USD 253 Board of Education members have set a public hearing for two weeks from now on the future of a building that houses district programming.
During their regular meeting Wednesday, board members approved a proposal to close the Kansas Avenue building, 315 South Market, which houses the Flint Hills Special Education Cooperative Elementary Connections program. The reason for the closure, in part, is the impending move of Crosswinds Counseling and Wellness, the entity the district leases the building to.
Additionally, USD 253 Superintendent Dr. Allison Anderson Harder says simply put there is no further need for the building in its current capacity. When asked if the building will be put on the market, much like the Maynard building previously, Anderson Harder says the district cannot do that at this time due to the implementation of Senate Bill 113 which gives the state legislature first right of refusal on any district plans to liquidate property.
By approving Wednesday’s proposal, the board has now set a public hearing on the matter for its next board meeting in two weeks after which time board members could take final action on the property. According to Anderson Harder the plan, if the closure is approved, would be to keep the building open through the end of the academic year and then transfer the program to one of the district’s elementary buildings.
In other business Wednesday, board members received the latest student academic achievement report which showed great improvement across the board in most learning areas. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Judy Stanley says this was a very welcome trend after the previous year saw a consistent decrease in student performance.
Additionally, Stanley says the increases came before the implementation of new learning resources approved two years ago and implemented this past year. With the increase in performance prior to the new resources, Stanley says she is very confident the trend of increased success is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Following the presentation, board member Lillian Lingenfelter did express one concern regarding proficiency at certain grade levels, namely that the numbers were not quite where she hoped they would be.
Stanley stated this was also concerning to her, however, she says the shown improvement is a great starting point to correct this trend in the future.
During the consent agenda portion of Wednesday’s meeting, the board approved the hiring of Pam Stanathan as the district’s new Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations for the remainder of the 2023-24 academic year. Stranathan has been serving in the role on an interim basis since late February supplanting David McGehee who replaced longtime assistant superintendent Rob Scheib following his dismissal earlier in that same month.
Prior to coming to Emporia as an ESSDACK consultant, Stranathan served as the superintendent for Gardner Edgerton from 2014 to 2021.
Separately Wednesday, the board also received the latest Building for the Future construction update from McCownGordon and held one executive session with no action taken. The USD 253 Board of Education will next convene on Wednesday, October 25th at 6:30 pm inside of the Mary Herbet Education Center.
Separately Wednesday, district administration was very pleased to present the latest student academic achievement report to the board. The reason for the pleasure in presenting according to Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Judy Stanley was that all areas showed a significant bump in achievement between 2022 and 2023.
Furthermore, Stanley says in many areas, specifically English language arts, the data was a complete mirror image to the prior year.
Additionally, Stanley says the increases came before the implementation of new learning resources approved two years ago and implemented this past year. With the increase in performance prior to the new resources, Stanley says she is very confident the trend of increased success is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
