Notes from USD 500 Board Meeting - May 8, 2018

​After all the celebrations of students and scholarships at the May 8 meeting, the board of education heard an informative and inspiring report on this District’s implementation of Diploma+ through its high school Academies of Learning.  The improvements to our school buildings, the teamwork among staff, the enthusiastic partnerships with businesses and post-secondary institutions, this is all reaping benefits for our students already.  And there is more to come as the leading cohort moves toward graduation in 2021.  Thanks to Dr. Lane’s leadership, and thanks to Dr. Strickland’s administrative skills, and thanks to the administration and staff both at central office and in every school in the district.  It is amazing to see these years of effort moving ahead.  Even the board of education seemed enthused.  It would be great to see this all keep moving forward.

 
Then the board of education addressed a series of topics and motions that are troubling because they seem to move in a different direction.  Rather than supporting the administration that brought the district all this progress, certain board members want to be the ones who answer questions properly addressed to the HR department.  These board members are apparently responding to conversations not mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, where the agenda says item 3, Communications. They were asking about hiring substitutes after their decision to cancel the contractor previously handling that function.  Dr. Lane referred the board members and any applicants to Mr. Thompson, who could have been reached any time by calling the District main number and asking for HR.  Dr. Winn stated that she received staff requests for another listening tour, and she proposed that the board have another listening tour in June.
 
Rather than supporting the administration working so hard to bring Diploma+ to life, Dr. Winn referred to this as an Era of Transition which requires the board to hire an outside consultant to audit the administration from the Superintendent down to the Directors.  In the course of making her motion, Dr. Winn stated that the board needs someone who answers directly to the board.  In addition, she moved that the board appoint a 3-person subcommittee to work out the details of this outside consultant.  Since it is already the Superintendent’s job to answer directly to the board, and since the board seemed generally happy with the direction of the district, why undermine the superintendent and why take administrative efforts away from implementing Diploma+ in order to answer to a consultant?  Though the vote was not unanimous, Dr. Winn’s motions were passed without any other board members making comment or asking questions, almost as if it had been discussed ahead of time. 
 
Having seen other districts in the metro led into dysfunction over the past decades, it is disheartening to see this board dismantle all the forward progress of the KCK Public Schools.  This is not the best for KCK students or their parents.