School officials hope the Early Learning Center expansion will alleviate some of the need for child care services in town after renovations to West Resource Center begin soon.
The school board heard updates on bond construction projects, a new health department satellite office coming to town and standardized test score increases at Thursday’s meeting.
As bond construction gets moving, the board will continue to discuss the changes coming to the early childhood program. Right now, the center serves students with IEPs or considered at-risk, but with more space, the goal is to make the program open to all 3 and 4 year olds in Eudora.
Once the renovations increase the number of classrooms to eight, there will be room for 60 more students, Moeckel said. The program currently serves 75 students.
Moeckel also provided statistics on Douglas County child care needs. Eudora has 18 child care providers now, but there are only openings for 1 out of every 10 children ages infant to 3 in the county.
The presentation also said there are 3,142 potential child care slots needed in Douglas County for children ages 0-6.
Moeckel said the curriculum will follow the Kansas early childhood standards, with play-based learning experiences to foster exploration, creativity, problem-solving and nature-infused learning.
The program will have two options: kids can attend from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or until 5:30 p.m. The goal is for the program to be equitable for all kids in the area, Moeckel said. It will cost $250 monthly if students go until 3:30 p.m. or $300 if parents pick up at 5:30 p.m. The program is expected to be a year-round service.
If families cannot afford the monthly rate, they can fill out a free lunch form and potentially have waived fees.
“What we hope to have is that it will be open to all children in our community regardless of family’s income and background with an opportunity to develop essential skills before entering the formal elementary education,” Moeckel said.
The district has heard a huge need for these services, and this will hopefully help with the shortage, Moeckel said.
As far as a timeline, the district hopes to hire a director of early learning by January to help get the programming and curriculum developed in the spring. Professional development is aimed for next spring and summer.
The district received a grant from the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund that will help get the program off the ground and employ a director.
Board member Becky Plate asked if the district would be able to staff the early learning center and worried it would put more pressure on teachers.
“I think we won’t have a problem staffing because of what we see with our Summer Academy and that those people want us to jump in,” he said.
The building renovations are supposed to be done by August, but with possible delays the center may not be able to open until a little later, Moeckel said.
In other bond business, the board was also shown drawings of the new weights room, playground ideas for the elementary school and new entrance at the middle school.
Moeckel will ask teachers for input on new playground equipment to find out what will work best for all kids, but he expects the playground will be done before school starts in the fall.
The board also heard updates on the potential for improvements coming to the baseball and softball complex next to the high school.
The original plans for the complex may be on hold because of some of some needs for the fields themselves. These improvements were first discussed at the September board meeting.
Funding may either need to be used to repair existing fields or purchase the new batting cages. Right now, both are likely not possible.These are improvements that were not able to fit within the bond, but this is an idea many community members brought up during bond committee meetings.
Last month, Moeckel estimated it would cost $20,000 to $30,000 to complete the batting cages and new concrete.
The board will discuss next steps at the meeting in November.
During the superintendent’s report, Moeckel discussed the open enrollment policy for Kansas schools coming for the 2024-2025 school year.
The board will have a public hearing at 6:15 p.m. Nov. 9 in the boardroom at West Resource Center for the open enrollment policy beginning next school year.
The proposed policy will determine the number of nonresident students that the school district has the capacity to accept in each grade and any amendments that specify reasons the board may deny enrollment of nonresident students who are not in good standing.
The capacity determination will be recommended to the board by the superintendent on or before May 1 of each year.
In June, nonresidents will be able to apply to transfer to the district.
The board will go with policy originally presented by the state, but after each school year the district will have the opportunity to change or alter things.
The board will vote on this policy after the public hearing at the November meeting. For more information about the policy, click here.
In other business, Director of School Improvement Heather Hundley presented updates on student reading and math goals.
About 62% of students are at benchmark or above for their fall assessments, which is an increase from 55% at this time of year. Additionally, students are up 6% in math from last year at this time, meaning 62% of students are at math benchmark or above.
“This is an incredible growth that is happening across the district,” she said. “I just commend the staff for their continuous work. It is about the consistency, and we’re at the rubber meets the road part of the year right where we are putting things into practice that we’ve been working so hard to structure.”
In other business, a new partnership with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health is going to provide the district with a satelliteWIC office within West Resource Center.
Between 50 and 80 Eudora families have to travel to Lawrence for their monthly check-ups, so having a location in Eudora will help with accessibility to these services and to expand services, board member Claire Harding said.
Principal Jeremy Thomas gave an update on the middle school. Thomas said the school has 393 students: 119 in sixth grade, 121 in seventh and 153 in eighth grade.
Thomas also discussed some of the school’s goals. He hopes about 80% of students will score in level 2 or above on the 2024 math and reading state assessments. Level 2 is considered successful, but level 3 and 4 is what the state grades the district on, he said.
Thomas said the building has committed to looking at data and focusing on state assessment goals, something they did not do when he started seven years ago.
Thomas also hopes student involvement in before-school, after-school or extracurricular programs increases by 3%. Thomas said about 82% of sixth graders, 92% of seventh graders and 88% of eighth graders participate in activities or clubs outside of school.
The middle school has 24 enrichment clubs this year, with funding help coming from the Eudora Schools Foundations.
“We have a pretty strong culture in our building, and I know you guys like to come and you see we like to have lots of fun,” Thomas said.
When kids are more involved and love what they are involved in, they’re more likely to care about classes, he said. Thomas thinks students’ investments in extracurriculars also help get buy-in from them about increasing standardized test scores.
In other business, the board also approved adding graphic design and digital media technology to be classified as fine arts courses. If approved by the board, students would be able to use these courses as a fine arts credit that is required to graduate.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
