The Emporia Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a contract for a business-operations culture and efficiency study to review the district's business-office processes.

Superintendent (speaker 12) told the board the district has experienced processing delays and accuracy challenges and recommended contracting with consultant Kellan Adams to interview business-office staff and stakeholders and deliver a set of implementable recommendations over a roughly six-month period. The superintendent said the reviewer is familiar with Skyward, the district's student information/finance platform, and will examine processes related to recent Skyward upgrades.

A board member moved to approve the USD 253 business operations culture and efficiency study contract (speaker 2); the motion was seconded (speaker 4) and passed 5-0. During discussion one board member referenced the contract cost as transcribed in the meeting record as "$42.50," and the superintendent noted the potential savings from improved efficiencies could outweigh the contract cost; the transcripted dollar figure appears inconsistent and should be verified with official contract documents.

Board members said the study is an important step to identify both process improvements and potential staffing or system changes; the superintendent said the cost-containment and implementation evaluation will consider value, feasibility and stakeholder disruption when recommending actions.