Byron School Board Meeting (11/3/2025)

0015:31 at 6 o'clock on November 3rd. Uh, attendance roll call please. >> Lisa >> here. >> Jeremy >> here. >> Kelly >> here. Nadia >> here. >> David >> here. >> Car's here. Alicia is >> absent. Okay. >> All right. Vision. Byron Public Schools is a community of learners committed to making the world a better place. Mission: learn, share, innovate, inspire, and priorities are to personalize learning in the pursuit of academic excellence, inspire students and staff to develop their character, share their talents, and apply their learning, and maintain excellence in resource management. Do we have any questions or discussion on the agenda items as presented? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed? Motion carries. We will invite

002Mr. Swanson from the middle school up for a presentation. Hello. >> Now, you want me to drive? >> Sure. >> Oh, I just need the mouse. >> Oh, mouse. Okay, >> perfect. >> It I'm going to warn it's kind of a finicky mouse. >> Kind of finicky. >> It requires advanced certification. >> I put a few things on here for you to peek at. Um, obviously our district operation plan work. Um, but I really wanted to just highlight a couple uh rather than click through everything. So, the walkthrough playbook, this is a something that's been evolving for a couple years. Um, but it's been a really fun project to see where it's going. So, state statute um requires that all teachers go through three um peer observations every year. Um, so what we did two,

003three years ago is we created what we call an instructional playbook. Um, and it was our way of of meeting state statute, but also then hopefully morphing our instructional pedigogy into something that um, checks multiple boxes. So, it's been really fun watching how this has actually turned out. Um, so middle school staff every year throw uh one or two slides on the on the slideshow on this playbook and what it's tied to, it can be tied to their action research. It can be tied to just a an instructional practice they want feedback on as a teacher. Um, and then what we do first, second, and third quarter, um, every teacher has to go observe somebody, a teammate, uh, based on the playbook. So the teachers will go through this playbook. they'll find an instructional strategy

004that piques their interest. Maybe it's a I'll give you an example here like 15 and 16 is our sixth grade um English teachers. And what's interesting about these is like so you have sixth grade English what they basically say um they want to create a discussion protocol because what they're seeing is how do we get kids engaged in true discussion in our classroom. So, they use a a protocol tied to some culturally responsive uh training uh that we've done in the building. They say, "This is a strategy we're going to try first quarter, maybe second quarter, third quarter." Teachers, let's say I'm teaching in the building and I'm saying, "Man, I really want to add some discussion tools to my box in my classroom." I dig through the slideshow. I come across this one. I'm

005like, "Oh, interesting. I'm going to contact uh the two English teachers and be like, "When are you doing this in your room?" Um I read through their slideshow, see what the gist of it is. It's protocol I'd like to try at least see. I go into their room. There's a form that I'll fill out and the form actually gives them feedback on their strategy. Um so there's like an I wonder I like prompt that the teacher, me, observing them at the time would give them feedback on. And then at the very end of that form, there's a reflection that says, "How would I use this in my room?" That all comes back to the site team so we can monitor who is um going to see other people. We also want to make sure everybody

006gets observed. Um and then it it also sends an email to the teacher that was observed. So, in this case, I'd be sending an email to Cara and Paul, giving them feedback about their instructional strategy, how I might use it in my room, which could further more more discussion. Um, the the things we've seen of this in a couple years is the teachers really like the PD opportunity, and I've always been a a principal that says the vast majority of real good PD happens in our own building. So when you can get teachers opportunity to go visit other classrooms right across the hall. Um so we've built it into our system. We say that hey instead of using team time to meet as a team this day use that 30 minutes anytime in this first

007quarter to go find a teacher you want to want to see a playbook strategy from. Um, it's been really fun to watch them start to break down some walls because we all know that in middle schools and high schools, you can get grade level or subject matter specific even and you might not even know what the art teacher does in her classroom, but she could be doing some world changing strategy, right, with the kids that would benefit your math classroom. You just don't have the ability to go see that. Well, now we have the ability to go see that. So, it's homegrown instructional pedigogy, professional development from your own peers, feedback from your own peers, which is even better because it's they know what you're doing. They know the kids you're working with. Um, and

008it's kind of created a breakdown of some of those silos uh across the building. So, that one's really cool. Uh, now you want to hit escape. >> Escopy. >> Thanks. Um, so that one has actually been, you know, really fun to watch. So you can go through some of those slides and see some of the of the strategies anyways that we uh use across the building. Let's see. >> I think yours is the second to last tab. >> Get this mouse to move. You said you said it's finicky. >> Yeah, it's not great. >> Richard, do they only use this at the middle school then? Yes, we this is a middle school strategy we put in place trying to always you know save the system. >> We're going to we're going to invest >> I'm

009smarter than I look. >> Put in a work order. >> Yeah. >> Calm down. Oh, this is this is like a you're testing me. >> Yeah. >> Like I feel I feel like >> how do you act under pressure? I feel like I'm being tested. >> There we go. Look at that. We'll stop. I won't move the mouse. >> Yes, it is a strategy we're using at the middle school. Um Malia has a similar playbook at the high school. Um and that they've done a little bit different than us. Um but this one has been a couple years in the making and I really wanted to just highlight how fun we're having at the middle school learning from each other. Um, and it's a way to to see what's going on and and help people

010uh team up across the building. Last one I wanted to highlight for y'all before you can ask me questions about anything, the Veterans Day breakfast. Uh, that's coming up here um next week. It's been about seven or eight years. Uh, but it's a highlight every year and I want to make sure the board knows this is just a cool opportunity where we're connecting with our community. uh student council uh for the past seven or eight years has been going we get bus to the international event center in Roster. Um all of the area veterans uh come to that breakfast at the international vet center. Um when it first started it was just kind of a hey let's try this out and see how it works. Well now we get we get taken care of like

011royalty which is not the point right. We always try to help them understand like we're here because we want to be. Um, but I'm telling you, the veterans have taken to our kids um, in a pretty cool way. Um, so our sixth graders uh, do a veterans letter writing assignment um, and actually it's great. It's part of our curriculum. So the sixth graders will write about 3 400 letters. We take them with us and all the veterans over at the International Vet Center have round tables where they sit at. Um, we get there and they feed our kids breakfast and then our kids go around and they drop mail call like you would if you were a veteran back in the day. They'd drop mail call on the table and veterans get each get a

012letter or two that they can open up at their table at breakfast and that's just fun to see. But after our kids are done eating, they go and start serving coffee, serving juice, taking dishes, dirty dishes to the dish bin. Um, and then the program starts about 10:00. Um, and that's when our kids for the last several years, it's crazy because it's not the point, but the veterans will actually clap them out of the building >> and they we try to get them every year not to do it, but because it's not about us, it's about our appreciation for you. Um but they just love having our kids and every year they call uh call me and say are you coming this year? I said absolutely we're coming. So our kids will be going over

013there. Um some of the byproducts we get out of this deal is you'll see veterans write our kids back >> and they become pen pals for the year in our English classrooms. >> Um and it's really neat. So you'll see veterans send pictures of when they were, you know, in the military. Um, and it's even great because that'll pass from our English teachers to our Soul Space classrooms and you just get this pen pal connection back and forth where you're getting real learning from community members. So, super fun. Looking forward to it every year. Um, we take our student council for I think it's seven or eight years now. So, fun activity. >> We will also now do a veterans program in case any of you want to stop by. It's the 12th. It's the

014day after Veterans Day from 8:00 to 8:30 in the auditorium. So Mr. Blum when he was in intermediate school put together a short veterans program every year. Well, now that I've snagged him, he's like, "Hey, let's run that a year." And I said, "Yeah, absolutely." So our local veterans from our own region will be joining us in the auditorium from 8 to 8:30 on the 12th. Couple ways that we try to connect with community and serve those weeks. Anything else questions from you all about what's going on at the middle school? Time's flying by. We're having a great year. >> It's awesome. I just want to say thank you for doing such an amazing job. That's incredible. >> Yeah, we love it. You'll see a a newsletter come out this week. Um, I did kind

015of push into the parent community a little bit asking for some partnership with some recent survey data and some things that a bit, you know, are a bit concerning um, mental healthwise and friendship wise. Uh, trying to engage the parents in, hey, let's partner together in some of this work. And for me, I try to just say, hey, this is how we from a parent perspective, this is how you could help in some of these arenas. Um, here's what we do. here's what I'd love to see parents partner with the school uh to also to also deal with. So, some of that is I'll share more about some of that data that's coming out of some of these surveys, but it um I want to look at it as in a holistic way. You know,

016it's not just mental health. There's a lot of other things that play into that, right? So, for instance, I'll just give you the quick data. like 7 to n hours is the average amount of time our kids are on their screens a day on social media teenagers. So does that play a role in mental health? Absolutely. So trying to help even help students in middle school understand that but also asking the parents like how can we engage with that differently because sometimes we're not even better examples you know so it's really trying to engage the whole team but look at it from a broader perspective than just say we have mental health issues let's look at all facets of what that can even mean. So, more to come on that one, but we're working on

017it. Have some cool things going on at the middle school to help educate kids and how to handle some of that stuff. So, >> yeah. Any questions ever coming? Always it. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll pass it on to our MCA presentation. >> Okay. Um, this chart can be a little uh overwhelming. I just kind of wanted to explain what was happening. You have the grade level across the top row here. And you have the year of the administration taking place on the on column A. And so I've colorcoded the the class as they move down in grade or move across in grade. So, for example, all the these white shaded cells, this is the same set of kids over time. This gray shade, that's the

018same set of kids over time. Everyone with me so far? >> Okay. So, um, our most recent year is obviously the 2025 administration of the MCA exam. and you can see those proficiency results. Um, I would highlight I believe it was with the 20 it was either with the 2022 or the 2023 that there was a major change in the MCA and the trend because of that change resulted in lower proficiency numbers than were historically the case. And that that change was really a Pearson, which is the company that owns the MCAs, as they were trying to better align the questions with the standards that we're that folks were expecting to see. Um, across the state, district saw proficiency levels um drop. So, any this is the math proficiency. The next one I'll show you

019is the reading proficiency. It's the same idea chart but just dealing with reading instead. The other thing I forgot to highlight was the year 2020. That's the the COVID year when the MCA was not administered. And then the last one is the science proficiency and um the unlike math and reading science is only administered in the fifth eighth and usually 10th grade class but the the real metric on science proficiency or the science MCA is after is the year that they take the students take biology and it's usually the 10th grade year but it's not always the case. The other workbooks I didn't open were just the percentile ranks, which this is really where I think um you end up being able to highlight um just how well Byron academics are compared to their neighbors

020and the whole state, I should say. This is when you get into these percentile rings. I mean, I've worked in quite a few school districts at this point. I've never I've never seen numbers anywhere near this before in a really great way. I mean, this number here is just jaw-dropping. >> 10th grade science, you're in the we're in the n almost the 99th percentile of the state. >> Any questions? see anything. >> Okay. I I feel it my duty to just again acknowledge that the MCA is a useful exam in some respects. This this absolutely should not be the way that we use to evaluate, you know, take and be like, "Hey, we've got some really good numbers. That means everything Byron does is amazing and awesome." Um just like on the flip side, if

021the numbers were the reverse, we wouldn't say, "Well, this means that Byron is the worst place on Earth." um but it is one of the metrics that we can use to evaluate some of the things that are happening in our district. So okay, if you do if you do end up walking through this and you have other questions, feel free just to reach out to me. No big deal. >> Okay. All right. Um, moving on to comprehensive achievement and civic residence report. >> This used to be known, this was the report formerly known as the world's best workforce. Um, which I would argue comes off the tongue a little bit better than comprehensive achievements of readiness. Um, so this is a yearly report required to be distributed and presented uh before school boards across every

022Minnesota district. um that really centers on five goals. That all children are ready for school. That's generally a pre kindergarten metric. That all racial and economic achievement gaps are closed. So districts have some latitude as to where you're focused there. And then um the all students are ready for career in college and all students graduate from high school are generally high school metrics. And then the all students are prepared to be lifelong learners. That was not a goal in the world's best workforce, but that is a new one to the comprehensive achievements of readiness report. Okay. And then I submit this report to MDE um by our uh as part of our accountability. So goal number one, um we set that we would maintain 95% or greater of all students enrolled in preschool that they'll

023meet all six of the end ofear expectations as measured by the widely held expectations report and that they would be then considered kindergarten ready. So this that widely held expectations report that's an assessment that the preschool teachers do to all the students that are in their um in their classes and it's one of the things that they take into account when determining if a student's ready for kindergarten or not. So I have historic results um and then I have u the 2025 results. It's important to note that unlike every year before it, um during the 2025 screening period, they also included three-year-olds. So, we do see a drop in that percentage, but um but they're attempting to transition to a different um assessment this spring that they feel does a better job of accounting for

024kindergarten readiness. and they wanted to be able to assess the three-year-olds to be able to compare data between this year and then or last year and then this year. So, normally they wouldn't have included three-year-olds, but they did because they're transitioning to a different system. Goal two is closing the achievement gap. will increase the number of special education students who meet or exceed proficiency in reading by 5% or more as measured by the 2025 MCA reading assessment. Um, and this one is is unfortunately a goal that we did not achieve um where you see a drop in reading proficiency. Instead of an increase of 5% there's um well decrease of 7%. We also elected to increase the proficiency of free and lowincome uh students by 5% or more. This one was really close to being

025achieved, not quite. And then we'll increase the number of minority students who meet or exceed proficiency in reading by 5% or more. And that uh goal we did not achieve >> those goals set by us as the district or they set by the city. >> Um yes, usually the the leadership team or and usually the leadership team is getting um that's what their site goal or their building goal would be. Um, and so these are these are normally set by the leadership team of the district, but every building site leadership team has a has a hand in this >> historically have met the goal that we achieved. >> Um, I can look out >> I can look back on what the previous reports are because the folder I have it just has like one of

026these presentations for every year. Um, and so I I see the results, but I don't see what the goal was for each year. So I could look back and see what the what the goal passage rate happens to be. >> I just I would be curious just looking at the way the numbers are currently up there why the 5% is thought to be an achievable goal. That's just just looking at it from my perspective. >> Yeah. Usually the usually the 5% is and the the term statistically significant is in order to determine if something statistically significant requires quite a bit of math. The general average is if you somewhere between 3 and 5% improvement is a statistically significant one. So, um, I I wasn't here, so I don't know why they would set it that

027way, but in my mind, a 5% increase on those things doesn't seem like that's out of order, if that makes any sense at all. But I could absolutely look back and see what the the goal setting has been. Okay, goal three is college and career readiness. By the spring of 2025, 40% of all students assessed will have met the career and college readiness benchmarks in all four subject areas as measured by the ACT. So, there are four areas of testing in the ACT. And what what essentially that's saying is that there's a there's a a cut score and that what that 40 the goal is that 40% of the students will achieve that cut score in all four areas of the ACT. That makes sense. So um in 2025 we did not meet that goal

028and it looks like at least it's been a it's been a minute since we've been at that rate >> pre-COVID. Precoid. Yeah, I was just noticing that. Yeah, >> again, I would argue how that go. >> Yeah. Let's not even need to know what umbrella wants, >> right? You've got a menu goal achievable and that just doesn't seem I know we want it, but >> yeah. um maintain at or above 98% of eligible Byron High School students will be receiving a diploma um as measured by the 2025 graduation. Um they they have not released the grad rate numbers yet. You may think that's a pretty silly number. You should be able to add that. It gets complex because there are some kids, right, that are graduating and have met all of those requirements the night

029of graduation. But then there's another set of kids that you also fold into that number that basically get through June and that if they acquire the credits by June, they're they're included in that number. And then there's a third set of kids that if they get it in July or August, they are they are folded in a weighted way into that number. And then you have the last group which you wait one year into the future. Um, and so they haven't released the the ones that graduate in June and then complete in July and August yet. That's the number we're waiting for. And then most people don't really pay attention to the 5-year cohort, which is the kids that take another year to graduate, if that makes sense. So, we're just waiting on that number.

030um you can go to the MDE report card and you just type in Byron High School and it's literally the first graph or report that comes up. So >> and and also would be great to see how this compares to our neighbors. >> Yeah. Okay. And then the last goal is that by the spring of 2025, all seniors will have successfully completed and presented their profile of a graduate life plan. And this is tied to our profile of a graduate um chart that we have behind us here. And that all of the seniors, they they create a life plan throughout their time at the high school. And then at the end of their senior year, they create this presentation where they walk through what they've looked at and the pathways and kind of their next

031steps. So this is a goal that we have met. All of the seniors did successfully uh present their profile for graduate life. >> All right. Any questions? >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Into the ANI report. Achievement and integration. >> Achievement integration is a grant that goes on a three-year cycle. And we are we qualify for this grant because we border a racially isolated district. In this case, that would be Rochester. And um any district that borders Rochester or any other racially isolated district, you qualify for this grant. And the idea behind it is that this provides additional revenue for the district to um increase achievement. As in, as time goes on, it's more likely than not that minority students are going to find their way into the districts that are all around

032the racially isolated district. But then also there's a um there's a push by MD to have these other districts that aren't racially isolated integrate and participate in activities in collaboration with the racially isolated district. A lot of corporate buzzwords in there. I apologize for that, but that's kind of the quickest way to explain it. So, uh the district drafts a plan for three years, and this is the third of our three years. So, in the spring, I'll be putting together, assuming we the achievement integration grant is still a thing, which it will be. Um, I'll be putting together a new set of plans for the next 3 years um so that then we can qualify for those that additional funding and services. So goal number one centered on staff development and it um read by

0332026 100% of Byron certified staff engage participate in network with adjoining district and study culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices. So in 2024 uh all staff did complete trauma informed practice training and all those evaluated staff were marked proficient in culturally responsive practices on the Marzano tool. In 2025, all evaluated staff were marked proficient in the culture responsive practices on the Marzona tool. And for this year, 2026, we do have culturally responsive training planned for the staff workday on January 19th. So, we anticipate completing that goal. Goal number two is that by the spring of each year, reading proficiency for free and reduced price lunch students will increase by 2%. Grades K through two will be measured using the fast food assessment and grades three through five will be measured using the reading MCA. So I

034have the grades in the first column here and then I have each year sorted by columns. you see what the goal is and then what was actually achieved. >> So how how do they test them separately? >> So grade um grades K through two don't take the reading MCA. um the the MCA begins in grade three and so that we wanted some they wanted there to be some way to measure reading progression and at the time so this would have been 3 years ago um that was when fastbridge would have first been getting implemented ac you know across the elementary level specifically um I don't know if here you implemented it in the middle school but some districts went as high as middle school but everybody did K through five or K through six depending

035on how you sorted your elementaryaries So, this would have been the only assessment available to to measure reading progression in grades K through two. >> Okay. But I'm just wondering how how do they pull out the free and reduced students? How do they know how do they set them apart their test scores apart from the ri you know the rest of the population? So in the student management system um you you both fastbridge and your MCA results are all tied to individual kids in infinite campus and then on the other side and this isn't the side that the instructional staff see is students that do qualify for free and reduced lunch are also flagged and so then when we pull down the reports we can we can sort them by free and reduced. Yeah. >>

036Okay. Yeah. I was wondering that how they got they were tested separately or something. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Sorry, I misunderstood your question. >> Any other questions here? Okay. Goal number three is career readiness. Byron will increase uh participation from 25 to 50% of underserved student groups in Byron career pathway programming andor at Rochester CEK program. Um there weren't any results that I could find from 2023 unfortunately. Um, but in 2024, all underserved student groups, and generally when we're talking about underserved, you're talking about students that have a disability, students that speak English as a second language, minority students, or students that are uh free reduced lunch. That's generally what it means. It wasn't clear in the information I grabbed if that was exactly what they meant here, but it's what it seems to mean.

037Um and then in uh 2025, which would have been last year, all underserved student groups participate in at least one class in one of the Byron career pathways. So this one um they do have a really great uh way to send kids into those pathways. Okay, any questions about achievement and integration? From a strategic standpoint, um the timing of this is going to work out well. Um when we set achievement integration goals, uh I'm going to be setting those goals to align directly with the comprehensive achievement civic readiness goals and also to align with our soon to come strategic goals so that there aren't like 50 million disperate goals flying all over the place that all the goals are in alignment with each other and even if they aren't the exact same things, they're at

038least feeding into each other if that makes some sense. So there's less things for me to remember, but I'm there for everybody to not have to remember all those things, too. All right, take our first reading of policy starting with 701.1. Okay, let me see here. So, this is one of Sean's favorite subjects is the the revised budget and the ways in which we modify it. This is um this is boilerplate. I shouldn't say boilerplate, that's not the right way to describe it, but this is templated language that is um uh reviewed and restated and confirmed by MSBA. >> Any questions or discussion on this policy? All right, we'll move on. Policy 710, extracurricular transportation. >> And I guess we should have said there's no recommended changes from MSBA, >> correct? No, not on any

039not on these ones. Um, I think the biggest one to highlight just for the public is that it's not in within our policies for employees to provide students with transportation in their personal vehicles just as a a measure of safety and security for all. So, >> any further questions or discussion on policy 710? We'll move on to 703, the annual audit. Um this is just falling in line with state requirements that we um we do an audit on an annual basis using a third party and that uh the this audit company works in concert with our business services but then also uh creates a report independent of the business services for you the school board to review and to make public. I have never looked more forward to an audit report than this one and

040we're just waiting for the details. Okay, >> any other questions? Move on to 711 video recording on school buses. This is very similar to our um our language regarding video surveillance or video recording is what I should say. Um in the schools um school buses are generally considered a part of the classroom and school property. >> Okay. Any questions on 7-Eleven? Move on to 712 video recording other than on buses. Few updates here. >> So this is the one that I provided you an update on. Um the major update being that um we do use video recording in common areas. Um but that there we will not be using we do not use video recording in uh bathrooms or locker rooms. >> Mhm. So why the change from surveillance to recording? >> I think surveillance

041has a more like it has the connotation that you're >> watching Yeah. that you're watching guilt or something terrible or devious happen. >> Okay. >> And that changing over to recording is just that you're sitting there monitoring the situation and more often than not there's not going to be anything that happens. Um so >> so it's not connected with saving the the videos and like storing them for like certain number of whatever the quality is. >> Yes. So these these this video is recorded for and held on by our server for a certain period of time and I think most districts have it in their policy that it's 30 days or 45 days. I don't recall off the top of my head what's what our number is. Um, and really the the number >> is

042more a function of the size of our server and the and the definition of our system. >> Um, as opposed to it being that number of days, if that makes sense. >> Right. So, we do not the recording or the videos from bathrooms and locker rooms are not saved to our server. Um, no. But we don't have any video recordings in any bathrooms or locker rooms, period. >> But like, um, you know, we do have videos, for example, in like the high school commons. >> Mhm. >> Well, it's it's recording video right now, and that video that it's recording tonight would still be available for somebody to download and review two weeks from now. Yeah, >> it does say although these areas may be monitored by individuals of same sex as the occupants of bathrooms

043or >> lock rooms. >> Yeah. >> So they're not recorded. It's >> just and the intent the the way that this plays out realistically inside of the school environment is let's say I was the principal of the high school and I kept hearing that something strange was happening in the boys's bathroom on in the main hallway. This policy does provide the administration, school officials with the authority to have an adult monitor that bathroom directly as we try and stamp out, you know, if kids are vaping in there or if they're taking weird videos or whatever else happens in the bathroom that's not supposed to happen in a bathroom. Mhm. >> Is there a reason that um we'd say will normally not be used in bathrooms instead of saying that we are not going to be

044recording? >> Yeah. And that was I think that that idea was a throwback to the previous language that's exed out down below. Um oh my mouse. I'm going to just leave it alone. Um I I don't understand functionally why they wouldn't have crossed that one out either. I don't because you're then saying in the next sentence, right, that or not I should the next clause these areas might be monitored by individuals of the same sex as the occupants of the bathrooms or the locker rooms. I'm trying I'm just trying to think of a situation in which >> Yeah, cuz it seems like that should just be taken out. Video recording will not be used in bathroom >> breaks out in the middle of the bathroom and a teacher goes in, pulls their phone off to

045video. >> Well, let's be honest. You just get it off of Tik Tok and Instagram from all the teenagers that would post it on there. Anyways, um anyway, that's that's almost what I'm wondering is that if you were able to capture the video from another source, if you didn't have the normally you the district might not be able to use that video if they were trying to square something away, but I could ask about that. Why normally would still be what would be a hypothetical why you leave it in there like that? Yeah, it does give wiggle room, which maybe that's what we're supposed to have. >> But does it give too much wiggle room, >> right? I don't know. >> Yeah. Could you ask what must be >> okay? >> Great questions. Um, any

046other questions on policy 712? Move on to 601, school district curriculum and instructional goals. So, this policy ends up guiding, ironically enough, the the types of goals that you just walked that I just walked you through. So, you are giving you are giving authority to school district staff and leadership to set goals. Um, but then you're also asking for reports like on this page, the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report and other reports as you oversee and govern the district. Oh, was there is there a typo under section three definition uh letter D where it says close the academic achievement gap among all radical and groups. Is it racial? >> It should be racial. >> Okay. says radical, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Any other questions on policy 601? move on to

047our final policy 202.1 student representative on the school board. >> All right, this is a thing that has caused a little bit of controversy across the state of Minnesota as to what this should mean. Um, student repres if you if we elect to put a student representative on the school board, they don't uh their their intended purpose is not necessarily a like a voting a vote on these issues. It's rather intended to give students an opportunity to share their perspective through that representative. Um, I want you to know that I I've already started working with the high school student council to create a mechanism that accomplishes the same goal. It doesn't necessarily mean, at least the direction they are thinking about heading, it doesn't necessarily mean that at each schoolboard meeting there's one person that

048comes up and gives you a report. um but rather and um I think they are stepping on something that is significantly more meaningful which is based on strategic goals that are happening across the district. They will seek input from the students and give you insight into how the students are seeing or not seeing that strategic goal roll out. So, um, but at any rate, this is still a policy that MSBA recommends that we have, just that it puts some constraints around if you do have a student school board member that there are some rules and there are some expectations that go with them that that don't make them a bonafide school board member, but just more they're there to represent the student voice and give you some perspective from them. >> I know we had

049talked about this in the past. >> Yeah. and students are not interested >> at that time. Nobody was interested in Yep. >> My experience with this is that a lot of times it defaults to like the president of the student council or the vice president of student council and you get an activities report from the high school when they do come on the board, which is fine. Um, but the challenge that that the student council leadership and I are trying to navigate is how can you get insight as to not just what the student council members are feeling and experiencing, but how can you get experience and insight into what as many different parts of the student body are experiencing. And so that's that's where the discussion is headed and they they were thinking about

050as opposed to it happening once a month that they come and tell you that maybe they start slow and maybe it's you know twice a year it grows into once a quarter. But they wanted to really think hard about how can we represent every student's perspective when they come to you to report to you about here's what we're thinking about our school if that makes sense. >> So I really like the direction that they're heading. I like the questions that they want to ask and I also like their their interest in giving you an accounting of of the lives they're living in our in our schools. So, um my suggestion is let's give this some time. Um and I'm hoping that in the coming months I'll have a I'll have a really unique way of

051showing you the students joining you I should say what they think of our schools. >> What does it mean from the procedure perspective? Right. So, this representative on the board, what type of a vote will they have? Like what what would that mean for us? I'm thinking of like a um a union representative, like a workers union representative within the board. So, >> yeah. Um on this policy, >> um this policy lines out that they don't really have any boarding rights. Okay. >> Um they do come and they can participate in the meetings. um they can voice an opinion um and and they're kind of limited to that. In the event that there's like a sensitive employee matter and we end up closing the meeting, they don't participate in a closed meeting. >> Um more

052often than not, if I'm just saying it really to the point, if you want to drive kids away from participating in local government, you'll have them join up as a student council member on the school board. um just because they they participate but they don't it's weird how they participate and I think what the student council here at the high school and I what we're trying to build is something that is meaningful is interesting and is helpful. So >> anyway, it won't look like this, but I don't think that's a bad thing either. So, >> I like that you're working on something that makes sense for the whole student body and not just a report that just comes to us and we're like, "Thank you." >> Yeah. >> It's an interactive and engaging piece. >>

053My goal is that it feels a lot like what Richard just did. >> Yeah. >> You know, is that they come and they say, "Here's here's what people are thinking. Here's how we collected this information." You know, maybe even some anecdotal video. I don't know. I don't want to I don't want to put them in a box just by my own weird ideas. Well, it almost says to me that that's another C that they're working on and they're >> totally succeeding. >> So, will the student like how will the student self- select? >> Well, that's that's the part of the story that I think is actually the most interesting because the student council is a group that's been selected out of the high school. However, they select them. I think don't they people apply? I'm

054looking over there. Right. It's not they don't they don't vote for each other. They just apply in the same way you apply for a job and then the the the council selects you know or the advisers select. Um but the the interesting part is how do you the interesting challenge that they have to face is if student council isn't representative of the entire population of Byron public schools how do they collect the insight and the experience of those people who aren't represented >> and how do they how in your with your question Nadia is how not only do they collect that information but then how do they bring that to you in in a respectful way so that you get insight into what is or is not happening at the school so that you can

055you know motivate me to push for a thing or not push for a thing and make make a change. So it's giving me goosebumps kind of thinking about what the possibilities of this could be. Um but I I wanted I want to do it right. The other thing to note is generally speaking kids on student council are among our more committed kids in that they're they're involved in lots of things. And the other part that I've noticed on this approach to student council representation is it it ends up limiting some kids because you know they're in an activity or they're in a sport or they're working and we we end up we don't get a consistent sort of herald or or a messenger if that makes sense. So >> and also technically all the students

056can email us right with concerns and questions. So it is an open channel communication. >> We just don't have anything >> present here >> you know in the formal way. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So more work to be done on this one. Not policy wise but just Okay. All right. Uh any other questions or we'll move on to uh reviewing the model policy updates. Um, this just provides a summary of the updates. Um, some of these are just technical, meaning they're removing a phrase. It doesn't really impact any meaning or processes. Um others are more substantive in nature and generally those are directed because of a um an agreement between the association uh piece of legislation or court case that's been handed down. Um anyway they were everybody was curious as to what was

057going to happen with the student. >> Oh don't make her stay. No, you're good. >> Back to like this is all selection process. >> Sounds like we got a representation. >> I knew what was happening. >> Just so you know, we are being recorded and everybody can watch this. >> Lucky. There you go. >> I know that. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to the Byron superintendent evaluation process. >> So, um you'll recall this process. Um we talked through it in August and one of the check-ins is pending. And so I wanted just to see with you if you would prefer to do a midyear check-in on my goals, if you would prefer that to be the January work session, which is also our organizational meeting, or if you'd prefer to move that to

058the um January board meeting. Um you could also do it, I mean, you can do it however you want. This was just the the timeline I established. So, >> hey, can you please remind me when we have this meeting with uh what is Deb, right? >> Yes, it's in about 2 minutes from now whenever we stop talking about this. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Would you rather have your on open or close meeting? Does it matter to you? >> It doesn't matter to me since we've always done closed. We've got them closed and that that's why I'm asking. >> You have you have the right either way. Yeah, I was going to say I thought they had to be open. >> The >> when you talk about the specifics, you can close them.

059>> Okay. >> Yeah, >> maybe we should ask D about that about her recommendation. >> Barb, >> I don't I don't think it matters. stick it a part of >> in terms of the like so in terms of even like timing the half year review versus like an annual review. Is that or has that ever been the question? >> No. Okay. No, there will there would be there's still an end of review end of year review process that I start putting together in April >> and then it ends up culminating in May or June depending on the timing of the days. But >> I would think we just do it January the the first meeting and it's timely. It gives you more opportunities for any change of direction but also >> you're saying the work

060session. >> Mhm. That just be my thought, anybody else's thoughts >> or do you do it the second one because there's a possibility of a new chair and chair want >> could all be collected in December. >> Okay. Go to the clerk. >> Well, on this question on this one, the only real data that's provided is a report that I'm generating to you. the the the heavier lift happens in April and May when you all you all get you can choose to do some surveys. I know that Barb has some suggestions about some other things that you can do as well. She she was uh when she saw my process, she was like, "I don't love the surveys for for me." That's what she said. But um but anyways, you can decide if you wanted

061to wipe the survey off and go in a different direction. But I know she has a couple of ideas. >> I think you're we've always done surveys, right? Every evaluation is what you're mentioning. >> Yeah. >> And I'm asking because we have never done evaluations. >> So this is this is a new process for the new >> That's okay. Yeah. Well, I think that's a I mean, let me just we'll just pencil it in on January the that the work session and then if you all want to change it, it's okay. Especially after talking to Barb. >> Yep, sounds good. >> Okay. All right. So, Barb is going to join us. Let's see. >> Do we need to close it and turn off the video? >> Stop the meeting. >> No. Yeah, it's open. That's

062fine. >> Okay. >> Barb, we're ready for you. >> She's doing Barb doesn't miss. >> Great. Did you hear me? >> You bet. Hello. >> Hello. Hello. Nice to see you. >> Thank you so much for allowing me to join virtually tonight. I appreciate it. Um, as Nate has shared and I'm sure you've seen uh is our transition workshop. We do this with all of our clients um superintendent search and it's a matter of discussing the goals and expectations for this first year as your superintendent. Now I know um you've already approved some goals for date and as a result I'm not have as much time needed as I might typically have during the workshop for transition but um I do want to do two things and if it's okay with the board this will

063probably take a total of about a half hour maybe or so. Uh but I also want to make sure that I'm answering your questions. I'll stay on as long as I'm doing great. But I want to first poweroint about superintendent evaluation because really what we want to talk is how will you evaluate Nate as your superintendent for this coming year and I want to come to some agreements on that. The PowerPoint is just some foundational information. You might recognize some of the slides in MSPs other trainings as well. That's one thing. And then the next thing I'd like to do is that booklet that you've distributed now that you all have. just a couple of suggestions of how that might be incorporated into the goals that you've already set for Nate for his first year

064at the helm of fire public schools. So, those are the two things. I'm thinking maybe a half hour, but is there anything anyone else wants to talk about tonight or any questions on what I just laid out that we're going to be doing here? >> Nope. >> No. >> Okay. And I believe I see the PowerPoint up the state workshop. I can't read that from >> Yes. Sorry. Here we go. >> Yep. Only have the PowerPoint in front of me, but I know Ann is probably sharing it for me. So, I'll just pause based on what I see on the screen. Please interrupt me if anyone has any questions as we go along. Okay. Um, so the first slide just the transition workshop and it's all about um partnership between the school board and so

065we talk a lot about teams. Oh, thank you very much. a lot about working as a team. All high performing districts have um elected members of the board and um a superintendent who's an exopisio member of the board. And by working together, you can set expectations about what you really need to accomplish in this first year. So, we're not teamwork. And then here, if you'll recognize the uh speakers for schoolboard leadership, one thing I should ask before I go any further, can you hear okay or hear an echo, but I'm okay with it. How are you all? Okay, >> it's going good. >> Okay. All right. >> These are the uh five standards for leadership and this is one of the things you recognize if you've been in our base trainings. These are the five

066areas that schoolboard members are expected to demonstrate competencies as you become um a board member uh longer and longer and longer. But these are your four areas. Now within them there are some benchmarks around evaluating your superintendent. So Ann could get as three times the year. There we go. Thank you. Ethics reference is about recognizing 14 listers and superintendent and you've done manual. So that could be as a board. I don't know if you've done a school board selfie evaluation, but if you haven't, there's a free tool on MSDA's website that once you get past some of the craziness you're doing right now with the election tomorrow. If you have time to take a breather, you could do a schoolboard self-evaluation and if you have questions on doing that, just let me know and I

067can touch with the person who can help you do that. But it is a free tool online. Also um under structure it talks about selecting and employing one person the superintendent as the school district's CEO to lead and manage the school district and then under accountability it does say evaluate the superintendent's performance at least annually. Now I want to mention that there's requirement in statute that you do evaluate the superintendent. However it's in our model contract. My guess is that it might be in the contract that the district has with NATE if you use MSBA or MASA's model contract, but we really want to include the conversation around how is the performance going and how are you going to address areas that are going not so that it won't fall. So next slide superintendent. So

068these are eight. These are the standards. Now, every single superintendent that has a license in the state of Minnesota must exhibit competencies in all eight of these in order to even get a license. So, when you look at these two lists of the cornerstones and the standards for school boards versus standards for superintendent, does anyone see a difference between those two? Any indication of how they might be different? Because they are different. There's no operations or uh anything on the schoolboard side whereas there are operations on the superintendent side. >> Yep. Correct. Thank you very much. So when you look at these the school boards are more visionary uh more governance related and the superintendents are the boots on the ground. That's where the work actually gets done. So different kind standards for the two

069parts of the board. So this leads nicely to the next slide which hits the board governance system. You probably recognize this. Just a couple of quick things. First of all, student success right in the middle there. That is the heartbeat of every single uh school district. So that is most important your student success. And I know every decision we make as schoolboard members is about student success. When you look at this, the top in red, the school board governs. The bottom half in blue superintendent manages. Now, the fence across the middle there, that dotted fence that we tell people you can simply look over into the other area of responsibility, but just don't leap over it because sometimes that creates some confusion about the roles and responsibilities of the board versus the superintendent. Now, all

070of you on the board there, um, start right at the top and go clockwise. You establish things like the strategic plan, parameters, expectations for the school district, and you also adopt some things. And often those things that you adopt come upon the recommendation from the superintendent adopting budget policies, contracts, etc. You then as a board sort of hand it over the fence to the superintendent and their job is to develop those things. They're going to take that from you and they'll develop plans, procedures, they develop staff. Staff ultimately reports to superintendent. Superintendent reports to you and then they continue to implement things. One of the things most things do not always work in reality as well as we thought they might work in theory. So when Nate is implementing policies or procedures, plans, etc., he's

071going to be noticing some things that either are going really well or not so well. So he's monitoring all of those things in the management realm um to be able to send back over the fence to you in order to evaluate those things. So then in the credence role you might evaluate your policy board. um you do evaluate the superintendent, but you'll also evaluate those outcomes that he had found and reported so that you can reestablish things as so just keep going through motion and I think working together it's um can be highly and wholly effective and I know you're familiar with this and I know you're a governing board and you're doing a really great job um letting the district guidance includes and then superintendents are also told please don't jump over the fence

072of the governance. You know, it's not the superintendent's job to set the direction going. That is the school board's job. So, any questions on the governance model? I noticed okay, let's go to the next slide about goals and the help plan. So that is sort of three to five years out maybe three to five really big goals and the strategic plan drives everything as I know you know in fire plan. So the strategic example along with the goals that you should set as superintendent but also you want to set goals for yourself as a board in green area. The biggest difference between the red box and then the green and blue boxes is green and blue boxes for the superintendent at Louis board if you set goals they're one year full time just one year.

073Also not very many two to three goals at a time that are achievable and measurable are generally the way to go versus this plan is a lot further out and more goals three to five but the idea is that they are vertically aligned. So if you can take a look at all of the work that you're doing in the district and it's headed in this new direction vertically then you're doing exactly what you need to do. Obviously goals can go all the way down to the buildings and student staff etc. Those will per goals that he'll work with them as the CEO in the district to make sure that those goals align with what the board wants the district to be headed toward. So the most important up and down and I believe that this

074is also common of a goal um approach but occasionally I'll have goals up in left field and it's very timeconuming and exhausting for people who try to do gold in different areas and different directions. So that's what I'm looking for and then the next slide please. Um Barb I have a question for you. >> Okay. >> Um I thought as a board don't we have a threeyear goals or something right? wasn't at mental health and that was our three-year plan. >> Remember when we did that when we were in here? >> Operational plan, which I thought was one year, right? >> It's a one year. It was a one year thing. >> The mental health and the >> we Yeah, we evaluate every year. >> Okay. Okay. I was thinking that was >> because remember

075we did we did have financial stability and and then we switched it because we felt like so we did that after >> and that's just in one year. Okay. All right. That's a good question. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. And just please keep interrupting me because I can't see all of you real well on the screen. So just >> do that and thank you very much for asking the question. So um in terms of evaluations, I'm only going to focus on the news here for just a minute. But the idea is that we should agree on something. Now I know a lot of you in your other lives outside of school board, you've either um evaluated people or been evaluated. There's a lot of different processes. You do not have to use the process of

076adjusting with other goals Facebook book, but we think it's helpful because board members to superintendent both seem to find it a common language. There's lots of ways you can do an evaluate. We just want you to agree on one so that Nate knows what to expect his first year in the district and then the next year, the next year. Um, we do ask you to collaborate. You know, this is not a job for a committee. Um much like the superintendent search, every single board member fully participated in that because Nate reports to one board, not seven board members. So you do need to work together. We don't want you to delegate something like the evaluation to a subcommittee because they'll bring the report back. You may not as a board in your poll agree with

077the results. We do want the whole board to participate if you can. Uh there'll be ratings and written feedback. Generally speaking, if you have a midyear, it's way more informal. maybe December, January. The year end summit of evaluation is more formal where the ratings and the rankings and that sort of thing do need to go in the personnel file because it is an opportunity to keep records of what's going on. You should document what's going well in areas that maybe some improvement could be um agreed upon. The fourth bullet down is news. We just want you to voice as a board. Same thing with the evaluation. Now you're you could evaluate Nate individually of course and then compile those results into a single report whether you average the scores or make a note of the

078majority of scores were this but one final report. So the heat is where the direction is coming from from the will of the board instead of trying to ple individuals that get really really tricky and very difficult. And then please allow time to do this. Um, so many boards think this is they can just keep kicking the can down the road. You have so much on your plates and probably are exhausted when you come out of work right now and say this board is super intent. So schedule time out. Maybe you have dates on the calendar, but do schedule a mid year and actually put one on the calendar for next spring already so everyone's committed to it. They know that they can show up. Allow a couple hours for the conversation. Um, it's important

079enough. You want to make sure you're communicating. You cannot overcommunicate. So do synthesize that conversation. Are there any questions on dos and don'ts? Okay, next slide. So the goals you must have again sometimes I do workshop is on goals, but I think you got a really great head start on do that that suggests elements you could use to support those goals. But for now, that's the big part they've got and you've already got that done. So, thank you. And then just schedule the year until eventually the end of the year one as well. That's the simple three steps that we ask you to follow. Next slide. Thank you. I always have the open meeting law. Um this is one of the very few times that you at the board can close a meeting. So you

080really cannot close a session excuse me a meeting for any purpose relative to your superintendent except the evaluation itself that you can close a meeting for. But when you're discussing the goals for next year and identifying what's important or optim goals that should be done in session you can close it for an evap. Well, we encourage you to do that because in a closed session, not you don't have to record it and that kind of thing, but you can have a much more frank conversation in a close session with one another as well as the superintendent. There's one caveat to this and that is that your tenants prerogative that they want it done in open meeting. So every once in a while there's a superintendent that in writing for the school board that the performance

081evaluation scheduled for so and so date is conducted in an open meeting and you must follow their request. So you cannot close a meeting unless it's okay with it. So if they want it in the open, you do it in the open. Can anyone think of any reason why superintendent might request evaluation in >> you're you're cutting out a little bit? >> Can anybody think of a reason that they would request to have it in an open meeting >> that they would transparency? >> Yeah. Community trans >> hiding something >> that the school board is hiding something. >> Yeah, all of those are correct. Uh if there's a request to do it in open meeting, it's most often because relationships are broken down between the superintendent and the board to a point that they want

082things shared in the open so staff or community or parents can hear what the board is saying and the superintendent has a chance to respond in an open meeting. It's not a great sign if wants it in an open meeting because it does indicate that they're not comfortable in it session and they want it in the open. Um so we encourage you to just talk talk. Don't let there be any surprises, good, bad, or other. Superintendent, never be blindsided, whether it's open or closed, um by your performance evaluation. They should understand how things are going and they're communicating regularly with you. If there's concerns, the board chair is having a chance to direct um conversation with the superintendent about that just to make sure that you don't have something six months down the road unexpectedly

083rearing its ugly net. So try to keep talking about it if there's something that's not as well as you'd like to be done. And then the final reminder is this is information. So you have to things to put in personnel file when you're dealing with private data. So anything that is talked about in the closed session. You as board members handle confidential data all the time. I'm not at all worried about vir. But just remember this data it does need to be handled accordingly. and also work with the HR people in your district, whoever that might be, to keep those records briefly in the personal process. So, those are the only two things I have on that one. Um, is there another slide? There you go. Thank you very much. Uh, the three C's, I

084say all of these are really important. I don't even know which one might be more important than the other because communication, clarity, and collaboration really are the bottom line. Um, that's the class overview. So I think that's the last slide and left there's one for questions. So I'll pause for a minute see if you do have any questions on the presentation. >> I do have a question. Um so you were cutting out a little bit and I just want to repeat something to make sure that I heard it the right way. Um so based on what you've shared um about MSBA's recommendation I understood that majority of the evaluations are done at the closed sessions and the open sessions are only done if um if there is like a a special need to make it

085public because there is some um misalignment between the board and the superintendent. Is that the right assessment? >> Correct. Correct. In 5 years, I've only seen one superintendent request that be done in an open meeting. And it was because the relationship had deteriorated to the point that they couldn't talk to each other and they wanted to air durable laundry and we to make sure that the community got to see that there was disagreement between the superintendent and the school board. But I 99.9% of the time we get to go into the closed session instead. >> Thank you. >> Was that fine? So Barb, is that I think the last eval we did was its own meeting, but is that part of a meeting where we close the meeting, do the evaluation, open the meeting, and

086continue the agenda? >> You know what? I didn't ask that question, but if you want to grab the book, look at page I think it's page seven and talk about >> both the first pages are the rationale for doing evaluations. much that I guess went through the evaluation powerful but never seen you close the meeting. You do have to open it in an open meeting and then if you're going to go into session you have to announce the purpose of it and then you walk through going to close session and you have to come back out of closed session and you either resume the meeting and any business or you come back into the open session too. You'll also note though G at the bottom here. Well, F and G both. So, the school board

087chair got to provide a summary of what happened in that closed session that is provided at the next vote meeting. So, needs to reasonable person can understand what happened in the closed session but without giving a whole lot of detail. Usually, it just shares this is what we evaluated the superintendent on. the scores we gave or you have an average score of exceeds or needs or doesn't meet something like that. So it's pretty in the back of the book there's also an attendance in the appointment there's an example together for a report the most important thing not to forget report even if the most open meeting is a special meeting it's still open so you still need to give the report I did get asked one time what if we have you know a close

088session and we come back into the open meeting and we adjourned And then five minutes later we start meeting to talk about something. Does it need to be that? That's the next convenient. The answer is no. Um no chair in five minutes. So I'd say at least a day or two later the next report out what happened in close session. Did that answer your question? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank you very much. >> Other questions? question. >> I have a question. Um, for the end of the year eval where we put together one final report, you mentioned to have enough time for us to do that. When do you recommend that we start to really focus on making sure we're on the right track to make sure that we have

089a final report ready at the end of the year? >> Yeah, great question. Most boards do them twice. They do a mid year in December, January, and then the next one in June. But what happens is rather than out of the blue at your, you know, the beginning and going into close session, most often the board chair will send out something two weeks before to all of the board members if hey everybody remember these are the we agreed upon the evaluate. Please, you know, put your comments and score your rating and get it back to me. And there's usually a deadline a week or a week and a half later and then the chair comes into that closed session to hand back to everybody the results of the board as they so most people give

090about two weeks mainstream for everybody to have their book heard and shared with the board chair who's then consolidated into something for the board to consider in that meeting. >> So is that the chair who initiates this process or Usually the share the chair will gather the information and compile it or create averages loops however they decide to do it and bring it back into the close then close session. I haven't seen anyone other than the chair do it except in very large districts. Sometimes the director of the one collecting that information and tabulating in a couple of districts had a chair and voice do it together. Um but it is confidential information. So you do have to be careful who's collecting the data that is you know scoring nature. If you're using a fourpoint

091skip call, that's not public data, just anyone to compile. It needs to be someone who's a confidential employee or a board member or two board members gathering and creating maybe average scores and putting all the comments in there so people can read it at >> answering the questions, but please keep asking questions. >> Thank you. So, but to do that, we need to have we need to align on the goals first, right? to for evaluation >> which goals are set. >> We have already Okay. >> Yep. So, we're going to do that. Next, I want to talk about measuring the goals that have been set for NATO, but I do want to talk briefly about something I saw in the plan that he sent me. Um, I do want to mention uh these 360 degree

092use. Now, they're real common in the private sector and you do see them occasionally public sector. Now 360s for someone not familiar with them is that you surveyed people who work for the superintendent and ask them what they think of their performance and you gather that information and include that in your report. Correct. So 360 degree reviews MSBA tends to say are not a good idea and I'll give you a couple of reasons why. So we do not encourage those. Doesn't mean you can't do the best practice to do them. um for a few reasons. One, the board is the hired the overseeing authority of the superintendent. And sometimes if you start looking for feedback from other people, you give the impression that you're sort of giving away your authority to do that because you

093need people to tell you how you're doing in order for you to evaluate. But I want to acknowledge the awkwardness that no one on the board has. Is that correct? Correct me if I'm wrong, but have any of you been a superintendent before? >> No. >> There's 2500 board members in the state of Minnesota and I know two that have been superintendent. And so they've walked in those shoes. They know what the job entails. It's naturally awkward for lay people like me and like to evaluate them because you don't know what their job is. So you feel you want staff and administrators to tell you how you're doing. that can backfire. One, you're giving them authority to other, but two, people tend to be um polarized on those reviews. So, you got people that hate

094and it's anonymous survey usually. So, the stuff that comes in those surveys is not actually um constructive. It's not something you can use as a board team to work toward moving as a forward. It tends to be people with an axe for drying or people that think doing a fabulous job. So, they're not really productive. Well, that being said, we've seen 360s be used in two ways, in a really good way. Um, one is some superintendent like to send out a 360 to people who work for them as a professional development tool. You know, they want to become a leader. because they want feedback from people about what can I improve upon as a leader. So they might gather that data and use it to strengthen their own leadership journey. If they choose to share

095with the board or not, that's completely up to them. But as a a PD tool, some superintendents do like to use three. The other one that can be helpful, I think, is if you do um culture and climate survey. and culture and climate surveys get to the heart of ultimately what is the superintendent's responsibility. They're not saying, "Hey everybody, let's see." They're saying, "Hey everybody, create the cultural climate in the district or buildings or whatever." It's all superintendent leadership style will close. So they can post that. I just want to give you a word of caution that sometimes they can backfire. And I do have a way for you to figure out how the superintendent is supposed to do every day. um a good educational it's going to be homework if you want to do

096it slowly open up the box parent to page 13 we're starting and page 13 page 23 when you have time school board members I would say please take a left column on every single page So these are the eight standard. Standard one is governance. Standard two is political finance that we list that we suffer. If you want to really understand the job of superintendent and how enormous it is, remove every single element the left column of what highly superintendent would do. So 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, 1 D, 1 E, 2 A, 50, 2 C. If you read that, you're going to walk away with a better understanding of what your job entails. So, it's a good education book understand the detail of what they have to do. But it's a lot of reading.

097So I know what I'm going to suggest though based on proposals that you've already deducted take a look at possibly coming up with some agreement on elements that you could do to write under the goals. So if I may um Nate had sent me the goal we adopted there were see one I think three three okay so the first professional goal was to complete the plan and create a strategic plan and then there are action steps there's two three four step under entry plan strategic plan so he's going to report to me what he's doing because I think the assessment we would call evidence indicators or proof. And if you look at the back of the book on page 27, yeah, right up to page 27, A1, A2, and A is a list and that's

098helpful because and a very small list. There is far more than that, but that's just an superintendent to provide you with proof or evidence that they want what they said they would do. what can sometimes be challenging for board members who still like what does that mean and how are we going to measure it you know if any of you are getting my goals you understand where we're coming from on this but >> what does it mean >> so I would suggest and it's up to you what can you look at what would you think of using one beat as a measurement tool for that first goal. So 1B says goals and or strategic plan. And if you look at that, if you just copy and paste it one section out, if when the time

099comes, maybe if you're talking about it in the mid year, but for sure the summitative, if NATE has facilitated development of the school district's short and long-term measurable goals and aligns it with available resources with the school district's budget to accomplish those goals, that provides some kind of a road map or an agreement between the board and need about what you have to do to be rated as work. Now, sometimes you get a shoulder score where people are close enough for twos and threes or ones and twos. If though you're using this for life scale and it's pretty clear in practice superintendent, their goals are not developed. Well, he's already developed approve. So, you know that he's not getting one for sure and then developing would be this effective would be that and how they

100effective that. So that has helped some boards better understand how to score them. It's yes or no because the problem that we run into and I don't know if this is going to happen in the court or not is sometimes the goals and measuring them feels very subjective. The problem with subjectivity that's not fair to the superintendent or to other board members because you might be in all kinds of different areas about what something means. Right? What does that mean? So under the first goal, you could put one and see if that gives you a way to fairly objectively update on that with the web. Just two or three more hanging with me if I do that. Okay. The next goal that you adopted was strengthen resource and budgetability. Okay. Strengthen res budget ability. And

101then there's again three action steps and three assessments. If you wanted, you could go to page 14 I think 2 on development and maintenance and they give you a road map to evaluating him on that. So if you read 2A, you know, a couple weeks before the evaluation, board chair can send this out and you as board members circle one, two, three or four. Nate might want to be self evaluation because really good feed into this as well. But 2 a might be something that clarifies what you expect. And then maybe also 4 a if you turn the page to 16. 4 A talks about um facilities. So 4 A the element is called um facilities may want to be highly effective. He ensures implement is in place and includes the current status of buildings

102and the need to improve facilities in the future with a projected plan to secure funding. So that's a little clearer than just saying abilities, right? It gives you something to for as something to as the board. So maybe 2 A and 4 A. And I've got one more suggestion and I'm going to stop talking and turn it back over to the board um to facilitate a conversation about what you want to do next. This is your plan. It's not mine. These are just ideas. But the third goal that you already identified was to create wide staff development system with access, oversight, and alignment to priorities. So in that case I looked at 16 which is way back on page at the top of page 19 there is an element that says staff development they now

103four would have to ensure a comprehensive staff development plan fib and that it aligns with school district and school specific goals and complies with the We will ensure staff develop program school district specific plan goals and priorities and focus on increasing student achievement. That's still a lot of words and it's still a little open to interpretation, but it's language, right? And language is squishy. So, it's sometimes hard to know whether it fits that or not. But if he met the superintendent, there'd be no comprehensive school district staff development plan right there. Even if you really really like Nate, you'd have to give him a one if that's the status that I'm evaluating. And if you really believe, well, Nate is doing what a highly effective superintendent does, you need to give him a four. So

104what youth in the elements can do is kind of bring emotion and remove personality from the evaluation process. So I'd recommend weaving those into the goals. Um, but you don't have to do them. I'm going to stop talking mute myself listen to you all talk about it decide what we want to do moving forward asking questions is that okay all right thank you so what questions do we have regarding what Barb went over with not only the powerpoint but also the binder book manual I'm not really even sure where to begin. I don't know. I I don't know what questions I have yet. >> It looks a lot different than the AW that did last year. So, this is all kind of >> So, I just need to digest it. >> Yeah, this is good.

105I >> I like that we have a point of reference. >> Yeah, >> I don't think that I have any questions. >> I have to re look at it in different I like read it and highlight stuff. So before January, will we as a board have an opportunity to align on those evaluation standards right before we do the actual evaluation in the closed meeting or before the closed meeting? Closed meeting is to to talk about the outcomes of the evaluation. Right. >> That's correct. >> So do we have those meetings? They will they have to be is it just opening session or how is this going to happen? >> Because that would have to be open meeting. Uh typically it's been done via email. One person would be the point of contact to here are

106the parameters basically is what we've done. Here are the parameters. Send me your feedback. >> I'll compile all of the feedback. But how the question right is how do we determine what of this >> right >> results in that? And I don't >> I that would be an open meeting correct because we're just discussing the parameters of the evaluation. >> Mhm. Yep. >> But do we put that on a work session? >> Yeah, that could be >> you're taking any action or anything, >> right? >> And it seems like we have not used anything like this before, right? >> Correct. Right. >> Okay. >> So, in thinking through that though, >> we would need to put it on the agenda for the December >> work session in order to complete it to have the time

107to get it done in order for the feedback to be done in January. Whether that be the first meeting or the second weekend in January, it's still going to have to be >> compiled. Are we giving measurements in January or is that just at the end of the year? Well, that that that was going to be the part I would highlight from Barb's presentation is that that that midyear is less about looking at those elements and like going this is we're at a four or a three or a two or one now >> and it's almost more like a status report or reactions or continuing to zero in on which elements you're actually want. I guess I would love to see elements as quick as possible so that then as I'm >> putting things together

108I can keep it organized >> so that it makes it easier when we get to the end of it. So January we don't need to provide the grades just yet right we need to by the January evaluation session we need to just align on what exactly we're evaluating right and what are criterias for evaluation >> no January is actually evaluating >> no no but but nature said right it's going to be more of your nature's report to ask where he thinks he is in comparison to those evaluation goals >> but I think the one thing I would say that's a little different than what you were talking about is what Jeremy I think was landing on was preferably in the December time frame, you should arrive at these elements like like Barb listed out. >>

109Mhm. >> So that that would that would help me organize information for you so you knew and I knew what we were all going to look at eventually. >> Y and Barb said a word that stuck out to me about the meteor evaluation. It was conversation. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So we want We want this to be a a right interactive back and forth of here's where I think I am, here's where we think you could strong points, room for improvement on these to get to the end goals. >> Yeah. More informal. >> Mhm. >> Um I'm curious just so I mean there's a lot of >> there's a lot >> so I I'm trying to think out loud here a little bit. Would it be wise for us as a board to individually go

110through these have one point of contact Jeremy I'm volunteering you um and kind of going through and seeing okay so this is how I see it aligning with the goals and these are the elements and then >> you kind of look through and say you know what everybody chose this one and kind of get a starting point so we don't spend 4 hours here >> right Um, I don't know. >> I don't think we need to talk about every every one of those items here, but this is back to the goals, right? So, this these the this is a comprehensive list for all of those eight things that were on the super superintendent column there, right? Whatever however many things were. Um, but yes, via email makes total sense. Yeah. >> Well, what you're what

111you're saying is knowing what the knowing what the goals are, going through all of these elements and identifying, hey, for goal one, >> 1B might be one of the elements, but maybe Kelly says there are three other elements I found, >> but maybe Nadia looks at it and says, well, really 1B is the one for me. And David is >> Yeah, >> David would go extra, right? He'd be like, "Here's these 15 elements that that connect to that." But >> yeah, >> I guess >> is that what you were kind of saying? >> Yeah. So, like for example, on goal number two, 4 A and 2 A were the recommended ones. So, it's like, well, I'm going to look at those to see, but I might also think that there's other ones that align with

112that. And then if we have a few that everybody already agrees on, we can >> kind of narrow down a little bit or at least start communication. So, we're not all here. There's a lot of us and we all have different opinions. So, I'm just trying to >> And I like what you're saying because if everybody says 4 A, then okay, we lock in 4 A. But if three people say it's 6A and 2B, now we can have discussion regarding these two instead of >> right >> this. Okay. Barb, when we had our when we were doing the super search, we had these evaluation things that and it it helped us like narrow down. Is there something more is there something like that that >> Well, like when we had we circled the things that

113we all liked and then it went in and it went in. Yeah. Like and it was just like kind of easy the questions. Yeah. questions and I was just curious if there was something a little because this is a lot to to process and if we're looking at two weeks, three weeks >> that is a lot to process. So I I think one of the things you could do the short answer is no there's not like a rubric. Um but on page 12 this pages of the eight elements. So that's to be a one stop. >> Okay. >> You want to go through and say okay under governance when I look at those five options I kind of think that goals and strategic plan is what I would choose. and you can flip that actual

114page and leave the verbage under goals and strategic plan and see if it's what you want. But that's a a nice overview. Now, one of the things that I would suggest um your your end of the year is November 3rd, right? November 3rd. So, try to keep it simple also for your first year. And I would say no more than maybe five or six total elements to evaluate N on come spring because it's a lot. It's like during fire your first year has been exactly with Byron because of the referendum. Very few new superintendants are tasked with referendum. It's a little unusual. So he's already got a little bit on his plate and hasn't had as much time perhaps to do some other things that we want him to do. So if you think about

115district um everything mattered want to be super clear that everything was important right you have high priorities in fire public schools and you know what those are but then you also have higher ones higher priorities ultimately you're going to have the highest priority and that high priorities are what your superintendent evaluation should focus on the most immediate most important important priorities at least for evaluation purposes. Now, Nate still has to do everything. >> So, when I said, you know, read elements of a highly effective superintendent, you're going to end up reading like 45 or 50 elements. He still has to do all of it, but you need to help him prioritize it by focusing on what's absolutely most important. And only pick four to six. I think I suggested, >> but if you start to

116have too many elements, you're going to burn out your and it's out for the map. So, you really want to know it down if you can. And then next year, you built ones maybe, but in a different way or a different element in the same standard. So, these are meant to grow. It's just the simplicity of the elements versus, well, how do we think you did this year? Everyone's got opinions and there's no clear room. We think the the elements are visionary, but narrow it down. >> And I would I think the only thing I would add, and this is absolutely going to come across as self-s serving, but when I when I was teaching, I used rubrics like this to evaluate and grade all of the kids on everything. And what I really found

117was when I reduced the elements to the lowest number possible, >> it provided me with the greatest amount me and the students with the greatest amount of clarity. And that as I added elements, it just ended up muddying the waters. And so anyway, I'm more just trying to, at least from my experience using rubrics like this with lots of kids, just trying to reinforce what Barb is trying to say, recognizing that it means it's less elements for me to focus on eventually. I was honestly leaning towards the just adopting what just recommended because to keep it simple and to for us as kind of going through this pro process first time it's a nice and achievable framework. Okay. Um I think the big question is just deciding if you how you wanted to collect everybody's

118input and then what the timeline for that would be. >> Maybe we start with the recommendation and then whoever wants to add drop anything can um you know reply to you. >> Could we at our next meeting have a have it on the agenda where we're checking in where I'm going to say, "Okay, we have seven and we need to narrow down to four. I'll be sending you all an email with the seven ranked in order." I mean, should we do that where it's I'm just brainstorming of what makes most sense? That's your plan. What do you want any additional data by? If you're if you're going to have it on the agenda for next week and you want seven, >> Two weeks. You have two weeks, Dave. >> Two weeks. >> You don't have

119anything else to do. >> You don't want to give two weeks because you got to go less than two weeks actually >> to give him time to do that, too. So, >> yeah. So may maybe like one week for us to email you with additional suggestions beyond the four or recommendation to remove any of the four and then a week for you to compile. So we I for one would also be if you're worried about the time crunch, I would also be comfortable with if this ended up going into like the December work session, >> you know, recognizing that you kind of lose one week there because of Thanksgiving and stuff and nobody should be working on this stuff for Thanksgiving. But >> but anyway, if you're worried about doing under the gun because Nate's

120all nervous, that's not going to happen. >> When's the truth in taxation? Because I don't want to know that sounds like And I' I've been teaching Sean how to be extra boring for it as well. >> Yeah. In fairness, we have not had one delivered by this could be the most thrilling and >> dress up. You've seen cheers for lost hope. >> Did you use an accent? >> Yeah. like British if you really like >> or we should all have signs of different accents and in the middle of the presentation >> I'm cancelled for you know >> offending cultures things >> let me ask this in the next week could everybody send me their four elements >> so each person would be just sending me four >> okay >> that's feasible >> I mean I'll

121>> well it's elements beyond on the four I think is what we were talking about. >> I was going to say cuz I know that we have our one two three I have four recommendations here but I guess looking outside of those >> four you're talking about 1 B 2 A 4 A 6 A that recommended >> I had 2B. Yeah, 2B. >> Did I write that down? >> Did you have 2 A? >> I probably wrote it down wrong. >> What were they again? >> Um I don't know. >> I said Barb, do you remember what they were? I apparently >> I have one B, two A. >> One. >> Yeah, I had one B for the first goal. Yep. >> Uh, for the second goal, I hit 2 A and 4 E and

1226 A. And for the third goal at >> 68. >> So I think anything outside of those recommendations and then also it might be wise if you feel those or one of those should not be used maybe identifying that. So >> yeah. Can everybody And sorry one one clarification for the second objective. Um so there are two items recommended there are 2A and 4A. Um would you recommend Barb that we evaluate based on those two items or would it be a recommendation that we somehow combine them you know and then use evaluation according to combined rubric? >> Great question. Most people leave it as is and just do one. >> Okay. Thank you. I hear what you're saying though because there is definitely we read the elements you know A B C and D some

123of the language usually elements applies to the other one because you know finance have six elements and there's a lot of finance that is really priority for you this year but a lot of them kind of the other ones but you want to move over to the goal of trying to revive You certainly could rewrite them if you wanted to. Um, but you don't have to. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I can tell you what not to do as we're sort of going to a close here is I had a district that was all with this book. They they were so proud of this book, the superintendent evaluation. So I met them and talk about what they were doing. Every year they evaluated the superintendent on every health element. >> Yeah. >> Like 45 or

12450 elements, right? That's where superintendent didn't know where to focus because everything was important and everything important nothing is the most important. So it like a 5h hour evaluation just trying to evaluate on every single little element. So please don't do that. That's why we want to say winnow down, prioritize it for evaluation purposes knowing he still needs to do all of those things, but from an evaluation perspective, please point him in a direction at his most district right now between now and the end of June. >> Okay. >> Was this helpful? I know it's hard to not be there in person. I must be there in person with everybody, but was this useful or a good use? >> Very helpful. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, I have nothing further unless you have a few

125more questions for me. We still have some more business so I can log off, but I'll give you one more chance to ask me something I can help you with. >> Thank you, Barb. Thank you, Barb. >> Thank you. I cannot wait till tomorrow night or the next day when I get to hear how I'm very excited with you and I'll be with you. >> Thank you everybody. Thank you for uh visiting with me tonight. Byebye. >> Thank you. Byebye. >> Bye. >> All right. We'll review our seniority list starting with the certified staff. >> Um just so you know with these uh these seniority lists uh there's all sorts of things in both these contracts that are tied to t the the individual's position on the seniority list. And so we have gone through

126with um with both of the units um uh the supervisors and each individual employee um just to verify people's placement. Um, one of the, it's important to know one of the, how do I call it? Points of controversy at times can be this column C because that's really the column that that ranks everybody. >> And there's a difference between the number of years somebody has worked in the district sometimes and the number of seniority years, meaning the years that they've given to the district. So, for example, if you were hired in, I'm just going to do easy math, the year 2000, right? This would be your 25th year. But if you took like uh a long-term leave, let's say to care for a child four different times, your seniority years would actually be 21 instead

127of 25. And so um because over the past few years this list and the job of maintaining the list has shifted individuals a couple of different times there were a few errors but we have ironed out those errors and notified the the applicable employees. So um we do feel really good that this is the list that we can depend on and move forward with both in terms of the certified staff which is the teaching list and also the principal list. Any questions or discussion on seniority lists >> and all of those changes have been reviewed with the staff and their correct? >> Yep. >> All right. We'll move into action items. Action form A from the MSL resolutions. >> Yes. And both of these um both these forms I'm trying to get this other one

128out. These mouse these uh things end up being approved by or these forms end up being um approved annually by districts in the state high school league. Um, and they are tied to being able to ask for grants, apply for grants, and then for the grant funding that assists in um, providing additional opportunities, whether those potentially be grants that help fund activities and athletics, um, provide workshops, all that sort of stuff. So, it's basically, it's part of being in the league. you agree to that we sign these forms and then we're granting the state high school league the authority to operate on our behalf in terms of searching for these grants and distributing the applicable funds. So >> okay do well we should we should do them separately correct they are listed separately >> um

129car you want to read the answers >> Yep. Whereas the Minnesota State High School League Foundation was formed to provide uh support for Minnesota high school youth to participate in athletes and fine arts. Whereas the governing board of Byron public schools district 531 recognizes the value of student participation in extracurricular activities. And whereas the MSHs, I said that good, foundation is offering grants and funding to assist schools in the rec uh recognizing, promoting, and funding extracurricular participation by high school students in athletics and fine arts programs. Therefore, be it resolved that the governing board of Byron Public Schools District 531 supports the school's application to the Minnesota State High School League Foundation Pro form a grant to offset student activity. >> Okay. Any questions or discussion on this resolution? Would entertain a motion. >> I

130make a motion to accept the resolution. >> Second. Motion and a second. That's a resolution. So, roll call vote, please. >> Lisa, >> I. >> David, >> I. >> Jeremy, >> I. >> Kelly, >> I. >> Nadia, >> I on the form B resolution. Whereas the Minnesota State High School League Foundation was formed to provide support for Minnesota's high school youth to participate in athletics and fine arts. Whereas the governing board of Byron public schools recognizes the value of student participation in extracurricular activities. And whereas the MA MHSL foundation is offering grants and funding to assist schools to provide seminars, trainings, training opportunities or support for uh specific school functions for students, faculty members, officials, and others who are involved in athletic and fine arts program. Therefore, be it resolved that the governing board of

131fire public schools supports the school's application to the Minnesota State High School League for a form B. >> Any questions or discussion on form B? >> We'll look for a motion on form B. So, >> second. >> Motion and a second. Roll call vote, please. >> David, >> I. >> Lisa, >> I. >> Kelly, >> I. >> Nadia, >> hi. Jerry I and his ab. >> Oh yeah, sorry Jeremy. >> All right. Uh recap of the listening session. >> How was it, Jeremy? >> It was amazing. Uh we had no um visitors this evening for the listening session, which brings us to our final item on the >> I make a motion to adjourn. >> Motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. We are ajourned.