School board hears pleas to reinstate fall sports

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education at its Aug. 25 meeting received two letters asking for the reinstatement of fall sports.

The Aug. 25 meeting also was notable as being the last one for Dr. Charles Foust, superintendent, who has accepted a superintendent position in another district.

Superintendent Foust said he gave out batons, and described education as a relay race from one school level to the next.

“The goal for running the race is never to look back,” he said. “We continue to press forward, we reach and we go. We tell the person to take off. You can’t afford to slow down the educational progress for students because others are gaining on you.”

Anderson Jones, a senior at Washington High School, asked the board in a letter if it could reinstate sports. He mentioned he had a cousin at another district school, and they were hoping to get athletic scholarships.

“Washington has been following all your guidelines in place during this pandemic,” Anderson wrote in his letter to the board. “We did all this work just for you guys to say we can’t have a season? But y’all expect us to be encouraged and stay in school. Why should we do what y’all want if you guys won’t do what we want. It’s already bad enough that we can’t start school in the classroom. So please don’t suspend our season. Please give me and other students around the district to have our last chance of playing high school football. I want to go to college for this and potentially go to the league.”

Hattie Smith, who recently ran for office, also sent a letter to the board about resumption of fall sports.

“I believe the KCKPS BOE had a premature discussion on the condition of continuing sports this fall and jumped the gun without key information in the discussion, information being can it be done; can there be a safe season of sports?” Smith wrote.

“I’m not saying whether it’s right to play or not, I am saying it’s right to continue the preparation of playing, it’s the right thing to do to restore a level of hope to our current environment in our community,” Smith continued.

Board member Dr. Stacey Yeager asked if the board was going to align its policies with the Unified Government Health Department policies on fall sports. She asked for the item to be put on a future agenda.

The Kansas City, Kansas, school board voted Aug. 11 to suspend fall KSHSAA sports in the district. The Wyandotte County health order came out Aug. 13 that prohibited some fall contact sports, while allowing conditioning and training if in accordance with guidelines.

Board President Randy Lopez said it was his understanding that updated information will come out this week from the UG Health Department, and they are waiting for that update.

Other districts have made similar actions as the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, he said, and they will continue to look at the science, data, health implications and follow the guidelines of the health department.

The KCK district will spend the first nine weeks of the fall semester in remote education, with school starting Sept. 8. The district has developed plans for remote education.

The school board approved a remote learning plan Aug. 25 to send to the state Department of Education; the plan is at https://go.boarddocs.com/ks/kckps/Board.nsf/files/BSPRM3633235/$file/Remote%20Learning%20Plan%20082520.pdf.

The school board also approved a presentation on the district’s plan to redraw school boundaries. This item is expected to come up again at later school board meetings. Before completion in January 2021, there will be some public forums held on it, according to staff.

During the public library segment of the meeting, the board approved the public library locations staying open until 7 p.m. during the weekdays.

Currently, because of COVID-19 the library buildings are not open to patrons, but patrons may drop off and pick up books and materials at the libraries. The drop-off time previously ended at 5 p.m. This will help people who work, according to Wendy Levers, library director. The staff will adjust schedules and it will not affect the budget, she said.

The school board also approved the budget during the Aug. 25 meeting. The board held a budget hearing, but received no comments from the public. Dr. Valdenia Winn voted no on the budget approval.

There was little discussion of the budget at the Aug. 25 meeting. At previous meetings, the board had worked through parts of the budget.

The budget document states that the mill levy for the 2020-2021 budget will have an estimated tax rate of 49.605 mills. That is the same number as 2019-2020, according to the budget document, and it was 49.489 mills in 2018-2019.

While there is a flat mill rate, total expenditures were expected to go from $409.3 million in 2019-2020 to $471.05 million in 2020-2021, according to the budget document.

With a flat mill levy rate, homeowners whose assessed valuations stayed the same during the past year may not see any change in their property tax bill from the school district. Those who have seen an increase in the past year in their valuations could see a slight increase in the tax bill.