School Board work session - March 9, 2026

001Well, good evening everyone and I would like to call to order this Anoga Henipin School Board work session for today, March 9th, 2026. Welcome those who are in attendance with us and those who are joining us live stream as we work together to effectively educate every student for success. Our first item on our agenda this evening is the approval of the board agenda. Is there a motion to approve the board agenda as presented? So move. >> We have a motion from Director Simon. Is there a second? We have a second from Director Adette. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed say no. With six in favor and zero opposed, the agenda is approved. Members, the next item on our agenda. >> The next item on our agenda is

002item three, the consent agenda. And as normal, members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if that's their desire. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as a pre as presented? >> So moved. >> We have a motion from director Duchaine. Is there a second? >> Second. >> With a second from Director Simon. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose say no. With six in favor and zero opposed, our consent agenda is approved. Tonight at our work session, we are now to item four and we will begin with 4A, our learning and achievement K12 literacy update. I want to welcome Sarah Hunter this morning. This morning um this evening she is our executive director of learning and achievement. We're looking forward to this discussion. Miss

003>> Hunter both here and online. I have the privilege of sharing um a midyear update on our implementation specifically of CKLA, our um knowledge building curriculum in K5. in addition to um providing some context around the support that our teachers and um principles will have um moving into next school year to support as we move into phase two of the read act. All right. So um as um you all know and I very much appreciate the continued focus um from our board on ensuring that all students have access to high-quality literacy and it is my goal to provide to you um real-time updates right now around knowledge building curriculum um in terms of how we are seeking to improve literacy at all grades. Tonight I will walk through a highle summary of our CQLA site

004visits. I'll talk a little bit about what those looked like. Um I'm going to present briefly some K8 FastBridge data that mainly at this point serves as a baseline um as that assessment is new to us in u many of our grade levels at the upper end of that assessment this year. So we'll be looking to use this year as a baseline to show improvement both in terms of growth and proficiency into next school year. um walk through the K12 literacy coaching structure and then um present essentially what the the bones of an accountability and evaluation structure will look like um that we plan to build out with um stakeholder input from our elementary, middle, and high school uh leadership teams. All right. So, our CKLA site visits um the goal uh was that every

005K5 teacher, so not just, you know, literacy specialists, not just principles, but every teacher in all of our schools um from grades kindergarten through fifth grade would engage in one of the three or or more than one of the three options um presented to them. So a modeling session, so modeling a lesson, um observation with feedback. So um them um actually leading a lesson themselves and then receiving feedback or um what many of our schools chose for most of their grade levels was a PLC time for the entire team. Um where a CLA coach came in to support the site all day long. So each of our 25 schools got a full day um with a CLA coach and then either a member of my team or myself alongside um that coach so that we

006were able to gather um representative data from each of the 25 buildings at every grade level to be able to present to you this evening. Um but I would offer more importantly um though I consider being able to present to the board um important um even more importantly to inform how our teachers um shift their instruction. So I'll give you a high level overview and then um what we're doing on Wednesday with our principles this week, our elementary principles is digging much uh more deeply into the data both at their schools um and then talking about next steps. So when I um I wanted to sort of center us in um what part of the um important fundamentals of reading was this this site visit about. So amplify CQLA is our knowledge building curriculum. We

007pair that with um a foundational skills curriculum either bridgetore in grades K through three or functional morphology in four five. These site visits were um really specifically aimed at um looking at how CKLA is being used in our classrooms and how to improve um student outcomes and that falls in the top part of Scarboro's reading rope. So the different components at the top there in language comprehension. The next slide here shows um similar there is also a writing rope. So similarly um and our CQLA in um includes both um reading and writing components and um writing is actually one of the themes that I'm going to talk about in a few minutes here. So just wanted to sort of put those in context. So, I would say um this week, the week of CLA site

008visits was far and away my favorite week of the year thus far. Um because I had the great opportunity to be in um multiple buildings all day long, seeing teachers in every grade level in each of the buildings that I was in. Um and I got to hear both amazing things that are happening as a result of our new curricular resources. Um and again maybe more importantly for for me in my role I was able to hear the things that teachers either need more of um need more guidance around um and the additional support that my team will be providing. Um so I'm going to talk about the highle positive things first um of which this is a small subset but they are the the highest level themes. Um many of our teachers are sharing

009um that students are um really excited about the content they're learning. So given that um one of the most important things we know um based on the science of reading is that students need to be engaging in um learning that is centered in all of the sort of different content areas that they will end up learning um in upper level courses right like so they're learning about science right starting in in kindergarten right in units that are thematic and age appropriate. Um we also heard that um some students are asking parents to get books that are about a specific um topic that the the units are all um in CK around um really um strong themes that are both um non-fiction and fiction in nature. So there's a good balance. Um and just again um

010one there was one um student who shared that their entire um list of gifts that they wanted for their birthday was like books about this new topic that they're obsessed about because it was what they learned in class. So really one of the things we most wanted to hear was that students are engaging in knowledge building, right? So that they're they're prepared for success later. Um there's also a much more rich vocabulary routine that is embedded in this curriculum. So, one of the other positive themes that teachers were saying, and again, this is comparing um year-over-year, right? So, many of our teachers have been teaching students for for, you know, years if not decades. Um, as they're seeing students use the language of that's um coming out of their texts across the rest of the

011day, right? So, words are showing up that are coming from CLA and they're using them throughout the day. That's of course supported by a morphology, etc. from our um foundational curriculums as well. Um students are also bringing words home and breaking them apart. I've um even heard that in CCAC. There are parents who are part of that committee who talk about that their children are bringing home words and then breaking them apart and telling them about the pieces of the words. Um so the combination of our foundational skills and and knowledge building curriculum is is showing up at home and that homeschool connection is really important. Um we're seeing higher quality writing. Um student there there are many more places in the curriculum where students are given the opportunity to write. So they start with

012an early draft, write ideas and then you see it sort of cycle in throughout each of the units. Um and so teachers are seeing success in that. They're also asking for more support in um so if we think about our students in grades say four and five, the curriculum assumes they have had all of this content knowledge build up built up in the grades prior. So they're entering their classrooms with a high expectation for content knowledge and practice with reading and writing etc. Um, so one of the things we'll be doing to support our teachers is how do we bridge that gap when there is content that, you know, they didn't have the opportunity to engage in, whereas our kindergarten teachers are the only ones that are getting that first re first year in. Um,

013we're super excited for when our students have moved through the system and have been in this curriculum for their whole years, our elementary years. Um we're continuing to see our teachers um make instructional shifts related to their science of reading training. So that's one of the things that showed up. Um you're hearing in these PLC's that we were in teachers talking about the the training that they had now matches with the curricular resources that are in front of them. Um which was the goal of this board right once our teachers were done with um their science of reading training. and then a um backwards planning tool that we um taught teachers at the beginning of the school year um called bookend planning starting with your standards and the assessment at the end of the unit

014and working backwards from there in terms of um what your students know and need to learn. Um we're seeing success in places where that practice is happening every um every unit. So again that is a brief summary of what we saw that were really positive highle themes. Um we are going to I wanted to make sure that um both the public and you all are aware that principles haven't had the opportunity to be together yet after their CQLA site visits. So um I don't have principal voice in these slides, but I do have teacher voice. Right. So the summary that I just shared was from our teachers in our buildings. Um but principles have the opportunity to um meet and discuss what they see in their buildings, whether the the themes um make sense to

015them from what they're seeing in their buildings and what support they need. Um and that's this Wednesday. We will also of course be partnering with our literacy specialists in our elementary schools. Each school had um uh like after visit summary that went from the coach and um the the district um person whether it was me or a member of my team that summarized what we heard throughout the course of the day and then the resources that their teachers um had an opportunity to engage in. Um we the third bullet here speaks to we're going to um update our we have a CQLA landing page. We'll be updating it with the additional resources that our teachers um highlighted as things that they really wish they had they had known about earlier in the year which is

016where I want to sort of pause and acknowledge um our teachers have had a really heavy lift in elementary this year. Um just in terms of engaging in they each of them are engaging in two new curricula unless they were a pilot site. Um, and they're needing to make a lot of instructional decisions using materials that are that are new to them, right? Not familiar. Um, so one of the things we heard is, um, when the coach would bring up a resource and they'd be like, "Oh my, that's amazing, right? Like, I wish I had had that." um in many cases um that that was likely a part of the training in July or August, but all of us know if you've been um in a classroom when you get one day PD and you

017don't have your students yet and you haven't unboxed the curriculum, you haven't been teaching it for for a bit, um you don't know what you don't know yet, right? So, there are resources that might not um have shown up as like the import the really important resource that are now. Um, so we're kind of at that just in time, right? Supporting our teachers now that they've they've engaged in the curriculum long enough um to know what they need. Um, okay. So, um, our teachers can't do it alone. Neither can our literacy specialists, nor our principles. Um, and and certainly not my team, which is several steps away from students. So, I want to show what our support structure looks like. Um, so this is should look familiar. I presented on this slide with a slight

018change um when I I think it was in September that I last presented to the board like a um large literacy update. And so we have literacy specialists across our system. I'll dig deeper into those in a little bit. I have two members of my team um plus a third member um who serves as our local literacy lead who support K5 literacy. um we have principles and assistant principles that are instructional leaders in their buildings. And then next month I'll speak more to what our intervention um teachers support. So tonight I want to sort of frame as this is a tier one instruction presentation whereas next month when you will have CAPY data um and then I want to talk about like what are those folks doing that are that are serving students who need

019that extra scoop. Um tonight is mainly tier one what all students should receive. So the last one at the bottom, the K12 literacy implementation team. Um at the close of this presentation, um what I am hopeful to do is the the next few days I have the opportunity to be in front of our elementary, middle, and high school principles. Um, and we want to ensure that there are members from each of those groups that serve on a K12 literacy implementation team as we acknowledge there are students in grades 6 through 12 who um our system has not given them all that they need in terms of literacy at grade level. Um, so I we want to make sure that that team supports the structures like um improving our reading intervention courses at the 612 level

020so that all students can read at grade level. All right. our goal, the board's goal of all students having literacy success. Um, that team is sort of key and and I'd like them to be a part of the developing of our evaluation metrics. All right. So, I had said I would talk a little bit more about literacy coaches. Um, and I do want to speak to the asterisk as well. So, at the elementary level, we have historically had uh literacy specialists and math specialists in some amount in each of our buildings. Um so this this coming year, so this this slide speaks to the staffing model for next school year. Um there are 43.32 um FTE that are at the elementary level that where um schools were asked to start with funding a literacy specialist

021and then of the additional FTE that they got in their building um match their building's needs. So that might be a literacy specialist and a math specialist. Um in some cases it might be multiple literacy specialists and a math specialist. however that um FTE worked out at their site. Um but there will be at least 25 folks across the elementary schools that we'll be able to um depend on to support uh literacy implementation next school year. Um new for next year, um we will have one literacy specialist at each of our middle schools and our high schools. Um and those folks will become now a part of the way that I see this group is like this is our K12 literacy specialist group. Um, we need our elementary literacy specialists who've been doing this work

022for years to be able to inform what is coming up into our middle schools. So, that fifth to sixth grade transition is important. Um, and then the whole team will be working on um supporting improving literacy across the system in the 26 27 school year. So, what do they do? Um, elementary at the elementary level um they were a huge they played a huge role in the CLA site visits, right? They support teachers in implementing knowledge building curriculum which in elementary is CQLA. They're also supporting so these folks have a big job too. Um all of their teachers um teaching bridgeto read and functional morphology across the building. Um they have been for years now applying their read training to um coach and support our elementary teachers. Um they of course use data to inform

023instruction. the new data that they are digging into right now um is our CAPY data which you'll get to see next month as well. Um and then because of that they also help to coordinate those tier 2 supports, right? So making sure that students who need more than um tier one get what they need. Um and then they support professional learning in their buildings and they also provide professional learning um on days like our teacher PD days, right? They are excellent practitioners in what they do and they often um train teachers on those days as well. So there's a slight difference when we go to the 612 um group. So next year um is when uh the readact moves up to um secondary ELA. So our ELA teachers will be getting their first um opportunity

024to be a part of Redact training. Our 612 literacy specialists will be their sites um uh essentially trainer for those teachers and then any additional teachers. Every year we have folks who come into our system who didn't have training before they arrived. So they will land in a cohort at each of our 612 sites next year. Um and then the other difference at the 612 level is we're building um disciplinary literacy right across content areas. Um we need our secondary teachers to be able to use what we know now about students um reading ability from CAPTY um to inform how to differentiate core instruction for them. And then they continue to do u many of the same things as our elementary literacy specialists. that group will convene for the first time um as a whole

025group sometime later this spring um in order to make sure they are ready and on board before the school year starts. All right. So what all that I have shared thus far has been predominantly teacher facing. So I want to speak to how are our students doing and what does our baseline data look like um right now such that um you can see you know where where we're where we are and where we'd like to go. So, FastBridge early reading um is an assessment that we have given for years, right? So, this is an assessment that is given in both kindergarten and first grade three times a year. And um there are different subtests that that there are some subtests that are given at the beginning of the year and the fall data that some

026of them shift for winter and then spring. And for each of these two assessments I'll talk about tonight, there there is a moving target, right? We expect that students grow from fall to winter and then winter to spring. So, we want to see accelerated growth, right? So, what you'll see on the left side of this slide um in the fall, our um kindergarten students were coming in with letter sounds a little bit higher in the fall than we had seen in the past. And we see again a slight increase right year-over-year um in the winter. So, we'll be looking hoping to see that continue um to to go up in the spring for our kindergarten students. in first grade when you look at the fall um from last year to this year or actually over

027the last number of years you're seeing that sort of gradual trend up which is great news. We did see that in the fall our this is different cohorts. So right last year's first graders compared to this year's fourth graders were were stable. So we were at 45% who came in proficient. Um but we did see a slight decrease in winter. So first grade and this is on a nonsense words assessment. This is something that my team is looking into like where are there places where we are seeing increases in nonsense words. What are the um right like habits and um attributes of um buildings that have an increase and then our hope is to build that out across the system. And this data will be something I'll be looking um looking forward to seeing in

028the spring to see if we are able to um bounce back up. >> Similarly, we give um the A reading assessment in for students in grades two through eight. So you're seeing in 4th through 8th this was a first this is the first year so we don't have anything to compare it to. Um and the other thing that um I'll note if you look at the percentiles along the bottom so I'm going to um just walk through second grade which is on the far left. Um what you're seeing in second grade is in the fall we expect our students to be at the 64th percentile to be proficient. that's based on looking at projecting that students will be proficient on the MCA which doesn't start until third grade. Right? So these are correlated using um

029lots of historical data through R um the R team. So we want to see our students at the 64th percentile in the fall. Then in the winter we expect them to be moved up to the 70th percentile and then the 73rd in the spring. What we saw this year is students came in at 37%. And then middle at the middle of the year when that target moved up, they're at 33% which is an increase year-over-year um but isn't as high as they came in. Right? So that's an area that we want to see improve. Um you'll also see in third grade um we're seeing an increase both in the fall and in the winter this year from last year to this year. Um which is a good indication that something is working, right? We're improving

030both um in both of those different testing um time periods, but all the way across the rest of this slide, this is all baseline data. Um I also want to note that as you look at the percentiles that we expect all the way over to the right side in grade 8, um we need to see students at the 75th percentile um in order for that to correlate with um passing of the MCA or predicted um passing of the MCA. So that's a pretty high bar. Um couple questions. Yes. >> What is the like what is this test? I guess the fast a reading. >> So it's a broad universal screener of reading um proficiency. Right. So it's what it um it is our assessment that we choose um to align with both um requirements from

031the state that we have a universal screener that then tells us who are the students we need to know more about. Um so it assesses students reading comprehension um etc. up through um it it's appropriate up through high school. We use it through eighth grade. >> So just like general >> reading. Yes. So passages and questions about the the um different meaning that they might make from a text etc. >> And then so for the MCA >> uh at least in my opinion one of the biggest issues is there is no incentive to succeed. Like they could just skip through the answers and there's no penalty. Do we have any idea if like a test like this would suffer from that same mentality like some students just don't care and don't try whereas they otherwise

032could have passed? >> That's a great question. Yeah. So, one of the things and we used this um in a former district that I worked in for a number of years and we um you can see students um students scores get flagged if they rush. Um so you see that right in the report and you can then retest a student because the system will flag um that doesn't happen for the MCA. Students can just move through right but for this assessment in particular that be that um gets flagged both at the R level and can for a sitebased um testing coordinator so that you know that may be a student who um needed a different testing environment. Great question. You're welcome. All right, let's move to accountability. So, um I am a fan of um

033when we set expectations for anybody, right, myself included. Um that you check what you you inspect what you expect, right? So, and and I think you do that with um support. So the sort of third leg of the stool, right, is making sure that folks have the support they need to to be successful in what we are asking of them. Um, so I want to walk through what we did before the uh new curriculum came in. So this is just a review. I'm not going to walk through the whole slide because you all have seen this in former presentations, but this was the structure um for how we got to where we are now in terms of our curricular implementation. So how did we get CLA, bridgetore, and functional morphology? um they were all piloted

034and they were piloted in these five areas was how how we we reviewed uh curricula and how we landed um with what we are currently implementing. So I want to go from there to now how do we know that those things are working right? So these were the areas that we were looking at in order to ensure we had high-quality materials and then I spoke a little bit earlier about a K12 literacy team. Um, I'd like to be able to engage with our leaders both around um I think as somebody who's been in the shoes of a of a school leader um instructional leadership is often the reason that we go into those roles, right? We we want to make sure that our teachers and our students are successful. Um and what that looks like

035when you are leading a building that's K5, that's 68, 912 with thousands of students. um if there aren't conditions set for the leader to know what they're looking for, um it's it's really easy to to not be able to give meaningful feedback both to your teachers and up to the district level. Um so what I would like to do um with essentially you know maybe it's permission from this group and and senior leadership etc is to pull this group of of folks together um build intentional systems that all of us agree upon are what we are looking for in our classrooms. So that's of course informed by content expertise, but it's also informed by what the like lived experience of a principal is, right? What is reasonable in terms of how often I can ask

036a leader to be in a classroom and what should they be looking for? Um, so I've highlighted some things on this slide, structures, supports, and communication. Right? So I've been in front of our leaders K5 68 912 throughout this year talking about literacy implementation. um we're gathering their feedback and it and it always needs to be the reciprocal um reciprocal cycle. So um as we move toward a K12 vision given we're we're building out our K12 literacy specialist model um we will of course need for this team a clear vision, consistent expectations across the board and then supportive conditions so our teachers can do their their good work but that they can tell us when things are not working. Um and then of course we need to be looking at strengths, barriers and next steps.

037And this comes from um the u ner network. It's a um I would say nerdy uh research network that I am a part of and have have learned a lot from um in terms of how to support um accountability with um clear expectations for for leaders and teachers. So if you look at the next slide, these are essentially the drivers that we would want to be u making sure our evaluation system includes. So what training and um coaching do our teachers and principles need? Um and then what are our systems at the district level that need to be in place? Um what data are we using to inform whether or not things are working or they're not. Um and then of course leadership at the base, right? So making sure that at all levels of

038the system we we all believe we are going in the same direction. Can go to the next slide. So um similar to this was a few slides ago the pilot review metrics um we have built out some draft tools for implementation and instructional decision-m what assessments would we be using? How are we supporting teachers um as they're implementing? We are of course already engaging in cyclical PD. Um, I'll offer here the CQLA site visits were a part of the package that we purchased when we when you all adopted CQLA as our knowledge building curriculum that comes with support from the um curricular resource um that those five days of site visits were a part of that contract um and we now feel that a lot of the work um in terms of moving forward we

039can support um internally what's the scope and sequence of the curriculum etc. And then what are our ideas for improvement? And you'll see that um both teachers and principles, that's one of the key questions that we asked during the site visits and that I'll be asking of our principles is what's working and what do your teachers need that they don't have? Um because in any first year, we we know there's areas um for improvement. I'm going to note that there is an appendix. It's very brief. I didn't want to share mid-year literacy data without offering to the board and the public our midyear um math data as well. Um so it's our comm data and then if you go to the next slide um a math I'm going to if we stop here for just

040a moment the amath data for every grade level is baseline. Um, so what I am hopeful for is when we present this same time of year next year, we are able to see how much improvement has been made across both literacy and math with this new assessment. And I think I'm to questions. What questions do you have for me? >> Thank you so much and thank you for this presentation. I just wanted to maybe amplify the early part of your presentation where you talked about the engaging topics and themes and the vocabulary words. I had the chance to tour several different grade levels at Mississippi Elementary while they were doing their CKA CKLA lessons. Um, and I saw that in each in each one, no matter what the topic was, no matter which stage of

041the lesson they were in when we were visiting the classrooms, the students were very engaged. the vocabulary words were um challenging like the rigor of CKLA is is high. So that was really impressive to see and it was just nice to hear you echo what I had experienced um a couple weeks ago uh in the site visits that you saw. So thank you for sharing that with the whole board. Um two questions. You mentioned the CKLA coaches. I are they from CKLA? Is that part of what we got with the curriculum? >> Yes. Yep. So, they were um all of the coaches that were here over the course of the week were longtime teachers who also taught using CKLA who have now been hired um essentially as trainers for CLA. So, most of them I

042mean they came in with many more years of using the curriculum um than than our teachers have because it's new to us. >> That's great. And do they how many times will we do that with them as a >> great question. Um we just talked about that um in a literacy team meeting today where we were just reflecting on this and then planning for principal PD. We have several more days that are a part of our contract. Um I think what I want to ask our principles on Wednesday is what are the next steps that their teachers need because I I and something that I failed to mention is that um many of our school leaders following the CQLA site visits because they're now like a week and a half ago, right? Um they today

043in the afternoon many of our leaders chose to it was a PD day right for elementary. They used some of their time to backwards plan for the next CQLA unit using the new materials that their teachers gained more information about at the site visits. So it was like a they planned an immediate next step at the site level. Um so what we don't want to do is jump into how should we use those CLA hours before we engage with our our principles and our literacy specialists. But we do have more time. >> That makes sense. Thank you for expanding on that. Um, and then my my last question about CKLA is um do you know if there are any athome resources that we have or links? Uh, I know a lot of parents are interested

044in being able to support this uh this curriculum and to your point, students are excited about it and they're talking about it at home. I'm hearing that from the community as well. So, if if there is anything we can share on the district site that families could find, I think it would be appreciated. >> We can absolutely do that. And yes, they can even so students can have um they can go online to their that's called the hub. Um they can have all of the texts either they can read them or have them read to them so parents could see the texts that are a part of each unit. Um and and yes to additional resources too. So we can work on that. >> Thank you. >> Y that's great. That's all. >> Thanks Michelle.

045Oh wow that's loud. Uh thanks Sarah. Um I guess a question for I'd like to dive into testing a little bit. So, a question first on MCA and how it matches to what we're doing now and then a little bit on fast versus CAPD. Um, so MCA first. So, I've been told in the past or it's been explained to me in the past that um MCA how MCA actually tests may not completely line up with how school districts um teach, if you will. So, it it might be the depth of knowledge might be different. Um, in ELA, we not only teach reading comprehension, we teach speaking and writing, and all of that may not be on the MCA. So, my question is, the new literacy curriculum in general, maybe not just CKLA, but um, when

046our students or any students are taking the MCAs, will it be new to them or will it or what we're teaching, they're going to know, I've done this, I know, you know, >> that's a great question. Um so to the to the degree to which we can ensure that it feels familiar to them we we are doing so I would say like this the the knowledge building side of the curriculum will be a huge asset to them um as they take tests like the MCA particularly because the um comment that I think director Dashaine made about it's high rigor right like their the writing the writing and the reading and the um discussion that students are being asked to engage in um It's it's good stuff, right? Like it's challenging. Um and with the MCA4s

047coming for ELA, um similar to what we saw with the science test, the rigor the rigor is going up, right? We are a state that expects a lot of our students and of our schools. Um so I think our students will only benefit from having a stronger, more comprehensive curriculum. um the the the way the test is built um is something we have to to teach them right before they take the MCA each year. But but the in terms of like the highle content uh making meaning from a text, yes, it is similar to what we're expecting of them in in the curriculum. >> Got it. I' I've just heard in the past that having having a big disconnect between what you're doing in the classroom and then throwing a test at a student that

048doesn't match can create you can't you may not get the information on what your students can actually do. So, >> which is part of why a like a balanced more complete assessment system is something that's really important to me, right? So, having a universal screener so we have those checks throughout the year and when you ask a question about right like CAPY having an additional layer that helps us understand what are the things students need or or don't need in terms of intervention. Um, and then the MCA. Really, you shouldn't be surprised as a district leader what you see on the MCA because we should know throughout the year based on the other assessments we use what to expect um on the MCA. >> Yeah. I mean, so many people our community, a lot of

049people look at the MCA score, right? Not they're not looking at our FAST or our CAP or things like that. So, we just I think we just um we have to do what's right for students, but we have to make sure that if they're going to if our district and they are going to be um held to a standard of an MCA that it's not a surprise to them and they know they know what they're getting into before they're taking the test. Um jumping into the uh fast and cappy. So, this I've heard this feedback. I think you will get this as a potential recommendation. You're smiling. You may know this, but 68 only. I'm talking not K5 >> is that the CAPY has been amazing. >> Uh which is great. Um it's accessible. I'm

050going to give you a few of the highlights, right? It's accessible. The students don't have to have as much background knowledge. So they can we can actually understand what they what they can do as opposed to being based on background knowledge. Um and it gives immediate and actionable results um at each subskll which I think is great. And um it's more than at least what I'm hearing the teachers are saying it's more than what they've gotten in the past from fast, MCA, MAP, really anything. Um the recommendation I think you will get 68 only is that fast is not needed at 68. So and CAPY should be done in the fall so it can inform instruction. So uh you're smiling, you probably heard that. But it also goes back to, >> you know, if you

051can save three to six days of testing on a test that is only a predictor of what they're going to do in MCA and it doesn't give a teacher actionable results and you can have six more days of instruction, >> that might be a huge bang for your buck. So, just wanted to mention that >> it has come to me and I will say I'm I'm not surprised. I've been really excited to hear the positive feedback from our teachers about um CAPY, particularly because we're hearing it across content areas. Um and we actually led um today was a paraprofessional PD day. Um and several of the sessions, my literacy team led sessions on CAPY and the use of CAPY data for paras. Um and and they were super excited to have access to data that

052is like you said like closer to how to make an instructional decision. Um they are I will just name their they serve different purposes, right? And um CAPY can be used as your universal screener. um in addition to being a um a diagnostic. >> Well, and I think they have different Sorry, I'm gonna just follow up. I think they may have different um needs at levels, right? So, K5 >> Yeah, >> you may have to have that. I think 68 that is for discussion would be my guess. Sure. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Hi, thank you. Um my question is about the I think it's about the screener tools. So, we're using three different TKLA, bridgeto read and functional morphology. Is there a way for us to use these screeners in some way to know

053if if any specific one is effective? So, how do we differentiate that? If if any of the three is, you know, not performing, how do how would we know? >> That is a million-dollar question. Um, the shortest answer would be no. we can't pull them apart based on these assessments. You um when we look at so CAPY specifically and that um you'll have more information on that next month what all the different subtests are. CAPTY can help us understand um more about our foundational skills curricula, right? Like for whom are there gaps um and for many of our students given that CAPY is only given in grades four through 8 um those are gaps that we need to fill because they don't have access to that um foundational curriculum anymore, right? They are in grades

054that are at the high end or or out of receiving foundational skills um instruction aside from in a reading intervention class. Um the the longer answer is fastbridge is going to be the the A- reading is going to give you a like a big picture overview of where students are as compared to grade level standards and not specifically which piece um of of our three curricula or the two that a student is engaging in is is successful. We will know that based on um the gaps that we see in um on CAPY, right? Like once we've had multiple iterations of CAPY, we'll we'll be able to have a better sense of where there are holes. >> So as we get down the road with CAPY, it will tell us >> Yeah. >> there's a problem

055at the lower level >> andor which like which of the six different components we have we are weaker in so that we can build out um lessons andor units for for those specific skills. Yeah. Because the ideal would be that what we are doing with our CAPTY data is we've now identified the groups of students who need a certain thing right if we are we are instructing them in that area and that doesn't work that says we need to do something different and we won't know that until we have multiple rounds >> and the site visits that you did for CKLA they were specific to the CKLA part of it. >> Yes. Y >> okay is there anything similar planned for the other two? >> That is a question others have asked too. So we

056don't have it we don't have that scheduled yet. Now that we know that we've we found that model was really successful of you know for lack of a better way saying we knocked out all 25 schools in a week right and I was able to pull together five folks at the district level who were able to co-f facilitate um I would be interested in gathering similar data around um bridgeto read and functional morphology and it's a pretty big lift um from a school perspective because they planned really like they they changed their days such that we could take get the most out of the whole day but um that's a I'd love to be able to come back with a plan um to this group. >> And then my last question is just with respect

057to how um students performed on the evaluations this on the fast stuff this time. Is is is there any part of that that could just so they didn't make you know huge progress from year over year and I get it's a different cohort of kids but >> is is is changing the setup a contributor to that? In other words, might we expect now third third round of testing in the spring that at least students are used to they're more used to the curriculum, the the way that instruction is done, the materials, all of that. Or or is or does this really come down to just, you know, set that aside? It's, you know, either you could comprehend what you read or not, or you could make sense of nonsense words or not. >> Sure. No,

058that's a great question. and you're naming what uh is often called an implementation dip. >> Um so what I'm not seeing yet is is something that I would call a like a systemwide dip. >> Many districts do experience um a a brief dip because of the big lift that it is on teachers to change practice and students are engaging in a a different type of routine, right? Um so my hope would be that I am not presenting at the end of the year and and terming it as an implementation dip but yes that is something that tends to happen with especially when um it's a a large shift in practice um which given the science of reading across our whole state and the country um there there's a lot of new that our teachers have

059needed to um to learn. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, coach Langfeld. Okay, so I'm looking at the fast A reading for grades two to eight and just across the board say the average score is actually it's about 33% so about a third. And so we've had many spirited discussions in the past about the trustworthiness, reliability of the MCA test. And I've granted many times there are problems with that test. And so even just setting the MCA aside, so far as I can tell, this test is telling us the exact same thing the MCA is telling us, which is one-third of students pass and two/3s don't. It's about that. And so my question is maybe a twofold question. Am I understanding that correctly? And then again, just from your experience, like I just I can't

060wrap my mind around why only a third of students could read at grade level. Like what is causing that? I've I'll throw the one thing out I've heard from some teachers who speak a little more candidly. They've just said broken homes or just dysfunctional homes and then that leads to stuff like this. But for twothirds though, that's that would be shocking to me. So like from your in your experience, like what is causing only one-third of students to be able to pass? >> Yeah, that's a fair question. And I would say it's um I love presenting on positive, productive, um awesome things we are seeing in our classrooms and it's sobering to present on data that looks like this. So I just and I I should have acknowledged that as I was presenting the slide.

061Um so yes, you are correct, right? That is um what this data says. Um and I so I'll name sort of two two things. Um, one I mentioned earlier the percentiles that are at the bottom. So, we choose as a district um to I to align our cut scores on the FastBridge assessment with what is predicted success on the MCA because the the MCA um Minnesota's standardized assessments expect a lot of our students, right? We want amazing readers and writers and scientists and folks who write like understand history etc in in our state. The national norm um is what fastbridge would use. So I will just that I'll name that you know fact we use a um a percentile ranking that that helps us predict because of um what director Simon had mentioned earlier right

062like that it is true that our our community will expect that our students are able to pass the MCA that is the goal of our state we want to have students who are able to pass our state tests um and that means that the percentiles that we are looking for on a nationally normmed test are higher Typically, the test would use the 50th percentile um as passing. So, many more of our students are above the 50th percentile on the national norms, but that won't predict that they are proficient on the MCA. I know that doesn't entirely answer the question that you're asking, right? But it that that is a part of our context um in our district. And so we we want to make sure when we're presenting data to you all that it matches

063that I don't say today 60% of our students are are at grade level and then they take the MCA and that's not the case. Um so I think our challenge to name a part of the rest of your question like how can that be and what do we need to do about it? One of the things I think we're doing is we are using stronger curricula that builds the knowledge students need to have given that our assessment assumes they can read a pretty heavy text and make meaning from it. So, we're practicing that starting at the early in the early elementary years. Um, and providing them intervention where we haven't before. We haven't had assessment tools that gave us granular enough information to be able to pinpoint the skills that students didn't have. So I

064guess my hope would be and hope has to come with a plan right is that what you see we are implementing provides us with better data moving forward. >> Um I appreciate the answer that that helps explain a lot what we're doing. Um you certainly don't have to answer this question but do you have any thoughts as like what is causing I guess just the the unfortunately I hate to say the inability of students to pass the test. Is it I I mean I I just look at it and at face value it's they can't read at grade level and maybe that's not a fair interpretation. I'm assuming it is. But like okay they can't read at grade level but why I guess like what is again I maybe it's stuff we don't want to

065say out loud cuz it's sad but like I've heard from teachers they attribute some not all of it to just broken homes. And so if a student goes to home to a dysfunctional home they're just not going to get the support they need there to come back to school and succeed which is heartbreaking. And there's really nothing we can do about that. But I'm just curious like is there anything on our end that's happening that like can speak to why this could be because I I don't doubt the at all the ability of the teachers to teach well. And so that's why this is so confusing to me. Like we got good curriculum, we have great teachers. I it just doesn't make any sense to me. I guess >> I think some of it I

066would look back at the last few years of um training that our teachers have had on changing their practice. I think particularly when we think about reading um we now we know better now how to instruct children in the early years of reading we didn't back when I was teaching so I think like when I think about the difference in how I would teach now knowing what I know now to how I did when I was in the classroom it's a world of difference right like I wouldn't hire me as the old me right um because I don't have I didn't have the skills that I need in order to serve students in learning how to So I guess what I would say is again my my hope would be the our teachers have better

067training now. They had the best training that there was before, right? So that's what's been hard for our teachers is they were doing the best they could with the materials and the training they had. They now have different training and new materials. Um so I think my hope would be that when I present on this the in a year we are having a different conversation because we're having a conversation about progress for our students. Thank you. >> You're welcome. If >> I could just um as as we look at your presentation tonight, one of the important pieces that really jumped out at me that I keep hearing when I'm going to different literacy presentations you've included and that's the science of implementation. So what you just described is so vitally important. First and foremost, did

068we have the right materials? Second, did the teachers have the right training that they needed? Did they have the right support? Does the system was the system making it a priority? I mean, there are so many variables to why we are where we are. I think it's really vitally important that says this is where we are today. It clearly wasn't working where we needed or wanted it to be. But I I think even going back to uh the data on your littlest ones, the kinders, um when you look at their data, they it just the just the whole baseline data for for that group of incoming students is vitally important. And then saying, okay, what are they doing? And I know when you start to break out uh the data that I've looked at around

069uh bridge to read and some of those things um you can see you can see the significant changes. So I'm wondering I'm going to go back to director's comment about about the different um tools or curriculum that we're using there. there are bright spots and maybe just as you work with this incredible team that you're going to assemble that they can come back and kind of share the bigger picture >> because this is going to be a heavy lift >> and I know that I can't there are so many different reasons that that we are where we are. >> Um but when you know better you do better, right? Y and that's kind of where I feel we're at. But anyway, I just I I appreciate the questions though that are being asked. Okay. U

070superintendent, >> I'll try to be brief, but I really appreciate the question about why >> I do >> this district has a long history and board members, you know this, of trying to look at is there a correlation with other things that we are trying to mitigate. The biggest one I think we've studied over time is poverty. So we've looked at how do our schools perform u given our um the rate of poverty that we me measure. So, um, director Arl mobility, poverty, um, things like, um, health, physical health, mental health, disability status, language acquisition. There's lots of factors that kind of creep into the effect of performance. And I love how Miss Hunter kind of pointed out our goal is to try to mitigate all those things and still beat those odds, right? We

071we have students that I think have many of those factors and are outperforming what we'd expect and others are not. We're trying to close that gap. Um, and so with the science of reading and the really the best instruction is our best chance to counter some of those effects. I know we've we've uh shared at our annual report the we we have 80% of our buildings are are high performing when you look at other schools that have the same makeup of students across the the metro especially. So we got a lot of room to grow. You pointed that out very well. The data tells us that. And um we we have some pockets of real strong success too. And so that was really the bridge to read story, right? Why we we started with one

072building and actually one classroom and now we're doing that systemwide. So it's a very fair and relevant question. Um feels like there's many things kind of countering the effects of of high achievement. >> Um one more question for you and thank you for taking so many questions. Also, I'll just add to what you're saying, Superintendent McIntyre. I I personally would caveat poverty with there's a reason I at least I use broken homes because I personally believe you can have a family in poverty, but a child has two parents at home that love them. I don't think and they provide a stable home. I don't think that um poverty is necessarily going to be a deal breaker for them being able to learn. That's just my experience or what I think. But um uh I should

073add to this because I've I've mentioned this in the past and I think this is um I guess I want to know how it factors into this is we adopted you know this new curriculum has a much greater emphasis on phonics. And so in the past I've spoken to um the idea of how I think phonics plays a huge role in students learning how to read. And so I guess why I'm still shocked is like for grades two and three for example, even though we're using curriculum with phonics now, it's still the test results still landed about one-third. And so that's that's why like now as opposed to previously, I I guess I I don't know what to say anymore cuz I certainly think phonics is is the way to teach reading. No questions. And

074I think it was a tremendous error that many districts around the country made for many years before this to not use phonics as heavily. But I even with it implemented is this like a it's going to take time type of a thing. But then at the same time I can't grasp why the second graders next year using the same curriculum are suddenly going to do let's say 2x better than the ones this year with the same curriculum. I that doesn't make any sense to me. So that's I guess what role is phonics playing this is my question. Yeah, I would say in um how students start to begin to engage in text on their own, it plays a huge role. Um and when I look at the A reading, a reading assumes that students are

075already reading at grade level. All of those foundational skills are in place and they have had multiple years of knowledge building. Our students who are like these second graders right this year have had a half year of those two things. um unless they were in a pilot site and they had a bit more. Right. So, I would say one of your questions was like, is it something that takes time? Yes. Should we start to see marked improvements? Yes. Should we be seeing them yet? No. Um there's too much that goes into a universal screener that's looking at all the all like every component of reading. um it assumes multiple years of what we are doing now has have been in place for every child and that any interventions that they needed were also in place

076um over those years they've been in our in our institutions. So I think unfortunately the this is a long game um and what we should start to see is um measurable improvements that tell us we are going in the right direction but it won't be an overnight shift um both from a teaching perspective right our educators are learning how to use new tools and our students are engaging in a a different kind of uh literacy learning that's very rigorous which was a theme that we heard in both like mostly in the positive tense right? Like while we were in buildings, but also that like it's hard. Students are being challenged and that's great and wonderful and um that shows us um the gap between what they needed and what what they have had in the

077past. >> Director Hulkman, >> thank you. Uh so this was a presentation on the tier one and so looking at these scores and also the part where I mean certainly those students who've moved on to middle school and even um our students in grades four and five have had this um other reading instruction which we said well we know better now we know better what we can do. So, as we're looking at this, um, it looks like baseline for our students across the district, mo many of them need interventions. So, how are we going to what can we do with that tier one instruction to build back and not just say this group of student needs y >> intervention, but rather what can we provide to the students systemwide to get everyone those missing pieces

078that they didn't have because we didn't we didn't know different. Yeah, that's a great question and I I will model that in next month's presentation using our CAPY data, but I'll give you a bit like a beginning um response to that tonight. So, one of the things we are doing um we're leading CAPY data dives with our elementary leaders on Wednesday. I can't remember all three groups are going to get a CAPY data dive at the leadership level. And one of the steps in that data dive process is to look at the groups of students. It's six subtests, right? So students who were um show need either high need or some need um in the first subtest when you see that that um the percent of students in a class or in a grade level

079at your school um is high. So if you have like 50 60% 80% of your students show a need in that area that becomes a classwide intervention, right? That is tier one. Um and so one of my um literacy um leaders today led a CAPY data dive for one of our middle schools. Um and they started to dig into which of the um just on their PD day today they asked because they were like we're done with the CAPY. We love this data. We want to know how to use it. Um and so in many cases in those classrooms they are going to be embedding a tier one it brief intervention for all students um in classes where the majority of students have that need. Um so what you'll see when we present on CAPY

080data is depending on the grade level um there are some of the subtests where that's going to be like an obvious solution. Um it will depend on the site right what the size of the group that is but we'll go from classwide intervention to small group or individual intervention based on that data because you're absolutely right it's not we can't say it's too late students have moved to secondary right they're in our system and they deserve um intervention. So, I'm wondering to board members. I'm I'm just thinking that as I'm especially looking at what's happening at middle schools. I mean, the fast A-reading data here says grade seven 19%, grade 8 17%. I mean, it looks like we've got something really serious to look into here. I wonder um and I don't know how to

081initiate such a thing but and I might be alone in this but do we need to look at um not just spot interventions to fit in something like you said brief and because this is the middle school classes they're we've got ELA they've got science class they've got math class they've got elective courses they've got a language course I mean do we is this the kind of thing where maybe we need to reach in and say our middle school kids actually need reading class every day. I I I don't know. It's a question that I'm just throwing out there. >> I as as I'm thinking about this for for me, I'd like to know >> what's in this data, who's in this data, how is it aggregated? I I think those are the pieces because

082and then what would you recommend because this is not I don't think anybody thinks this is accepted flow. Sure. Right. So that's what I would be interested in having a followup. Um >> well and that's the plan for next month's um work session. So what I'd be happy to do, Director Hookman, is come to that session with not only the data, but um you should of course include in any data dive, right? Like and what are our next steps? So um I'd love to receive feedback from this group on that. Um next month when we share the data, I'll have a and and some of that will be already implemented next steps because our schools are going to get moving, right? So many of our schools have already started to implement interventions. So I can

083bring to you what's happening and then what we'd like to make sure is systemic. >> Very good. And then uh second thing you were talking about um that you went to do these visits at the schools and you heard lots of you shared some of the really great things and then you said you also had a chance to hear um what teachers what do you need and can you share some of those things? >> Yeah and a lot of a lot of the what they need um time to plan. this is a brand new resource and it takes longer, right, to make you don't nobody wants to show up on a day of instruction and not really feel confident in what you're teaching. So, I think um figuring out how to embed in um learning

084and achievement PD, right? So, as we plan for professional development for the remainder of this year and then moving into next school year, um how much supported backwards planning can we offer, right? That is professional development. it just also serves to make sure you're prepared to like teach next unit, right? Um and we heard um the writing the scaffolding from what has been the expectation for writing and what is now the expectation in the new curriculum is wide. Right? So the there is a need for um additional support in how we get our students all of those steps from what their writing looked like historically and what we are expecting of them now. um their I mean the the biggest was um time and more guidance around the tools that they could the most um

085influential tools because they still um it is it is too overwhelming. Lots of curricula now have you know a hundred different links to all of these different wonderful resources and that's not super helpful if you're brand new to the curriculum. It is if you're really confident and you know what you're looking for. Um, I would say another thing that that I will come back to talk about because tonight was just about CQLA is the how do we integrate our foundational skills curricula and and um CQLA without feeling like we're always running out of literacy time, right? because they now they now know that they know better, they want to do better and you get to the end of the literacy block and you because it's new um they they want support with how to um

086trim. So we're suggesting trimming from the resource, not skipping, right? So finding components that you can shorten um so that we are not um inadvertently skipping uh content knowledge that is going to be important next year. That's really interesting to know. That kind of ties back to what I was asking about with the middle school information, too. Maybe is there something do we do we need to review um how we're planning out the days for elementary school because we the literacy is it's foundational. That's why it's one of our three structural goals, right? We we need to have our kids reading. So if that means that we in my opinion and I don't know what the rest of the board is thinking but if we need to review what's happening with those middle school schedules

087so that they're not like oh I have to too much to do where can I trim it rather well let's expand the time so that we can touch all those pieces that these kids need so they can um we can get these test scores up and get these kids proficient and confident and enjoying learning. Thank you, uh, Coaching Phil. To follow up on your thought, Linda, um, I would say it's not just foundational, it is the foundation of everything else they learn. Um, no, no subject is more important than the ability to read. And so, I do know that Minnesota state law permits for and allows students to be pulled from other classes um, if they're not reading at grade level. There might be some caveats as to what grades that's in, but I would

088be wildly in favor of that because if we just take this data at face value, four out of five middle school students can't read at grade level. And so I would question ser like given that and acknowledging that all other classes are important compared to being able to read, they are not important. And so I would have absolutely no problem with and be wildly in favor of pulling them from as many classes as we need to so that they can read at grade level because if they can't do this, they're set to fail virtually everything else going forward. So I I I personally couldn't exaggerate how important this is and how much we need to take like urgent action now. So there's almost no solution you could propose that I would say no to at

089this point. >> Director Simon, >> long discussion. Thanks Michelle. Um Sarah, you talked about um the what we're wanting for writing is much more rigorous than they've ever had. Does what we our standard for that rigorous writing match the MCA standard for rigorous writing? >> We are going to have a new MCA. >> So we will be able to see once we have our first round of results on the MCA4. But um I mean my short answer would be yes. That's why we are we we looked at a curriculum like this. Um and it supports um the sort of interdisciplinary ability to write around scientific text, right? Historical text that students need to pass that science MCA, right, to um be successful in high school social studies and take the the highle assessments that we

090want our students to have access to in high school as well. So, yes. >> Got it. My my thought process was just um and that's good if it matches. I think that's great if and I think our district wanting more rigor is great even more than MCA that would be wonderful right but if it is more then do you take a step approach right so if the gap is so wide let's get them to MCA and then get them to what we want now maybe that doesn't sound like that's the case but um the other thing I'll comment on um on the discussion about um a focus or a change um I think flexibility is good and it and looking at change is good and I know you and your team will bring that forward

091when you dive into the data and that's great. Um, one thing I've said, um, for years, and I just want to put this out there, too, for consideration, and it's a money thing, and we may not have the money for it, but I'm going to put it out there anyway, but we have um before we have afterchool, we have summer, we there have been things like um summermies, there's been there's been innovation that Anoka Hannipin hasn't done, probably for lack of money, but um I'd like us to think outside the box too. And that's not for an immediate thing, but just for the future of if um and reading is fundamental, right? So, do we need to implement something in times that isn't going to necessarily impact tier one instruction and how much would that

092cost? So >> T article >> I do have one followup thought that I I have read and believe that one of the biggest reasons you have kind of these testing gaps is summer where not all but a lot of students simply just cease learning for 3 months and then just jump back in. And so if there was some kind of continuation over the summer and sometimes that happens at home naturally sometimes it doesn't that actually facilitates um much better outcomes in the long run. So I do agree with you on that. That doesn't mean we're going to do summer school or anything, but some kind of solution would be nice there. >> Director, >> I forgot. Thank you. I forgot to ask this, but um I've been I've been looking at um progress through science

093of reading in other states, and there's states, I think particularly in the south right now, who have made some pretty massive progress in reading. Um Mississippi is one of them. um which according to at least how their educational system for a long time didn't seem like it was doing so well, but they've really made big progress. And so and and I know they're following science of reading, but do we have anybody in our district who is looking at what because I think that you can find what they've done. >> Do we have anybody who's looking at that? because it seems like they've made some pretty rapid turnarounds that are pretty impressive. >> Yes, because they've done what we are now doing. They just did it before us. So I would say making sure your teachers

094are trained using like science of reading um methodology then then following that with materials that match with the science of reading and then making sure so that this next step which feels like it's almost more important is and now are we actually using those tools the ways they were designed right so I think in those states there's been a lot of um systemwide um observation accountability structures, right? Like observing in classrooms, making sure things are being done the way that they were directed to be. Um, and I think we are well on our way um, in terms of the like the the main ingredients of what has been successful in other states are the things that Minnesota is now doing. Um, and I will say I mean I am so impressed with the ways that

095our educators engaged with the CKLA coaches. They were asking questions that the coaches were saying like this doesn't feel like a first year. Y'all are asking questions that are three years in, right? Because many times these CQLA coaches um serve the same district for a period of time. So they get to know the people in the district and they they are working with them on on an ongoing basis. Um and so I think my hope is that that the answer to your question is like so the answer is we are doing right what those states were doing, but that we need to stay the course. Um and I think in those in in many of other states where there's been progress um they have stuck with a literacy focus. It is what is talked about.

096It is what is looked at in buildings. Um it's what you are proud of because you're making progress. Um so I think we're we're just earlier in the stage right now. >> Thank you sir. >> Just as a followup to that I know that um Sarah you probably have been at conferences with how do you say her name? Dr. Burke uh who ran the initiative and the superintendent is a Carrie Wright, Dr. Carrie Wright and I know I think I sent Linda. So there's a lot of people in our district that have in you know tuned in and I know the state of Minnesota has brought the experts in from Mississippi and people continue to to look to those spaces. So um we are that was a very important conversation. Uh we're a little over

097time, but quite frankly, it is a priority. And I think that um uh the superintendent was writing and he has a massive page full here. So I'm thinking he got a lot of what we talked about that we'd like to hear more about and and just to circle back, there's a lot of things in here. I appreciate seeing all the research and especially the implementation science is so vitally important. Um it started with director Duchaine's comment about uh parent and family engagement and I know parents do the very best they can with what they know and have. So it would be really great if you could circle back and just talk about how you know parents parents will engage if if we help them engage and sometimes it's not always um on on them. They

098wait for us sometimes to partner with. So we want to welcome them into this story too and that's a very vital important uh process and relationship for all of us. So I just put that out there as well. Um, but you're coming back and I would I would offer that I would assume board members that as you think about if there's questions that you want answered as you ponder these or you're reading a piece of research, we need to keep asking because quite frankly, I think we all agree um this isn't where we need or want to be for our kids. We know a lot more, but there's some pretty big concerning gaps right now. So I I think all of us would like to know what we can do to help and I think

099great suggestions. You would welcome them I would assume as well and you know even there are many that came out at this board table tonight. So looking forward to the next steps. I'm very excited about it and I know there are there the biggest thing that I see when I read about the Mississippi miracle is it was years and years and years and school districts that started down this road didn't see the results they had expected and pulled out didn't happen. So there's a lot of research out on that. So stay the course and continue working the work. And anyway big lift and thank you. And thank you to all the teachers who are behind all of this, too. Appreciate all of you. Great comments, great conversation. Thank you. Okay, big breath. Here we go.

100Um, our next item tonight is the district achievement and integration plan. I see important people who are not at the table, so maybe you can let people know who who is also here with part of your team. But I want to welcome our deputy superintendent um Tanya Constantine as well as Scott her executive director of student support services and Tom Shaw the director of student services and I know you have team members as well in the audience but looking forward to your presentation this evening. >> Thanks so much. Joining us tonight is Ross Giles, student services coordinator and Denise Collins, assistant director of student services. Yeah, sure. Hi everyone. Um, good evening. Uh, good evening Superintendent McIntyre, co-chairs Langenfeld and Hokeman. Um, Mr. Shaw and Mr. Hair and I, we have been, uh, working on

101the achievement and integration plan um, well, for most of the school year. So, um, under Minnesota statute, we are required to bring the plan to you, the board. And um the district does receive just over $8 million with this plan. And this plan supports our magnet and specialty school choice, our literacy support, and our academic services. And um some of those literacy intervention support folks that Sarah was talking about um are coded to ANI to that $8 million. So, uh, the important thing to remember about the $8 million is that all of the great things that we get out of this money, it saves us from fund one. So, it's protecting our general fund. So, I'm going to let um Mr. Hair and Mr. Shaw um kind of go through what our plan looks like

102for the next three years. >> Thank you. I don't know if I have to lean over. >> Yeah, we'll There you go. So, as a reminder, and Tanya kind of alluded to it, we do fall under certain statute and rules. So, we've highlighted what those statutes and rules are. And part of that requirement is that every year we need to approve the budget for ANI. So, we're asking for the approval of for the fiscal year 27 budget, but we also have to approve the three-year plan for achievement and integration. So, this evening, um, next slide, please. So this evening um we're going to keep a high focus on the the level of uh of the overall program, the impact um and also the budget. Uh the achievement and integration program supports three main outcomes. Improving

103academic achievement, expanding access to school choice, and providing targeted professional uh learning for staff. So the following slides are going to show you how we get to those outcomes. All right. One way the district advances these outcomes is through our MA magnet and specialty programming. Uh, NOA Henpin proudly operates 12 magnet and specialty schools which provide innovative programming and meaningful school choice for our families and opportunities for our kids. These schools provide families with additional choice while offering focused academic themes and and great instruction. Achievement integration funding helps support curriculum alignment, staff training, and program sustainability within our magnet and specialty schools. Go ahead. Next slide. Uh participation in a regional collaboration is a required part of the program. Uh Anoka Henpin works with six neighboring school districts through the Northwest Suburban Integration School District.

104This partnership allows districts to coordinate services and avoid duplication of programs and services and to operate more efficiently while meeting state requirements. And so we meet regularly with these other school districts to share ideas and and programming and things like that as well as transportation and other things within nuts and bolts. Um I I will one of the things I I glossed over probably because this is new for me is that we looked at the magnet and specialty schools in the last slide and one of the things I got to do really recently is uh visit the Rapids High School engineering program and it just blew me away. They partnered with a local business Aggressive Hydraulics and they gave them a real life problem that the kids had to solve and then they had to

105present on. And so at Rapids High School, Aggressive Hydraulics came and listened to um these solutions for the kids. They had to build an actual prototype and and walk them through it. And so when we think of our magnet and specialty schools, when I got to see the opportunities that our kids have, it's it's really exciting. All right, these are the strategies within uh the uh achievement integration plan for fiscal year 27 and this is a summary of them. We talked about our magnet specialty schools. I'd also like to highlight our AVID program. AVID or advancement via individual determination is a student- centered approach that prepares students for college and career in life. AVID is currently implemented in five high schools and six middle schools serving 1300 students and it has an attendance rate of

10695% in those classes. Um and we know that attendance rate leads to grad rate uh rising which is really exciting. And this work uh aligns directly with our college and career readiness goals. I want to highlight here in a few days our middle or about a month our our middle school average students will be taking part in MAD City money. They'll go over to the STEP program and they'll tour STEP and see what awesome things are available there. And then they're going to get a hands-on personal finance simulation that helps build money management skills. And Miss Collins leads that. She does a a fabulous job. And it's these hands-on opportunities uh programs within this plan provide that uh we see the strength of our kids and and the incredible opportunities that they have in our

107district. So overall this is the budget. Um we developed the achievement and integration plan in close partnership with our finance department. These funds can be spent in three main areas or buckets. Direct student services, professional development and operations. However, the state sets clear guard rails. At least 80% must go directly to studentf facing services. up to 20% may be used for professional development and no more than 10% can be spent on operations. Um we're very proud that we spend 91.9% of this allocated to direct student services, 2.6% to professional development and only 5.5% of this is spent on any type of operations or administration. All right, the student services bucket and and you can see from the slide, direct student services make up the largest share of achievement and integration budget. Uh these funds support

108literacy, specialy programming, student advising and family school connections uh and all those efforts across the district. Staffing and services are designed to stay flexible and responsive to enrollment and building needs while still making sure students can count on consistent support in the building. The next area is professional development. Achievement and integration. Professional development h helps make sure our teachers and staff have a clear understanding of literacy and math interventions, specialty and magnet programming, and how all of this connects for college and career readiness. >> All right. And lastly, operations. Operational support covers the behindthe-scenes work that keep the programs running smoothly, including financial oversight, reporting, coordination, and our participation with the Northwest Suburban Integration School District. These costs help ensure the program stay on track, meet requirements, and is managed responsibly. Uh, administrative spending remains

109well below the allowable limit. As part of the joint powers agreement, the district contributes 8% of our achievement integration funding that supports magnet magnet transportation, enrollment coordination, and the services for our magnet schools. Yeah. So, that's it, gentlemen. Um, members of the board, we're willing to take any questions that you might have and then we'll be seeking your approval for this three-year plan. director. I see um the Northwest Integration. I can't remember what all the acronym is. >> Yeah, Northwest Suburban. >> Suburban. That's what I missed there. Um what that's a sizable fee. What What services do we get for that fee? >> That's a great question. And uh busing, when you look at just moving kids around, busing is huge part of it. Um, they also help us with a portal that allows kids

110to move around the district, which is essential for giving that school choice and allowing kids from outside the district to come in. Um, they also have um college and career exploration classes. They have college fairs. Uh, they have staff that come in and run um student groups that focus on student leadership. Um, and then a big part of it is is supporting our curriculum integrators. So, our curriculum integrators are it's a really unique position and they come together in this consortium and they partner and collaborate with each other. If if they don't have that, luckily we're big. Um, but it it allows us to go to other districts and see what they're doing well in their magnet and specialty schools and build on uh our own talent. And I would I would tell you that

111Anoka Hennispin has a lot of talent. So, a lot of times we're sharing that also with those. So it is a real collaboration and that's just a high level view of of of what that money is used for. >> Other questions? >> Director Adette, >> could could you go to the I guess the back to the discussion of um what what is the intent of this program from the at the state level? What are they trying to do in making this money available but putting all of this administration around it? What what are they what is the aim? >> Well, I think there's a I think there's a lot of different possibilities with this funding, you know, when when I when I go down and I thought it creates options for kids and families to

112move around. Um, it creates systems within our schools to give kids opportunities and to chase passions that they never have to go back to. My Rapids High School example where they get to, you know, they get to be in in programs like engineering and and bring in things like that to to just see um, you know, what they're passionate about. the college and career readiness aspect, you know, is a really big important part of it too that we support in terms of, you know, just what options are there past this and supporting kids and families as they as they move through our system. Um, you know, some of this goes to too like supporting kids and families. You know, attendance is a big focus of our program this year. Um, knowing that attendance leads to

113to higher graduation rates, but attendance is something that, you know, across our state has been a big conversation for many different reasons. And supporting families and helping them navigate the system and feel connected uh as they um improve their attendance is a big part of it. >> Thanks. I and you did a good job of I think speaking to what we're doing with with the funds we're receiving, but I'm still I I still don't. So like we chose to make magnet schools and they provide this choice that you speak of, but a magnet school is not a requirement of the achievement and integration funds. So I that I'm I'm really higher level than that. What are they what are they wanting school districts such as ours to be doing? >> Thanks. That's actually thank you

114for helping clarify because that's I get I you know closing the achievement gap is is really a huge focus on that and um when we when we meet together as teams um you look at $3.3 million going to reading intervention it's it it goes back to our previous conversation of closing that gap and you know that's an example of that's the passion behind this is we see a need in reading and we take a big chunk of this money and and we put it towards that based on what we see in the school district. Um, and it it just tries to have a holistic approach to to narrowing this gap in many many different ways because our schools look different. Our our uh it's a very complex issues and problems that we're dealing with. So,

115you need to attack it different ways and this plan attacks it in different ways. >> Okay. What is nice about it is um kind of what uh directors Arco and uh Simon were talking about of say extending our school day or um summer interventions, it provides us money with building those interventions into our school day. So some of those literacy interventions. >> Yeah. Uh so if we go back in three years ago I I was pretty critical of this plan because I didn't think that the the goals we set the goals we set were they were ridiculously low like to try to improve achievement. I I made a big thing about it because we we were we were after minuscule improvement. And so I compared what we're doing now to that one. I I just

116did a sideby-side comparison to just kind of see, well, what did we change? And I was actually curious, did we did we meet any of the goals that we had in our last plan with the with the money the last time? because I I think it's nice that we can get this money and it can form some of these programs, but if they're if the programs aren't leading to the goal of reducing the achievement gap, then even though they're like super embedded and really complicated that I would at least want us to review, should we keep doing them or is there something different we could do that would have a greater impact on the achievement gap? And sorry. >> Yeah, sorry. You go ahead. >> No, I I would I agree with you because I've

117seen those goals. >> Um, Director Aette, and I think that's why we changed a lot of the goals. >> Yeah. >> And really, it it kind of goes handinhand too with everything that Sarah Hunter was saying. you know, we have this new literacy curriculum and now we have this ANI funding and we'll have literacy intervention folks and all together we're hoping that the goals that we're setting are going to be accurate and achievable. >> Yes. I noticed some of the goals like in particular um the one related to fast bridge assessment which is goal number one it you know that we're after like a 10% improvement which is which is great. Mhm. >> Um some of the others sort of remained the same. And then as we went further along, I did notice that we

118must have achieved some of the goals we had related to students taking college courses. And I think not so much for and I and I say that because our goals this time are higher than as a percent. Let's get 89% of kids to do that versus last time it was 85 or 83. Mhm. >> Um in some cases I think the targets went down. Our graduation rate I think generally is lower so we're trying to you know move that back up. >> Um and I think that's good. Um but it seems like the plan was more effective and they're not the same things but at achieving some of these goals related to taking some of the college courses and things than it was just the pure academic ones with reading or math. And I'm trying

119to understand is is that really a goal of it or you know frankly is the state require you to have goals and in order to get the money we take this >> money and we apply it in different areas right we're some amount of it is for literacy specialists or whatever and we then use that in a really intensive way with a hope of trying to intervene >> and but it doesn't make logical sense to me why the goals on the plan wouldn't be super wouldn't be more aggressive and I'm still not convinced that other than choice we know what what these magnet programs provide to us and I I guess maybe they're not designed to improve academic performance but if they are then I don't know why it wouldn't be part of the plan

120so I don't know I it's $8 million annually right so this is a >> almost a 26 million three-year plan. >> I'm just frustrated with it. >> Yeah. >> And it's not I don't think it's >> necessarily a result. Maybe it's my frustration is with the state and what they're trying to achieve. >> Can I don't know. >> I I I just want to maybe throw some crumbs out in the open to maybe we can it would it create some conversation when we talk about meeting the goals for our specialty and magnet schools. I go back to what Sarah Hunter was talking about rigor. Um, you know, the part of the purpose of these programs is not to just be just not to, you know, go you walk into a wonderful program, you like University

121Avenue and it's beautiful and they have murals and things like that, but what's going on underneath a lot of that is throughout the curriculum and throughout the day, they're adding context to all of the learning and trying to raise that rigor. And the importance of that is that the kids move out through the school day knowing that um one thing will connect to another and that overall part is supposed to elevate learning, right? That's the theory behind it. I I I think it's fair enough. How do you measure that? Right? But when you sit down with these P these curriculum integrators are incredible people and they give a lot of thought of we're not just going to teach math today. We're going to teach math in conjunction with aerospace and see if we can >>

122we're going to grab three kids we didn't think we were going to grab and we're going to raise their learning through this >> an opportunity >> because to your point not all families or kids might be receiving these same um >> opportunities of of these field trips or or different um specialty items that we provide here. One of the other ones is Starbase, which once again on the surface, Starbase looks fun, right? But I've attended Starpace twice and participated with the kids a lot of times. And they're asking, when you look at the level of questions they're asking, they're very high level. And they're engaging kids at a very high level. And so building that excitement and that depth of knowledge and connecting all these things that they're learning at school with these experiences. I

123mean, school is fun, but it's also connected to our lives. And I think that's a that's an important thing to establish that rigor. And so, when that kid is when that kid wants to go deeper on something that they learned in math or they want to read more about something that uh got their interest going, it it's those are the things that these magnet specialy programs in part are trying to I mean, they try to do a lot more than that, but those are the things that I see that are really important to offer to our kids and families. >> Thank you, >> Director Simon. >> I'm going to jump in with a couple of comments. Um, I served on the Northwest Suburban Board for many years early early on. So I think that at

124least for me I think the school choice piece is very important in the fact of um students students in an Oka Henipin have a lot to choose from in all of these districts right and the barrier for a lot of students to attend something that they're passionate about is transportation and this offers them transportation so I think that in Minnesota um you know we we don't have school choice voucher type system. So I think this is it may not have been designed that way but this for a noa henipin has become kind of the that option for parents and students. So at least I think that part is important and I do think we have some data um I think you could easily pull some data about how our programs that we're funding with this

125are successful or not. Um like AVID specifically you mentioned about attendance rates, right? So those kids before AVID, their attendance rates weren't as good as 90 96%. So just coming to school, I think is a data point we can use. Um I'm probably most familiar with Rapids High School and I will say that some some of this is anecdotal. I bet we could get actual data for it, too. But um I've been told by employers, the folks I was there with you, Tom, during that um hydraulic demonstration, right? But um the businesses that partner with us will say these students in this program are above and beyond even employees we're hiring right now. So that's got to mean something I think for the from the employer side. Um and then I have heard and this

126is anecdotal but um when our Rapids High School students get to college and are participating in engineering, first of all, schools are noticing our engineering program and kids are getting uh getting accepted to major colleges in engineering as partially because of that I would guess but um also when they're in their first classes uh the high schools are getting back feedback from the colleges saying these kids are above and beyond like they they know exactly what to do and how to do and how to ex do these experiments and things like that. So I think there could be some data pulled I would bet um on our and I bet you already have it and just haven't thought of it in that way and presented it that way about what these programs are doing. When

127it comes to the goals, um Matt, I remember when you mentioned, um it was a few years ago when the ANI came and some of the goals were like increase 1% or you know, it was like these really what's that? >> Yeah. Very low. How I looked at that and maybe it's not right or right, but is it's right for me at least, is that $8 million out of half a billion dollar budget um is a piece to it. Right. So it does fund some of our literacy. So the the piece that it funds for that literacy might not have as big of an impact, but it goes to the whole plan and we would hope that it has huge impacts. So that's how I looked at it. I don't know if it's the right

128way to look at it, but it's how I've always looked at it. So thanks. >> Other questions, comments from the board? Director H. >> Thank you. Uh just looking at strategy six, recruitment and retention of high-quality staff. It says type of strategy recruitment and retention of racially and ethnically diverse teachers and administrators. Um I don't know perhaps this is something um that goes into Mr. Palmir's area, but is that I mean can we don't want to be hiring anyone based on race. That would not be appropriate. Um, how is this I just want to make certain that um the document isn't indicating that we're trying to make hiring based on race. >> Um, actually I'll take that one from a human resources perspective. Um, this um budget funds our recruitment and retention specialist for our

129district. Uh one of the items in achievement and integration is to um really focus on um uh reducing achievement gaps and uh there's uh lots of mention of uh and I think emphasis really from the state level to ensure that we are um uh diligent in uh attempting to have a teacher workforce that represents our student body as it relates to um racial and and uh ethnic uh their demographic variables. Uh how that relates to our recruitment and retention efforts is a concerted effort to uh utilize specific uh job boards, list serves, um uh things that would cater to more of a diverse audience of highly qualified teachers. Um uh you're absolutely correct though that that is not a qualifier for employment. Um it's not something that we consider or could consider as it relates

130to an individual's um uh qualifications for a certain job. It's really about the avenues of of um different uh ways to reach out to more of a diverse qualified uh applicant pool. And and if I can add this position, we've worked as the special ed department under me as well, which is their national issue on trying to recruit and retain special education staff. That includes paras, as well as teachers. Um, I've been working very hard with our director of special education, Melissa Hayes. And we work very hard with the person in this position who is just out there really working hard to find us staff. And um it's an incredible effort to find the staff because everybody's trying to find a small pool of highly qualified special ed staff. And I don't know what we

131would do without that position because we were able to be fully staffed. When I was hired last year about this time, we had 70 openings for teachers in special education. That was quite scary. Um by the time we started, we we were pretty much fully staffed. This position, although funded out of ANI, does an incredible effort for our department and special education, but as well as finding physics teachers, math teachers, you name it. Um, I don't know what we would do without this position because everybody's going after this small pool of teachers that are out there. And so, we're just very grateful because we are able to staff our positions this year because of this position. and I've got a whole list of of different things that she does for for our department and finding

132those those those staff. >> That's great work director. >> Thank you, Coach Langel. So, I'll follow up on what you said too, Linux had some of the same thoughts. Um, so first off, I just want to acknowledge kind of like what director said. Um, he's had some experience with this. Now that I've been here a couple years, I'm much more familiar with this. And so I'd kind of taken the approach of just let let what is be and learn and then kind of weigh in as appropriate. And this was something I was more than happy to just learn and understand initially. So um I think the plan the district put together within the framework of what's required is good. So I well done. Um no problems on my end. Um and so I think you

133guys did a great job. So thank you for that. Um, something I have discovered, I can't I don't have specifics for this, but I think uh, Tana, you alluded to this and past conversations we've had at different meetings have alluded to this as well. There's a lot of leeway in how this money can be spent. And I can't, like I said, I can't sit here and give you a line item list of how we can spend it, but if we were to adjust funds from A to B or something, this would be one of the areas we could do that in. So, I would never want to just turn the money down. Um, all of that being said, so that's the district side of things. No problems from what the district did. I actually look

134at what the state is requiring of us and why. And I just have some thoughts. And so, appendix H is the M MDE um document and it talks about racially isolated districts must partner with the joining districts on student integration strategies. And so before I comment on that um and I I personally made the same um comment at a previous board meeting. So what you said, Linda, was just this idea of hiring based on race. I say this truly respectfully to everybody here, but there no matter how much legal language or whatever you do you use to justify this, the second race is a consideration in hiring. You have violated the Civil Rights Act. You can't do that. And even if you go to certain boards, you try to be fair, whatever it you can't

135do that. It's illegal. point in case I can virtually prove it to you right now. If you take the exact same precedent and just swap the color from black to white and say we're looking for white people, everyone would correctly lose their minds because that's racist. And so the mere fact that we swap the colors and now suddenly it's okay, that's not how that works. That is how the culture has chosen to incorrectly be okay with it. But it is still ultimately racist. It doesn't matter how you justify it. I I'm not okay with this. you can't do that. That's illegal. And then the same thing, if you actually look at um what the whole idea of racially isolated districts is even speaking of, it's it's the idea, if you look up all the definitions

136according to Minnesota law, it's um pretty much students who who selfidentify or identified in the general racial categories of African, black Americans, Asian, Pacific Americans, Chuco, Latino-Americans, and American Indian, Alaskan Native, and pretty much everything that's not white. So once again, the premise of the law that we're trying to follow is first consider race, then take action. That is a violation of the Civil Rights Act. We can't do it. And as if it wasn't easy enough to understand, um the Supreme Court, it was like two years, a couple years ago, I think they actually shut down or shot down the affirmative action that colleges do, which again is premised on first consider race, then take action. And they said that was illegal. So that to me and we're doing it in a lot more like

137friendly way and I will acknowledge that. But at its absolute core, the first principle that we're violating is we're considering race and then based on the answer to that question, we're taking action. The minute you do that, that's racist and it is a violation of the Civil Rights Act. This law, so far as I'm concerned, is illegal. And if we had the gull, we could actually just sue the state of Minnesota and probably overturn this because they can't do this. They can't force us to consider race and then take actions based on what the race of the students are. Again, if you don't believe me, swap the word white for black. Everybody loses their minds. That's the witness test. Everybody can see it. It's super obvious this is illegal, and I'm very likely not going

138to vote for it when the time comes. Your paler I I just wanted to respond at least to the to the notion of the illegality of the statute. We have 60 years of civil rights laws and interpretation of those laws um of affirmative action programs um in employment and also in student admissions. Throughout that entire time, um there has been at least some understanding and tacid acknowledgement by the Supreme Court and uh federal agencies interpreting the law uh that there are uh aspects of of programming and design that can come around um questions of race. The most recent cases that you alluded to were the students for fair admission cases for Harvard in North Carolina. Uh those two cases did not deal with employment, they dealt with admissions. uh those cases specifically said that admissions

139used as a standard as a as a point uh factor uh are not permissible and um clearly in the state of Minnesota and with respect to how we approach uh education we have no admission standards. We allow all students uh to come. So the question fundamentally is around um achievement and integration laws. those laws um have never uh to my knowledge been deemed to be unconstitutional or violation of the Civil Rights Act. They might be someday. It's possible. Um but in the meantime when we're talking about um capturing uh funds for maximum benefit uh for all of our students and by the way the achievement and integration uh statutes actually very clearly say that these funds need to be used without regards to um uh m making racial distinctions. Those are are significant factors as

140it relates to recruitment. Um I think Dr. Cherry stated it quite well. When we have two candidates for a position, we don't use race as a factor. We uh we try to find the most qualified and competent persons to fill those positions. We never do that. And so um and this money would not be used for that purpose. >> Follow director. >> So respectfully that is a contradiction in terms either we're considering race or we're not. And if we are, then we're considering race and that's illegal. Second, to illustrate the point, if you're willing to answer again, just switch the colors. Swap out black, put in white. Would you be okay with that? >> No, I would not. Um the reality is is that um if you looked at 60 years of civil rights litigation,

141you would also see that those affirmative actions were were designed to address um historic uh inequities that existed in the system. The Supreme Court um very specifically approved such programs over time. Now the court's changing and again there might be a ruling someday that that deals with or adopts the theory that you're talking about. But as it stands right now, that's simply not the law. >> It is the law. That's just not how the courts are interpreting it. And the fact that you're not willing to swap out white for black is the proof of what I'm saying. >> Superintendent Miner. >> Yeah. Board members, this is our our recommendation to comply with the Minnesota law. And I want to go back to we we are um trying to provide academic support in science, math, engineering,

142arts, and technology. And we are required to do that with the six neighboring school districts in a common plan that we have. I know Casey, you're on the on the board there. So, um, from my perspective, until the law does change, this is our best foot forward on how to comply with that and provide the opportunities. I think the director Simon described very well, families, kids win and families when they want school choice in a variety of uh areas that we know our our students are moving on to high levels in. So, this is our um best effort to comply with the law. Whether we agree with it or not, it's our job to comply with that and bring that forward. And that's an $8 million bucket of money that we sure need uh with

143our, you know, financial moment. So, we feel like we're putting in the right areas on an academic focus and complying with the district and the school um identifications that we're, you know, directed by the state of Minnesota to comply with. So, this is our best plan. And if there's a majority of the board that wants us to change that plan, we would also need to make sure we're honoring our agreements with the other six districts through North Northwest Suburban. And I appreciate Jeff you bringing up that you also served on that that uh school board >> just as director Duchaine. >> Thank you and thank you for that introduction uh Mr. McIntyre about uh the joint powers agreement. Um, our next meeting is March 18th and so I'd be happy to bring any questions that

144our board members have. So if you want to send those to me separately after this meeting, be happy to carry those forward. And I just want to let everyone know that the the current joint powers um group is committed to additional work sessions doing deep dives into the budget at Northwest Suburban and into the programming which I think will get at some of the questions um some of which I have raised uh earlier in the year at the Northwest Suburban board table about the fees and about the services provided just so that we could get a really deep understanding. So would uh look forward to taking those questions away and back to that to that group from anybody >> and then could you bring that forward then? >> Definitely. >> That sounds very good. I

145appreciate the explanation and obviously a robust conversation here. Um I actually was in the beginning of this when this particular statute was put into place um for achievement and integration and it has evolved over time in terms of where the district is really investing the resources primarily but it was to address and attract uh kids to schools and and opportunities as director Simon said. Um and there is no I it's a people who kids who want sign up nobody asks we don't ask them questions about their racial identities to the best of my knowledge is that would that be an accurate statement I mean any any kid can sign up to come to the magnet schools right so I think one of the things as we look forward to this and and really look at

146what we're funding to me that's a very important part of of this resource. It's $8 million and we may not necessarily agree with the the law and to your point uh um Mr. Palmir just the the notion that that could change. Yep. I I I look at it and I went through this document very carefully and some of the some of the maintenance pieces are, you know, I looked at it through what is it doing in terms of leveraging and moving the dial. I know I just recently received a document um on AVID over at Champlain Park High School where they have the wall of fame where every child who's moving on to postsecary or military um of their choice and career future is all on the wall and they are all students um who

147are involved in the AVID program. So that a lot of our resource goes into that space. I know another part is really that whole framing around the magnet programs and and to your point uh uh Mr. Shaw, I really appreciated the stories and we I think when you see it, you understand it. Um it's pretty intense and brings families together and students to school. But as as we move forward, I'm I'm hoping that before we get to the vote on this at the consent agenda that any other questions that people have, we really can get them addressed and directed. Um either through student services, um I would say that I having been, you know, I think it's important to maybe check out a magnet school and see what they're doing there. I was over at

148um Lincoln just recently and they had an artist in residency where kids were writing music uh using technology computers. That's a that's a a place and a space and a skill set that it's a future we don't know yet but it's a future that these kids are having the opportunity to be exposed to. So it's it's opening the field of vision for kids and you see it in the Rapids high school programming and in engineering. It's just these are extraordinary opportunities that we can offer our kids and I can't imagine that um they would not be a benefit to all kids. They are and they are attractors. So, I I just really hope that people really think and reflect more and ask the questions that they need so that we can we can move forward

149with our kids in these opportunities and and the supports that are provided by the adults in this budget as well. All right. Thank you. Thank you all for being here as well and look forward to future conversations. Moving on. Let's see. We've been here now two hours. Does anyone need to stand up for me or are we good to go to the next the next item? Yes. Board members, we're good to go. Thumbs up. All right. Here we go. So, our next agenda item is medical insurance plan design. And I want to welcome Dr. Jennifer Cherry, our chief human resource officer. Todd Mensik, director of labor relations and benefits, and obviously our an >> Yeah, consultant. And and I know you have a name, Josh. It's Josh, right? >> Josh, I knew it was Josh.

150I didn't know your last name. So, we're looking forward to your presentation. Um, and uh ready to go. Welcome. >> Good evening, co-chairs Elangfeld and Hookman and members of the board, Superintendent McIntyre. Uh this evening we are going to uh continue to the discussion that we started a month ago at the work session of um about our um medical insurance update. Um this evening we are rolling into additional conversations around plan design. So, we'll kick it off uh with a a plan overview, just a refresher on what we currently uh have in place and and our medical insurance plan. We'll share a little bit of information with you about um our claims and our performance within our plan. Uh and then we will um uh follow with um the work that we've been doing to

151um consider plan design changes um and um finish it off with the with a timeline and what's in front of us. Um so at this time I'm going to pass it over to Todd Men and he'll get us started. >> All right. Uh so we are a a self-funded self-insured district. We've been that way for over 50 years now. Um it's become far more popular. Uh a lot of districts are self-funded now. Um but we were before a lot of the others were. Uh and what that basically means is rather than us paying an insurance company um to provide coverage for us, we pay our old claims, set our own rates, uh and then don't have to pay the um the profit and the the u you know an extra fee for maintaining reserve for

152those uh insurance companies. Um our budget is about $85 million um a year. Uh we do use Medicica as a thirdparty administrator. So for from the use perspective, it feels like just just like having a a Medicica plan. They're administering the plan. Uh we have two different plan designs. Uh one is a co-ay plan, uh which is has zero deductible and just co-pays when you go to the doctor. Um it's a it's a fairly high price plan with a high premium um that that provides a lot of benefit. And then we have three um plan designs. We call them our 8020 plan designs. Um and I'll I'll talk about them a little later because when we talk about plan design, you'll see how that plan works. Uh but we we have that plan on three

153different networks. So, one broad network um that allows people to go to any doctor they want and then we have two narrower networks um where they're agreeing to stay within like the you know a care system and by doing so we can get uh better reimbursement rates for them um and charge a little bit less. Um premiums have to be set at a level to generate enough revenue to play pay our claims and administrative and administrative fees. Um and those premiums costs are shared between the employer and employee. It's a negotiated item. Um so uh you know in the contract we negotiate the the dollar amount that the district is going to contribute to insurance every few years in every contract. Josh is going to take the second slide which is talking about our our

154historic claims in the last couple years. >> Thanks Todd. So what we're showing here is um you see in the little small subtitle. So by by trend here, so this claims cost PM. So it's per employee per month, but what rolling 12 months? So what this means is each one of these vertical lines is the average per employee per month cost for the for the prior 12 months, right? So we're it's a it's a rolling average, if you will. This isn't the actual monthly claims for all these months. It would be much more variable. So, we're trying to get a jud judgment here on how the district's experience is running over this two plus two and a half year um period compared to what we're seeing in the market as an example. And the example

155that we have here is this red line is if the rolling 12-month trend was 10% per month, which historically up until now has would be considered very high 10% um trend in the industry is going up and it's closer the market trend is closer to 10% now, but it hasn't been over this whole period. But what you see here is that you know that that red line is 10% and and the last two year periods is what has been used to set the self-insured premium rates and the district's claims are significantly higher than that 10%. So um just an example so so this the plan year that started in September the claims used for that were ran through about November 2024. So if you go back to that month, the experience was increasing towards the

156end of that, but then it looked like it was tailing off and through February 25 and then significantly spiked again starting in March 2025 and has continued to go up now. So our hope is after November perhaps the it looks like November is tailing off. It might it you know experience might improve but this is the reason for the rate impact the last two years basically um and what we're trying to illustrate here. the the main cost key cost drivers um at least in the most recent experience period are specialty medications unexpectedly high number of very high claims um high claimments there were in the most recent 12-month period there were 14 people over $500,000 as an example which for a group this size is significantly higher than what we would expect um and then

157also GLP1 medications for any employers that are covering those this being one um that is one of the key cost drivers that we're seeing. >> Any questions? >> Those key cost drivers, is there a way to break those out? Is it >> 30% 30% 30%? You know, is it a third third or is GLP much higher than others? >> Yes, we can quantify that. I don't know my head, but yeah. >> Got it. Thanks. >> Other questions? All right. Uh just a little bit more data on that one with the key cost uh drivers. Um as Josh just shared, we had 14 claimants with over $500,000 in claims. Uh we have a uh quite a few highcost claimants. So we have over 300 uh um uh members with claims over $50,000. Uh so in general

158as as uh Josh was sharing some of those those high cost claims um it's the really really high cost and it's also just across the board high costs. So what you see on this chart is the per employee per month uh rolling 12-month claims. Um, but what you can see here is per month it's um it's uh hovering over um $1,700 um in in claims per uh employee per month. So really high. Okay. Um and so because those um claims are high, we know that they were high last year. Uh last year we saw a 22% increase in premiums and in what we um needed to do to ensure that we had enough revenue to cover those claims. Um late last spring we considered um some modifications to our plan uh and how we might

159consider mitigating those increases or reducing the overall costs. We did consider um removing GLP1 coverage for weight loss. At that time, we did not have buyin from all of our um employee groups and we did not make a change to that. Um that is an item that still is is up for consideration as a group in our insurance committee. We've been working all year on um different plan design considerations in September of 2025 as we when we came together uh as a group for the first time this year. Um and um in the next month we started really evaluating digging into our enrollment in our budget um and provided an update to our our um committee. What we found is that our enrollment had reduced uh at the beginning of the plan year. We have

160uh approximately um 900 fewer members on our plan than we did previously and and uh I don't think we expected that reduction in members. Um that equates to not quite 500 employees, but when I say members, I mean um employees and all of their dependents. So all of the members that are included there. Um so we did see quite an adjustment in enrollment and that impacts our our budget quite a bit because what we have then is we have less revenue coming in but we're still paying out claims um from um uh the the people that are still incurring those expenses um prior to that date. In December, we came back together and had a health plan performance review. That's where Medicica came in and um gave us an overview of um how our our

161plan had performed over the last year. That's where we got uh we dug into that data. So, answering that question that you just had, Jeff, um I I don't I'm sorry I don't have that information with me right now, but that's the type of um questions that we we did dig into at that time. so we can circle back and get that information for you. Um, in January we um were really focused on the RFP for our third party administrator and um facilitating um that uh request for propo proposal. We also implemented an a survey to all of our employees to to um get additional information about uh potential plan design changes and what those um uh really assess the the appetite for um various things. We asked a question again about removal of GLP1

162coverage for weight loss. Um, we asked about um the emphasis on lowering premiums and how that um would impact um the need to um reduce out-of pocket maximums and how that potentially could change deductibles. Um we also began to uh enter the idea of um uh moving towards more of a high deductible plan. In February, we came back together um and uh reviewed those results. We also at that time um uh selected our third party administrator um and the board approved that. Knowing that information um we're also now able to drill down even further and um uh begin to imagine rates. And so we've um begun some analysis of some initial rate setting. Uh just uh last week we um sent out an additional employee survey um again um um uh with the hopes of

163gaining additional input from a wider range of employees than um those that are on the insurance committee. uh what the members are of uh the insurance committee are made up of uh representatives from each of our employee groups. Uh strong message that we heard in our last insurance committee meeting is that these decisions are are very big and they wanted more more um education of our employees overall and um more feedback from um all employees. uh they felt like the um information that they get would be really hard for them to convey to their employee groups and so that was the the need to um uh send out another employee survey. So this month um we're um uh contemplating various uh plan design changes and also um uh beginning to um uh set our rate

164projections that'll be needed for next year. >> All right. Well, we're looking at our high deductible health plans. Uh so interestingly in the past we've referred to our 8020 plan design as a high deductible health plan but it's not according to the legal definition. So it it's not HSA compatible. Um and so high deductible plans the IRS sets limits on minimum deductible and maximum out of pocket. Uh and so it it used to be that at least our deductible would have made it a high deductible plan. Um but there were other elements that didn't um weren't included in that. But over time that deductible has increased. It increases a little bit with inflation every year. Um and since our deductible hasn't increased, it's now below that threshold for a high deductible plan. Um preventative care

165is covered before deductibles met on every high deductible plan on on every health plan that's required um you know by by the Affordable Care Act. Um and prescription drugs. This is one big difference. Uh our current plan, um the prescription drugs don't apply to the deductible and for a high deductible plan, they have to apply to to the deductible. Uh and the big advantage of a high deductible plan is that you can compare pair it with a health savings account. Uh and the the real advantage of that there's a triple tax advantage to it. you put the money in pre-tax, it grows tax-free and then you can still use it for um medical expenses without tax. Uh and currently we have an HRA, but only employers can apply can contribute to HASS. And then we

166have a flexible spending account employees can contribute to to put in some pre-tax money, but that money is use it or lose it other than a few hundred dollars every year. Um and so the the HSA actually provides a investment vehicle for towards retirement. People can take that money out, have it available for uh insurance um as needed, you know, when especially if they have a higher deductible. Uh and then that that also grows and they can in invest it and it it becomes a retirement vehicle. Um, and then of course premiums are generally lower than traditional plans because of the the higher deductible. On the next slide, you can see the then this is a really simplified version. Um, in the survey, we sent out a 10-minute video explaining these three plans. Um, but

167but our current 8020 plan um has a deductible of 1,500 single and 3,000 family and an out-of-pocket maximum of 3,000 single and 6,000 family. And the reason it's called 8020 is between those two amounts, between the $1,500 deductible and the $3,000 out of pocket max, um there's an 8020 co-share where the employee pays 20%, the district pays 80%. Um the first high deductible plan we we were looking at um is actually modeled after the SEIP plan design, the state employee group insurance program. They have four tiers on their plans. Um, but this matches the second tier. Uh, and and so it has a 2250 deductible and a 4500 um family deductible. And then the out- of-pocket maximums are 3,400 single and 6,800 family. Um and the the one thing I would note about this plan

168is between those two there's a 2575 co insurance. Uh but there's also a number of different co-ayments um depending on the type of service that you would have. So what you're paying between that 2250 and and and the 3400 varies. Um and then the the second high deductible plan we're discussing is the simplest design you can have. It's just a deductible that's also the same as the out-of- pocket maximum. So on on the second plan, it would just be the employee responsible for the first $3,400 in claims and then the district would take over or for families the first 6,800 and then the district would take over. Um there's other details in the plan um that were shared with the uh employees in the video uh you know for more details but this is sort

169of the basis of where we're looking at just getting a plan that will have a little more affordable premiums. Um on the side you can see the premium comparison. So moving from the current 8020 plan to the high deductible health plan one will mean that rates can increase by 3.9% less. In any of these cases, we're going to see um rate increases. The question is how big the rate increases are. Um and so the second high deductible plan has a 5.5% impact. Uh one other thing we we looked at in our committee was the possibility of um limiting GLP1s to just the most expensive plan. So employees who value that coverage could move to the expensive plan, but we could reduce the the cost of some of the other plans be that that wouldn't cover

170it. And and that would have about an extra 1.1% impact on each of those. So, if in addition to moving to one of these high deductible plans, we uh we we were to reduce that um we we were to not allow GLP1 coverage on the low plan, then it'd be more like a 5% and a 6.6% um reduction in premium. Yep. director >> uh for these high deductible plans with the HSAs. Can you speak to where the HSA part comes in? Where where does the ability to fund that? >> Yeah. >> How does it work? >> So, currently we have HASS, healthcare reimbursement accounts, and we put $750 for everyone with a single plan and 1,500 with a family plan. The plan would be we would still we would take that 750 or 1,500 and

171put it into an HSA instead. So the district would fund that first portion of it and the employee would have the ability to uh through payroll deduction fund more than that >> and they can fund up to how much does anybody know? >> I thought you had it in here. It's like 4,400. >> I don't have it in here. >> Oh, I saw it's it's approximately 40 400 and 8,000 >> in the in the notes. Okay. >> On the um it's in the notes. >> See how close I got it up here. >> It's okay. It's It's around I just I didn't I didn't know how much it was, but it's it's in that $5,000 range. >> And it's higher if you have family coverage. It's more like 8,000 for family coverage. >> Yes. >>

172What is it? >> 44 for self and 87.50 for family. >> Okay. 44 for self, 8750 for family. >> So, so I think that's the key to explain to people is >> Yeah. if you're not a current user of a lot of services and you and you can contribute that same kind of money into that plan and then next year it's there and the year after and after a while it starts to grow. >> Um I you know it does two it does a couple things for people. It allows them gives them a chance to think for a moment. Do I need to take do I need to use the service right now or would I rather keep growing that pool? And you know they really do stay forever. I have one that's 11 years

173old from a previous employer and it does exactly what I haven't put in a dime to it. It keeps growing. I don't know when I'm going to use it, >> but it's there. And um and so there there are some big advantages, but it's a little bit different way of approaching healthcare. >> Yeah. So, I feel like some of this is messaging because I know for sure people did not understand how our plan worked based on the number of comments we got about we should stop being self-insured, which had nothing to do with the premium rise, but they they played that like they thought that it did >> and other things. People are confused because and they're but they're mad because the rates are going up and it feels like in addition to the redesign

174really have to help people understand why it's happening to them because they think we did it to them. >> We didn't do it to them. Nobody did it to anybody. It's just a function of the cost of the care, you know. >> So, >> okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. I I'll just add to that. Currently, we do have a flex spending account where people can put money in pre-tax to use for insurance, but we have people every year that forfeit money. We have people that just want to make sure they don't have to incur any out-of- pocket cost. So, they, you know, they'll put 3,000 in there to cover their out-of- pocket max and then they don't come close to hitting it and they just give up the money. >> And then you have other

175people who are on top of it and they're buying glasses they don't need at the end of the year, you know, in order to get the money spent. So those are two situations where having an HSA would be beneficial. >> Okay, >> just a quick comment. I want to reinforce what was just said. I think we've tried to be consistent with this message for months, but it's worth saying again more use. So the the volume overall volume of claims is just up. That that's what that chart told me. Just more more and more people are using it more often. Then the high cost claims are on top of that. And then the high-cost medications are on top. you know, those three big things. >> Yep. >> It's it's people's choosing to use the plan more

176and it, you know, the services cost more and the and the >> unfortunately we have more people needing it and more people needing really big services, right, on top of the medication factor. So, that's what's those three things driving up, you said so well, the the the premiums. So, we have to raise enough money to cover those those costs. >> What other questions? Director Simon. >> Thanks, Michelle. Thanks for the presentation. I want to make sure I think I understand this. So, I want to reinforce it for folks who are watching because they may see this presentation and see negative numbers, but that doesn't mean their premiums are going to be negative on these new plans. You stated it, Todd, that even with these high deductible plans, your premiums that you're getting today on today's

177plans, these are going to be higher than because of the reasons that were stated earlier. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay. I just don't want people to look at that and think, "Oh, they're they're designing plans that I'm going to be paying less." And then, um, I agree with the discussion on HSAs. I've utilized those in my past also. They can be absolutely wonderful. One thing, and I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, but one thing that we need to also consider is that folks on these plans, their premiums are going to go up and then they would have to put more money into an HSA. There may be simply >> where some teachers can't do that or some people can't do that. Um not that they shouldn't select the plan because they'll

178still get the whatever $1,000 or 750 whatever it is from the district but um there's a lot that there's a lot that goes into that decision for people too I think. So that's all I got. Thanks >> Director Eric. >> Thank you co-chair Langel. Um, so then what is the forecasted I guess premium increase for >> this year? >> Yeah, I'll I'll take that. And actually, if you could um um switch the slide to the next one. I think this answers that um not directly but indirectly. Um, director Arco. So at this moment in time, we are looking at uh potential plan design changes. We have some projected rates um some initial projected rates and and that's how we were able to come up with what the premium comparison would be. We are looking at

179increased premiums if we did nothing um that are almost in the ballpark of where we were in terms of increases last year. However, we are still waiting for another quarter worth of claims data. So, when you looked at that trend line, you saw that it was just starting to level out for the um last uh two months of data. That claims data only went through November. We need another quarter worth of data to ensure that that in fact is is um uh leveling out to ensure that the rates that um we are going to put forward for proposing adoption um are at an adequate level that we'll have enough revenue coming in. So don't have a direct answer for you but um you can see the timeline of when you will have that answer. Uh

180and that's in in April. Um, following that, um, just moving forward, um, we'll be coming back to you, um, uh, with additional information at the the business meeting to talk about, um, some specific plan design changes that we'll have a proposed recommendation for you. Um, with that, we'll be able to then come back in April with with those um, rate projections. >> Um, thank you for that. If I can follow up, maybe you can ballpark this, maybe you can't, but assuming we do the plan design options listed before and generously assuming that it the next quarter will even continue to taper off in the way we've seen like what >> what is if that were if that were the case, which to me would be the most ideal case we could hope for, what is

181the ballpark expectation for a premium increase then? that we'll have to vote on upcoming here. >> As you can uh tell, Director Arco, I'm a little hesitant to even share that with you um as for a number, but the insurance advisory committee did look at some um uh potential uh projections uh in the the ballpark of a 19.3% increase. So if we did nothing um if all the plan designs remained exactly the same uh that was um the projection with enough information uh through again through those November claims. >> So if that were and I'm not saying it will happen but if that were to happen like we'd probably reach some actual like critical breaking point. I don't I don't see how that would even be possible to do. So I sure hope we can

182find a way to deal with this >> draw. >> No, no, we would have no choice. You have to increase them. >> The the the choice for the board or the school district is how much we'll reimbur reimburse for the fact that the premium has to be what it'll be. But we won't the the only hope for changing what that premium is going to be is to redesign the plan. Uh then it's going to be whatever it's going to be after that. But then then we will have to approve those because that's how you make the fund hole. And then later on it's a budgeting question and don't even get me started, but it's a negotiating thing about uh where we're going to what the actual amount people are going to take out of their

183paycheck is going to be. And it'll be it'll be out of balance for sure. It'll be out of balance again. It will absolutely be because current contract just got negotiated based upon the last rates. If it goes up, no matter what, it's going to be out of balance. and we're going to have the same fight again. >> Followup question. Go ahead. >> Yeah, you're exactly right, director. I guess maybe what I'm I should state it better. Um I do based on what you guys have described, any changes have to be agreed by the union. Um and I guess what I'm hoping for, but I'm also pretty skeptical of is that they will agree to some of these things like the GLP1s. I hope they will agree to that because they do actually have control over

184what some of these plans cost. It's just the my understanding is tell me if I'm wrong the overall quality or the overall package has to become less and if that were to happen then some of these rates could drop is that generally yeah so it's I guess a message to the teachers just to be aware the union can actually address this more so than the board can ironically the union can address this so keep that in mind um hopefully that happens otherwise like director was saying we'll just be right back to where we Director Simon. >> Thanks, Michelle. Um, you don't have to answer this now, but as you bring back more information, I had a few um follow-ups on some of the information that was given. Um, it talked about 14 people over 500,000

185or 14 members over 500,000 in claims, 300 plus over 50k. Um, can you bring back what we were like last time, you know, what we were previously and what the what you would estimate our pool would be just so we can have context behind it, right? >> Um, so when we get these questions from folks, we can say this is why it's going up. And then also over 900 left our insurance our pool >> and I'm just curious if there's any data behind those folks. I would guess they're probably not big users of insurance. So if there can be any data behind that of we lost 900 that maybe didn't utilize it as much and were helping pay the larger client. So >> So that that that's a great question. Actually we posed that to

186Medica the third party administrator. And so what they do is they they they um it's called risk adjustment software. So they actually go through and model and assign a score to each every single person covered on the plan so that you can look before and after if there's a shift. the the risk score before the the overall average risk score for the group was like 1.27 before and it or the other way around 1.26 and it only changed to 1.27. So that was a concern that we definitely brought up. It didn't bear out in the in this change in enrollment. >> So >> we'll follow we'll follow up with the large claims >> from the prior. >> Other questions? >> Questions. So, I have a question. Um, if the board members I I'd sent that

187to you. I don't know if the board members had gotten the video, but if they wanted to see it, >> can we make sure they have access to it? I think it's very helpful, actually. >> So, the message did go out to um everyone with an Anocahanabin email address on Friday afternoon. So, if you did Oh, it did. >> We we can ensure though that the board's directors receive it directly as well. >> Oh, thank you for that. I I know I received it, but I'm on the insurance committee. >> So, and also I would I would wonder if if I mean if one or two more board members wanted to join me a meeting or two that we could certainly do that, correct? I mean, >> up to three of us, right? >> It's

188it's really interesting to hear the conversations. Um I think that um people are very interested in lowering the premiums and very concerned um that we support our members well. So it's a it's a real hard balance right now, but it's important for for us to understand where we're at and then to understand where we can go forward. And I know there is plan a plan that will fall into place where there will be very robust education for our employees so that they really understand what options they have which may not have been necessary or at least this necessary in the past. >> Go ahead. >> Just two quick comments. Thank you board members. Um, I just want to stress two things. Um, as we work through the timeline so that that we can hit that

189open enrollment period on time so that because the new plans go into place September 1. And then I I know that the um part of the committee work is the fact that it's 18 employee groups. So there's different perspectives across all our different groups of employees and they all have to that's the the challenge in that is to get common ground across a lot of different perspectives. So I would encourage any board members to take you up on that offer >> and they're all in the room. >> Yep. >> So it's really really um important to to be there. Um any other comments, questions? >> Yes, director. Uh just a question for anybody who might know. Um Director Edet pointed out that there's a lot of confusion among just really everybody but teachers with how

190the plans work. I I agree some of the comments would indicate that it's just a confusing thing. Um, how appropriate or inappropriate would it be if like the district or the board or whoever just started, this will sound ridiculous, but you'll get the idea, like some kind of just educational email campaign where the district sent out one email a week to teachers saying, "Understand better why the insurance is the way it is." Like, and just broke down one component each time and said, "This is leading to this. GLP1s lead to a 4% increase. We have this many claims. It leads to this. these things can change and actually help, but the union has to agree to it. Like I if all not not recommending any course of action, but just so that they know how

191it works. Is that is that just like wildly out of line or is that something? >> Answer that. Um, so, uh, I believe we strive to educate our employees on, um, our benefits plans and what is available to them. Um, each year during open enrollment, we do have um, a plethora of materials for employees to understand their benefit options. There are um four options and they they vary wildly um in premium uh premiums and uh out-of-pocket costs and and it really does take a lot for an individual to think about their own experience and what they need out of that plan and then what plan is going to serve them best. Um and yet we also know that our employees don't want to think about employee or their benefits until they actually need to go

192to the doctor. Um and so we we are in that uh constant battle of of trying to provide enough information so that uh employees understand the benefits that are available to them and the value behind those benefits. Um and then the the reception or the interest of our employees. Um we have um also uh recently begun including um various benefit updates or in insurance updates in our um bi-weekly in the no our newsletter or employee newsletter. So I think um the idea that you have uh director arco is is is a good one. It's a valid valid point. Um, and uh, one area that I'm picking up on that maybe you have an interest uh, that we do is is begin to also share information about the impact of the use and the impact of

193um, the high claimants and how that impacts overall premiums and and that's an area where we haven't we haven't shared a whole lot of information on that uh, other than theformational video that just went out. And I'm just wondering too if that could be a website and we've done it in other ways for other topics where it's sort of a deeper dive into how this works and you can access it anywhere anytime on your phone whatever right so that could be a we could build that out even more robustly on the web page >> just a thought like a a good follow-up plan. Um, so the next insurance meeting for the group is when coming up, right? >> On the 17th. So we we scheduled another one because people felt they needed more of the

194survey data um to make a decision on on which of those plans we would consider. Uh so the plan is the survey is out this week. It was sent out Friday afternoon and then we'll review the data um next week and the insurance committee meets on Tuesday. >> Appreciate that. >> Well, thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you. Thank you for coming, Josh. I appreciate it as well. So certainly last but not least um the last um presentation tonight is our next agenda item on facilities update and I want to welcome our chief operations officer Greg Cole. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to your presentation on facilities. >> All right, thank you uh co-chair Langfeld and Cochair Hulman, Superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. Uh good evening. Coming to you

195with a facilities update this spring. Um you also have in your materials a board briefing with a lot more detail uh that if you wish to pursue some things that maybe I don't cover tonight, it'll be in there or if not certainly you can follow up with questions. Um I shifted things a little bit. uh you know a lot of these updates have included um bond projects from the past and we have completed all those projects and so there's a little bit of a shift in some of this that I hope you'll see with regard to um how we prioritize projects how we discuss them um how we think about them and I want to be sure that our public understands that as well because I think it's important um so first and foremost some

196of the things that we think about with regard to uh any type of project or idea uh really boils down to four things. Student success, staff excellence, community engagement and experience, and then safe and secure learning environments. Um obviously, uh fiscal responsibility is a big part of that, but I didn't include that in this part because we work really hard to not discount ideas because we think they're too expensive. Um there's several reasons for that. Uh one example is that oftentimes we have our eye on a particular technology or uh something that we wish to do and it may be too expensive now but with uh advancements that occur and vendors who get more and more creative about meeting market demands. Uh sometimes there are things that become affordable. So we always keep those on

197the table. Uh and we try not to to rule things out just because they're too expensive at the time. Um, in terms of learning environment goals, uh, it it's been a a 15-year journey here that some of the board members who've been around a while know that we have uh, spent a lot of time and energy focusing on mechanical systems. Um, specifically thermal comfort, heating, cooling, and air exchange and dehumidification just to create create more comfortable learning environments. Um, we've always had heat for a long time. Uh but cooling has been a a challenge um and particularly in the shoulder seasons and uh we've heard loud and clear that has that has a real impact on teaching and learning. And so we are very close uh to having the vast majority of our classrooms be

198cooled by the end of this uh summer. And that's something that uh we're pretty excited about and proud of. And it it's been a long journey. And I have to give a shout out to uh Steve Anderson and Chuck Holden, my predecessor, that that was something they were willing to take on uh because you you don't see it. Um it's not pretty. Um and so sometimes and that was the at the expense of some aesthetics, but um I I can tell you that in my role now, I'm very happy that they were willing to take that on uh over a decade ago. Um, air quality is certainly important and and and safety for all of our students. Just with regard to when I talk about safety in this regard, air exchange is really important to

199that as well. Um, strategic investments uh this board has been uh very supportive of um some of the ideas we've had with regard to utilizing our owned spaces. So as you know uh previous examples of that was um willingness to invest in repurposing Franklin to bring together uh uh path formerly pathways and bridges to uh two rivers program moving out of a lease space into a space we owned. Uh same with uh moving out of Crossroads into Sandberg Regional and most recently as a part of a budget reduction um kind of achieving two things are killing two birds with one stone which is getting out of another leased facility at the Rapids Family Mall um and seizing the opportunity to have a one-stop enrollment center at the uh at the uh educational services center uh

200in ANOA to provide essentially a uh a better service to our families. amilies at a lower cost and as a part of a budget reduction process. So, um that's I think folks should should know and understand that that's something this board supported and uh I think it's a real opportunity for us. Um in addition to that uh strategic investment by the school board uh with regard to standardizing electronic door lock systems and exterior breach notification systems AC across the entire school district as well as um uh completing uh Dayton Elementary School's interior walls. Uh we have completed the electronic door lock system project and Dayton's walls will be completed at the end of the summer. So, we're excited about that. As a part of all of that, you all have badges now that serve as

201FOBs. Um, so we had to move 8,000 employees to a completely different uh system. Um, another shout out to Carrie Erdall, one of our staff members who single-handedly printed out all of those and assigned them to everybody in our school district, which was a huge lift um by one person. So, >> that that's been a a pretty exciting uh shift as well. Um, we are also very close and and you've heard about mobile device uh applications that help us with communication and notification and essentially being able to act more swiftly. You've heard about that for some time. I know that's been a bit of a frustration, I know, for me, but we are getting really close to um piloting a program here. uh we've just had to synergize that with technology and buildings and grounds

202and um with our cyber security uh plan that's become more and more complex. Um but we're making we're making progress and I feel good about that uh being completed fairly soon. Um federal cops uh award grant that Tim Forner wrote, our manager of uh security and emergency operations. Um we've we we secured that grant uh a little over a year ago and now we have plans in place to complete the work for that uh to all of our facilities. Uh that work should be completed this summer as well. Um moving forward with major projects uh in fiscal year 26 and these are projects this summer that I kind of alluded to. Uh Madison Elementary School will have its final phase of its uh dehumidification um and cooling project as well as Eisenhower Elementary School will

203have its final phase as a part of that. Um uh a refurbishment and uh improvement of 14 classrooms. Uh Dayton Elementary School, as I mentioned, will complete that uh remodel of uh classroom spaces. So there will be no more open spaces there. Um wanted you to make you aware as well of child nutrition program uh projects that we have going. Uh these projects are funded out of the child nut nutrition budget. They do not uh impact the general fund. And so these are essentially they have to be uh confined to kitchen spaces because of the the rules around that funding. So, River Trail, uh, the ESC, Madison Elementary, Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln, and John'sville will all see upgrades in their kitchens this summer, either for uh, cooler or freezers or ventilation upgrades, uh, particularly in those

204kitchens that get really hot. So, we want to be sure they have better working environments there. Um, as I mentioned, the enrollment center, uh, we believe that that will be ready to go by August, um, and available to all our families districtwide. Uh, some other miscellaneous projects I just want you to be aware of, um, replacement of all classroom doors at Lincoln Elementary School uh, that have been around uh, more than a half a century. So, I I know that's going to be uh, uh, very welcome. Uh, maintenance of smoke stacks. We actually have old smoke stacks. they've become a little bit of a hazard. So, we have plans to um reduce those. They're not getting totally torn down, but we're able to reduce those and and make them safer so that they're not a

205hazard for anybody around them. Uh those are at RTLC at Lo Jacob as well as John'sville. uh some elevator work at Mississippi Rum River and uh the ESC pavement work and parking lot uh repaves and reclamations at Hamilton as well as at Rapids Middle School will be done this summer. As you've heard uh previously, pools, we have a multi-year pool plan. So, uh, that's that's beginning this summer and Northdale and NOA Fred Moore pools will both have some pretty significant upgrades to their air handling and mechanical systems. Um, so those would be kind of the major highlighted projects. There's some others I think listed in your in your notes. Um, wanted to let you know about a process that we're resurrecting uh that we found to be very valuable. Um, as you know, between 2022

206and 2024, as a part of the aesthetics investment from the school board, we met with every administrative team around the district, they ca, we brought them in, met with our buildings and grounds department um to talk about their priorities and hopes for things that they would like to see us do to improve uh the appearances of their facilities. Um, that sort of branched out into a lot of other things and I would say it was mutually very beneficial. Our team learned a lot from our school leaders about what they need. Um, and I think they learned from us about how we prioritize projects. Uh, since then, we've also learned from our building administrators that they would like some assistance and help with how to think about the money that they have. So, each each building

207has facility and equipment dollars that we allocate every year based on a formula. Um, and uh, as someone who went through principal school myself, one thing that you don't get taught, um, at least, and I don't think it's still taught, is how to manage a huge facility. Um, there are a lot of responsibilities in a decision that a principal makes and they really don't have a lot of direction. And so, um, we've heard them and we're working with them and part of this second round is we're going to be starting to meet with buildings again coming up. We're going to do it again. um and uh provide them with some essentially like a rubric or a guide to help them understand what are the things that they should be thinking about planning for themselves. What

208are the types of things that they would expect to partner with the district uh buildings and grounds team on? In other words, we're sharing costs and what are those things that the district would cover that will help them plan their funding better. Um, and so that's something that they've requested and we've gotten feedback on, and I think it's a really good idea. Um, it's also an opportunity for us to rep prioritize our projects now that we've kind of completed a number of them, uh, to to sort of reset to determine whether or not, um, for example, our LTFM plan, which you'll hear about uh, our 10-year plan, we'll come back to you in a couple months about, but do we have the right priorities? Are we putting our our eggs into the right basket, so

209to speak, and are we partnering in a way that um we think is most effective and efficient for our our sites? Uh some future needs that we have looking out um and and I think uh you know, it's in it's just really important for us to to kind of be honest about some of the things that that face us. Parking lots and driveways. We live in Minnesota and you drive down the road and you see potholes every year. That's our reality and it happens in our parking lots. So, these are pretty big lifts. They can be very expensive projects because of just the sheer size that we have, but we work really hard to prioritize those um and do as many of them as as we can. Roof systems, as you know, we have 6

210million uh square feet of space. We don't have 6 million square feet of roofs, but we have a lot of square feet of roofs and um those they're they're aging. um we do our very best to keep them going as as best we can, but they also protect our assets and they're they're tremendously important to us. So, um we're going to be facing significant costs moving forward on those. Our building envelopes and energy management. Um just with regard to energy management, you know, that's that part of specifically windows. Um, we also, you know, try to do our best to see what's out there with regard to energy energy management associated with things like solar or geothermal. Um, as you know, we have a couple of sites that we've experimented with solar. The geothermal is still

211the jury is still out as to whether or not um that's cost effective to make that big investment, but again, same sort of a thing. Technologies change. We continue to kind of evaluate those. Solar, we've kind of put the brakes on. um same sort of a thing. We we've we think it's been kind of a costneutral program so far. Um if that improves down the road, then we'll look to expand that, but uh I think it was worth our while to to test it out at some of our smaller sites, but we'll continue to keep an eye on that. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, um like like your home or your car, those things are are they're running as as well as they can for as long as they can, but they break down, right?

212So those are those are costs we're facing. We have some some aging uh infrastructure there. And then our facilities, academic, athletic, and activity uh facilities such as classrooms, communal areas, stadiums, gyms, pools, and auditoriums. Um same sort of a thing. They're there. We continue to upgrade those as we go through the system, but we have some that are quite old. And then safety and security, doors, cameras, and surveillance. That remains a priority. I would say we've explored or done something major every year since I've been in this position and we continue to do that. Um I know I just want to acknowledge the board members have expressed some interest in um how we can be better with regard to things like weapons detection and those sorts of things. I can tell you that uh right

213now we're kind of exploring pretty seriously the possibility of some some pilots there. um you know the the cost of some of those things have been prohibitive in the past but there's diff different ways that uh different companies are kind of packaging those and we're continuing to explore that. So I'll have more to come on that in the future. Um but anything we can do to try to achieve that simultaneous safe and welcoming uh environment which is a challenge to do those two things but we still believe that there's more to be done and we can we can meet that uh standard better in the future. Um and I will say just with regard to safety and security I I want to repeat kind of our attitude about that is a multiaceted approach. It's not

214one thing. multiple things that we do to try to be sure that um while our kids are in our schools that they are as safe as possible. Finally, fiscal reality and responsibility, inflation, stagnant funding, and continue to be a challenge. Um and uh I don't think I'm saying anything new. We've just had a presentation on something very similar to that. If there's any good that comes out of that, it forces us to continue to be in as innovative as possible. Um, so just simply saying that we can't do something because it's no longer affordable isn't really an option. It's it's something that we really believe in. Um, is the juice worth the squeeze? If you were to come to one of our buildings and grounds meetings, um, this is a quote from Ben Martinson that

215we talk about all the time. So, there's lots of ideas out there. Um, that's essentially what it boils down to is is what we get out of this going to be worth the investment that we put into it specific to student success, staff excellence, safety and security, and community experience. Um, when we think about big projects like additions or new facilities, we feel that those are 50-year decisions. Um, they're big decisions. You want to be sure that you do your very best to that if you're going to put an investment in that that um you're investing those taxpayer dollars wisely. Renovations are about 20-year decisions and basic projects that we do, maybe an office space or something like that, those are still 10-year decisions. So, we always want to just be f sure we're evaluating

216all these things as carefully as we possibly can. Um again, folks, just awareness, the board knows this, but just the general public. almost every project that we do has multiple funding sources. That's the the only way we can afford to do it. And so we're constantly monitoring um those expenditures and those budget amounts to ensure we're not overspending in any particular area, working closely with Michelle Michelle Vargas and her team. Um sustainability and honoring commitments. We do our very best. If we tell a school we're going to do something, we try to follow through on that. Um what trips us up sometimes is something big fails and we have to readjust our priorities. And then a constant belief that we're stewards of taxpayer investments. We take that uh that responsibility very seriously with all the

217decisions we make. So with that, I had a challenge for Mr. Simon to try to move this forward quickly. So I would take any comments or questions from schoolboard members. >> It was more than 10 minutes. >> Sorry about that. >> I know. >> Pretty close. questions, comments. >> I just I want the board to I think you'd believe this and know this, but when you got $150 million LTFM plan that's a 10-year rolling plan, things break, things get moved around that that puzzle gets messed up and reput. And our team is always on time and on budget. So, and and it only gets noticed when it doesn't work. So, I want to commend Greg and the team for um always being flexible and open to moving projects around and staying within the resources we

218have. So, good job. >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation and for all of your hard work and your team. >> Appreciate it. Well, we're an hour over, so I've epically failed the timeline tonight. Um we it's time for the last item before we move into close session. Uh we have one tonight. It's board correspondence and communication and this is our opportunity to share happenings in our community and report committee assignments or other items of interest. Does anyone have anything they'd like to share? Yes. Director to Shane. >> Thank you for the opportunity to share. So, just a couple of items to cover from the past few weeks. Uh, I enjoyed being a mystery guest reader at Champlain Brooklyn Park Academy. So, a shout out to Mrs. Miss Lynch's fifth grade class. They were

219wonderful um and engaging students to interact with. Um congratulations to all of our sports teams who have concluded their seasons. Uh I got the chance to watch the Champion Park girls basketball team finish finish out their season. I know we've got some other teams that are still in the running. So just just really um excited for all those students. Uh I had the opportunity to attend the special education advisory committee. they had a guest speaker um parent resource night uh and it was a really informative uh conversation about IEPs, 504 plans, accommodations, modifications, and I just want to thank that committee for putting together uh that very well attended community event uh with some super helpful information. So, thank you. >> Others, director, >> I was just going to say there's another great reading night

220Jefferson Elementary. So, thank you for putting that on and uh yeah, it's always a good time. >> Any others? >> I'd like to share a couple of things. First of all, I I also was another celebrity reader and this time I hung out with Chuck E.Cheese. So, and I I was informed by one of my own children that it's actually Charles Entertainment Cheese or something. Who know? Anyway, um that was the clarification for that. Um today we had the opportunity both the superintendent and director Duchaine to uh attend the day at the capitol. It was the Minnesota School Board Association in combination with the uh Minnesota Association of School Administrators. Got that acronym right? But we were able to visit a number of our um our persons, senators and our our house members to talk

221about our priorities. We took the priority card with and we didn't get to everyone. Um we saw Senator Krun, Senator Abler, we saw um Representative Ray Rrower and who else? Represent. Is she a senator? >> Yeah. Senator Kunish as well. Um we have we missed um represent it's representative Nisca. Yeah. So that's a person we want to circle back with but any any conversations if you connect with these folks to talk about our priorities. We talked really focused on on comped focused on cross subsidy with special ed. Those were big priorities. and also then going more specifically into conversations um about about the third or K through three >> mandates and a number of mandates as well. I think that there's there's room for flexibility in places that they're they're going to try to move

222things but there is not a lot of resource or money. Um but it's important to continue as you know if you know these folks and have those relationships to talk about our priorities with them and then thank them for the read act and then indicated we still could use a little more money in that space as well. So it was a it was a good meeting um with all of them. So appreciated that opportunity. And um also moving forward, I'm actually going with uh the a team from the Minnesota School Board Association um not on the district um but through MSBA uh in two days to um a conference for the consortium of state school board associates. So and their mission is to really it's a nonpartisan group. It used to be the National School

223Board Association that the district that the state belonged to and now they switched um to another group called Kazba and it's a nonpartisan national alliance dedicated to sharing resources and information to support promote and strengthen state school board associations. So I was invited to attend and so I will be there in uh in not where I thought I was going. So we'll just leave it at that. Um, we do have any other things to share? I'm going to move into our next item, which is a closed session. We will conduct in close session. The executive session will be closed pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03 to discuss labor negotiations for education support professionals and all bargaining groups related to insurance program design and contributions. The closed session will be held in the Michael Sullivan room. At

224this time, I'd entertain a motion to move to a close session. >> Thank you. With a motion from Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Thank you for the second motion by Director Simon, seconded by Director Arco. Any discussion? >> Hearing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? No. >> With six in favor and zero opposed, we will move to close session at this time into the Michael Solomon room. We will take a fivem minute break. The time right now is as we wrap here is recessed at 8:35. We'll meet at 8:40. Thank you. A good question.