Byron School Board Meeting (2/17/26)

001Order school board meeting of Byron Independent School District 531 on February 17th at 6 p.m. >> Start with an attendance, please. >> Yep. Jeremy >> here. >> Lisa >> here. Nadia >> here. >> David >> here. >> Kelly >> here. Carrie >> here. Alicia >> here. >> All right. Please stand if you're able and for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Vision Byron Public Schools is the community of learners committed to making the world a better place. The mission, learn, share, innovate, and inspire. priorities. Personalize learning in the pursuit of academic excellence. Inspire students and staff to develop their character, share their talents, and apply their

002learning. Maintain excellence in resource management. Were there any visitors? None. All right. Uh then any questions on the agenda? Would you entertain a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda as written. Second. First and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. Uh, first up, athletic activities presentation. Mr. Rollins. >> Say it a little quicker then. Or you just going to do it for me? >> I can do it for you if you want. >> That'll work. If you do that, >> totally. [laughter] >> I just do it like this. Is that okay the whole time? >> Just kidding. >> Uh, thanks for having me. We have a couple of our students that came with me today. Um, I know I've seen

003many of you. Um, but I'm Chad Rollson. I don't know if I uh personally have met you too. So, but I'm the activities director here in By Nice to meet you. Uh, so here is a our activity sports recap. Uh, so um, our winter activities are finishing up with some section tournaments right now. Um, gymnastics is done. Um, did very well. They probably won't say that they got runner up, but did very well. Um, all programs are doing very well in impressive fan support, which these two students will talk about in a second there. I'm very happy that um last we looked at our disciplines and our suspensions are very, very low. The fall wasn't great, but the winter has been amazing and let's go spring, right? Uh, credit our coaches and our students for

004doing a great job on that. And also, um, these two people for helping us lead the way. uh doing a great job of supporting Byron school going in a positive way. So this is uh some of our uh numbers we had for this uh winter sports for this year. Um so and I I just thought well I'm going to put them on there. Let's see what from last year. Uh numbers are pretty pretty uh pretty much the same. Um the hockey numbers are up from last year is what I was told. So next slide please feel free to ask any questions. Um so character and leadership. This is one thing I really really really am striving uh and we're doing I think a tremendous job of that as well as uh these two people with

005me today. So um this fall we attended a character and a leadership convention in Cassid. Uh so I asked why is it always in Cass right? So they said well their facility is pretty big and pretty nice. Um so I'm like well performing arts center which has actually got I think 22 more seats than cases. Why don't we host a fire once in a while? So, we're going to do that next classic. >> All right. So, uh but uh these two people came with us. We had a group of 20 students um that came with us uh and we had all these students from the HVAL and then they had an agenda and we had to actually speak about what character and leadership um means to us. So, I tasked them with Biryan. We were

006going to take control of these groups. So, they did a great job with that. Uh so that being said, um at the convention we have Gavin Zava with us. Uh he's going to talk a little bit about what we what we kind of talked about a little bit there. And then um Carly Halder is going to talk to us a little bit about she kind of spearheaded some of our sportsmanship videos that we did in the fall in the winter. We got one coming up in the spring. So yeah. But um yeah, I think I mentioned I mean we learned what like makes a good leader and what doesn't. And um we had some speakers that were there and then we also brainstormed as like like the 20 kids that went with Byron and we

007brainstormed that we can do at our school and then um we also kind of like um met with other uh schools like the kids that they brought and we brainstormed with them and like combined some ideas like what we can do at like uh Byron versus like Stewartville like what our student sections can do like together to make this like a positive environment to like um just be like good people. >> Great. >> Yeah. Um that spot on for what Gavin was saying that's a work in progress. It takes two schools to actually want to kind of do this. So, uh, that's a work in process pro progress. So, um, and we or we click the first one. So, this is the fall sports budget video. I'm going to I'm going to take zero credit

008for this one. So, Carly kind of put this one together in the fall. >> This is black hole. >> Make sure Make sure you participate. Cheers. >> Come on, dude. Do the cheers. >> No sitting allow. >> Make sure to always pick up your trash. Where you going, buddy? >> Make sure you're always respectful during the national anthem. >> Oh, say can you see? >> Also, stay respectful when a player's down. >> [crying] >> Guys, stop talking. >> Make sure to cheer loud for Carson. [laughter] >> That one's done. Perfect. >> All right. So, um I think Carly and some of the student body put that together right away. And I heard that I'm like, "This is a great thing to do." So, we're going to use something like that next year. So, when we

009host it, uh whereas every other year it's going to be a guest speaker. I thought gosh why we pay for guest speaker why don't we just alternate this so we're going to host it this next year so we uh us u 20 students we're putting a agenda together what we can do um in three-part series from 8 to 11:30 to make it better focusing on maybe social media how can we actually make you know work together so that we actually have a good environment right so second one is um what the kids put together for inside the gym so like the black hole This is black part two. Seniors in the front, juniors next, sophomores behind, freshman in the back. >> Make sure if you're a student section leader, you get priority for the committ.

010Please make sure to always dress on theme, but keep it appropriate. >> Respect the flag and sing along to the song. Always remember to make sure you're throwing your trash away. >> Parents, pick up your trash as well. Air ball. >> Are you blind? >> Make sure you respect the refs. They're doing their best. Make sure you're standing unless it's a timeout or halftime. >> So, um, they did a great job on that and then we just kind of try to plaster something we do. everybody. Uh, and I and I kind of told them there was my idea that make sure everybody does it too, not just the kids. So, sometimes we have to educate everybody in the building. So, um, Carly, right, is kind of spearheading a lot of these for us. So, you

011have anything to add about kind of how it goes into putting together? Yeah, pretty much we kind of just brainstormed of what the key elements to our student section is and kind of what makes us stand out from other schools and then tried to in the second one at least involve the parents because I think that's also a big thing for us to know. And then I run like our students page so I have easy access to posting that on social media. Um and yeah, we're going to make a spring one here soon. But yeah, I think the video was kind of self-explanatory. Great. >> Yeah. And when can you explain real quick like the the student page? >> The Yeah, the student page. It's on Instagram. We post it for um themes, times, just

012games of the week. So [snorts] like today was basketball and just posting that and then the theme so people know to wear and whatnot. >> Awesome. I think it's a great idea. They use their platform to get the message across. So uh we have a big game against Steuartville tonight. So, I know they're going to bolt real quick because they got to go. So, thanks for coming. We appreciate it. Uh, so spring and summer, we're putting together agenda once again for next fall's conference. So, um, with our character leadership crew, um, we're have a meeting before school gets out and we're going to come up with an agenda. Seniors will be gone, so we get a new crew in there. So, um, what we want to do, so we just keep paying it forward. So

013you guys can take >> all day. >> Okay. Next one. Uh our character and citiz citizenship award we have uh the second quarter was awarded to Eden Heinger and Hayden Lanssworth. Uh the this goes out and the coaches have to vote on these. um which I'm glad they did because I had no idea we had so many good kids that um I get to they vote on it but I get to share who actually won but uh these two people I don't know if there's any two people that embody what we I think what character leadership mean by they're phenomenal phenomenal people uh good athletes but phenomenal people so uh great morals uh values morals and actions are appreciated and do not go unnoticed so uh they get down and then we buy them some

014food then invite some of their buddies as long as they have the same oils and they get to go eat in the commons and I just get to visit with them and you know how's it going and so forth. But uh reward them for that. They get this nice little plaque and it's pretty I think it's a really cool thing. So uh next slide uh our fine arts and yearly activities. So those are our numbers that we have this year. Um you can see if you look at the uh anywhere from the play down to the uh theater ball and the spring um robotics that is kind of revolving because they kind of seem like I don't I don't really understand how the numbers they fluctuate like crazy. So they have a lot coming in.

015It's a pretty big theme. Um so from what I saw from last year I was told it's pretty much the same excluding we think robotics is going up quite a bit. So, uh, next slide. Uh, our one act play, the drum department one act play competed in the unexpected passenger at the section 1A meet on Thursday. Uh, the crew did not advance to the next level but, uh, did very well. Um, so, uh, we expect big things from them. So, next one, um, the school of rock, the spring musical, if you've been at any activities, they're the kids are doing a great job of put of promoting this. Uh the drama department will present their spring musical, School of Rock, that's coming up. Um they also are going to do a lot of activities with

016it. So beforehand, uh as well as afterwards, they're going to have a little decompression things with uh um some games and stuff for the kids. So we've allowed them to hang in there till like 2 in the morning. They wanted four like no two's fine. So, uh, long as they have a lot of, uh, parent volunteers to make sure that we don't put stuff on the gym floor and we want to make sure that we have everything supervised. Next one, please. Uh, facilities here. So, some cool things that are happening there. Um, this guy we Scott, he's we got a new goal post coming up in the spring free of charge, which is kind of cool. We don't have to pay anything. We love that stuff. Um, so, uh, those supposed to be in the

017summer. How that worked is the they want to do a a demo, a test on some of our goalpost. uh this company because we have a really windy area and I'm like okay uh does it affect practices and so forth which it didn't um but they they said the trade-off is if these things would work out we'll in your competition field we'll put brand new ones up for you so brand new is that free yeah perfect so we did that so they'll be coming up doing that um oh a couple months ago working with Jim Dole we had some problem with rentals as far as our gym clock so uh was walk we went around and We um made sure we did little videos, gave them the gin so they anybody that rents our facilities

018know kind of how to use those. We're going to put the QR codes on there too. >> Seems to kind of one of the problems we think that some people when they're renting they're it's like when we get them back or they're like well it didn't work. I'm like it works for us and it works for you but they might be using different courts and so we want we just put the number with how they're supposed to be used. um just make it easier for him. So uh process going right now one of the biggest things that we're doing is my student assistant we're going through all our trophy cases. We don't have any space anymore for all our trophies. It's a good thing we don't have enough space. So [clears throat] with our student

019assistants what we're doing is we've taken photos of everything down all the high school all the trophies. Okay. Um and now then in the spring we're going to have the coaches. you need to clean mode except for your big events like your section championships or state championships, right? It's it's just there's so much to look at. You can't just see anything. So like when you walk in the building, you could probably see we put two lights in the brand new trophy cases. So we clean those out. So it's just what happened last year and then what's happening this year. So we want that this year one to fill up a little bit more. Right. That's I think that's the eye attraction. All the other ones um in the spring they're going to clean them out.

020Uh, and then the idea is to have that one-stop shop. So when you hit that wall of fame board, what I talked to Jen Heg would love to have it is like for me like my golf website, just go click on it. Whatever I put on there goes right on that. And anybody wants to see anything any year because we don't want them to lose the photos. They hit them like there it is, right? We just have to clean up some space. We just don't have enough space in our building anymore. So, uh, meeting with a youth board member. So, we got a plan. Um, this of course me new leaders here. So, we had so many fields that didn't have clocks and I didn't know why we didn't have clocks. So, got a good

021grasp on that. So, working with the youth board, I want all of our fields to have a clock. I only have one simple goal and that is I want Byron to be the best at everything. We have to have these things. So, um, >> one simple goal. >> Yeah. Well, you got to have the village to do it. you know, they have the right people and I think that they have the same vision and um that that's the plan. I just want people come over here to go, "Wow, you have that?" I'm like, "Yeah, don't know why you don't have that." [laughter] But there's we have a lot of people that can help out. They just we just need to have a plan of what we want to do. So, um yeah, uh our high

022school Jimmy, that's the biggest thing that's showing the wear and tear on there. And that's kind of my big thing. I'm always watching as a PE teacher. I was looking at the floor. Now in this role, um that's starting to show a lot of wear and tear. So that's probably the next big thing that we probably have to get looking at. Um our ETSs, ETSs are um training, our athletes train with their ETSs. They come into our the only facility in Southeast Minnesota where they come in and train our athletes. Uh so um we work with them and they have this big expansion going on. I don't know if anybody heard the chip shots is going but they're going in there. Uh and they've asked us would you like our old which is really nice

023equipment. I'm like interesting. Yes. So we're working on ways to make that better. I want that to be a a better looking facility where we have a game people can look in there with a not a big light but a small light going, "Wow, that's a pretty nice weight room." Um so that's the goal and they're going to help facilitate and fund that for us. Uh, I just have to make sure all the pieces involved with our PE teachers and so forth are what uh pace with it. It just it needs to be cleaned up. It's years and years of pieces and pieces and put together and our sport programs are doing amazing. Let's make sure our training facilities look the same thing. So, um, uh, cool thing. We have wind screens that we're putting

024out for our baseball. I think baseball and softball right now are the ones that need to get we need to get rolling with some of the stuff they got. So, we do have these wind screens, yardage signs, um that I didn't know we did, but we've had them for a couple years. So, I talked to a couple the boys, the the custodians. So, we're going to put those things up for our baseball coaches so that it will help uh in our baseball softball games. Uh and then yardage sides because they don't have those things up yet for, you know, I don't not sure why, but that's what we're going to do. So, so questions on any of those? Anybody? >> Awesome. Go ahead. Just the ETSs wrapping. Are they paying us? >> It cost buyer

025zero. I'm a pretty good salesman. >> But are they Oh, because it's kind of that's like advertising for them, right? If we're letting them wrap our weight room. So, is >> is the benefit to us that they're giving us that equipment? >> Yep. Okay. >> We we have a contract with ETSs to be the our kids can't >> they can after hours go workout with anybody they want, right? >> But they come into us, right? >> So, we have a contract with them. Um, so I just thought, let's promote them more because if they're coming into our building, right? And I love the idea of cleaning up our weight room a little bit more, right? >> Um, and it cost us zero to do that. [clears throat] But the kids can go anywhere they want

026after schools, allow their go, but in in um during the school year during the 8 to 5, yeah, we're an ETS school. So, okay. And the kids get some, I think, some nice little perks with that, too. But they approached that uh to me and I'm like, why not? I mean, what's it going to cost us? And they go, "Well, how about if we take care of that?" I'm like, like I like where that sounds. So, uh they were just uh thinking about wrapping the doors a little bit and then putting some shields in there. And we need a little TLC in there anyway. Like our back wall, we have to pull that some of that um wrapping off and we have to paint back there a little bit. You know, the the weight just

027get from the kids get knocked on the walls. It's chippy. So, you know, I just want it to look a little bit nicer and it's it's we haven't had um I think any of this for a while. Uh and then I have a working with I have a student assistant that we need a cleaning routine on there. Um so, as much as we think some people should go on there, no, I think our kids can help out in that. So, uh we have a fiveday plan to it's it's one thing is to get it nice, but they have to take care of it. That's with anything. We just got to take care of it. So, uh I think people can pitch it on that. So, any other questions on that? Um, mid-season evaluations. Uh, I

028always told myself, if I got this job, what would I do? What I didn't what or what didn't I like? I mean, I don't think there's ways that we protect our coaches or help our coaches. So, I al thought, why don't we do something a mid? So, like if if way to the end when maybe this this firestorm is getting big with some of our parents and kids. So what I did is I have a a digital form. So I kind of eliminate paperwork. So the coaches have to do some digital paperwork for me and Christine, my assistant. They come in and set up a time. They meet with me. They fill out this uh evaluation, pre-evaluation. Uh we talk about the goals that they're setting for themselves, not for their players, for themselves. And

029then I also talk about my big thing is like, you know, coaching for relationships. That's my number one why, my it, you know, if you don't have a rapport with kids, you can't coach kids. You can, but you're not coaching kids. They're not going to hear you. They're not going to listen to you. Uh, so if you can, if if you can care about them more so, not as an athlete, I think you can coach them, right? And at the end of the year, I to me, I'd rather have them invite me to when they graduate weddings or something like that as opposed to uh how many games do you want? I mean, they're going to be remember bus rides and what you meant to them. So, uh, so now what I do is a

030mid-season evaluation where, uh, I tell the coaches, you don't get to know who they who they are. I pick five kids, random kids, right? They come and they they sit down and I have a QR code QR code and I tell them, I have your phones, right? No talking. Take out this little evaluation. So, they take it out and they put their phones away and I ask them as a group, how's it going? This is your time, right? they have anything anything they want to tell me awesome. If not, have a great day. We do it during advisory period so it doesn't doesn't get them out of class. Uh and then I send it to parents. Uh you get the same one, but I don't try to give it to the parents of the same

031kids because I want like 10 for sure 10 different perspectives. I think I had about 178 now of these evaluations and I've read every one of them. Uh because I'm looking for patterns. I tell that to the coaches too when I meet them. Uh it's a one, two, three, and four, right? We love the fours. We love the threes. We'll take the twos, the ones. So, I'm looking for ones. I call that a flag. And what that means is if I have a lot, if you have a few flags, you're going to it's not going to be perfect, but I'm looking for patterns. And if there's a whole bunch of them, then I So, I tell the coaches that I'm just going to talk to like here's what's brewing, right? We might need to actually

032um um check what's going on because if we don't gauge what's going on by the end of the year, it's coming. >> So, uh and that I think has been good. I think parents like it. I think um I know I would like it, but I always tell myself be the person you want to work for. Would I like that? Yes, I would. I want to know, right? I don't tell the coaches who submitted it. I don't tell what player because you don't need to know that. You just need to know the content and I only share with them if if it's something big, if it's something bad. I think that's brilliant. So, that seems to be working pretty good. Uh then we did a postseason one also that we share with everybody, but the

033mid one I think is working pretty good. So, uh, I've had many ads ask me about this one, but just something I thought I'd do. Like, that's a great idea. Try it. So, um, I think it works pretty good. So, next one. Uh, spring registration's open on February 3rd. Looking for solid participation hunters. Right now, it's packed. I think everybody likes that sunshine. They, you know, our spring sports hopefully, uh, uh, the weather's nice. I've been told they got through the fall and I'm like, that's the scoreboard boy. We can get through the fall. Yes. All right. Then we go then we go to the winter and the winter is it's great. It's four walls like well we have a lot more passionate people in the winter [laughter] and now we'll see what the spring

034looks like. Right. So but uh I start telling the coaches too. I said just we have we have a very passionate fan base and there's nothing wrong with that. We just got to keep in crowd. So so we're looking for warmer temperatures. Uh next one. Uh tons of college signings. Um, we had the first time I've ever heard of. We actually had a college sign of about 10 football players, but now it's up to, I think, 11 that have signed football this year. Credit Coach Holler and his staff do a great job. But these are all of our college signings. We try to plaster that on social media to give the kids a great experience. Um, because I think they, you know, it's a lot of hard work that they put into it. So, we

035want to give them all the experience we can. The one on the right is like we had we had all the kids at one time lined up and sign at the same time. So it's kind of a neat thing for them. So >> yeah. Uh next slide. Uh uh current state participants. Uh wrestling. We have two females Katie Matty Mallerie and Katie Augenstein. Uh they qualified for the wrestling uh state tournament which is next week. Boys are happening this weekend. Um, and then our gymnast, they're doing a great job of looking happy, but they were it was it was an emotional day for they got beat by 7. It's so close. Uh, but Nor Brown, Olivia Bryan, and Sydney Forner, uh, all qualified. Those three young ladies as well as the main five, they're on

036varsity feet, cannot drive a car. They're pretty young. So, great great group of kids, though. So, uh, they, uh, the gymnast, they compete at six o'clock on Saturday in the state event. So, next one. And then the big one we had this morning was our pep fest for our state hockey team. Uh, so they're going for back-to-back state championships. Um, they are in the four five game uh this year against Proctor Hermantown. That's at one o'clock tomorrow. Um that I will tell you that's this is the one thing is on my bucket list trying to galvanize their communities. Um I don't know why but in the past it's Byron Cast and we've been segregated. We just have um they have a mini pepfest over there um that wasn't attended by any Byron kids. It was

037last minute. >> I said I'm going. I don't care. We're Byron. So >> I walk right in the middle floor and I'm like >> we got to do this. But we we hosted this morning and the girls they all came there. I got to visit with a lot of the cast and girls. Uh and it was very well attended this morning. It went great. I thought uh went to all the buildings that and it was really nice because the the the cast and girls said thanks. We really never had a pep fest for us. We have nothing this official. So So between that and talking to the ad and the culture of cab of Dodge County like you got to keep us involved more. We're both we're together. We may not be anywhere else, but

038for hockey, we are one school. So, we got to remember that because the kids the kids are doing a great job. So, that's it. Any questions for me? It's going great. I love it. I love the kids. The kids are visiting with me. It's uh you know, I know my my arrows are coming, the flames are coming, but uh right now, knock on wood, it's going great. And uh hope for a good spring season. So, um, I'm going to bolt also. We have six o'clock 7 o'clock game against Stewie. So, that feels great. So, >> yeah. >> Any questions? >> One question. >> Yes. >> Um, and thank you for the presentation. Great. I'm great to see all the kids have. >> Um, I have personal bias. I have three daughters. So, when I look

039at numbers of any sports, I compare boys versus girls. Um, and in the table there, I think inside too where there were boys teams, girls teams, there are more boys participating in sports quite considerably. Is there is it just because it's the winter sports or is it persistent across the year? >> Uh it's a cor for for whatever reason we don't have a lot of girls in a lot of sports anymore. I don't know why. That's a great that's a great question but we just don't. Is it because the sports are more traditionally male? >> Oh, I I don't want to >> meaning the sports that we have. Sorry. The sports that we have are traditional like basketball, right? That's >> right. Right. But I'm I'm saying that again very personal perspective. I'm not doing

040all here. But um I'm told I'm not going to get my girls into basketball because they will growing even taller than they already could be. So no, this is this is a fact. So like from like looking well meaning when um selecting a sport, right, where you would want to spend a lot of time and get to like maybe a level um training. Do we have a good mix of sports that would be attractive to girls to participate more to kind of have them engaged more? >> Um that's a great question. I I I don't know if [clears throat] we do or don't. Um, I guess that's something I could probably research because >> I would say especially in our conference, we have just as much if not more than other schools, >> right? But

041a lot of it's like the offerings, you know, >> what they can can do. It doesn't mean that um we can't offer more, but um I will tell you that the biggest thing I've learned this fall is um Title N is not across the board. >> If you look at your numbers, it's it's percentages of all your programs. That's how they call it equitable. And it's and it's not it doesn't it really pushes title N pushes it's it's even a reverse you might say that like a a male can't play a female soul activity but a female could play male so I was really open my eyes like so it's not really title n it's a percentage that's equitable across the whole district so you to me you can't just look a winter sport and

042say, "Well, that's not there." You got to look at the whole >> off. And yeah, and that exactly was my first question. Maybe this is just the because it's winter sports that's it mixes this way. Maybe like if you look across it's it's different. I don't know. >> Yeah. If you look I mean if you were to go to like um we have a tremendous amount of kids that go for volleyball and girls soccer. >> I mean that that's tremendous amount. And and if you think compare it to football, which has a lot more kids that play, I would say that's very equitable just because of the the nature of the sport. Um because we have I think we have a bunch of kids that play football, but um when you look at the in

043the HVL, we have way more kids that are playing soccer than any other program. Okay. >> So that's a huge >> Yeah. >> So >> uh why could be a success, [clears throat] it could be the coaching, I don't know. Um, volleyball, we've, you know, had just a a tremendous amount of kids from youth on up that play, you know, a ton of those. So, um, uh, I would put our track numbers in the spring, >> against any other school, how many we have. So, it could be just some of the sports that we do have. Um, but, uh, I know those for sure are huge. >> Right. >> I I would add one other thing. um that the other part that's kind of unique about I shouldn't say unique but a thing to also

044consider about sports across all of the seasons is you need to have places that you play against. And so like the reason to belong to the state high school league is that the way that it's organized, schools generally trend with the sports of those people that are in their conference or their section. And so, you know, for example, if you look at hockey on this one, you know, if you were to travel between 60 and 90 miles north, those two numbers would be very different all of a sudden because of kind of what the what the history of it is. Um, and sometimes that's at the cost of like wrestling, like you know, down here in section one, we're we're generally considered a wrestling section um and a basketball section as it relates to and

045it's just what the history has been, you know, and in some of those cases, it's not necessarily a function of schools are or aren't offering things, but it's more just a function of what's happened in the past. Um, and also kind of like especially the hockey part is also a culture thing, right? Where >> hockeyy's >> not not as popular down here, but once you get north of the Twin Cities, it's >> I would say it is life. >> Is getting bigger and bigger. like on in the when we did the um tour of all the buildings and I was sat visiting with these casting girls and I was in shock because our kids would say you know who world they how to get these people to transfer in. So as the captains Blooming Prairie

046um Pine Island and um Payfield that's the three cast and captains. So I would I said I I wonder what your your family tree for your team looks like where you started from. >> So to Nate's point, I I think I I was told this like we just got to figure out how to get them here instead of castle playing hockey, >> right? >> But but I said that's not me. I think I can promote this more. They can see us, >> right? >> That I don't think a lot of people think, well, they're housed in in um Cassin, so you got to go. You don't, you know, we have one girl, a senior girl that came from Holy Families two years ago. She's a great kid. Uh, and I mean I guess I'm a

047little biased. I'm like our academic programs goes about better than some. Um, so I would say uh, you know, we just we just people need to know that we have that we are this co-op too, right? We don't have to be over there, you know. Um, doesn't mean I mean >> it's fine, but uh, I think that's part of it too. So, but yeah, geography. You go up north and it's it's crazy numbers for hockey, but they don't have as many offerings because of >> geography, too. So, but I'm I have no I have kids like the big one they pushed and said like we want girls flag football. >> So, I had these girls talking to me. I'm like okay right this is this is this year. >> I'm like well we have the

048power we have the power yet right >> they gave me this one use this one all the time. So it is tough you know but you have to find schools that want to to host it which you know that's the big thing. A lot of them don't want to because look at our hockey team when we're double A. our girls, we're going up to the cities. We can't compete because we're using enrollment from five different schools now. We're two schools and we're an A. We're a powerhouse, >> right? >> You know, so what does that mean? We don't want anybody else to go up with us. So it's that's the it's really difficult for to find that and like um you might say in you know your point I think you're alluding to tennis they

049you know they want to but nobody if they have numbers they don't want to take another school because then you got to take their home to the other school. we just don't want to do that but it doesn't mean that it it can't happen but um there's a lot of factors that have to come play for it. So >> and I wasn't thinking that specifically um I just wanted to make sure that we have we look at the sports participation in general and if there is you know considerably fewer girls participating when we think about programs from a perspective of what would be attractive to girls. >> Sure. If we were not when we have to submit our state reports, they would tell us for not. If we're not compliant or not, >> they would

050tell us we're not. And it's not like 500 to 500 just got to be a percentage that's equal percentage. So it would >> So we have to submit our numbers every year to the state, too. So >> And is girls wrestling has that really taken off? I know it hasn't, but in every other school, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a big one. Um and our wrestling coaches, you know, how do we promote this a little bit more? That is a big thing. Um I will an example like for whatever reason Cassm they don't have the kids I've told this what I was told they they don't like him the same facility as the boys I think this is kind of wrong but so they have their own site their own senator well is

051that good or bad maybe it's good I don't know um but um I think it's you got to have first of all a vision of what your program has too you got to have a director right that actually also has that same vision I'm not talking about tomorrow but make a three or five year plan, right? Uh and then especially for ladies, they they'll buy into that coach. That coach needs to do the whole program, the whole gamut, you'll get more kids. The coaches that stick around. They're sustainable for the kids. There's always the programs over there that are doing the best, especially with numbers, because they're they're locked in. >> They're they're visionary. They're looking three or five years in advance. So, but yeah, um I would say, you know, our wrestling coach always

052is looking at how many numbers that we have and what can we do to get more kids in in, you know, summer activities, programs. Uh and I've just told myself now, I've coached girls golf for 25 years here, but 36 years, and I've learned three things about that's going to help you. One, I don't understand them. Two, I am not female. Three, let them make decisions, right? >> And part of it is like they like to shop. Let them do their uniforms. Let them do stuff like that. Give them a say. You have the ultimate say, but they need a seat at the table, right? Uh and if you can do something like that, if they can, you know, that tells you that you bought into them, I think they'll want to be with you

053because they know that you care about them, right? And it's from especially from a male perspective with females, you have to they have to be bought into them. It's not just like this is what we do. I'm like that Bobby Knight philosophy is old school, right? You got to adapt or die nowadays. So, uh, and that's why I tell all the coaches, I mean, like, you know, they have to give me an exter, you know, coaching relationships. What does that mean to you? How can you do that? And it all goes back to you kids that way, too. So, uh, I mean, I've coached Gears Golf here and, you know, for years, and that's what I do. I just, you guys want to do the order forms? Yep. Go ahead. Clothing? Yep. Mine doesn't fit

054me. It's too big here. So, that's just that just those things are not they're very important to the kids, not to me. So you got to understand that, you know, for the kids you're working with, if you don't think it's a big deal, it is to them. That means it's got to be a big deal for you because they'll see right through that if you don't, right? And that's maybe those other little things that we we won't get. You know, it's a case in point. I was just talking to our girls basketball coach. I'm like, Ben, you got to get down to those junior highs. I'm like, no, no, you've seen your C squad. >> But I said, if you want to sustain those numbers, they got to see you down there. They don't see

055you down there. I love that when the varsity co I have a middle schooler when the varsity coaches show up they all you can just see they're like nudging each other >> I have I have a list of things I want to do for next year. One is like every team right every fall, winter, spring is you're going to pick a date and you're going to go watch another team, right? I mean we have ice hockey players and gymnasts that I bet people don't realize that I put them their ability against most anybody. That's amazing what they do. Like those gyms like I couldn't coach anything because it's dangerous. Everything's dangerous. But it is amazing what they do. So let's get the girls basketball team, the whole team bonding. You're going to watch gymnastic one

056night. >> Just it's a cross. I think it's important for them to do that. Uh and just take a practice out and because really what what are we doing? >> Let's go. Let's go support them because like you said when when they the teacher appreciations or whatever, they know that it's a big deal for them, right? So let's get them more involved with that because that's to me is coaching for relationships. So >> appreciate you Chadw >> you want to go with that >> could be fun. [laughter] So, thank you for having >> All right, on to the superintendent report. >> Open. Thanks. >> Okay. Um, couple highlights. Um, first off, I've been uh trying to think of creative ways um to address subbing. Um, as I mentioned, like even before the pandemic, subbing kind

057of started to become an issue across districts. Um, the pandemic really kind of put a tail spin and sunk a ship on a lot of subbing fronts >> and I don't think we've ever recovered since then. And part of the issue go it goes beyond like a bottom line. But as teachers and school staff are subbing for each other, that takes them away from other things. So like when a teacher is subbing for another teacher during their prep, that means that's time that they aren't spending getting ready for their students um assessing, you know, all the other things that happen during a prep period. And I think every once in a while it works out okay. But right now what's happening especially during the springtimes is um the district depends on our staff to the

058teaching staff especially to to use large amounts of their prep AC all over the the spring to cover for each other. Um, and uh, Sean was joking with me earlier tonight that, you know, if we found a way to fix this, we could go on the road and make a lot of money. >> So, I I and I recognize I mean, as much as I would really love to find a um, you know, just a an antidote that just fixes this, it I'm also trying to be realistic and that that that sort of situation probably doesn't exist. But I also um I also think it's worth the effort to see even if we can't wholesale fix it, can we at least improve the situation? So um I have been I have been trying to put

059feelers out to try and find new ways to bring people in to sub. Um and so if on your social media accounts or your spheres of influence, if there are people who are wanting to get involved in the community, um this is a really great way to do it. It's not uh nobody's going to get rich doing this, of course, but it is a it is a good way to support your school um and give back uh to a certain extent. You you do get a little bit of money out of it. So, you could take your loved one out for a romantic dinner or spend it on yourself. I don't care. Um, but this is a thing that I it's it's been on my mind pretty significantly for the past month and I don't

060I don't exactly know how to how to resolve it or or improve it, but um but I want to keep exploring that. So, >> what's that? >> That's your social media competitor. >> Yeah. So, um the next one that I wanted to highlight was uh the um the session at the capital. Um if I remember right, I think it started today. Um and so this isn't necessarily a full budget year. It's what they call a bonding year. And um I think even if it was a full budget year, there's not really any money to put anything towards anyways. So there probably isn't going to be a lot of action. However, this is a good time to um let our representatives know some of the things that are on our mind. Um and so we've talked

061a little bit about efforts um and advocacy for that. Um today I was in Rochester for some meetings with um MSBA's advocacy team. Um the superintendent's advocacy team and then also the there's another team um called uh MEA which stands for the Minnesota Rural Educators Association. We are not part of that group yet. Um but they advocate for greater Minnesota um and talk a lot about um in the budget committee we're talking about how there are some distinct differences between how large school districts and smaller school districts like ours are funded and MEA is generally considered the voice of these smaller districts. Um and so they these advocacy teams provide some interesting insight into some of these functions of the formulas and the funding mechanisms and they are often times the ones that find how

062there are these weird paradoxes that exist and they bring those to our uh you know we might not exactly understand how all these formulas fit together but they have teams of people that do and then they bring them to light to our attention and then we then turn around and um advocate at the capital for some of those things. So, um, beyond that, I we are going to talk a little bit later about the strategic plan and profile graduates. So, that's what I'll highlight for my report. >> Why are there issues with SAS especially in the springtime? >> The springtime, the subs because uh in the fall the teachers are all subbing for each other. And then one of the ways that they're compensated for subbing for each other is time off. And so then

063they they turn around and in the spring. Yeah. So that's the other part of uh it's it's very common in the teaching pool that especially when you get a little advanced um in your years of service, it's better to take the time instead of the money. Um, and so people are cashing in their time in the spring. So that's >> And why why did we switch from um the teachers on the >> teachers on call >> on call to Kelly? >> Kelly bought out teachers on call. Yeah, >> that's >> Yeah, good questions. Any other ones? >> All right. uh onto annual compliance. >> Okay. So, um because we have more than 20 Native American students in our school district, we're um we're expected to complete an annual compliance and essentially um in a perfect

064setup, there's a uh what they call an American Indian parent advisory council which is comprised of parents and guardians of native students. And these individuals meet together and they work with me to evaluate the programs of the school district. And then they vote together to either concur that Byron public schools is providing adequate service and support for native students or that they do not concur or vote of non-concurrence. Um, in our case, uh, despite a lot of energy and effort on my part, I could not collect a set of parents and guardians of Native American students. Um, I did have one of the most interesting conversations I've had in my life with one of them. >> Um, and he is, uh, he has recently moved here from Alaska and he was raised on an island

065called St. George Island, which is right in the middle of the Beering Strait between Russia and Alaska. And it was just I could have talked to that guy for two hours. It was so interesting. But >> um he has agreed to help me try and um rally some people so that we I said if you feel comfortable you can be my apac. You and I can be it. And I was like that is us literally just trying to check a box and maneuver through a hoop. And I don't love doing those sorts of things. And he was of a similar mindset. So um because we don't have a functioning APAC um there is there has not been a vote of concurrence or non-concurrence. And so what ends up happening here is that we select that

066the district school or cooperative does not have an APAC. Um there is not any um there aren't any consequences for this beyond the fact that the school administration commits to try and form an AP pack for next year. So, um there isn't uh there isn't really action that you end up taking beyond I would just ask David to um to sign with me on there. Um and then we just send this uh to MDE and the Office of Native American Education. >> So, I'm happy to stand for any or respond to any questions or concerns that you might have for that. >> Do you know if this was filled out last year? Yes, it was and submitted >> and were we compliant? >> Yes, there was an APAC and they did they had a vote

067of concurrence there. >> Correct. >> So, it's not that we check that box that we understand that we need to and then >> correct. Yeah. Um the next level of this is once you get to 25 native students in your district, you do end up receiving um some aid money. Um, and the base aid is, um, I can't remember if it's 20 or $40,000. Um, and at Howard Lake, we had, um, that many students. Um, it is super, it is the most restricted amount of money I've ever seen in my life. Um, it can only be used for native students. So, you can't you it's not like you do a field trip to the sugar bush for all the first grade students. it it is only to be used for your native students period. Um,

068and that's it. And so it's sometimes very hard to find. Well, we weren't able to spend any of it. >> I was going to say, what do you what do you do? Buy clothes. >> I mean, budget. Well, we we had explored we we did have an AP pack and we explored things like do we buy books, you know, that are written in in native tongues or whatever, but we could only like you couldn't even put those in the library of the school. Like it could it can only be that stuff can only be accessed by the native students. And so we spent a lot of time trying to think through how could we do this? And then ultimately the AP pack was just like well if the state of Minnesota doesn't want us to

069spend the money, they're making it really easy to not spend the money. So, um, but anyway, I also think like once you reach a certain threshold, like imagine if you were more in like a, you know, closer to a reservation of some sort or had a large native population. You know, I was I was thinking about Rochester where we had a couple of native liaison and they would come, you know, come through the school on the regular, meet with native students and make sure that they're doing okay and be kind of another way of support. Anyway, it's kind of I can appreciate it's a little wonky if you aren't quite at that level. So, okay, >> awesome. Moving on to the finance update. >> Okay, so we'll start with revenues here. Um, everything is actually

070trending very positively, tracking about the way that we expect it to given how uh property taxes go and how the state of Minnesota provides. We need to go up a little bit. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Um, and given how the uh state sends out their state aids, um, I do want to draw attention to the miscellaneous local revenues number there that's negative. That's actually a number that it says $2,000. We really don't budget for that because that's where all [snorts] of like our fundraising accounts are housed. Those are separate out into an assigned fund. So, they don't affect our unassigned fund balance at all. So, we don't really budget for those. those are where those expenditures are coming right out of there as well and um a lot of that is just groups

071utilizing those dollars that they've accumulated over the years. So um as far as our revenues go though looking really really good. As we [clears throat] look at our expenditures you know we're at just under 46% through the year. Again, that's right in line with where we expect us to be. Um, actually, maybe even a little bit behind, which is fine. I'd rather be behind on our expenditures. Um, we'll always be keeping an eye on our special education budget and how that's going. Um, one thing that I do want to draw attention to is the expenditures by object. um where we look at our salaries, we're at 40% and our uh benefits at 48% being those are our again our highest costs for schools. Um typically we want our salaries to be in the low to

072mid 40% at this point in the year and then our our benefits to be just a little bit higher than that. Um, this is of course through January 31st. Our retro payments for our teachers, Perez, and all of our hourly staff, basically everybody except for our directors, managers, and principles is all is all done already. That was done in February. I'm not patient sometimes, so I know what those retro payments were, so I threw those in there. We add the retro payments in, our salaries go up to 42%. and our benefits go up to 50.9. So, still well within the expected range there. So, that tells me that what we did when we settled with all of those groups is appropriate and right in line with what they should have been. So, >> always nice

073to have that reassurance. >> It's It's always good when you make that retro payment and you're like, >> did not destroy the budget. So that was a credit as much to the negotiating team and the groups that we met with and we worked with. So was a very much a team effort. So right now we're we're sitting really really good. So >> questions. Perfect. All right, moving on to old or unfinished business. Do we have any? >> Okay, new business. Action on resolution directing the administration to make recommendations for reductions in programs and positions and reasons there. [snorts] >> Okay. Um this is a resolution that um the school board takes or adopts, approves, whatever word you want to fix to it on a yearly basis. And this is where you grant myself and the

074school administration authority to um make decisions um for the benefit of the district stability and financial future. Um, this is not uh this is not a thing that is specific. Um, but like I said before, this is a year-over-year. You're always going to do this. Um, uh, moving forward, we're going to we the intent is for us to do this as part of our January organizational meeting. Um, just so that it's it's kind of in its adequate place. Um, and I just, uh, from our side, just the timing of it is just a little bit off, but it's not unusual for districts to pass this all over the place during the year. Um, just because this is what all districts do. So, at this point, I just want to highlight like this isn't a, you

075know, storm clouds on the horizon thing, nothing like that. This is just the normal part of board operations. So, >> all right. Any questions? >> You stole my thought. >> I'm [laughter] sorry. >> I was gonna say >> I don't like to make a motion before making sure that everyone's questions. [snorts] [clears throat] >> Yeah, but somebody's got to make a motion. >> I heard a motion. >> Did you make the motion? >> Jeremy made a motion. Motion to approve directing the administration to make recommendations for reduction in the program and positions and reasons thereof as presented. >> Motion and a second. Roll call, please. >> Yeah. So, um Jeremy, >> I >> Lisa, >> I >> David, >> I >> Nadia, >> hi. >> Alicia, >> hi. >> Kelly, >> I we don't have

076to read it. >> Up to you if you want to as a board. You don't have to. >> That was my question, but >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I got excited. >> It's all right. It's all right. It's approved. So, >> everyone comfortable not >> read it like three times. >> Motion passes. Moving on to the strategic plan. >> Okay. So, um, [clears throat] the past few weeks I've, uh, I've really been trying to delve into what should happen with the strategic plan, recognizing that it's one of it's a critical part of one of my goals. And um I got to admit when uh when I was walking into the school district not really knowing too much um it's a pretty common practice for superintendents to say hey we're going to I'm going to plot a

077strategic direction and that's that's pretty common for all of us to use. And the thing that I'm most familiar with is starting a strategic plan from nothing. Because if you I mean, if you look at our at our website, there is a couple random mentions of strategic planning, but there's not a lot of the characteristic ideas that you'd like to see, you know, like, hey, in year one, this is what we're working on, or year two, this is how it's going to roll, or this is what we're trying to accomplish. Um, and so my knee-jerk reaction was, well, we're going to end up constructing a strategic plan from square one. And that was part of what we also talked about during the referendum campaigning is like, hey, we're coming to you to ask for money

078now, and then we're going to come to you and ask for what is the what does the course forward look like? um you know regardless of the referendum results um in talking with leadership and then also some um some selected staff members which I would argue are staff leaders they might not necessarily carry like the title of I'm a staff leader but I know that they're generally thought of as people who have a have an influential voice. Um, I keep on coming back to the profile of a graduate and how like the district invested a lot of effort into that. And I've been um a lot of times when you invest effort into a strategic thought or or form [snorts] like that, it's really easy for the superintendent and the school board to get super

079excited about it. And we talk about it all the time. It's a it's very uncommon to see anybody underneath the school board and the superintendent be all that excited about it. Um that is not the case here. Um and I I would go so far as to say I'm not saying like the whole world is on fire of Byron about the profile of a graduate, but I would say um the leadership team specifically is nearly united in how important this is and what it means to them. and a shocking number of teachers um more so than I've seen also I'm not even gonna say it's a majority of them but it's enough of them to where I think it unwise to cast it aside um because it's really hard to get and this is as

080a former social studies teacher it's uh specifically social studies teachers to to climb on and join on to an effort like this. Anyway, all of this is to provide context for what I thought we should do for a strategic plan, namely construct from ground zero and go out to the community and ask a million questions and host listening sessions and do surveys and collect what they want to hear or collect what they want to see and then try and envision with a strategic community group. Pick apart all this data and build something brand new. Um, I think that's unwise. Um, because I think I think we have a lot of a lot of buy into this profile of a graduate. And I'm not saying that it couldn't fit into some of that effort. But I

081would also argue that the effort, the point of involving all these people and getting kind of the runup to this is to get people excited about a new strategic direction and what this ends up looking like. And the result of all that, I brought up my my former district. Um, it feels like I'm bringing up like an ex-girlfriend or something, so I'm sorry if this is awkward. >> No, >> but for us, [laughter] >> okay, thanks for saying that. >> But like this is what a strate This is what our strategic plan looked like when we built it from the ground up. We were like, "Hey, this is going to be a fiveyear thing." We build core values which is I would argue we have belief statements, mission, vision, and then these focus areas, right?

082Um, and then we had these these four goals. Well, I mean really two of the goals were the same, so it's four goals even though it says five. And the part that so we did this in my first year at Howard Lake and we really spent a lot of time in the summer trying to like get staff revved up about this and this is cool and this is going to guide our work and this is going to be part of our culture. But that is the hardest part of this is getting the teachers and the paras and the staff like the superintendent, the board love this thing, right? But the principles and everybody below us, I mean they they were compliant, >> which for a thing like this, you need we need beyond compliance, right?

083So anyway, the part that I'm trying to arrive at very gently here is I recognize that one of my goals on how you're evaluating me is the full completion and construction of a strategic plan from start to finish by the time this school year is is concluded. Even if it ends up costing me some points on my evaluation with you, it's not the right thing for our district to do. Um, and I would I would rather point us in a different direction. And again, to me, if you are very welcome to evaluate me how you feel you need to on that front, but I think our better play is to come up with some more clarity on a plan of making that profile of a graduate more deeply embedded into everything that we end up

084doing. Period. And um and this is the part where Nate gets a little crazy. So if I go too far out, I'm really sorry in advance, but I'm even saying like everything on like you see on our um agendas, which I really love that we highlight what our vision and our mission is. I would even argue that the priorities end up changing to the six C's. So that we as a board are and and the leadership of the district are demonstrating that as we engage in decision- making and as we engage in our work that we do it with citizenship and character and critical thinking and creativity and collaboration and communication and that we are examples to um the staff members but also more importantly the students. So that when two athletes come in here

085and yes, they didn't stay for very long, but that if they were to look at the agenda or if they were to look at your work, we would be able to point out examples of how we were expert communicators or how we were critically thinking or how we were what you know examples of those six C's. And I'm even saying like these things boil down to the eval like the way I'm evaluated and that at the end of a given year, you are expecting to see examples of me critically thinking and having character and citizenship that I compile over the course of the year. Um, and then that bleeds down to how I evaluate Sean and the directors and the principles and that as they are evaluating their teams of people that they supervise, that

086to me is how we can build this to not just decide what we work on, >> but how we work. And if we're really saying like this is this is how we prepare kids for the future for work. Well, we are the ones currently working and we are the ones arguing that these are critical important skills. And this is >> this I would argue is more functional and more strategic and more longreaching and more impactful than this >> and better branding maybe >> also. Well, and I want to take I mean >> Yeah. Anyway, so um before I took a before I took a few steps down like I'm kind of at a critical juncture here where it's like if you if we wanted to engage in this sort of an approach, >> that's totally

087fine and I'm I'm happy to do that and I will absolutely make it happen. Um, but as I have gotten more attuned to the district and what I feel what I would like to see the district do, I think investing energy and effort into the profile of a graduate will yield significantly different results in a great way as opposed to something like this. Um what that ends up meaning is and the way I've started to think about this is we have to we'd have to look at the profile of a graduate in a different way in that we would spend years building and implementing this and that like for example year one it might not change how we do anything to kids >> but instead it's the staff coming together to understand and the example

088I was giving the leadership team is let's say I hand um uh Lisa, what's your son's name again? >> Gabe. Let's say I hand gave his diploma and I'm certifying that he is competent in the six C's of Byron. [laughter] >> the question I put but the question I put to the to the leadership team is I'm saying that Gabe is proficient at critical thinking. >> What does that actually mean? >> Right? like he is proficient at collaboration. What does that mean? And those are not those are decisions that I would argue are kind of the first gate that we have to walk through in that as a collective force of implementing this program that we call Byron Public Schools, we have to agree on what it is we're trying to achieve. And so when

089we say we want kids to be creative, what does that even mean by the time we're done with them? What does proficiency on that look like? Not just for when I hand Gabe his diploma, but what does it mean in the 11th grade year and the 10th and the 9th and all the way down to kindergarten? So that every grade level knows, well, this is the level of creativity we need to imbue and teach and intervene and support our kids with. Um and we do that for all six of them if that mean and that takes energy and time. Um but the thing that is the most interesting about this is it won't take the added effort of trying to convince because so many of the staff members like claw on to this. And I

090also think we're entering a really critical transition or pivot moment in education where these are the skills that people are looking for and that community members want to hear is happening as opposed to you know can you appropriately factor a polomial >> um right I don't even know what that means >> Sean Sean so but the the idea that is forming in my head is that like year one of The strategic plan is about creating a collective understanding of what this means. Meaning it may not broadly impact kids, but it is intended to broadly impact staff. >> And then in year two, we begin planning on well, now that we know how this all works together and what it means, how do we assess this from this is happening, you know? So, like in Nate's

091civics and economics class, how is he expected to evaluate when Jeremy's in there that he is a proficient level citizen in 10th grade? >> How do you even do that? >> Right? And and then once we get to like years three, we're we're talking about widescale implementation. Year four, we're talking about polishing and refining. And in year five, we're talking about evaluating and deciding what what is the next step. And so there isn't there isn't any like novelty of the direction per se, but it's more of like a refocusing and a remarketing of a strategic plan that we already had. I will say the one data collection function that I'd love to see is what people know about this now. >> Yeah. Yes. Agreed. you know. Anyway, so I am just blah here. I don't

092I obviously didn't create anything superficial, but this is this is just all stream of consciousness. So, I want to get first your reaction to it. And >> um and Ann, I would love it if you would just maybe take some super highle notes cuz I want to hear what they're saying, but I also want to be able to capture it later on because my uh my next contract might depend on it. [laughter] No pressure. We can talk about this, right? >> Thank you. Yes. >> Yeah. It's not about >> I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, this is the fun board that we all want. >> Okay. So, first off, thank you for bringing that up. And that's what we talked about at the last leadership team meeting is it's like we we're still

093in the process of building protocols and machines that manage these things and that's going to continue to happen. But the thing I I really wanted to try and emphasize to the leadership team is we had to do what you had to do to stay afloat and above the water, but the work, I'll due credit to Sean, is not the spreadsheets, >> right? >> This is the work. And I remember telling Sean after we after we passed the referendum and stuff, I was like, "This isn't even the stuff I'm good at." Like, this is the stuff that I know how to do, >> right? And I'm not saying I'm not taking credit for the referendum, but it's just like >> he's never heard me talk about how you manage a classroom or how you, you know,

094evaluate instruction and what's going on. Like that's okay. But yes, so anyway, I stepped all over you, Nadia. I'm now going to be quiet. >> I think this exactly this is where we need to spend most of our time. Um, with that in mind, I I completely agree with your strategy that let's let's take this and what we have on like all the walls everywhere as opposed to repainting and doing something that will probably end up somewhere close enough to this. >> My um again, this is like we had not did not have any of those conversations this past year and a half. >> So, we did not have bandwidth to do this. Uh with that in mind, so um I assumed maybe wrongly that there was that next level behind this this picture here

095that talked about, you know, what's what what are those items stand for? There's no per saying >> there's some okay >> the the issue is that those I I'm not I'm not entirely sure to the extent that those have been commonly agreed to. >> Got it. And when was this done and uh what since this has been done has there been any work to >> the year? Yeah, this this would be about your it was like 2018 2019 is when at least the leadership team started working on this. They went to a couple conferences or something. I want to say the most recent data set connected to the profile of a graduate beyond like uh you know the middle school does the showcase nights and then the high school does the um senior life plan

096or presentation. I don't exactly know what it's called. Is that what it's called? Life plan. Anyway, um and then there is some token things that are happening around, but the last kind of deep dive into what people are seeing and feeling and reacting was in 2023. >> And that was done by the like the um curriculum and assessment department as they tried to kind of spell out what does critical thinking mean. The part that isn't super clear is how widespread was the >> did that germinate or did that did those seeds go or was it just like you know a couple of leadership people sitting around a table and say well what do we think this means and then we're going to push it down. >> Jeremy Carrie Lisa back me up if I'm wrong

097on this but didn't the teachers used to go into other classes and they would grade the teacher on how they were actually doing and there were and they had years of data. >> I think they still do that. >> So it it might happen might be way deeper than than you actually credit for. So yeah, >> thank you clarify. >> Yeah, team teaching and collaboration and that kind of stuff always happens. >> Yeah, >> but still like at the teacher level, not at the student level. >> Yeah. Here's here's the real rub on what some of these things end up fashioning is take Mr. Walbrook, social studies teacher of American history, right? He's supposed to teach pre-colonial America all the way to the COVID pandemic in a semester, >> right? And in all of my

098years teaching American history, I think I brought this up in the in the interview was like I tried my darnest to get through it and the closest I ever came was the Vietnam War, >> right? >> And um and so the part that's hard on the instruction side is making this seem like it's not something additional that you are expected to teach, right? and sort of like empowering your teacher teams to say maybe we don't need to talk about the War of 1812 and we can spend some more time on collaboration, right? >> You know, maybe we can forego, you know, maybe we can just talk about the Civil War for 4 days instead of 18 and then we can spend some more time working on critical thinking, you know, or how can we marry

099some of these things together? So, while I'm teaching you about um the battle of the Arden Forest, we can also be talking about collaboration. >> Yeah. >> Um and one last question here. Thank you all for seeing me through some time here, but how can like for the refinement of this, how can it be done in such a way that it doesn't turn into a PhD? No, Nadia, don't make fun of my strategic plan. [laughter] I'm just kidding. I think to be clear, we all see the value in this. >> I know. I'm just being I'm kind of being a little silly. >> I was going to add you can look at that and you see every one of those elements in it. It just >> it's like a different way of mapping it. >>

100Um I think the I think the big difference living through living through at least one year of this and trying to implement it. The problem is like this in a sense is bound in time. Like we know that we want to what we want it to look like in 5 years or 3 years or whatever the time scale is. >> The problem is is it doesn't define what is going to get done every single year. >> And that's that's where I the part that I kind of want to turn on its side is to say let's spend some time getting to know what this means. So, for example, one of the um let's see, I think it was this. Yeah, this goal number five. I don't know how many of you are aware of what

101we call professional learning communities or PC's. You probably heard the buzzword. I'm not going to spend any time talking about it because you would be here all night. But the point of the of two of the goals was to organize teachers into professional learning communities. The problem was is that even though I'm super all about it and I have skills to make those things happen and to lead people and to teach people, we did not give us enough time for the staff to like learn about what it is they're being expected to do. We didn't give them enough time to think about well how knowing what we're trying to get at. How having staff help plot the course between here where we're at and where we want to get because they didn't understand what it

102looked like at the end of the journey. And I think being more intentional about saying the strategic plan gives us the gift of time was like we're going to spend a whole year and every staff meeting every every director of their staff meeting is going to dedicate some time to this work and the whole preschool workshop the whole week beforehand. Yes, we're going to talk about the things that we have to talk about, but there's going to be an annoying amount of time dedicated to this. And every staff development day. Yes, we'll set aside some time for the musthaves, but this is the priority. This is I don't know if you remember the Steven CVY thing with the rocks in the bucket where you put the big rocks in first and then you fill in

103the small rocks. Like the these are the big rocks >> and everything takes kind of second fiddle to it. Like um imagine if our I even went to the crazy line of imagine if our schoolboard agendas were organized according to the six C's and how you could demon I mean just imagine what that would end up saying to our staff about how important this was. It's like everything we do is is in these buckets and and tied to it. >> What what what forgive me for saying this. I know it might sound crazy, but I was just sitting here and I'm like, I'm envisioning this family tree, this tree. How do we grow the best humans? And then all of these brackets are underneath and the seeds of all the core knowledge and all the

104the things and then those branch off into those learning, you know, strategic things that do you know what I'm saying? like they all have like their different layers, but it all comes back to how do we grow the best humans in our schools. And I I I I think it's a really good idea. I do think I remember Richard coming in here before and kind of like laying out how how everything kind of like related to this and that. It was really good. I loved I loved that. And then um Amanda, you didn't meet Amanda, but Amanda would come in and she would just glow and she would talk about her primary school and all the things, all the layers that >> that she was doing within the 60s. But yeah, I just like to

105see it as this great >> tree with branches. Speaking in general terms, I think going back to when was brought in, if you asked anybody in the school what the strategic plan was, they'd be like, but succeeds. >> And you [clears throat] said, can you expound on that? It would be like, >> well, and everybody would give a different answer. So, I like what you're saying. This is the flag. >> We are now going to put roots in like a tree of this is what this all entails. So, reinventing anything but putting a foundation to it. Like you said, we've got the buy in. We're on board and this is what we're known for, but there's no backbone to it. At least a consistent backbone, maybe I should say, >> or there's there's no bones

106to it, right? Like it's it doesn't >> it provides structure or provides dressing in some instances, but you know, there's not a >> like actual structure. >> Yes. So, like if you're sitting in your uh social studies class and you're learning about the battle of Gettysburg or something like that, you could say now here's the reflection part of this or and then I mean you could take a moment and you could actually relate it to something in the six C's and make it more of just reading this is what I read. Now, how do we per uh how does this pertain to like real world stuff? >> Yeah, I mean that would be critical thinking. >> Critical thinking, >> right? It's and it's it's calling it's calling into question or like in history you can

107you can point out instances I mean like the battle of Gettysburg where whatever the number of the Minnesota battalion they had to understand that they had to walk in front of all of these Confederate soldiers and hold the line even if it meant the death of nearly the entire regiment to hold that far end of the line while the Union came in with its reinforcements. It's like that's collaboration, right? That that commander had to creatively understand >> well this is the only way to solve this problem and it's not great >> but this is how we do it. Um and highlighting how people who are proficient at life and do great things like th these are the skills. Yeah. >> Well, yes. >> Point. Yeah, I think it's I think it's more ingrained than we

108give you credit for. >> And that's possible. >> I mean I mean Chad Chad bringing in the two students. >> Chad highlighted character building was the main topic of their whole thing. It was communicating with each other, creating a plan. It was critical thinking. It was all of those it it was all of those six C's put together without saying this is the six C's. >> And I think that's point, right? like let's just call like label it and you were clear about communicating it needs to be called a little more. >> Yeah. >> And not only that >> and I do agree with you >> this is going to sound super critical. These two students I would argue are probably two of the best students at Byron public schools. >> What about those students

109who don't speak English as a second language? What about those students that have a disability? >> What about those students that come from impoverished circumstances or a broken home >> or aren't in extracurriculars for >> aren't extra? Yes. And >> when um when we commit to all students, it's all of them. And a lot of the students that are examples, they're examples and they are amazing. And this isn't to detract from them in any way, shape, or form, >> but we're here for everyone, >> and we can create a strategic structure where we can guarantee every kid, and it doesn't matter if they have a disability or not, >> but that every kid is able to meet proficiency on citizenship, collaboration, communication, all those things. And that and that requires systems thinking like we have

110to be able to say hey at first grade this is how we evaluate creativity and at the end of the grade we want you here according to this assessment and we assess you from the first day you walk into first grade. Not every day of course but we benchmark you all the way through. And if you aren't making the gains that we're expecting we have a reaction to that. like we intervene on that to make the gain so that by the end of first grade you are at that level or beyond. That's that's the systemic thinking where we have to have agreed upon definitions of all six of these things. We have to have agreed upon evaluation tools for all these six things. Like how do you even evaluate somebody who's critically thinking? I I

111don't like I don't know how you solve that problem, but I'm I'm only going from my experience and I don't have my AI tool with me either to help me. But I will, you know, when we get there, but >> that's shifting of educational purpose from IQ to EQ. >> Right. >> More thoughts. I was feeling a little bit uneasy about the strategic plan and just what we've talked about to this point and I couldn't put my finger on it and I think that you articulated why because I was worried we would end up very too far away from this. I think like we've heard teachers say they literally came to work here because of this. >> Yeah. >> Um and I do think that a lot of community members identify with this. But um

112so I I love it. I think it's a great strategy and I feel what I hear you saying is that we need to maybe formalize it and make sure it's actually bleeding into like actually make sure it's bleeding into everything. Um, and then that becomes it becomes our brand and our identity in every way which I think is great. They could go out and like newsletters and things for the parents even like examples of things that they can do at home or what to things to look for things that they learned this week, stuff like that. >> I think we probably have staff that have already thought about a lot of the things and are going to be excited to >> sweatshirt. Well, and just to help implement the expectations and the systems that you

113talked about. I think it um the questions that first just came to mind when they were all the think about it and I think you've already done a good job kind of assessing that. >> Um and then how will we involve because we told the community >> we'll get your feedback, right? And we'll spend our money how you want us to prioritize it. So that would be my main question is how we >> Yeah, my thought is um is between now and the end of the year um I would love to see us collect data on the current state of affairs of the profile of a graduate. Mhm. >> Um and I think the the best tool for that is going to be um not a survey um but it would instead be like listening

114groups where um and I'm specifically talking about staff um the leadership team you all um and students specifically at the middle school and high school level. I don't think it's really it won't be helpful to do the elementary um just because it's kind of some more abstract thinking >> right >> um and the idea is what what is the baseline >> um and trying to understand what do people know about this and not have anybody coached up about it beforehand so then we can know like I mean to David's point maybe I just have a really pessimistic view of it because the way I would love to see this it's not happening. But in reality, there is a a whole host of things that are happening that we don't know about because we aren't listening

115or talking to the right people. >> Yeah. >> Um but on the community side, I also think in the way that we promise like it is worthwhile to go into the community and talk to them about it. But it would be a similar set of questions is what do you know about the profile of a GRA? Like what is your how much does this thing move your needle in terms of what is it that you know about it? and we'll get community members that say, "I have no idea what you're talking about." >> Right. Right. >> And you have all you have other set of community members like, "I'm totally fired up about this and here's all the things I know about it." >> Um I think the the hardest part because mostly because I

116haven't really sat and thought about that part of it as much is the how do we use the profile of a graduate to allocate financial resources. >> Right? That's what I was thinking prioritize our budget >> and the only thing I kept on thinking about was, you know, as we as we were specifically thinking about like how do we get our staff better at stuff? How do we develop the staff? How do we enhance their skill set? Like, well, if you're going to go to a professional workshop, like we want to see some evidence of these things happening. the staff development budget is a fraction of the overall budget. Um, and so to be quite candid, I haven't really thought much about the how does the profile of a graduate guide our guide the districtwide

117spending, >> right? Um, but part of that conversation could also be as administrators like yours truly, as we're thinking about big budget decisions, >> are we am I applying the six C's to my decision-m framework to make sure that I'm acting with good character and good citizenship? [clears throat] Are we communicating this? You know, have all the C's been checked as we're making these decisions? Because I would argue if the six Cs are evident even when we're making super controversial decisions like that's what the community would want to see, >> right? >> That we're that we took into account lots of different options and that we're taking data and applying it to the decision >> that we're communicating the decision effectively that we've worked with others and >> so admittedly that that second question um

118I don't have a super great answer to. I mean, I think that's reasonable, but um and then I also just want to commend you for being willing to walk away from like something formal that'd be easy to check the box and say I did the thing and we'd have to give you four stars and you know I stars. >> No, but I commend you for you know like feeling what's what would be best for Byron and then being willing to voice that and go with it. >> Thank you. >> Any other thoughts? Okay. Um, so my next steps are going to be starting to kind of draw out a plan kind of a a changed strategic plan plan. >> Do you see us involving like we talked about involving an outside agency to help with

119it? Do you see that a need for that with this? >> Maybe see where to be honest the I think the main leverage point on that is the listening groups. It's helpful to have an outside voice kind of manage the listening groups so that people can be more honest, >> right? >> Um, and I'm I'm super happy to lead it, but I wouldn't want people to just say what they think I want to hear. I just want them to tell the truth. >> I think you have to worry about that. [laughter] But, you know, >> Yeah. [clears throat] And so, and so I don't know. Um the other part and and I think artificial intelligence and and my my own network can potentially help me with this but is trying to think through well if

120you're implementing a thing like this over the course of years like what are the >> what is kind of the ramp to get you from whatever is happening now to wherever it is you want to be. That's the part um admittedly I don't have an enormous amount of experience with, but so I think also this approach makes it less needed to have an outside group help us. But >> I wouldn't mind leaning on a few people, like I said, to maybe be the Pat Sjack or Alex Tbeck for a couple of these listening sessions >> or if it could somehow take some of the burden off of administration and staff as they I don't know if that's possible, but >> Okay. Anything else? I didn't mean for the discussion to go so long, but I

121do appreciate you talking through It's a good discussion. >> Yeah. Yeah. And it's a big it's an important thing. >> Thank you. Um All right. Moving on to Byron City Council. >> Uh let's see. Biggest thing that that was talked about at the um council meeting was that there will not be a new pool in Byron anytime soon. Um it's very cost prohibitive about three to four million dollars for a brand new pool. So uh 334,517 will be spent to repair it. >> So they'll be I think resurfacing it and um it'll start in May and it's you know with with anything to do with the pool always depends on the weather. So um they're aiming for July 1 open date. >> Okay. >> So nothing for June. >> Okay. That's it. >> Sweet. And

122they're hoping so the repair they're hoping that I mean there's no guarantee how long it'll last but they're hoping to limp it along for like five years. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Um >> I wish it was better. >> I know. >> Uh zed update >> uh the annual zed um the spec file compliance reviews are well just happened. on 2922 when I go we're like a month behind. So my my next meeting is this week so it's a little bit behind. Things that are current right now um the coat volleyball tournament is on March 21st. That's really a big deal if you've never been out there. The Cassid Mantville Lions Club um they use the Zed facility and it's a big um thing to do out there. And then the triathlon the academic triathlon

123um I guess we're hosting. I don't have the I don't have the date on that. I thought the date was on here, but then the um the annual traveling art show, >> I have dates for all the different schools, but for Byron, it's coming up. It's between uh February 23rd and March 2nd. If anybody's interesting in that, >> it's at the middle school, right? >> That ends at the middle school. Yep. >> Oh, I have to double check that. Okay. Yeah. And then um that was pretty that's pretty much it for um like this time frame. Everything else is kind of already passed. So be nice to actually give an update on our work sessions because then it's within I mean it's only a week or two that by then >> anyway. Good. Thank you.

124>> And I also just one other thing with city council. I also said that we're we've got the budget for putting the salary into our bucket next year. So I said you can use that amount for the pool. >> Yeah, >> I know it's not much for this thing. >> Is that is it finalized? [laughter] >> Is there room for discussion? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Uh moving on to the consent agenda. Any questions on the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve consent agenda as presented. >> Second. Motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Uh on to donations. Very nice. Hoping not to mispronounce anybody's name today. >> Ter Loco pairs of brand new 18 pairs of new shoes for cross country track and field

125athletes. Tim and Heather Lawrence $25 to the food pantry in memory of K. Lawrence. Sharon and Gerald Priest. $25 food pantry memory of Kay Lawrence. Susan Berg $25 food pantry memory of Kay Lawrence. William and Mary Portley $30 to the food pantry in memory of Kay Lawrence. Bonnie Siver $30 to the food pan pantry in memory of Kay Lawrence. Alton and Deborah Cortis $50 food pantry in memory of Kay Lawrence. Otto's Bakery $15 food pantry in memory of Kay Lawrence. Uh Tracy and Phil Lurman $100 to the food pantry and Mary Lawrence, $25 to the food pantry in memory of K. Lawrence, and Church of Christ the King, $50 to the food pantry in memory of K. Lawrence. I would make a motion to accept those donations. >> Motion and a second. I get a

126roll call. >> Yep. Jeremy. >> I. >> Lisa, >> I Nadia. >> Hi. >> David. >> Hi. >> Alicia. >> Hi. >> Kelly. >> Hi. >> Carrie. >> Hi. And one question, do we know who Kay Lawrence is? >> No, but I do feel like we should say condolences to the family. It is um wonderful that they honored her by supporting our family. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. Uh I agree. Sorry. Uhformational and miscellaneous items. Facility meeting March 2nd at 4:30. Listening session March 2nd at 5:30. board work session March 2nd at 6, budget committee March 16th at 4:30 and school board meeting March 16th at 6 pm. >> Brings us to the last item. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion in a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion is passed. You

127need no such journey.