USD 457 Board of Education Meeting May 4, 2020
USD 457
The USD 457 Board of Education met Monday, May 4th, during a regularly scheduled meeting.
The Board of Education conducted its meeting virtually due to the social distancing expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is being done to make sure the public, Board members, and school staff involved in the meeting are safe. The meeting was presented live on YouTube and has been posted on the district’s YouTube channel, which can be found as a button at the bottom of the district’s website at www.gckschools.com.
The Board heard a report on the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA) Outside Visiting Team (OVT) Year 3 from Glenda LaBarbera, Assistant Superintendent. The report from the team was very positive. The top five areas of individual plans of study that high school students are interested in include: videogame development, veterinarian, animator, fashion design, and professional athlete. The district has four out of the five pathways at the high school. The school doesn’t have a pathway for professional athlete.
The Board heard an update on the Continuous Learning Plan from Glenda LaBarbera, Assistant Superintendent. The district has a high percentage of students engaged in the process that includes: 89% for elementary students, 86% for intermediate students, 60-90% for middle schools students depending on electives, and 85% for the high school students. Teachers have weekly check-ins with parents and some of the things that were mentioned include: children miss the teachers, sometimes it hard to get children to do their work, and they don’t teach math like they use to.
Other business that the Board approved under the consent agenda included a Rubrik Backup System for technology, Network Attached Storage for technology, Abe Hubert Elementary School roof, large kitchen equipment, the consulting agreements with SWPRSC for 2020-21 consulting and for services provided through the LiNK grant and an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between Communities in School of Mid-America, Inc. and Garden City Public Schools.
The Board held two executive sessions after the regular meeting. The Board met in executive session to discuss employer-employee negotiations for the 2020-2021 contract. The Board also met in a separate executive session to discuss personnel matters for non-elected personnel. There was no action taken after the Board came out of the two executive sessions.
The next meeting of the Board of Education will be Monday, May 18, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room at the Educational Support Center, 1205 Fleming Street. Due to social distancing requirements, the public will not be allowed in the Board Meeting Room. The meeting will be streamed live for public viewing on the USD 457 YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/usd457.
