Garden City Public Schools Board of Education met during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, February 5, 2024. The meeting was held at the Educational Support Center Board Room, 1205 Fleming Street.
The Board recognized Megan Brungardt, school nurse at Buffalo Jones Elementary and Plymell Elementary. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Oral Health Volunteer Award.
The Board received a building presentation from Garden City Achieve. They presented a video about the Therapeutic Education Program and the Strive Program. They are helping students achieve their academic goals.
Danielle Burke, Assistant City Manager of the City of Garden City, presented an update on housing in the community. The City’s goal is to have 4,000 housing units built in the community by 2030.
The Board received a presentation on changes for the Music Department. Violet Johnson, director of Middle School bands, and Summer Miller, Orchestra director for the high school and Horace Good Middle School, provided the board information on ways that the 5-12 grade vocal and instrumental music teachers have been working with district leadership to redesign the department to create better opportunities for Garden City students. The suggested changes would be for beginning band and orchestra be centralized at the intermediate centers. The 6th grade students attending Jennie Barker, Plymell and Abe Hubert will be allowed to transfer so they can participate in choir, band, or orchestra. The fifth grade music at the intermediate centers will be a combination of choir and instrument introduction. The sixth graders at the intermediate centers can choose to take choir, which will meet every school day. The benefits will have more contact time for music instruction, consistency of classes that meet daily, provides consistent feeder program to the middle schools choir programs, and teachers spend less time traveling between buildings.
The board approved the following items during the meeting. They include: Minutes of the January 15, 2024, regular meeting; 12 - VMware Vsphere 8 standard licenses and subscription services for $19,788.84; a makeup air unit replacement for Kenneth Henderson Middle School from Tatro Plumbing for $37,867.00; Rubber Mulch for $45,000.00; and a chemical sprayer for $22,435.00.
The Board held three executive sessions after the completion of all other business. The first executive session was for matters relating to employer-employee negotiations whether or not in consultation with the representatives of the body or agency. The second executive session was for personnel matters for non-elected personnel. The third executive session was for preliminary discussion relating to the acquisition of real property. There was no action taken after each of the executive sessions.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be Monday, February 19, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Room at the Educational Support Center, 1205 Fleming Street.
The complete agenda can be found here.
The Board of Education meeting can be viewed here.