Shawnee Tomorrow, a leadership group comprising Shawnee residents and employees, visited the school to learn about its departments and speak with district administrators about various education issues on Wednesday, March 24,

The purpose of the group is to show individuals different components of the community, Chamber of Commerce president Linda Leeper said.

“We just want to have individuals within the community that are interested and have an exposure to the various aspects of the community,” Leeper said. “We just make sure that we expose these individuals to a broad base of what really makes up a community. By joining in this program, we expose them to all these different aspects of what makes a community whole.”

Principal Tobie Waldeck briefly greeted group members upon their arrival before they went on student-led tours of the building and listened to presentations from organizations including the football team and the Catty Shack.

Shawnee Tomorrow chairman Kevin Makalous finds the accomplishments of these groups and others, in addition to the enthusiasm of the students, to be a source of pride for the city.

“I think we should just be so proud not only of the academic success at Mill Valley [and] the extracurricular success, but the school spirit that is so abundantly clear here at Mill Valley,” Makalous said.

At the conclusion of the day, Board members from the De Soto and Shawnee Mission school districts held a “lunch and learn,” a chance for Shawnee Tomorrow members to eat and participate in an open discussion regarding various education issues.

According to Overland Park Regional Medical Center vice president of operations Lisa Carpenter, the most prominent topic was funding for education.

“The biggest thing [we discussed] is the funding crisis that we’re in right now, and I think we really have to work towards funding for our Kansas schools,” Carpenter said.

Leeper encourages any person involved in a group to participate in Shawnee Tomorrow, regardless of position.

“We want someone to step up from your church and maybe lead a group; somebody does something in a professional organization, step up and become a kind of leader,” Leeper said. “You don’t have to have the ‘president’ title to be a leader. You can be a leader at any given level of a group that you have.”