001[Music] Good evening. I would like to call to order this Anoka Henipin School Board work session for today, October 6th, 2025. Our first order of business is to approve the board agenda. Is there a motion to approve the board agenda as presented? >> Thank you, Director Langenfeld. We um is there a second? >> Thank you, Director Adet. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, will all those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. With six in favor and zero opposed. The agenda is approved. Members, the next item on our agenda is item three, the consent agenda. 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 presented? >> Thank you, Director Adet. Is there a second? Second. >>
002Thank you, Director Duchaine. Um, is there any discussion? >> Yep. Director Simon. >> Thanks, Zach. Um, I just wanted to point out to the community, there's been a lot of discussion on uh pool facilities in In Noah Henipin. And as part of our consent agenda, appendix C. Um, I just wanted to point out to the community that um, the board, if the board approves the consent agenda tonight, um, there is in their Northdale middle school pool mechanical upgrades, the total cost was just under about $600,000. So, this um just shows the community that when we said we're going to upgrade or update our facilities and make sure that they are um good for our swim teams and our communities that this is one portion of that. Thank you. Any other um discussion from board members?
003All right. Hearing none, will all those in favor of the consent agenda say I? >> I. Any opposed say nay. With six in favor and zero opposed, the consent agenda is approved. All right. Our next agenda item is item four. Um on the work session, we'll begin with item 4A, career and technical education pathways. Welcome Jess Lipa, director of career and technical education. Sorry if I mispronounced your last name. Um, but I will hand it over to Superintendent McIntyre for just a minute here. >> Yeah, thanks, uh, Cocher Arco. As the team's coming up here, just wanted to provide some context as we're going to focus on one of our district's most essential connections to our local economy and student future success, our career and technical education program. So this topic tonight is is core
004to our mission to effectively educate each student uh for success and it's a critical link to our strategic priority around increased student achievement so that we are able to equip our students with the tangible in- demand skills for our workforce readiness. It's also a cornerstone of our another one of our priorities are effective organ organizational support because it really fosters deep community partnerships with our local businesses. So, um, and those partnerships are essential as we, uh, work hard to make sure we're relevant, provide a valuable work-based learning experience for our students, and ultimately contribute to a talented, skilled, uh, pipeline in our reg in our kind of regional economy. So, our team's here tonight to uh, kind of go through with all the updates in our CTE programming. uh you're going to see a comprehensive
005data informed overview including options for how we can continue to maintain that quality of rigor and the high value programs that we we provide in the district. So thank you to Jess and the team for coming tonight and we're looking forward to to the update. So I'll just turn over to Jess. Thank you. >> Great. Thanks. Good evening co-chair, members of the board, Superintendent McIntyre. Thank you for um allowing us to be here tonight. Um this evening I have some guests with me. um some from the school district of course and some from our local um workforce partners that we work with. Um I have Brian Dishinger um who works with MATE precision tooling with us. Um Carter Gerlock is uh an internship teacher who is physically located at STEP but works with students um
006across the district. Um Susan Gard is here with uh Blaine Brothers and then the Busy is here. He's our advanced automotive teacher who also specifically works at STEP. So um if I were to uh talk about what career and teched is, you know, the evolution of CTE in general has been um back many years ago, we we all called it vocational education. Um and then in the late 1990s um early 2000s um CTE really took on that role of instead of just working for the homes but working for and working for the workforce and changing um how we viewed CTE and that um our whole role is to provide rigorous and um academic and technical skills um that lead students to any sort of college and career success. The idea being that there's going to
007be multiple exit and entries for students in that um maybe if they think in high school that they're leaning towards one occupation, but then they decide, oh, I don't think I really want to do that. I and but that we're teaching them skills that along the way will help them um hopefully get into occupations that are um that they're both fits their passion and then of course um everything is hopefully aligned to the workforce. Um we play a critical role in ensuring that our nation's education um the workforce and our and to go moving towards economic um advancement and success um all of our occupations in any courses that we offer within career and teched. Um have to be aligned to the national career clusters framework and um any course should lead to occupations that
008are um high skill, high wage and in demand. That's really our c that's our thing is um occupations that are high skill, high wage and or in demand. It doesn't have to be all of those, but it should be at least one of them. Preferably in the best world scenario, it would be all three. Um but not all of those are and and it that really does depend on demographics. Um it's our chance to link education to their workforce and we um of course collaborate with our business partners and work with students on college and career guidance. So, we have a lot of pathways and programs within our district, but there's a lot that goes into how we determine what we offer. So, um if we look at, um our occupations, we're specifically looking, and
009you'll see the framework in just a second. Um I have a picture of it. It's not pretty. Um but I'll show you what the picture is. Um so when we align to the occupations that are in demand, it's really looking at both our regional but also um nationwide what occupations we have that are um um in demand. And so when we're designing our courses and our programs, um it is this national career clusters framework which was just redone um last fall. And so it's a way for us to review any standards, curriculum, any credentials and make sure that everything that we offer is still aligned to it. Um and then if there's opportunities to determine new programming, um we first start with this u career clusters framework. So the next slide is um this is
010what I say is it it looks um like a lot. the um if you look at the career clusters framework, this is the national model and the idea being that there's um there's their general um they call them their general occupations but then there's the um clusters and then there's subclusters in the widest part and of course um they have crosscutting clusters. So in this um I took Anoka Henipin's um occupations or career programs that we offer and put those around the outer edge of the wheels to see if we really are truly lining up to where we have um where we think we are. And you can see in this case um the idea being that this framework shows us that um yes, we have occupations that are lining up to certain occupations and
011whether they're in demand. Um and and I say that there and I say sometimes there are courses, sometimes they're programs. Um when looking at this I a great example is I didn't put culinary arts one, two, and three. I just put culinary arts. Um what we have at the at the five high schools, what we have at STEP and where we have programs. Part of what we do when we use this is that we look for where are there where are we saturated? Maybe where is there not enough? Um and then looking at of course our regional area too and looking at what's in demand. The idea behind on that top right where the cross cutting cultures or crosscutting um careers are those are occupations that should um appear in multiple um areas of the
012workforce not just you know if you're going into marketing or you're going in into um AI for instance that's in every occupation not just in you know a business it's in for like business occupations so it's it does it stretches all over all of And then let's go to the next one. Jim. Okay. So, here's the other thing that we look at is our occupational outlook. Um, part of my role as the CTE director is that I am part of the Inoka County Workforce Development Board. Um, and we use that information. We use other information to look at um, our national, our state, regional, county employment predictions. I'm trying to we're trying to constantly predict out the next 10 years. Um we use everything that we get from um whether it's DED or um you
013know uh the chambers of commerce in our local area um the the workforce development boards but we use all of their occupational data and part of what we're looking for is very specifically a well this is um we know that there's maybe a decline in need for um a great one is if you look at manufacturing the results are mixed across the state. But if you look at the um area of ANOA in particular, a great example is that's an area that's in high demand and will be for a very long time um due to everything from retirements to um so replacement people to um new jobs um changing jobs etc. So I work with them and just to learn on okay what about our local area? How will this benefit students not only locally
014but how are we doing things to prepare them for maybe elsewhere in the state, the nation, etc. Um and then we use our advisory boards as well. Um two of our people who have sat on our advisory boards are with us this evening and they provide us guidance as to where occupations are headed um how we should be providing um if there's new things that are coming up in the industries um and things like that. So the advisory board people our CTE teachers are required to have two advisory board meetings annually. Um we usually do one in the fall and one in the spring. Um and so part of that is having um people from the community talk to us about what is important for educators to be um working towards teaching etc where the
015occupations are changing. They oftentimes hire our students. They oftentimes provide internships for our students. They'll provide training for our teachers. They'll do a lot of um support for us. So I started to talk a little bit about this. Um our advisory board partners, there's specific rules within the department of education and this is required in statute that we have advisory board meetings. Um there are specific rules within um MDE in particular that um 51% of the makeup of any meeting should be from business and industry meaning not too many educators. Um it's it the it's something that um it's really our time to listen. It's really our time to listen to the community and say okay what's coming up in this occupation? Why is this so you know why should we be teaching this? It's
016when we learn a lot of times about um the these are credentials or certifications you should be getting students. Um it is where we learned that they were um people were adamant that we teach career and employability skills um because that maybe have gotten um you know wasn't as a focus in the schools anymore. And so they were pretty adamant that those are the some of the things that we need to address as people's employability skills while they're in high school. Um so as such though when they agree to do this we oftentimes will ask us you know we'll ask them for well we maybe need your help of what this looks like or maybe some of our teachers um have been teaching for you know maybe 10 or 15 years and haven't been in
017the industry in a while. How can you help us provide some um professional development on what that piece of machinery does or that piece of equipment? And so then they provide um professional development for us. They take a lot of our students on tours. We have um we take a lot of tours in the community so that both our students and our teachers can understand um the industries um and like I said they just help us guide um a lot of purchases even um part of what's required for some of our federal funding um is whether or not advisory board partners support our purchase. sometimes um a a great example was several years ago we purchased something in um our automotive area to help diagnose um vehicle issues um our district had a process of
018purchasing a certain type of um computer and the people in industry said absolutely not this is what you need to diagnose it and so we had to go through that process but that when I got the federal funding then and I asked the um department of education for it that was a very specific has your you know advisor board been supportive of this very purchase. Yes, it is what they're using in industry. So, that has really that really helps us to bridge some of those gaps of what we maybe don't necessarily know. Then I can go to the next one. Um the other thing that we consider when developing pathways is whether or not it's feasible. Um there's sometimes a cost to new programming. Um sometimes equipment is something that's just not feasible in a
019new school. um or in a school, new equipment in a school in the space. So, we're looking at like facility requirements if it's even an option. Um I wrote the I put legal requirements on there because um it maybe a a thing where a student under the age of 18 shouldn't be on a certain piece of equipment. Um one of our biggest challenges is the availability of a licensed instructor. uh lots of people have industry experience and lots of people have teaching experience and we're kind of looking for this happy medium of a little bit of both um because they need to have um we need them to have some of that industry background and then of course whether or not it's going to be located at STEP or at one of the high schools
020um you know and part of what we think about is at step part of the deal is right our high schools um have a lot of the introductory courses and then we move into you know the advanced courses at step and sometimes it's easier to just run a section at step because the high schools maybe don't have the enrollment or um again a number of licensed teachers versus maybe just one or you know two depending on it. So next I'm going to talk about what programs and pathways we actually have in our district um and just kind of do a high level overview of each one. So if um the first one we have um our education cluster um of course there's the big cluster grouping that you saw but then our subcluster that we're
021looking at is really education. Um we know that there's an in demand um for education but just kind of you can see what our courses that we have um offered there. We have concurrent enrollment with one of our with an Oka Ramsey community college where students are getting transcripted college credit um hopefully to consider um the field of occup or field of education as an occupation um and we have some amazing um internship and clinical components within our own school district that they're able to take part in and um working on the child development associate as well for which we call the CDA um for our early childhood people who are interested in that. So students get to really choose quite a variety. Go to the next one. Um we have healthcare and human services,
022one where we're particularly strong in and have quite a few options, but also one that is so in demand that I don't think we can even I mean the the amount of people that are requesting um and needed in our industries in many of these areas are it's it's unreal right now for that occupation those occupations that are in demand. So it's this is the healthcare and human services. So you'll see cosmetology and barbering because it's also the personal services along with um healthcare. So we have everything from medical terminology um and then medical anatomy and sports medicine to um nursing assistant and u medical assistant pharmacy tech etc. Um there are college credits available. Um students can get different certifications within this. So, we have our certified nursing assistant um and pharmacy technician and
023then they do get some of their cosmetology hours depending on what um cosmetology school the students go to. Um the the CNA for instance for the certified nursing assistant, the students have to do about 20 hours in two local nursing homes around our area. So, they do those on the evenings and the weekends and um that is a clinical component that's required. We are approved um at STEP. This is where this one is at. We are approved to um be a department of health um approved program for um nursing assistant. And so we have to follow um those requirements which there's we can have a range of clinical hours but the students can test out at the end and get their CNA license. Then we have um public service and safety. So this is our
024law enforcement, emergency medical technician, um firefighting, um and those programs. Um we have uh both articulated credits and concurrent enrollment credits with um several colleges. Um students can get their first responder and then their EMT certification. Part of the EMT certification is that the students do have to do a clinical component. Um they either can do a North Memorial North Memorial ambulance ride with us or they will do a um a ride with thing with Brooklyn Park Fire Department depending on whatever works for their and that one we only offer in the spring of the year because actually the students have to be 18 in order to do it and they have to do it be 18 in order to test out and so we try to do it as late as possible because the
025national registry for um EMT is a pretty tough and so trying to keep it as fresh as possible. Um for egg and natural resources we have everything from horiculture and animal science uh landscaping, zoology, ecology. Um we do have c um college in the schools for prevet animal science for students. Um there are a lot of internship organizations and FFA um future farmers of America is an incredibly strong student organization um across the state and so they do a really nice job with that. So um even some of the pictures up there is from one of our green houses and some different things that students have done. Um then we have building and moving which the folks with me are all a part of that cluster. Um so that's our transportation uh construction advanced manufacturing.
026Um the it seems like there's a lot in here but they're all in different occupational areas. So it's um it it's it's uh just not it doesn't feel as big as it is. Um but we have everything from aviation and um automotive advanced automotive but we have um outdoor powers sports and equipment um architectural drafting and design um construction CDL welding um engineering design and fabrication CNC programming etc. So, some really great highlights and and they'll be able to highlight some more coming up um to you know in a few minutes. But, um some really great partnerships and certifications that we have is we do have a Polaris partnership um with both Rapids High School and we'll be moving to Blaine High School too um where um Polaris actually has given us a lot of
027their um everything from materials to engines and the students can work towards a Polaris certificate um within that. Same with Yamahas at Andover High School. Um, and so trying to expand on all of those. These are all in their first couple of years, but that's been going incredibly well to have Yamaha there. Um, because they are really giving us the newer engines. It's It's one thing to suggest that we maybe have some older ones or kids that it's it's no different than vehicles. When kids get to work on vehicles, um, if they're working on older vehicles and older models, that's not really what they're going to see in the industry. they're going to see newer vehicles and so it's important to have sometimes those donations are critical. Um, STEPPP is an FAA um private pilot
028ground school approved program. So um we are consistent constantly working between both FAA and TSA um for that. Um CDL will be new in it in its full version next year. Um so where students can get the ground school essentially hours for their CDL. Um we are an ASSE approved program which is automotive service um program. So that's something that we're working on as a reacredititation this year. And then we are also an American welding society. We do some welding um certifications for students as well. Uh then we have of course hospitality um events and tourism. A high area of student interest in this one. Everything from culinary arts to baking and pastry. Um you'll see graphic design and digital photo in this area. um videography, apparel and design. Um and we have the center
029for advanced professional studies um which is uh in this area as well. And so there is a lot of internships available for students in these areas. Um and the students can u participate in everything from Skills USA and FCCLA, but ProStart is a big one where they can go and compete um in different uh culinary challenges across the state. Uh then we have our financial services um occupations and so there we have um courses in accounting and building wealth, personal money management. Um we have a lot of internships are available in this. This is where you'll see a lot of BPA students out working in our communities working at everything from um Target uh Medronic, Genesis Works. We've got kids all over the place working at different um industries um specifically with BPA and our
030partnership with them. And then we have um management and entrepreneurship um sales digital technology. So this one is also one where we are um I feel like we're growing quite a bit in this area because of the interest in um everything from computer science and IT essentials um and cyber security and ethical hacking is becoming a very big industry. Um and so we next year we will hopefully have an AI course um where we are um introducing students to AI. Um but this is an area where we have also the center for advanced professional studies uh that's in business management and so students are working sidebyside with business and industry partners trying to solve their problems uh real world problems within CAPS and working there. Um we're a Cisco approved academy at um STEPPP and
031um they have uh internships as well and and we work with both BPA, DECA, etc. um for student organizations. And if I look ahead at um some of our student outcomes um last in the my most recent data because we've just submitted our last year's data, so I'll get that soon. But in 2024 um actually 78% of all in noa henipan high school students took at least one course in career and teched. Um in 2024 93% of our CTE students actually graduated in four years. Um so their their outcomes um are generally are pretty good. We do serve a lot of students. um they're earning college credits, industry certifications, um a lot of work-based learning opportunities across our district and in our local communities. So, here's where you can see where we've served students. Um
032and it's to clarify just to um help people understand um a CTE participant, this is defined within the Department of Education. A CTE participant in a district is anybody that took one course. Um a CTE concentrator took 150 hours within a career field. So um right if you remember the wheel right then there's the so there's the career field. So 150 hours and in an noa henipin that amounts to three classes. Um so if they take one um uh series of courses within a field they become a concentrator. Students are not both. you're either counted in the state as a a participant or you are a concentrator, but you're not both. Um it looks like if you look at the total number of students right on that far right column, what it appears like is
033that we are um the more if that's more than the percent of students we're serving. This is duplicated. So it means that a kid that maybe was a participant in egg, food, and natural resources was still um counted as a concentrator in human services. And so um it's not specific to just the body of you know the one person could only be in one of those they can be in multiple categories but within any one of those fields they can only be a participant or a concentrator but not both. So you can see that um human services is probably our biggest area that we're serving students and then um business management and administration is where we get a lot of um students as well. So that human services remember is um the everything from culinary
034to cosmetology to um uh those within the human services and of course management business and occ and administration um is a lot of the the business the business services and also that's where marketing classes were um by the state's definition. Um, another program that we have available to students and it's this is not just available to CTE students although it's at the it's at step so it's a CTE school um is the college now program um our college now opportunity for students and most of our students do take some CTE courses there but um others have not um it's an early college program that's open to all in Oka Henipin juniors and seniors um students can take a combination of PSO and concur current enrollment classes at STEP. Um we're partnering with um Anoka Ramsey
035Community College for this. Um and we're trying to increase and working with them to increase the amount of concurrent enrollment versus PSO. Um but it's again trying to find the teacher that has the right qualifications. So some we've had to do some um PSO in this case. Um where we're doing um the even the PSO courses, they're all held on our campus. So the students are not leaving Anoka Henipin at all even if they're taking one of those courses PSO. Um the Anoka Ramsey faculty actually drive to step and teach the kids right there. Um and the students are um cohorted. So our junior is a or junior group is a cohort of students and our senior year is a cohort of students and so they're together for all of their college now classes. Um,
036so we're fulfilling both the high school academic core classes and then we're they're also getting um a large amount of the Minnesota transfer curriculum credits um completed. So, if they um as it stands right now, if they took both their junior and senior year, those senior year students this year will have 34 credits just from college now that are all transferable and on a transcript, which is um if you combine that with say EMT or you combine that with nursing assistant, you're getting very close to having some level of a diploma. Not the full degree because that's a 60 credit requirement, but we're getting them pretty close. um and then they stay still on our campus and so they can go back to their home high school, still take some more classes and it works
037out pretty well for them. Um what's interesting about what we have available to and what the students are doing and how they're um completing they're actually 94% are completing it successfully and doing well in the classes. We've had a couple drop over the years over the last couple of years. Um but we have a very very high success rate. Um we believe a lot of that is because it is on our campus. it is on an Noah Henipin's um school calendar. It's all of those things that we're still able to give them that college level experience, but just on our campus and to ensure that that that's a success program. So, next I want to open this up to um our partner spotlights um from Mate uh and I'll let them talk about a little
038bit about um why things have been so successful. So, um, Carter in particular has a student, um, the last couple of years placed at Mate. And so, um, but I'll let Brian really take it from here and talk a little bit about our partnership there. >> All right. Good evening, everybody. My name is Brian Dishinger. I've been, uh, asked to speak about our experience with the STEP student machinist program. I've been employed at mate for uh, 29 years. My current position as a foreman for 13 a made precision technologies is a worldclass ma or manufacturer dedicated to providing uh superior solutions for the metal working industry. Uh we manufacture workholding CNC punch press tooling and a comprehensive line of press break tooling. Mate values its employees and offers opportunities at all experience levels. The company
039employs hundreds of people worldwide and fosters a culture of innovation and personal growth. A key component of our community engagement is our dedication to developing the future manufacturing workforce through internship and apprenticeship programs. Offering programs like the machinist intern and student machining apprentice roles, mate creates a vital pathway for students to gain real world experience, forging a direct link between education and industry. We're on our third student at mate uh this year. All three have been more than eager, motivated uh to learn machining skills and all have shown a curiosity to the trade. Student in interns are onboarded to perform essential tasks like general maintenance on machines, learning to operate both manual and CNC machines. They also gain experience in quality inspection using various measuring devices. And interns are uh also trained to meet expectations
040for productivity and quality participate in continuous improvement and lean activities and uh follow guidelines for work scheduling all essential skills for a modern manufacturing career. Uh the intern program is crucial model for addressing future workforce shortages in the manufacturing community. Uh and the internship program serve as effective funnel allowing mate to assess potential full-time employee employees while they're in school reducing future hiring risks and onboarding time by partnering directly with technical colleges or step program uh mate ensures that the curriculum and student skills align with the immediate and future needs of the manufacturing floor. This practical experience combats the skills gap producing graduates who are job ready and offering paid, flexible and supported internships positions a mate and a committed community partner and an employer an employer of choice attracting bright motivated talent into the
041skilled trades. This partnership model is essential to sustain the talent pipeline and needed to carry the manufacturing industry forward. And I'd like to thank uh Carter for the opportunity to uh participate in this. So something that you'll see too um is that um mate participates in the youth skills training program which is um uh a state program uh that allows students who are not of a certain age to um complete uh tasks that maybe would be u not allowable for a student who is under the age of 18 um something that's in a hazard hazardous occupation. What the You skills training program allows us to do is an agreement that we have with um Department of Labor and Industry um in that it allows us to put students who we know um have been trained
042who um are being supervised who have a mentor at mate um and can work with this student until they turn the age of 18. So our seniors maybe sometimes don't turn 18 until October or November. So, this allows them to work um on hazardous equipment through the guided supervision of both the school district as well as the employer. And then I'll turn it over to you if you've got anything Carter to further add uh about me. >> Um yeah, just with uh in reference to the youth skills uh training program. It's it's really uh it's kind of a way to to allow the HR departments and and so on at um a lot of our employers to to arrest a little bit easier when they're when we are starting up these programs. getting these programs
043moving initially um they can take a lot they can take a long time um whether it's Mate or Blaine Brothers or a lot of the other partners that we're working with in the community um to getting that initial that uh that initial program onboarded within their uh facility is it's crucial to to have these programs in place and have understanding from all sides so that everybody can work together um until the student turns 18. A lot the majority of our students do not turn 18 until um later in the school year. And so that's uh it's been a marked change. And so this has been this this program um has been has really helped out uh for them from the employer angle to make them feel more comfortable along with uh us as a district
044feeling more comfortable that we're getting students put into the right spots. Um, and so that is uh that is and we're very fortunate to have partners like Mate. One thing I will say is uh getting partners that commit year after year no matter what the uh the employment outlook is. Um it's really in the last 5 years I've been in this role for 5 years. um in the last 5 years it's changed it's changed dramatically um what students what high school students are able to have for employment along with what the um what the opportunities are out there and um and it it it moves around getting uh strong programming is just really uh essential for these for our our partners to be able to commit every year no matter what the um that current
045outlook is and what the current state of their their industry is. And so, um, when I look at our our partners that we have here, that's that's what we have is somebody that's willing to commit to the community and the kids, uh, year after year. >> Thanks. Next, we have um our partnership with Blaine Brothers, and Susan um, and Theren can kind of talk about that. Um, so I'll let you maybe take it from here and and kind of fill in. >> All right, I'll go first. Um, I don't have quite as prepared a speech as he did, but um, Blaine Brothers, in case you don't know, um, we do maintenance and repair on heavy duty trucks, trailers, and parts sales. Um, we have about 400 employees, um, mainly in the Minnesota area, a lot
046of them in the metro area as well. Um, we've been in partnership, um, with Aaron and his team for we were figuring out about seven years now. Um so we've been doing the partnership has had a variety of different ways um on the advisory board um giving tours to both the students as well as professional development for the um instructors as well. Um we have participated um sponsored and participated in the Nitro X program that they've run out of the step that get gets down to the junior high kids and introducing them to transportation as an industry. Um and they tour our facility. We also give them lots of candy and pizza or hamburgers and stuff. That's why they really like us. But we introduced the kids to um understanding what a job would be
047in our trailer shop, in our parts area, in our truck shop, but also in our IT area because if they have a passion for transportation and want to go into a different type of industry, you can still have a job, a different type of vocation, you can still have a job within our industry. So, we really try to open up all the different types of opportunities for them. Um, in addition to that, I was listening to, um, what Corey was saying earlier on and talking about, if I'm getting it right, high demand, high skill, um, a good living wage. Um, and I've got to tell you, that's what, um, kids coming out of the technical, at least in the transportation industry, are a feeder pool for us. Um the type of work that we do,
048we look for um kids that have a strong mechanical aptitude, which they get in spades when they go through the technical programs that you have here in the school. Um as well as a good attitude. And when you guys were talking about the employability skills, that's key to the um type of kids that we've gotten out of the program as well as what we've seen in the programs. Um, we want people who are committed, they're coming on time, they understand attendance, they understand, um, attention to detail and diagnosing things where you can look at a problem and follow it all the way through to come up with a logical conclusion. And these are all things that they're learning. Um, in addition to um, being able to learn something and then apply it in another situation,
049these are the things that they're learning. And these are the students that may not be the typical success within a high school classroom. These are the kids that like to learn hands-on and that's how they learn and that's what these different types of programs are providing them the opportunity to do so. Um we have hired your um kids out of the STEP program. We've hired kids that were graduate of your technical programs. We have hired kids that are part of the internship program within the schools and had um seen a lot of success in seeing them as really good strong employees for us. Um I was talking to Jess. I went and I was talking to one of our um employees at the Blaine location um earlier today and asking him I was like we
050got you out of the the intern program didn't we? and he was like, "Yeah." He goes, "I was a graduate of um the program and he came to us three years ago. Um had a great experience in the technical programs that you had through the high school that he's that he did. Um we hired him at 18. He's 21 now. He's done a great job for us. Um he's continuing his technical education. He's um he was hired into our trailer shop. He's now learning refrigeration um technical skills, additional technical skills. And I was telling Jess, he's he's um I'm actually kind of proud of the kid. He is um 21 years old and he's the youngest person in my leadership development class that we have internally. We have a year-long development program that we do
051for um leadership development program and he's one of the youngest um participants in that and he came out of your programs. >> Thanks. >> I'll let you talk. Um, no, it's just, you know, that these partnerships are so important and to have, you know, people that, you know, that we can depend on and do that is so important. Um, and it's great to also hear these students, you know, once they graduate and they come back and they are working for places like Bane Brothers and they're making a ton of money. You know, I had a guy come in with a big old diesel truck and I'm making tons of money. I'm working. I'm, you know, and he's just he just lit up, you know, and and that's what we want to see is we want
052to see these guys successful and and and out there, you know, killing it. So, thank you. >> Um, so you can see that part of our um, partnership with Blaine Brothers has been through Nitrox Camp. Um, for those of you that maybe don't know, um, the Nitro X camp, it has been a camp that we've done in the summer for incoming seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. Um, they get to work on, I'm going to say it wrong, remote >> remote control. >> Thank you. Remote RC like big RC vehicles. Um, but we take them around to our local community partners. Um, and they, um, they do a race at the end, and that's really the culminating event is the racing of the RC vehicles. Um, but it's, uh, more than that, it's been a, it's
053an introduction into this industry and how great it can be. Um, and really getting kids hooked. And so, we're starting to see now those efforts pay off that we're starting to see the seventh graders come through, take some classes at their high school, maybe take some classes at STEP, maybe going on to the the technical college or going into industry. We're starting to see some of that happen. Um and so that wouldn't have happened without our partnership. Um because we really needed them to help host our kids and show them around and and show them different things. So um it is our partners are an absolute direct pipeline um for the workforce and um we we really we rely on them a lot um for a lot of different things. So with that, I believe
054I am um oh just a last couple of things is that here's you know the ultimate benefits to what Current Tech is. The picture up there you can see is this is our house that we just sold. So it's not that we're not that far along yet. Um if you're looking at the picture um uh so we um we really our job is to really look at real world relevant experience. What's relevant in in our future workforce? Um, and if it's not being, you know, if it's not something that's needed in our workforce, then we really do question as to maybe it needs to change, maybe we need to, um, offer something different. Um, but it's helping kids kind of explore their passion, um, and helping them find college and career success. Um, giving them
055access to what's um, high skill, high wage, and in demand while they're still in high school. And then we know that our employers can see some benefit um to help address anywhere from the skills gap to um a direct pipeline to students um and hopefully they have some of those in demand skills when they leave us and or if they go on to that next step. Maybe it's post-secary or whatever it may be. So with that um I believe I'm uh can answer any we can answer any questions that you might have um or if you have any comments. Um, Director Simon or Director Desan, you can go first. >> Thank you. Thank you all so much for being here. I really appreciate it and I appreciate the overviews of the partnerships and just your
056commitment to our students and districts. It's really meaningful and I'm so grateful you're taking an evening to be with us tonight. Uh, Jess, could you tell us a little bit about what what would be the best way would you recommend for students and families that are hearing this or interested in this? Maybe they're, you know, 8th grade, 9th grade, and they're they're starting to plan out the next few years for their student. what what do you recommend the best way is for them to get more information or ask questions? >> Thank you. Um uh Director Hashane, I appreciate that. Um so there's a few things. There's um opportunities for them to explore some of these in um while they're still in middle school. Um there's certainly we don't have all the facilities available for middle
057school students. Some of it's not um necessarily um at their age level yet. for instance, like construction um or an automotive. They don't have we don't have auto spays at our high at our middle schools, but um a great way is really to start talking to their school counselors. Um of course, right, their parents um usually have um have some ideas, but uh you know of what occupations they maybe know about. But I really for our for our like younger students, I would say to start asking their school counselors and start talking to their teachers because the teachers really do know what opportunities are available within our school district, especially as they're planning their nth grade um registration. There's usually some open houses at the high schools and that's really that first start is that
058incoming nth grade year is taking a look at what um what classes they can take, what maybe is of interest to them. Um, at all of our schools, we have career and college specialists and those um those folks will oftentimes help students take um interest inventories and um and if maybe you have no idea. And really nth grade seems so young, right, to uh to maybe have that much of a plan. Some kids know, some don't. Um I fell into this not that way. I wish I would have fallen into it a little sooner, but I didn't. Um, but I I say all of that because some kids really have this idea of what I really think I want to go, but also those um occupational interest inventories will really help them say, "Oh, you
059really like to use your hands or you maybe really like to do this." So that exploration um when they're younger is so um pivotal and there's a lot of um camps that we offer over the years for different programming to help them explore and to help them take a look and so I would suggest taking part in any of those. >> Thanks. Director Simon. >> Thanks, Zach. Um, no questions, just a couple comments. First of all, this is it's always one of my favorite presentations of the year. So, thank you. I'm really glad it's recorded now when work sessions are recorded so our community can see it. It's just a it's a great example of um just the excellent programs we have in In Noah Henipin. And uh thank you first of all to Blaine
060Brothers and Mate for being here and your partnership and and all of the partnerships that you guys um that the private sector and the community gives to this program is just so important. But um you know it's been an important program, comprehensive, innovative important program for all my years here and I know well before my time too. um and the partnerships that you create with the industry and the healthcare and the state with um uh licensing and Noka Ramsay is just amazing. And one thing I'll I'm going to embarrass Jess a little bit and I know she's too modest to mention this so I'm going to mention it. Um that program has um received national attention um from senators, from I think Department of Education reps, touring um and really has become a model in
061the nation for how to do this. So, um, you know, Jess personally has won recognitions also, but I know I think I don't want to speak for you, but I think she'd say, you know, she helps to lead this, but there are so many people behind the scenes, community partnerships that we heard about, all the teachers, all of the staff making this program just unbelievably wonderful and something that knowipin's very proud of. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Director Adet. Uh, I had a a couple follow-up questions just I want to make sure I understand when some of the students participate. Um, some of the programs you talked about some C certifications and things, but for a lot of them uh it seems like it's as much about getting a chance to
062find something of interest and then start to work in that in in that area and build some build on some of the maybe at the beginning some of the more basic skills of it. So, let's say that the home building one is a good one. They're in there. They're starting to do some of the construction related activities and then maybe they figure out they really like uh you know electrical work or maybe they figure out they like plumbing or whatever and they can actually you know work on some of those projects too. So you're both you're getting a chance to try it out and you're learning at the same time, which may not lead to a certification or something, but by the end perhaps a student has a good idea of where they're going to,
063you know, what they're going to do next and where they might look for employment or apprenticeship or something like that. Does that does that sound like what we're trying to do? >> Uh yes, thank you um director. I appreciate that. Yes, that's absolutely correct. If if at the end of it, I've always um said this to families too because um my goal is to show the occupations in demand. Our goal is to show the top 20 at least, right? Occupations in demand to students um because this is what we have available to us. But you also have to find your passion. And if at the end of it you're really good at it, but you don't want to do it for the rest of your life, that's okay. um our goal is to have them
064explore all of this when it's uh free and for that for the student and it's available and you have that supports of high school and home and everything else um because and and this is the one piece of information I've always given to families if at the end of the program and this is what I taught too. If at the end of this you say I don't want to do this good I'm glad you learned now. Um if at the end you say I want to explore it more that's where they'll go. And so the certifications too are usually towards maybe that more advanced level so that they've come up and they've taken a couple of prerequisite courses to really I really want to go into automotive industry and so by the time they get
065to it they're getting maybe certifications and breaks or whatever and hopefully they learned a skill set too um right that they can just use at home or wherever. >> Good. And then for a for a student who maybe gets into it but isn't quite sure what they want to do. you talked about some different um I don't remember what you call it but a test you know to see what where their interests might be or what they might be possibly good at. Could you just talk a little bit about you know if I were a person that started and I really wasn't sure uh how would I go through that and about how long before I I might get pointed into you know some area of interest. >> Sure. Um, that's a good question because
066it's it's quick, right? Those inventories don't take very long. Um, but it's usually some ongoing discussions maybe um finding out, oh, I really want to do this. Um, I really want to work with my hands. I really want to go in the healthc care field. And you you do find I um I actually took one not that long ago in interest inventory just to see where I would land. And ironically, I landed in education. So, I felt a little better about that. um because that's not what I initially went to school for. Um and so I thought, oh, let's just see how it how it goes. But what they find in those they're quick and they're short. Um and so the attentions, you know, to detail for the student is quick, but they do find
067well these are some things that we can take. This is some areas that you can consider and explore. Um and so that's relatively quickly. What we often find though with students is I really want to go into the medical field and then they find out I don't like blood. >> Okay, but there's other jobs within the medical field and so our whole goal is right those multiple exit and entry points of I really want to be in this area somehow but I don't like this but what else is there and that those skills that they've learned along the way will help them in any of those fields. Good. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> Director Langenfeld, >> thank you for your presentation as well. And I wholeheartedly believe that the workforce of today is sitting in
068our schools. So, you're you're right where you need to be. Um, for our community partners, as you think about the students that are coming into your programs, I was just curious when you think about the employability skills, how do you determine which students will be coming into your programs? How does that work? Is it, you know, talk a little bit more about that? Because I think that's a really important step. I can >> that's really kind of that's a kind of an integral part of my position is making sure that there is there's an appetite from the from everybody involved to make sure that it's going to be a successful um a successful environment for for the student and for the employer. It's very important for us to make sure that the employer uh is
069working with a student that has an interest in the area. So to I guess to answer answer your question it I kind of I I work with them. We do our interest inventories. I we get a general idea with and we work with a lot of times with the career and college specialists alongside with the student and um and we will identify those interests and then um from there we we try to uh tour students into different areas. Um just for an example, we will be going to uh another partner of ours Cummins Power Generation tomorrow. So the uh majority of the students in the program will be going there tomorrow and um to speak to uh excuse me to director Adet's question. Um they're going to tour the entire facility. So they're going to
070go they're going to go through the office environment. They're going to um um the internship that is available there would be on the floor in the manufacturing um uh side of the building, but they will be touring the accounting area. They will be touring the uh engineering area. They will go through logistics. They will do that in all of our tours, and they'll notice just how robust these environments are, and it's not just one job at them. So, a lot of times we can um we can place them in multiple spots within these areas to make sure that it's that um that there's interest that there's interest there um and that it's successful for the students. >> As a as a followup to that, then do they go through a formal interview process as well?
071>> Yes. >> So, I I would assume you did. And >> for us, they do. Um we usually have in the past relied on our partnerships um with the different programs with the different instructors. That's why we also encourage the instructors to come out and tour our facilities so they have a good understanding of who we are and what we're all about. Um so they can be informing the students on what um what working for us would be as like as well. Um and so they'll call us up and say, "Hey, we've got a good match for you. you've got somebody who's interested in the type of work that you do or I think they've got the different technical skills that you've been looking for and you've talked to us about before. Um we have
072them come out um we usually do a phone interview and then we have them come out and interview with our hiring manager as well and um walk them through the shop and talk to them about the opportunities. um with one of the internships that I was involved with several years ago. I'm not as directly involved in the hiring right now, but um back when I was, we actually did the internship where we had him part-time working in the trailer shop and part-time working in our truck shop to give him an opportunity um to kind of see what both sides of the business were. Um and then ultimately when he graduated, we hired him full-time into our diesel shop because that's what he was interested in. So, we try and look for opportunities that it is
073a good match. We look for the relationships and the recommendations of the um partners that we've made in the school district, but then we also want to show the kids what um what the experience will be like as well. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And can I continue? This is just my favorite. You just know that um it was an area that I worked in as well um as a teacher. So when I think about um the requirements um for lensure, can you speak to how challenging that is in terms of making sure we have that teaching staff available to the students? Because as we expand the program, it's so vitally important that we have the instructors to do that. And as I'm listening to this wonderful thing open up, um how is that
074going? Um, thank you. The the there is no doubt that hiring um qualified teachers for some of these programs is a challenge. Um, and so there's a lot that goes into it and um we have to um try to find somebody that's got the best of both worlds, right? Maybe wants to be a teacher or always thought about teaching their passion but didn't really know they could get into it and then has that industry experience. Um right now the department of um sorry Pellsby um the professional education licensing and standards board um allows us to um get uh get initial teaching licenses for people who have five years of industry experience um have a degree um doesn't have to be a four-year degree but they can have a degree or a certificate or diploma in
075a in a field that we're trying to hire them for. um and or has um you know that that that background um within the field. And so in saying that that that allows us then to say okay you maybe have never um been a thought about being a teacher but a great example is our nursing assistant teachers. Um the department of health requires us to be um requires us to have a registered nurse who worked in a long-term care facility within a certain period of time for a certain period of time. um within the last x amount of years. And so to try to find a registered nurse who suddenly wants to be a teacher can be a challenge. Um but you find somebody that maybe it's enticing to be on the same schedule as
076your kids. And so now you've got a registered nurse. And so then we work with them. Um we have programming available and there's grant funding available to allow those teachers then to get their longer licenses. And so that's what we're really working with is in the state. Um there's a lot of career and teched programming now where we can get them through that lensure process, but it's sometimes it's just finding that person and convincing them that maybe you've thought never thought about being a teacher. Um because you they also need that um the what we would call the pedigogy of teaching and understanding how to be a teacher. And that's a fine thing that we work with through professional development and through those programming options to get them to have the best of both worlds.
077And so hopefully by the end of it then they become a teacher and want to um teach their passion. It's a challenge um but our business partners actually provide us a lot of recommendations of hey I know this person and you know what this person has said to me before I want to be and so that's who I usually reach out to when we're trying to find a very specifically skilled individual. >> I'll stop soon. Um just one more as we think forward uh Champlain Park recently in the last couple of years added to their IB program a career related program pathway. How has that impacted your programming? I as we've given out medals and you can see how many students are lining up in that pathway. How has that how has that impacted you
078and and is there talk a little bit more? >> Thanks. Um um actually that's been wildly successful. Those students coming to step um wildly successful because the students are um doing incredible things and they're doing really really well. Um and they are that enrollment in those areas that we've partnered with them has grown um grown considerably to where we've looked at how can we you know how are we going to keep expanding um >> with that partnership. But that has been an incredible success story um of students who are finding their way within that within the career program side of things um getting certifications, getting college credits um through through the STEP program and but like I said, it's um every area that we've partnered with them, it's grown tremendously. >> Thank you. Thank you
079for everything and thank you for the partners coming to the table. It's so vitally important. Appreciate all of you. Director Hogman, >> thank you. Yeah, it's really exciting to see kids um finding their way, being able to use skills. So, thank you for providing those opportunities and internships. Um can you talk a little bit about the capacity? Like where are we at step school? Is there openings available? >> Thanks, Richard. Um, Hookman. Um, yes, in some areas, but not um our when we staff at STEP, we staff based off of registration. So, if there's a dip in registration, um, there's maybe the FTE changes in a certain in a in a certain area. Where there's growth in registration, um, we have to maybe find new teachers that have that same skill set. Um, and so
080it's really taking a look at, and so our registration is really on a year-to-year basis, and so that's how it is staffed is based off of course requests of students. Um, is it um, it's very, um, there's a lot of kids there now. Um, more than we've had post pandemic. We finally have hit back to um, that level of growth that we wanted to see. um where we have waiting lists, we are because we do in some con in some areas, we are talking about what to do um potentially to try to still meet the needs of students and their course requests of students because I think that one personally I just don't like the idea of a waiting list for kids. That doesn't feel very good. Um and so we try and work really
081hard to make sure that um all kids that get their requests are somehow creatively scheduled and and to do what we have. Um right now it's very few openings, but we're seeing them start to fill up um uh try one was um of course uh full first and then you know we go to try two or try three. So sometimes if a kid didn't get the course request at the time frame that they thought they were going to, we just can you come try two? We have an opening in the afternoon or in the morning or whatever. So we really do try to work with everybody to make sure that all the students do get the requests um because we staffed based off of those. Thank you. And then I know it's really challenging working
082with the STEP and then integrating these programs into the high schools as well. Is that um is there ways to support that to so that we have those spaces available for the kids who are interested in this or are we continuing to look at those kind of things to make sure that these great opportunities kids can get to that point that by the time they're that junior and senior they can engage in these really exciting programs. We are actually that's um that is something that we've been very focused on doing. I would say that maybe it was more than 10 years ago we were probably quite disconnected in some of our areas um uh in trade and industry occupations in particular and it was due to what I would consider licensing um things with the
083state. And so we worked with them to go through that CTE process. But in doing so, it was okay, how do we get kids to go through our system if they want to continue and they want to take more and they want to do those things. Um, so we actually expanded the programming options and um put new equipment in and new um professional development and curriculum. We did the things at the um high school because that was critical in order to building a strong pathway. So everything that we do now at this point forward, it's really about building that strongest level of a pathway that we can so that they can um if they want just one option or if they maybe want to take multiple options within that, they can continue to stay um
084and keep growing. And then if if STEP is at capacity for any reason for those advanced level courses, we are looking at the five high schools as to okay, where can we do some of this and replicate it um within the five high schools. >> Okay. And then finally, um you talked about the current employability skills. That's great that um the CTE programs are able to help kids with that. Is there something like big picture that we could be doing to make certain that all of our skills or all of our students have those employability skills? >> Um yeah, I I do think so. I think that as you um as we look at there's um when steps started to really assess career and employability skills, we agreed that we also had to teach them,
085right? Because kids don't necessarily know them walking in. Um and and most kids don't, right? They're young and they're they're learning all of that. And so our agreement was is is if we were going to assess those, we really had to teach them. And so we do assess them when we provide parent feedback on what those look like is that maybe um this student is really really um great at this but guess what attendance is a problem and so here's why this is an issue or um you know those are things that um we work with um our kids on and those are all um based off of standards that Minnesota and the frameworks that Minnesota had um determined and so we continue to use those and we've had other schools ask us like well
086what are what is it that you're using because they are implemented. Um it would be would consider of that big wheel that middle of the wheel of what those employability skills are important for any occupation any career whether you are in the music in our case like if you think about it at the high school level it's what whether they're important at the music department or in the family consumer science department they're they're important no matter what. And so um those are um those skills that are demon could be demonstrated anywhere. And then for um superintendent, these are such great things that they're working on. I know that it takes a the entire district working on them. Um so just any comments on how we can make certain that we're working together well to make
087certain that we're supporting kids going on these paths. >> Well, I did have some thank you for asking and I don't know director coach Arco if you were going to save a few comments for last. I'll just jump in. So we were just at um AMSD on Friday, Director Langenthel and I heard from the state demographer about what's the outlook job outlook in the next 10 years. So think of about 300 three and a half million jobs. Uh currently there they predict another 150,000 jobs but our workforce is going to go down by 100,000 workers. Our our working age population is going to decrease. So there's there's this gap that they foresee over the next 10 years about it's it's not growth is as much as replacing current workers in the in the field. So
088I I think of your stories you're telling here. How do we continue to prepare just for openings that are going to come through attrition as much as new new jobs that aren't even created yet? And um that challenge ahead is really what we've talked about in the past, how we're creating that individual competitive advantage for students, how to get an edge, uh ahead of others, you know, getting some unique training and skills. Uh that gives you a little bit of a you know advantage ahead of the industry. And it's technical and professional skills. interpersonal ability to get along and work with others along with the technical side of the work you know are critically important and that baseline as I'm listening to the baseline requirements are continue to increase everything's getting more and more technical
089right so I want to thank all of you for just coming and telling your stories about what that looks like in your particular areas and what you're kind of I mean I kind of heard what you're looking for what what the demand is for those high skill high high wage high demand areas and we want all those things I know our parents parents wanted. When I think of the 34 credits, that's saving parents a lot of money on on that training and credits. So, I think for us as a program, how do we continue to do that? Live within, you know, the resources that we have as we're being challenged by that right now, too. And to me, every dime is an investment. So, we're going to continue to to offer what we can. And
090what I heard Jess say is we we adjust to what the demand is, what the markets, industries are telling us to do differently and responding to how our kids sign up for courses because that enrollment drives our how we allocate resources. So it's a multi- piece puzzle. Um but I I think I would stack up our efforts over the years and what I'm so proud of is our ability to adjust and meet the demands of the industry areas um over time. And I think you just said in the last five years how much things have changed, right? And so what what employers are looking for in our in our students and giving them that pathway forward and maybe different pathways because they're going to change their mind like this our generation of students right now
091is more willing to take those risks. So I mean I think we just got to continue to monitor what what's what's the balance of what we can offer in our comprehensive high schools. what can this do to, you know, augment that knowing we got space demands. We got full buildings and, you know, maybe somewhere down the line we can figure out a way to invest in expansion, but for the time being really maximizing what we can offer at all of our locations. So, thanks for giving me a chance to share all those things. >> Yeah. Um, any other comments or questions from board members? Um, well, I think everybody kind of took the words out of my mouth. This seems like a phenomenal program. I'm kind of blown away how many just classes that you
092guys offer. I I actually have a background as an automotive technician and now I'm in manufacturing. So, this kind of strikes a chord with me. So, there's just everything about this seems awesome. So, thank you guys so much for the presentation and we So, with that, we are nearing our last board agenda item. Item five, the board correspondence and communication. Um members, this is your opportunity to share happenings in your community, report on committee assignments or other items of interest. Does anyone have anything to share? >> Um the superintendent just reminded us again that um we were at AMSD and that you provided the link to that report, the Dr. Susan Brower report on comprehensive overview of the demographic trends and it's a it's a really eyeopening in some spots report. So I encourage everyone
093to take a peek at that and then I'm sure if we have questions we can follow up um with with her at MD as well. Also, you should have received um an opportunity to elect who we would like to support um for your delegate for the delegate assembly and that election um for that position or those positions. Actually, you can choose multiples. Um the deadline is coming up. It's October 15th. And then the next thing is I just had a the privilege to go visit Evergreen Park, visit with the principal along with dust, Dr. August talking about the challenges and opportunities that the school um is seeing and and uplifting some of the things that they are doing around um literacy. Of course, it's a an important priority, but also talking even standing in the
094hallways watching the students come in in the morning and um looking at uh what they're doing for behavior interventions and supporting their children. It was a it was an important meeting and I hope you can get out to your schools too because I that there's uh it really reminds us of why we do what we do. Um because these jobs aren't always um uh the the most uplifting sometimes because we have to grapple with some pretty tough stuff sometimes. And then the last thing I was um uh doing my volunteer work at Monroe around the book fair and what I really started to recognize and appreciate is and I talked to the the media specialists there for quite a while um about the increase in student interest in literacy and how that has changed over
095time. And one of the things that I would encourage all of us once again is to really get out um to see um Monroe is a great place that legislators are coming to see what's going on there with Bridge to Read and I know other schools are doing it but because they were outfront with it. Um I think that they have um some a lot of experienced educators who are delivering that program and I know we have it in other schools but again um I know that uh legislators have already reached out and are interested in coming in. Business partners are have reached out as well. So I would assume you can just touch base with the superintendent. Um, it's really interesting to walk with a legislator and be able to have those conversations about
096the needs while at the same time watching the success in front of them and the their their investment and support of us. So anyway, so that's what I've got. Thanks, >> Director Desane. >> Thank you. Just uh two things quickly. I wanted to give a special shout out to all of our districts five high schools marching bands. They performed this last weekend at the Rebel Classic and Rapids High School took away the first place prize and several of the awards. It was just excellent to watch the performances and all the camaraderie. There was a hot dog eating contest and all sorts of fun things that happened uh at this event. Um and just the growth demonstrated right from the district preview at the beginning of the school year where these five marching bands gave their
097field shows for the first time to to now watching them this past weekend. It's just incredible uh what they've been able to accomplish. And then lastly, um we have been holding our budget reduction discussions in community meetings uh over the past several weeks and our last one is coming up on Wednesday, October 8th at 6 p.m. at Oakview Middle School. So just encourage anybody that still wants a chance for in-person discussion um with district leaders, with board members uh to to come to that or to fill out the survey if if that works better for your schedules. Any other comments from board members? All right. Hearing none, the next two items on our agenda are closed executive sessions. These sessions will take place in the Michael Sullivan room. The first executive session will be closed
098to discuss labor negotiations pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03 to discuss matters with all open groups. The second executive session will be closed for discussion of attorney client privilege information regarding matters related to female athletes United versus Keith Ellison at all uh court file number 27 CV217623. This will be closed pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05 subdivision 3B. I would entertain a motion to move to close session for the aforementioned reasons. Thank you, Director Langenfield. Is there a second? Thank you, Director Adet. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. With six in favor and zero opposed, we will move to the executive session in the Michael Sullivan room and we will take a 5m minute break. The meeting is recessed at 6:47 p.m. [Music] Heat. Heat.
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