From Plan to Progress: Cultivating Blue Valley

Welcome to the season premiere of BV Unmuted for the 2026–27 school year! Join Superintendent Dr. Gillian Chapman as she sits down with district leaders — Kelly June (Chief of Academic Services), Dr. Jessica Meisenheimer (Chief of Support Services) and Dr. Eric Punswick (Chief Human Resources Officer) — to reflect on key milestones and look ahead to the next chapter of the Cultivating Blue Valley strategic plan. 

In this episode, we explore how our strategic priorities are directly shaping the classroom experience: 

• Advancing Academic Excellence: Celebrating historic AP results and state assessment gains in high school math and ELA, exploring our shift toward conceptual problem-solving and balancing emerging AI tools with essential human-centered learning. 
• Fostering Supportive & Healthy School Communities: Expanding our Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) into behavioral and social-emotional wellness, including the elementary rollout of the Character Strong curriculum focused on being kind, strong and well. 
• Empowering Exemplary Educators & Staff: Highlights from our staff retention efforts, investments in competitive compensation and benefits and how everyone from substitute teachers to food service teams powers student success every day. 

Tune in to discover how Blue Valley continues to innovate, support students, and cultivate lifelong learners prepared to navigate their future with purpose! 

Cultivating lifelong learners prepared to navigate their future with purpose. 

Transcript

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On. Welcome to Blue Valley. Unmuted. I'm Jillian Chapman, superintendent of Blue Valley Schools, and I'm so excited to have our first podcast for the 20 2627 school year. Last year was the first year of the strategic plan, and we really want to spend some time celebrating the progress while also planning where we are headed for the 20 2627 school year. The Blue Valley Strategic Plan was written in consultation with thousands of community members who told us what they wanted for Blue Valley schools. Our community told us our biggest challenge was funding, and our community wanted us to innovate, do more with less, and continue, helping our students find their way forward. Today, we're going to talk a little bit more about how our strategic plan impact students each and every day. Joining me in today's conversation are Jessica and Heimer, our chief of support services, and Kelly Joon, chief academic officer. Thank you both for joining me. Happy to be here. Thank you. Last year, as our first full year of putting the Cultivating Blue Valley Strategic Plan into action. When you look back at the year, what is an area of accomplishment or, progress that stands out to you? Kelly, can you start? Yeah, that's a hard, hard question and hard to narrow down. I think there's really two that come to mind. One is our results in high school Ela and math. We put in a ton of effort in the on level experience for all students and raising the rigor of those programs and it experienced some really outstanding growth, coupled with the best AP results in Blue Valley's history. That's just not a high school accomplishment. That's an accomplishment K-12. Every teacher that had a hand in that child's development should should share in the successes. Finally, the the work around MTS was a huge endeavor that our building administrators took on. MTS is multi-tiered system of support, and it's essentially a framework that efficiently serves all students and creates a district system to respond when students don't, learn at the at the rate we want them to. So lots of great things to report in the academic world. I agree. As I think about just recently, the U.S. News and World Report, highlighted all five, of the Blue Valley high schools. And in the top six rankings, only beat out by one, school in Kansas. And, I want to point out that last year we were in the top 10%, nationally. This year we're in the top 5% of all nationally ranked high schools. What an incredible accomplishment. That that we can all celebrate. And as you mentioned, Kelly, it's not just something that happens once students enter the door in high school, but it's really something that happens, you know, beginning the moment our students enter our doors. And Doctor Mize and Heimer, this is kind of a trick question for you because you just joined the students. I know you're ready for it. You just joined Blue Valley this school year, and we're so delighted to have you. Your background, your knowledge, your expertise. It's it's been a joy to welcome you to our team. What are some things that maybe surprised you about our Cultivating Blue Valley strategic plan or, something that intrigued you or, anything that you'd like to add about your first. I don't know, what, eight weeks on the job? Yeah, not quite two months, but we're almost there. Next week, I'm going to cross the one the two month mark line. So, Yeah. So I think first of all, I'm super excited to be a part of the Blue Valley team. Obviously your reputation is known throughout the Kansas City area, throughout Kansas and nationally as well. So being able to come over from the Missouri side and join the Valley team is is quite an honor. I'd say one thing, just that aligns with the background that I have is, as Kelly had mentioned, our multi-tier system of support work. I that is something that I studied a lot, in college and during my education programing and have some experience working in districts all over the country implementing. So I was delighted to see that you all have a really strong foundation in that work. I would even say more than just a foundation and reading and mathematics and shifting that focus over to our behavior and social emotional learning. Support for this school year is just really exciting for me, and I'm excited about how that's going to develop and what I can continue to bring to the Blue Valley team in that area. Great. Thank you. Well, we're delighted to have you, and your expertise was, well known. And one of the main reasons that, we actively sought you out, and we just couldn't be happier that you're a member of our team. Kelly, as you mentioned, one of the measurable successes from last year was growth among our on level high school learners. With state assessment scores increasing 7% in math and 6% in English language arts. Can you tell us a little bit more about what contributed to that progress, and more importantly, what does that work mean for students in the classroom each and every day? That's actually a really easy question. It was the hard work of our teachers, their principals, and our instructional design team who collaborated with our district leaders and in academic services around the on level experience and for students in the classroom, that means their their walking into classrooms that are more rigorous than in the past. That work focused on increasing the rigor in those courses and the on level courses, identifying data points that help teachers plan instruction, and then aligning the tasks to the depth of the standards. So they're going to have engaging activities, but rigorous ones with support. So we raised the bar and kids met the goal. Thank you. I was visiting one of our schools and a second year English language arts teacher. Was excited to, show me her classroom. Her students hadn't arrived yet, and, she she, gave me sort of a rundown of the books that they're reading in, English nine as well as an English ten. And I was blown away with the classics that they were reading and the robust conversation and the opportunity to write more. And I know that's something that we all value. But having our students, you know, pick up a classic book, and talk about it, and having that opportunity in, in Ela is really essential. The other thing that I noticed, in our classrooms already is that math isn't taught. Maybe the way we learned it, back in the day. But our students are really engaging and connecting, with that information. And, our students are learning about, how to apply mathematics in the real world. And there's not just one answer, but multiple ways. And our students are talking about math, which I think is an interesting concept. Versus the way I was taught. Right. It's a it's a what you're seeing is a shift in our instruction to more conceptual model. And what that means is students using problem solving and, and, multiple routes to the same to the same. Correct answer. It's it's a way to be flexible with numbers. It's a, it's a way for mathematics to be really relevant in the careers in the jobs that they will take on in the future. Yeah. You're going to see less of, a sheet of problems that teachers are helping students work through and more problem projects and problem based, tasks, which means more engagement, more relevancy, and more authenticity in the tasks in our math classrooms. Great. Thank you. Also joining us this afternoon is Doctor Eric Brunswick, our chief human resources officer. Thank you for joining us today and today's conversation. Doctor Painswick, would you like to tackle the question? As you look back at last year, what's one accomplishment or area of progress that stands out to you when you think about, our first full year of putting the Cultivating Blue Valley Strategic Plan into action? Great to be with you today. And looking back to last year, one of our big success stories is the retention rate for our certified staff members. We can really look to, two areas that our Board of Education really spent time supporting. One being our salary schedule and making sure that we were taking care of our people through, augmenting what we have available in terms of pay and incentives to stay with us and increase their educational attainment. The other area is the money and the effort that has been put forth for our health and dental and vision benefits, providing affordability with some of our bio plans, but then also continuing to offer$0 health insurance plans to our employees that are robust and have very low deductibles. So that investment that our Board of Education made really, provided the supports necessary to keep our people here as opposed to going to look elsewhere outside of education. But then in other districts that are neighboring us. So I'm really excited that, we had such a fantastic retention rate going into this year. Thank you and our entire team for all the hard work that went into that. As everyone knows, health care in this country is really the largest driver, and it's, so difficult to control those costs. And for a district like Blue Valley with over 3500 employees. Majority of our budget, about 85, 86% is spent on our, our people. And that is salaries and benefits. So we really appreciate your team taking a look at that. So that's that's connected to our third strategic priority, which is empowering, exemplary educators and staff. Another major focus and this one, I'd like to ask Doctor Mize and Heimer to respond to, this one is, creating supportive and healthy school communities. We expanded our multi-tiered system of support work and our professional learning. We invested in behavioral supports and took a comprehensive look at bullying prevention and essentially, being kind and and how do we support students, when they may be struggling emotionally? So how is this work helping us become more responsive when a student needs additional support? Absolutely. It's one of my favorite things to talk about, so I'm excited to expand upon it. So within an MTS framework and this is true for all content areas, there's a number of things that we do as educators to ensure that we're meeting students needs. So the first is that we're screening or gathering initial data to find out where our students are doing really well and areas in which they may need additional support. And once we have that, and we understand what their current skills are, that allows us to identify students who could benefit from more targeted instruction. So as Kelly was talking about, we do that entity in mathematics, but we also, are going to be doing that with behavior and social emotional support as well. So once those students are identified, we start providing that targeted instruction. We then continuously monitor their progress to see how they're doing. And then we address the instruction as needed. So it's a process that allows us to identify students essentially, right when they show us that they're struggling, provide additional support in an area that they need it, and then adjust instruction as needed. And this is all on top of the typical core instruction that they would be getting and all of those areas. So it doesn't take away from any other instructional area that they would be receiving it really is on top of the great work that would already be happening in the classroom. If I can recap of what doctor Mason Heimer said, you know, behavior is a learned skill and we're treating it very similarly to to reading and math and making sure that students are given instruction to learn how to behave in certain situations, as it's also really hopeful perspective, because we believe every student can learn not only reading and math, but also how to to behave and how to, be in situations and conduct themselves so they're productive citizens of their schools. Thank you. We have a lot to celebrate from last school year, but every Championship team knows we have to continually improve and work toward new goals to ensure that we're improving. So our 2627 goals do just that. Kelly, let's start by talking about academics. What can you tell us about the goals that you have in place for your team and for academic excellence to continue and Blue Valley? First thing I can say is our community, our Board of Education gave us a gift in this strategic plan. It emphasizes the exact things that make students successful in life. So we will continue in this strategic plan in this year to focus on, really focus on the literacy and math skills to be successful in life. We're equipping teachers with the tools they need to ensure learning and supporting students, even when they struggle. It's a clear commitment to the basics with an emphasis on reading and writing and mathematical reasoning. And, my team in Academic Services is thrilled to do that work. Doctor Mason Heimer, if you had to help a family understand what all that means for their child, what should they know about where we're headed with teaching and learning this year? Absolutely. So essentially, as what I was talking about before, it's essentially providing that just right support when students show us that they need assistance. So instead of waiting until they fall behind, we are constantly monitoring their progress. We're constantly assessing where they are and then adjusting our structure, our instruction to match what those needs are. So that again, as Kelly had mentioned, that's in reading, writing and math, but it's also in behavior. So if students are struggling socially, if they're if they're struggling to, fit in with their classroom or, you know, they're having anxiety, there's all kinds of things that happen in classrooms, then we're going to be assessing that and then determining what skills can help them, and then providing time, to do that within the classroom. Our mission talks about preparing students to navigate their future with purpose. This year, we're continuing work around career and technical education programs and Caps while also taking some significant next steps around artificial intelligence, digital citizenship, and balanced technology use. How are we thinking about preparing students for a future that's changing so rapidly, while still protecting the kinds of rigorous, engaging, and human centered learning experiences that we know matter? Kelly. Well, I think I can say we don't know everything, and this is going to be a work of not just, you know, leaders within the school district, but it's going to be the work of the community to to determine how we want technology, AI, those things to to look in our schools. One thing I do know is that human, that learning is a human endeavor, and we have to keep humans at the center of the learning experience. And I think the digital age will continue to emphasize this. Students need more than in the past. They yes, they need the literacy and math skills, but they also need the skill to use technology in an ethical way. We will teach students, discern how and when I could assist and honestly, when technology isn't helpful. So, one of the main things we're focusing on is balancing analog and digital experiences and helping our, instructors make good decisions about their their instruction design so that students are learning in both ways. Our focus will continue to be around, helping teachers design those lessons and doubling down on that human interaction that makes learning so great. And Blue Valley under our second priority of fostering supportive and healthy school communities. This year's goals include implementing core behavioral, social, and emotional learning instruction and tiered interventions consistent with the district's MTS framework. At the elementary level, we are implementing an instructional resource aligned to the Kansas Social, emotional and Character Development Standards at the middle school level. We're enhancing programing that intentionally develops students durable life skills, including communication, collaboration, critical thinking, adaptability, and responsible decision making. Doctor Mize and Heimer. What do you hope students and families will experience differently as this work moves forward? Yeah, so one of the things I was especially excited about in Coming to Blue Valley is the launching of Character Strong in our elementary schools. Character strong is a social, emotional curriculum, that we are going to do with all of our students. So it's considered a tier one support. So all of our elementary classrooms will get to experience that. And I'm excited because it focuses on three things. Teaching students to be kind, be strong and be well. And I think those are life skills that all of us are working on at all the time. And I'm excited that our elementary classrooms are going to be focusing on that. Those three skills throughout this year. I'm excited to say that over the summer, our administrators, our counselors, our special education consultants, our, our learning coaches were all involved in trainings to help us launch Character Strong. And then coming up here in the next week or two, we're going to be working with all of our elementary teachers to get them up on board on what that's going to look like. So I think back to your question, like, what do I hope students and families will experience differently? It's just that focus on social emotional learning and thinking about what I can do every single day. To be kind to others, be kind to myself, be strong and be well, and how I can contribute to my greater school and Blue Valley community. Really, it's about relationships and community development, and I love that we're really focused on that, because that's the sense that I get when I'm in schools and within our community that people really, genuinely love their school community and they feel a connection. So I appreciate that focus. As the work of the strategic plan grows, we also have to make sure we have exceptional people here to carry this forward. This year's goals continue to focus on pathways into education, competitive compensation and benefits, employee well-being, and the overall employee experience. Doctor Penn, What is the priority for human resources this year when it comes to making Blue Valley a place where great people want to come, stay and grow? Yeah, thanks for that question. I think one of the, main focus is that we tend to see and human resources that it's not just one department, but it's an entire school district. When you look at, our substitute services, for instance, we have over 650 substitutes in our system. Those individuals come in to help us out when a staff member needs to be gone for either a medical emergency, a day to celebrate with their family, or a planned event, that they are needing to be away from school. These substitutes allow our teachers to be their very best on the days that they're with our kids, providing the supports necessary so that they know that the district is supporting them, holistically. Another area, when we look at our classified staff members, we have a number of third parties that help us in our grounds and our maintenance so that our folks that are on staff are able to maintain fantastic facilities for our teachers, having a fantastic place to come to work. Thanks to the generosity of the bonds that have been passed by, our community is very much a part of being able to support our people and another area that we look at, and we say that this is a part that supports our folks, is our food service workers. We are fully staffed and our food service making sure that our kids are fed and taken care of during the day so that they're able to be in class and not think about, maybe the next meal. But they had a great meal and ready to engage in that instruction on that day. So when we look at the, all of the folks that are involved in the education of a child, making sure that they have the necessary supports from our district so that they can be successful. Thanks for teeing up the food service staff. As you know, I'm the I'm a fan of the world's greatest grilled cheese sandwich, and I appreciate any opportunity I have to celebrate that that, culinary delight that is only made possible, in Blue Valley School District because I have tested many a grilled cheese and nobody compares to ours. And being a, former resident of the state of Wisconsin, I would absolutely agree. We have fantastic grilled cheese right here in Kansas. It's amazing. It's amazing. So if we're sitting here a year from now and we're looking back on this 26, 27 school year, what is one thing that you hope we'll be able to say we accomplish for our students, our staff or our community? And I'd like for each one of you to answer this question. I think for me, the thing that I would hope a year from now is that our teachers feel really supported by the work that we're doing at the district level and around the strategic plan, ensuring that they have the support that they need to be there for their students every day to create those strong classroom environments. I think building off of what all of us have said, just that it's a great place to come to work every day, and that we at the district level and our strategic driven by our strategic plan, are creating those things that help them feel like they just love coming to work here. You know, when I think of, a child coming to school on a daily basis, I think about the need that they have to experience a fantastic interaction with an adult that day. And I also think about the need for a child to have one when. And I could either be one when a day, it can be one when in a week, or it can be something that happens to them on an annual basis that keeps our hope alive and keeps our drive alive. So when I look at our adults that work with our children, I always want them to be able to reflect at the end of a quarter, at the end of a semester, at the end of the year, and think about those times in which they were that positive person for a child that they experienced, whether it's they're getting on a bus, whether that's the person, opening a door to a child, whether it's, engaging in, in a lesson, whether it's in the sports or the activities arena that we know that our people at the end of the year can look back and say, yeah, that was me. I made a difference in a kid's life. And for me, I hope that at the end of the year, we look back and our community feels connected to the work inside and outside of Blue Valley. Because I mentioned before, we don't know everything and it's going to take everybody to, to to help make the experience for students what we all want it to be. I think we if I look back and we have been successful, we will have evolved in what we offer kids and families so that they do become those lifelong learners that, are ready to tackle their future. Just like our mission says. Thank you. And I really want to say thank you to Jessica and Kelly and Eric for being here today. I am so proud of all the things that we do in Blue Valley. We certainly have exciting work ahead of us. We're going to continue to measure our progress, to listen to our community, and most importantly, our students remain at the center of everything that we do. As we continue to, push forward on our strategic plan, our mission of cultivating lifelong learners prepared to navigate their future with purpose is truly at the heart of everything that we do. I'm excited for the 61st year of Blue Valley, and to build on the foundation that we've already had. I can't wait to see what not only the next year has in store for us, but what the next 60 years has in store for us. Thank you for listening today. Have a great day, Blue Valley.