The Board joined the school community at the Ice Cream Social event.

Ms. Rios determined that with 7 of 9 Board Members present, a quorum is established for purposes of holding the meeting and voting.

Ms. Rios introduced herself, thanked the public, and provided an overview of the public comment process and guidelines. Ms. Rios then invited public comment; no public comment was made.

Mrs. Rios presented the Consent Agenda and asked the Board if any member wanted to remove any item from the Consent Agenda in order to further discuss and/or solely vote on that item; no member did.

Mr. MacDonald joined a School Tour event and said it was a joy to be in the building; Ms. Rios agreed.
 

Ms. Bond attended the September First Friday and shared her excitement on being a part of the event.
 

Mrs. DeWilde participated in Curriculum Night. She shared that it was good to connect with and hear feedback from both parents and staff; she also had good brainstorming discussions throughout the evening on how to get more parents to attend future events.
 

Dr. Miles previewed October First Friday (Oct. 3rd), and Fall Fun Fest (Oct. 23rd; Ms. Rios & Mrs. Herman are planning to attend).

Dr. Miles introduced BoardOnTrack, a new software platform for the Board. Mr. Brennan said that invitations to the platform will be sent next week and it would be soft-launched for the October meeting.

Dr. Miles reported that BlaqueKC is doing another Board draft in the spring; the Executive Committee indicated interest in participating again. She asked the Board to consider individually participating in the process and will provide more information as the dates get closer.

Dr. Miles shared that Dr. Cochran, Elementary Principal, submitted her resignation. Dr. Miles reflected on her decision process, and the factors, on hiring a ES Principal position. She is going to serve as the in-effect principal, with the academic leadership team (Mrs. Denney, Ms. Chambers, and Mrs. Roland) providing building-level leadership. Their immediate focus is resetting Tier-I behavior and instruction.
 

Ms. Bond asked for background and reasons for Dr. Cochran’s resignation; Dr. Miles provided that context.
 

Mrs. Butler asked how the 26-27 interview process will be different than this past round; Dr. Miles reflected on her planned differences and welcomed feedback on the process.
 

Ms. Bond confirmed that the school is not going to post a new position for this current academic year? Dr. Miles affirmed that plan; there is a very limited applicant pool for experienced candidates and professionally, she does not have capacity for a hiring process and then a training process this year. The school will post for the 2026-27 position in November.
 

Mrs. Herman asked if the school had any internal candidate on the bench; Dr. Miles replied there are none at this time. A few people have expressed interest in further leadership, but none are credentialed or ready, again at this time.
 

Mrs. DeWilde asked Dr. Miles what she is deprioritizing within her Executive Director responsibilities to focus on the Principal position (in the hopes that work could be supported with an additional contractor, etc.). Dr. Miles asked to defer that conversation to Closed Session, but confirmed that the additional burden is being shared among the leadership team, not just her.
 

Hon. Bland asked Dr. Miles if she has an Executive Assistant; Dr. Miles replied that there are a lot of people on staff helping out, including hiring a 2nd Behavior Coach and the current Behavior Coach taking on additional administrative responsibilities.
 

The Board held further discussion and remained supportive of this approach.

Dr. Miles presented an overview of the changes to the Policy Manual and reviewed each new and/or updating policy. She reminded the Board that most of new policies are as a result of Senate Bill 68’s passage.

Dr. Miles presented an overview of the changes to the Employee Handbook and reviewed each new and/or updating policy.

Dr. Miles presented the Family Handbook, with the only change being to include the already-approved Electronic Communication Policy.

Mrs. DeWilde reported that the Committee met in September and deferred further updates to Closed Session.

Dr. Miles met with MCPSC earlier this week and discussed the upcoming charter renewal.
 

The final renewal submission is due to the Commission by February 2nd.
 

MCPSC’s final Board meeting for the year is February 23rd, and they would like to consider the renewal on that date.
 

MCPSC also reminded Dr. Miles of the required 2-hour public hearing and suggested a date of February 19th. The first hour of that hearing is a presentation to the public and the second is a discussion between school leaders and the MCPSC board members.
 

Dr. Miles asked the Board for feedback on the timeline, then deferred further conversation to Closed Session.

Dr. Miles confirmed that the Committee will meet in October to review Beginning-Of-Year data. Mrs. Herman asked to be involved in the Committee.

Per policy, Mrs. Butler notified the Board that Dr. Cochran is no longer a credit card holder.

Mrs. Butler reiterated (from the just-modified policy) that the Finance Committee is aware of the new credit card structure and users.

Mrs. Butler shared that, based on August financials and the year-end forecast, the school is in a strong financial position. The school’s year-end cash projection is $1.8m, which represents 74 days of cash on hand. The current forecast reflects updates in the state funding rate, as well as staff salaries and benefits; this overall result is a slight decrease from the July forecast. Overall, student enrollment and attendance are outpacing the budget and compensates for the decrease in the decreased state funding rate.
 

Mrs. Butler also presented the Board with an overview of the new state funding approach, including some new terminology. She reminded the Board that SB727, which was passed in 2024, is now being implemented in FY26. This legislation calls for a phase-in of using school membership (enrollment) to calculate basic formula funding. FY26’s phase-in is 10% (vs 90% Attendance) and it will increase in 10% increments (with Attendance decreasing respectively) every year until membership counts toward 50% of the formula calculation.
 

Instead of “WADA (Weighted Average Daily Attendance)” the new funding term is “CWW (Combined WAM-WADA), or ‘Combined Weighted Average Membership and Weighted Average Daily Attendance.’”
 

Mrs. Butler noted that while this new funding approach will increase the unit that drives funding by school, it also increases for Kansas City Public Schools. Therefore, since KCPS’ CWW is the denominator in the funding equity formula, per pupil funding for Citizens will decrease in future years.
 

She then presented a quick comparison of the originally-budged WADA and the actually-in-effect CWW for FY26, as follows:
 

Originally-budgeted WADA was 470.0 at $15,000. Less the Sponsor Fee of $105,750, Basic Formula was budgeted at $6,944,250.

Actually-in-effect CWW is 495.0 at $14,467. Less the (max) Sponsor Fee of $107,366, Basic Formula is now $7,050,358, a net positive of $106,108 (again, the larger-than-planned enrollment and attendance overcoming the lower-than-planned CWW).
 

Turning to the monthly financials, Mrs. Butler presented Page 14’s Balance Sheet, showing a current Cash Balance of over $2.16m, and a projected year-end balance of just over $2.25m.
 

She presented Page 12’s Income Statement, highlighting:
• Year-to-date revenue of over $1.3m, against a budget of $1.15m.
• Year-to-date expenses of $1.2m, against a budget of $1.4m.
• Net Income of $95k, against a budget of (-$263k).
• Forecasted year-end revenue of $8.8m, against a budget of $8.58m.
• Forecasted year-end expenses of $8.6m, against a budget of $8.49m.
• Forecasted year-end Net Income of $188k against a budget of $92k.
• A projected 74 days of cash on hand position.
 

Lastly, she stated that the Finance Committee did not note anything as out of order on the Check Register or Accounts Payable.

Dr. Miles shared that she had no additional report this month.

Ms. Rios stated that, pursuant to § 610.021(1) RSMo, the Board will enter into closed
session to discuss matters related to Legal Discussion.

Ms. Rios invited Dr. Miles, Mr. Brennan, and Mr. Durphy (Rebel Law).

Ms. Rios welcomed members of the public back into Open Session and reported that discussion related to (1) Legal Discussion. There was one action that requires reporting.