Full Transcript: A Conversation with USD 418 Superintendent Dr. Shiloh Vincent

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This ~9,000-word transcript was generated from a one-hour Zoom call and edited with AI assistance. Errors are possible. Consider this experimental—I trust this community to read it in good faith.

Here is the transcript of the interview between
Greg
(Interviewer) and
Dr. Shiloh Vincent
(Superintendent of McPherson USD 418).

Lightly edited for readability. No content was removed.

Speakers:

Greg:
Interviewer
Dr. Shiloh Vincent:
Superintendent, McPherson USD 418

Greg:
Perfect. Okay, so I want to start with the beginning. Where'd you grow up?

Dr. Vincent:
Great question. I grew up about an hour west of herewas a Sterling Black Bear. You were a McPherson Bullpup? I grew up through first grade and through high school and graduated from there. Then I took an interesting path. I went to KU for a split second, and then I had an opportunity to play college football at Garden City for a couple years and went from there to Benedictine College to play some football. Then I got tired of playing football, so I said I probably ought to just make sure I finish up my degree, and I ended up at K-State. So I grew up in Alden, Kansas, graduated from Sterling High School, and then made it to a couple of places to finish up my undergrad.

Greg:
What position did you play?

Dr. Vincent:
Great question. I was a middle linebacker when I was out in Garden City and then I was a big guy so... well, tight end was always my dream. Tight end was my preference. So I played that at Benedictine.

Greg:
Yeah, so what brought you into education? What degree did you get at K-State?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, well my degree at K-Stateactually I got two there. I got a Bachelor's in Arts in History and then a Bachelor's of Science in Secondary Ed. Then I later went to Fort Hays and finished up my Masters in Ed Leadership and then my Doctorate later, again back at K-State, I think it was 2019. But I've always been fortunate and blessed to have really good people in my life who were coaches and teachers. I saw the kind of career that was for my mom and dad, who were both career educators. I just always really loved and appreciated school, and I was fortunate to have really good mentors and examples in my life who were teachers and coaches. I thought, man, I just want to grow up and do that. So I always kind of dreamed of being a social studies teacher and a football coach and a basketball and anything-else coach that I could be. And I did that for a few years and then was able to move into administration and have an impact with kids at a different level. I've been fortunate to kind of move up through the ranks on that, but education's always just been... it's a really noble profession. And I think sometimes in media coverage and certainly in social media coverage, that gets lost a little bit in this day and age. But we have 2,165 kids who wake up and call McPherson home and come to our schools every day, and I think it's an extremely important opportunity that I have each day to get to have an impact on what quality of education they get and what the future holds for them. So I don't take that lightly, and it's something I'm proud to get to do as the Superintendent here now.

Greg:
And how long have you been in McPherson? So you were saying you left about 2008 is when you graduated, is that right?

Dr. Vincent:
Yes, correct. So I was kind of starting my career in education at that time out in western Kansas and then came up through the ranks out in Liberal, Kansas, in the larger district down in the southwest corner of the state, and was there for about 10 years. I started out as a teacher and then assistant principal and then later principal. I moved here in 2017. So this is my ninth year in McPherson School District. Those first three years were as an Executive Director of Secondary Ed and Assistant Superintendent, and then I moved into the Superintendency in Fall of 2020.

Greg:
A big year. Things got kind of divisive later on.

Dr. Vincent:
They did.

Greg:
How do you have kids? I mean with your family like...

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, appreciate that question. I'm fortunate and blessed to have four kids here who also call McPherson schools their home. All of my kids are elementary age. I have a daughter who's in the fifth grade and I have a daughter and two sons who are all in the third grade. We're very blessedthey currently attend Eisenhower. And of course, like others who will have new elementary placements next year, they too will go somewhere different next year. My boys are little baseball and football guys. They play a little bit of basketball but they like the baseball and football. My oldest daughter likes to play basketball and my youngest loves softball and dance. So yeah, they're busy.

Greg:
Very. So the next set of questions are more getting into the bond. At transition, have you ever had to send kids home because of facility issues?

Dr. Vincent:
Well, unfortunately we have had to do that in my time here. The most noticeable and unfortunate one was recently this school year when we had a sewage backup issue at McPherson High School that was very unfortunate from a timing perspective. Since we had to keep kids out for a day of school, the benefit was that it also coincided with a long weekend, so in terms of getting it addressed and fixed and back up and running, we were able to get kids back in school. But that was the most unfortunate one we've had in my time here. A couple of instances where eitherin one case the chiller had a pump that went out at McPherson High School and resulted in it being just too hot to have school one of the days. And then we had boiler issues at one point too, so that may have impacted school. I can't recall if we had to send kids home or keep kids out, but there's certainly been some facility challenges. Even in a perfect system those kinds of things can happen, but the level and magnitude that they've been happening at is definitely an example of the aging systems that we have and how it is starting to impact us.

Greg:
Right. So the bond is two parts. Question one is basically described as tax neutral, then question two is contingent upon that passing. So my first question is how is question one tax neutral? Kind of explain to a layman that has been around municipal bonds.

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, great question. We have a current mill levy that would have been established for our bond and interest fund at the most recent successful passing of a bond back in 2013. That was originally slated to be a 20-year bond and we're in a position now to pay that off six years early, a little over six years early. So the way that we're able to keep it mill rate neutral is we will be in a position to pay that bond off going into next fiscal year. We will pay that bond off as we enter into a new bond for these projects, and we will be able to sustain and fund that project with that existing mill rate that is in place.

Greg:
I see. Now question two is about the middle school, and based on what I've seen, the existing middle school has quite a bit of deferred maintenance13.4 million in backlogplus it's expensive to run every year. What happens if question two fails?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, obviously that's unfortunate. These are things that we take into consideration. One of the things that's important for our community to know is that especially as we looked at the best middle school option from an affordability standpoint, from a use-of-building standpoint, from considering all of the priorities that we heard from our community that mattered to them in terms of positive educational impact and fiscal responsibility... As we looked at bringing the existing middle school up to a 21st-century-ready middle school, our cost associated with either renovating it and bringing it back up to what would be needed nowor we even explored options that included building it on a new sitethose dollar amounts ranged from anywhere from 35 million up to about 55 or even $60 million in order to accomplish that. What I think is really creative about this projectand it came through the community conversation, so all of the credit goes to our community who weighed in on thisis we're able to repurpose Eisenhower as an existing asset and convert it into a new middle school that's 21st-century-ready and will have a great educational environment for kids for years to come. And we can do that for $20 million.

Greg:
So the reason I bring that upas opposed to 35 to 55 plus, okay...

Dr. Vincent:
Correct. The reason I bring that up in answering your question is not to take the long way around, but it is to say that using Eisenhower today and into the future is the most affordable plan for how we will be able to provide a new middle school for our community. That's a part of the board's long-range plan. So if it were to fail, we would go immediately out to our taxpayers to ask whywhat was it about the plan that they didn't support, what was it that they didn't understand. We would work to develop plans for when the timing might be appropriate for a future ask. In the meantime, we would of course use that building for a multitude of services, but that is an integral part of our long-range facility plan and will continue to be. We're hoping to be able to address it in this bond.

Greg:
Right. As far as operating costand you can use rough numbersbut what is the annual operating cost of the current middle school versus what the new cost at the middle school would be? What would you save every year?

Dr. Vincent:
Let me see if I can pull up something on that, because I want to give you some hard numbers... yeah, let me step over here for a second, let me get something for you. I'll be right back.

(Dr. Vincent steps away briefly and returns)

Dr. Vincent:
Sorry about that. I'm going to work to get that because I want to give you some hard numbers. Some of the key considerations: you mentioned some maintenance challenges there. One of the bigger costs associated with operating the middle schooland this is something that changed for every school district in Kansasis age of roofs and the cost associated with insurance and making sure those are being updated. Then your ongoing maintenance costs... so here in a minute I'll give you some hard numbers on that. But the thing that is an integral part of our operating costs are obviously our people. As we are transitioning from four elementaries down to three, we're going to be able to create some efficiencies. What we've targeted in anticipated savings overall through this facility change is between $1.75 and $2 million.

Dr. Vincent:
Right, right. And so from a number standpoint, when we consider all operating positive impacts that will come through this change, we anticipate being able to save in the process through operatingwhether that's the right-sizing with people, ultimately having lower insurance premiums because of updated buildings and no longer having old facilities with projects to take care ofwe're anticipating between 1.75 and 2.

Greg:
Thank you, I'm going to pull it up here, thank you.

Dr. Vincent:
So if you get everything, question one and two, you anticipate saving 1.75 to two a year, and if less, this could be less.

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, so to give you an idea of what we have at the middle school in terms of our operating costs: we have about just under $3 million in salaries. Those are going to continue. But we have another $250,000 annually just in minimal ongoing maintenance, utilities, supplies, and classroom materials. Then when you're talking about your insurance premiums on top of that and the ongoing need for updating roofs and things like that, it's significant.

Greg:
Yeah, got it. So the next set of questions are about the academic case. My first question is, okay, you're asking the community for 90 million bucks. How does that translate to higher math scores, higher English scores, etc.?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, I appreciate that question because one of the things is in these scenarios, something we had heard in the past was that people really wanted bond monies to be highly focused on instructional impactmaking sure that renewed spaces would be able to... Our community members and taxpayers said they want to make sure that what we're doing is investing in education and the teaching and learning experience, and not other things. And that is what's occurring here across the board.
Where we hear and what data points will tellthe groups that point to positive impactis that when students go to environments where they have opportunities to better collaborate, there's always a positive impact on academic outcomes when students are in better, renewed environments. So that's the overall picture.
The one that we talked about a little bit is climate control. The number one impact on student learningthis is true across the researchis heating and air. That seems like a small thing when we're talking about it because you think, well yeah, of course you want warm places in the winter and cool places in the summer. But what is known in the research is that there's about a 14 to 18% positive influence when students aren't getting unnecessarily cold during the wintertime or bringing blankets and things like thatsomething that's routinely occurring. From a statistic standpoint, it's legitimately those kinds of things. Not my researchthat's research provided by othersbut just having climates that are controlled, HVAC systems that are up to the right quality of air, can have as high as a 14 to 18% positive influence. And if you think about it, if you ever sat in a meeting and it gets a little bit warm and the guy keeps talking really longlike I am with you right nowyou can start to doze off or disconnect. Especially, we hear from high school kids during this time of year, the last couple weeks when it's been bitterly cold, as soon as they start to feel really cold in a classroom they start to disconnect.
But I think more important than that, the positive impact of whenand this is difficult to quantify but it's been across the researchafter successful bonds, as kids have gotten into updated environments, there's consistently improved outcomes. What they point to is better opportunities for kids to truly have spaces where they can collaborate across their classrooms, have small group settings, and the actual teaching and learning process can be better facilitated. As those things happen, our teachers are able to better use the resources in the classroom.
An example was from our physics teacher, just in terms of the physical spaceand I'm guessing you're an engineer by trade, is that right?

Greg:
Correct.

Dr. Vincent:
So this will resonate with you: our physics teacherso much of that hands-on learning experience needs to be able to occur, and you need to be able to run labs, but you also need to have space where those running the experiments can have time in a lab-type setting to debrief, produce their lab report, and those kinds of things. It's just unfortunate that in the current structures we have, that's really difficult to achieve. In a future new high school, it'll be built into how the building is structured, and we'll be able to have those kinds of hands-on learning experiences.
That's a physics example. The one I'm the most excited about is our Career and Tech Ed programsour welding program, our health and medical pathway, which is one of our biggest attractants. What we'll be able to have now is actual lab settings and spaces available. Also for example our construction pathwaywe'll be able to have a lot more hands-on learning opportunities for them. So I really hope you're not going to quote all thatthat's a long onebut I hope I gave you enough.

Greg:
It's good. I think it's one of the topics, you know... I would say the most forward-leaning districts are into vocational education, and there's this perception that you don't need college anymorethat we should equip you with all you need in high school. So are these trade education options in high school?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, one of the things that this bond will continue to allow us to do as an example is collaborate really closely with our industry. McPherson's blessed to have some of the best industry truly across the state, and I could probably make the argument across the nation in terms of industry partnerships here. If we think about thoseand we kind of take this for grantedyou're talking about a medical sector where we have Pfizer and highly skilled, highly vital positions right here in our backyard. We also have engineering positions at Viega and across CHS and a multitude of other places.
So what we're able to do is partner, especially as we move into a new environment, to lay a foundation for kids while they're in school and help partner with those groups to give themhopefully as kids leave high schooltwo things: students who, if a job is where they're heading, if they're going straight into the workforce, are credentialed and have a high-quality level of training. We've already got some good foundation in that work, Greg. But the problem is we don't always have facilities that allow us to give as robust an experience as we can. This bond will help that.
What it also doesand this is what I love when we talk about our engineering pathwayis those classroom experiences at the high school level are equally important, from welding to our construction pathways, CAD, those types of opportunities. Those are equally important whether you want to go straight into the workforce or if you're interested in going into engineering and you already know that your four-year pathway will benefit because you're getting real-world application.
So really, a long way of saying: when we talk about the importance of those experiences happening in high school, it's not to say... we're meeting kids along their pathway wherever that pathway is taking them. If it's taking them into the workforce, we want to make sure they leave here skilled and ready. And for many it will do that, but for others it's also going to go directly into a pipeline that's going to better prepare them for their engineering coursework at K-State or KU or wherever they go.

Greg:
Right. So question one is all about the high school renovation. Are those Vo-Tech renovations in question one, and can you give me a few examples?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, I think the best example I'll give you is what I envision occurring for our robotics program. So yes is the short answerthis will have a tremendously positive impact on our Career and Tech Ed program. CTE is what we call those, and I'll use our robotics program, which actually falls under the manufacturing pathway. If you've been out to Viega and some of these others, when we're talking about what's actually happening on those lines, the technicians are working on the robotsthey're not actually working on the parts, they're not creating the parts. And so our robotics programMr. Kornhus does an excellent job out there with his program...

Greg:
I think he was there when I was here.

Dr. Vincent:
Oh really? Yeah, and it's probably, Greg, the same classroomit might be much of the same setup. What he's done is he's maximized the space that he has for a VEX program, and they're doing really cool things. But this will take that a step further to where they're not just working on programming and all the things that they're doing right now, but they'll also be able to work on what we hope to see: some actual industry-level robots, the same kind you'd see out at Viega. We'd have kids who leave here already knowing how the programming of those works and the kind of impact they have. And he can have a setup where it can be primarily lab-focused and then an area where it can be instructional-driven, as opposed to right now where his entire classroom is kind of taken up with all of the parts and the learning is just happening around it.
That's a great example ofwhat we're not doing in this is telling our community that... there are a lot of really good people doing a lot of really good things and we have a lot of kids benefiting from those every day. We're just past the point of being able to use our spaces, and we've got a really great opportunity through this investment to really set McPherson and its kids up, and the industry and the community that we serve, in a really powerful way moving forward.

Greg:
So my next set of questions are going to be harder and they're going to be about maybe some misperceptions or rumors that have existed in McPherson. But before we go there, is there any more you want to say about the bond or academics?

Dr. Vincent:
Well, I think updated environments are going to support how students learn every day, right? We have teachers that are working their tails off and they're going to continue to do that. But when we have an opportunityand what we have here is an opportunityto have our classrooms designed not from a 1960 perspective but designed in a 2026 and '27 perspective for collaboration, small group work, integration of technology... we're going to be able to better personalize our instruction, we're going to be able to support all of the diverse learners across that classroom, and we're going to build the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that we know our kids need now and moving into the future. So it's a powerful opportunity for our community, and there's going to be some really positive things ahead for not just our high school students but for our entire community once it's successful.

Greg:
Yeah, thank you. My next question: you became the district Superintendent in 2020was that the Fall? So that was kind of a bad time to be starting your job with COVID. My question about COVID... I wasn't in person then, but my understanding was it was a pretty divisive time, a lot of politics, a lot of rumors, and just overall not good for anybody. My question is, from that experience, what did you learn about leadership, and what has the district done to win back trustwhether right or wrongfrom those that may have disagreed during that period?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, I love those questions, thank you. A couple of things I'll name. The question there is, what did you learn about leadership during that time? The reality isand I've shared thisI think probably for me the biggest lesson was that sometimes in leadership, you're not actually choosing between the right decision and the wrong one, or a good decision and a bad one is maybe a better way to reframe that. Sometimes you're choosing between two or three or, in some cases during COVID, five or six different options, and none of those are things you'd want to do. Does that make sense? And with all of those come intended consequences, and some of them create unintended consequences. I think the reality of leadership is doing the very best you can during those times based on the information you have, trying to discern and identify the best of all those solutions, and moving forward.
When you think about what kind of an impact that had on trustand I think our community has come a long wayit was my very first experience in my time on this planet where there was this perception that I was being directly impacted by things at the federal level. When you're talking about school closures, or at least at a high level whether that was state or federal... when we had things coming out from the CDC about masks and all of those things, it became personalized. When you had to put on a mask, that immediately gets personalized.
What that did from a trust perspective is, over not just the local level, it immediately caused trust issues from the federal levellike, how do we feel as people about the federal level telling me I have to do this, because now it's personalizedclear down to the state and then the local level.
The challenge at that time was you couldn't really come together and collaborate, you couldn't come together as a community and wrestle through it, because there were literally systems and protocol in place that limited the number of people you could even have in a room. At one point we were operating where everyone had to stand six feet apart and you could only have 15 people or less in the room. That's a really bizarre way for things to operate.
So what did I learn about trust? That was a negative reality showing that trust deteriorates quickly when collaboration can't occur. And what I've learned from that and what we've been able to see is, when it's possibleevery chance that it's possiblewe need to make sure that collaboration, stakeholder input, and community conversations can occur.
For me, the greatest lesson we've been able to apply, for example for this bond issue, is we said we want to get hundreds of people involved, we want to make sure we have as many people at the table as we can. So we hosted our community sessionsespecially throughout the process early onat the community building where we could have truly three or four hundred people, and we were able to get 150 to 200 people to be a part of it. What I've seen from McPhersonand it's been true consistentlyis we have a lot of really good people, a lot of valuable perspective, and we can build trust with each other when we come together and collaborate. I think that's a lesson learned through COVID, and I hope that this particular effort through the bond has been able to highlight that we've come a long way as a community. It certainly has had that kind of an impact on me as a leader.

Greg:
Yeah, thank you. So the next questionI think you wrote a column about social media a while back. It's come about bullying and social media and phones, and I hear all the time, "I'm worried about bullying." How much of this is a problem at USD 418, and what is the district doing about it, because those leaders that go away...

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, an interesting thing I'd like to point out: I had a couple people that pointed to that articlesome people who, not surprisingly, at times have negative things to say about things. I want to be clear that I wrote that especially seeing this is a cultural trend we're seeing across all elected officials. I think most concerning is that we're seeing this social media negativity being specifically directed at teacherspeople who pour their hearts and their lives into having a positive impact on kids, and they are also uniquely seeing kind of horrible things said about them and their industry on social media.
So my article was taken a little bit to say that I was somehow personalizing that. Have I had those experiences, Greg? Sure, I have those every daythat's a part of just the business at this point. But I was calling to action this idea of, let's be thoughtful. I think it's concerningthe example I cited was we have legislators who have to have local police officers escort them home because of nasty things said on the internet. These are not... we don't have secret service for some of these people, but those are the conversations they're having to have at the state level because of the social media environment and the types of things being said. So it was just a call to action to say let's be cognizant of that, but I think people need to know: adults are mentors in life, and kids are seeing our behavior. If we don't think they're emulating it, then... I hate to be the one who tells them, but we need to wake upthey are seeing it.
It's nothing new for kids to say things they shouldn't say. I thinkI knowwe have a lot of protocol in place at our middle school and high school to specifically catch where bullying's occurring. We've been able to do a couple things to limit exposure. Specifically, we used to do a one-to-oneand we still have one-to-one, by the way, at our middle school when it comes to electronic deviceswe just don't send them home anymore. That's had positive impact.

Greg:
One to one?

Dr. Vincent:
Oh, thank you. One-to-one technology, meaning there's one laptop device for every one kid at the middle school. Same thing for the high school. Those were really popularthose types of initiatives became really popular back in basically 2010 to 2015. But a consequence of that was we were sending devices home to kids, and they could log into social media applications and say things they shouldn't say. Now they don't have that, because now we use it as the instructional tool it was intended to be in a middle schoolthey engage in their classroom learning. If they need to check something out they can, but that constant tool isn't there for them to use in a negative way.
More importantly, we've installed things like Capturing Kids' Hearts, which is a program. We actually have five National Showcase schools in McPherson, and our high school was nominated for that just last year. What that does is really work to build positive culture, responsible learning environments, and help kids see that words have consequences and it's positive to focus on good things. So all that to say, we've got some of that happening consistently across our schools.
And I think as we tackle what I envision to be a next step, which is going to be cell phonesthat's already, Greg, I don't know what you're familiar with at the state level, but there's a bill currently proposed that has gained a tremendous amount of support to limit cell phones in a school setting. So there's going to be some practical challenges with that at a high school level, as you can imagine.

Greg:
So I've heard of the state law. What is our district policy about cell phones in the classroom?

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, great question. Currently, as you can imagine, we don't have cell phones in our elementary schoolswhether that's imagined or not, I guess I'd clarify we don't have cell phones in our elementaries. We also, from bell to bell at the middle school level, do not allow cell phones for students. At the high school, we do allow students to use their cell phonescurrently our practice is they can use them during passing periods and lunch periods, but during instructional time they are placed in holders. That's our current practice.
But we have had a task force that has reviewed that... are you familiar with the book
The Anxious Generation
?

Greg:
I've read it.

Dr. Vincent:
You've read it. Yeah, it's great, and it's interesting to think through what are the consequences of constant access. We are, to be honest with you, in a kind of holding pattern for a couple months here to determine what the law is going to look like if it passes, and otherwise what our policy looks like. There's interest on both sides, as you can imaginesome want to keep it, and there's a lot of interest by a lot of people to say, let's limit those, let's go bell-to-bell and keep them out. As you can imagine though, there's challenges with that. It's just so unique. 2008did you even have cell phones in high school?

Greg:
My first phone was like a Nokia brick and I played Snake and that was it.

Dr. Vincent:
And by the way, that was my very first cell phone too, and if I drained the battery down it was playing Snake, not talking on the phone. Text messages weren't even a thing. So it's come a long way, and it is a toolthat's where you've got people on both sides. But
The Anxious Generation
really put it into perspective, and I think that's why anymore when the topic of bullying comes up, it almost immediately transitions to social media and some kind of cyber bullying. Not that Greg picking on Shiloh doesn't happen, but those are really easy to identify and we've been able to address those in a school setting. It's the cyber bullying and the unseen consequences of it that are really challenging for systems to dig through right now.

Greg:
Right, good. So McPherson has a tradition of excellence in athleticswe're always very good at basketball, football on and offbut there's this perception, whether fair or not, that the district puts emphasis on sports over academics. What would you say to people that say we prioritize sports over academics?

Dr. Vincent:
It's interesting. I'll frame it this way: I think McPherson's a community that's really interested in being really good at virtually everything that we do and takes a lot of community pride in being able to meet that standard. This is coming as a guy who played football, played basketball, did track, but was also fortunate in the small setting that I was in to also be on the forensics team and in every play that I could be in, and sang in the choir and did band.
What I've noticed in each school system that I've ever served in is that there's just naturally thousands of people that want to show up and watch basketball, and unfortunately those same thousands of people don't always want to show up and watch Scholars Bowl or they didn't want to come watch me in forensics. But as a community and as a school system, while that may be what the spectators show up for, we still very much are highly invested in making sure that all of our programs are successful. I think it's important for our community to realize that that same level of investment is also having the same positive outcomes as our state championship basketball team.
What you're seeing is the fruits of that kind of investment, that kind of energy, that kind of support for academics and co-curricular: you're seeing State Debate championships being hung as often or more than some of our sports teams. You're seeing Forensics have back-to-back state champions. You're seeing our high school be recognizedGreg, we're the only high school in Kansas that, I think five out of the last six years, possibly six out of six, has been ranked in the top five when it comes to the KSHSAA Performing Arts School of Excellencea finalist all five years. One of those, as recent as 2024 or 2023, we were recognized as the top performing arts school of excellence. So that's recognizing the extremely positive outcomes we're having in band, vocal, speech, debate, forensics, across the board.
Also, by the way, 92%we saw the highest graduation rate that McPherson High School has ever seen last year. It's going to be even higher this year. We're seeing kids leave with more post-secondary credentials than ever before, meaning they're more workforce-prepared and more post-secondary-prepared than they've ever been. Our AP exam outcomes have always been very strong and continue to be. Our ACT continues to be right at where the rest of the state isthat's historically been true in McPherson and continues to be.
So just because people like to come out and watch basketball doesn't mean there's any more energy behind it. There are people that are more excited to watch people dunk a basketball perhaps than going to Scholars Bowl, but as a system we're extremely proud of each of those kids that are involved in all of our programs and we're working really hard to make sure we have systems in place to support them in every aspect.
Before I got hereor before I transitioned to the superintendencywe didn't have a Kaligned curriculum in any of our content areas. Mrs. Williams and the team, and our teacher teams across the system, in five short years we had Kaligned curriculum in all of our core content areas. That's us investing in a significant way as a system into academics and the teaching and learning process. Two thousand people didn't actually show up to do thatthat's 2,165 kids who are in our Ksetting who show up every day to get a benefit from that hard work.

Greg:
What is Kaligned?

Dr. Vincent:
Kaligned meaning from kindergarten up through 12th grade, we have a core curriculum in math that we know across all of our buildings. Kwould be from kindergarten through 12th gradewe call that vertical alignment. Then horizontally, across all of our kindergarten sections, across all of our first grade sections, we are aligned, ensuring that everybody is teaching from the same materials, working to address the same teaching and learning standards. And that what Greg gets when he's at Eisenhower doesn't change when Greg transitions from Eisenhower to Roosevelt.

Greg:
I see. So it prevents like a rogue class that's kind of off the curriculum. Got it.

Dr. Vincent:
And what was happening beforeand I want to be cautious not to make it seem like there's anything at faultwhat was happening before is everyone was teaching their tails off but there wasn't a core, common resource guiding that. You might have a teacher that was really, really successful over here and someone over here that wasn't using the same resource, and it was consequently less successful, and then there was an inequity in what we were providing kids. It just depended on whether Greg was in this class and Shiloh was in this other onethen Greg got to learn differently and better and have better outcomes than Shiloh. We've been able to completely overhaul and enhance that in a very short period of time.

Greg:
My point is the rising graduation rate too.

Dr. Vincent:
Great question. I would attribute that to a lot of different things, but number one is finding pathways. We now have virtual pathways for kids, alternative pathways for kids, and really good traditional pathways for kids. At our high school level in particular, we're working every day to make sure we understand what a kid's individual plan of study is and how we can put them in a situation to be successful. That's paying off in a big way.
The other thing goes back to what we talked about with Career and Tech Ed, and why that's such an integral part of our bond project at the high school. If we can get kids excited and they can start to know today something that they're interested inwhat we've seen with welders, for example, where they'll take a welding one class and just fall in love with it, then they enroll for the next two years and leave with a welding certificate. They can do one of two things: some have gone directly into the workforce and been able to make a really good wage as a welder. And we've had kids take that same credential and continued their post-secondary education, making a really good wage on the side while furthering their education. It's those kinds of things that...

Greg:
Yeah, so I have one more questionhow are you doing on time?

Dr. Vincent:
Oh, I'm good. I have a 3:30, so as long as we're good.

Greg:
So last question... they'll ask if you have anything else you want to address, but there's this perception out thereand I think it's relevant to the bondso we've had three failed bonds and we asked for a new football field, and then they failed and the new football field was built. So how is that funded, is question one. Then question two: there are also those that say we had the big rain last summer, the field changed draining patterns and caused ground flooding. So I just want to give you a chance to address those things.

Dr. Vincent:
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to talk about those. So this is a conceptone of the things we actually learned when the first bond failed was there were a lot of different... it was a really big comprehensive plan and the price tag on it was pretty high, Greg. That's something we learned from feedback after that first failed bond. What we did learn was that for some people, the reason they voted no is because they didn't like all the athletics that were included in the bond proposal. That made up a portion of our community, but there were others who voted no for reason B and reason C and reason D.
One of the things that didn't change following that failed bond proposal was that we needed to have a field of our own in order to support our programs. There were conversations at the board table at that time that said, we need to hear from our community about what the support is for this, because there are two paths we have to consider. If we can't have a place for track and field to occur, then we need to talk about building one. If we can't build one, then we've got to talk about cutting track and field. The same is true for marching band. At that time, in the position the district was in, those things were true. We were either talking about cutting programs or making sure we put things in place to support them.
During that time, the board held multiple community sessions, surveyed community members in multiple ways, and throughout those conversations, what we heard from our community was about 70 to 30 and in some cases as high as 80 to 20% of people providing feedback said, "We need to do something to build a field that supports our programsdon't cut them." So that's what the board also did. We funded that through a lease purchase agreement at that time, through our capital outlay, up until today. There was about a $3.1 million investment to put that facility there.
The really positive thing that occurred afterwards was there was also a belief that we should seek to find private donors to enhance that facility. Through a lot of hard work from people like Carol Swinson, Dan Ly, Perry McCabe, Andy Elliot, Tiffany FloydI'm trying not to leave anyone outDenise Monzie O'Connor, all of these people who were working really hard on the capital campaign, they were able to raise an additional right around $1.2 to $2 million, Greg, to fund improvements that included things like additional seating, press box, some additional throwing areas, most recently a Javelin runway, lights, audioall of those enhancements came through the generous donations of community members across our community.
So while there were peopleand I talked to someone the other day about this exact thingwhile there were people who felt they voted and were not in support of that athletic facility being built, that was about 7 to 3 who were in favor, and specifically they were in favor of the district and community investing in its kids to keep those programs alive and well, as opposed to the alternative, which would have been to eliminate them.
What happened this last summer as it relates to the 200-year flood that we hadwhich I didn't know those existed until unfortunately that occurredwhat we learned, and I can appreciate where some people would naturally conclude that the field had something to do with it, through the evaluation by civil engineers, experts in the field, it really boiled down to a multitude of different things, all of which were identified and addressed. Things like making sure the pipe system into our drainage ditch was cleared and that it will eventually be widened even more, that our pumps were updated in that system, and that our drainage areas were improved, specifically close to the building, so that it would flow and run the way it should. That's really what it ultimately boiled down to.
That's been hard for some to understand, but the reality is, through outside experts identifying and reviewing what occurred, those were the problems identified and they've all been able to be fixed. Long term, people who are concerned about thatI hope they'll consider supporting our bond effort on March 3rd, because I think most exciting for that is that we will be able to bring that entire area up to ground level and completely eliminate from a permanent perspective the challenges of trying to have part of your school in that kind of flood zone. It'll bring that area completely up to grade and permanently eliminate any concerns about flooding at the Roundhouse or at the new high school in any fashion.

Greg:
Got it. So I played soccer back in the day and we played at College Field, and we shared that forI think it was soccer, football, track. Where'd you play at McPherson? College Field?

Dr. Vincent:
Oh, College Field, mhm.

Greg:
What happened to that partnership?

Dr. Vincent:
What happened with that partnershipwe still have a really great partnership with McPherson College. I always want to make sure I give a big shout out to our partners over there. In fact, President Schneider has always been good to help make sure that, as we continue to find longer-lasting solutions, we have that environment for our Friday night football.
But what happened to that partnership is a really healthy problem, and I've said that throughout the process: McPherson College is growing. Its student athletes are growing and their programs are growing and they're highly successful. Depending on what time frame you want to go back to, they've at least doubled in terms of their student population and their programs are highly successful. So what's happened over timeand also McPherson High School is growing toois the demand on a single location just was not successful for anybody.
At one pointand an example of that, which I hadn't thought about in a long timewe were having to consider whether programs were going to start practicing at like 5 in the morning in order to ensure that facility could support all the programs that were there. That would work in a very short time frame as a "have-to-have" situation, but that's not a long-term solution that's going to be good for anybody, and that was realized at that time.
We still have a really strong relationship with McPherson College, and as anybody is aware, there's a lot of anticipated growth that we're expecting to see from them in the next several years with the work they're doing with their endowment and things like that. Their needs continue to grow, as do ours. It's a strong partnership that'll continue, but it's just not one that could be sustained with a single facility anymore.

Greg:
Right. And last questionis there any other rumor, misconception, or just information you want to share that we have not covered yet?

Dr. Vincent:
I don't think this is a rumor or misconception, but one of the things I want to remind everybody is that this was a highly transparent, highly collaborative, highly engaging process. There were literally hundreds of community members involved in ultimately developing and influencing and having a high impact on what this plan looks like. So this is a community solution that maximizes our district assets and does it in an affordable way.
I just hope that people recognize that throughout this process we've heard the feedback, we've taken the feedback, and we've implemented the feedback. What's resulted is comprehensively the best solution that could have been brought forwardone that ensures all of our key priorities are taken care of, that we're being highly responsible from a fiscal perspective, and that we're doing it in recognition that there are a lot of members of our community on fixed incomes. Previous asks that would have been in the range of $20 to $22 a monththis entire plan can be achieved for a little under $10, right at $9 to $10 a month.
We've heard our community. We thank our community for being an integral part of it. We appreciate you, Greg, for taking time to help highlight it, and we just hope everyone goes out and votes on March 3rd.

Greg:
Good deal. And when you said those numbersnine bucks a monthyou're assuming a $200,000 house, the median home?

Dr. Vincent:
Thank you for asking. Median home value, $200,000. Yep.

Greg:
Well...

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