Month: July 2021

A new associate superintendent of the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools was announced at the Wednesday morning school board meeting.

The school board voted unanimously on July 14 to approve Dr. Judith Campbell as new associate superintendent of leading and learning. She will begin her new position Aug. 2.

There was no board discussion of it at the July 14 meeting, and a school district spokesman stated that Dr. Campbell is the preschool to 12th grade director of teaching and learning for the Decatur (Illinois) Public Schools. She has been recognized for leadership in improving student outcomes.

“I am honored to join the Kansas City Kansas Public School team as I believe that there is a purpose and story inside each one of us and our students,” Dr. Campbell said in a news release. “However, without acknowledgment and ownership, true stories are not told and are tainted from accomplishing the phenomenal lessons, growth, and accomplishments our stories are intended to have.”

Dr. Campbell holds a Doctorate of Education degree in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Missouri, Columbia, an education specialist degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University, a Masters of Arts and Teaching in special education with an English Language Learners endorsement from the University of South Florida, and a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Kansas.

“I am pleased that Dr. Campbell is joining our team. Her experience and leadership will be a valuable asset to our administrative team and raising the bar of academic achievement,” said Dr. Anna Stubblefield, KCKPS superintendent.

According to agenda documents, Dr. Campbell will be paid $181,275.32 total compensation annually. The base salary is $140,000.

Several assistant principals were approved by the school board at its July 7 meeting.

Assistant principals who were approved, according to the July 7 agenda, were Carnice Bivens, Gloria Willis Middle School; Riana Brownlee, Caruthers Elementary School; Ashley Campbell, Arrowhead Middle School; Gayla Dykes, M.E. Pearson Elementary; Jayne Hafner, Grant Elementary; Marica Rhone, Banneker Elementary; Keri Tucker, Douglass Elementary; Benjamin Mitchell, Quindaro Elementary; and Don Nethicumara, Washington High School.

Added to the assistant principal list on July 14 was Deepti Bhatia, Eisenhower Middle School.

Most of the July 14 school board meeting discussion was about the district budget.

Dennis Covington, KCKPS chief financial officer, said the school district is expecting a $5.1 million increase from the state. Additionally, earlier the school board approved a mill levy adjustment that would result in about $4 million in additional funds. According to district officials at the time, the mill levy rate wil stay the same.

The proposed changes had included a market adjustment for directors, to bring them more into line with other districts. It would have added $970,000 to the budget.

Board member Wanda Paige asked what they were doing for the certified staff, in terms of equity.

Kelli Tuschman, chief of human resources, said they haven’t made adjustments for several years for this category. The district was far behind the market, she said, and if they don’t make changes, they’ll continue to be behind.

She said certified staff typically gets a raise of a certain percentage every year.

They lose quite a few personnel to other districts that pay more, just as they lose teachers, she said. Paige said they could have phased in the increases for directors.

Tuschman answered a question from Janey Humphries about a high turnover rate in nutritional and custodial positions. She said some people migrate from those positions to higher-paying jobs.

A lot of front-line workers have exited during the pandemic, she said. There has been more turnover this year than previously, she added.

Dr. Stacey Yeager thought it was important not to compare the district’s nutritional workers to workers at McDonalds, because it was not an “apples to apples” comparison.

This year, the school board has been trying to improve the wages of many people making less than $15 an hour.

Dr. Valdenia Winn proposed some changes to Covington’s list of changes on July 14, but the school board did not have enough votes to amend the agenda and allow a vote, although it received a majority. According to Board President Randy Lopez, they needed a unanimous vote.

Board President Randy Lopez took an informal “thumbs up” on several of Dr. Winn’s issues, that he said would give the district more guidance, but they do not have the weight of a formal vote.

One of the issues she asked about was adding three more days of holiday pay for staff who are not there for 261 days. Its cost was $827,400 for seven holidays. According to Lopez, there was a consensus to keep the proposal at seven holidays and not raise it to 10 holidays. The number originally was five holidays.

The board also discussed a bilingual-biliterate stipend listed as $302,359. There was some discussion about holding it until criteria is set in place for it.

Also, the board is informally asking the staff for a different proposal on reducing a market adjustment.

There may be a vote on some of the issues at the July 20 board meeting, according to Lopez.