ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board made rather quick work of the new business on its agenda during its most recent meeting Monday evening.
One of the main items up for discussion was supplemental salary changes.
“There are some of the changes that have already gone through the Supplemental Salary Committee, and they are the ones that were approved through IBB,” Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque said. “And that includes the changes made with the high school head cheer coach going from Level 4 to Level 1, the assistant cheer coach going from Level 8 to Level 5, the Scholar’s Bowl head coach going from Level 10 to Level 8 and the assistant Scholar’s Bowl coach going from Level 12 to Level 10. Then, the middle school head cheer coach went from Level 9 to Level 4 and the assistant coach went from Level 11 to Level 8. Then, with Special Education, you’ll see between six to 10 IEPs – they were at Level 13 and will be going to Level 10. We also have mentors, and for every mentor, there will be five to seven new teachers, and it’s practically impossible to get into the classrooms and go and do observations and complete all the necessary paperwork for the teachers they’re observing. We have changed that as of last year to having two to three teachers per mentor because we were getting reimbursement from the state, but they have lost that funding. And while we will no longer be getting that funding, we’re supporting the mentors we have. Then there are the changes we’re bringing to the board for approval, we did share a presentation about the 504 coordinators, all of whom are in Level 12, and they propose we look at a plan similar to what we did with Special Education. We’re looking at less than plans for the 504 coordinators at Level 11, 11 to 19 plans for those at Level 10, 20 to 29 plans for those at Level 9, and 30 or more plans for those at Level 8.”
Gomez-Rocque then continued talking about changes for Special Education.
“We also changed the number of IEPs starting at that second level, so that went from 11 to 19 IEPs from Level 12 to 11 to 15 IEPs to Level 9,” Gomez-Rocque said. “Next, we changed 20 or more IEPs at Level 11 to 16 to 20 IEPs at Level 8. We’re also changing 25 or more IEPs from Level 10 to 21 to 25 IEPs at Level 7 and adding 26 or more IEPs at Level 6. These would be added to the supplemental salary schedule.”
After some more discussion, the board ultimately voted to approve the changes to the Supplemental Salary by a margin of 6-0, with board member Alan Brown absent.
Before the agenda’s new business, the board also heard from Kiwanis Club President Ed Poley regarding a longstanding program.
“Throughout the past 30-plus years, we’ve given away hundreds of coats to students in need across the district, an average of more than 300 per year,” Poley said. “However, throughout the past few years, we’ve come to the realization – after visiting with the building principals – students don’t wear coats anymore. Some of the younger children in the elementary schools might wear coats sometimes, but for the most part, children in the district don’t wear coats. With that in mind, we looked at how we could better use the money we get from selling peaches and other fundraisers? One idea we talked about was giving away hoodies, but in visiting with the schools, they’re already doing things like that. Ultimately, we realized we’re not the experts on what’s happening in the schools on a day-to-day basis, so let’s turn that back to the schools and then THEY can decide what to do. Paul Fisher, one of the teachers at Cottonwood Elementary School, came up with an idea we thought was really good – we’re going to set aside $3,000 for this year, have the grade schools write a grant application of how they’ll use a max of $500, and then we’ll have them come back and tell us how they actually used the money. Again, they’re the experts on the day-to-day operations, not us, and we want to be able to continue providing those funds for the students who need it. And it’s not just for coats, the funding can be used for new shoes or free lunch tickets or whatever the need happens to be.”
“It’s great to hear about this type of collaboration, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the grants the buildings write,” Board President Brad Carr said.
In other new business, the board voted to adopt policy EBBG concerning cardiac emergency response planning as presented and quotes from Shawnee Mission Ford in the total amount of $156,821 to purchase two half-ton pickups and one cargo van. The board also approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Newman University to obtain clinical facilities for students enrolled in various programs of the university’s graduate school of social work and a quote from Lee's Heating and Air in the amount of $14,55 for repairs to the walk-in cooler at the LHS cafeteria. To conclude the meeting’s new business, the board approved the Microsoft renewal in the amount of $57,460 and the renewal of student accident insurance for the 2025–2026 school year in the amount of $79,000 from Gallagher Special Risk.
