During KSD’s Board of Education meeting on Sept. 12, Jean Marie Andrews, BOE President, announced future BOE meetings would be held at the Keating Theater while there is construction at NKMS. The district will hold a Tax Rate Hearing on Sept. 19 at 6 p.m., in ordinance with the Hancock Amendment. The following week, on Sept. 26, recommended tax rates for the 2023 year will be presented for BOE approval during the board meeting. KSD is expected to receive $1.1 million over the expected budget for the 2022-23 school year. The motion to hire an additional school resource officer was examined and passed due to 56.7% support of survey takers approving it.

Kirkwood Early Child Center (KECC) anticipates 100-120 students will be impacted by their KECC Program which emphasizes a 12-month operation schedule for a full day, and a 10-month schedule for a half day in which teaching hours are 7:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Although the biggest class sizes are often 24 students, there is a proposition of 1:8 or 1:10 teacher-to-student ratio depending on the class size. Dr. Mandy Rose also mentioned KECC’s accomplishment of having “over 850 years of combined teaching experience.” According to KECC, there are currently 637 students on the waitlist as of June 2022. Additionally, the program intends to launch school-wide events planned with the focus of increasing family connections and engagement. KECC aims to increase staff diversity and close the gap between staff of color and students of color (7.04% and 17.05%, respectively). They hope to look at attendance areas to distinguish if they are missing representation from any specific areas in Kirkwood.

On the official KSD website, a new page has been added to allow for the publication of student awards with the motivation to publicize and garner more celebration for Kirkwood achievements. To accommodate all demographic groups, translation features are now coming to electronic communications. In addition, the school board intends to expand their social media presence in multiple ways. According to their analytics, their most used social media platform is Facebook. They have announced intentions of creating a Kirkwood podcast, alongside a Kirkwood Board of Education TikTok. The board aims to continue growing their Instagram page and expand their knowledge on the various ranges of communication.

Additionally, BOE presented their Communications Plan for the current school year. Topics involved standard operating procedures, key communicators and subject matter experts, with district communication being a main aspect. The “Let’s Talk” program was implemented to make it easier for families to communicate with the district through an online customer service solution upon parental request. There have been numerous changes and updates like the addition of SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats); and layered communication has been added through the means of the Content Calendar and Key Communicator Conference Calls.