001The Monday, April 27th, 2026 Invergrove Heights Community Schools Board of Education's regular meeting is called to order at 5.30 p.m. Tonight, we are meeting at Pine Bend Elementary School. As a reminder, all public comment during regular school board meetings must be related to an information or action item on that night's agenda. If you'd like to speak on an agenda item, please complete the public comment sign-up form with the district office coordinator. You will be invited to come forward at the appropriate time. To ensure meetings remain orderly and productive, the board may end comments that fall outside our established policies and public comment guidelines. The district also holds public listening sessions prior to all regular board meetings for topics not listed on the agenda. Additional information about public comment and public listening sessions is available on
002the district's website. This meeting is being recorded and access to the recording will be made available on the school district's website as quickly as possible. Our school district's mission is to inspire, innovate, excel, a community commitment. And I do want to let the community know that the superintendent's contract is not on the agenda for tonight's meeting. A discussion of the superintendent contract will occur at a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 29th at 5.30 p.m. Tonight, the school board will be proceeding with items as posted on the agenda. Board Member Sherry Warwick is absent this evening. Board Clerk Dukes, will you please take roll call? Yeah. Member Larson? Present. Member Nehemiah? Yep. Member Lounsberry? Here. Member Dukes is here. Member Pearson? Here. Member Klingner? Here. All right. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
003I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Do I have a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda items? Motion by member Larson. Second by member Nehemiah. All right motion by member Larson second by member Nehemiah. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. We would like to begin this evening with Director of Learning, Megan Blazek, to share this month's district highlight. Good evening, you guys. Thanks for having me tonight. I am excited to begin this evening by sharing some really great news about our students and our schools. Our 2025 graduation rate has reached 89.7%, which is up from 84.6% last year. Which is a significant increase of
004over five percentage points? Not only does this represent a strong growth for Invergrove Heights schools But it also places us nearly five points above the state average, which is eighty four point nine percent What is especially encouraging is how this growth is reflected across multiple student groups. So I want to highlight that for us tonight. Our black or African American students have increased 85.7% to, sorry, they have increased to 85.7%, closing the gap by 10 percentage points in just one year. Our Hispanic students have rose to 86.1%, reducing their gap by 12 points in one year. Our students who identify as two or more races has reached 91.7%, and the Asian students have maintained a strong 90% graduation rate. These gains reflect not just improvement outcomes, but the impact of intentional systems and our focus
005on relationships and engagement through our 199 way. We also have continued to work on our MTSS systems and collaboratively linked teams across our district. The progress also, I think, is important for us to note represents a collective effort of all of our staff members, pre-K through 12, and of our students and our families and the community. We are really proud of this achievement, and we remain committed to continuing this work so that every student crosses the stage prepared for their next step. Thank you. Thank you. It's great news. Do I have a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda items? motion by member Clinger second by member Pearson Motion by member Clinger second by member Pearson any discussion all in favor aye opposed The motion is carried We have donations up on the
006screen and we want to thank those of you who have donated to the school district this past month. Your generosity and support of our schools in the community is much appreciated as they make a difference for our students. All right, now we get to invite Principal Paul Richardson to share a Pine Bend update with us. Nice. Yeah. Except for, does Sarah lose it? Made some mirrors. I'll bounce back and forth. Well, thank you. Welcome to Pine Bend, and thank you for being here tonight. We are excited to kind of share a little bit about Pine Bend this school year and kind of what's been going on. And I have a couple of wonderful teachers with me, Sarah Getting, first grade teacher, and Mike Franz, a third grade teacher, who will be sharing a little bit
007about some... new pieces to the puzzle at Pine Bend. So I will dive right in. So there's been a lot of highlights, and this was actually a very fun exercise for me to do every year. This was the latest in the year that I've given this presentation, so I had to go through a lot of pictures on my phone to kind of go through a lot of the different highlights. Here were a couple that stuck out. One on the right is a very small moment, but a very big deal. So this is at the end of the school day, and we have one bus. that comes in at the very end, and they have a couple students that get off from Salem Hills Athenaeum, they go to Kids Care and they go to other buses,
008and then we gotta get the Pine Bend kids on. So it takes maybe a minute or two longer than the other buses to load. And that is a fifth grade student, and a couple of the fifth and fourth graders have taken it upon themselves, with a little bit of organizational support from Mrs. Meldy, to keep that door open so all the kids can get out and get onto Bus U, but they make sure they high five every third. second and first grader that comes through and it was kind of a fun thing to watch the other day as the fifth graders were just making sure all the younger Spartans were getting a high five on their way out. On the left, we had a wonderful opportunity this winter that Ms. Darrow, our PE teacher, put
009together with the Minnesota Wild, and we were able to have Olympic champion gold medalist Natalie Darwitz, and I'm going to struggle with his last name. Stefan Veil. Stefan. Oh, Veil. Thank you. Here, and they did a wonderful job talking. It was, you know, sometimes those can feel kind of meet and greet-ish, but it wasn't. It was about getting off your phones and getting off devices, eating healthy, getting exercise, making that. that a part of your regular routine. And it was just a wonderful moment for a couple kids to be able to actually see them and hear from them and kind of learn from them a little bit this winter. And then just a moment that it's become a wonderful tradition in every November that we have a food drive and we raise a ton of
010food. Literally, 2,000 pounds we were able to donate to Neighbors, Inc., and that came from just a lot of hard work with our student council pushing it and Ms. Darrow and our whole school kind of pushing in the right direction there. And so it's fun to see our student council. They loaded up the vans, and they take a lot of pride in that, and it's fun to see our community come together to help our greater city and area. The way we kind of entered into our work this year was to set some school-wide goals, and we really looked at three areas. One, increasing attendance. Two, aligning our Tier 1 practices. And three, teaching coping skills. I think increasing attendance is fairly obvious. We need kids at school all the time if we're going to be
011able to help them grow as much as they can academically and interpersonally. Aligning our Tier 1 practices, what that means to me and to our group is we want to make sure our programming is very consistent and strong across the board. We have 18 classrooms, and we want to make sure that students are getting a similar experience and a strong experience in all those places, and we want to make sure that we're working hard to ensure that kids are getting what they need when they need it and making sure that that is consistent kind of across the school and across the grade levels. And then teaching coping skills. We do a great job by setting the expectations at Pine Bend and we're very deep into PBIS work. I think we're probably over a decade into
012that work. What we're into now, I think, is not just at Pine Bend or in Inver Grove, but we're really working on really explicitly teaching the skills that students need if they're going to make great decisions kind of throughout their day. And we have a curriculum for that second step, but it's also something that we are modeling constantly. How do you use language to get yourself to a better place, whether that's calming down, whether that's making strong friendships, whether that's problem solving in real time. I can tell you as the father of a sixth grader, fourth grader, and first grader, sometimes they don't have the words, and we've got to make sure they have the words to do what they need to do. So that's been work that's been ongoing all year. Our theme for
013the year was Every Minute Matters, and we really started to look at our school-wide schedule and make sure that we are budgeting the correct time to get done what we want to get done. And we really started to look at time as a learning tool. A lot of this work went back to the summer with our leadership team and looking at our schedule and what's going to kind of prioritize what we need to prioritize. Some of this was born out of having a new literacy curriculum and this is getting in Mr. Fransom. We'll talk a little bit about that later. But part of it was it was a shift with how much time we needed to make sure we had for that. And we want to make sure that we take advantage of the time
014that we have. There are five minutes on Instagram or Pinterest, and you will see all of the great things that classrooms can do. You can't do all of it. And I know that when I first was teaching, I was a high school English teacher, and I realized 53 minutes a day for about 170 days, it shakes out to about four work weeks that you really get to work with kids. And for our classroom teachers, when you think about math, reading, the different things of their day, it's not as much time as maybe we think, even though the kids are here every day for nine months. And so it's really important that we really prioritize the things that need to be prioritized, make sure we're seeing the academic growth that we want to see. So it's
015led to some great conversations that I think are ongoing as we go. Just kind of a snapshot about Pine Bend. We have 541 students in the building every day. 494 of those are kindergarten through fifth grade. We have 18 classrooms, but we also have four CARE CID classrooms, which is an amazing program with our moderate to severe students with cognitive and physical disabilities. Those teachers and paraprofessionals do a great work. And many of those students are also a part of those 18 classrooms, depending on the schedule and their days. We have two pre-K classrooms that are, one is full day, and then we have two half-day classrooms, one a.m. and a p.m. And then we have a 9-17 special education classroom that is a very small program that draws from our intermediate district, and they
016do amazing work with some kindergartners who, some are Invergrove residents, but many are from other places throughout Dakota County and the area. Kind of getting in the helicopter with some of the things that affect our work on a day-to-day basis. 19.7% of our students receive English language learner services. 21.5% of our students receive special education programming. And 46.2% of our students are eligible for educational benefits. The 199 way is something that we lean into every day at Pine Bend. Belonging relationships and engagement are kind of at the centerpiece of what we do. I think at Pine Bend, something I'm very grateful for is none of these things are controversial in any way, shape, or form to our staff. In fact, I think it's something that people think is a strength. And what I've noticed is
017when we hire really well, those three things come right off the bat. Being able to make sure that kids are feeling a part of the community making sure that kids are feeling connected and making sure that they're engaged in their work so a couple things number one, so This is going to be a very positive presentation, but I do need to share one negative thing so my birthday is March 28th That's over spring break every year since I was a child so I never got to have my birthday at Pine Bend The group on the left there that is the pine bend March 28th birthday club So we had a small celebration in the cafeteria because we all we all have spring break birthdays But so that's that's my one bone to pick maybe that's
018a calendars issue for later. I'll get to that maybe get on the committee But but no it was fun to connect with those kids about that and it was you know it was surprising how much that became kind of when they realized that Laurie and I had those birthdays, they kind of brought it up quite a bit that we had to say, you know, happy birthday before we left for spring break. On the right, we have one of our music performances. Our music teacher, Mrs. Gibner, kind of brought in a new vision for our concerts. And so they went kind of grade level by grade level. We still have a few more to do. She'll be doing some kindergarten informances this week. And then our fifth grade concert will be at Simley at the Pack
019in a few weeks. And we're really excited about that. But it's been fun. Again, just a wonderful opportunity for all of our kids to be able to be on stage together and performing together. On the left there, this was kind of a year's worth of project in the making. Those are actually some Pine Bend alums who are at the middle school. And what they did, Riley and Gianna, what they did is they had a project for the Girl Scouts, and they actually worked with one of our fairy grandparents to get some support on this. But they really wanted to provide some positive messaging throughout the school at Pine Bend. at their former elementary school. And so we met several times, probably once every couple weeks for almost a year. And then the final product kind
020of came to be this fall. So as you're leaving, you'll see it on the right-hand side, right outside this wall here. But their message is that they created those and printed them and got them framed and did all the work on that. So that was a very proud moment for me, even though this is just my fourth year. But having alumni come back and do that, I think, is a very powerful thing. And then a good-looking group of people on the right there. But that was just, you know, that was a very exciting moment. It's a wonderful piece of the puzzle in Invergrove Schools to present that Spartan Shield. And Ms. Darrow's first comment was, can't wait to show my mom. So that was an exciting day. And we got to share it during a
021gym class, and the kids were very excited to see their teacher get honored in that way. In the middle, I don't know how many teachers are willing to go as the bacon to a child's egg on twin day, but Mrs. Mullow was definitely up for that. So I know she made that student's day with that. But I think all the different ways that we can help kids stay connected, whether it's a spirit week where we get to wear our jerseys or on the right there, that is one of our kind of buddy classrooms where a fifth grader is spending time with a first grader. Just making sure that students are feeling a part of the community in a lot of different ways. One big thing with our relationships, and it was just, again, proof that
022we have to continue to invest in the relationships within the building and the community, was our very interesting winter. And we had a winter where the immigration concerns really did hit all of our schools and hit Pine Bend as well. And a couple things really kind of came to the light that was very important. The first thing was we had to spend a lot of time listening. and not moving too quickly and assuming what people and families needed. What we found out was there was no consistent story on what people needed. Some people were in kind of dire straits. Some people actually preferred to check in but did not want a spotlight shown on them in a couple different ways. And so we really had to listen first and figure out what was needed. Our
023EL paraprofessional, Dulce Avila Cardoza, or Orozco, she did a great job with communication. Our success coaches, Ms. Bichet and Ms. Dominguez, did a fantastic job of coordinating and connecting with our Parent Care Collective and the other schools as well to kind of figure out what is it that is going to be most effective. Our learning partner, Mrs. Meldy, and our EL teachers, Ms. McCabe and Ms. Mormel did a great job of keeping some temporary remote learning going so that kids could stay connected. And it was just something that was incredibly important at a pretty intense time. And the thing that we learned, I think, from that is the more that people feel comfortable coming to Pine Bend, the more that our parents feel a part of the community and have, I mean, all it takes
024is one person that can be a touchstone for them. That's going to help people stay involved and engaged. And I think at the end of the day, we were able to get kids back quickly in a way that felt good. I know there was a couple days and a couple weeks where it felt like every morning there was just huge reunion hugs in the hallway because kids were back. And it's been a much better spring. It's been a much better spring. So just wanted to shout that out. One thing that was new this year was our American Indian Education small group work that Mari Mansfield has been doing. And that has just been a wonderful piece of the puzzle. It's a small group of about nine students, and they meet every couple Wednesday mornings, and
025the engagement is high. They're excited to be there. There's some siblings in the mix, so they really enjoy that. It's kind of their one chance to be in class with their younger brother or sister, and it's been fun to see. We even had one student who was maybe having a tough time just getting started in the morning and would sometimes cry in the car and not want to come in. When she knew it was Wednesday with Mrs. Mansfield, she was, oh, I'm in. And so that was just an exciting piece of the puzzle for our school. It's been a wonderful addition. The relationships matter a lot. I know this was not St. Patty's Day. This was Mira on the left there when we were trying to come up with a fun run challenge. If they
026met their fun run fundraising goal, Ms. Richardson would do what? And it was dress up as a leprechaun for a day, which I'm kind of a Notre Dame fan, so that didn't seem like too much of a stretch. But when I saw the inflatable on Amazon, I'm like, we've got to go there with that. But it was just, you know, it's fun to have fun, but it also was fun. It was kind of her idea, and the kids enjoyed it. In fact, the batteries died about 11 o'clock, and it deflated, and there was a lot of some looks in the hallway like, hey, what are you doing? Let's get this thing going. So we got new batteries, and we kept it moving. One thing, you know, we're continuing with Fist Bump Friday and I'm having
027the assembly teams come down. And what was exciting about the softball team coming the other day is there was several girls on that team that have, you know, again, I've only been here for a couple of years, but now having former students from Pine Bend come back and be a part of this on the other side is great. And if you notice, there's a third grader in the middle there, and he's a big softball fan. Last year the girls had autographed a ball for him, and so he was very excited that they were back for Fist Bum Friday the other day and jumped into the picture with them. And then, you know, when I think about our staff and the relationships within our staff and within our community, it's so important. You know, I don't
028always get, you know, I don't see Erica and Nathan every single day, but there's been a couple moments where they have been able to come to Pine Bend and help families get to a much better place. And I've been very grateful for their support in that regard. And then that's from Literacy Night. And I won't share who's in Sparty there, but... It was a wonderful night that Mrs. Pockel and Mrs. McHenry and Mrs. Meldy put together, and it was in the fall, and it was a great chance for kids to just kind of have fun with literacy. They had a story walk outside, a little free book buggy was here, and we actually had a local author from West St. Paul come and share her books. But fun to see just our staff enjoying that
029together and having some time to just enjoy books with kids. The engagement piece, you know, in the classroom it's happening and I see it happen every single day. This room in particular, I'll walk by and Mrs. Landis sometimes will be in that purple chair and it's so fun to watch the eyes of the kids just locked in on her through the window there. But it happens in strange moments. It's hard to zoom in and see it, but this is a group that found a frog and they were pretty excited about that at recess. And so they wanted a picture of them with their frog. But also, it goes in so many ways. You know, our student council does a tremendous job, and Mrs. Gagne and Ms. Bichet do a great job giving them opportunities to
030lead and opportunities to serve. But there's a lot of other pieces. You know, extracurriculars are not always the easiest thing to put together at an elementary school, and whether it's Girls on the Run, Garden Club. Some of our after school classes, Mrs. Gibner put together kind of a small choir after school. There's a lot of different opportunities for kids to do things in addition to our targeted services classes that do really great work for kids. So there's just a lot of great moments outside the classroom as well. And we've got a student in their creations in STEAM, which they will create some amazing things, and then the struggle is always how do they get that onto the bus and get it home? Never an easy piece. We have assemblies a couple times a month, and
031it's something that we really treat it as having one lesson for our whole school and getting a chance to kind of learn and talk together. On the right, in November, we had a wonderful Veterans Day assembly that was emceed by our student council leadership. Kind of culminated in a lot of singing by each grade level, singing the different kind of rousers from the different areas of the military. And then Ms. Bechet and Ms. Dominguez put together a really wonderful Dr. King Day. I think the Friday before Dr. King Day, we were able to have a nice celebration of him and really challenge kids to be the light in their own communities. And that ended with a nice round of this little light of mine as well. And so all those moments really, you know, to
032me, it is so important for us to continue to nourish those things because it's important for kids to feel that this is their school. I mean, it's their school. If they weren't here, we wouldn't be coming to work every day. And we want to make sure that they feel challenged and engaged in things. I just think of all the, when you lean in in a class, you know, you think back to your favorite teachers and you think back to the favorite classes you had. Those teachers and those subjects make you lean in, and I see that happening every single day where kids are kind of leaning into the work. But we also want to make sure that kids feel that there's adults they can trust. It's something that comes up a lot in my office
033when maybe we're working through a problem. Who are the friends you trust and who are the adults you trust? And kids answer that question very quickly, and that's always heartwarming for me. Some big new pieces for us that have been kind of on the technical side but have been super Kind of I think changed the game in a couple ways one is parent square and to me, one of the reasons that this has been a big game changer is it is a really wonderful one-stop shop. And previous to this, you know, I had a wonderful newsletter, or at least I thought it was wonderful, but it was on S'more. It was a different website, so I had to always send a link to parents to get that. And then we would have conferences would come,
034and we'd have a different website to sign up for conferences, and then we would be messaging on Seesaw or maybe emailing. This has kind of made things much more succinct and kind of simple to use. And I'm fortunate that I'm on it on the parent side as well, so I can kind of see that lens, but I think it's made things very efficient. With our professional learning, our community is a practice, and we've continued delving into our learning framework. What that has led to is, to me, two things. One, some really authentic opportunities for staff to work together. It's something people ask for on our professional development days. They want to talk. with people within our building that maybe they don't see on a day-to-day basis. They want to talk to the teachers at Salem
035Hills and at Hilltop. And so to be able to have those conversations is pretty powerful. So that time and space is very, very useful. The learning framework piece. This has led to some really, the feedback's gotten better for teachers because right now some of our evaluation tools are much more aligned. So as a principal, I'm able to speak to the things that they're actually doing professional learning around throughout the school year. I think it's creating much healthier conversations and much stronger conversations with teachers, both formally and informally. And then we had a new parking lot. And that might not seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but it was really exciting. And so that has made our bus drop off and arrival and dismissal really smooth. Turns out Invergrove Trail is not a
036huge road. And so that's something we can't control right now. But what I've seen is the amount of the safety that's been happening with even our parent drop-off and pickup and our care CID and preschool in the front. There's a lot less cross traffic than we had previous. And so it's just it's much safer to get on the buses. It's much safer to get kids in the cars. And sometimes it goes slow. We need to be safe, so I'm not worried about it going slow. We just got to make sure that people are getting out of here safely. So, yeah. So another two big new pieces that I'm sure you've heard a little bit about but I want to kind of delve into with Mrs. Getting and Mr. Franzen. One is Arts and Letters and
037one is Functional Morphology. Arts and Letters is our K-5 literacy curriculum that we use and then Functional Morphology is a piece of the puzzle with literacy for third through fifth grade. So I'm going to pass it over to Mrs. Getting and let her tell you a little bit about Arts and Letters. All right, wonderful. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for having us this evening. I am here to share some thoughts about how our first year of implementation has gone with Arts and Letters. I'm a first grade classroom teacher. So I sometimes will speak with the we and other times with I. I kind of asked my team what they would like me to share as well. So you might be hearing from Mrs. Addison and Ms. Bumastik as well through this language here. We have noticed
038some really neat successes with engagement by diving into the authentic text that came along with Arts and Letters. If you're not familiar with it, there are sometimes anywhere from 10 to maybe 16 copies of every book that we are reading so that they can work in small teams and really have some hands-on experiences. Along with that, there's also fine art prints that go along with the theme. And so we're not only talking about the text and the literature, but we're also connecting those same learning goals to critiquing artwork and kind of expanding horizons that way a little bit. We've definitely noticed a little bit of an increase in curiosity with noticing and wondering. Those are two really main, excuse me, two very common words that you'll hear coming into any classroom with Arts and Letters.
039When we first are introduced to a book, we're just staring at the cover and what do we notice about it? What do we wonder? And getting into the practice of developing just some critical thinking and just kind of what we call it, just getting into the zone of the topic of the story. And what's really neat as well is we see just amplified student voice because there's so many opportunities for students to respond. You see here in this first picture, there are some students working together in a team looking at kind of... the story elements beginning, middle, and end in this particular picture. And it's really wonderful to have those texts right in front of them instead of even just staring at a screen for them. That second picture actually shows, believe it or not,
040those are first graders annotating a text. That's what it looks like in first grade. We use post-it notes. If you can see really closely, there are identifying letters on those post-it notes. One of them has an E on it, and students were to place that post-it note in the text. where they saw evidence that the character was conducting an experiment. And you'll also see a D on one of the other post-it notes there as well. And that was to signify in the text where that educator or that scientist made the discovery in his experiment. So we're really having the students kind of isolate really neat concepts throughout the text. And actually, I never... I never thought I'd be annotating text with first grade, but you know what? They can do it. And it's really amazing
041how Arts and Letters kind of brings that to life for them. The engagement is just through the roof, especially with the hands-on experiences there. So also, we've noticeably seen their prior knowledge and the whole class conversations really prepare students for what we call the module tasks. And that would be the... components of writing that they're having them do. So we're not writing immediately every time we get into a new module. What they do is they develop the knowledge base for the students first, so that takes off the cognitive load a little bit. And we're specifically working then on the writing skills because they already have a really great idea of what they want to write about. So that's been a really nice integration of writing skills. Could you go to the next one? There you
042see some examples of... how we've read a story called Gilberto and the Wind, and there's one student that wrote about how the wind was kind to Gilberto in the story. And then the other piece there would be from Brave Irene, and if they thought it was wise or unwise of her to try to deliver a box with a dress in it through a blizzard. So you can kind of see their thinking coming through, and first graders are writing paragraphs, which is really exciting to see. I do appreciate that Arts and Letters really emphasizes the listening and speaking goals as well in the classroom conversations. And one thing that really has stuck with me is the practice and the teaching them of how to agree and disagree respectfully with their classmates on items such as what
043you see there. And it kind of goes back to what you were talking about with the SEL, that we were just trying to develop that whole child, but I've really seen... just across the curriculum, just tons of opportunities for our kids to learn how to engage with each other without getting upset if somebody doesn't believe the same as them. So that's been a really neat thing to see as well. I think another visible shift has been in our interactions with new vocabulary and that's for sure translating into their spoken language but we're starting to see it in the written language as well and I can tell you a certainty this is my 28th year in the district I've never heard a first grader use the word indefatigable in the correct context more than once across
044different subject levels after we learned about that Charles Henry Turner who is educator and a pioneer scientist and how he just would not let go and just wouldn't give up and that's what that means and so the kids are just throwing that out left and right and I think we tried to stop mr. Richardson in the hallway one day with it and he kind of backed away and wasn't sure what we were talking about but anyway it's mind-blowing they're soaking these really exciting new concepts in So now that we've lived through our first year, I definitely hope that there's a focus moving forward of kind of refining our pacing. We're getting to know a little bit better how our students are handling these. And obviously, we do know that there are gaps. Our first graders
045this year didn't have the curriculum last year, and our second graders this year missed what we're teaching this year in first grade. So I definitely believe there are moments where every single one of us have had to stop and say, Let's pause a moment here and make sure do you understand what that part means right there and then move on and so honestly some days you get through one lesson in a day and some days it takes two days to get through a lesson but the quality and the The engagement with the students is just very noticeable and exciting I would actually say, I'd be remiss if I didn't say, first graders writing paragraphs in October was a little scary at first, but they also rose to the challenge. And again, it might have taken
046more than one day to get through a particular lesson, but it was really exciting to see this curriculum is expecting a lot of them, but they're capable. I mean, our Spartans can do this. So it's really, really exciting to see. It kind of makes the hair on my neck stand up sometimes. You know, I think where we have been and where we are now, and we know there might still be some supports to put in place for some of our students. We do know that some students get, they call prologue lessons with some support staff. And so they get a little bit of pre-teaching before we get to the actual lesson. And so we all kind of keep tabs with each other on where we are. And, you know, I think there's a lot more
047students that would benefit from those. So I do think one challenge that we've had this year is how do we make sure that we're, We're getting our small group sessions in when this is a very largely whole group curriculum. It's a lot of discussion. It's a lot of opportunities to respond for the students. So again, next year, if we were to think of things that we would like to kind of tackle, we'll all know better a little bit next year on how we can make this work for our students and still use fidelity with the curriculum. Ultimately, I think we're finding the routines established in Arts and Letters, they're just creating thinkers and capable communicators, so we're getting a lot out of authentic text, which is very exciting. The final picture I have to show
048you, these are the lesson stages that go along with... Kind of our procedure our routine with examining a new text you can see I have one student that Shifts our we have a superhero theme shifts the shield down each day to whichever lesson we're on and that happened to be a reveal lesson Where we take a deeper look at the text in a particular way So I just love that the students have come to enjoy the predictable routines with arts and letters I think there's just a cool juxtaposition of skill sets that it offers and it is stretch their thinking a lot and You know one thing and I think I'm guilty as an adult as well, but speaking in complete sentences is also one of the kind of module goals that we have and
049so when we're working with our partners or think pair shares or our walk and talks around the room stressing Sentence structure, because that's how we write. Sentence structure and complete sentences has really built their vocabulary as well. And it just gives them so many built-in opportunities to respond in both writing and verbally. The collaboration between peers is really, really fun to watch with this curriculum too. So I think it's impacting engagement in so many different ways. I actually would admit, I think it's expanded my own knowledge base. Some of the topics we've covered in first grade have never been wind power or octopus tentacles. So I think it's been really exciting to learn along with the kids this year. And with that said, I think we're off to a great start. I think we're looking
050forward to kind of working together across grade levels, across the district with, you know, maybe some built-in time to continue to figure out how it best looks for our kiddos. But I think we've been really excited. Has it been a little tricky and hard some days? Yes, but I think we're all working through it together and we know our Spartans can do it. So it's been an exciting adoption for us. So I wanted to thank you for that opportunity. With that said thank you. This is getting and I'll pass it over to mr. Francis. Mr. Francis. I teach third grade. Um, I just like Sarah said This is more of a team thing So I have a really strong team that I work with so they help me out with that with the slides and
051and um I just want to make sure they get credit but what has gone well, that's kind of the question that quest He sent me some guiding questions and that was one I thought well, this is a great question ask the kids It's gone well. I told them let's make sure we're positive. What's gone well with morphology this year? And they kind of just hit the nail on the head because vocabulary, spelling, and writing, that's what it's all about. They've learned a ton of new words this year. They learned how to break words apart to spell. And the writing has been amazing. So it's gotten so much better from the beginning there. We dove right in in September, my team. We didn't have to we could have started in November, but we decided we'd start
052right away and They call it three star sentences They're supposed to write sentences using the word that they've learned and they have to show the meaning in the sentence that they wrote and that was a real struggle especially early on But lately so much better. I mean complete sentences they work on Capitalizing punctuating using the word in the sentence accurately show meaning and if they do that we call that a three star sentence Overall, this is a really challenging curriculum. Students have made significant growth since the beginning of the year. So moving forward, it's always challenging to start a new curriculum. I mean, we have two of them we're starting this year, so very challenging. But the focus moving forward is actually continuing to teach with fidelity, making it a priority day in and day
053out. We as a team we've made a priority we rarely miss a day and if we do we try to make it up like for today We had a test in arts and letters Kind of got a little delayed. We weren't able to morphology I'll make that up tomorrow. I mean it's a priority priority for our our team You want to get more comfortable with it? It's brand new. It's choppy. It can be choppy at times when you're just starting out But um, I will say from the fall to now much better It is very interactive so they the the environment you want to have is where kids can share and not feel like They're gonna be judges if they're wrong Because they're asked questions a lot and they're I have a class that raises
054their hands or competitively want to be right You want to foster that environment and then looking ahead want to continue to grow as teachers and gain comfort through teens? year after year Looking forward continued growth the third grade team is looking forward to continued growth as teachers and students gain comfort I mean first years I was challenging. I think next year will be more smooth. Um as a third grade teacher that they're gonna be brand new every year But I will have a better idea of the routines and I've taught it before so just gets easier And I'm looking forward to hearing from the fourth grade teachers. Um, I just feel like they've made tons of growth this year All those areas so I can't wait to hear what they have to say and then
055identify areas that we can continue to grow in How do you see this helping the learners moving forward? It's those three big areas and I feel like in the past we may have been lacking in especially the vocabulary growth We've learned 36 prefixes this year and eight suffixes and then we're finishing up. We have Two root words we're working on this week and I have another one next week. I mean then we're done. I mean It's a lot and it is challenging, but the kids they seem to enjoy it Like I said, they're competitive they want to make sure they're spelling words, right? They want to make sure they they use them correctly and I have a class that participates which is helpful Word analysis a better understanding how to break apart words to help
056with understanding and spelling that's huge and then they've gained in confidence in writing and kind of goes hand in hand with arts and letters because arts and letters really does require lots of writing And they're going to be able to write better paragraphs. They're going to be able to write better sentences and therefore better essays. Overall, I mean, I'm a big fan of morphology. I think the kids like it. There are days where it's harder than others, but overall the kids like it. And I think they're making great growth. Thank you. I was in a fifth grade classroom recently that was doing functional morphology, and the teacher was breaking down the words meritocracy and autocracy, which I thought, I don't think I heard those until like 10th grade civics. So it was good. You may
057be hearing them for the first time. Yeah, yeah. And so it's fun to watch kids break that down. And I do think, you know, I spoke earlier about making sure that we're giving kids the language to use to. kind of navigate the world and navigate, you know, whether it's problem solving or kind of expressing themselves. And that's a really big piece of the puzzle for them to be able to kind of be able to break down language in a way that's going to help them attack new words and phrases. We want kids to have access to all that stuff. So thank you, Mrs. Getting. Thank you, Mr. Franzen. And, you know, I'll just close with this. You know, my kind of dream and mantra for Pine Bend is that... When our families have their fifth
058graders exit and move on to the middle school, I want... all of our families to really confidently be able to say that their kids were challenged, their kids were cared for, and that their kids love learning. And I think if we're able to do that, I think we've done our job. And I want to, you know, it's something that we just kind of want to constantly strive for, that kids are treated really well and that we're challenging them and they're going home tired from learning a lot and that they're kind of fostering that love of learning outside the building as well. And just before I close, because you got to just... take advantage of the moment. I want to just give a thank you to Superintendent Bernardson. It's, you know, one thing on his whiteboard
059you probably have all seen is that progress moves at the speed of the relationship. And when I am consulting with him or chatting with him or working through things, that always kind of shines through. It's been an absolute honor to work for you. And I just want to say thank you and I just appreciate the fact that... One thing that came up when we started the search for a new superintendent, one of our teachers pulled me aside and said, well, we need someone who's going to know all of us and know us by name just like Dave did. And I think that is really, when he walks through the hallways at Pine Bend, he's excited to jump in with students, excited to see our staff and make connections. And I've just appreciated your enthusiasm for
060the work and thanks for pushing me to do a better job. So thank you, Dave. With that said, I'll just say go Spartans and go Pine Bend. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being willing to listen. Thank you very much. I don't think I have any questions, but as the only, I think I'm the only Pine Bend parent on the board. I would say you are growing our vocabulary as well. I have a third grader doing the homework and learning to put a circle around the prefix and a box around the suffix or whichever one. There's been a number of times I did not think that was a real word. It is a real word. So very challenging curriculum and you guys are doing a great job with it because it's. It's something that he
061looks forward to doing and I that has never been the case. So they're spelling a lot harder words. I mean the words are very challenging but they're going to need to break them apart and they're getting better at it. Yes so thank you so much for what you do. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. Thank you. At this time I will ask the district office coordinator Tracy Lout if anyone has signed up to provide public comment on this agenda item. Okay, thank you. Next, we will go into our superintendent mid-year evaluation and Board Vice Chair Klingner will share the summary. Sure. So this is the 2025-2026 Superintendent Mid-Year Evaluation Summary. And the first heading is leadership and culture the board finds superintendent Burnison to be distinguished in this area The board highly
062commends the superintendent's focus on the 199 learning framework specifically the access new learning initiative the collaborative nature of the February roundtable discussions demonstrated strong leadership in connecting pre-k 12 educators the board praised the expansion of the american indian education program and the visible implementation of the 199 way the quick pivot to at-home learning options for families in need was highlighted as a responsive and student-centered decision while the apac expansion was celebrated there's strong interest in seeing similar specialized support frameworks developed for latino and black student groups and the superintendent is viewed as a distinguished leader in managing his team to affect cultural change through the belonging and rigorous curriculum The next heading is under organizational management and the board finds superintendent Burnison to be highly accomplished in this area. The transition to next path as
063the new data system is seen as a proactive and well-researched move. The board values the shift toward collaboratively linked teams and the inclusion of teachers in the district strategic directions team. The superintendent's ability to remain proactive versus reactive regarding state-level data changes was noted and the emphasis on shared responsibility between building and district leadership is viewed as essential for a healthy organization. There were no specific updates regarding refining safety practices in this section, though the general management of the district strategic roadmap is considered well on its way to completion. And management is characterized by data informed decision making and a highly collaborative approach to leadership structures. and the last heading is communication and community engagement the board finds superintendent bernardson to be highly accomplished in this area the board appreciates the transparency regarding the district's
064budget challenges and the 199 reporter communications the launch of the spartan spirit award has been well received as a boost to employee recognition The financial transparency videos were specifically cited as helpful for taxpayer understanding of unfunded mandates and declining state funding. While recognition is high, some members feel the wellness component is moving at a slower pace and needs a little bit more momentum. And there is a specific call to clarity to clarify the referendum confusion 2017 versus 23 versus 24. board emphasizes that the community needs a clear understanding of what was and was not funded to maintain trust those are our comments any discussion thank you for those comments but just want to also highlight that what you just shared is an indicative piece to the team that you're sitting sitting at the back table
065who we all work collaboratively on these goals so these are not a one-person set of goals this is a team set of goals and they have done phenomenal work thank you thank you all right moving on to the 2026 2027 budget update director of business services heather ani will share this with us tonight okay thank you this will be a repeat for the board as it was shared at the work session on the third um but as we build the budget for the 26 27 school year i just want to mention what the unknowns are for our revenue unknowns we know a little bit more about combat now not the exact amount previously it was shared that we would have a decrease of 192,000 but we were informed that there was some funds yet to
066be allocated that added to the formula and would amount to about 220,000 for Embraer of Heights schools so although we don't have an exact number we have a ballpark and it's a lot better than originally thought Federal funding we experienced late notice in our allocations for the 2526 school year and found out it had been cut by 265,000 You've received some of our allocations for ESSA, which is title 1 and a couple other smaller funds And that will be a reduction of 45,000 848 but the special education allocations are still unknown at this time for the expenditure unknowns just negotiations that haven't begun yet principal school-aged care and district office specialists if there's any new legislation there could be impact there and then the impact of Minnesota paid leave in 24-25 their leaves were at
06717 and Emily just corrected me they're up to 83 and 25 26 so sorry for the typo which is about five times as much as the prior year and we haven't finished this school year yet so if that continues to grow there's a budget impact that could be unforeseen So we start with a revenue budget of 61.2 million and that's assuming the comp ed allocation remains similar to 2526 a general revenue at general education revenue increase of 2.69 percent and similar federal funding and accounting that decrease from SFMD and for our expenditure budget we're at 61.8 million that assumes 3252 K through 12 enrollment and average contract settlements So this was shared previously, the deficit of $603,000 with the reduction of the $192,000 in comp ed that we originally had thought. And again, with the
068original budget for the general revenue funding, we knew it would be between 2% and 3%, and then it had come out to be 2.69%. So the original budget had that 2%. So this is just adding in the 0.69%. and then we determined that we would use 150,000 of MA third-party billing fund restricted fund balance so that will show up later as as a deficit but we just know that where those funds are coming from the remainder last time yet to identify was four hundred and sixty one thousand nine hundred and sixty two So that's where we start with on this slide and then we've got administrative reductions of 330,000 759 teacher leadership additions of about 229,000 right sizing reductions of 447,000 right sizing additions of 370,000 and that's the exchanges between grades grade levels and
069buildings based on the needs Where the students are enrolled? And then multi-language learner cross-subsidy revenue was about $60,000 higher than originally estimated. And then there's that $220,000 from CompEd that was an addition over our first estimates. And so that leaves us with a balanced budget. Is there any questions? Thank you very much. Any discussion? I just think it's amazing. I mean... It is that's that's that yes, and we spoke at the work session about this the administrative reductions and the teacher leadership additions is Just the way of making sure that this this Yeah, I think the I mean, I thank you at our at Simi High School. We currently have a lead principal to assistant principals and what's called a assistant administrator. We are changing that assistant administrator from being an administrative position to being
070a student success coach like we have at our elementary schools. So there is a savings in that, but also it aligns with the model. that we have at the elementary schools and make that a K-12 model. At Emory Grove Heights Middle School, we have a lead principal, an assistant principal, and two assistant administrators, and we are reducing one assistant administrator and also moving that to a student success coach. So thus, we'll have a student success coach at every one of our schools. So it's a realignment, but it also then moves those positions from being administrative to being teacher on special assignment positions. I think that piece also, when we have the right sizing piece, it is those pieces that we have to adjust someplace, but then other places we have to add, and that's why
071I want to make sure we're putting that out there so people can understand where that's at or what that's all about. Can I add to something on comp ed? It's weird to not see you. Comp ed is such a... mean this could have been just such a really actually a disaster and for some districts they are facing kind of a disaster so I feel really lucky this year and just so like the public is aware this issue is not really resolved we this is this year and we still don't really have a real clue as to how this is going to be calculated in the future so I'm super grateful this year yeah just Throwing it out there with paid leave. I still would love to know how this is all supposed to work out
072in the future. Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that. So our comp ed revenue may be an increase of $20,000, which is a small fraction of that budget of $4.1 million. But there's net winners and net losers. So, of course, in this situation, we're coming out ahead a little bit. If they do pass that... but there's some legislation out there to hold harmless that would mean an additional 5 000 for us so it's not super significant to us but it could be um to our some of our districts around us and then next year and then next year yeah 27 28 will look will be very interesting to see how that flushes out yeah especially based on what the blue ribbon blue ribbon commission comes up with and so heather it's basically in the comp that
073we came out 28 000 better than we anticipated Yeah, better than this year, better than 2526. Okay. Any other discussion? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Superintendent Bernardson will share several policies for a first reading for review. Yes, thank you. The policy committee reviewed these policies in February and these policies had no changes and minimal changes and have a second reading at our next regular meeting on May 18th. So we have no changes to 421 gifts to employees and school board members. 422, employee recognition, and 423, employee-student relationships. Then minimal changes to 415, mandated reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults, and 427, workload limits for certain special education teachers. And once again, these policies will be brought back to you for their second reading on May 18th. And either if you have questions tonight
074or later on, you can ask those questions of our policy committee. Tracy works with her policies, or you can also get a hold of me as well. But we'll bring them back again on the 18th of May. Thank you. Any discussion? Thank you to Tracy Lout for keeping us all current on policies and for the policy committee. All right, moving on to committee reports. The Facilities Committee has not met this month. Jake, will you update us on finance? The Finance Committee met on April 13th to review the monthly check register and expenditures to date. Thank you. Sarah, will you update us on personnel? The Personnel Committee met on April 13th, and the agenda included updates on contract non-renewals. And Liz, policy? The Policy Committee met prior to tonight's meeting to review several policies, as Dave
075just said. Thank you. And membership reports. Dave, will you give an update on AMSD? Yeah, thank you. AMSD met on April 10th, and their agenda included routine business and then some work in regards to electing new officers to fill vacancies. Thank you, Shana the IJH best foundation Yes, the best foundation met on April 20th the executive team met to approve items for the May 27th awards night And the scholarship process has been audited by community members and approved to be awarded in May and look out for an email you'll probably get an email asking you if you want to be a stand-in scholarship person And it's fine. It's fun to see students get their scholarship. So I would I do I'll be there. Yeah, absolutely Liz, will you update us on MSBA? Sure. So the
076MSBA has a new learning hub for school board members called OnBoard, and I think for superintendents as well, OnBoard U. They offer courses designed specifically for school board leadership, and more information can be found on their website. There's two free ones right now, and otherwise... We'd ask Tracy for whatever PD. They're short. One's on budget, I think, right now. And also there's a big initiative called Minnesota Kids Rise, which is essentially all of the local groups, MSBA, AMSD, everybody is trying to inform the entire state about why public schools matter. That's the other huge initiative that's starting. Great. And finally, Intermediate School District 917. Dave, will you please update us? Sure. They met on April 7th, and their agenda included their typical business and approval of several policies, a REDAC MOU, and a resolution to
077non-renew probationary teachers, and also the approval of their 2627. Okay. Thank you. All right, moving on to action items. The first one, Superintendent Bernson will introduce the recommendation to approve the 2026-2027 School Board and Committee Meetings Schedule. Thank you. Yes, this is an annual piece that we do do, and this is a draft of our 26-27 School Board and Committee Meeting dates, and this was shared at our March 9th School Board Meeting. And when we look at school board meetings, we typically meet the second and fourth Monday of every month with the exception of August. We put them a little closer together in August due to the start of the school year. We also then have one meeting in December. We also then move to March where there is also one meeting due to spring
078break. And when we get to May, we also cluster those together, not on the second and fourth because of the activities that happen in May with the school district as well. And then as you see, we do have committee meetings and those committee meetings happen prior or after school board meetings. So finance committee usually meets after a work session, personnel for a work session, and then policy, as Liz mentioned, meets prior to our regular meetings. So this is the schedule we're proposing for the next school year for school board meeting dates as well as committees that the school board is involved in. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the 2627 school board and committee meeting schedule? Motion member Yemiaya. Second by member Dukes. All right. Any discussion? This is
079in my tenure on the board. It has been like this and it's very typical. It works well. So thank you. All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. All right, now I'd like to invite Director of Human Resources, Emily Herman, to introduce the recommendation to approve a resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of teaching contracts. Thank you members of the board, superintendent. I'm here today to look at our probationary teachers that we are moving forward with non-renewals. So the list is in your board packet but essentially in the state of Minnesota for the first three years and a teacher is with us it's they serve for a probationary year unless that they've been consecutively in another school district either in our state or a different state or a charter for three
080consecutive years then they only serve one probationary year. during that time, should we have concerns with performance or reduction in sections reduction and FTE needs, we can non renew their contract versus dealing with a 10 year teacher. So this resolution is being brought for you to recommendation based off of their non their try their probationary status. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the non renewal resolution? motion by member lounsbury second by member pearson any discussion i'll just say um this is not fun no matter what and it it happens every year just not fun every year and i you know i think we're all doing the best work we can thank you for your work heather everybody's work to try and find what we can and thanks for doing
081it it's hard yes it is it is uh It's challenging and that is a unit. I mean, we're grateful for the teachers and staff that we have and This is this is hard and this is this happens in every district and So, thank you for keeping keeping us apprised and the other discussion all in favor opposed The motion is carried. Chair Lonsbury, this is actually a roll call vote required. I apologize. Bring Tracy up. Member Klingner. Aye. Member Lonsbury. Aye. Member Neiman-Mayer. Aye. Member Pearson. Aye. Member Duke. Aye. Member Larson. Aye. Thank you. All right, we will now move on to with Director of Human Resources Emily Herman to introduce the recommendation to approve a resolution proposing placement of a continuing contract teacher on an unrequested leave of absence. Thank you members of the board,
082superintendent as mentioned earlier this is the very difficult stuff that we have to work through in addition to the now and new of probationary status we also have to look at moving into unrequested leave of absence for tenured staff so this is what happens when we have section reductions budget limitations financial limitations that lead us to have to make reductions and for a teacher that has a tenured status then they were they go on to a ULA list unrequested leave of absence list and if that FTE ever comes back in our district, then they have the right to say yes or no to that FTE prior to us posting to seeking fulfillment after the fact. So today we're bringing forward a partial ULA of a point two for art position. And the reasons as follows
083is lack of people's financial limitation and discontinuation of the position. of a point two of the total of a point eight to bring the individual down to a point six and this is also a roll call resolution yes thank you all right do i have a motion and a second to approve the unrequested leave of absence resolution motion motion member second by member clingner all right motion by member name second by member clingner any discussion so again they with this should enrollment change and we we need this position back this this person would be given the opportunity to accept before it's posted anywhere else That is correct. So anyone who is on our ULA list, they have a right to look at that FTE and then they have a certain timeline in order to tell
084us if they want to accept that FTE or not. If they do not accept that FTE, they still remain on our list for the total of five years. Sure. So they have that opportunity. So we continuously track that and go back to that list whenever it falls within their licensure that they currently have. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah, just from your description, this is not an entire position elimination. It's going from a .8 FTE to a .6 FTE. So the position itself is not entirely eliminated? That's correct. It's not a full ULA. It's a partial ULA of only a .2 FTE. This individual is entitled to a .8. So that's why we have to non-renewal for the .2 because we only have .6 available in the... Thank you. Any other discussion? All right,
085this will also be a roll call vote. Thank you, Tracy. All right, the motion is carried six to zero. Moving on to our comments. We'll begin with Superintendent Bernardson. Yeah, thank you. First of all, I want to thank Pine Bend for hosting this evening and to Paul Richardson, Sarah Getting, and Mike Franson for sharing information about the Pine Bend Elementary community. As you can all tell, there's fabulous things happening here at this school just like any other school in our district. Along with that, I want to congratulate Invergirl Heights Middle School on their AVID National Demonstration School Revalidation. They have started working with AVID in 2018 and this just goes to show the wonderful things that are happening at the middle school and the way that they use AVID to guide their instruction. Also want
086to congratulate the cast and crew of Mean Girls, the production that took place at Simley High School over the course of the last weekend. Also, we had our final student advisory council meeting just a few weeks ago where our students that represent their schools in grades 4, 7, 11. they had the opportunity to taste test for food service and i would say it's one of the most exciting days of the year for all of us and i ironically we had some members of our cabinet team that just seemed to drift in to that taste testing i'm not sure why but the results of it happen to be where there are menu items that come forward because kids give it that taste test approval and we really talked about it's like watching the food network so
087you got to really make sure you're taking into account all those different aspects And believe you me, they take it seriously. They even got to the point where they would use their water to cleanse their palate in between what they were tasting. And actually can say that there probably wasn't anything that day that might not make the menu. It was very fun for the kids. And again, we want to really thank those student advisory kids because they really helped to provide us feedback on different aspects throughout the school year. Then just want to finally just celebrate again the graduation rates. Our goal is to have all of our kids graduate at the end of the school year, but things like this happen with intentional efforts and... having done this for a long time there are
088intentional efforts that are really focused on certain specific aspects but our focus has really been on all students and that belonging relationship and engagement piece and we just start to see that further materializing with kids saying hey we want to be here and we value the relationship we have and that means that they're going to be further engaged in their learning and when that happens great things happen and we would say that um the graduation rate we know is reflection of that along with a lot of other things but i also want to point out that that is something that starts the minute a student or child walks into a school no matter what grade that is so that's as much reflection on our students as it is in our staff as it is in
089our community as well thank you we'll begin with member klimmer Definitely thank you to principal Richardson for hosting us at Pine Bend tonight. I just noticed a lot of exciting things in the presentation the food drive other fun experiences kids just experiencing joy socially emotionally but in the classroom to evidence of student leadership I thought was really inspiring to see There was a slide in there that about every minute matters and it just made me think of when I went through my own principal licensure program and hearing over and over again that the master schedule reflects the values and priorities of your school and I remember at the time thinking like, wow, I mean you only have so many minutes in the day, like you gotta do all this stuff. that was very naive of
090me at the time and i've not ever had your job but to hear you just be reflective on changing what needs to happen so that you can do all the things and the time i think is just really practical and real um the birthday club connection I have a summer birthday. And I ran into a former teacher of mine who was my teacher here in fourth grade, and we were at Target, and my daughter said, just say hi to her. So I did. But one of my favorite memories from that particular year was that she let summer birthday kids buddy up with a school year birthday friend to celebrate your half birthday, and you got to take a boxed cake to the kitchen to make a cake for the class and bring it back, and
091that was a really fun thing. So I thought it was fun that you have a birthday club type of deal. Trying to channel my inner Sherry because she's so reflective and such a good listener. And then the last thing was just the arts and letters. I think the advantage of being so late in the year is that you have a whole year to really reflect on this, and we've heard so much about it. But to hear Ms. Getting from the teacher's perspective talk about... you know, the heavy lift of starting a new curriculum. You don't just get to do the things that you're used to doing and you don't know how the kids are going to respond. It's really, really, really hard to teach a brand new thing. And so to hear them not only
092do it, but like what they're doing and see the positive things from the kids, I think that's really encouraging. And to think that next year now they're going to have kids feeding in that have done it before and that'll be good and present some new opportunities. So I just thought that was very exciting. So thank you. Thank you member Pearson Thank you to pine Bend and principal Richardson for hosting tonight to hear the presentation was wonderful and Lines up now I can line up and connect more dots with what I'm seeing in the third grade homework as well, but really really congratulations on the success there and just want to call out our earlier district highlight on those graduation rates that is an incredible amount of work from the team sitting there in the back
093and everybody in the district and it's been a continual point of focus the um the gap in the graduation rate and a continued conversation at board meetings and so i just i want to call out that that is a huge success for this district and a really really huge milestone so Congratulations and thank you for all the work that went into that. Thank you. Member Larson. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Principal Richardson, for having us. Spent a lot of time in this library as I was a third to fifth grade Pine Bend Bear back in the day when this building reopened and I don't even, can't even mask the year. I was in third grade. Yes, we were the Pine Bend Bears at the time. I don't know when it transferred back over to everyone
094with Spartans, but. Hearing the curriculum update from those teachers was great. Their first-hand experience, I love that they recognized there were challenges and there were so many wins also, and that they're excited to move forward and see where it goes, work with the next year's teachers. I also just want to thank everyone who has reached out to us in the last month or more who has been following this journey with us, spending a lot of their time as well. I hear you. I thank you. I appreciate you. Member Nehemiah. Thank you, Principal Richardson and to your staff. One of my favorite things from the Achievement Integration and Functional Morphology presentation was just the number of times kids like a challenge, kids are enjoying and embracing the challenge. I really appreciate that. That is our goal,
095I think, is challenge and then support as you get through the challenge. And I'm really, that fills my cup. That was really wonderful. I don't think I can say it better than Member Pearson on the graduation rates, but the achievement and integration goals and the graduation rates, it's just, this is it. This is so fantastic. I wish I'd seen Mean Girls, Dave. I really wish I had. I saw about 10 minutes of a dress rehearsal with the mic, so it was pretty real. And it was just fantastic. And what that goes to, there's so many good things happening in every single building. and including the middle school track meet that I got to go to you know there's just a lot of really really great things happening and I love it this is uh this
096week next week is teacher appreciation staff appreciation so that means in every single building every single staff person I say this every year but thank you we cannot do this I mean this is just the work from every single person in every single position thank you so much and this is the the kind of two-week period where you may get like a coffee gift card and and that's not enough but i hope i hope you feel that we feel it uh thank you Member Dukes. Yeah, I'm going to, you know, echo all the things. Thank you to Principal Richardson. I feel like I spent a lot of time here. I feel like this is one of the places, schools I go to, and I'm like, I know how to get around. And it's actually quite
097confusing to get around, kind of, sort of, but I feel like I get around pretty well in here. So thank you for, you know, having us and hosting us. Telling us all about all the great things that you guys are doing. I think sometimes We sit at this 30,000 foot view where we see the you know the whole thing and I think when we get opportunities to come and see and hear from you guys directly it Brings us down a little bit into a human level where we can kind of see it's not like oh the functions are working But it's like oh no there like there's fun also behind those functions And so I love I always love when we get to come and see you guys in y'all's homes. I'm sorry I really
098appreciate that The graduation rates are fine. I'm really excited about that. I heard about that at the work session and I feel a similar sense of overjoy that the other board members talked about. The last thing I'll say, you know, I heard a message recently last week sometimes and they were just talking about this idea of just riding it out. You know, sometimes things get a little tough and we all just got to ride it out. And I think there's a lot of that happening. It's the end of the year for students. right it's that time of year like can you just get to the building go into the school and do the things you need to do we're almost at the end right same thing for the teachers it's like well it's the end
099of the year we got to get the last things done and we're all just we're all just riding it out you know to us and all the things we're working through in the community the things they're working through and and i think what makes this Worth it all right. It's that one. Well, we're all riding out for the same reason All right So students so we can see the graduation rates the way they are so we can you know hear our teachers talk about The way they're able to interact and work with students and grow students and and for the community for the betterment of all of us collectively and so You know just encouraging us all to continue to ride it out Like it's all it's all worth it when we get to the
100end of wherever we're all going Yes, thank you. As you know, earlier in my career, I worked with students who were in credit recovery. And I, to me, this graduation rate, I mean, it's not just working with students in credit recovery, but it's showing that our staff really leaned into relationships and and pursued students who were maybe on the cusp of not finishing or whatnot and so I just want to to really highlight simile in this in this year's graduation rate growth and thank them for their efforts and their focus and just Really taking taking a 30,000 foot view maybe and looking at what our systems where where could we? You know strengthen So I think that's phenomenal and again love hearing from from principal Richardson and mrs. Getting holds a very special place in
101my heart as she was She was my two of my kids first grade teacher at Hilltop and hearing about I mean, I'm just so proud of of our teachers for rising to the challenge of learning a new curriculum and I just think what an what an example to our suit we are lifelong learners and You know, I just wrote down she's seen an increase in curiosity and wonderings and that is We need that right? We need people to be curious learners Listening and speaking and learning how to engage respectfully So wonderful. And what I heard from Mr. Franson was just this growth mindset. And I get excited. And again, my, my last elementary child is at Hilltop. And I'm seeing this homework there too. And I feel like, you know, Well, my oldest is a
102junior I think when he was in elementary school there was Commonality between the elementary's but I think this this unified curriculum is a gift to and just To the district as a whole so I get really excited to see To see these these students grow and what their writing will be like in middle school And I just think we're we're offering our kids Like listen like a challenge and they're rising to the occasion so and lastly I just want to thank superintendent burns and for the mid-year review and just thought your leadership and your your gracious leadership and always keeping students at the center of the district work is a gift to all of us. So with that we are holding a special meeting this Wednesday April 29th For the purpose of discussing the superintendent
103contract at 5 30 p.m And this meeting will take place in the middle school library and the next work session will be held on May Monday May 11th and the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday May 18th Those will be at the district office Do I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting? motion by member dukes and second by member larson all in favor aye motion carried at 6 51 pm