If you didn’t attend Carla’s Town Hall, we give a detailed summary below. We think it is important for all stakeholders to know what is going on in our school district. The board of education has a monthly meeting that the public is welcome to attend in person or watch remotely on YouTube, and USD469 has a robust social media presence that can give you information on how our district is doing. Town Hall meetings can be an effective way for stakeholders to engage in conversations with the board, but we should always question the source whenever a stranger comes to us to provide data about our schools. The publicized guest at this town hall, Dave Trabert, is the CEO of Kansas Policy Institute, which created the Kansas School Board Resource Center in January of this year. KPI and KSBRC are radical organizations bent on dismantling public education. Mr.Trabert provided a lot of misleading information and offered no solutions. KSBRC provides their biased information for free & we certainly got what we paid for: nothing.
Carla Wiegers’ Town Hall
3/29/23
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Lansing Community Center
Lansing School Board member Carla Wiegers invited Dave Trabert of the Kansas School Board Resource Center (KSBRC) to speak to our community in a town hall on March 29th at the Lansing Community Center. Mr. Trabert is CEO of the Kansas Policy Institute (KPI), an anti-public education organization funded by private donors and linked to The Charles Koch Foundation. Because KSBRC is an extension of KPI, it is also an anti-public education organization. KPI and KSBRC both support and push the voucher system and school choice, which defund public education institutions such as USD 469. A quick Google search reveals Mr. Trabert’s priorities and intentions toward public education.
The town hall was not sanctioned by USD 469 or the Lansing Board of Education (BOE), although a majority of the BOE showed up in support of the event. BOE attendees included:
Carla Wiegers (the event organizer)
Amy Cawvey (current Vice President of the Board)
Mary Wood
Pete Robinson (former President of the Board)
It is critical to note that four or more members of the Lansing BOE gathering together outside of an announced Board of Education meeting, discussing school-related issues, is a direct violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA). This is basic training that school board members receive as they begin their terms. It is something that a current BOE Vice President and former BOE President should know. Either the four board members were: a) ignorant of this critical piece of legislation which holds them accountable as to how and when they can hold meetings, b) they completely ignored it, c) they relied on information provided to them by a person not elected to the school board, or d) they did not think that members of our community would be informed regarding KOMA statutes. The answer is C, and very likely D.
As Carla introduced the first speaker, a concerned member of the Lansing community stood up to point out that four board members were present and asked if that was a violation of KOMA. She also asked Carla Wiegers, “Does Jeff (BOE President, Jeff Bollin) know all four of you are here?” Carla answered yes. (After the meeting, the community member emailed Dan and Jeff to confirm that Jeff was aware of the four board members in attendance and of a possible KOMA violation. Jeff responded that he was unaware.) Carla did not tell the truth.
Mary Wood announced that the Clerk of the Board told them it was fine for the four of them to be present–at a school-related event–as long as they did not sit together. The Clerk serves as a record keeper, not an advisor as per Clerk: appointment and duties. Again, the attending board members were unaware (or ignoring) that they were in violation of KOMA. Once notified by the community member, the president of the BOE privately and remotely communicated to the four members that one of them had to leave. Pete Robinson left at 6:15 p.m.
The audience was falsely informed that it was not any kind of violation for a majority of BOE members to attend the Town Hall because they could all legally attend a Christmas party together. That is an apples to oranges analogy. The Town Hall was school-related; a Christmas party is not. During a Christmas party, it is presumed and trusted that BOE members would not be discussing board or school-related issues. If they did, it would be a KOMA violation. And this was just the first 15 minutes of the town hall.
Mrs. Wiegers intended to address the Building Needs Assessment (BNA), while offering Dave Trabert (a public education detractor) an open floor. For those needing background, a building needs assessment not only addresses the needs of the physical buildings, it involves systematically examining performance gaps and identifying, understanding, and prioritizing the needs that must be addressed to improve outcomes for all students. Mr. Trabert’s presence was unnecessary as the school board had been given all the information they needed regarding the BNA after the district leadership team presented at the February board meeting.
Mr. Trabert went over data from state assessments that showed a slight downward trend from 2015 to 2022, shown in a presentation packet from KSBRC. What he failed to mention is that State of Kansas scores have shown a similar downward trend, and Lansing’s scores have consistently performed above the state’s scores, in general. He provided no insight into what could cause those declines.
Mr. Trabert said that it is the BOE’s legal responsibility to address scores and the BNA annually, but that most BOEs aren't given that opportunity, though not specifically in Lansing. A current teacher asked if we could focus on Lansing specifically, and not just “districts.” Lansing utilizes Building Leadership Teams and a District Leadership Team to conduct the annual BNA. The findings are presented to the Board during a work session. The Lansing BOE is provided the opportunity to address the findings.
Mr. Trabert pointed out that performance declines as students move through the school system.
He also pointed to our K-3 score of 28% proficient in ELA. He asked what barriers needed to be removed. He stated that districts should focus on resource allocation and that the foundation of education is interaction between teachers and students. Mr. Trabert was quick to bring up what his organization considers deficiencies, but he offered no suggestions on how to improve. In fact, he repeatedly emphasized that KSBRC is a “resource center” only. This means they offer no solutions, only skewed data (with no documented metrics for how their organization tracks improvement) that fits their politically-driven extremist agenda.
Mr. Trabert went through the KS OpenGov document (the only unbiased source) and pointed out that we increased staff by 86% when our student population increased by just 21%. The Clerk of the Board explained that this high intake of staff was primarily due to the absorption of approximately 160 employees due to the dissolution of the LV County Cooperative whose students we were already serving. Once again, he pointed out data that suggests our district is negligent in its responsibilities, but is actually easily explained with contextual data.
He stated that teachers are not being taught the science of reading in college. He was asked what exactly that meant during the Q&A session, but did not answer saying he did not have the information on the specifics.
In reference to the KSBRC graphs sheet, a question was asked about the yellow and green bars. (See the attached KSBRC document.) Mr. Trabert stated that “proficient” is defined by KSDE as needing no remedial training, while “grade level but needs remedial training” defines students who have not yet mastered material to the level of proficiency. Scores of 3s and 4s are “proficient” but 2s are not. A community member disputed some of this based on information from KU showing that mid-level 2 scores in ELA equate to college-readiness. The Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) does not show the same information that Mr. Trabert gave. There are four performance levels, not three, and level two is basic ability to understand which would indicate grade-level. See KAP - Understanding Scale Scores, PLDs, and Cut Scores. Note the sources at the bottom of the KSBRC attachment. They include Kansas Policy Institute, Kansas Justice Institute, The Sentinel, and KSBRC; all of which are organizations that push extremist political agendas and ideologies, and discount factual information that is contrary to that extremism.
Additionally, Mr. Trabert claimed that the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) is deemphasizing academic preparation. He said that the focus seems to be on graduation rates and high graduation rates can be easily manipulated. He stated that many kids graduate while being below grade level, which means that they should not have been allowed to graduate.
He stated KS ACT scores are dropping. College freshmen are not ready for college. Millions of dollars are being spent on remediation. However, Mr. Trabert did not define what remediation measures are being taken, and did not provide evidence that this is even true. In fact, KASB says Kansas ACT scores “remain stable, amid national decline.” See KASB - Kansas ACT Scores Remain Stable Amid National Decline
When asked who was funding this enterprise (KSBRC/KPI), he said that individual donors make up the majority of their funding, and that corporate donors make up less than 10%. What is unclear is how much of their funds come from this small percentage of donors. He stated he will not disclose those corporations because people have a right to private free speech, and his donors would be harassed if their names were made public. Why would making donations to KPI/KSBRC cause these corporations to fear harassment?
When asked about KPI, KSBRC, and his stand on vouchers, he said his goal is to improve public education and that areas that use vouchers see increased academic performance. That led to a heated discussion about how vouchers take funding away from public education and that states with vouchers actually see a decline in student performance.. A retired teacher stated that he sounded anti-public education. He denied it. Mr. Trabert said that there is an education savings account at the state for low income kids but admitted that it will not pay for all costs involved. When asked how the state would have any oversight on all the private schools that will be created, he claimed there is currently no oversight in public education. A KSDE rep he claims to have spoken to said he couldn’t remember the last time a district lost its accreditation in KS. Mr. Trabert said people are not doing their jobs.
Mr. Trabert’s declaration about the KSDE rep not remembering the last time a district lost its accreditation can be taken two ways. Mr. Trabert personally interprets it as there is no oversight and KSDE is just giving away accreditations. The other way to look at his declaration is to consider that teachers and administrators in Kansas public schools work effectively and cohesively within their districts ensuring standards are met and that is why the KSDE rep cannot remember the last time a district lost its accreditation in Kansas.
Please read this post from the USD 469 district website which announces our re-accreditation and you decide whether this was achieved by dedicated, hard-working teachers and administrators of USD 469 or by, as Mr. Trabert puts it, “People not doing their jobs.”
Mr. Trabert stated an average of 52% of general fund tax money is put into instruction. Lansing is slightly higher than that. BOE member Ms. Wood asked for confirmation of the percentage of state money that goes to public education. Fifty percent goes to K-12 and 12% to higher education. Mr. Trabert said that districts get extra funds for Special Education students and that districts don’t count that money accurately. He also said that districts get extra funds for at-risk students, which they don’t spend appropriately/legally. He did not provide any evidence or sources for this assertion. In fact, a current teacher disputed this.
When asked about what Mr. Trabert’s role was here, Carla reminded us that she invited him, that she loves public education (When? Sometimes? On Tuesdays and Thursdays? On days when she doesn’t invite public education detractors to visit our community?), and that vouchers were brought up by the audience, not her or Mr. Trabert. Yes, audience members did ask about KSBRC’s stance on vouchers and other anti-public education initiatives, because they are aware of Mr. Trabert’s organization’s attempts to subvert public education and deserve transparency from any organization making sweeping claims about the professionalism of our educators and preparedness of our students. Not to mention the fact that our BOE members are seeking assistance and information from such an entity.
A parent asked what barriers are preventing achievement. Mr. Trabert said that he doesn’t see barriers preventing achievement, just that districts are filling out BNAs with very little specificity, just asking for money. This led to a lively discussion! A current teacher serving on a Building Leadership Team pointed out specific needs listed on the Lansing Elementary School BNA. A retired teacher explained that we all know what barriers to achievement are - food insecurity, homelessness, the rise in the number of our low socioeconomic status students, etc. BOE member Ms. Wood called out the retired teacher as a racist for bringing the word “privilege” into the conversation (not “white privilege,” just “privilege”). Mr. Trabert did say that teachers are being asked to do too much that isn’t actually teaching. We believe he meant to say that this was a barrier.
The opportunity of school choice does exist and it is every parent’s decision as to whether that benefits their family. However, the majority of parents and families in Lansing not only appreciate our schools and teachers, they choose to live in Lansing because of our schools. Housing costs more in Lansing; however, people make the sacrifice just so their kids can attend Lansing schools. Anti-public education groups like KSBRC, KPI, etc., negatively impact school districts which in turn, negatively impact property values. It’s a domino effect. Please take notice of what is at stake with groups like KSBRC infiltrating our community.
Why was Dave Trabert given an entire town hall meeting to criticize our district and promote anti-public education agenda items such as school vouchers and school choice? Why was Dave Trabert provided hours of time by a board member to speak when members of our community are only afforded two minutes to speak at the beginning of board meetings? This meeting provided confirmation that Carla Wiegers, Amy Cawvey, Mary Wood, and Pete Robinson are fine with a public education detractor wanting to work with us. When they read this post, and they will, we ask you to remain cognizant of their efforts to minimize what happened at this town hall.
You can support our school district by voting for pro-public education candidates in November. Go Lions!
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