Community Conversations

June 10, 2020

After several months of working through school closure and our continuous learning plan, it is now time to turn our attention to reopening school in August.  An important part of that process is working together, as an entire school community, to put the very best plan in place to ensure everyone feels comfortable and safe returning to school.

We would like to invite you to participate in a series of Community Conversations  around reopening our schools and other important topics related to USD 460.  The first round of meeting opportunities will be June 23, 24, and 25.  We have three sessions scheduled because we know the summer is very busy.  Each of these sessions will begin at 6:00 pm and will be held in the HHS commons.  We will also make the meetings available through zoom and will provide a link for you to attend virtually.  Each of these meetings will cover the same topic, so you only need to attend one if you wish to participate.  We will then have follow-up sessions on July 14, 15, and 16, which will also be held at 6:00 pm at the HHS commons.

There are three primary topics we wish to discuss at these meetings.  First, we want to share ideas on safely reopening our schools.  This will be an opportunity for you to share your thoughts, ideas, and concerns, so our staff and Board of Education can make decisions based on staff, parent, and community feedback.  

A second topic we wish to discuss is the possible hiring of a School Resource Officer.  Chief Schroeder applied for a grant that would provide considerable funding for this position, and we are also looking at a partnership with the city to split the costs.  This has been a long-term goal in our district for quite some time, and we want to engage our entire school community on what this role could mean for our students and the overall safety of our schools.

Finally, we would like to discuss our long-term facilities plan.  Our current bond payment on a project from 2002 is paid off in September of 2022.  It is important to discuss what the end of that bond payment means for our community and what our next steps are to ensure our facilities remain good condition.

The format of our meetings will be to share some information with you, but we want to spend most of our time engaged in small group discussions.  This will allow us to maximize feedback on our ideas, especially in the June meetings.  We will then come back in July to talk about specific plans moving forward based on the feedback we receive in June.

If you plan to attend any of these sessions, please call or email Ben Proctor at 620-327-4931 or ben.proctor@usd460.org.  This will help us get an idea of what to expect in terms of numbers.  Based on recommendations from the Harvey County Health Department, we will ensure social distancing standards are met for these meetings.  As always, please holler if you have any questions or need any further information on anything at all.

Ben Proctor