AN UPDATE FROM THE PRAIRIE FUND

REGARDING COMMUNITY FUNDED POSITIONS

---Sent 9/4/24

Dear Prairie Families,

We are writing to bring you an update to the proposal of eliminating community-funded

positions in Shawnee Mission Schools.

The School Board had their Board of Education meeting last Monday, August 26th. There were eight speakers during the Public Comment Section (four from Prairie) before the board meeting. Unfortunately, the public comment portion is not available on YouTube, but you can access Stacey Winfield’s speech on behalf of the Prairie Fund here.

During the meeting, The Task Force presented their findings and recommended that community-funded positions be “sunsetted”. Click here for more information and to read the presentation. The presentation was followed by a lengthy and insightful discussion among Board members. The presentation and discussion can be viewed here, starting at 55:48.

At this point, we do not know what the future holds for community funded positions,

but our mission of the Prairie Fund has not changed. Our purpose is to provide resources to supplement the annual shortfall in funding for our children’s education. These resources are utilized to promote excellence at Prairie by supporting delivery of special programs and necessary services, thereby enhancing the learning environment for all children, increasing the effectiveness of instruction, and strengthening ties between Prairie and the community.

Are community funded positions going away? This is still unclear. Mary Sinclair, SMSD Board President, requested that any potential changes to current practice not go into effect until the 2026-2027 school year at the earliest. The donation task force is done and their proposal regarding community-funded positions is going to the Policy Review Committee. We will know more information after the Policy Review Committee meeting on September 30th, where a timeline and a plan to collect more data from the schools that will be affected by this decision will be laid out.

Please continue to reach out to the board members and tell friends at other schools as well. In the meantime, we will continue our mission to fill the gaps where there is a shortfall. Don’t hesitate to reach out to LauraDDonnelly@gmail.com or any of our board members if you would like to discuss further.

We hope to see you at the General PTA meeting in the Library on September 26th starting at 7:00. The Prairie Fund will be giving an update during our presentation.

Thank you for your support of Prairie,

The Prairie Fund Board

Laura Donnelly, Andrew Wymore, Matt Clark, Jay Kimbrough, Gina Monger, Mandi Chappell, Scott Hull, Megan Markey, Megan Remy, Lucy Rieger, Stephanie Sanchez, Zach Swanson, and Stacey Winfield