The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board of Education will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 20, via YouTube.
On the agenda is a recommendation to complete the budget for 2021-2022, and to approve for publication a notice of public hearing for the 2021-2022 budget and the transfer of $3.49 million from the contingency reserve fund to the supplemental general local option budget. In earlier discussion, school district officials said this transfer would not cause local taxes to increase.
Also on the agenda is approval of a negotiated agreement with the teachers and several other items. It will be the reorganizational meeting of the school board.
To see the agenda, visit https://go.boarddocs.com/ks/kckps/Board.nsf/vpublic?open,
There is a social and economic dividing line in Wyandotte County with 72nd Street being the line of demarcation.
That was the message that Dr. Greg Mosier, president of Kansas City Kansas Community College, brought to a meeting of the Congressional Forum Friday, July 16, at Children’s Mercy Park. About 60 persons attended. The forum is a committee of the Kansas City, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Mosier said the household income west of 72nd Street is about $64,000 a year; east of 72nd, the average annual income is about $36,000. His solution is education that speaks to the needs of employers in Wyandotte County. Presently, there are more than 5,000 job openings in Wyandotte County. Many of these jobs pay more than $50,000 a year.
The college, in cooperation with other social service agencies and others, is planning for a Downtown Community Education Center. The total cost would be more than $70 million. The college would invest $10 million in the project without increasing the mill levy.
Course offerings at the downtown campus would include English as a second language, general education diploma, automation engineering, biological sciences, administrative office professionals, general chemistry, commercial construction technology and welding.
Other agency partners will include the YMCA, the Wyandot Behavioral Health Network, Swope Health, Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools and Community America Credit Union. Through this cooperative effort, the cycle of poverty can be broken, Dr. Mosier said.
Private sector giving will play a key role in the downtown campus. Dr. Mosier announced a $10 million investment from the Sunderland Foundation. He said the goal of the fund-raising effort will be to have half of the $70 million raised by the end of 2021. Other sources of funds would include federal and state governments.
Dr. Mosier came to the community college in 2018 from Rochester (Minnesota) Community and Technical College. Previously he was a vice president at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology, Okmulgee, and a dean at Moberly (Missouri) Area Community College.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is executive director of Business West.
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.
