School Board Meeting 10-27-2025

001[clears throat] Yeah, that's the recognition. I'm not dealing with it on the highway. >> Medical That's why we didn't It's not productive. >> [clears throat and snorts] [clears throat] >> All right, I've got 701 On Monday, October 27th, 2025, we call the regular school board meeting to order. Uh, all board members are present this evening. Uh, 3.0 is public comments. I did not receive any uh requests to speak. So, we'll move on to uh 4.0, the the approval of the agenda. So, there's a couple of changes. Uh you'll see this page here that's got additions to the uh consent agenda. Um Centa Sander is a termination for a pair at the high school and then Erica Moer um is a middle school pair who will replace Charity. Then also um we have honors and recognitions

002tonight. I think it as a part of the agenda. So, I put that as uh 4.1 honors and recognitions. Um, are there any other additions or changes that we need to have on the agenda besides those those three? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I post motion carries. So, we'll move to 4.1 which is honors and recognitions and Mr. Lumpa will speak towards that. >> Okay. So uh we are very excited to be able to share. We have uh four gentlemen with us coming up guys. So um we found out and Marine feel free to jump in. I know you were part of this as well. Um we found out that uh these four gentlemen have been selected by the Minnesota School Boards Association to perform at the Minnesota School Board's conference coming up

003here in January. And so, um, because I didn't get you a gift for board recognition, I thought it'd be cool if they could come and sing for us here tonight. [clears throat] So, you guys willing to do that? >> Yeah. >> Can we have you come stand over here maybe, so that everyone can see you? >> Whenever you're ready. [clears throat] Oh, say can you [singing] see by the dawn [music] early light, what so proudly [singing] we held at the [singing] twilight last gleaming whose bright stripes and [singing] bright stars [music] through The peril is [singing] fight or the ramp [music] parts we [singing] watch were so gallently streaming. And [music and singing] the rockets regular, the bombs [singing and music] bursting in air, gave [singing] proof [music] through the night, that our [singing] flag

004was still there. Oh, [singing] say us that stars spangled ber [singing] yet w the [singing] land [music] of the free and the [singing] home of [music] the brave. [applause] ALL >> [applause] >> RIGHT. SO, JUST WANT YOU GUYS to know you've become a very big point of pride for us because uh you you've been singing at a number of different events, but we're I'm going to be extra proud to be up there. Maybe I'll come and stand up with you when you sing. I'll just move my lips and pretend. Um, but I want to recognize uh Samson Siphon, Jason Ionis, Christian Tino, and Thomas Emis. Thank you very much. [applause] Nice job, gentlemen. All right, we'll move on to 5.0. know which is the approval of the minutes from the past uh regular school board

005meeting or anything to uh correct or change on those minutes? I just had one question about it and that was looking back for the agenda for the sub nurse. It's my understanding she still hasn't received that raise yet and I thought we voted it in last month. >> We did. I can talk to Steve. >> That's goes back retroactive, right? 2526, >> correct? >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Comments or changes? I'll take a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Motion by Scott. >> Seconded by Ken. Any further discussion on the minutes? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Uh 6.0. It's the long awaited audit presentation. Uh Mason Ursbed is here with I Bailey. And so I will turn it over to you Mason. >> Yes. Hello everyone. I

006you know I've done the pledge of allegiance virtually quite a few times at this point during these presentations but never have I got to sit and listen to them sing the or the star sple. That was awesome. So I can see why they're they're a point. But uh yeah, I'm just going to be going through uh the executive summary here. So I'm going to share my screen hopefully. All right. Can you guys see that? >> Now we got >> Yes. >> Perfect. So essentially, you know, we we go through the, you know, the entire audit process, you know, request a bunch of stuff, a lot of invoices, do a lot of different testing, and at the end of the day, you know, what district received is a, you know, audit financial report. And this executive

007summary is more so meant to be kind of a condensed version of that report. Um, so, you know, not everybody wants to jump in and read those financials that, you know, can be 40 pages to, you know, 150 pages. Just kind of depends. Um, so this kind of gives you also some more multi-year information where financial statements typically only give you a single year presentation. So if you have any questions as I'm going through this, just feel free to shout them out. So first couple slides here is going to be going through the audit results and findings. You know, big big thing here and kind of what we're what we're looking at here is with any audit, we issue an opinion. So, like I said, we go through all of our testing, request a lot

008of invoices, ask a lot of questions, and ultimately issue that opinion that you see in the front of the financial statements. And, you know, this year, as has been in years past, the district received that clean out of opinion, uh, or as we call this, unmodified opinion, which is, you know, ultimately what you're looking for. You know, we found that the financial statements were free of material in the statement. So, you know, no real issues from uh our perspective. One uh one thing I point out to districts on this slide is that like I said, we're going through all this testing. We're really testing testing on a risk based approach. So, we're looking, you know, we're looking at virtually everything, but we're not testing 100%. So, you know, we're not looking at every single transaction

009and, you know, things that go through there, but you know, we're giving comfortability in order to issue. So, you know, we feel like we've we've tested enough there. Next one here is findings. So really there's three areas that any district can receive findings in. So you you would have your financial statement findings, Minnesota legal compliance, and then um what we call a single audit. So essentially this this first one here, so financial statement findings, uh the one that's you know been recurring year over year is this preparation of financial statements. This really isn't saying that the district is doing anything wrong. It's just that we as the auditor come in and prepare the financial statements. And again, it's not that the district you know, couldn't prepare them. It's more so that we prepare them. We

010also ensure that, you know, they're in accordance with all the different accounting standards, um, all the new accounting updates that come out every year and just make sure that, you know, we have all the information presented in them. Nothing of real note with this finding. Um, you know, nothing that you would really even correct in years uh or future years. Um, just one we see on I would say 95% of the districts to be honest. Minnesota legal compliance finding here. None, you know, great to see. So, essentially the state of Minnesota puts out an audit guide that we have to follow every year. Um, so big things here would be we test student activities uh pretty heavily. Uh, we test different bids. Um, and just different things like that. So, you know, district is in

011in full compliance there. I did mention that uh third area where there you know could potentially be findings um and that would be in what we call a single audit. So if the district expends over 750,000 in federal expenditures in any given year then it triggers a single audit. the district did have a single audit this year and we have gone through all of our testing and we didn't note anything of we didn't have any findings um at this point but I I will caveat all of this and say that the uh federal government puts out it's the office of the office of management budget or for short puts out what we call a line supplement every single year that we have to follow um and that hasn't been issued yet so we we need

012to hold all of our single audits right now um until that gets issued Um, but again, we've gone through the testing. There's nothing but we just can't release that yet. So, just want to point that out there. And we'll, you know, test communication in the future once that actually does get uh released. Next slide here, uh, is this Gabby 101 implementation. So, Gatsby is the government accounting standards board. Essentially, you know, as a school district, you're you're a local government. So you need to follow these GSBY standards that get implemented every year. Um you know past year you've probably heard about Gazby 87 which was a lease standard. Gazby 96 was kind of revolved around subscriptions. So different things like that. This Gazby 101 what it really does is they came out and said hey

013we're we want to try and modernize the accounting for different leave types. So or your your compensated absences would kind of fall in that big bucket. So think of things like vacation liabil sick leave. Um, you know, within the district's policies, there's, you know, a lot of different types of leave. You know, leave, jury duty, maternity leave, just a lot of different things like that. Um but essentially now what they're saying is hey we need to go and look at all employees of the district what their you know sick hour balances are their vacation hour balances you know kind of what's their their rate at the end of the year and ultimately what is expected to be paid out you know through the life of those leaves. Um so it's it's one of those standards

014that is going to have to be you know kind of revisited every single year. Um, and essentially what happens is, you know, you take all of the all of these hours, all of these rates and you you average it out over it can be three years, four years, five years. It just kind of depends how you do it. Um, and then at the end of the day, you come up with, hey, this is what we expect in payment in your future. This $666,000 here, that's not kind of a it's a it's not a one-sizefits-all. It's, you know, what we consider a significant estimate. Um and the district did utilize USI who was an actuary to go through this valuation. So they they ultimately came up with this this number here that um you know we

015had for this this leave at the end of the year. So again nothing but just one thing that you'll see um in the actual financial statements. Next few slides there is just a lot of different graphs. Um so like I said you know the full financial statements you know really just present the current year. This will give you a graphical representation of, you know, the past 10 years here. One caveat to a lot of this is it when it goes to the general fund. Um, essentially because the general fund is, you know, that fund that you're paying all the day-to-day operational costs out of um where it's, you know, a fund like the capital projects fund, most your cash balances in there are set aside for a specific capital project. So, as the year end,

016you know, about 11.7.8 a million dollars in cash investments. Um, and this would include the the general fund cash, um, your, you know, internal service funds, your all those different funds. Um, but again, good trending number, nothing real note for our perspective. So, just a, you know, increase in cash investments there. Next one here would be your, uh, ADM served. So, your your average daily membership. Um, but essentially, you know, kind of those student counts year-over-year, you know, from a graphical representation, again, nothing of, you know, notable than this, you know, pretty big jump from 24 to 25. So, the only thing I point out to districts here is that ADM or student counts really drive the aid that you get from the state. So, you know, higher the student counts, the higher the aid

017typically is. So, you know, when you see that increase, you'll usually see an increase in, you know, your your state aid revenue. and then a subsequent increase in cash. Next slides here is really kind of the the wordiest of or the the most numbers of all of them. So um starting left or right here you you see your original budget. So this is what you guys would have gone through a year and a half maybe almost up to two years ago at this point when you kind of initially started the process for fiscal year 25. Then your final budget. So, you know, you go throughout the year and say, "Hey, actually, we think our calculations are going to come a little differently. There's some different factors that we need to, you know, put in here.

018So, you would have revised your budget. Then you have your your actual column. So, what actually occurred during the year? You know, these are these are the actual numbers. And then we just put in this variance of final budget uh column here just to kind of give a high level overview of you know hey here's where you budgeted here's where you actually landed and really big things I point out here to districts is that you know hey you budgeted or your actual revenues came in more than what you budgeted which is good to see and your expenditures came in under what you you know were were expecting. So really a net posit at the end of the day because this over increase in your fund balance of about 1.2 2 million um in that general

019fund balance and I'll show some quick ones here in a minute but any any question on this slide this is the one that has the most numbers going on all right I will continue on [clears throat] so next here just kind of same what a positive thumbnail can do you know it contributes to a favorable bond rating if you guys are going out for bonding you know say hey we got to get a new project coming up here, we want to go for a bond. Um, you know, the bonding agency might just, you know, it looks more favorable when you have that positive fund balance can produce some of that, you know, investment income on some of that those fund balances that you have set aside. And then really just offers a cushion for unexpected

020shortfalls. Um, so that's where I'll get to in a minute here, but where you'll see your unassigned fund balance, kind of that that rainy day fund. Um, so kind of a more of a, you know, different presentation here. So there's five different categories of fund balance that will typically present. So your non-spendable that would be things like your inventory and your prepaid uh asset items. Basically that fund balance is already set aside for that those purposes. Your restricted which you'll see in the next couple slides here is legally restricted by an outside party. Um so a lot of different revenue buckets that MBE says hey you got this money it needs to go for this specific purpose. So we got to restrict that fund balance. your committed unsigned is more so just, hey, we're going

021to set this aside for a specific purpose, but it might not be, you know, a one size fits all, like, hey, we're going to set aside $200,000 for this this capital project. We only spent $100,000. You know, we can we can move it back. It's really more at the discretion of the of the board. And then your unassigned, those are just your reserve and your rainy day fund. The next one here is uh your your change in fund balance for every year. So, you know, hey, we got all these different buckets, these restrictions, um your assignments, so transportation, fundraising, you know, just future commitments in general, and then your unassigned fund balances, which is what most individual looks at look at at the end of the day. You know, positive increase of $2.3 million there

022and a total fund balance in the general fund of 8.1 million. Again, just another another graph here. So just you know kind of seeing that upward trend and you know if you think back a couple slides when I showed the student counts and the cash balances you know everything's trending in that upward direction. So you know you're kind of seeing that that trend over all of these graphs which is it's good to see. But one thing we point out here so you know every district typically has a fund balance policy of what they want to set aside for uh fun balance in any given year. It's not a one-sizefits-all. You can say, "Hey, we want to set aside two months," which is what the district sets wants to set aside. And that's what this GFO

023recommends. Again, not a one-sizefits-all. Could be one month, three months, six months, just depends. And the current year target for that is about $2.1 million. So, you know, way you get to that is just your your total expenditures, divide them out for the year, and then multiply by two months. So, then you can get that 2 million there. And you know, as you can see here, here's our our unassigned fund balance in this in this blue kind of on the far right, which is over the district's policy. And then this unrestricted fund balance. This would include your your unassigned um and your assignments and your commitments just because those assignments are more at the district's discretion, not an external third party. So I've I've talked quite a bit about the general fund here. So I

024just want to jump into some other funds here quick. So the community service fund, you know, as of 63025 year end in between that 350 to $400,000 range. So let's say $375,000 of fund balance that year end. Um again, nothing of of real notes. You know, pay in 23 had a good fund balance dropped to 24 rose back up to 25. You know, that can be due to a variety of things. Ultimately, the community service fund is there to serve the community. So, it's, you know, it's good to see a a positive fund balance there, but it's also not, you know, from our perspective, not the end of the world to see those gifts because, you know, it means that there's there's programs that the, you know, district offers and is trying to, you know,

025have to there. And then next one here is your food savers fund. Um, again, nothing of real note here. Just a a solid positive fund balance year-over-year, which again, good to see. Um, really, you'll see over the past few years. So, MPD says, "Hey, you can only have three months of expenditures in your fund balance, um, at any given time, unless you go back to them and say, you know, we're going to set this aside for a specific purpose. We got 600 and $600,000 in fund balance. we need to purchase new ovens next year. We need we're going to offer some additional food service program. There's a variety of factors. Um but they just they have that kind of normal there. So that's where that that line comes. But as you can see the district

026is under that. And with that any any questions? Any questions for Mason? Mason, thank you very much for your work and efforts on this and uh presenting it tonight. >> Yeah, not a problem. It's I, you know, I would just like to say thank you for I know for Brenda, I know she's not here anymore, but you know, I work with the past past three, four, five years probably at this point. And she was a definitely a valuable resource. So sad to hear a go, but you know, we got Drew in there now and he's been been rocking it. We've, you know, they're good from a fire hose a little bit, but we're we're getting there. So just, you know, we definitely appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you, Mason. >> Yes. Thank you. >>

027All right. We'll move on to 7.0, which is the student council. >> We're with the student council. I'm Chloe. I'm >> welcome. >> Thank you. >> So, our first one, um, our dress up days during homecoming went really well. We matched them. And then I thought we had a lot of student and staff participation. And our advisory games, we matched them to our homecoming team, which was Western. Um, the students that participated in the advisory games had a lot of fun. And then I thought that the students watching also were very engaged. They never been bored. So, that was good. Um, this year instead of doing an activities night on Friday night, we ended up doing a dance on Saturday and it was um it was a big change for us, but we decided to

028give it a try and it actually went really well. We had about the same turnout as we did in previous years um with the activity night and so and then also Friday looked a little different for us without having a parade. So, we had a little extra time to fill, but I think we filled it pretty well with different activities and we gave more time to our skits for our sports teams. And I think it went very smoothly. And now we're starting to prepare our winter service project, which will be done by the juniors. Um, we're not sure what we're doing yet, but we're still planning everything. And then coming up in the winter, we also do snow days. That used to be ep, but I don't know how many two years ago we took

029that over. So, I'll do dress ups and advisory games and then a winter contest for that as well. >> Very good. Any questions for student council? >> Thank you, ladies. >> All right, we'll move on to 8.0. The live update tonight is uh with Mr. Swatski. So, Scott, >> good evening. Um just wanted to share the building goals that we have for our 512 building as they align to our strategic plan that has recently been finalized. Um there are some things that are highlighted in this plan that we're going to be focusing on for this school year. Um and then we'll continue to evolve this as the um as the years go on to meet the strategic plan goals. So for the first goal of our strategic plan, Lacapar Valley will take steps to ensure

030a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students in each grade level and subject area. What we're doing on the early out and late starts that that uh the board approved is we're working very diligently on our curriculum maps, bringing that up to speed. U making sure that what our teachers are covering is aligned with the state standards. um we are um enhancing our professional learning communities. So, they're working together departmentally, really focusing their attention to these areas. Um we've had curriculum maps, but I would say that over the last few years, um we haven't had as much attention on them as needed. Um and with that, we'll also be enhancing our pacing guide. So, my hope is that anytime we get a new teacher or a new staff member that comes in here, we can

031hand something directly to them and say, "Here's exactly the plan. Here's what we need to cover. Here's the curriculum. Here's approximately approximately how long we spend covering our curriculum, etc." Um, a professional look, I think, when when people come into our district. And then [clears throat] our our anticipation is that um with that added focus and um that intentional focus on um the standards, the updated standards is that we'll see some improvements in our MCA source as well. Um so that is kind of step one in our strategic plan for goal number one. Any questions on that? Okay. Um then in for strategic plan goal number two, Black Tarl schools will provide robust college and career opportunities and experiences and will clearly articulate these available pathways to students and families. So one of the things

032that we've been talking about in in action step number one here we've been talking about generating a career pathways flowchart for our students. So, if you want to get into the medical field, um we'll have a a course descriptions or a course list of courses that you can take should should you want to be exposed to that field. You want to get into um construction, um the electrician field, etc. There will be career pathways. So, that is going to be something that will be focused on this year, will be completed this year, um so that our students and their handbook will have available for them for the 26 27 school year. Um, we're also going to be reviewing our course offerings and I'm in the process of digging in with area school districts that are

033similar in size, particularly the Murv schools to get an opportunity to review what their course offerings are to see if there's something that is a real popular hit at their buildings or in their districts. And if it is, then maybe we can bring something similar back to our district that our that our kids can um experience as well. Um and then some of these things we're already doing, but we want to continue to make sure that we're exposing our students to postsecary uh college fairs, to career fairs. Um we have we'll have one again this spring at Lakaporo Valley. We have one about every two to three years here where we give our students the opportunity to see what sort of jobs are available if they want to stay in this area. And there really

034are some good jobs available if they want to stay in their home. Um, and then we also take them typically to SMSU where there's career opportunities that they get exposed to from all around the west central area and Minnesota area. Um, and then we just en encourage college recruiters anytime they're available to uh get out here and talk to our students and and get our students the opportunity to inquire a little bit more about what's available for area colleges. Any questions on goal number two? So Scott, on the career U flow chart, will we have classes then that will align with those? >> Yes. >> So I'm not concerned about the four year because we pretty much nailed that. But the twoear we have >> Yeah. And so >> your opportunity for the plumber electric

035construction. >> Well, I mean of course that depends on staffing, right? So, essentially what we're going to what we're going to do is take every course that that is available to our students throughout their um their fouryear four years of high school. Well, every every class that might align with that field listed so that so they can then say, okay, if I want to be an electrician, these are the classes that will align with that. So, I need to look because some of our classes we don't offer every year, right? Some of our electives we offer every two, maybe three years. So, then that way in their four-year plan, they can look and say, "Well, at some point, if this is only offered once every three years, it's probably I'm probably only going to get

036one crack at this." Um, and then that's part two of this where if there's some opportunities that maybe we're missing and we can find out from area schools that are that are being affected in in their districts, then we'll we'll borrow and steal and and try to bring that to our district to better give our students some better opportunities. Are we sorry? No, go ahead. Are we I don't want to say uh reinforcing or improving our ability to register and take classes because I know that's been a a source of contention in the past about actually getting into classes and classes not being available till almost school starts and things like that. How are we doing anything on that front to make sure that they have these pathways but then they actually can take the

037you know, can't tell I'll be honest. One of the big hang-ups there has been staffing over the years and and the unfortunate challenge is we can we can have things in our course description book, but if we don't have the licensed qualified teachers to cover some of these, especially CTE areas, um it makes it really difficult to to plan it. And that that I think has probably been the biggest reason for some late planning for students. Um, I am hopeful that we have some young additions to our CTE courses in particular that hopefully will provide a stable future in those areas. Um, I can't guarantee anything at this particular point, but I think that will help. Um, I think in my experiences with scheduling, I've been involved in a seven period schedule and now our

038modified block schedule. And although there are pros to each of them, I think there are also cons to each of them and some challenges that we're that we're continuing to face and uh continue to try to look at. But I think the reality is probably um I don't know that there's a perfect schedule out there or we'd all be using it. You know, in a small district like ours, the unfortunate truth is kids are probably going to end up having to make some choices and there's going to be some things that just don't work out for them. mistakes to say. >> Yeah, I I mean I I think we can do some improvements along the timing of when some of those classes are registered known and I think part of that is the hiring process,

039but also having you know those classes should be figured out the year before for the most part and things like that that we can try to improve. >> We can certainly look at that. Again, I think the challenge becomes we don't staff members in place. It gets a little a little tricky at that point, but >> Scott, you did also um just because it pertains, we also did add um some overloads and things so that we could make sure some of the courses that have been a sticking point in the past that were kids if they took this course, they couldn't take that course because at the same time, we were able to offer them on a different semester or something so they could get it. if they couldn't get it here, they could get

040it there. So, I know some of those things have been improved. >> Um, so then goal number three, Lacaro schools will conduct a review of the district's communication tools and systems in order to streamline communications to all stakeholders. Um, so I've talked with Mr. Ratitz a little bit here just recently and we're going to be digging into, you know, I I I hear about the parents square messages and I understand it. Um, sometimes people will say there's an abundance of parent square messages that come out and that be can become a little frustrating. Um, people will say, you know, I I don't read them all, etc. Um, and yet others will say, well, if we don't read them, how do we know? I'd rather be overcommunicated with than undercommunicated. So there's there's been this balance,

041but somehow someway, we'd really like to find the feedback, the flow that that can help us um determine what an appropriate amount of communication is, if that's even possible. We're also going to do a a check to make sure that when we when we got into Parent Square, the goal was that that was our only communication tool, so that we weren't using all sorts of different platforms. And I personally feel like that's been a positive thing over, you know, instead of having Remind and um all the different things, there's one one resource that families and teachers and coaches etc. are all using. So I'm going to be working with Mr. at its and um probably some other people haven't quite delved into how this is going to look yet, but we'll need to survey some

042people, get some feedback, get some data so that we can um help to identify what sort of improvements we can make in this area for goal number three. Um and just just do an audit of our current communication tools, see if there's anything we need to get rid of, beef up, or just generate some better practice as well with questions on goal number three. And the last one then for us would be um lack of the strategic plan goal valley schools will establish systemic conditions that promote student connection and engagement. And um I think you know one of the biggest things that I am um working with our staff this this year on is making sure that our learning targets which should be directly focused on the content that is being covered in class is

043is not only posted not only visible um but also connected with at the beginning of each class period hopefully during the lesson as well as used to tie up the conclusion of the lesson. Um, and some sort of a of an assessment is done at the end of the lesson to gather some feedback on whether students have met the target or not. Um, and if there needs to be further further practice with that. Um, and so that's um that's one of the pieces. We'll continue to do the student forum here in November. Um, we our soar program has some some great opportunities. There is a um a people of black project that's coming up that I think is going to be really cool. That's a way to just kind of make make some connections [clears

044throat] and help our students and staff to be engaged with each other. And then um just making [clears throat] sure that our students are receiving college career readiness instruction, advising, and the different exposure to opportunities. [clears throat] Any questions on our 512 um building goals for this year? Yes. I'd like to just back up to goal number three in regards to Paris Square and being a single communication platform. I would ask that we if and when [clears throat] Mr. in regards to a standard format format across all departments is the five W's clear concise the five W's. So there is no nothing being missed because I get some of these parent square messages and I'm like okay some of them are covered some aren't there are still questions that are looming if you will after

045receiving a message and you got to try to get that information so I would just guess ask that looking at a you know the 5W standard to include the how >> if needed >> but that's what I would ask okay >> we would look at that pretty hard >> and that would be to go across all all departments and other not including sports to include sports most definitely >> and I think I would say on some of that though too is just the training of parent square I know like I used it during the summer for youth baseball but you're kind of thrown into the into the fire like okay what what am I supposed to click and what am I not supposed to click >> and know because I know there's overrides there's not

046overrides and things like that I think just maybe And even for new teachers, not having that like, okay, I see it, but what am I supposed to click, what am I not supposed to click or, you know, just having to think a little more clear definition of how it actually works. >> And and to speak on that, those are tricky pieces for me, too, like when I push things out. Um, I don't know if I'm thinking of this correctly, but my head says as parents, we have the opportunity to set set up when I'm going to receive my feedback, right? But then I've also heard, you know, why does why does person A get this information right away and I don't get it. I had to wait till 8:00 at night and it's like how

047do you pick when to override something, when to not override something? Like it's easy in the case of a snowstorm or or something like that. But [clears throat] um yeah, so so I just think that maybe there's just conversations now after some time of using that where we can try to get better with it. >> And the only other thing I would look at is like on goal four where we talk about career exploration. I think for, you know, some jobs like when they do um job shadowing, >> there's some jobs like I would say like we've had a few kids from life come down for engineering and stuff. There's busy season and there's not so busy season. Um is finding that happy medium. So some I would say more in some of your constru

048construction trades and stuff if kids are interested is to hit it August September >> instead of waiting till I don't remember when they start if it's November in the spring. A lot of that stuff they may not be doing anything. And sometimes it's nice to have them um come into the field and actually see some of that stuff. And I think the tricky piece there, right or wrong, is trying to find that window where maybe they're not going to be getting finals tests or, you know, it's kind of like we pair it up with say a three-hour early out or something like that where maybe the the curriculum isn't going to be quite as intense that day. So that's I don't know what's right or wrong, right? You know, it probably depends on who you

049talk to, but but I get I get what you're saying, too. >> All right. Just one just one more thing on the student forum. I [clears throat] guess I would like to see probably a little more diverse um collection of students. I think we've always done the the 80 students are always in there. Um and I guess I would like to see more of Okay, maybe we don't have all the best and the brightest in there. We have the other. So we have a more better representation of what our district is and our from grade A to grade F. Um so we can get their perspective as well as to what might not be that doesn't give them to that higher grade. >> Yeah. No, I can try to do that. I what we've done

050in the past is we've used um different organizations. We've reached out to directors, coaches, um different leaders in areas and said, "Hey, pick somebody." And you're right, that's probably the the leaders of those organizations so we can try to figure something out there. >> And you said that's in November. >> Yeah. So that'll be at that Tuesday meeting. We can switch it to a different switch. >> Absolutely. Y >> I know girls basketball that night and everything just make a meeting where >> That's not a problem for me. >> There's no no activities whatsoever. player music or anything like that. >> Um yeah, I'll try to look to see what um >> what the next one will be where Yeah. will be where it won't conflict with anybody who has activities. >> Okay. All right.

051Any other questions? >> Thank you, Scott. Yes. Is the handbook. >> The handbook. >> I was going to bring that up in my in my report. >> All right. Thank you, Scott. >> All right. 9.0 was the resolution to accept the the gifts, donations, and grants for the month. You see those on page 11. And we thank those donors for the contributions. Make a motion to approve. >> Okay. Motion by Scott. >> Second by Matt. Any discussion on the gifts? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh moving on to the consent agenda. Um and just a reminder that we have uh we've added Cassa Sander the termination of the pair and then Erica Moser. replacing chair neck. If there's nothing else on the consent agenda, I'll ask for a motion to

052approve. Make a motion. >> Have a motion by Shannon. Second, >> second by Scott. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I post. Motion carries. 11.0 is the monthly financial reports. rules. We have Mr. Drew here. >> Um, so just going through the the monthly reports. I just kind of copied what what Brenda has uh presented in the past. Um, starting with the cash flows report. Um, nothing really of significance uh to report there. Kind of just status quo. Um this is the time of year where we get uh levy payments from the different counties and so we'll be getting um those payments here over the the tail end of October. Um so yeah cash flows kind of the status quo business as usual there. Um the enrollment report. Um this is

053we're down uh three students from last month. Um and talking with Scott, this is we're we're down from where we were last year. We're a little bit under budget. And so going off of the audit presentation from Mason talking about the um importance of maintaining a fund balance, this is kind of the example that you're kind of just protecting yourself from. Just kind of giving yourself a little bit of security blanket to protect yourself that when enrollment comes in a little bit lower than what was projected that it's not Armageddon. You can keep the keep the lights on without uh really making uh significant changes um budget reports. Um once again I just went through um the same reports that Brenda has done in the past. Um nothing really of significance here that um I

054would really uh raise any attention to. kind of just business as usual, kind of just uh progressing naturally throughout the school year um relatively early on here. And so most of the budget line items are um have have balances left to be um that are available to be spent. >> Anybody have any questions on any >> Drew? You can do whatever you want to do. Are are we looking at these changing and >> what is that going to look like? I guess >> so like >> your own way. >> Yeah. So I'm in Oasa I mean we everybody does if you went to any school board meeting they're going to have some sort of reports like this to kind of get these points across. Um these reports are a little bit more detailed than but

055I would say it's kind of a little a lot to digest. Um, also on the other side give you really high level reports that don't really dive in uh super in depth. Um, but maybe in the next like month or so I'll discuss with Scott and kind of bounce some ideas off you guys kind of run through what I do at minerala and have some examples and kind of have some back and forth to uh decide where we can um come up with a a good good reporting system for you guys. I appreciate hitting us the high points. >> All right. Thank you. All right. 12.0 is the payment bills and claims for the month. I'll make a motion for October 2025 board bills of 38,257. I can't talk. $38,25756 September annual checks of $63,2866

056and October construction bills of 932,497.35 for a total of $1,34,04157. Okay, we have a motion by Kim. >> Seconded by Shannon. Any discussion on bills and plans for August this month? Hearing none. Uh all those in favor? >> Motion carries. All right. 13.0 is the annual uh multi- lingual learner update and language instruction education plan. So Missy and Um, while Mr. is holding up the presentation. Miss you and I had the chance to be over at a title three MVED uh training and meeting day and it was like the cherry on top to get to come and present to you uh this evening because we got to sit around with colleagues in our consortium who do the same job we do but at different districts and um time after time we get envious comments of

057gosh I wish we could do a lab doing it or golly you're all your teachers do that or your your administrators really care about that your school board talks about that. Um so thank you for your continued support of our multilingual students and families. We're gonna yeah give you the update on how it's going as far as um progressing towards some goals of language proficiency and family engagement. Um and then there's a couple of documents that we're just going to show updates and get some approval for. So, uh, schoolboard members, you might remember about a year ago, I provided this document that had a lighthouse on it. And, uh, when Mr. Ellenworth was here, we would use this phrase of being a lighthouse, an example of how to work with multilingual learners in a rural

058school district with not a ton of staff. And I think it's [clears throat] important to look at where we've come in just four years. Uh if you look at the box for 2122, we had 115 qualified EL students. We were working with 2.5 teachers and your goal is always to move students to English proficiency and access them. And we were doing that at about three students annually. You look at the next year, we qualify even more students, improve our staff, but still have really high ratios. We know that when we have high ratios, students over the contact time or service time. Um, so still not really moving students to exiting from EL services. Then it's fun to go to this slide and finally start to see the ratios improve. You see our exit numbers improve.

059Um, it's just really fun to be part of a program that year over year is progressing and then the students and families um are making gains too. When you look at where we are at now, uh, as of October one of this year, we had 139 qualified EL students at the K through2 level. This is a little bit of a drop when you look at where we were qualified this time last year. And so I've had some conversations with Mr. Lumpa about like budget implications that come from a lower rate. This comes from students moving out of district. This also comes from really successful instruction and exiting more students than we had anticipated. So these are really good. Exiting more students than we had anticipated is a great problem. I won't say that uh losing

060families to moving is a good problem. We miss them. We hope they will come back. This number does not include voluntary prek. So VPK students in our Appleton Milin site are also required to receive ML services or meet with their EL teacher. So this number is a little higher if we include PPK students. I love seeing this exit rate. It continues to grow. So just last year throughout the district, we exited 13 students. Uh this shows us that the English language development instruction we're doing is working uh and looking at the meeting today and uh working with a language learner. Language has four areas. It's speaking, writing, reading, and listening. And we see districts get stuck in just trying to teach phonics or just trying to teach reading, sorry, on reading. And we are really

061focused on writing and speaking. And I think that that shows in the products that our students put out in their chemistry classrooms, in their biology classrooms. So I am proud of progress improved exit rates. Um we continue to merge our programming with uh preschool needs. Last year, our staff completed their second year of really high level uh professional development. We Does this have like a dot pointer? Great. Okay. So, all of our secondary staff, and this is where the EL teachers in other districts get really jealous because we're committed to making sure that every teacher knows how to work with a multilingual student. It's not just the EL teachers job to know how to do that. And when you have that buy in from your staff, that student now has access to an education in

062every classroom, not just in that time of their EL or ML teacher. Um, so our secondary staff went through combined learning target training. We did accommodated assessments. We did culturally responsive teaching. Uh, I'm just so impressed by the professionalism and skills of our certified staff. Uh other things is we're finally seeing long-term English learners. So this is a student who is maybe still receiving EL services, but they were born in the US and they've been part of the programming since they were in kindergarten. And we wonder why in nth grade are you still struggling to demonstrate English proficiency and we're finally starting to see those dials move. We hadn't been able to service those kids when we had two EL teachers in the district. They didn't get services and now the last two years they

063have. And then we see the move. So, it's exciting to see weaknesses. Um, early childhood front end programming, engagement, and just uh enrollment continues to be a place. We're trying to uh make sure our families know the opportunities available for them. Make sure we have interpreter services that are getting them all the paperwork uh completed with them. Uh that's just somewhere we are looking to improve this year. Uh, and then secondary scheduling. Mr. Squatsky talked on scheduling at the secondary level is hard. I'm glad that we meet often as a middle school team, as a high school team to say, "All right, if this student needs EL services, how are we still making sure they can participate in choir? How are we still making sure they can do those electives that they want to?" Because

064that will lead to their careers. So I come up here every October. We talk about ax um e exit rate. So I kind of t touched on where have we been, where are we going with exiting students from e services. Uh now I want to talk a little bit about access performance. So I I like the data. Um I like to see where we're measuring. It's not the only picture we should look at, but it is important to look at. So, the Minnesota report card is a state website that shows it shows MCA demographic data and it also shows progress towards English language proficiency for a district. And I'm going to touch on in a little bit because we are really focused on MCAs right now and looking at our scores. um we should be

065equally as focused at looking at access scores for English learners and how are we doing on that test because an English learner 99% of the time will not perform on level on an MCA test. What we should be looking at is their growth on the access test. So I'll touch on what the where that's going with state legislation. So this is for our Apple Milin building. Uh when we get to the leap, you can uh we'll look at percentages of students in grades that are equalified. Um but I continue to brag about this building everywhere I go. So Appleton Milin Elementary last year moved 59% of their English learners towards their ELP, their English language proficiency goal. And we see this is over 10% above the statewide average. um teachers in that building are just

066doing awesome things and and the data shows it. So, it's this is their second year um being far above the state average. So, hats off to all those teachers. You work so hard. Then we go up to some data for the middle school. Uh we have a 7% increase in our percentage of moving students towards English language proficiency. This was a percentage that had stayed in the teens or the low 20s for so long for us and now we are finally starting to see progress. We have a multilingual teacher specifically dedicated towards the middle school. Um so it's really fun to see that pay off for students. Then we go up to the high school and the high school has been the biggest web to kind of untangle when it comes to scheduling and getting

067students all the things they need. uh this is goes back to 2023 where only 16.2% of students uh were moving towards English language proficiency. In that year only students who are new to country were receiving appropriate EL services at the 712 level. It makes sense why that data was so low. um as we added more courses and more instructors able to offer more English language development courses and then we see this percentage just keep climbing year-over-year. So I'm really proud of this doesn't happen just because of an ML teacher. This happens because the whole staff is on board and is trying to make sure kids are learning in their math classroom in their social studies classroom. Um so I have lots of hope that that will continue to rise. Any questions about data? Please like

068interrupt me [laughter] if there's anything I can clarify. So again, just to put those exit rates, we are on the up and up. It it was fun at the meeting today to say like we have to figure out two-year monitoring at left because now we have students from last year, we have students from this year. Um it's not just hey those one or two students. It's becoming a new part of the job we're learning how to do. I got a question for you. >> Go ahead. >> So when you're meeting with all these different mer group, right? >> Yeah. >> Does Wilmer fall in there somewhere? >> Wilmer's not in our bur consortium. >> Well, my question is we have a Micronian population, right? >> Large population in regards to the Chuckies and how I

069can understand how that is hard. >> Yeah. I was just wondering about Wilmer with the Somalians and what language they speak and just kind of compare because that statewide thing of 46% of whatever it was. >> I mean, Spanish, Spanish, I get Spanish has been around for a long time, right? We've always had Hispanic culture, you know, >> it's been taught in high schools for, you know, students to learn. >> We're Chuck, >> no written, no real study guide, right? >> And then I don't know what does the Somalian culture What language? >> No, I don't have any. >> But you know what I'm getting at. So where is the state getting such a high percentage? Is it mainly >> uh Spanish, Hispanic type? >> I don't know off the top of my head the

070state's breakdown of language learners throughout the state. Some statistics I know is some schools have like the average amount of language learners to have in a school district is 6%. Our school district this year is averaging at 18%. And when you go rural, it becomes even more uncommon. Um, and you're right that chis we are we have the highest truth speaking population in the state of Minnesota and it creates lots of challenges because of the lack of literacy tools that are translated. Um, you know, we're looking at getting kids registered for basketball with our next sport coming up and we have so many bilingual parents and we need them to support parents through that registration process, but we also need them to translate for a newcomer and eighth grade science and so it's this pull

071of resources constantly. Um, let me follow up. >> Well, all I'm saying is I'm a huge proponent of uh >> metrics, right? Yeah. >> So, I agree with you, but I think you're getting kind of a unfair deal there when you start looking at the secondary side of the house and we're only at 23 and then you look at the statewide. I just think it's >> Yes. >> You know, it's not true numbers for the public to really understand because what is that? What makes up that 46% versus where are we at really with 23? I mean, that's probably a great number at 23 due to the fact that Chuck is >> Yeah. >> such a hard language, right? Go ahead. >> Sorry. Demographically they the state lumps >> all these it's very I mean

072I so American Indian Asian black or African-American Hispanic or Latino Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander or other indigenous peoples. And then they also have a category two or race. So they don't break it down. probably as small as you are anticipating they would. >> And I always think if we have >> and we can look into it a little bit further. >> If we have a language learner in high [clears throat] school, right? If they started in our school district, we would hope they exit in five to seven years. That's right around the sixth, seventh grade. So if we have a high school language learner, it means they probably moved here some time in their school career from another country. >> We we may never exit them. if it takes five to seven years to

073gain proficiency. Um, but also I there are a lot of staffing and improper qualification. There was just a lot of policy issues that we weren't being accountable for when we were here that we are now. I would agree. It's hard to think that the public's going to look at this with all the context that we know, but knowing all the context, I'm really proud of that >> and I believe you should. >> Yeah. Agree. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's But it's hard. It's hard to look at and go and yet we're still under. >> I just think it's unfair to you is what I'm saying that really because we don't know. >> Right. Right. >> I mean, we can see that obviously you decreased over the years. So that's an add. But that state [laughter] but

074that state percentage is what drives me crazy because it's like well >> you know and and say we can find you know that 70% of language learners in Minnesota are native Spanish speakers. Say we can find that data and we could go well the Spanish uh alphabet has so many more similarities to the English alphabet than the two alphabet does. Um and and we can look at all those like what what might be impacting some of this data. We know that when our students move here from Indonesia, their whole schooling experience has looked so different than a western. [cough] [clears throat] So there are so many barriers that our teachers overcome, our staff overcome. Um I'm just thankful they're in the dog fight with us. We're all there. >> Any other data questions? Okay, so

075this this is a good segue. So the state put together a EL task force last year to evaluate um performance and challenges. So it came forward with recommendations and challenges earlier this spring. So in March of 2025 this report came out and I you what did you say Dan? You like analytics. How did you say >> metrics? Okay. So, I'm I like to read policy and see where it's going because if it's meet the temperature of where where we're supposed to be and are we going in the right direction and they gave recommendations about accountability, about professional development, about revenue and funding. You know, I'm concerned with losing a couple of EL kids. I want to keep a tab on it all. And also, I I'm excited to see hiring and retention just like in

076special education for ML teachers. This is a hard thing. I'm so proud of how many qualified ML teachers we have in our district, other school districts in our consortium that look that way. But one of the first recommendations that came from this task force and all that this means is that it's hopeful it will in it will impact policy um legislation in the future is that schools should not or not schools state should not be showing how schools are doing on the MCAS without presenting how they're doing on the access at the same time that when we look only at the MCAs it is not a full picture and so they're um The recommendation is to come up with a measure that includes both because this is such a big part of Lacar's story. So

077I was excited to see this. There's other schools in the same boat that if you've been increasing your number of English learners that's going to have an impact on your EL data or sorry in your MCA data. Another thing that was just affirming to see was a recommendation. It's not legislation yet, but that districts that have a 10% or above student enrollment with 10% or above English learners to define an EL coordinator role. You as a school board have already helped support that. That's one of the roles that I facilitate for the district. And over here it talks about how that will help with staff retention. That will help with accountability measures. And I think we've seen that play out. So, it's good to see that this the state is moving in that direction. And

078last thing I just want to bring up because we talk about case loads and numbers. One of the recommendations that came forward from the task force is EL case load numbers. Right now it's recommendations. It's not set standards, but it's something we have to keep an eye on when we think of staffing is where the case load requirements maybe going to fall. One of the reasons I'm here is to have you look at the language access plan. I'm going tell you what page it is in your agenda. So, I believe it was part of read legislation that [clears throat] the requirement for a language access plan came out. The language access plan is exhibit 9 or page 27 in your agenda. I'm going to skip around and point out the highlights. Page 28 on your

079agenda is just acronyms and definitions. On page 29 under section two, I am going to read this overview. I think it um best summarizes the purpose of this document. So, Lacro Valley's district language access plan provides a blueprint for bringing the district into compliance with state and federal language access requirements. This means how are we making sure that parents with limited limited English proficiency get all of the information that they need about their child at school. So, including how districts will uh increase its capacity to address language services and resource the plan the aims to eliminate language as a barrier to us accessing core information and activities for students and families ensuring everyone can participate and benefit from the educational system. So a lot of these things we already did but this document was the

080requirement of putting protocol into place. Uh here are the four important things that this document does. It talks about how we prepare our interpreters. I don't know if you've ever had the chance to work with an interpreter. Um, but there are a standard of ethics and principles that we want to make sure all lack parl interpreters use when interacting with our families and our teachers. So, this document covers how what is the standard training requirement for lack parl interpreters. It also talks about chain of command for um teachers to administrators. how if I have a parent who can't speak English, where do I go to help me procure an interpreter or get a document translated? It helped us clarify how we identify family language needs. That wasn't a process we had kind of streamlined yet.

081And then it gave great conversation about emergency protocol. How do we communicate with families with limited English if there was an emergency in the school district? So, this document finishes on page 32 of your agenda and it's also included in the appendix of the LEAP. So, separate documents, but we include the language access plan and the LEAP. The LEAP is the one I come talk to you about every year because you've heard it every year. I'm just going to give you the highlights, the updates, the changes. So the LEAP also known as the language instruction education plan is the policy book for how we deliver language instruction at Paul Valley schools. It is federal and state requirements. So this document starts on page 33 of your agenda. The leap includes our EL snapshot. Uh I

082share this out with our administrators too. When I share this with administrators, I show year-over-year the breakdown of EEL qualified students in their buildings so that um it's helpful to prepare for wow do I have 55% of a grade coming in next year that has that has a 55% of English learners. Um or it helps us for planning at the secondary level how many teachers need to cover how many periods and it helps us look at trends. It includes the first languages represented as well. Any questions about that email snapshot in the leaf? If you're paging through it has every year I update the demographic information for each school building. Some things I wanted to highlight that were just uh added or further defined this year. On page 40 of the schoolboard agenda, uh we

083have defined this elective credit which is an option for our seventh and eighth graders. Uh also exciting this year as one way we're responding to concerns about underperformance in math for seventh and eighth grade students. We have created an EL sheltered math course. So this is taught by a licensed math teacher with the support of a ML teacher for students who are not needing it in the MCAs and have heard great things about this so far this year. Having enough staff allows us to create these sheltered small environments for students to get the interventions they need. Also we've defined preschool services in the leap this year. So VPK students at the Appleton site are required to receive ML services and we are glad because the earlier we can onboard those families and get them a

084part of our school district the better trajectory for their child. Missy has been at the helm of bringing families on board at the preschool level. No, if you want us to to just a little piece of that. Yeah. So last year we knew that this was um coming down the pipe and I feel like we experimented a little bit with it last year which was really good for me. I spent 12 years in early childhood before I became an ML teacher um and I got a taste of black pearl 10 years ago when I was teaching with Head Start as I transitioned to go back for my masters. When I um when I finished that I was at the high school for eight years. So, I want all of you guys to just take a

085hot minute and like [applause] round of applause for Hope because she rocks this top end in and all of the data that she does. I'm not a data person. I'm definitely a a people person. I prefer the outreach and that's a piece of this puzzle that I'd like to share with you tonight is that I'm just learning um that that's that's been a missing point in our district is reaching out to families. two years ago um when I first got started I spent time in Apple at the high school and in Madison and I think that was very valuable because I I just got a little picture of everything that was happening everywhere. Um last year I got to be solely in Appleton Milin and when I started working with the preschool piece I realized

086that we um a didn't have enough room for some of our multilingual learners in one of the classroom settings needed to have more connection with our Head Start program um you know and c we just we still aren't reaching our multilingual families with early childhood education and so near and dear to my grandma heart right I start digging back into early childhood like I had done 10 years prior And I feel like that's something we can still do better with. Um, this year we've struggled a little bit with the outreach. I've been helping with preschool screening because our multilingual learners are probably our hardest families to reach. I've engaged um Helen to help out a ton with the outreach and the prior phone calls, but it usually still takes detective work before and afterwards to

087figure out where families were um why they didn't show up for appointments and and I think that that is um not something that can be taken lightly because we really want to know the kids that are coming to our district. Um, I don't know if you know our our front-end staff at all, but our kindergarten teachers, I've never been so impressed with the staff that I've worked with. They are diligent. They are consistent. They are kind and loving. They communicate with parents. I've never seen a district that communicates with parents like our like our front-end teachers do, but they also hold um the kids and the families to a high expectation. And what we've been lacking is the ability to teach that expectation on the front end. And I still think it's going to take

088some more time for that as we develop some program plans um that that just haven't been in place. It takes a lot of attention and we've done some home visits this fall. Um and Head Start likes to tell me, "Well, we do home visits." Yes, you do home visits once they're enrolled, but what we're looking for right now, we didn't start a second class of EPK kids until last Monday because they had a teacher that was out on medical leave, but they only had um six kids enrolled at first. Now we're building that enrollment. I think we're getting closer to 10, but I've had to come up and go, "Hey, remember this little guy? He was in class last year. Why is he not there this year?" And so it just it takes a whole

089team. I don't think we can expect just Head Start to do that outreach. I think we as a school district have to have something in place for early childhood. And I still don't know exactly what it is. We have some team meetings we've been working on. And um I I sometimes come across I think Rick when he hired me said I sounded formidable at a meeting and my husband said he didn't think that that was a very like nice thing to say and I'm going to bring it up again because I feel like I'm very passionate and other friends have said you're zealous Missy you care about families you care about kids and I know that we all do. I work with an incredible like staff in Apple. I'm so excited to have gone through

090letters training and see what that's doing for our ML kids and for all kids being able to read. Ah, you guys, we have like I would say 70% of our kindergarters were reading CBC words by first grade. It's a little scary, but it happens when you have great front-end instruction. And I feel like we can do even better for those birth to um birth to five kiddos. So, I don't know. Is that enough? [laughter] >> Beautiful. >> I mean, I look forward to staying involved with preschool. I'm just not sure how much of my time, how much more we should be digging in. And we're just asking questions and trying to lay a foundation because you know how important that foundation is in your families, in your in your homes, in your lives. Foundation's important.

091And um that's something that I I think we're going to continue to improve on. I'm excited to be part of STF. I didn't even know what SDF was till two weeks ago. I got asked to lead a meeting last week and I'm like, wait, I didn't even know what STF stood for. Not yet. >> Strengthening the family um has been partnering with Missy and um and the group in Milin to to basically host a a community event there just to draw our families together. But also >> Wednesday, November 19th, if you're available, we'll put you to work. >> Yep. And um but just again to strengthen those connections with the community in my as well >> and uh they've been asking. >> Thank you for supporting that as well. >> Thank you for passion. Thanks

092for caring. We are just really focused on parent education is what I keep hearing from what you're sharing. And we know that when we have more interpreters for conferences, we have a high multilingual parent turnout that when we offer translated um Mr. Lowry and Mr. opponent offered a translated financial aid night on site in my own last year and we have five multilingual kids who went to college this year. We know that when we figure out those bridges, when we figure out how to break those barriers that our kids and our families can be at a higher level. So, we're just trying to find the barrier and fix it or like >> go. So, um, yeah, we're going to keep talking about early childhood as the year goes on. Other additions include that the state

093has an alt access. This is for students with significant learning disabilities. It was a new test last year. We added to the leaf the exit criteria. Uh, we're thankful for updated test and exit criteria. And there's often a question, is the student not proficient because of their disability, if they're special education qualified, or is it a language difference? And so this provided a lot more clarity and updated assessment this year. Uh we added also the language access plan. So this is just know that that document you already looked at is at the bottom. It's in the appendix of the leap. Oh before we move on, do you have any questions regarding language instruction that lack? >> I got to play devil's advocate. >> Go for it. um how were we ensuring that the programs and

094the additional work on the teachers are not having an adverse effect on the the English learners and how are we ensuring that that occurs? >> Can you clarify adverse effect on the English learners? >> So let's say a teacher, right? I mean they're working at their capacity to teach as fast and as much as we can. >> Um and now they have a number of non-English learners in the class and they have to >> English learners. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Um they have to maybe gear learnings towards that or accommodate for some of that where that time would have been spent advancing the class more. Um, >> so I hear like two parts. How are teachers doing with all this added expectation >> and then like is is their focus on that impacting other

095students learning? >> Exactly. >> When I hear those two things, >> um, Amy Young, which was used to be an MVE employee who came out to our school district four years ago to to like get us kind of kicked in gear, she would say that tools and instruction that is good for English learners is what is good for all students. that when you are focused on engagement, when you are focused on we know that students speak first before they write and read and understand, like if I hear you say something, I have to hear it and understand it before I can read it and write it. Um, so I would say that all of the focus has made our teachers better teachers for all students. Um, all of the additional trainings. Now, being a classroom

096teacher myself, I do that contract, too. Outside of all these coordinating things, I think as a staff you would you would hear feedback that says it is stressful the expectations to try and meet the needs of such diverse learners in my classroom. I have a new country student. I have a student with 35 years. I have a special education student. I have a student who's special education and multilingual. I have this exemplary student that needs to be challenged and pushed. And then I have a bunch of students in the middle. And that is the art of teaching. As a district, we try to alleviate that by like I share a lot of tools to try and make working with an English learner less of a stress load. That looks like AI tools that looks like

097here's how to organize your data. How are you making accommodations? You don't need to have 10 different ones. Do this for your ones. Do this for your twos. I think we're trying and it helps having me in the teacher role all day so I can go I know this is what I need to get through my day. Um so I imagine that you need it too. But it's hard and that's why I say our teachers are so skilled and coveted because that we have poured training into them. They have bought in and improved themselves as instructors. But I'm sure they would say like it's so much because it is it really is. I don't have a great answer and I don't have a data pinpoint that I could reference. I don't feel like I could

098be an expert on see talking about the performance of non- English learners like just not not where I look at data. >> I wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about um some of the ways that we are trying to super support all all students in the classroom. You know, we have a wind time a designated wind time for each one of the grade levels and we also have a a new program we're working on called Flood the Classroom. So, it's giving additional interventions to those kids who need it and those kids who don't during that win time, they get to experience just a little bit of an accelerated component. Um, if you've heard of UFly, it's a it's a free resource right now and it's very popular that goes along with um very much

099of our letters training and we do UFly at various levels where kids so we can meet them where they're at. So there might be a student in first grade who is on lesson 86 in their UFI and we might have some that are working right right at the beginning at like lesson number eight. They're still working on letter sounds and blendings and during our flood time that's when we're able to do some of those interventions. So um it it's definitely a work in progress, but I I'm still very impressed and proud and thankful for that staff um in Appleton that just digs in and says, "Okay, this is what we're supposed to do. We're doing it. I guess we're doing it. And it might not look perfect this year. We might make some I we've

100made a tweak every every week. We've made a tweak. But I love that that the teams are willing to work. >> That's responsive. >> Yeah, they're they're amazing. And I will say the school board, you know, we have some extra early outs and late starts this year. Um and we have those days when a quarter ends. Staff has been vocal, I think, about we need as much collaborative work time as possible. Like the job is hard. Um, and every hour you give us, we will work with it. And so I I view those as little ways too that we are trying to partner with teachers to give them shared planning time, shared training. >> And we have three lunch hour meetings this week. You know, it's just a it's a lot. One of the things

101they asked us today at a rev meeting was if you were given an extra hour in your day, how would you spend it? >> Oh, go ahead. Tell them. >> That I'd take a lunch. >> I know. But I don't you know that's a teacher burnout plan. I but but she's not the only one. I mean, I see a lot of teachers eating lunch at their desk, collaborating with the staff member. If they have a shared door, the doors open and they're communicating between that door while they're eating lunch. I mean, it's just very common and very impressive to me because I >> to think of teachers. >> Yeah. Yeah, for sure. >> I haven't met one that isn't working their tail off. >> Those are my thoughts. >> Yeah. If if I didn't answer

102something that the He'll email me and I'll circle back. >> Um, miss. So, we just prepared a slide at the grade levels. Miss, if you >> Yeah, I mean, you can pretty much see everything you need to see right now. The top number is a moving number. Right now, we're at 15 that I've gotten home language surveys back for. And I have to chase down the families now that are coming in and get a a home language survey before I can screen and to get a permission slip as well. But at at kindergarten, we're pretty steady with 16, first grade. Um, we exited five kiddos last year and so and we had a few move. So, our numbers are a little bit down in first grade, which it was a very challenging group of students.

103So, I'm okay with that number. Um, especially because the front end has been a lot of outreach this year that I maybe wasn't thinking I was going to need to dive into. Um, but I feel like if we had two classes of 18 kiddos the year before, there's probably some kids out there that should be in a program that aren't. And I found a couple. Um, they're my kiddos and they're not even key speakers. So, we'll see how we do. Our our um our numbers hopefully continue to grow. I'd like to update that to make it 20 in the preschool level before we're done. We'll see. This is Kirsten Lindström. She works with our second through fourth graders at the Appleton Milin site. There are some teachers in the room who have the privilege of

104working with her. I hear nothing but rave reviews. She works heavy in small group instruction and with new to country students. Uh she talks about using hygiene writing curriculum. again uh how integrity or excuse me writing is the key to getting through that access proficiency test. So we are really focused on writing skills for our students. This is Miss Fischer. She works uh heavily with our fifth and sixth grade students. This is most of her time and then she works with new to country students in 7th through 10th grade. This year she is support she does ELD ELA. So she does English language arts instruction for multilingual students. And then she also has with this year again a math intervention. If you're an EL student performing below MCA um meeting uh you get to be

105offered an invitation to work with Miss Fiser and revisit some of the language of math skills. Um she's been a great addition to our team. This is Miss Wenty. She works specifically with seventh and eighth graders and she services our Madison elementary site. Uh she has two EL courses. So these students see their ML teacher every day, one class every day. Um this is just a giant improvement of contact time and from what we've had for the past couple of years. Uh so she's reteing things they've had in other classes. uh focusing on those output language skills and then uh she also boxed over to Madison and then we created this ELD math seven and eight. I kind of touched on that. So this is co-taught with a content teacher and an ML teacher. The

106content teacher is the expert in in the math content knowledge. The language teacher is looking at what language do you need to master your demonstration that you know these skills. What context are you missing? What foundational skills do you not have when you moved here from another country that you may be? And then I work with high school qualified ELD students. I have two 910 advanced EL courses and 112 and we separate by proficiency level which really helps quality of instruction because you teach differently to an intermediate student versus you do a student who is advanced and heading to college in a couple years. So, uh, yeah, and we also offer a sheltered high school math. I think that our math teachers would say they have loved these co-e environments and they see higher engagement,

107better grades. I don't have a stat of like how many less Fs we have compared to a couple years ago. I will work on that because it's impressive. And then these are just some of the things that I cover in the coordinator role. And this is all the family programming that helps this go around. Without it, our, you know, our parents don't have a way to engage with school. So, programming for, uh, parent nights, doing all the district translating. Um, yeah. And I want to say we have a lot of community partners like Appleton Area Health, Countryside Public Health, um who help us make sure these students aren't missing days because they don't have vaccines, who help us get sports physicals done for free. Um we just have an amazing surrounding community that also sees

108these needs and is pouring in the support. So um that speaks to the value they must see in our school district and these students and families too. That's it. [clears throat] Questions, concerns? I do have one fix, a typo I see in the agenda where it asks for your approval. It says for the 2425 leap and this is the 2526 LE. It is for the current school year. Okay. Questions for Thank you. Take a there's no objection. I'll take a motion to approve um the lead for 2526. I make a motion. >> Okay. >> Motion by Shannon. >> Second by Matt. Any further discussion? Hear none. All those in favor? Motion carries. Uh 14.0 is the discussion to add boys volleyball as a Minnesota State High School League activity. Uh we got Zack here. Um,

109Zach, if you can kind of give us a reader digest version of of how this is going to first roll out knowing that it's it's it's new to to everyone. Um, just kind of give us a high level of what what this entails. >> Yeah, for sure. Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Uh yeah, very exciting stuff uh that we're talking about tonight. I think with this um this kind of conversations um about this adding boys volleyball started I mean I want to say about two years ago and um it kind of originally was myself uh Hope who obviously just is there tonight um and Mr. We started talking about how, you know, we could really use boys volleyball here at our school for updates and it started as

110a club uh Rams community ad the last few years and it's been going really well. Um, our head coach has been Molly Hen and I think she's in attendance as well there tonight. Um, and Schmidt has been our assistant coach as well. Um, but the goal was always to get here, right? The goal was always to get to this point um, to add it as a high school league sport and uh, here we are today. Um, you know, I've been communicating with obviously Mr. Lumpa, uh, activities committee members, uh, some some others of you board members about this as well. And, um, I've communicated with the high school league on this about how we're going to make this work. And it's going to be kind of a unique thing because, um, obviously, as you guys

111are well aware, we don't really have, uh, any other teams in our area that are going to be having a boys volleyball team. Um, so, um, so yeah, I talked to the Ice League about this. Um, as far as from a financial piece, u, Mr. Lfield, myself, and Drew, uh, we talked a few weeks ago about, um, adding it this year because obviously we didn't budget for this last spring, right, for this year's activities budget. Um, Drew feels that, you know, we could absorb that the costs that will incur from it this year. And then obviously going forward into next year, we'll budget that into our regular activities um budget. Um and then also too, because it's going to be very unique this year where there'll be a lot of traveling uh to tournaments in

112the Twin Cities, Rochester area, um we've talked to the coaches about a lot of fundraising to help offset some of those costs, right? Um because, you know, those transportation costs will be the most expensive part of it, right? So, yeah. And then I also talked to the high school league about uh any title N issues that might you know impose because of this and there should not be any issues from that this year. So um we won't be in a conference necessarily but obviously playing in a few tournaments uh hopefully beating some schools halfway uh to play a match will be eligible for postseason play and get into a section tournament. So that's kind of the the gist of it. Um uh you guys have any questions? >> Zach, this is a spring sport, correct?

113>> Correct. Yep. Spring of 2026. Uh, obviously, you know, as far as volleyball equipment, all that stuff, you know, we have all that. So, there really isn't that many more expenses other than obviously paying coaches, entry fees for tournaments, and transportation. >> Zach, will this include like a JVC squad, anything like that, or is it just strictly varsity? >> Yeah, so right. So, right now, uh, I know for sure we're looking at a varsity and a JB. And I don't know, maybe Molly, if you want to speak to a lower level quickly if that's okay. >> Yeah, I think what we kind of talked about because we might not have the enrollment to fulfill all those rules, we're probably going to do varsity um and JB in the Minnesota State High School League and then

114the lower teams would probably have to be in that club. how we did the last >> and a lot of the tournaments that we've looked into so far um are mostly varsity and JB as well. So, >> and Zach, what's the estimated cost? >> I mean, I think, you know, I we're thinking around 10,000 is what we we estimated around 10,000 between transportation and obviously payment for um our coaching staff. Um, but obviously it's it's an estimate. >> Okay. Any other questions for Zach? Comments? >> Yeah. One one other thing if you don't mind maybe adding uh one one thing about this you guys I think is really special that you know if we can do this and add this to our community I think it'd be really something that puts us on the map

115right and uh can cause a lot of great attention to our school district and to our kids that have been working hard playing playing this sport the last couple years and uh it's uh honestly kind of a momentous thing so I think it's it's it's a very cool thing and very exciting time for us >> and they're still undefeated correct Right. >> So where so where are we Zach in regards to what we talked about at the athletic committee about the JV football team? Do you have numbers yet? >> No, we're working with that of course. >> So what is our anticipated answer? >> When do you think you can have it by the next school board meeting? >> Yes. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Okay. Any questions, comments on boys volleyball? If there's

116no objection, I'll ask for a motion to approve. >> I'll make motion by Shannon. I'll seconded by Kent. Any further discussion? Hear none. All those in favor? I >> can hit the lights. >> Okay. So 15.0 is a resolution for form a grant from this grant funds from the Minnesota State High School uh foundation. So this is where if we have some uh kids or families that can't afford our um activity fee um there is a foundation which we can um go towards and so the state is just asking that we recognize not only recognize it but we will use it as well for those types of scholarship type things or activities. >> Make a motion to approve. >> That motion by Scott. I'll second. Second by Matt. Any further discussion? None. All those in

117favor? I post. Motion carries. Uh 16.0 is the monthly uh buildings report. So Scott, why don't you start us off? >> Yeah, just two real quick things here. Um in my report, covered. The first thing I'd like to highlight is on uh Tuesday, November 11th at 2 o'clock p.m. we'll have the Veterans Day program out here. Um community is welcome. Uh we've had some great showings and some great speakers. Marine had a contact for this year's speaker. Um so I appreciate her helping out with that. Um and the second thing I we I don't need to spend much time on it, but I wanted to just give you a little tidbit. Last year there was some discussion about at graduation in regards to honor chords and some other options um that we were some were

118maybe interested in exploring um in particular the military chords. Um Mr. Ellenorth and I had talked about that um gosh I suppose two three years ago now but um uh and the concern at that point was if we open it up to one more thing what sort of caveat does that bring where we have to open it up to anybody who comes and wants to bring different cords or etc. And so I don't have that answer yet but I wanted to just show that we started to dig into this and here's a little bit of feedback from some area schools of what they do. Um some certainly do the honor cords um and there's different processes and in which they they military courts excuse me and there's different processes that they use. Um, [clears throat

119and cough] I am attending a law conference uh next week and I' I'd like to try to find out a little bit more in in terms of the details that um this might have some implications for. So, I just it's a more of a preliminary piece where we'll likely be coming back to have some more discussion to see what the school board feels and if we need to make any amendments to our our policy. The second sheet, I think I handed you two sheets. What was the other one? was the other one. Yeah, the other one was just a copy of what it says in our handbook right now with the highlighted yellow piece as far as um what Black Taro currently allows for um honor courts as far as academics as well as the

120NHS modality. So, no real further discussion here, just a prelim unless you have questions, but just a preliminary um FYI that we're looking into this a little bit more and we'll be coming back to probably have some more discussions in the next couple months. Any questions? [clears throat] So, I think it would be interesting if you're at a law conference as to what what's deemed appropriate >> uh and what could be deemed discriminatory, [clears throat] that type of thing. I don't think anyone against this. I think there is that concern that now I'm going to wear a mega hat or something and uh something's going to cause ruckus. The only thing I would say our current policies we don't have anything written in regards to uh country's cultural significance in here as well. Even though

121I'm for it, >> we don't have it written in our policy, but yet we allow it. >> Y >> So again, you you know as well as I do, this is a very >> very important topic to me. So >> if it's written in policy, it should be in there. So cultural significance needs to be added as well. >> It it does. And I I actually think that's a state law. So that that really should be in there. I don't think we have a choice and >> and I don't disagree, but I'm just saying it's not written in here. >> Any questions for Scott? Thank you, Scott. Marie, >> yeah, I'm just going to add I know I don't get too worried. Just I want to thank Mr. Felton for not deleting the emails I

122sent him about submitting our Black Valley men's group. I sent him a couple emails and like I really think you should try and he did and they were accepted. So I just want to make sure that your class gets for that. >> And Marine, my understanding is like that's just it's not a like you just sign up and they look through all of the submissions and you're selected. So they will be singing what they sang tonight as well as a few other numbers that they have been working on. I think there's only like probably three or four that get >> we provide them then with like school like a school gown like a choir gown or whatever else >> they have not a uniform but they have something that they will wear that day >>

123for the band >> I'm sorry >> do they have a name for their band >> LQPB Men's Group >> and we are reimbured for any costs that we incur for this um adventure. >> Do you know what date? >> I'm sorry. >> Do you know what date? >> It's Thursday at 9:00. >> Just a second. >> Thank you, Mr. >> So, the superintendent is going to videotape it for us, right? >> I don't stage. >> Huh? >> He said he's going on stage. >> Yeah. >> I'd like to see it for performance. Thank you. >> You know, my items are things I think that um I can give you a weekly update. So, um anything else for the good of the cause this evening? Hearing none, I'll take a motion to adjourn. I'll make motion.

124>> Motion by Shannon. >> Second by Matt. All those in favor. Okay.