February 23, 2026, ISD 199 School Board Meeting

001The Monday, February 23rd, 2026, Intergrove Heights Community School Board of Education's regular meeting is called to order at 5.30 p.m. at Salem Hills Elementary School. As a reminder, all public comment during the regular school board meetings must be related to an information or action item on that night's agenda. The district holds public listening sessions prior to all regular board meetings to allow participants to speak on topics that are not on the agenda. More information on public comment and public listening sessions can be found on the district's website. This meeting is being recorded. Access to the recording will be made available on the school district's website as quickly as possible. Our school board's mission is to inspire, innovate, excel. A community commitment. Board Chair Carrie Lonsbury is absent this evening. Board Clerk Dukes, will you please

002take roll call? Yep. Member Dukes, present. Member Warrick, here. Member Pearson, here. Member D'Amelio, here. Member Klingner, here. Member Larson, here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I 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 Warwick. Okay, motion by Member Larson. Second by Member Warwick. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. We're going to move on to district highlights, and Director of Special Services, Abel Riyadike, will introduce this month's district highlights. Good evening. ISD 199 partners with Intermediate District 917 to provide our students with access to

003specialized services and programs that drive their academic success. Each year, District 917 staff nominate educators from its nine member districts to go above and beyond in this mission. This year, three of our very own Simley High School teachers have been named recipients of the 2025-2026 Inclusive Educator Award. The following teachers are Gretchen Burkholz, Math and Computer Science, Nora Austin, Science, and Rick Tavernier, Social Studies. These three outstanding educators were nominated specifically for their exceptional efforts to champion and support the inclusion of our unique learners at Sinley High School. Congratulations to Gretchen, Nora, and Rick on this well-deserved honor. Next. We will move on to our consent agenda. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda items? Motion by member Dukes. Second by member Nehemiah. Motion by member Dukes and a

004second by member Nehemiah. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? And the motion is carried. Next up is donations. And so thank you to those who have donated to the school district this past month. Your generosity and support of our schools and the commitment and the community is much appreciated as they make a difference for our students. Thank you very much. We'll move on to information items. And up first we have American Indian Education Program vote of concurrence. Director of Learning Megan Blazek and American Indian Education Coordinator Mari Mintz-Biel will provide an update on the district's American Indian Education Program and the vote of concurrence. Well, good evening, and thank you for having us here this evening. I've brought a couple people with me who are very excited to talk to you

005about our American Indian Ed program. We have Jamie Lindquist, who is a community member, Mari Mansfield, who is our American Indian Ed coordinator, and then we have Marissa Carmona, a parent. And I'm going to pass it over to Mari and these guys to go ahead and share about their vote of concurrence. Thank you so much. We have prepared a brief presentation about our program and our parent committee as well, but to share their vote results from our voted concurrents and undercurrents. So we voted concurrent this year. Yes. Awesome. And now we'll share a little bit about that. I guess a full-time coordinator being Mari. The addition of a full-time coordinator has brought consistency and community to the Indian Ed program. Organized student meeting schedule has brought cohesiveness to the program. Student meetings are on a

006three-week cycle with a total of 11 meetings a year for elementary, middle, and high school students. Mari being on-site at Simley has allowed for greater access to the program. For the middle and high school students, students are available to drop by the classroom at their own convenience, get medicine resources, work on crafts, and get school supplies as well. The Indian Education Classroom at Simley High School creates a safe space for American Indian students to gather, create, and connect to their cultures. The space is open during the school day for students to drop in, meet with me, and work on crafts and get help with schoolwork. And as you can see in the photos, we had quite a transformation of our space this year. The elementary programming is establishing a schedule of elementary school meetings every

007three weeks, getting to know each other, learning the basis of the native cultures. Some of our first lessons have included making crafts, playing games, and reading books by native authors. Workshops, so there's a ribbon shirt workshop, creating our own design, drafting patterns, and learning how to sew. Beading groups as well, learning the different kinds of beading, creating holiday gifts, and learning new and challenging skills, and then there's more to come in the future. We also have the, we're joining a group of other districts for the multi-district American Indian Education Powwow. This is the fourth annual powwow. It's Saturday, April 11th, and it's from noon to five. And at five, there is a free feast of native foods, including fried bread and wild rice. And it's free and open to the public for all part. parts

008of our district to come and enjoy so hopefully we'll see some of you all there and this is absolutely it's not at simile this is at champlain park high school they're our host district thank you so much for your time we're happy to be here I think it's important to know that a vote of concurrence is a very significant piece to our American Indian education program. That's not something that comes easily, and we may have talked about that in the past, but I want to thank you for that because that really says that we're upholding what we say we will do to provide support to our students, correct? Yes. So thank you for that. Can I ask you a question? I raised this at the work session, and whoever wants to take this. When I

009started on the board two years ago, we were talking about a land use acknowledgement and it's kind of gone through some iterations, but we still haven't gotten there and I'm wondering what should we be doing to make sure we're getting there? Thank you for asking. So we are aware that there's a draft land acknowledgement out there. And this year, part of the work that the APAC will be doing is reviewing the draft and hopefully coming to a conclusion that we can later present to the board that we can get approved to be our official land acknowledgement. I have a comment, not so much a question, but I just want to say I really appreciate all the things that I've seen you guys do for students, not just students that share this very... special identity with

010you guys. I really believe that the more we can expose all students to different cultures whether that be our wonderful American Indian community whether that be black community, black community, whatever the community is. I think the more we can do that the better all of our students become and the more they learn and the better they become out in society. And so I really appreciate that. I think it's so fun when I can talk about all the great things that you guys did from the lunch integrations to see our young students making different arts and learning about sorts and I've learned so much and it gives us ability to even correct people when they are saying things that they shouldn't say and I think students getting that knowledge from middle on up right here in

011their own community they share space with is super important so I think the work that you guys are doing sets a great example for others to follow and creates the framework for us to continue you know all of our all of our different ethnos we're grateful for Thank you again for your willingness to be involved as parents and community members. That means a lot. We really appreciate that. I mean, if I could just speak to this a little bit. In the 70s, when I was in grade school, this was all starting out. To see where it's at now, I mean, it just makes me so grateful that these young people not only have a place but are seen. And I think that I just want to share that we're very grateful to have that opportunity

012because, like I said, In suburbia, sometimes we can be invisible. I'm gonna share with you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, take care. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to the ISD 199 Triennial Assessment 2025-2026. The Director of Community Education, Chad Sechauer, will share information on the ISD 199 Triennial Assessment. Yeah, thank you for having us. We're happy to be here to my left I have charity guys power who is part of our wellness committee, so we have a Very strong and mighty group right that's involved within our wellness committee some other people that couldn't be here tonight Gail Anderson was a parent Gretchen Burkholz she's with the school district Charity here to my left Tracy Lott with the school district and Ben Piney from the school district and myself so the triennial assessment is

013Really an opportunity for us to kind of go through and take a look at our school meals and wellness policies are they in alignment with our practices, right? And so the things that are happening. And up here on the screen you can kind of see there's several elements, right, that kind of go into the triennial assessment. One is kind of the why. As a local educational agency that participates within the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, this is a federal requirement that we do this every three years. That's kind of the when, the three-year piece. USDA, we need to make sure that we're just following safe practices and protocols, smart meals, smart snacks, all the things that we're doing and sharing with kids that we serve during the school day is a part

014of that. And there's also a piece that extension that not only things I guess that we don't serve, but things that we might sell as well, right? Following that. And then the what is some of the reflection on our school wellness meals as well as our wellness policies. Tracy, do you mind advancing? So our work basically centers around our purpose and does it align with our policies? And what we found out was Three elements you see there. We're a line of federal requirements We're effectively implementing standards and protocols and we're supporting students as well as staff and families So the four required components in evaluating the district's daily work The very first piece of the wellness you want to click ahead one slide for me, thank you so the very first piece is a tool

015called the well sat and this is something that was designed by the University of Connecticut. It's used within the nation. Basically all 50 schools are using this as a tool to kind of take a look at health guidelines and what we're doing. So the WellSAT policy piece asks some questions that kind of fit this piece right here. Are we, you know, kind of going through as a school district and... Do our vending machines, do our a la carte items, are all of these snacks that we're kind of passing out or people purchasing, do they meet federal guidelines? What else might be in there? Some of the, excuse me, I lost my spot right here. Free drinking water, is that available during all our meals and throughout the school day? regulating and addressing do the policies

016mirror one another. So that was the first piece of just policy work. Then we got into kinda taking our policies and taking a look at our practice and are those in alignment. We found that we are in alignment and strong in some areas, not in all areas, right? Some of the places that we're very strong is does the district offer breakfast every day to all students? Yep. Are all physical education classes taught by state certified licensed teachers? Yes. So it's asking an assortment of questions. It's not just pertaining to food. It's asking nutrition. It's asking physical education practices. It's asking recess. It's asking the minutes of activity. It's just a very broad and encompassing assessment. Areas where we could do a little bit better. Do all foods sold after the school day meet smart snack

017standards? Our concession stands don't fit that space, right? There are things that are beyond what the USDA would say are smart snacks. So that would be an area of growth. Chad, can I interrupt just for a second? Please. But if a booster club is running that, doesn't that make that sort of a separate question, or is it because... I mean, I'm just kind of curious, because that is a separate, the money's not going to the district, the district isn't choosing that. I think they would say it's a fine line because it's our event, right? And because they're there, because we're asking them to kind of be in that space, that it would probably touch a nerve, right? I don't think we'd win that battle, per se. But I don't know of another school district. Having

018been an activities director for 25 years or 15 years. That probably is not selling sticker bars and popcorn. And sugar pop. Those are the only spaces that we're kind of following that piece. I mean, where our practice aligns is basically in our policy we're saying, hey, like, parents. When you want to celebrate your kids at school, we're asking you to bring healthy snacks, right? We're saying don't bring in, you know, sweet treats. Don't bring in those kinds of things. All right? You know, within the national assessment, we don't align because they're asking that all high school students receive 225 minutes of physical education, you know, throughout the school week. We're just not in a spot kids are so selecting choices now. We offer activities. We offer athletics well for a number of Elements to where

019kids can come into the facility even tonight. We'll have fundamental basketball here right with the city So we're opening our school spaces to other groups trailing basketball in the middle school, you know facilities in the fall outside softball baseball So we're allowing school property to be used towards physical education, but still you know, something that we are, you know, I guess non-compliant when you take a look at that. So those step threes are just kind of the comparison piece of where we're at, kind of summarizing our scores and findings, providing ways. to be more proficient, right, and celebrate the successes and things that we have out there. The last step is what we'll follow up with this week in terms of sharing our assessment. We'll post our wellness scores to the public online under our

020food service banner in that area. Policy and practice tools and kind of the alignment of things that I kind of touched on, we're doing a really good job as a school district. We're in spaces. that are helping kids, that are helping families with physical, nutritional, social, emotional well-being. So our score is extremely high. And so we should feel positive about that. Tracy? An area of growth that we're choosing to kind of try and focus on, I think over the next three years before our triennial assessments do again, is... Working to try and create some of that physical activity and move it within classrooms You know what our best practices or what are things that we can do I know already within our communities of practice their groups that we're talking about movement within classrooms on

021a daily basis I know our elementary teachers are taking kids outside right and what is it appropriate time and when it fits within the guidelines of their day They're using a professional creativity to make that happen We also have best practice, kind of maybe in a secondary level where there's gallery walks or there's four-corner debates where they kind of move to different spaces. So we're trying to embed movement, you know what I mean, brain activity, best practice within classrooms and spaces that way. We're looking to grow our wellness committee, you know, that strong, mighty group of six that we have. We're looking for more involvement, right, from people within all of our sites and have some site champions. We're also looking to have student voice at the table. I think it's important to have the

022kids be a part of that so to be able to gain their voice, and that's something that we're looking to grow as a group. Tracy, you mind? So just a little bit of, like, our ongoing work here. You've already gone through and approved policy 535, right, with our school meals and wellness. All those things were done earlier. So those things are in place. Now it's just kind of matter taking in to affect some of our growth areas and how do we target those in the next three years to kind of make our policies even stronger in line with our practice. Last slide there. Slide, please. So, yeah, the district continues to reflect, listen, and grow and improve with the collective efforts of everybody, school board members, district leaders, nutritional services, building leadership. classroom educators parents

023wellness community members student advisory council members isd 99 will be set up for success so Questions I had a question you had mentioned the high school requirement for the physical Act was a physical activity for week or physical education minutes for me physical activity, right? So we could include in there probably passing time right when people are moving because it's up in the movement Those numbers kind of, oddly enough, the smaller the bodies, the less the numbers in terms of the time frame, which is kind of unique. I would think it would be the opposite. The little ones move more. That's what we all are thinking. What about for staff? So if there's some sort of physical requirement for staff, because this seems student-focused, but it's covering staff, so how does that work? Yeah, I

024think that's some of the stuff for our wellness committee we would like to do. We've pulled all of our sites for things that they already have embedded within the structures of their sites. What are they doing for spirit, right? Some of the emotional and mental. There hasn't been much that was kind of talked about in terms of like physical activity, right? But we are welcome to ideas of how do we help foster and grow that if it's early morning walk clubs, yoga activities within the gyms. I know there's always morning basketball groups at every site that kind of seem to pop up. So whatever we can do to kind of foster and grow, we're very open to supporting that work. Discussion? Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And next up, we will

025have our Salem Hills Elementary and Athenaeum update. And Principal Tina Willett will provide the Board of Education an update on Salem Hills Elementary and the Athenaeum Gifted Magnet Program. Tina Willett, Principal at Salem Hills and Athenaeum. One of my favorite nights just to come and share all the great things that happen at Salem every single year. So I am going to bring you all the way back. to the beginning of our year. So we started our year with this theme of you can't control the wind, but you can always adjust your sails. And part of that is coming at every school year as dynamic, and it always will be. And we can get caught up in trying to control lots of different things when we realize the things we can or cannot control, but what

026we can adjust within our system and within our school, it helps us sail along a little bit smoother or make those adjustments. Because it's inevitable that strong winds are going to blow. And I think we found that out this year where the winds changed very quickly. And so I just wanted to start this presentation with that same idea that we just have to adjust, and that's what we do. And my staff and myself, I think, are amazing at those adjustments and pivoting and moving with what comes our way. So I'll bring you through a little bit of our journey in the Salem Hills and tell you a little bit more about who we are. Our belief, and again I'm speaking for myself and my team, is that every student deserves instruction that responds to their

027strengths and needs. And by continuously monitoring how they are doing and organizing our groups, we can ensure that there's a timely, impactful... progress for that child in the intervention and then when we are able to collaborate our team can work together to remove any barriers that we see for children maximize their learning time and keep the center of our work at the student success and the decisions that we make so as a school those are our beliefs as we show up every day Now, how do we do it? Well, we form intentional and caring, authentic relationships with our students and our families. We learn together and we challenge ourselves. And again, that's that win when it comes. How are we learning? How are we growing? We look for those opportunities to close gaps through equitable

028practices for our children. So we really are tenacious about figuring out how to get every child what they need. And we always celebrate our successes and we approach our work with a growth mindset in order to strive towards the work that we do and meeting the needs of our students every day. If you didn't already know, right, Salem is pretty dynamic. So we have Salem Hills Elementary as our main school here and we do receive Title I funds for Salem Hills. Embedded within our building is the Thrive Program that was previously known as the Behavior Program. And for a while that sat with me that there was definitely a bias that came with that. When you had a child go to the behavior program, what travels for that child is that they are a behavior

029concern. And so for a while we've been kind of talking about that just creates bias for any child that needs those level of services. So we switched it to Thrive, right? So every day we can all thrive to be our best. So now that program with us is the elementary program for all three of our buildings is the Thrive program. Then we have Athenaeum Elementary School within our building and our early learning programs. We have our little Spartans preschool and our early childhood special education. So I like to say we are a microcosm of a community with a variety of learners in one building. So those are our programs and those are all the children that we serve here. If you look generally speaking at our students, our demographics have not shifted too much. We

030are sitting at about 30, about 36% students are white, followed by our Hispanic students and our black and African-American students. for the bulk of our kids. And in the blue, that is Athenaeum. So that is one of the differences in our building to our other elementary schools is we do have two schools in one building. So in the Athenaeum side of things, it's about 60% white students and then a pretty good balance across Asian, Latino, and African American students. So again, the... The way that our building works, everybody is one community, but they are very different when they come to the schools and the demographics of our schools. When we look at the other indicators, like if children that are ML learners receive services or free or reduced lunch, Salem Hills is about 45% free

031or reduced lunch, with about 15% of our students are identified as ML learners and 11% for special education. And our students who are experiencing homelessness is about 2%. compared to Athenaeum where our free and reduced lunch is at 14.5%, special education 10%, zero ML learners and zero students experiencing homelessness. But I would point out that that free and reduced lunch number has come up. So that is an increase from past years. So just that note of who our children are and some of the dynamics that they bring into our school building. Now, I know as a system we've been really talking about the 199 way. So I thought I would bring to you how we live the 199 way at Salem Hills. So the three pictures that you have in front of you right now

032are some different ways that we are working around belonging and engagement and relationships. So on the safe travelers, that is connected to our buses. and really doing intentional work to have safe travelers to and from school every day. If you don't know, the bus is kind of the last frontier. Children get on the school bus and they leave us, and it's one driver and 65 children. So our success coach, Jess, said, we've got to do something. What can we do? So it became a competition across the buses to see who had the safest travelers on the bus. And they all were traveling back and forth and earning different privileges and different trinkets when their bus was working together to have positive bus behavior. And we are still going. Today, Jess took a group sledding because

033there was snow, so we could do the sledding. But it shows that individuality of recognizing children for what they're doing because the bus drivers do tell us who the safe traveler is on their bus. So there is buying from our bus drivers along with our children who go to Spartan Kids Care and our parent pickup kits. So they have adults that are watching to see who are safe travelers and then they are recognized over the loudspeaker by me every week. So we shifted over to rocking recess that became our next spot to try to figure out how do we get some of that energy and positivity at recess. So we started with the rocking recess so that's that engagement of the grade level that has the least amount of incidents at recess. We have traveling

034trophies that go to the grade level with the least amount of incidents outside. and they actually get to grade the building when they receive the We Rock Recess trophies and their poster to put outside their door. So far, first grade has rocked it three weeks in a row, so we're trying to see if anybody else is going to step up to rock recess. And kindergarten got it the first time, so that was actually really sweet because all the kindergartners moved through and the fifth graders were so proud of them. I think Mrs. Johnson was super proud to leave her kindergarten, but I know they're laughing because she was having a great time, but there's a sense of pride in that team approach and that whole school community, so that's the engagement. And then our teacher

035feature, that is something that Jess Hill and Melissa Gennetto started doing this year. I think it's just showing that we can all work together for a long time, but you don't necessarily know a lot about each other, unless you're really tight. close friends you do but if you're not you don't know as much so the teacher feature is something and that's Cindy just kind of an interview of who are you and what are you all about and what could I ask you about and all the teacher features are in our staff lounge so every time those posters are completed they're going in the staff lounge so that you can kind of take a look at your colleagues and see what they're all about and what it is like Cindy likes coffee right so just that

036idea of their relationships and digging a little bit deeper than the person that works three doors down from me. So that is part of that 199 way of really thinking about how do we get to know the folks that we work with on a day-to-day basis. And we continue on living the 199 way, right? There's so many ways for me to express and share with you the ways that we do it. So our positive peer relationships, that was a picture taken from our fourth grade garage sale where our fourth graders sell sell items to other people. And you can see that positivity. There's leadership from former fourth graders and a lot of interaction with all the children at the other grade levels. Positive student and teacher relationships. This was taken apparently fully at the beginning

037of the school year, taking her class out in the nature walk and building that community right away from those first weeks of school. The positive staff relationships that are Spartan Spirit Award that Kayla Marion won, she was shocked to get the award, but her students were extremely proud of her when that came. But I think that just shows that recognition, and not just from within our building, but having recognition of a global sense. And she was recognized and nominated by someone in secret for her. And then our positive family community relationships. We do a lot with our community. The picture up there is from our fire safety poster contest that is in collaboration with our fire department every year. I am going to brag. We got the top three spots for second and third place

038winners for that poster contest. But again, I think that collaboration between community partners and folks coming in and being a part of our school is powerful. And then we are... still doing our H2O for Life. So that group of children right there were recipients of some clean water based on our H2O for Life funds that we raise every May to help put water into communities that don't have clean drinking water. So those three faces in there was a picture from H2O for Life that got sent back to us where all of the effort in our water fair goes straight into creating better conditions for young children across our world. So we do live the 199 way in all that we do, and this is just an example of some ways that we have been showing

039up in that work. Another way is our children do inspire us too. So I'm going to bring you into the day in the life of a kindergartner. Good morning, Zoe. Good morning, Ramesh. Good morning, Zoe. Good morning, Alex. Good morning, Wiley. Good morning, Ramesh. Whatcha call it? We um, sum out some words and then we rhyme it. A-F-F. What are you gonna make Wiley? That'd be for Wiley. That'd be for Wiley. Like whose name? Wiley! It's lunch time. I like the fruit and the burger and the ice cream. It's time for recess. I got it. It's music. Ooh, so many. And then we go. Then we go to Miss Helena to talk about food. This is Wiley. This is where we track every day of school. How many days in school now? 67 days. person

040as they start their journey through us and every time I watch that that's why I put that they inspire us too because they are tiny but they know the routines and the rituals and are excited to be with us as much as we are excited to be with them so I thought I'd give you a snapshot into kindergarten at Salem Hills. So one of the bigger pieces that we've taken on this year is Arts and Letters, which I'm sure you have all heard about Arts and Letters, right? But I wanted to bring you into a little bit of the perspectives and student impact that we're already seeing with our students. And we have made it to February, but we are seeing some significant changes for literacy instruction. So we'll talk about it, right? Classroom experiences

041around Arts and Letters, benefits we're seeing, and kind of that impact on the teaching and the learning that is already happening. So what is it? You guys probably know, but it's student-centered literacy instruction, grade-level complex text, lots of reading, writing, and discussion, and critical thinking, and creates access and support for all. So the pictures up here is where we started. So that was all of the curriculum materials that were in this space in August ready to go. And as you can see, I was very excited as a... literacy person that we had real literature and real books and called upon award-winning books that we were going to be working with our children with I think that was incredibly important and I know from elementary teachers are excited when we have good literature to teach with

042so that is how we started and teachers came in and got piles of stuff and we all went okay here we go we'll figure out what all of this is and how it's going to play out in the classroom so The idea here is through deeper comprehension of texts and increased expectations for writing and providing evidence and explanation for their thinking along with clear reasoning and critical thinking, this is starting from kindergarten, we will be seeing growth across grade levels and all learners as we know. So that was early on in the year. You might not be able to see it very closely, but they are annotating text already, and that's second and third grade Athenaeum. So it starts very young at getting them annotating text and showing their thinking. We move on to what

043is it looking like in a classroom. So we do have children engaged in those reading that rich and meaningful text. It's either set up at the upper grades that they have chapter books. At the younger grades, there is text that they are sharing. So children do have their hands on real books, right? And they are writing regularly. Lots of conversations with teachers facilitating and supporting the learning. What you see on the pictures is one is an Athenian classroom and one is a Salem classroom. You cannot tell the difference between which school the child is in. And the writing, one is generated in the Salem Hillside and one is generated in Athenian. So if you've been here long enough, you can see that usually that was very different. It is not different right now. So those

044are some examples of what our children are generating. Again, we're seeing that student engagement. Children really can't get away from not engaging in the sport in the classroom. So there is increased participation. Student voice, just the way the lessons are set up. Children are engaging with their peers and with their classroom teachers. And with the knowledge-based foundation, we're seeing a lot more curiosity about those contents. So it's not, it is reading, but the knowledge-based brings that interest level in. There was a staff member that showed me a picture or a video of her daughter at home that had made a rocket out of cardboard because the lesson that they had been working on was going to space, right? So it traveled its way home. And then getting children, I think, still working on getting kids

045to take those academic risks because the rigor has jumped a lot. While I'm telling you that between Athenaeum and Salem Hills we're generating the same things, please recognize the scaffolding that is taking place to provide the children the supports to produce what they're producing. So we'll be continuing forever, I think, is getting those academic risks for our youngest children. One way that the system is set up is in the equity and access, so it's called a prologue. This is used with children who receive services under special education or ML students. It's designed to be able to build the language preview and practice activities prior to a child seeing that in their classroom so that a child feels like they can engage in that lesson more successfully. So that intentionality of front-loading some of that for

046our children helps them have that confidence and belonging in a classroom. So that is one piece that our professionals that work with our ML and children who receive services are unpacking and figuring out all the ways to use that part of the program. And again, the equity and access, it's giving that grade level content for every child, no matter what supports you get from behind you. And it does have those scaffolds built in, that high expectation and confidence. What you're looking at there is writing from across third grade, Athenaeum, and St. Louis. And again, that was done early in the school year. And the writing that they were generating, just having been like a month and a half or two months of the school year. And again, you've got writing being generated from the Athenian

047third graders and the San Jose third graders. And you could walk through the hallways and see that work reflected back. And our student voice, right? So like I said, they work in partners. They're constantly talking and writing. The learn book is what you see there as kind of a workbook, but that gives an opportunity for teachers to really see their thinking down on paper instead of it being kind of what are you thinking, and then two or three children answer that question. They do have to write down and demonstrate what they're thinking on that paper. So those are just a couple images of children working in their learn books with a partner. These are all third grade pictures, by the way. And this picture was taken in this room. So we are so grateful for

048the professional learning days that we have in our school calendar. This was taken. We had all third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers in this room with the trainers from Arts and Letters. And that was a chance for us to, these guys, to plan and be reflective of what it is that they're teaching. have an understanding of that expectation for instruction and really learning alongside each other. The curriculum is new, so the teacher's cognitive load is as heavy as the children's, but being able to be in one room with all the third through fifth grade teachers and our K-2 teachers are in a different building with a facilitator there, but I think it's powerful of having a full day to really learn and grow together. So this is from my third grade team. I asked them

049to tell me, what are you noticing in the classroom? And they shared with me one of the most significant changes is that all students, regardless of their ability, are actively engaged in the same high quality curriculum. Students who are receiving additional services, including Title I support, as well as our gifted and talented learners, are participating in shared lessons and accessing the same rigorous content. And they feel that the unified approach has created stronger classroom discussions, increased confidence, and a greater sense of academic community. And that's just from September to where we are. So that's from Erin, Caroline, and Becca, from what they're seeing right now in this first year of implementation, which I think is really a powerful statement and a perspective on what is happening. So I do want to thank you. I want

050to thank you for your continued support. our students and our teachers and what they're embarking on every day. Arts and Letters is a part of what they do, right? An elementary teacher is also teaching math, science, social studies, art. They are nurses. They are moms. They are that. You're everything when you're an elementary teacher. So I just gave you a snapshot into Arts and Letters and the work that they are doing to make sure and increase the literacy levels of all of our children from the minute they come in, like those little ones that I showed you in the video, to the point that we send them off to middle school with that depth of knowledge and understanding. And I would just say, remembering the quote from the beginning, right? You can't control the wind.

051You can adjust your sails. And we adjust our sails for all of our children at Salem. It's Black History Month right now, too. And lots of other things have happened in our community. So feel free when you walk out. There's posters on our walls in the space, too, that show changemakers and give our children the perspective of people that went before them and have changed the environment in which we live now. We are still living up to that now. You in the same house? You can just say more words and then I can just start crying sooner. I mean, my kids have really enjoyed coming through here. That has meant a lot. And I think looking at the, you know, I don't know who Cindy Ford is, but connection, I love burnt toast too. So

052whoever Cindy Ford is. Like level 10 burnt toast. No, but I thought the teacher feature piece was interesting because it wasn't until I worked in an elementary school that I thought, how do these people not know each other? Because I'd been in a high school before and I thought, well, I know all these people. I've talked to all these people. But you're so in your thing, and then the day is done, and you're still doing your work, and then you go. It's a small school, but what an awesome thing to be able to get to know each other better. Is this still an Ashoka school, too, as well? Okay, so it is. That's fantastic. I just want to recognize staff for being changemakers, particularly in the past two and a half months. I know what

053some of the staff have been doing here to support our students in the community in this time, which is... insane. And so I'm just so grateful. It seems so Salem to me that that is one of the things. But everything in the presentation, of course, I love it, but that's really, kudos to staff. They are working incredibly hard. Well, thank you very much. All right, and next up on our agenda, we will move on to the 2026-2027 budget update with Director of Business Services, Heather Hunny, to share that update with us. So before we look ahead at the 2026-27 budget, we always look at our current reality first. Our total district general fund budget is $61 million, and our fund balance policy is 8%, which is six weeks of operation. And we have a projected

054deficit spending of $589,000. After revisions this spring, that will be on revenue, our revenue will be made up as far as the state portion at 72.8%, federal at 2.8%, local at 22.7%, and other miscellaneous at 1.8%. So for 2025-26, we don't have a current AMSD or Minnesota Department of Education, special ed, or multiple language learning cross-subsidy calculation. But we're estimating the 25-26 specialized cross-ops to be at 3.8 million and the multi-language learner cross-ops to be at 900,000. As you know, the funding hasn't kept pace with inflation since the 2002-2003 school year. And if it had kept pace with inflation, we'd have an additional 1,420 per student or 19% of an increase. And that would be in popularity numbers to ISEO 99. I think it's important just to share what that cross subsidy is again. Hopefully

055you all remember, but that's the portion that is unfunded that does come out of our general fund. As an example to in the slide before when Heather shared that piece about fund balance when you've got six weeks of operation in there That means if we're not getting any funds from anybody we can maintain for six weeks another piece to add with that that we've shared in the past is that there has been the Occurrence at the state level where they've metered our payments in a different way due to their budget challenges So currently they're metered with 90% in the current year. We get 10% later on based on enrollment on our enrollment, but there have been times where they've metered that 60-40. And if they metered 60-40, if we don't have a fund balance, then

056we're borrowing money. And if we borrow money, we get that money back, but we don't get reimbursed the interest and other aspects. So that is one of the primary reasons why we have that fund balance policy as well. So I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind you about those two things. And as our auditor had shared in the board presentation last month, we ended the 24-25 fiscal year with an 8.1% unassigned fund balance. And then so as we look forward to the next fiscal year, the 2026-27 budget year, we have a couple of unknowns in revenue, but we do have some updates as well. So at the work session, I did share that when it came to commensurate education, if we weren't held harmless or if the population didn't change, we would be

057facing a $1.5 million loss. They did not do a whole harmless, but they did change the formula. So the formula is no longer based on both the direct certifications for free and reduced additional benefit eligible students and paper and electronic forms, but just only those direct certifications that come from things like public assistance and Medicare eligibility. But then they increased the amount per pupil. So what it would mean for us at this point is a cut of $192,735. But this represents the floor. They do expect this amount to increase because there are, for instance, charter schools that they don't expect to reopen in the fall. And if they don't, then those funds get redistributed to other school districts. So it could improve from here. And it doesn't sound great to have $192,000 less. But it's

058a lot better than what we could have been looking at with that 1.5. And Heather, this is only for this year, right? Or fiscal year 26, 27? We're still going to need, it's still going to be up in the air for the following year? At this point, I believe this is their calculation unless legislators change it. And remember there's a working group working on comp ed and they're anticipated to complete their work by October. So that's a unique time because that's probably in time for the next legislative session. So we'll see what that brings. It just means that we have to pay attention to this not only this year but next year as well and our legislative priorities and other aspects because it could take a different turn. We don't quite know what that's going

059to be yet. So we're at least excited and happy to have the numbers or the starting point for this next school year compared to what we shared at the work session as this information just became available at the end of last week. And there's still going to be districts that are net winners and losers in this situation just depending on how many direct certifications versus paper and electronic applications they have received for the 25-26 school year because that determines the next year. So in this case, I think that we will end up being net even or net winners. As far as the general revenue increase, what I had shared at the work session was we were estimating a 2% increase because we would be indexed to inflation but between 2% and 3%. The state came

060back with a 2.69%, so higher than what we had anticipated. And that really helps offset that $192,000, which I'll get to in a later slide. But the federal funding we experienced a late notice of what our allocations would be when we were in this school year the 2526 school year even though we had to adopt a budget in June we didn't find out where allocations for federal funds were until October and they ended up being a $265,000 reduction at this point in time We don't have a timeline or guidance from MDE on what to expect or anything when it comes to federal funds So this is kind of the crystal ball factor in our budget So then for expenditure budget for 26-27, the unknowns would be that we have a couple of contracts that are,

061the negotiations are still in progress. And then we have negotiations that are yet to begin for the next year. And our total budget, I'm sorry, our total budget for federal funding is what? It's about 1.7 million, so it's 2.8% of our budget, and that's gone down significantly over the last five years. So for the revenue budget, we're projecting a $61.2 million budget. And those assumptions are that comp ed, the $192,000 reduction, and then general education revenue, which accounts for about half of our revenue in the general fund, to increase 2.69%. And then we're estimating similar federal funding because there's really nothing else to go on at this point. For our expenditure budget, we're projecting $61.8 million. And assuming enrollment at 3,252 with K-12 enrollment and then average contract settlements. The deficit that I shared at

062the work session, just over 600,000. We would add to that that Comp Ed funding reduction of 192,735. And then take into account that additional 0.69% of general revenue funding, which gives us an additional 184,000. And we plan to spend $150,000 of restricted fund balance out of MA third-party billing. So that leaves us with the remainder to identify of $461,962. And we do expect that this will fluctuate as more information becomes available. Yeah, if anything comes up with that, as far as enrollment, even my enrollment as well, because that could change our revenue. And we'll keep bringing information to the board as available. And as a reminder, this is an update from our work session that we had a couple weeks ago. It was nice to be able to get the combat and the inflationary piece

063to have a greater clarity with that, but there continues to always be aspects that we're uncertain of, and we'll see what the legislative session does as well, because there's aspects there that are sometimes out of our control. Some of those that we've experienced in the past may be things that we're told to do that are not funded as well. So we know that game quite well. Any other discussions? Thank you. Next we'll move on to committee reports. So first up is the facilities committee, which is me. The facilities committee will be meeting on March 3rd. Finance committee, also me. The finance committee met on February 9th to review the monthly check register, a fiscal year to date comparison, and budgeting parameters. Personnel committee, Sarah, will you give us an update? Yes, the personnel committee met

064on February 9th to review personnel updates. Thank you. Policy Committee, Liz. The Policy Committee met this evening to go over policies for the current cycle and the recent MSBA policy updates. Thank you. And then for membership reports, we'll start with the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, AMSD, and Dave will give that update. Thank you. Yes, AMSD met on February 6th, and that agenda was primarily a 2026 legislative session preview. Thank you. Invergrove Heights Best Foundation, an update from Shana. Yes, the Best Foundation has not met this month, but the scholarships are open. So students, if you have any students, you should send them in that direction. Thank you. Minnesota School Board Association MSBA update with Liz. And I talked today, I'm going to go a little deeper into my update on MSBA. Today I testified

065at the Senate Policy Education Committee hearing on behalf of the MSBA, our district, and... essay, there is an attempt to put back a statewide ban on cell phones K through 12. and instead of just having a policy that we determine on our own here in our districts. And so the position of the MSBA, the MASA, our districts essentially has been we'd like to create our own policy and we'd like to be able to pivot if we can because things change really fast and we may need to change our policy. really quickly. It's been a rough couple of months. We may need to do things differently next month. I don't know. So there was a lot of debate at the Capitol on that one, so we will see if that one changes or not. I'm not

066sure. And there was also some discussion on the school funding, the school fund lands that could potentially be a little bit of an increase source of revenue for us, but it would take a constitutional amendment to get there. We might not quite be ready on that one, but hopeful. Awesome. Thank you. And Intermediate School District 917, update with? Yeah, they met February 3rd. And just a reminder, Cindy Nordstrom represents us on that board. And they're going to include the business and approval policy and their revised budget for this school year. And next, we'll move on to our action items for tonight. And first is our Achievement and Integration Fiscal Year 26-29 plan with Director Burnett and Blazek to introduce the recommendation to approve the Achievement and Integration plan. Well, thank you for having me here

067tonight to talk about our achievement and integration plan. We've had the opportunity to discuss our goals during the work session earlier this month, and I will share some details of different input groups that have had some influence and some input to our goals. One thing for you guys just to be mindful of as we look at this today is you had asked for me to bring back those key indicators of progress. And so I will be showing you those key indicators for each of the three strategies tonight. I put up here first this friendship bracelet, braiding analogy. And I think you have maybe seen me mention this before. And I'm starting with this tonight because when you see the key indicators of practice, of progress, sorry. You will notice that some of them align to

068our CACR goals. You will notice some of them align to our local literacy plan. You will notice some of them align to our district mission, vision, strategic directions. We do this really intentionally and we are encouraged to do this through this grant because we want to try and braid all of these different accountability measures, goals together so that we don't have siloed. initiatives or projects in our district. And so this is all of the different accountability measures, grants that we have that we have different goals written for. And so we are working to braid those together as we write those goals every single time we renew one of those grants or accountabilities with the state. So tonight we're talking about achievement integration This is a three-year plan that we are going to ask for your

069approval on tonight it is for the school year of 27 through our school year of 29 Which means that it starts on this July and it will go through June 30th of 2029 That seems kind of unbelievable to be saying 2029. We are, as we discussed before, required to put 20% of the ANI funds towards new improvement strategies. And so you will see I have indicated what are the new improvement strategies in here. And this is due with your approval on March 15th. When we do the funding the budget we submit that every March it is required to be Dedicated in a certain percentage so up to 80% has to be dedicated to direct student services We can dedicate up to 20% to professional development and up to 10% for administrative support in this proposal

070we have 93 0.08% towards direct student services 4.15% towards professional development and 2.77% towards administrative support that also does include 21.1% of that funding being for new improvement strategies so we are meeting that requirement that we have there you will see the comparison the the I think it actually should say FY 26 funding was that 773,652.07. We are receiving slightly less funding next year. That's our anticipated funding there at 761,485.84 cents. Very specific. So as we put this plan together, here are the teams that have been working on this. So we have a design team that has done a lot of our data digs, written the proposed goals, made drafts based on input sessions. They've been working on this since early December. Since January, we've had multiple different input sessions. One being our multi-district council.

071This is a requirement of your achievement integration. You need to have other districts involved in your planning and input. And so you will see this included teachers from our district, our gifted and talented specialists, AVID coordinators, K-12 leaders, our APAC chairs, and then we had district leaders from our collaborating districts, which was 196, 197, South Washington. South Washington, South St. Paul, and 624, which is White Bear Lake. Our APAC has had an opportunity to provide feedback. You guys have had the opportunity to provide feedback. Our K-12 principals have had the opportunity to provide feedback, and then our learning leaders, which include our E-12 learning partners, and then our instructional technology special services and learning department team members. A lot of people have had some involvement in this. So here are the goals that we are

072asking for approval on today. And so we have two achievement goals. The first is that we want to increase the percentage of all students who show typical or aggressive growth. Literacy screener from winter 2026 to the winter of 2029. Our second achievement goal is to decrease the four-year graduation rate gap between all students and their white peers in ISD 199 compared to the 2024 baseline. Remember, we have to use the 2024 baseline because we do not yet have 2025 graduation rates. We are required to have an integration goal. This is to increase the percentage of students who report that their school has a strong culturally responsive environment as measured by the district student survey compared to the 2025 baseline and then our final goal is around teacher equity and This one is to strengthen the

073student-staff relationships and students sense of being seen valued and represented by increasing staff responses In agreement that they reflect the diversity of youth By the 28 29 school year as measured by the district staff survey compared to the 2025 baseline These goals as we discussed are different than the goals we had in our previous plan that came from the feedback on those proposed goals With the desire to have them measure all subgroups in the gaps in the comparison to their white peers Our partner districts encouraged us to narrow goals so that those that included multiple measures had one clear measure per goal to focus on clarity. There was agreement that the intentional alignment to our other plans and other goals in the district was important. And then there was an appreciation for the shift to

074using the search institute student and staff survey data. We were, the old goals, the survey that was used was no longer being used in our district. Okay, so let's look at the first strategy here. What this slide is showing you is the strategy is at the top. What we're funding under that strategy is listed. On the left are the goals that the strategy is aligned to to support it. And so when we look at these key indicators of progress, you will see that we have the first two are separated for our black students and our Hispanic students and they are a literacy key indicator of progress. They call those KIPs, so I'm going to call them KIPs from this point forward so I don't have to say the whole mouthful. each time but what we

075would like to do is increase the percentage of third sixth and ninth grade black students scoring at benchmark or above on fastbridge a reading with the baseline from fall of 2025. i do want to note that this is this is based on benchmark our goal is measuring growth and so that's why the goal goes from winter to winter when you measure baseline you use the fall Those percentages, you can see what we have targeted for each year. We do a progress report on this every single year. I come and I share that with you when I share the CACR goals and we submit that to the state. We have the same goal for our Hispanic students with slightly different percentages based on their baseline. We also have a graduation rate goal for black students and

076a graduation rate goal for our Hispanic students looking to grow both of those graduation rates. I will note that the target for the 27 year, because it is based off the 26 graduation rate, which is the one coming up, we have... put in there to maintain that rate and that was an acknowledgement of what has currently been going on in our community and then we want to grow it after that. We felt like it was important to maintain right now given what many of our families have been through. And the final one on here is that we would like, we want to watch how our students are reporting the strong culturally responsive environment. And our goal is to increase the percentage of students that report the school has a strong culturally responsive environment. We do

077want to grow that. It is currently being reported at 69%, and we'd like to grow it to 75%. Our second strategy, CIPs include, this is where we start to see key indicators of progress around our job applicants and retaining staff of color. And so the first one is about increasing the number of racially or ethnically diverse teachers and administrators that have job applicants that have applied. Okay, currently our baseline when we look at the candidate pool is 24% of our applicants for these positions are racially or ethnically diverse. There's a couple of things I need to point out here. First of all, we do not have to, we cannot require people applying for a position to report a racial or ethnic designation. It is by choice that they choose to do that. So we do

078have job applicants. who do not select something. We also cannot go in and determine how many of them have applied for multiple jobs. So this is every single application that has gone in. We may have one individual who is applying for multiple jobs. It's also important to note that this is not information that is shared with any hiring managers. they cannot have that information, so hiring managers do not receive this data. It's data we can pull from those applications afterwards, but there's no attached names to it. So we'd like to make some efforts in increasing the number of those job applicants. The second one is about increasing the retention of racially or ethnically diverse teachers and administrators. Our baseline is 77.3%, and we would like to increase that to 83.3%. You will see a repeat,

079this is the braiding of these goals again, of that graduation rate for black and Hispanic students and a repeat of the goal below around students reporting a strong culturally responsive environment. And the final strategy is around rigorous coursework and concurrent enrollment options. We have a couple new ones here as well. So every summer we partner with a partner district to offer our Business Innovation Academy to middle school students. This is where they go to the U of M and they have a week where they work with professors, they work with business leaders. to learn to work with each other and to learn about writing business proposals a Large part of this is also their opportunity to get on a college campus and see themselves as a college student we would like to Get 90% of

080our students who are invited to this program to attend this program And we are in alignment with our partner district on this key indicator of progress. This is a goal we have discussed together. I wasn't done. I'm sorry, Tracy, can you go back? Thanks. You will see we repeated the literacy fast grades goal, but only for ninth grade. That is because this goal, we want to specifically look at ninth grade because our AVID programming starts in sixth grade. And so that ninth grade fast grades really is a measurement of sixth, seventh, and eighth. And that's part of our AVID programming. And so here we have focused on that ninth grade fast grades reading. for both our black and Hispanic students. The last three at the bottom are also new ones. So we would like to

081increase the black students' concurrent enrollment participation by four percentage points from 27 to 29. You will see they currently have a 71%. That is that they have taken at least one concurrent enrollment course during their four years at Simley High School. We want to maintain the Hispanic students concurrent enrollment participation. They currently have a 78% participation in our concurrent enrollment courses, which is one of our highest percentages of participation. And so we want to make sure that that is maintained over the next three years. And then the final one is to increase the CTE course enrollments by 4% in the three years. Currently, our baseline is we have 1,076 enrollments in CTE courses. And so the 4% would put us at 1,120 in three years. And that is what I have for you tonight. Thank

082you for that. And then we had heard most of that before right at our work session. And then I just was curious about like... How do the goals, just broadly, how do they translate into action steps? Does that, like, does the, from the district's kind of, like, ideas to the buildings, then for them to kind of, how does that, how does that work? Yeah, so that's kind of the next step in our work. That is also why it's been so important for us to have people, you know, from teachers to leaders to principals involved in this all the way through. And there will be an opportunity as we begin to kick off next school year where we will have our goals out in front of staff and then something that we monitor and continue to

083look at. The strategies that we have in place, those are ones that are really the action steps within there that will help us reach those goals. And so monitoring all of those are going to be really important. Thank you. Can I go back in this slide to the... Just the four goals generally. Sorry. There we go. I appreciate more information on the key indicators. I really do. My concern still, as I voiced at the work session, sort of is this. We shot for the moon three years ago, and I'm not blaming anybody who gave input then, but I'm worried about where we're putting our goals now. And I'm just, I don't know. I don't know how. the key indicators are actually how we're going to, what kind of updates are we going to get? How

084are we going to get further input? Like I appreciate the APEC input, but that isn't every parent that's invested in this particular question. So I'm just kind of wondering what are some changes on, how are we going to see these key indicators really come to life beyond these very kind of simplistic goals? We asked a couple things there. So first of all, I think it's important to note that we will, based on your feedback, be looking at ways to get other parents involved in input around these in the future. And we have our advisory council. We have ways that we can try to get that involvement, but we can go out and we can ask people too. And so that's something that we noted and will continue to work on. In our short time timeline

085right now, it's not something that is very feasible, but I think it's important going forward. Your other question about the key indicators. So I come back every year at the beginning of the year to give you that report on our CACR goals and our achievement integration goals. I plan on because the ones that have the targets for every year are those key indicators of progress. Now that we have those more clearly stated, I think it's something that I could easily come back in that report and be sharing with you where we are at on each of those key indicators of progress. They are also closely braided with our CIECR goals. You may remember last year that I had them, earlier this year, I had them side by side for you. So I am confident we

086would be able to keep you updated on those key indicators of progress. I want to point out one other thing. So for example, with the achievement goal around the graduation gap, if we were to, the only way we're going to reach that goal is by growing the percentage of black and Hispanic students who graduate. And so those key indicators of progress are really going to be important that we are monitoring those every year or we won't meet that goal specifically around that graduation rate. So we've got to do it. We've got to come to it. We do. Okay. Okay, thanks. Yeah. You know, thank you for the key, a big thing, looking to get other voices at the table. I think maybe a little bit of what, Board member Emilia is going for it at

087first glance. It is not explicit What's happening? It feels a little bit like Which now understand though based on your comment It's been tough day and oftentimes that's what happens to goals around black and brown Students black and brown teachers black and brown administrators. We often get tucked in And I mentioned before, and I want to say it again, the hope is that the same way we are reaching for our American Indian friends, we continue to stretch just a little further and a little harder, which I believe we want to do, to be more explicit in what we're doing. There's so much conversation I recently had with Dave about Black History Month, right? A lot of times it's implicit what we're doing, and I hope that we can continue to try to make it more

088explicit. because if a person that is not in our community who maybe doesn't see this video or hear these questions look at these goals as they sit, they don't scream the things that we're saying right now, right? And so as we continue to think through these things, I think it's super important that we continue to try to shift ourselves from the implicit to the real. the explicit and then I guess the other thing that I'd love to see as we continue to do this is maybe in those updates I'd be curious about what strategies we tried because I feel like when we saw these last time I asked I remember asking about our black and brown students and what data had we found out what what why weren't they graduating at the same rate like

089we had some of those questions and we're in the process of looking for those answers and so I think as we go along with the updates I'd love to see like hey this is what we this is what we did like I think we mentioned you know, those credit recovery started a little earlier, right? So I think things like that being brought up in the updates will also help make the implicit a little more explicit for folks who maybe don't get a chance to do such a deep dive and dig. So I really do, I appreciate the extra attention from the emails and the showing of the KPIs today to help us frame what we're working on. Because I think this is... wonderful place where it's showing up and it sets the ground for some

090really good work that we're all trying to do. Any other discussion? I think we all want the same goal. We all want to meet these. We all want to achieve them and so I appreciate you sharing the KIPs because I know at the work session the way I was initially feeling seeing them was like, oh are we writing a goal that just feels like we can meet it in the way that you described it tonight? makes me feel more confident that this is something that will truly create change, especially around that graduation rate. And yeah, I just, I believe that despite the questions and the wording changes, I think we all want the same thing and we all want to meet these goals. And so I appreciate the additional information. This makes me far more

091confident. So the action item is to approve the achievement and integration plan. And so I need a motion and a second. Motion by member Pearson. Second by member Klingner. So motion by member Pearson, second by member Klingner. Is there any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? And that motion is carried. Thank you. Thank you. All right, and that brings us to our superintendent and school board comments. And so we'll start with superintendent Dave Bernerson. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank Sam Hill for hosting us this evening. We really appreciate that. One of our highlights of our year is when we get to go out to schools and have board meetings at schools. Also, Shana mentioned Black History Month, and I just want to acknowledge the fact that there are a lot

092of different things happening in February, but Black History Month is one of them. It's something that we do on a regular basis, but also during our conversation, she mentioned that this is the 100th anniversary. Black History Month. It's something I didn't even know as I did again a little bit that a little bit more is that's not just the United States thing that's a global piece lots of countries that celebrate Black History Month. Also along with that this week is actually public schools week which is significant to us being a public school district and something to celebrate as well. Tina mentioned Spartan spirit And we want to congratulate this winter Spartan Spirit Award winners, Kelly Darrow, which is a physical education teacher at Pine Bend Elementary School, and Ruby Cano, who is an EL professional

093at Hilltop. The pair were selected for embodying the district's mission of inspire, innovate, excel, a community commitment, and its values, the 199 way of belonging, relationships, and engagement. Also want to share with you that our Student Advisory Council met this week and they met to provide input into the selection of the next superintendent which was very wonderful and entertaining a little bit at the same time. You hear from fourth, seventh and eleventh graders. And with that, that superintendent search piece is, we've got a survey that people are taking I believe that closes tonight and we're pretty impressed we've got 770 people take that survey. which is fabulous for community involvement, staff involvement, and the like. And then I just want to remind people that we're nearing parent-teacher conferences, and to make sure to check in

094with your school, and that's an opportunity for you to connect with teachers and to make sure that you're working collectively towards a progress that your kids would like to make in school, and you can set those goals collectively together. So that's what I have this evening. Thank you very much. School board comments tonight, and we'll start with Member Yomioya. I already said quite a bit of my stuff about MSBA. I think it's really important to take a look at our legislative priorities. I think they're pretty important this year. I'll be working a lot on that. Thanks for coming. I think it's wonderful to have people at our work sessions, at our school board meetings. Almost no one ever comes, so it's just kind of nice to share what's happening in the district. So thank you.

095Okay, just before you go, Liz, we did adjust our legislative party based on the comp ed information that we've got. So I held off on sending that information out to our legislators, but we'll do so by the end of the week because we wanted to make sure we had that information. Perfect. Member Duke? Yeah, thank you. Had a chance to go to Salt Day, which is amazing some of my favorite things We do and it was great. It was great to see families and students and teachers and I had an opportunity to bring some of my family's title holders from the scholarship organization They had a rough game dodgeball students did not care for them in their game, and it was hilarious That's part of my day. I was watching that so very grateful for

096the opportunity to always go and see Salt Day happen Dave mentioned Black History Month, and I just am very grateful for all the teachers. I think that, and I have no shame of saying it, I think you guys are going above and beyond to make sure students get an opportunity to... be in the number as it relates to Black History Month. Sometimes it can get tucked into other things and get kind of brushed past, but I see the posters, I see the conversations that you're having with your students, I see the curriculum things that are happening, and I think it's so important, and I think it inspires me, it did inspire me, to have conversations about what we can do better here. at the district to celebrate Black History Month, not just the onus on

097our teachers to uplift that month for our students. I think there are lots of groups and lots of people around, and Black History Month is also important, whether it's one student in one class or a whole group of students in a bunch of different classes. I think it's important that students get an opportunity to see themselves celebrated by their community. So I'm really appreciative, very grateful for all the things that you guys are doing too. give students an opportunity to feel more seen and heard and celebrate people who like them. Member Ward? Yeah, first I'd like to start off saying thank you to Tina Ouellette and Salem Hills for hosting us tonight. Look into the Arts and Letters, the new literacy program. That will help some of the improvement and the achievement and integration. events

098there. I also want to talk about the mission statement that we have here. I think it was 12 years ago when Superintendent Berenson came and wanted to have a purposeful vision for our district and we didn't really have a very succinct mission statement. So our inspire, innovate, and excel, some of you may have helped with that too. It was board members and leadership and staff. A community commitment was the end part. I'd like to focus on that community commitment. Our community has really been pulling together lately in light of everything and some of the difficult times, pulling together their resources, delivering things to people, donations. So I truly want to thank the community for that. Some of our faith-based communities have stepped up and been donating and storing food for us and everything. Thank you

099to that. All those community, or maybe it was Salt Day, as Shana talked about. Maybe you were in Salt Day with the students learning and teaching. Or maybe it was I Love to Read Month this month, February. Maybe you went in to read. So thank you to our community members for stepping up. Or maybe you're in attendance at one of our sporting events or performing arts events or an activity night at our school. So thank you. It truly is a community commitment in Virgo Heights. So thank you for your time and your commitment. And finally, I want to say to all of our teachers that are here tonight, we see you, we hear you. Reading your cards. We thank you for your time on writing these cards and we're taking we're taking them in So

100the few a few more tonight, so really do appreciate them Yes, you guys are awesome people Thank you for our teachers you do amazing things. So thank you remember Larson Thank you to Salem for hosting us tonight all of our guest speakers visitors The All the community involvement with this superintendent search the surveys the Q&A sessions the focus groups That 770 surveys is almost twice as many as what was anticipated for a district and community our size So I think that really shows That people want their voices heard and also just the support for our school and our students and all of our staff so Keep up the good work on that. I'm excited to Good thing we have to read through all 770 I said it to see the results of what people had

101to say this group has talked about Some of the things that we want to see so I'm excited to see what others do as well Thank You member Pearson I would echo member works comments and just say to the teachers and attendants. Thank you for Delivering these notes and the time that you took to write the messages on them we are reading each and every one of them and It is important that we hear from you. So thank you for doing that. And thank you for coming tonight. As Liz said, we enjoy having people here, but understand why you're here. We hear your message and we see you and we see the red shirts and we hear the message. So thank you for that. To Salem and the Change in Behavior Program to Thrive Program.

102That really stood out to me in Principal Blatt's message because language and labels are so, so powerful. And when she talked about a label traveling, that really resonated with me. And so I really appreciate those small changes that are really large within our district, within our schools, and I applaud Salem for doing that with the program. congratulations to miss Burkholz miss Austin and mr. Tavenier on the inclusive educator award that is phenomenal recognition and very very proud of you and proud of your schools and then for me I think any teacher I would say many teachers became teachers because they had a teacher or teachers who they want it to be like. And for me, I think some of them are still in this room who were my teachers. And I do take pieces of

103you with me into my day every day in my job. I'm just going to read a couple of these postcards. I think the ones that stick out, we love our schools and we love our students. I love my students. Where's the funding? And I think I would encourage anybody listening and the people in this room to continue to talk to local and federal lawmakers. to ask that question because we love our students and because we love our schools. And I just, you know, I chunk our meetings into themes and tonight felt like it was about inclusivity, visibility, and gratitude. And those things are here and there's work to be done. So echoing the other comments, but we do see you. And that's it. So, upcoming meeting dates. There is no work session in March. The

104next regular school board meeting will be held on Monday, March 9th at 5.30 p.m. at the Amber Grove Heights Middle School, which brings us to adjournment. Do I have a motion and a second to adjourn this meeting and to move into a closed session for the purpose of labor negotiations? Motion by member work motion by member Warwick and the second member Dukes all those in favor. Aye motion carried at 7 o 4 p.m