Originally referred to as SITE Council, Gorilla Voice is a collaborative space for the Solomon school community to come together, share perspectives, and help shape future priorities at USD 393. Conversation focuses on student experience, communication, what’s working and what’s next. The discussion helps strengthen education for our students. Gorilla Voice will be hosted once per quarter with varying schedules.
Please join the Solomon USD 393 team and peers this Saturday at 9:00AM. We’ll cover “Bank Days,” new 2026–27 classes, Opportunity Night, FastBridge data, and chronic absenteeism.
Below is a summary of the recent meeting held November 18th, 2025. There were 13 people in attendance consisting of parents, staff and teachers. The meeting started at 6:30PM and ended shortly after 8:00PM.
Opening and Introduction
Introducing the Strategic Plan for 2030
Superintendent Justin Coup led the conversation by introducing the new Strategic Plan via the Dashboard. He informed the attendees that they can navigate to the website and find the button labeled Strategic Plan Dashboard on the home page which will take them to the dashboard. You can view the dashboard now by clicking this link.
Mr. Coup walked through the dashboard noting there are three areas to view; the home page, the indicators page, and the strategy page.
The Home page gives you a snapshot view of the strategic plan with a PDF attachment.
The Indicators page defi nes USD 393 Solomon district. We are especially proud of these indicators
On Grade level in Reading - 96.6%
Chronic absenteeism numbers have decreased from 19.72% to 13.22%
$ Saved by taking College Classes NOW! - $114,896
100% of seniors will have work based learning experience
The strategy page breaks down each of the fi ve action plans for the next 5 years. Each action plan has a varying amount of action steps with an assigned responsible party. The school will input the progress of each action over the next 5 years to ensure the district is on track to meet the goals aligned by the community.
Operation Gorilla Family
Attendees were given a brief rundown of the upcoming donation period for Operation Gorilla Family
Culinary students (seniors) are providing meals through the end of the year to senior citizens in the community
Student Council is hosting the student food drive
Lions, Bears, Gorillas - Oh My!
Addressed the recent threat in the school
Lessons learned on how to communicate with our whole student body and parents
In the future we will be more transparent with the whole school
Discussion
Student Engagement: Mr. Coup introduced the issue of missing assignments to lead the conversation. There are currently 1,123 missing assignments in HS. Key things to consider:
Hard to move on when our teachers are bogged down with past work
How we move forward with the procedure
“We just teach to the middle”
“What do we do if we give every student zeros?” - how do we mediate this
Table Conversations: These are direct quotes or thoughts from the attendees.
Students say “I don’t have time”
Parents to blame?
Students get an assignment half done and then just don’t turn in what they have done
Student is terrifi ed to talk to teacher
Just do it!
Gorilla Guidance staff: student ratio
Small class
Used to be reading time or homework time
Current teachers are communicating with parents to get them involved and staying ahead before they see grades on IC
Not having enough time in the period
Student accountability
How to get parents to understand student accountability. Parents don’t understand the homework and cannot assist them at home
Quality over quantity on assignments
Taking this into account; how do guidance teachers hand out missed assignments? Instead focus on giving them one assignment vs all for each discipline?
Ultimately students are responsible for missing assignments but how do we encourage the WHY and BUY IN
So far so good on not using AI on homework
Making the types of assignments make sense to the discipline
Chasing the skill not the grade
Gorilla guidance teachers are giving the students their missing assignments every Monday and they break it down by discipline
Detentions have gone away because the student simply refuses to attend
What stats or logic are there to classroom times?
Quiz out of the class mindset - reassess until you achieve the grade you want
Grading for learning or learning to get a grade?
Student Experience: Mr. Coup led the discussion stating that Solomon has a No cell phone policy for anything not related to 504, health etc. The state of Kansas will be creating a new policy. The current consequence is as follows:
First Offense: cell phone is confi scated and brought to the offi ce and the student can collect it at the end of the day.
Second Offense: The student’s guardian
Table Conversation
No level of consistency between teachers
Teachers need to have consequences as well as students - modeling the policy
Male teacher isn’t going to look in inappropriate places to identify a phone
Students will hide it if they really want to
Teacher should be willing to have hard conversations with students about cell phone policy when student is caught
Jammers at school?
There may be a ban on all cellular communicating electronic devices (i.e., cell phones, smart watches, smart glasses) but this would come from a state policy.
Wait for the state of Kansas to issue policy
Communication - Ways to Improve: The conversation was opened to the attendees. The information below is directly from table conversations
Positives
Great secretary - Jennifer Weise - easy to call and great at greeting!
Great individuals in main offi ce - Nurse Mary, Dean Ann
Teachers have been great at communicating to parents and providing support to their students (elementary example)
Love SportsU - easy to navigate
Communication overall better this year - different platforms
Suggestions
Get staff an extension (it all rolls to the appropriate points of contact)
Updating game scores after the game
Have one consistent way of communicating
News story on webpage and sometimes socials
After students graduate from elementary school - parents tend to hear about the bad things that happen from teachers vs the good things.
Parents get cut out of conversation in HS - the expectation is the student should communicate. If this doesn’t happen, parents are fi nding out last minute or as event is happening
Black and white communication- simple text with information and follow-up reminder
Option for live feed - allows people to ask questions or show up late - for events such as Gorilla Voice
Points of Gorilla Pride: Each attendee was asked to share something they are proud of at USD 393 Solomon
Community buy-in is great
Support in sports, family matters, and activities
Love the small school
Jennifer Wiese
Emerging technologies and E Sports - more opportunities for students
Erick Underwood - great coach and students just want to be in his class
Entire SPED team - intentional connection with students is proving great because scores are increasing
Mr Luce - the time and energy he is taking to get to know the students, is involved in a lot and is in front of the students
Justin - meeting is a success, with those in attendance, including staff and community members
