ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board had a hefty agenda to take on during its last regularly scheduled meeting of 2024 Monday evening.
Near the beginning of the meeting, Liberal High School Student Engagement Coordinator Rory Arnold was honored as the November Educator of the Month, with LHS Principal Ashley Kappelmann praising his work in the school.
“It is truly my honor and privilege to help recognize Rory Arnold as the November Educator of the Month, and he is a cornerstone of Liberal High School,” Kappelmann said. “He’s dedicated the past 16 years to helping students, staff and community with an unwavering commitment to excellence. Throughout the years, he’s worn countless hats that have been vital to the success of the school. In addition to teaching history, government and social studies, he also serves as the department chair, assistant football and baseball coach, and is a trusted leader with several key initiatives. He’s supported students and staff as a Kansas Coordinator, a homeroom advisor, and also as the Student Engagement Coordinator, always ensuring everyone has the tools and guidance they need in order to succeed. Perhaps, though, his most longstanding – and probably most invisible – role has been helping lead and coordinate the annual graduation ceremony. Thanks to his meticulous planning, clear communication and attention to detail, the LHS graduation ceremony is a well-organized and memorable event that truly honors our graduates and their families. Mr. Arnold is the kind of educator and leader who always steps up to help, no matter what the task is, and always approaches each challenge with the utmost professionalism and positive attitude, setting a strong example for all of us. Loved and respected by his students and colleagues alike, he embodies the qualities that make LHS such a special place – a commitment to excellence, a willingness to champion others, and a steadfast dedication to his various roles. We’re deeply grateful for everything Mr. Arnold has contributed to the school, and it’s great to be able to recognize his extraordinary impact with this award.”
Seymour Rogers Middle School teacher Ryan Richards later spoke to the board during the Comments from the Floor portion of the meeting.
“I’m speaking as a concerned employee of USD 480 on the matter of meal supervision pay being increased from $15 per hour to $25 per session,” Richards began. “A session is one 30-minute block of time, essentially. The reasoning behind this is first of all, Seymour Rogers Middle School almost forced all teachers this year to have lunch supervision duty because we didn’t have enough teacher volunteers to fill that time slot during fourth block. This is a stipend pay, and according to Kansas state law going back to 1984, any lunch duty must be voluntary and not forced on a teacher. Thankfully, we had enough teachers step up and volunteer, but only after coming very close to filing a grievance with LNEA on this matter. Also, in talking with some other colleagues in the this region, I’ve learned Dodge City, at the beginning of the school year, has raised their meal supervision rate to $25 per session, which is where I got that number from. I’m sorry to say, after years of experience, $15 per hour is a low and insignificant amount of money to pay a teacher who is voluntarily giving up their planning time to cover the cafeteria and do just one session. In other words, that’s only $7.50 they’re getting before taxes are taken out. This is an insignificant amount because after my five years working at Seymour Rogers Middle School, I did do lunch duty and worked an hour just to make it worth my while financially and didn’t get my plan time. I understand not every teacher is like me in terms of lunch duty being something they look forward to, especially for such a small amount of money. There are also some tough days when it comes to helping keep things clean and keeping order there in the cafeteria. This volunteer work would be much easier to bear, along with the regular work we do, if the pay matched the work.”
After the administrator reports came the agenda’s new business, beginning with discussion of USD 480’s use of PLT Institute.
“This year, we have focused on developing administrators instructional lens while providing specific feedback in bite-sized actionable steps through observation feedback through the Get Better Faster Framework on our Bullseye platform,” Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque said. “The next step is to focus on is data-driven instruction, which is the next step toward systemic changes that will have positive impacts to learning and teaching. With that in mind, district leadership would like to propose taking all building administrator teams to the PLC Institute in Tulsa, Okla. in May. This training will provide the most powerful systemic strategy for sustained school improvement for USD 480, and this experience will provide specific, practical, and transformational strategies for the district for all students at all levels.”
After that discussion, the board then voted to approve a contract with Nexus Talent Solutions to recruit and hire a Human Resources director for the district as well as sign-on and retirement incentives as presented during the meeting pending legal review. The board also approved payment of payment application No. 3 to Osborne Construction in the amount of $418,999.59 for the LHS Auditorium rain screen project and a bid from Pro-Tech Spraying Services, in the amount of $26,473.85 for weed control services.
The board also approved a quote from Southwest Roofing in the amount $42,702.00 for repairs to the gym roof at LHS main campus. The board also approved the 2024-25 middle school FOCUS handbook and conducted the first reading of the Facilities Dog Handbook. Also on the agenda for the board was discussion of Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA) goals.
“In the past, the board has approved the goals from KESA. Those goals have now been updated to what is now KESA 2.0,” Special Education Director Dane Parcel said. “They have now addressed and changed some methods and other protocols. In the past, accreditation has been a five-year process, and it’s now a one-year process, meaning we will be up for accreditation every year. Within that, we’re also reviewed on compliance issues and school improvement, which is part of our plans anyway, and school testing outcomes. This first year, they were just looking at compliance and some overall development done by the buildings and other building-level support. With the compliance issues in the past, that’s something we’ll evaluate right now, and we have made improvements in that regard. There will be more criteria added as time goes on.”
Ultimately, the board approved the KESA 2.0 goals as presented.
Also receiving the board’s approval was a group of new courses at LHS for the 2025-26 school year and new course codes for classes at LHS to align with the state’s CTE pathways.
The board also approved adding an additional step to the supplemental salary approval flow chart and after many minutes of discussion, approved the hiring agreement with Hirefox LLC to recruit certified teachers from the Philippines to teach in Liberal. At this time, the USD 480 administration has asked Hirefox to begin the recruitment of 20 teachers in the areas of math, science, ELA, Special Education, and elementary education.
To conclude the meeting’s new business, the board approved Director of Technology Rusty Tuman to spend up to $45,000 on streaming equipment for future board meetings.
