The USD 253 Board of Education discussed student attendance and safety measures at its meeting Wednesday evening.
Dr. Ryan Karjala, Director of Assessments and Accountability, said the district enrollment is up 23 students from last year. While birth rates in Emporia are going up, Karjala said overall enrollment projections are going down slightly starting in the 2024-25 school year. However, as projections were also down last year despite the 23-student increase, Karjala said enrollment will most likely stay relatively flat.
Tara Glades, Director of Student Services, said the district’s average daily attendance rate is slightly higher than last year. Additionally, chronic absenteeism, which includes students who miss more than 10% of school days – around 17 days – is down from last year.
According to Glades, the district has been implementing strategies to increase attendance rates, including creating an attendance and truancy guide, communicating the importance of attendance with students and parents, participating in Capturing Kids Hearts, AVID, JAG and dual enrollment and encouraging active participation in extracurricular activities.
Glades said while the burden of getting students to school is ultimately up to the families, the district has done what it can to help families facing barriers.
“When we notice that students are missing two or three days consecutively or cumulatively, we are phoning home … and determining the barriers,” Glades said. “Are we having difficulty with our car? Was there a shift change so mom and dad are both at work and big brother or big sister are the ones tasked with getting little ones ready for school?”
The board also reviewed a presentation on school safety and security measures at all levels in the district.
Joy McGhee, principal of Jones Early Childhood Development Center, spoke about safety measures during arrival and dismissal times, including verifying approved adults to pick up children and using color coding to help children identify their classroom and teacher. Additionally, McGhee said, the playground at Jones features a completely enclosed fence that locks from the outside, ensuring that students cannot wander off during recess and no outside individuals can get in.
For drills at the preschool, McGhee said the building has seen success by simply breaking down the responsibilities of students and teachers.
“We tell them ‘It’s my responsibility to keep you safe and it’s your responsibility to follow directions,’” she said.
At the elementary school level, Laurie Kurzen, principal at Timmerman Elementary, spoke about communication with families during crisis drills, moving relocation and reunification drills to the fall so that new students can become familiarized with the process and basic first aid training for lunchroom and recess attendees.
Brad Jones, assistant principal at Emporia Middle School, and Brent Burns, assistant principal for Emporia High School, shared much of the same safety measures, including keeping AED drills onsite for sports teams and training staff on what to do in the event of cardiac arrest and the use of E-Hall passes, which allow parents to review how often students are outside of class as well as show teachers if students are not where they are supposed to be.
Burns added that EHS also has processes in place to ensure safety at the school during evening, weekend and out-of-town events; is using updated, high-definition security cameras to help monitor student safety and is utilizing school security officers to help respond to or prevent unsafe situations.
“Every day we focus on the safety and security of our students and staff. With strong enrollment numbers being reported this year we are always looking for ways to improve and make our schools safer.” Director of Human Resources Jared Giffin said. “Safety is everyone’s responsibility. As a district, we continue to evaluate, provide, and maintain safe and secure learning environments that meet the ever-changing, diverse needs of our students and staff.”
In further business, the board approved moving forward with a public hearing on closing and selling the Kansas Avenue School building, located at 315 S. Market St.
At the board’s Oct. 11 meeting, Superintendent Allison Anderson-Harder said the district has most recently leased the former Kansas Avenue School building to CrossWinds. Now that CrossWinds is preparing to move into its new space, the building will no longer be in regular use and the board is considering closing and selling the building and relocating the two classrooms for the Flint Hills Special Education Cooperative Elementary Connections program after the end of the school year.
“The upkeep is increasing and we are seeing more needs with the roof, so really thinking about, before it continues to deteriorate, doing something different with it,” Anderson-Harder said at the Oct. 11 meeting. “And we have space in our elementary schools right now to absorb Elementary Connections.”
Anderson-Harder said anyone with comments or concerns about selling the building is welcome to come to the public hearing at the Dec. 13 board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Mary Herbert Education Center.
If the board does decide to sell the Kansas Avenue building, pursuant to K.S.A. 72-1431, the district would have to offer the building to the Kansas Legislature for first refusal before they can put it up for sale.
After an executive session, the board also approved an activity school bus medical waiver.
The USD 253 Board of Education will meet again at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8 at the Mary Herbert Education Center.
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