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Why do kids skip school? · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: I am your host, Gene Stothard. Peyton Hilock, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is also here today.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning to you, Gene.
• 0:07
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  Speaker 2: I know I'm kind of sad, but have.
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  Speaker 1: Yep. And so Spain is moving forward. We'll see what
• 0:21
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  Speaker 1: guest today, but of course you're going to hear plenty
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  Speaker 1: of opinions from me too. But it is your chance
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  Speaker 1: We are so happy that you are with us today,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and it's going to be another hot one today in Omaha.
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  Speaker 1: What's the temperature supposed to be get up to today, Peyton?
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  Speaker 1: I think ninety five yeah, I was mid nineties. Who
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  Speaker 1: you know. Last night I was down at the Jean
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  Speaker 1: Lahy Mall with my grandkids and I didn't get down
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  Speaker 1: there till seven o'clock. Oh my goodness. It was beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: But was it hot down there?
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  Speaker 2: It is really beautiful down there, it is, but it.
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  Speaker 1: Was so human. Today. I have a great guest with
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  Speaker 1: me today. Mike Kennedy is with me today. Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, How are you today?
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  Speaker 3: Great?
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  Speaker 1: Good Mike Kennedy is. I think I would think everybody
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  Speaker 1: in Millard knows who Mike Kennedy is. But Mike Kennedy
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  Speaker 1: is an attorney, but he's also a member of the
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  Speaker 1: Millard Public School Board of Education. We've known each other
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  Speaker 1: for over twenty years. We just figured that out. I
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  Speaker 1: got to tell the story before we get into what's
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  Speaker 1: really important we're talking about today. So I was on
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  Speaker 1: the Millard School Board for one term before Mike was on,
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  Speaker 1: before he was elected. And we're sitting there waiting for
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  Speaker 1: a meeting, and Mike comes and sits next to me
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  Speaker 1: for his first meeting, and you know, one of the
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  Speaker 1: don't you argue with me, because this is true to argue.
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  Speaker 1: Of the first things he said to me was how
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  Speaker 1: old are you anyway? And I'm thinking, all right, you're
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  Speaker 1: starting out wrong. So it gets better. So I tell
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  Speaker 1: him how old I am and he said that's the
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  Speaker 1: age of my mom. And I said, we're not starting out.
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  Speaker 1: And every since then, guess what Mike's nickname for me
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  Speaker 1: is meyor Mom. He calls me me or Mom. He's
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  Speaker 1: done that, yeah, for a long time. So I'm glad
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  Speaker 1: my son, Mike Kennedy is here today. Of course, we
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  Speaker 1: don't look a lot alike. It's that red hair of yours.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you very distinctive. You don't look different. You
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  Speaker 1: look quite different than me, absolutely, I know. But and
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  Speaker 1: I'm taller than him too. But anyway, we've had a
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  Speaker 1: good time together. And one thing Mike Kennedy and I
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  Speaker 1: are very passionate about, and I still am, is the
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  Speaker 1: education of our youth. It is just so important, and
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  Speaker 1: it's important all of you too, because number one, you know,
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  Speaker 1: people are talking about taxes all the time, and they
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  Speaker 1: talk about how high the property taxes are. And I've
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  Speaker 1: said this many times that about sixty two percent of
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  Speaker 1: your property tax bill here in Omaha goes to the
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  Speaker 1: public schools. So you all have a very vested interest
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  Speaker 1: in our public schools being successful and our youth that
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  Speaker 1: are graduate from our public schools are also successful. But
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  Speaker 1: we have some issues. We have some issues in Omaha.
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  Speaker 1: These issues are nationwide and Mike's here to talk about
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  Speaker 1: it today because he has a lot of the data
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  Speaker 1: and the statistics. But there are really some major issues
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  Speaker 1: that involve truancy, chronically absent students and their reading scores
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  Speaker 1: in literacy, literacy with our students, and the problem that
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  Speaker 1: we have is when these kids miss as much school
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  Speaker 1: as they are missing and they can't read on their
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  Speaker 1: level that they should read, what happens then we start
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  Speaker 1: seeing a lot more juvenile crime. And you cannot deny that.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about that, Mike, Let's talk you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think we both feel like every kid needs to
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  Speaker 1: learn to read. We know not every kid is college bound.
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  Speaker 1: They're not college they're ready, right, They're not ready for college.
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  Speaker 1: So let's just talk about Let's go back to what
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  Speaker 1: the issues are here in Omaha. It's every school district.
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  Speaker 1: I think we see it more in Omaha Public school.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just talk about what is the problem first.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we have a couple problems but they're all tied
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  Speaker 3: in with each other. So first we talk about literacy rates,
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  Speaker 3: But the problem is if a child is not going
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  Speaker 3: to school, how do they learn? How do they learn
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  Speaker 3: to read? And I basically boil it down. It's called
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  Speaker 3: button seats. If a child is there in the morning
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  Speaker 3: and working on the education. We have some great teachers
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  Speaker 3: across our community. If they're working with that child one
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  Speaker 3: on one, they're able to get the skills they need
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  Speaker 3: to be successful in life.
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  Speaker 1: But let me ask this, it was there big a
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  Speaker 1: big turnaround when COVID hit or has this been a
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  Speaker 1: chronic problem of kids being in When we say chronically absent,
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  Speaker 1: we are talking about missing at least twenty or more
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  Speaker 1: school days a year. Is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: Correct? Her Nebraska, it's twenty days when the law kicks in,
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  Speaker 3: and the national definition is about ten percent of your days,
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  Speaker 3: even though it's eighteen to twenty days depending upon how
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  Speaker 3: you do the definition.
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  Speaker 1: But folks, we have some kids in Omaha Public school
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  Speaker 1: I know that can be absent forty fifty sixty days
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  Speaker 1: a year. How are these kids going to get educated?
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  Speaker 1: And that's what Mike was saying. We need their butts
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  Speaker 1: and seats but the issue is how do we do
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  Speaker 1: that and why is this happening? Why are they chronically absent?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the problem was there before COVID, and I know
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people want to talk about COVID, but
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  Speaker 3: I think COVID put it on steroids because one the
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  Speaker 3: kids were out of school for obvious reasons. And then
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  Speaker 3: school districts had different approaches how to get schools reintegrated
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  Speaker 3: back into school. Some went five to five to three,
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  Speaker 3: some did remote learning. But when we got to twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty three, the numbers were through the roof. And I'm
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  Speaker 3: not here to pick on a particular school district because
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  Speaker 3: every school district here in Nebraska has a problem with
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  Speaker 3: truancy and they're all working on it. But ops's numbers
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  Speaker 3: that came out last year, And like I said, I'm
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  Speaker 3: not picking on OPS, but it's a number, and it's
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  Speaker 3: a big number. They have approximately fifty thousand students. They
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  Speaker 3: have a forty percent truancy or chronic absenteism rate. That's
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  Speaker 3: twenty thousand kids. And if kids are not performing in
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  Speaker 3: the classroom, then your graduation rates are down. And their
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  Speaker 3: graduation rates now are in the seventies and they're working
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  Speaker 3: on it. But the problem is that we can't get
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  Speaker 3: these kids into school, whether it's Millard, West Side Bellevue,
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  Speaker 3: if we don't have the kids there, you can't help
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  Speaker 3: that individual child approach has to be global, it has
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  Speaker 3: to be community wide, right because a teacher cannot control
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  Speaker 3: whether that kid shows up that day.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. But let's just not again to pick on OPS.
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  Speaker 1: But let's just look at OPS and kind of tear
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  Speaker 1: this apart a little bit. OPS has a much higher
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  Speaker 1: percentage of students that are on free and Reduce Launch,
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  Speaker 1: a much higher percentage of students that are in poverty,
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  Speaker 1: a lot higher percentage of students that have single parents,
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  Speaker 1: some parents that are working two or three jobs. So
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  Speaker 1: is this part of the problem.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, it's a factor. But also too, I will
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  Speaker 3: tell you this, we have kids and well to do
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  Speaker 3: households that are having issues getting in school and that
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  Speaker 3: can be related to mental health, problems with the parents,
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  Speaker 3: ability to get the kids at school, logistics and all that.
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  Speaker 3: So I think we need a broad based approach. It's
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  Speaker 3: just singling out one factor. There's multiple factors contributing to it.
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  Speaker 3: And for this community succeed if we talk about growing workforce.
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  Speaker 3: That's something you worked on well, as mary Omaha has
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  Speaker 3: right now under three percent unemployment rate. If these kids
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  Speaker 3: aren't graduating, if these kids aren't college and career ready,
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  Speaker 3: where do they go? I know Senator McKinney has talked
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  Speaker 3: about this quite a bit and he says, you know,
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  Speaker 3: schools can be a school to prison pipeline. Have an
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  Speaker 3: argument for him. I think we have a problem with
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  Speaker 3: not in school to prison pipeline. I work in the
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  Speaker 3: juvenile courts. I'm a family law lawyer. I see kids
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  Speaker 3: that are showing up in juvenile court committing multiple crimes,
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  Speaker 3: and you know what the common denominator is, they don't
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  Speaker 3: go to school and they haven't to go in to
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  Speaker 3: school for a long time. I just removed kids from
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  Speaker 3: a home from a parent that wasn't getting their kids
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  Speaker 3: to school for thirty forty fifty days.
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  Speaker 1: Are these kids chronically absent or have they dropped out
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  Speaker 1: of school?
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  Speaker 3: Well?
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  Speaker 1: Both.
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  Speaker 3: They're still enrolled, okay, but they're not getting to school.
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  Speaker 3: And the problem is there's so many kids. The county
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  Speaker 3: attorney can't prosecute every kid, every parent. We have to
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  Speaker 3: have prosecution be done on every case. But the solution
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  Speaker 3: I think needs to be community orient and we need
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  Speaker 3: to get our nonprofits together. We need to get the city,
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  Speaker 3: law enforcement, the courts, and get the entire team together
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  Speaker 3: to figure it out. Because what happens is this if
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  Speaker 3: you can't help get the kid to the classroom, and
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  Speaker 3: that could be a transportation issue, it could be a
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  Speaker 3: whole host of other things. We need to work on.
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  Speaker 3: That particularly is to have the resources community wide to
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  Speaker 3: get the kids in their triage it out and get
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  Speaker 3: them in school. And when they're in school, then we
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  Speaker 3: can tackle the literacy issue.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about with Millard Public School you are most
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  Speaker 1: familiar with, So let's talk about that now. So if
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  Speaker 1: a student, say, is chronically absent in Millard Public School,
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  Speaker 1: what is the process now? I mean, if they identify
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  Speaker 1: a student, say in high school, that has been absent
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  Speaker 1: more than say twenty days, is there a process set
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  Speaker 1: up now that say they are referred to a counselor
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  Speaker 1: the councilor meets with the parent. What happens right now?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? So the administration tracks that. I mean, they all
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  Speaker 3: have the attendance software. No right, but many of the
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  Speaker 3: school districts, including Miller or having a preemption approach, which
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  Speaker 3: is basically they start seeing a pattern, the teacher notices that,
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  Speaker 3: the principal notice is it, and then our pupil services
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  Speaker 3: team works with our counselors and administrators to work with
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  Speaker 3: the parents. The last thing we want to do is
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  Speaker 3: for a parent to don klin in Polokov because we
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  Speaker 3: cover some counties. We don't want parents and kids in
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  Speaker 3: the system, so we try to figure out what those
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  Speaker 3: barriers are, try to put them in touch with social
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  Speaker 3: services that could help in that area. If the child
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  Speaker 3: is having some mental health issues, we work with them.
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  Speaker 3: Our goal is to get the kid back to school
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  Speaker 3: or make accommodations so the kids receiving an education, and
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  Speaker 3: that's really important.
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  Speaker 1: What is the pattern that you see the most if
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  Speaker 1: a kid is chronically absent is what are they doing?
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  Speaker 1: I mean are they are they staying at home? Are
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  Speaker 1: they out with their friends? Are they out? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: what are these kids doing if they don't come to school?
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  Speaker 1: What's the pattern what you see?
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  Speaker 3: Let's look at the age ranges. Okay, if you have
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  Speaker 3: a kindergartener or third grader, they're probably not roaming the streets.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, I've talked to sheriff Hansen and other
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  Speaker 3: people in law enforcement about this. If the parents aren't
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  Speaker 3: home and the kids aren't in school, these kids are
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  Speaker 3: doing other activities, they're not being watched, and then it
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  Speaker 3: leads to juvenile crime in this community. And we're seeing
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  Speaker 3: a spike. It used to be you'd see the juvenile
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  Speaker 3: crime activity fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year olds committing more of
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  Speaker 3: the major stuff. We now have eleven and twelve year
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  Speaker 3: old kids participating in murders, yes, card jackings, Yes you do.
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  Speaker 3: Your administration did a great job with Chief Smater controlling
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  Speaker 3: the crime rate. But the problem is this is bubbling
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  Speaker 3: under the surface and when these kids reach adulthood, they
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  Speaker 3: will be doing more adult like things.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, there's this term now that you see nationwide,
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  Speaker 1: the teen takeovers. Yes, and people have even called this
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  Speaker 1: station and said, you know, what are you going to
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  Speaker 1: do about the ten takeovers? Say at the college World Series?
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  Speaker 1: And these these are real things. And these are like twelve, thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: fourteen year old kids that come in to an area,
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  Speaker 1: like if there's a big event, and they try to
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  Speaker 1: bully people and intimidate people, and they come in such
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  Speaker 1: large masses. This is what's happening and people are afraid.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's part of the issue here. So it's
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  Speaker 3: early intervention. That's why I think we need to adopt.
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  Speaker 3: The city needs to have a community forum with the
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  Speaker 3: chamber and the mayor's office could help put this together.
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  Speaker 3: Bring schools, social services, the courts, the county attorney, nonprofits
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  Speaker 3: working together and have situations where we have kids from
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  Speaker 3: seven am to seven pm working on positive things. And yeah,
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  Speaker 3: there probably will be a cost to it, but you
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  Speaker 3: look at the back end of the equation with the
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  Speaker 3: costs to social services, incarceration, and other problems in our community,
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  Speaker 3: it's very high. But we're doing these things well the promise.
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  Speaker 3: I just don't think we're integrated enough yet. And Ops
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  Speaker 3: has their plan, Millard has their plan, west Side needs
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  Speaker 3: their plan. I think we need to come together and
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  Speaker 3: work with everybody to try to get kids into school
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  Speaker 3: and then work on literacy like libraries. We have one
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  Speaker 3: of the best library systems in the world. Literacy programs
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  Speaker 3: can help those kids, but if they're not in school,
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  Speaker 3: how are they going to know to access those programs
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  Speaker 3: we have in the community. And the last piece is this,
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  Speaker 3: we have great teachers in this community. My two parents
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  Speaker 3: were ops teachers. They cared about the kids. They're the
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  Speaker 3: front line. Our educators in Omaha can see if there's
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  Speaker 3: a distressed child, a child not getting food, a child
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  Speaker 3: that's being abused, a child that's having issues at home.
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  Speaker 3: But if they're not in school, guess what, you don't
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  Speaker 3: have somebody. And I hate to say it's a mandatory reporter,
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  Speaker 3: because teachers just don't automatically call CPS. But they can
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: work with those families, they can work with a social worker.
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  Speaker 3: Our teachers are our frontline defense for our kids, and unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: we have thought doans of kids across our community, not
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: just ops that are falling through the cracks. And that's
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  Speaker 3: the other problem, not having kids in school.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Mike Kennedy is with us today. He's an attorney,
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  Speaker 1: but he's also a member of the Millard Public School
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  Speaker 1: Board of Education. And we are just talking about truancy.
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  Speaker 1: We are talking about chronically absent students. And of course,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you know you said this may cost something, but in
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the long run, it's a big payout. But here's what
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you. I'm gonna put you on
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the spot here because you talk about getting together the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: community getting together, getting nonprofits, the city, the state, Douglas
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: County attorney, the courts together. But how many times have
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: we talked about let's get together and talk about it,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: let's get a plan, But then it doesn't work. You know.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Terrell McKenney pushed through in the in the the state
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: legislature a poverty elimination plan. Okay, that sounds really really great.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: That if we can have a plan to eliminate poverty,
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  Speaker 1: and the City of Omaha has a plan now to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a eliminate poverty, are we ever going to be able
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to eliminate poverty?
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  Speaker 4: No?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, poverty's been around before Jesus Christ walk on
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  Speaker 1: the earth. I mean, poverty has been around forever. We
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: can't eliminate it. Can we We can meet and we
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: can have a plan, But do you think we can
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: really come up with a plan that we could put
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: into action and we could solve this problem?
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Yes, and it needs to be bipartisan. I mean, people
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: just you know, I'm a Republican, but you know what,
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: I work across the party lines. I've talked to a
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: couple of state centaters. I've talked to John Frederickson, I've
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: talked to Kathleen, cause they're on two totally different political spectrums,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: but you know what, they want to work on this issue.
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  Speaker 3: I think everyone in this community wants to do it.
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  Speaker 3: I think Mary Ewing wants to do it, our council,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the state centers. But here's what we have to do.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: I also believe government has carot and stick. We pay
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: a lot of money for kids to go to school.
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  Speaker 3: I'll give you an example. You probably over thirteen years,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: if you have a child that goes to Ops or Millard,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: you're spending about two hundred thousand dollars an educated kid
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  Speaker 3: over thirteen years. Yes, what's like the return of investment
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  Speaker 3: on that for the community. And if that child is
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: not able to enter the workforce and be a productive member,
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  Speaker 3: then that was money waste. And I hate to quantify
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: kids as a number, but that's what we do. We
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: want kids to succeed. I've always had this motto here
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  Speaker 3: that I've used as when you rob a child of
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: an education, you rob a family of its future. So
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: schools have to get it right the first time.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And you know, once again I said this earlier,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but about sixty two percent of your total property tax
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: bill goes to public education. Even when I was on
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the school board, people would say, well, wait a minute,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I don't have kids in school anymore, why should I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: be paying taxes for the kids in school? This is
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: exactly why. I mean, these kids are our future. And
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: you are not going to have a good, safe community
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: unless you have good schools and they are producing successful students.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: They're not all college bound. They don't need to be
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: all college bound, and that's kind of I think that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: that whole push that was going on I don't know
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: thirty years ago that everybody had to be college bound.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I think all public schools, all schools recognized not all
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: kids are college bound anymore. But we need to supply
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: them with the information they need in the education they need,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: so no matter what they choose, they can be successful.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: But they got to choose something, and they got to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: stay in school exactly.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: And if they're in school, they can be opened up
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: to these careers. I know the unions are doing a
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: great job here in the community opening kids eyes to
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: the trades. Metro Community College has been partnering with Miller
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: for years and all that. Yes, we have kids in
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: early college, but we also have kids to go to
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: their other skills programs. This is why we have to
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: have not only a discussion, but then put the things
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: in place, the legislation, the ordinances that works to make
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: this happen. And sometimes you have to have a stick
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: approach too that if we don't get this accomplished, what's
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the cost of society. So yeah, you put a little
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: bit of burden on the school districts, but you have
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: to have everybody working together because, like I said earlier,
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: a teacher can't bring a kid to school. But you
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: know what, maybe the community needs some people like the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: old truancy officers help bring kids to school, and maybe
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: some social workers to help work on transportation issues and
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: other issues that are going on that household that's preventing
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: that child from getting there. I want a child, no
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: matter where do they live in Omaha, to be in
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: that seat every day getting a great education from our
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: great educator educators. We have great schools all across Alma,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: including Ops Millard, West Side and the rest of them.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: But if the kid is not there, you will not
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: achieve what I think. Superintendent Matt Ra's been working on
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: Project Moonshot. If anyone doesn't know what that is, that's
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: his goal by twenty thirty to have every kid in
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: his district reading provision. The problem is, if you have
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: a certain percentage of your kid's not there, you're never
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: going to hit that goal.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: You can't be successful if they're not there. You have
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the statistics better than I do. And this is Mike
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Kennedy with the Millard School Board that's with us today.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: What are there more boys than girls that are chronically absent?
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: What is that breakdown between men and will girls and boys?
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: I'll be anidult I think it's a little bit more boys.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: But the problem is whether it's male or female, it
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: doesn't make the difference. And we have kids missing for
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: other reasons. We have a lot of male health issues
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: in the community, right that's keeping a lot of kids
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: have phobias and fears and other things going on with them.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: It's keeping them out there. But the boys missing school,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: that's a big problem because guess who's showing up in
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: the juvenile court system a little bit more. It's the boys,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: and the boys are doing some things that adults are
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: doing now. I mean, like I said, the carjackings have
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: been up, Oh yes, staff's robberies and even some murders
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: have been done with boys as young as eleven and
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: twelve years old. We never had that in Omaha before.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: They're kind of there. We used to call them gang
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: want to be members, but they're almost not want to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: be members anymore. They carry firearms and they are doing major,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: major crimes. And then the issue is once they do,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: when you are a thirteen year old, what do you
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: do with them?
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Then?
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know this better than I do. The
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: juvenile courts, I mean I know some of them. There
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: was an incident when I was first mayor that it
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was a thirteen year old. It was a drug deal
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: gone bad up in North Omaha. He was in the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: back seat of the car. There were two people in
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the front seat. The deal went bad. He had a gun.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: He shot both of them in the back of the
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: head and killed him. They didn't know what to do
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: with him. He ended up out a boy's town. I
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: don't know what happened to him now, but I mean,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the thing I thought of when this happened is what
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: happened in that kid's last thirteen years that got him
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to shooting two people in the back of the head
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: on a drug deal gone bad. And he's thirteen you know.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, you just have to stop and think, where
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: did we fail this child?
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because that was You probably look at that child
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: in his kindergarten picture say gosh, what a good looking
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: little kid. That kid's future's bright. That child's future now
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: is over, and that's happening more often what I've seen.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: I'm a lifelong resident of Omaha. I've been here fifty
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: five years. It's changed, It's changed dramatically, and if we
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: don't get a handle on it, we are going to
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: be like some of these big cities that have tremendous
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: problem and you won't be able to fix it. And
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: I think Omaha is able to do it. I mean,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: we build libraries, parks, we have great nonprofits. I think
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: we need to take those resources and bring them together.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So Mike, you know, we talk about everybody needs to
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: get together and this needs to be a priority. But
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I guess I would say to you, what do you think,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, how do we get parents to get these
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: kids to school? You know you brought up a while
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: ago transportation could be an issue. I had Lauren Sensek
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: on the other day with Metro Transit, the CEO. I
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: didn't even realize this but they have a plan with
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Metro Transit that any student, by just showing their ID,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: can ride metro buses free to school, to their job,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to anywhere, to a field trip. She said that they
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: can use the metro buses for no cost at all.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: So I mean, what what is the true answer? Do
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: we break it down? How do we get these parents?
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: We can all get together meet, but how do we
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: get them committed that they're going to get these kids
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to school?
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: So that's the problem that's going to be the law
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: enforcement peace and I have talked to judges, juvenile judges
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: and district court judges. I've even talked to Don Klin
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: about it. It's getting the resources and getting everybody on
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: the same page. And when I talked to Don Klink,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Don says, I don't want to put parents in jail,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: and maybe we can work on some alternative programs, but
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: we got to work on the systems to try to
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: triage them before we get to that point. But eventually
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: you are going to have to do the stick. And
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: we do have parents getting charged for kids missing forty
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: fifty sixty days.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, what is you would know this? What is the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: current law? Is the current law that a child of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a certain age, say sixteen, if they find him not
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: in school. I mean, is do they bring him into
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the Douglas County you Center.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I mell no, no, No. What they do is they
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: refirm a juvenile court and.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: The g they're true, they would they would refer them
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to juvenile court.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Juvenile court with the parents.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Do they have to be multiple incidences or say if
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: they find a child with a group of kids out
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: on a school day that are all say fourteen years old.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: No, it's how does that work? It's usually when you're
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: above twenty absences. Okay, when you're above twenty absence here
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: and by the way, think about this. Let's just take
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: the ops number of the twenty thousand kids. Our juvenile
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: court system can't deal with it, nor do we want to.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: So once again talk about talk about when we say
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: chronically absent, we're talking twenty missing, twenty days or more.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Tell us once again what Omaha Public School? Not to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: just pick on them, but everybody needs to know this.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: They're the biggest school district in the area. What is
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: there absent tee rate?
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: So I'll give you two numbers. One, the state wide
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: rate is twenty one percent right now. So this is
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: a state wide problem.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: And in our district, we're single districts OPS is forty percent.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: I think they're down a little bit this year because
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: they've and working some of their implementations. But any numbers
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: too high, Okay, it's right now, it's forty of course.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Okay, And that's forty percent of the students have twenty
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: or more absences.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: Correct. And I'm telling you this. I've heard from some
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: people that are familiar with the statistics. People would be
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: shocked at the number of kids that have missed forty fifty,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: sixty and seventy days of school.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: That's unbelievable that that happens. I mean, I think these
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: poor kids, I really do. I think what kind of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: future do they have? And Mike, once again, you brought
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: up in what the average taxpayer would pay to educate
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: that kid K through twelve. You know that the state
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: always figures out the cost per student in each school district.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I know Millard has a pretty low cost per student
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: per year, but tell the listeners what that is. What
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that cost per student is per Soll Miller is.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: A prox thirteen thousand dollars. Okay, approximately thirteen fourteen thousand
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: ops is around seventeen thousand. And part of that difference
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: in money to their credit is they get a poverty
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: allowance because they have high poverty. And then also too,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: you'll have a lot of English language learners and all that.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of things special ed, a lot more.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Excuse them a little bit. But what I tell people
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: is this, no matter what that number is, the taxpayer
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: is paying for it. And take that times thirteen, go
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: kindergarten to twelve. So you take a big number, times
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: it by it a double digit number, and you get
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: the two hundred thousand dollars plus. That's the investment Nebraska
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: taxpayers are making for our children in the state's future.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And again, you know when people say I don't have
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: kids in school anymore, why should I care? This is
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: why you should care. Just think Millard is the lowest
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and it's in the area, and it's about thirteen thousand
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: per student per year, and taxpayers, you are paying this,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: So you have a vested interest for multiple reasons, to
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: make sure that the public schools have the whatever they
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: need to get these kids back their butts in the seat,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: as Mike says, and get them educated, get them to
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: be able to read so that they can finish school
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and they could be successful in something. They could get
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a job, and they could work and support themselves and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: their families too. Mike, I really appreciate you being on today.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Is it is very important. I think it's something that
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: we all need to be really, really conscientious of. We
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: all need to be involved in it. I hope we
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: can all get together and get a plan together, because
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: you know what we see at the end of the
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: day when these things happen, when kids are missing school,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: as we see the crime rate go up. And that's
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: one thing we are so proud of in Omaha that
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: we have kept the crime rate as low as it is.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: But that could change so easily.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: It can change on a dime. And I guess why
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying, I'll throw this out there. I've talked
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: to Heath Mellow down the chamber, talk to Mary Ewing's
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: chief of staff, your former chief of staff. I think
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: we need to have top city leaders to call for
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: a conference. We need to get people together and work
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: on this and find solutions. This isn't a Republican Democrat thing.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: It's Omaha. The best thing I love about this community
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: living here. My whole life is when we have a
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: big project to tackle, we all get together and do it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: That's what makes this community better than most cities in
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: this country. That's why you love when you moved here.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: You talked about your transplant story here, why people stay here, Offen,
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: people stay here. We have to do this because the
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: trajectory can go up or it can go down. And
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: within ten years you could have the crime rate double
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: with kids.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Oh sure it certainly can. You know, we could talk
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: probably at least another three hours here. I'd love to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: get into this whole state aid school funding formula, but
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: we don't have a year to do that today. But
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Mike Kennedy with a Miller Public School Board of Education.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Such an important topic that you're here to talk about today,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciate you being here and being able
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to kind of open up our minds about what is
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: going on. This is a real problem in our district,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: it's a real problem in the state of Nebraska. It's
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: a real problem in our country, and we got to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: get our hands around it. So thank you so much
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: for being here today. I really appreciate it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Jeane, you didn't call me me or Mom?
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Thank you Mom.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: There we go. All right, that's it for Mike Kennedy,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being here today. Like I said, I served
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: on the Miller School board with him many many, many
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: years ago. And in no way do I want our
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: conversation to for anybody to assume that I'm or Mike
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: was being critical of teachers. I think teachers have one
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of the hardest jobs in the world. I had great
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: respect for the teachers when my kids were in elementary school.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: They went through public school, you know, from K through twelve.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I think one of the hardest jobs in the entire
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: world would be a teacher during COVID, and I know
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: that affected a lot of kids those years with because
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: every kid learns differently. And this is the thing that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to get into with Mike too. And
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I was just talking to Peyton during the break about
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: it is, you know, the kids learn at different levels.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I've talked about my grandson Max, a six year old,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: so many times on the radio. I just said the
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: other day he does have a behavioral problem, and he's
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: in a special education class at Ronald Reagan in Millard
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: and they have just done wonders with him. But he's
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: as smart as he can be. I mean when they
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: tested him for math, when they tested him, he writes
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and he reads better than his brother Raymond, who was
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: two years older. I mean, he's very, very bright. But
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: he did not function well in a regular classroom and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: he would What he does is he has a short
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: fuse and he would just throw a fit if he
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: didn't get his way. And so just think of what
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: these teachers have to deal with at kids at all
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: different levels. And I think what some of these kids
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: they don't have. They don't have the support of their parents.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: They don't have the resources at home, say for computers
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: or laptops which the school tries to provide him with.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Now they they don't have the support, And how are
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: they going to be successful when they're really trying to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: dig in and say, what is the best form of
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: education or a way to educate this student that we
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: could possibly provide when they's such a mix. I mean,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: it's just it's so challenging. And Peyton, you even said
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you were in challenging math classes.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I got an email from Brandy in a comment at
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: kfab dot com. Phone lines also open for zero, two, five, five,
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: eight eleven ten, Brandy sent this email that kind of
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: stirred our conversation. She says, my son is a high
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: ability student ninety nine percent tile going into eighth grade.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: He's been in two different public school districts, neither have
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: been able to meet his high ability needs. So now
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: we're in private school taking high school class. It's very
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: frustrating to pay high taxes and have public school unable
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: or unwilling to further accommodate his needs. And that is
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: something that is not She goes on to say, it's
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: not that I'm boasting about it, but I'm just looking
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: for a challenge for my student. And I told you, Gene,
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: I was in a high ability learner's math in elementary
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: and middle school, so I got taken to a different
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: classroom once a week to do math. And I think
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: that's really the hard part is because I have all
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: these emails coming in about people talking about why kids
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: are not coming to school to begin with, But then
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: you also have kids in school that are so incredible
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: and they're very smart in high ability.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: How do you manage all of that at the same time.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: And Brandy's absolutely right, and you know, I know Brandy's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: little side. I know Brandy too because she did used
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to work for me. But you know, it is frustrating
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: because it's kind of the point that Mike and I
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: were making well ago too. You know, folks, sixty two
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: percent of your property tax bill goes to the public
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: schools in the area that you live. Mike said, When
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: you break it down, Millard Public School is the lowest
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: cost per pupil in the area. They're at about thirteen
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: thousand a year. OPS has over fifty four thousand students.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: They're over seventeen thousand dollars a year to educate students.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: We're paying for that. We expect these kids to be
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: in school and be educated. Not all of them are
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: going to be brilliant Albert Einstein's Not all of them
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: are going to go to Harvard or Yale. But that's okay.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: They don't need to, but they need to find the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: pathway that works for them. When Mike said the unions
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: are doing a good job, I really wanted to explore
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that a little bit more and say, what are the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: unions doing to help educate kids about the arts and trades?
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: One example I wanted to bring up is Mickey Anderson.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: His family owns Baxter Auto and you know, he has
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a program with Metro Community College that he helps pay for,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: he helps fund, and they go through basically an auto
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: mechanic program, and then he hires them. I mean, these
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: are great programs that occur in our area. But then
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: not everybody wants to be, of course, an auto mechanic,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: but it's that kind of a program. Kids need to
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: be exposed to all of those jobs that are out there,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and if the arts and trades unions get involved, I
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: think that's so important. The plumbers, the steam fitters, the electricians.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Goodness sakes, those are good paying jobs.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: They're really good paying jobs, and a lot of the
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: labor base, yes towards retirement, and there's not enough kids
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: coming in to continue growing in those fields.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so I think he's identified a real need,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a real problem. I really hope that, you know, like
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: he said that, the school districts, the community, the nonprofits.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I think he'd need to involve law enforcement, Douglas County Attorney,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the court, you know those juvenile judges when kids get
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: into trouble, you know, that even becomes a challenge because
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: it's like we said, what are you going to do
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: with a thirteen year old that just killed two people?
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, and not every thirteen year old goes in
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: that direction, but when they don't go to school and
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: they're looking for somewhere to fit in, is the problem.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: When kids start getting into gangs and that just happens.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, they don't fit in somewhere, and then they
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: try to get a group that they can hang out
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: with together, and these things can happen. Last night, Peyton,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I was down in the geen le him and I
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: was down there like about seven o'clock to about eight
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: fifteen with my grandkids, with Max and Raymond.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: Boy.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Max was doing great last night, going down those slides
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a million miles an hour. The only thing I put
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: a stop to is Grandma, will you go down these
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: slides with me? And I said no. But anyway, here,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: as we were leaving, we were sitting said on those swings,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: you know the big swings. Yeah, yeah, we were sitting
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: on those. But about eight o'clock there was a big
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: group of young juveniles. I would say, they look to me.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: I'm a pretty good estimate of ages. They look to me.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe I would say thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. A
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: big group of them came in, big group, I'd say
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: there was at least twenty of them, and they started
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: taking over the swings and I just watched it happen,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and little by little, all the little kids that were
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: playing around the swings started running off because these kids
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: were trying to intimidate.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: We could tell well just by the number of people
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: in general.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, and they were kind of they were really stern
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: face and they were just looking at the kids, and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: they kind of took over all these swings, and I thought, see,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: this is this is the problem. This is kind of
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: that a modified teen takeover thing. And I witnessed it
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: myself last night. And if people want to be out
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and enjoy our beautiful parks in our beautiful cities, they
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: want to feel safe. And so this is a big
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: if you that Mike identified. I'm glad I had them on.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I hope we can all come together and come up
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: with a solution that really works. Gean.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: Tuesdays are the day's Omaha City Council meets, and they
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: had a couple big stories break yesterday. The first one
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: we're going to get into later. We have a guest
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: coming on that might be able to have more information
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: about that. Omaha City Council approves minimum wage increase.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, and you know that will undoubtedly be challenged by
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: the Attorney General. They knew that the city council members
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: knew that the City of Lincoln did this similar thing
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: that they waged they raised the minimum wage. The Attorney
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: General is suing Lincoln and he said he will sue
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Omaha if this was passed. So again, your tax dollars
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: now are going to go into fighting this lawsuit that
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: we are already told would be a lawsuit if the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: city council passed it because of the conflict, because of
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the Omaha Law Department writing the ordinance, they will have
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: to hire outside council to represent the city, which I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: believe they've already done. And so Amy Mountain City council member,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: who I have great respect for, is going to come
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: on Friday and she's going to talk about that. And
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: she is also an attorney and is able to talk
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: with the legal ramifications of passing this ordinance. And again
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: it passed on a four to three vote yesterday. So
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: the four Democrats voted yes and the three Republicans voted no.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: And they had quite a debate amongst the members yesterday,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: but it did pass, and that did not surprise me
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: of the four to three vote.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: And you said she's coming on Friday.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Amy Mountain will be here in the studio on Friday.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: And you know, she's somebody I respected quite a bit
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: on the City Council. She does a great job and
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: she's very very bright, and so she's going to come
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and talk about that.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: And just real quick, we also have a guest on
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the show tomorrow.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Yes and we have the Tom Becca. Becca is back
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: and he is gonna be oh boy, and we'll go
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: who like he always used to say that he is
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: gonna be on the show tomorrow and we're gonna have
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun with Tom Becky. I was telling
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Peyton that I have been interviewed by Becca many many
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: times and he's been a really nice guy. And you
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: get him on the air, and man, he would go
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: after me and that's just Becca, that is his style.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna have a lot of fun tomorrow.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: And next Gene, Omaha City Council News. I knew you
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: would not bring this up yourself, so I came prepared
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: Omaha City Council to honor former Mayor Jean Stouthert with
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: street name. The city Council unanimously voted to honor Mayor
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: Jean Stauthart by naming a stretch of street after her.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: Jeen Stouthart Street will be on Thirteenth Street from Douglas
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: to Harney streets.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Well, what do you think about that?
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Congratulations?
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: You know, well, thank you, And I just have to
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: say this is something that you know, the city council
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: they approved unanimously. I thank them for it. They pick
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: thirteenth Street downtown from Douglas to Harney.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Because you served thirteen years.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Well I served twelve years as mayor. No, they picked
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: thirteenth Street because it runs right at the edge of
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the old Jean Lahy Mall. It still is Jean Lahaed Mall,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: but the river Front parks between that and the new
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Mutual of Omaha Tower, which I was both involved in
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: getting those projects started and getting those projects done. And
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: so that's why they picked thirteenth Street downtown. So whenever
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: anybody goes to the Jean Lahy Mall, they're going to
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: see the old Jean Stother Street. Now, these these bombs
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: that are on the Morning show SCOTTV Hez and Jim Rose.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: They were making fun of me this morning. Scott Vorhees
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: said that he said, well what street is it? It
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: should be the alley behind kfab Haha. Scott Vorhees and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Jim Rose said it should be the whole loop where
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: the street car goes. Because she's the one that started
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: this streetcar. And you know, Jim Rose, I am going
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: to come back and haunt you when when the street
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: car is successful. I'll probably be dead and long and buried,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to come back and haunt him when
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: it is successful, because if you want to rename it
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: after me, that's not going to happen.
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: Richard says, are we sure it's not the worst stretch
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: of Skyline.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Drive in Elkhorn?
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: No, maybe we.
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: Can finally get the roads resurfaced if it's named after her.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think those people that live in Skyline would
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: appreciate my name on their street. Just remember what Mary
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Ewing promised you, you folks out on Skyline that Jean
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Stother didn't promise you. But no, it's a great honor
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciate that. And Hal Dobb I have
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: always said Hall Dobb deserves a street named after him
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: more than Jean stother does. But they're going to rename
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: a stretch of six 't eighty after Hal Dobbs so
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Yippi for Hal Doab. But I think that is it
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: for us, Peyton, because you're playing music and that means
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: it's time for me to cut it off. But thank
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you all for spending this hour with us today. Thanks
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: for listening. We'd love for you to join us tomorrow.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Me and Tom Becca will be on. I'm Jean Stothard
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and this is eleven ten kfab