Takeaways from Pittsburg USD 250 Education Board Meeting
Week of June 11, 2026
Board adopts new student cell phone and smartwatch policy
High school theater production selection sparks content concerns
District lays groundwork for in-house virtual school platform
Board approves teacher contract with salary steps and paid childbirth leave
Lakeside Elementary set for $64,000 hallway painting project
District receives $220,000 grant to replace aging diesel school buses
Board adopts new student cell phone and smartwatch policy
PITTSBURG, Kan. — The USD 250 Board of Education unanimously approved a new cell phone policy designed to keep personal devices, including smartwatches, inaccessible during the school day. Following recent state legislation, middle school students will be required to keep phones stored in lockers, while high school students must keep them put away in backpacks. The policy includes medical exemptions for students with documented needs and strictly limits staff-student digital communication to district-managed platforms, explicitly prohibiting the use of personal social media for school activities.
High school theater production selection sparks content concerns
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Pittsburg High School theater teacher Breana Clark presented the upcoming season's productions, sparking debate over the spring musical, "Something Rotten!" Acknowledging the show's PG-13 rating and crude humor, Clark assured the board that approved script edits would be utilized to tone down the innuendo and that the play would be clearly marketed with content warnings. While concerns were raised during the meeting that school productions should remain universally family-friendly, Clark was also praised for proactively bringing the discussion forward and contextualizing the content alongside classic literature currently taught in the district.
District lays groundwork for in-house virtual school platform
PITTSBURG, Kan. — The board unanimously approved the handbook for the new USD 250 Virtual School, slated to officially launch in August 2026. Initially restricted to in-district students, the program will transition the district away from relying solely on Greenbush Virtual, where roughly 40 to 50 local students are currently enrolled. Administration will now submit the approved handbook to the Kansas State Department of Education for final authorization while coordinating orientation documents with the educational software platform Edmentum.
Board approves teacher contract with salary steps and paid childbirth leave
PITTSBURG, Kan. — The board unanimously ratified the upcoming negotiated agreement with the Pittsburg Education Association, securing salary advancements and an overhauled employee leave system. The agreement includes step and column salary movements ranging from $1,000 to over $4,700, alongside a 2 percent increase for topped-out educators. Notably, the contract introduces 10 days of paid short-term childbirth disability leave, a measure designed to give new parents paid time off without forcing them to rapidly deplete the district's communal sick leave pool.
Lakeside Elementary set for $64,000 hallway painting project
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Lakeside Elementary will receive a major interior update ahead of its 100th birthday in October, thanks to a $64,579.53 contract awarded to [CONTRACTOR NAME]. The unanimous decision will replace aging, speckled hallway paint originally applied during a 2002 bond project, which maintenance staff noted is currently impossible to patch uniformly. The contractor was scheduled to mobilize immediately, as the building is not hosting summer school programming this year.
District receives $220,000 grant to replace aging diesel school buses
PITTSBURG, Kan. — District officials announced the receipt of a Kansas Department of Health and Environment Clean Diesel Vehicle Grant, which will provide $110,000 each for the purchase of two new school buses. As a condition of the grant, the district must permanently disable and dispose of two older buses in its fleet, including a 76-passenger bus that aged out of service this month. The grant significantly reduces the out-of-pocket taxpayer cost for upgrading the local transportation fleet.
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