis, thank you for your leadership. Major Harris, officer, Captain Vidiaco and all the officers here, we do deeply appreciate all that you all do. And sometimes we see you all, and I wanna make sure that we don't take you all for granted. I think about even all the board meetings where you're here and you all don't leave until after everyone else has left. There have been days I've gone out the wrong door and so the officers are waiting for me and I'm going on down down the road. But but I and I I joke with them about that,
but I do deeply appreciate what you all do because that safety is not only important for our students, but for the adults as well. And we just appreciate your service in our schools and the board of education. And just all the events where you are, you all give a lot of time too. You have really long days, late nights, and so we appreciate your sacrifice. Thank you so much. I'm gonna, the next item on the agenda is the Board of Directors Report. I'm gonna turn the floor to our Board Treasurer, Monica Perls. Thank you. So, we have the monthly financial report through 08/31/2025.
The first, slide has our revenue, the whole presentation is has the revenue expenditures, that are reflect the approved budget from fiscal year 2026, initial budget by the board that was approved on 06/11/2025. As of 08/31/2025, we have a deficit because year to date income is lower than expenses. Reserve fund balances are used to pay KCPS daily operational obligations until the tax revenues
are distributed beginning in December from the county. So the next slide has our revenue by the sources. So local income which makes up more than half the budget mainly comes from property tax dollars which is what we talked about earlier when we were having the tax levy discussion. Jackson County sends tax bills to property owners in October. Majority of tax revenue are distributed in December and January when it's paid. And, for FY 2026 KPCPS will establish an operating levy which we're voting on later.
That will continue to support the district's operations. Year to date local collection is from earnings on deposits and grants from the Block Family Foundation for college access programs and Math Academy, Verizon for digital learning, JE Dunn for CTE program, Durwood Family Foundation for early childhood program, Baptist Trinity Lutheran grant for nursing services, and SSKC grant for King Elementary. Year to date county revenue collection is from stock, insurance. Revenue from the state assessed railroad utility tax,
will be distributed in March, and fines distributed in June. As for our state income, year to date collection is mainly due to transportation revenue and charter school sponsor fees because the state funding formula, goes directly to the charters. Federal income is our second largest source of revenue and the year to date federal collection is mainly for CNS local food school program. And so then we have the visual representation of the revenue by source.
So next we have expenditures by expense class listed here. Salaries and benefits, is our largest portion of our expense budget. We're, we're currently at 7.06% of budgets. School start in August, so majority of KCPS salaries and benefit expenses are for certified employees. Services and materials were at 9.91. Payments were made primarily to for property and liability insurance, facilities repairs and maintenance,
utilities, general and technology services, textbooks, and CNS food supplies. And then here is the visual representation of our expenditures by expense for class. Now we have our cash and investments. This month, we had three of our securities mature. These securities were purchased during the month of January 2025 for approximately, dollars 5 to 10,000,000 each depending on the security. And they matured in August with a total par or face value of $25,000,000
So next we have our certificate of participation series 2025. So the certificate of participation bond is the bond that the district, the $100,000,000 bond the district took out for, some of our, capital needs. And so we are at we can see that what those original bond proceeds are, and the COP funds available. And so here we have how much we have remaining based on the total expenses
that we had, by the August. And so we've expended a total of $10,833,526, with the remaining, COP fund balance of $88,830,137 And so next we have the general obligation bond series twenty twenty five A. So this is the general obligation bond that the community voted on and we can just see where we are with,
expenditures by location. So the project indicates, you know, the location where the expenditures were spent. Hollis is our architect. JE Dunn is one of our building partners. Contract man Our CMR. Yeah. Contract management representatives. Navigate is the, what we call, building representative. Re Innovate is the charter? No. That's not. No. He's he's a design consultant. Okay. Design consultant. And then those have the totals that were paid to each of those.
We our initial bond request was 60,000,000, and so that's the what we have to, those proceeds from that bond sale is that top top number of 59,000,000, 987 and some change. So the next page once again has the, additional buildings where, and those expenditures to those major vendors under that. And so right now, our GoBond, Geobond remaining balance of the 60,000,000
is 56,349,000, $33. And then this is the charter school bond amount that, we do not have the details of the sales or the fees associated, but the actual proceeds will be slightly less than the 50,000,000. And the face value of the GO bond for 2025 b is 50,000,000, but the actual proceeds available for the charter schools will be less. And that is it for our treasurer's report.
Does anyone have any questions, comments, queries? So there's something new on the report. It says payments as of $6.30 on this slide, 40,000. Is that payments that the charter schools have made towards the administrative fee for us on this slide? Those are payments towards their owner's rep. The Eski. Okay. And we're doing we're going through the S and P review now for the charter schools, the 50,000,000. Okay. And we don't have to go through the full review again, we're just answering questions.
Okay. Thank you. I do have one question just for clarification. I just wanna make sure I'm clear. The the cash investments on slide 62, that is our operating fund only. Correct? And then And then we separate it out for you also. Correct? Correct. So the 88,000,000 for the certificate of participation is held in a separate Yes. Account and the 56,000,000 for the first issuance of the GO bonds is In a separate account also. Okay. So on the, COP, we put the interest income on here so you can see it.
It's that 1.15 100000157601. Thank you. I just wanted to Mhmm. For just to make sure I was kind of reciting back what I thought I understood, but, thank you for that. And am I correct that did the geo bond issue close, last week? Yes. It closed last Tuesday. Okay. Yes. Any other questions? Thank you, Monica. Mhmm. Thank you, miss Knobson. Okay. So, the only note I have in Josh's absence, on government relations is just a reminder of the legislative breakfast,
that's taking place on Friday, October 3 at 08:30 in the morning. And if my if whoever's going to attend can let Lisa know, that would be great. Thank you. And just remind our public that, that event is taking place. I'm assuming there's no additional finance report since we got a lot of finance things on the agenda. No. I think we've all financed out. So I will, turn the page. The next item on the agenda are the regular business items. I'm gonna turn the floor over to Doctor. Proehler. Alright.
We have six regular business items this evening. The first is the approval of the 2025 property tax levy. The Administration recommends approval to set the 2025 property tax levy of 5.4699 in compliance with the state law requiring school districts to set the levy rate. Taxes are levied by the Jackson County assessor based on assessed valuation of real and personal property. KCPS will establish an operating tax levy of 4.8599 after a voluntary rollback of 10¢ due to a higher assessed valuation.
The potential impact of 10¢ voluntary rollback is a tax revenue reduction of 5,500,000.0. In addition, a debt service levy of 61¢ will be established for the payment of general obligation bond that the voters approved in April 2025. KCPS's total $20.25 tax levy for operating and debt service is 5.4699. Engagement information includes the public hearing that we had this evening and there is no MBEWBE participation for this item.
Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the 2025 property tax levy of 5.4699 as presented? So moved. Second. A motion has been made and seconded to approve the 2025 property tax levy as presented. Is there any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, Lisa please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Ford. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier. Okay, our second business item this evening is KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri Incorporated.
The The administration recommends approval of the service agreement to provide alternative education placement for KCPS students who have demonstrated consistent behaviors that inhibit success in the traditional school environment. The not to exceed contract amount of $258,000 will be funded from the Student Support Services Operating Fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the service agreement with KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri? So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the service agreement with KVC Behavioral Healthcare
Missouri. Is there any discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Ford. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. Pinky. Yes. Cortez. Yes, the motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier. Okay, our third business item is also a KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri item. The administration recommends approval of the service agreement to provide individualized support to students of all levels of developmental, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional disabilities with the goal of enabling each student to lead an independent and productive life. KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri is a DESE approved private agency.
The estimated cost of $400,000 will be funded from the Special Education's Operating Fund. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve service agreement labeled O26S009I56 for $400,000 with KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri? So move. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve this second service agreement with KVC Behavioral Healthcare Missouri. Is there any discussion on this motion? Just for the record, is it I-five-six or One-five-six?
That's a very good question. It looks like one, but maybe your thing might have something different. Okay. It's one sorry. 026009156. Thank you for the clarification. Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Ford? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. Mickey? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier? Okay, our fourth regular business item is Hall Family Foundation. The administration recommends approval of the memorandum of understanding with the Hall Family Foundation to accept the two year grant of $600,000
for literacy support at Garfield, Garcia and Wheatley Elementary Schools. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding with the Hall Family Foundation for a grant totaling $600,000 for K-three literacy support at Garfield, Garcia and Wheatley Elementary Schools? So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the MOU with the Hall Family Foundation. Is there any discussion on this motion? I just want to thank you all for adding the revenue note to that. Appreciate it. Anything else? Lisa, please call the roll.
Kearls. Yes. Ford. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes, the motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier. Okay, our fifth business item is Children's Center for the Visually Impaired Contract, also referred to as CCVI. The administration recommends approval of the service agreement with CCVI to provide instruction and related services to blind and visually impaired children, their families, and the community. The Children's Center for the Visually Impaired is a DESE approved private agency. The estimated cost of $700,000 will be funded from the operating fund, state and the federal grant.
Thank you Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to approve the service agreement with the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired? So moved. Seconded. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the service agreement with the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired. Is there any discussion on this motion? Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Ford. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. And Cortez. Yes, the motion is adopted. Doctor. Collier. Okay, our sixth business item is Quantum Education Professionals. Department of Education Professionals. The not to exceed contract amount of $1,500,000
will be funded from the operating fund and state grant. Thank you, Doctor. Collier. Is there a motion to enter into the service agreement with Quantum Education Professionals doing business as Q360 Workforce Solutions. So moved. Second. It has been moved and seconded to enter into the service agreement with Quantum Education Professionals. Is there any discussion on this motion? Oh, so is it Quantum Education Professionals or? Yes, it's education. I'm not sure why it's held on there but it's education. Okay. Right, they're substitute teachers for special education.
So it should be education. I do believe there is also a quantum health professionals but we are referring to quantum education professionals. Okay, alright. Thanks, just clarifying. Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls? Yes. Ford? Yes. Hendricks? Yes. McGee? Yes. Cortez? Yes. The motion is adopted. The final item on our agenda this evening is the consent agenda. Second. Is there a motion to approve consent items F1 through F44? So moved. Second. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the items on the consent agenda.
Lisa, please call the roll. Kearls. Yes. Ford. Yes. Hendricks. Yes. McGee. Yes. Cortez. Yes. The motion is adopted. Any new action items? No, not at this time. Okay. This brings us to the conclusion of our agenda for the evening. So if there's no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. The next board policy monitoring workshop will be on the road at George Washington Carver Dual Language School on October 8. We are adjourned.