Board approves consent agenda, staffing negotiations teams, assessment review; accepts personnel decisions

The Salina Public Schools Board of Education met March 11, 2025, and approved a broad consent agenda and several personnel and procedural items, including appointment of bargaining teams and the district's assessment review for the budget process.

The action matters were approved by recorded voice or show-of-hands votes during the open meeting. The board approved the consent agenda, which included purchase contracts, professional development renewals, technology and facilities contracts, and multiple federal- and state-grant applications that will be submitted by district staff. The board also appointed members to bargaining and meet-and-confer teams for the 2025-26 year and approved the assessment review required for the state budget process. Later in the evening the board accepted a hearing officer's finding in a student personnel matter and approved an early resignation with a waiver of liquidated damages.

Key consent-agenda and contract items cited in the meeting packet and read into the record included a purchase of laptops from Dell (amount stated in the packet as $32,125), renewal of the district cyber-security management system Arctic Wolf through Eagle Technologies ($237,814.12), a dark-fiber wide-area network contract with Next Tech Business ($410,040), copy paper purchase from Contract Paper Group ($24,973.20), an increase to the Mammoth Sports Construction contract of $51,000 (bringing that contract to $1,080,000 as reported in the meeting), and a third-party administrator contract for the district 403 retirement plan to U.S. Omni and TSACG compliance services. The board also authorized grant applications, including an ESEA School Improvement Grant ($246,558), a McKinney-Vento grant ($9,800), and the Federal Head Start / Early Head Start grant ($6,041,582 with a 25% local match cited as $1,510,396). The packet also included a Kansas Parents as Teachers continuation application ($97,550 with a $51,534 match) and a Preschool At-Risk application funded at 0.5 FTE. (For one vendor listed in the read statement, Corwin Stage Publishing, the numeric amount in the transcript was garbled; the district packet entry should be consulted for the exact figure.)

On appointments, the board named its negotiations team to engage with certified staff for 2025-26 and named a meet-and-confer team to work with classified staff on support-staff handbook matters. The motions to appoint those teams carried by show of hands (motion carries 7-0). The board then approved the Assessment Review for Budget Considerations document, a step required by Kansas for the budget cycle; that motion also passed 7-0.

Later in the meeting the board moved into executive session on student and personnel matters and then returned to open session to accept the hearing officer's finding and decision in a student personnel matter (motion carries 5-0 as recorded) and to accept the early resignation of Kim Guin and approve her request to waive liquidated damages (motion carries 7-0).

Votes at a glance - Motion to approve consent agenda as presented: approved, aye tally reported as 7-0. Motion text read in the record: "I move we approve the consent agenda as presented." (See packet for full itemized listings and contract documents.) - Appointment of negotiations team for certified personnel (named in the motion as "Aaron and Lisa and Gabe and Jim"): approved, 7-0. - Appointment of meet-and-confer team for classified staff (motion named Aaron Wright, Lisa Peters, Steve Dorsweiler, Dan Acosta, and Scott Gardner): approved, 7-0. - Approval of the Assessment Review for Budget Considerations document: approved, 7-0. Motion text read: "I move that we approve the assessment review for budget considerations document as presented." - Acceptance of the hearing officer's finding and decision in a student personnel matter: approved, 5-0. - Acceptance of early resignation of Kim Guin and waiver of liquidated damages: approved, 7-0.

What the votes mean - Contracts and grant applications approved in the consent agenda authorize district staff to execute the listed purchases, renewals and grant applications; amounts or final contract language will be in the district procurement files and the meeting packet. - Appointment of negotiating teams authorizes the named board members and staff to represent the board in bargaining and meet-and-confer discussions for 2025-26. - Approval of the assessment review satisfies a state requirement that the board identify barriers, proposed budget actions to address them, and an estimated timeline for students to reach grade-level proficiency if those actions are implemented; the district will publish the needs assessments and the answers to the state questions on its website as required. - Acceptance of the hearing officer's finding and the resignation motions conclude matters that the board handled in executive session; the board announced the results upon reconvening in open session.

Next steps and where to find details Contracts, grant applications, the assessment review document, and the full consent-agenda materials were referenced as being in the meeting packet; the board indicated it will publish building needs assessments and the assessment-review answers on the district website as required by state law. For the precise contract language and final dollar amounts (including the Corwin Stage Publishing figure that was unclear in the live read), the district packet and procurement files should be consulted.