001I call this meeting to order this is the regular meeting of the Northfield Public School Board today is Monday October 25th 2021 and the time is 7 P.M we are present this evening in our school board meeting located meeting room located at Northfield Public Schools district offices this meeting is being live streamed and recorded and the recording of this meeting will be posted on the district website as soon as possible like to welcome those in the audience who are here to observe the board doing our work on behalf of our students we appreciate the time you took to be here this evening a special welcome to Northfield High School Global Studies students who are here as part of their Community connections assignment as a reminder Northfield Public Schools requires all people over the age of
002two to wear a face mask while inside a Northfield school district facility including during school board meetings Dr Hillman there were some items in the table file yes this evening we had a few additions to the table file uh we had a an updated report for the superintendents operation in covid-19 update just has the most current covid-19 cases per week graph that's available from Rice County we also have some appointments and some increased decrease change in assignment and that is all we have in the table file tonight okay thank you um if there's no objection we'll add these items to the agenda as we move forward is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented moved by Jeff is there a second second by Amy all those in favor say aye opposed motion carries
003we now have an opportunity for public comment this is an opportunity for residents business Property Owners parents Guardians students and employees of the Northfield school district to address the board all comments to the board must adhere to the guidelines set in place by policy District policy 206 regarding public comment you will be gathered out of order if your comments are not in compliance with these guidelines please address the board from the podium after being recognized by board chair identify yourself and if you represent a group we require that you limit your remarks to three minutes you are not allowed to yield your time to another person it is expected that members of the public will address their remarks with Civility and respect personal attacks by anyone addressing the board are unacceptable and please keep your
004mask on when speaking from the podium the board has allowed it up to a total of 30 minutes for public comment at regular school board meetings um Vice chair Amy gorwitz will be monitoring the speaker's time she will signal each speaker with the time they have remaining at one minute 30 second and 10 second intervals again please make your remarks as brief as possible but no more than three minutes um I will now begin to call up those who um signed up to speak in the order in which they signed in so we welcome first Dr Felicity Enders welcome Dr Enders thank you so much it's a pleasure to be here um I'm speaking tonight because a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing the high school and middle school principals speak about
005Equity targets regarding diversity equity and inclusion I thought this was fantastic they were looking at student satisfaction for underrepresented students I'm a professor of biostatistics and this is an area that I'm passionate about and I've published it and I've made some mistakes and so I wanted to give some advice to try and help avoid some of those same issues um the first is that looking at these numbers is really important that's great they also mentioned that connection with students personally was really important I was surprised that that was a new thing but I thought it was wonderful um I had two concerns the first was the use of the term minoritized that's a term that suggests that it's something being done to the student that they will have no control over in terms of replacement
006terms this is a fraud area I would suggest not using people of color or bipoc because there are some people who we would think of as being part of these demographics who don't think of themselves as fitting that the term that I would suggest instead is underrepresented that left association with it the underrepresented students had targets for both the high school and middle school I thought that was really good in general oh sure thank you so it was really good that there were targets for a number representative students as a group but I had the impression that they were being looked at as a group only not as separate demographic categories now I recognized in Northfield there's not very many people who are underrepresented that's probably part of the reason for this but I would
007hope that Asian students are being considered as part of this group so Asian students in Northfield face considerable issues in discrimination but nationally there is a very different stereotype for Asians than for other groups and so looking at them all together may give what combines to look like a reasonable assessment that would be different considered separately so again thank you for looking at this and please just look at the numbers carefully think about your statistics thank you thank you Dr Enders our next speaker is Rachel trinka welcome Rachel good evening can you hear me testing testing all right okay all right good evening uh my name is Rachel trinka school board and superintendent you voted on August 9th 11 weeks ago on the coveted protocols and mass mandate I stand before you asking that you
008add to the agenda on November 22nd 2021 to review the covid protocols and invote and vote on removing the mass mandate effective January 3rd 2020. from the August 16th summer update quote the district will review our Universal masking requirement regularly we will consider local infection Trends vaccination rates and overall influenza-like illness data and determining when the face mask requirement can be removed unquote regarding local infection Trends within Rice County from October 13th through October 23rd the average cases per 100 000 residents is 225.47 which is 0.23 of the Rice County population referring to the dashboard positive case rates in the Northfield school district since last Monday have been on average 20.75 cases out of 4 400 staff and students that is an average of 0.47 of the school district regarding vaccination rates 61.7 of rice
009county is vaccinated referring regarding influenza like illness referring to the dashboard from October 11th through October 20th that averages 1.31 percent at the August 23rd median it was mentioned that the state gets concerned when the influence rate reaches the 5 threshold at that same meeting on August 23rd you are going to be looking at what would be considered long long enough to remove the masking requirement fast forward nine weeks and here we are we are here today with no sunset or off-ramp resolutions again I'm asking for you to add to the agenda on November 22nd 2021 to remove to review what the covid protocols and vote on removing the mass mandate effective January 3rd 2020 2022 sorry it is my duty as a parent as a community member as a stakeholder in the Northfield public
010school districts to research and question everything for the sake of my children and to not blindly Trust thank you for your time and consideration good evening I'm uh speaking on behalf of a granddaughter that goes in in our school district here she's a nine-year-old she has allergies and since this Mass mandate for the for the course of this year she is suffering terribly from allergies and on an average missing a couple of days every other week due to having uh two symptoms of the seven of the protocol on covet having to get tested and missing two to three days of school before she can return it's frustrating and I feel it's harmful and she has no problem wearing the mask but she doesn't understand that her illness is most likely coming from having to wear
011this mask daily eight hours a day um and that is my concern and I would like to see that the mask mandate be removed um because it is affecting our children and you know their brain function and everything is somewhat compromised from you know the difficulty and breathing and you know oxygen and um that's it's heartbreaking as a grandparent thank you thank you thank you Loretta our next speaker is Jessica librock welcome Jessica hello um thank you again for the opportunity to speak it's been a couple months since I've spoken to you um and I just I want to start by saying thank you for the continued um respectful dialogue that I've engaged with several of you um it's a good thing for us to continue this conversation to push each other's beliefs and to
012hold each other accountable um and as I said before I would come back and remind you all that we are looking for an off-ramp me and and many other parents here are looking for some commitment and when we move um forward with this and you know believe it or not I still believe that we all agree on more than we disagree um we all want the best for students for staff for families and for our community as a whole um I think we also all agree that our kids deserve better than what we've had to put them through um during this pandemic they deserve to be in school in person without restrictions to sit by friend at lunch to smile at their friends to see their teachers faces and allow me to remind you um
013of of how this has impacted our our students for current seniors the last full normal school year for them was when they were freshmen this has been their entire High School careers for our eighth graders the last normal school year was when they were in fifth grade they have been dealing with this reality for all of their middle school years and for kiddos that are in second grade and younger like my daughter they have never had a full school year that was normal and let me share this picture with you this came home with my daughter last week and when I asked her about it she said it when you look at me you see a girl with a mask but underneath the surface you see all these things that I am kind curious athletic
014and this has been her reality so let me ask you what have what have we gained from this Universal mask mandate right has it been effective in stopping the spread of covid to the extent that we all hoped um going by the most recent weeks numbers and comparing the Northfield school district with Owatonna and New Prague which have both allowed masking to remain parental choice there's virtually no difference in the amount of covet cases amongst those three districts in fact Northfield had a 0.5 percent case rate compared to 0.38 in Owatonna and Northfield is reporting 23 current cases while New Prague which is a slightly larger district is reporting 22. I was unable to find cumulative data for the entire school year to compare but I'd encourage you all to take a look at that
015if you haven't done so already and I'm sure there's many here would be very interested in those results next week we expect news of the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for ages 5 through 11. this is fantastic news for those that want to choose to vaccinate their children parents will have the opportunity to be to fully vaccinate their kids by the end of December which is why I also am asking that you put this on as a detailed discussion in a November meeting and vote to remove this mask mandate as of January 3rd when the parents who would like to make this choice have the opportunity thank you so much thank you Jessica that concludes our public comment this evening so we'll move on to announcements and recognitions Dr Hillman yes we have a one
016set of announcements tonight that is pretty exciting for the first time in 20 years we want to congratulate the Raider girls cross country team who are the conference champions so that's the first time in over 20 years that or in 20 years that they have won the conference and we want to recognize several individual uh placers so Kaylee Graber an 8th grader won first place in the individual Champion the individual Championship it was all conference in the big nine uh senior Clara libert sixth place and placed all conference Addison Enfield whose ninth grade was 10th place and made all conference uh Adriana Fleming a senior was 20th and honorable I mentioned All Conference Peyton quas uh seventh grader 24th Place honorable mention all conference Claire Cass and a ninth grader are 26th Place in Clara
017Manson who's a sophomore 34th Place so congratulations to the Raider girls cross country team on uh historic season and all of those individual placers uh and those who earned All Conference status uh the boys team placed sixth in the big nine with a great showing and a very competitive field we want to congratulate on Nathan amundsen who placed Sixth and earned all conference for the Raiders so uh thanks to cross country Runners and their hard work that earned on these accolades and the big nine meet so congratulations to all [Applause] um so board members anything they'd like to add we'll move on to our first presentation tonight which I am delighted to welcome principal Nancy Antoine we're always always excited to have Nancy here but she's not doing a site Improvement plan she is here
018to so that we are able to congratulate her appropriately for being awarded the Minnesota's National Distinguished distinguished principle so Nancy is here to talk about her recent trip to Washington DC to receive this prestigious award as well as we know she will impart a lot of her wisdom on how she is the amazing principal that she is so welcome Nancy thank you very much it's it's wonderful to be here tonight and I'm honored as well um the role as the 2021 NDP um it's a it's a it's a full load but I think I've got broad enough shoulders to to take that on um just a little history on this one I was nominated back um last yes last year about this time I was nominated by uh principal Chris Berkeley and he lives up
019in Bemidji and he is a principal up in Red Lake Falls so way up North which tells you that you know we need everyone and it is to be able to connect with other principals across the state all the time and we can connect on so many different issues and it's really really just the treat to be able to work with all the different principles this past may we had our final we had our uh final interview and that's at the time that I was recognized as the NDP for 2021. this month and earlier this month on October 6th through the 9th we were all of the ndps from each state were invited to go to Washington DC and I tell you just an experience of a lifetime I could not imagine anything better and
020I may say this more than once but I think the the most important thing that I got out of this or the thing that really warms my heart is a positive attention that it brings to the state of Minnesota the positive attention that it brings to Northfield the Northfield Community and to Bridgewater Elementary and of course I always look at bringing positive attention to the family name since my dad was the superintendent of schools and he just passed um uh earlier this year so those are four things that I'm really proud of but most of all proud that it brings a positive attention to our community because I think that's really important because we do great things in our community and that needs to be recognized so one of the things that we got to
021do as the end piece um the first thing we got there we had a trolley tour it was a tour of The Monuments at night had never even heard of that before um and so I thought well why not why not take advantage of that and I'm so glad that I did um it was so meaningful for me because of all the stops we that we made um in honor of our of our veterans and of our military folks and to me that was huge most of you know that um I have I've got quite the military background in my family um and my my youngest sister my baby sisters I call her she's in the military she's in the Army and yes she's a colonel so she's I think she outranks you know but
022don't tell her that she'll get a big head but no I'm very proud of the works that she's done um she's been in for I think she's been in for 23 years now so she's she's definitely close to retiring she'll get to retire before I do but that's okay because I'm still having fun um so that was that piece was was huge I'm seeing the like the the um standing in the spot where Dr Martin Luther King gave his I love I Have a Dream speech looking out over the water talk about just give you Goosebumps that was to me that was that was one of the one of the best moments um and then of course in the Vietnam veteran um the display there and then noting how when you get out to the
023Iwo Jima monument and it looks overlooks especially at night you can see how it overlooks the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument again so touching so that was our what what that opened up everything on the next day we had a chance to get to meet each other get to meet all the rest of the ndps from across our country um we had a reception there and then we each had to give our speech and so I would like to share I'll share a part of my speech which I think is uh meaningful for tonight um again everyone had the opportunity to many people spoke on you know test scores and and you know the the their buildings and things like that and and I thought well first of all I started out with my
024with my thank yous my thank yous to everyone that was there and of course a thank you to my husband doug because without without a supportive spouse this doesn't work and most of you know that my mom has lived with us for the last 25 years um since my dad's been gone for my dad's been gone for at least 35 years so she's lived with us for the past 25 years and she also has made my job possible so I definitely wanted to give credit to to the two of them um and bottom line is every successful principal has an amazing family to provide support encouragement laughter and a soft place to land when needed and we know that happened that's needed many times so um I was asked earlier why is it what I
025do what I do what's my why my why goes way back to being born a biracial girl little girl growing up in a predominantly white community in northern Minnesota close to the Canadian border I have vivid memories of the racist names and comments that were made to me every single day I remember students on the bus singing Linda ronstadt's song that one that says you're no good yeah they say they say saying that to me every day I won't listen to it today I didn't have that teacher or principal to advocate for me or to let others know that this Behavior was wrong when I was a senior in high school my counselor told me you're kind I go to the military well I had a different goal and I didn't let his idea replace
026mine I knew that if I didn't work hard and go to college I would be stuck in that small racist town forever and I wanted my journey to go in a totally different direction my four sisters and I imagined together how we would get out of the cycle and we knew that education was the key while we all took different paths right now I've got a sister who is a vice president of insurance company I've got the one who's a colonel of the army I've got one that that works risk management up out at Anderson Windows I've got the um um let's see if the other one who works at she's an RN at HCMC so they're somebody forgot to tell us we weren't so supposed to be successful um we all took different paths
027but my path took me to educating and empowering children because I knew then as I know now that students deserve better I want to provide opportunities for all of my students to be successful especially my marginalized children I stand in the gap for all my students and do whatever it takes to promote them I also want others to know that the thoughts and opinions of others don't get to Define them I take the time to show my students that I see them I hear them I know them and I want them in school they all have value and strength and I notice this my students and their future are why I do what I do and I'm proud of what I get to do not what I have to do but what I get to
028do every day my students are worth it and don't ever discount a person based on where they're from or what they look like that's one day they too could be standing in front of you and that was the speech that I gave out there um then that after her that evening we got to go to the um hey Adams hotel which is a block away from the white house so that was and we had the reception upstairs out on the balcony so that was again really neat got a chance to meet all these different principals from across the country and then I realized that many of the leadership or the national Elementary principles Association like well I know a lot of these people because I'm working with them on the the national race and Equity
029task force so that was a really neat to get a chance to have those informal conversations the next day we got a chance to speak to some of the officials from the United States Department of Education and again you might think that okay well that was that's kind of boring home not for me not for me that was an opportunity and as they walked into the room I'm writing down notes what I want to talk to them about I wanted to talk to them about the teacher shortage our substitute shortage and all of all the recipes pieces that are affecting our teachers and our students here in Minnesota and in Northfield talking about the equity pieces and then listening to we didn't get a chance to see the Secretary of Education we got a chance
030to see the deputy secretary of education Dr Cindy Martens and the assistant deputy secretary of education Dr Alia Samuels and to hear Dr Martin is talk about the relationships and how important those relationships with students are and many of you know at Bridgewater when you when you see me there you'll find the kids if anyone comes to Bridgewater and they want to know what Bridge Road is about it's about the kids it's about the family ways it's about the teachers and and that's the piece they all they all sell the they'll sell the school because they're so special but you take the time to know the kids one of the questions I was asked during my interview was how do you how do you how would your students describe you and I said well it
031depends on this it depends on the student they're all different I have a I have a different relationship with every every child you know is it the student that every time I see her she'll put up a number with her hand and that indicates how many times she's seen me in a day unfortunately today with busy meetings it was only one or is it the other another biracial child in my school that every time she sees you she says Hey twin kids need to see themselves and educators or is it the kids that want to tell you about their baseball game or about their volleyball game so that's the that's the piece that's so meaningful it's like I can't answer I can't give you one answer on that because I have a different relationship with
032all of them and I enjoy all those relationships um a Friday night was our banquet and so of course my husband got to go along and of course he asked me the question do I have to wear a tux yes you do I have to wear a full leg down you have to wear a tacks and no you don't have to wear nylons with that but and he was very happy to go along with the banquet it was just outstanding again an experience of a lifetime um to get the to get that recognition and the accolades that Educators all need to hear and that's that's the part that I bring back to my staff um is that that that piece of the recognition that they deserve because they're doing hard work this is not easy
033there's there is no easy button in education there is no easy button like just like we know there is no easy button and parenting as a parent I know that and many many days I'm out there with parents in the morning letting them know that I understand this is hard this is not easy but I'm here to partner with you so I tell you I look at these things and I know that and I know that part part of this is is the celebration but I know part of it is the work we get to do daily and last Friday that whole that whole thing came full circle for me um I got a I got a phone or I got a message a Facebook message saying what are you doing today what are you
034doing tomorrow and I said well I didn't my plans are pretty flexible she says I want to go out for lunch with you there's a here's a person she was my student 30 years ago and getting getting to meet her and sit down and talk with her after 30 years was incredible to realize that as a child she grew up and at the time we didn't have Asus scores her Aces score would have been off the charts and that's the adverse childhood experiences that's what it's about she comes out she she is one of ten children and she her parents her mom lost custody of them and they sent to her from Chicago to Minneapolis on a Greyhound bus by themselves no adults with them and she was the oldest she comes from a community
035where she was raped twice by relatives and she's she told me she says you were the first person that showed me true affection and I remember the the weekend days going out and I went on I went to her house and I picked her up at her little her baby sister and I picked up a couple of the other girls and I took them places so they could have experiences I took them to the zoo I took them out eating we went to the movies we would go bowling things things of that nature why because I was a teacher and they trusted they trusted who I was they trusted what I was doing with them but they needed experiences so to sit down with her on Friday and realize all those things made a difference
036tells me that teaching makes such a difference so I I I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all and but I tell you what I said I just I'm still I'm still the normal Nancy Antoine that goes back to I'll go back to school tomorrow and I'll have a I'll have a great day with my students and my teachers and my families but that's that's what that's the that's about their the celebration that we had and it was a great time it was a great time but again again I love what I got to do questions that you have oh my gosh thank you um board members questions comments yes Amy I saw that you brought your award can you hold it up so we all can see it go to the
037mic okay so this is the this is the plaque that I received I forget and then they gave each of us a bell with our name engraved it in that and then the um the emblem of the the National Association can you read the plaque sure I feel like yeah and ring the bell too a little like Vanna White here would you like an a today foreign we might have some fun and can you read the clap oh sure so it reads National Distinguished principle presented to Nancy J Antoine in recognition of your leadership to a short quality education for children during their early years in school October 8th 2021 and the the signatures are by Paul Winger he's the president of the National Association and then his executive director um and yeah Dr Frank's
038it's kind of hard to read his name there but that's Dr Frank's there thank you others questions come Jeff yeah great uh talk um I just love your enthusiasm and I can just see you're so excited about what you do and you love what you do and it comes across and that's just uh one of the rewards for the great service that you're providing so thank you very much and congratulations thank you I love the opportunity working here in Northfield other board members Joel thank you you have left a legacy not only in the community but for all of the students that will go around the world and remember you's teacher because as the principal thank you so much thank you very much and even as a principal every now and then I get to
039teach and that's fun Claudia Nancy I am jealous that my kids didn't get to go to your school and I'm so proud of you and I'm proud to be a part of this community and I'm so glad that now our country can be proud of you too congratulations thank you very much and even if you're even if your children don't go to Bridgewater they're in the community and anytime I get to meet any of our any of our students it's just it's such a reward thank you Corey Nancy congratulations on the incredible honor can you tell us how many principles were recognized this year yes there was um there was about 40 principles that were recognized there's one from each state and some states did not did not actually submit submit an NDP and then
040there was um Ecuador and Ethiopia it's a good-sized crowd excellent Tom uh I'll just Echo what everybody else has to say and um you know one of your your money functions has been as a traffic director too and so um I hope that's changed thank you I'm hoping it changes as well today went very well again you know I I can't it doesn't happen in isolation it's due to the work of the of the families staff members and of course our kiddos and then of the help of the city and the police department we had officers out there vote this morning and this afternoon and it worked well so hopefully I don't have to direct any Market traffic but yeah I'll do whatever it takes Dr Hillman so it's one thing to hear Nancy talk
041about her day it's another to experience it with her which I get to do fairly frequently and you can it takes you have to plan about twice as much time to get around the building because of all the hugs that Nancy gets and I think that's a testament to the love that she shows the children in that building uh she truly loves those kids and you really want to make a difference for each of them every day we talk about being a student-centered principal and for all the people here and who are listening at home Nancy exemplifies what it means to be a student-centered principal totally focused on their needs understand that their needs may not start with learning to read right there needs may be something simpler and more basic than that and trying
042to make sure that they have what they need I've witnessed or give students clothes right who might need something or make sure that they have access to food in terms of bringing uh things that they they need that many people take for granted but imagine being six and knowing that that's a barrier right to be able to access education um traffic director Tom Goodwin I mean I think that when we talk about servant leadership it's whatever needs to to be done whether it is creating the master schedule coaching teachers and instruction which is of course what her principal job really that's the core of it whether it be serving Lush whether it be out in negative 30 weather making sure that kids get into the right cars those are just a few of the reasons
043that Nancy was selected for this honor and I can't think of anyone more deserving it's the most prestigious honor that you can get as an elementary principal and so I know I speak for our entire administrative team and the community when we say Nancy we are proud of you congratulations thank you so much I appreciate that [Applause] questions you forgot to mention those days when it when it's drenching of rain outside those are my those are my um probably my least favorite but we're always trying to forget those Nancy I know those are the days when I just need a change of clothes but thank you for being here tonight Nancy again congratulations thank you so much okay definitely a highlight of our um of our year to date in Boardman board meetings for sure
044so um we'll move on now to um we welcome Cheryl Hall director of special services um in her request to hire an additional non-licensed special education staff person welcome Cheryl thank you good evening I have my document closed on me sorry well as you have in front of you a request for an additional educational assistant at Spring Creek School that request is coming forward because of a additional students that have moved into actually a student has moved into the district and with that uh some significant needs uh come with that student and and we have a requirement to meet that that need and the cost of that is in your document let me just point to the cost in the document Cheryl of a 31 000 is the anticipated cost about 55 would be reimbursed
045through the special education Revenue uh so the net cost of the district will be 22 606 dollars any questions I'm sorry Amy so it sounds like the student is already here and this is an immediate need it is okay so I'm wondering if it would be helpful to you if we actually took action on this request tonight it would be very helpful so with that in mind I'd like to move that we move this to the action how what what's the official language um we just need a motion to approve um moving the hiring of a special ed assistant to items for individual action this evening that's exactly what I mean all right so we have a motion is there a second by I think Claudia's hand was up first second by Claudia so questions
046or comments um specifically about moving the motion to an item for individual action well or specific or any question to Cheryl about the hiring if there's any questions or comments I'm sorry we have a motion in a second and then we can ask questions and then vote so I know there's a lot of openings right now for EAS um just wondering if how this position is going to get filled sooner or whatever well the process right the process is that we would post it as soon as it's approved and uh then once we have applicants we can move forward with that we are having success slowly filling our educational system openings um there are still a few still a vacant and we hope we're able to fill it um as quickly as possible and this
047is in a situation where another EA in a different place can be moved over is that correct we wish we had enough people to do that usually we would we would do that and we do temporarily move people around or um reassigns other staff temporarily to help out to cover those needs and it could be that it's even somebody from another part of the program or another even another building at times or if there's student absences we can sometimes move staff because of that thank you Corey are the remaining EA vacancies specific to special education they are the ones that I oversee they are our first special education services as I know um beginning of the year would we have as many as 12 that we needed for to fill right and we're closer to
048about uh seven at this time across the district yeah it's it's a continual Challenge and I I just can't imagine how difficult that is because you have you have the IEPs that require this and we want to provide that service for those students and to be able to find the the staff the trained staff to be able to provide that is really challenging and I know you are also operating under an incredible amount of mandates and paperwork and all that is required so um when Sarah was here she talked about 800 IEP reviews that needed to take place before the end of December and and just that alone is daunting and not to mention the manage of the everyday with students so you do such an incredible job and so we know that these requests
049come to the board and they're they're um you know specific to an IEP or to to a need and uh we appreciate but also understand the the time sensitivity of this and the pressure that puts on on you and your staff to ensure that these students are getting the the services they need so thank you for that continual effort that you just live every day you're welcome thanks for your comments and your support anyone else have any questions or comments for Cheryl okay we have a motion and a second to move this request to an item for individual action all those in favor say aye opposed motion carries we'll move that to individual action this evening then thank you so much Cheryl I'm sorry our next is our last actually discussion and Report uh Dr
050Hillman uh superintendent operations in covid-19 update and just as a reminder to board members there was an updated um coveted report in the table file that reflected the most current that we have from Rice County on cases talk to him yes so uh start with our normal review of the data so we did include the latest update from Rice County that graph that we've been providing you we see that they did revise the previous week's numbers up a little bit um but the good news is after several weeks and about five weeks of continued increase in cases across the county we did see our first most precipitous drop from 197 county-wide cases October 3rd through the 9th to 139 October 10th through the 16th so we are very hopeful that this is finally the peak
051of the Delta variant as described by epidemiologists and if you read several Minnesota analysis of the latest wave they are many of the several of the experts are saying we are they're hopeful that we have reached that Peak and that we are starting to see the decline and that's a one of the Lo that's one of the most significant changes we've seen in those number of cases going all the way back until mid-august so that is good news as we share each time uh we gave you what the data was as of October 20th in the packet I'm going to share with you just if you take a look at our Dash support as of today as of this morning there'll be some cases that come off tomorrow but currently our current cases remember those
052current cases are the ones that have been reported to us in the last 14 days there are 23 of those ranging from zero at several buildings to a total the largest is the nine at the high school and eight at Bridgewater the rest are either under five or at zero total cumulative cases so far uh through this morning for the year was at 70. so that is the latest dashboard piece and again the ili rates have been very good we've been very pleased to see that in fact now this was only the 18th through the 20th at shorter week due to the mea break but the calculations that we saw across the district were ranging from nothing at the area Learning Center of course we're always cautious about that data at the area Learning Center
053because comparatively it's got the lowest number of students it's under 100 students so that can swing very quickly uh one way or the other but we range from 0.65 percent of ili at Greenvale Park for that week to the high of 1.88 percent at Bridgewater and we saw a similar spread in terms of the quarantine rate we did see uh just under 10 percent for that three-day period at Bridgewater and the rest of the areas rest of the schools range from point five seven percent at the ncec again that's got a smaller end so as you've seen the data that can swing a pretty good week to week but ranging from point five seven percent at nce DC again up to 9.46 for that three-day period at Bridgewater but we are thrilled to see that
054ili rates staying in that range that is uh very acceptable the case is going down and the county are very good um as I also had shared we did a recent analysis of our 12 to 17 year old vaccination rate and uh very soon that number will be at 65 percent of students who are eligible within the district having been received both shots we had when we calculated that a week and a half ago we were at 65 percent at least having one shot and we knew that uh many more would be completing that series very soon so that 63 to 65 percent range so that is the data for this report certainly moving in the right direction we're very happy to see that I want to share with you an update on our covid-19
055testing program that I have shared with you a couple of times and again just to go with the fact that we know that as people have been trying to find especially rapid molecular or rapid PCR tests that's been very difficult to find those within the community many people having to drive to Lakeville or somewhere else to be able to get that test for their students and we want to be able to try to provide that opportunity to our families we have received all we've had I'm not sure I can I don't know enough about Supply chains you know whether this is these some of these things have been supply chain issues but we know we have been hung up on some of the materials that we need so just by way of example the Vault
056test that we have offered for 16 months or something like that we're not even able right now to get the bags from UPS to be able to ship them we have a shortage of those at this point we did get the Q tests now the Q test is what we're going to start with that's that rapid molecular test it's a non-invasive nasal swab that then can be inserted into a reader that can give us a molecular very accurate assessment within about 20 minutes we're excited we got all of those materials and then found out that there was an important piece of the calibration equipment that was not shipped we talked with the Department of Health and unfortunately they were not able to help us but thanks to Dorothy Cohen in our buildings and grounds office
057she contacted Q directly and I think a couple of times after saying may I speak with your manager uh the swabs were shipped to us the next day and so they are now on site we also had the issue of trying to hire someone uh to be able to help us with this but we have been able to hire someone who is going to be able to start later this week and so uh our CR our initial capacity because it looks you know it takes about 20 or so minutes for the test to be complete we're gonna actually do a drive up testing program so it's going to be actually right outside the door out here there's an indentation in this in the curb where people used to be able to pull in for their
058small children when they were dropping them off at this daycare center we're going to come out to the car be able to help take the sample bring it back in there's a room right next door that we're going to use to be able to process them we'll print the results and bring them out back out to folks um so you think about the test itself takes about 20 minutes you gotta stagger the start of people coming through so when we look at that with one person we're gonna be able to do about five and a half hour hours per day to begin with we're gonna be able to handle about 19 tests per weekday to start and our intent would be to try to ramp that up as needed but the good news is many
059people have been trying to find a test within our community who have just not been able to do so uh hopefully if everything continues to go while we got other PPE this person who provides the test has to be in full PPE that means they have to have a gown they have have to have gloves they wear a mask they have to wear eye protection so making sure we have all the appropriate inventory of all those things so we're hoping to be able to start that later this week and right now we're focusing that Q test on students who are who have one or two of those or two of those less common symptoms or that one more common symptom so that we can make sure that those kids who do have some of those
060regular ongoing kinds of congestion issues are able to get a test and get back in the classroom very quickly so we're focusing that Q product to begin with on um symptomatic students now we've also ordered an inventory of something called the by X now antigen test so we typically don't use the antigen test in the district for a lot of different reasons but we are adding it to our inventory to be able to do something that we're planning to do call the test to stay program so this would be students who may have been exposed to someone with covid-19 they would count as a close contact and that we want to be able to keep them at school so this binax now test would allow us to have those students rather than quarantine they'd be
061able to test each day and that means that they would be able to come to schoolwork so finalizing the details on that we do not have those tests on site yet and will take us a little bit once we get those tests to be able to prepare the directions for families and to be able to get those out to them um the goal of this is of course to further reduce the number of students who have to quarantine within the district quarantine is very disruptive to families and we are really trying to work on that mitigation of making sure that we don't let the virus be able to disrupt our schools in a large way so this is an another round of the layers of mitigation that we're attempting and so I thank Anita Ozzy
062who's been really instrumental in helping us get the testing program off the ground and I mentioned Dorothy Cohen so we are hopeful that we will be able to get this going uh later this week uh for sure by next week it's just a matter of making sure all of the different pieces of inventory aligned so we know for families who have asked for this kind of testing to be available in the community we're I said this before to several people this really shouldn't be our job right it's not it really shouldn't be our job to have to provide this kind of testing but it is a barrier for people and we want to be able to help remove those barriers so that is our next step in hopefully putting this pandemic behind us so that
063is the report on the pandemic portion three other items in my report today the second one is an e-learning Plan update so uh I don't think any of us want to think about snow yet but we know that it's coming we know that it's on the way and again several years ago we started using an e-learning day strategy for when winter weather provides a temporary disruption in our ability to provide in-person education and so rather than extending the school year into June we have started again prior to the pandemic we started using e-learning days in that case we started with the third closure we've had a lot of feedback from people that at least want to see one Minnesota snow day right it's a rite of passage in the state um but we are looking
064to start uh e-learning days this year with the second day of winter related uh winter weather related School closure and as we we met with a team of teachers last Monday to be able to walk through some of these ideas with them and to update our plan of course we've had a plan for several years but we're updating the plan this fall and I think the key thing for people is that during the pandemic we've all experienced a some longer periods of distance learning and remember it's just important remember that's not what e-learning days are right e-learning days are a bridge they're a single they're hopefully a single day we have had very few times where we've had more than one day where we have had to cancel school due to a serious storm uh
065but what we look at is a bridge for the day so working with that teacher team of people we're finalizing that update to that plan this week uh there will not be people should not think of this as any learning day so the students who are in the room here do not need to anticipate that they're going to be on Zoom from 8 10 till 3 10 right there's going to be at least one attempt to connect via Zoom during the day opportunities for people to be able to connect with their teachers a little bit different uh from the elementary to the secondary level but we just need to understand that an e-learning date is not what distance learning was it's a bridge over or through a situation where Minnesota winter weather just doesn't allow
066us to safely transport students so we're finished that up we anticipate posting that to the district's website later this week so that is either and later in the agenda you know in previous the previous to this we did start e-learning on the third day and some of the variety of different reasons one of which was that was part of our contractual obligations uh dirt with the new agreement with the Northfield Education Association we are starting these on the second day and so it was also on the school calendar and so I'm going to ask you to take an action later in the in the meeting that was in the packet to be able to allow us to start those on the second day so that is e-learning uh next part traffic patterns so Mrs Antoine
067was here before I can't see if she's still there she is so we know that for several years we've seen continued increase in the congestion uh specifically around Bridgewater and I'm going to talk about Greenville Park in just a moment we all know the challenge of Jefferson Parkway right with the median down the middle it can be very difficult to get past uh um especially when the traffic backs up onto Jefferson Parkway and for a period of time it backed up a little bit under Jefferson Parkway and then in the last couple of years we see more and more parents driving their children to school and so this year really came to a crisis point where we were really seeing par the traffic on Jefferson Parkway really just be severely disrupted at the end of
068the Bridgewater school day so we had been looking at a plan for uh prior to the pandemic about reversing the traffic there were a number of things that had to happen to do that um we started it today and I want to reinforce what Mrs Antoine said I was there for this morning's uh drop off and I was then and as we said well that wasn't the main event the main event is when people pick up in the afternoon right because there's a lot of people who come there and so normally what we're seeing is that what was estimated is Nancy I think it's pretty fair to say it was usually 30 to 40 cars that sometimes would back up onto Jefferson Parkway and today at the end of the day people started arriving to
069pick their kids up at 2 35 and schools actually supposed to be at around 3 20. we start to see some dismissal about 3 15 but I arrived about 25 after 2 and there was already one car waiting uh for the end of the day and by about five after three we saw all the way the car stacked all the way now when we analyze reversing the traffic so let me just make sure I explain what reversing the traffic means rather than entering the campus on off of Jefferson Parkway people are entering now off of Highway 246 and if you look at a bird's eye view which I put in the packet of uh the Bridgewater site we count that you can put about twice as many cars on the school district property by reversing
070that traffic as if you enter off of Jefferson Parkway so we did by five after three we had that entire Lane believe it or not all the way from the beginning of the gym just before the gym all the way to 246 full by five after three there were some cars that did Stack back onto Highway 246 we counted eight and they're all in a right turn lane that is quite lengthy so they were not in in the park they were not in Division Street the other piece that we'll work with is if that lane is already full people who are traveling Northbound who try to make a left that could snarl traffic on on division though there is a right turn lane that we saw people initially uh using that to bypass we had
071police support and so just we're going to recommend to people who are traveling north and want to try to make a left that we've already got a full lot just go down to the roundabout and use the roundabout to come back to get into that right turn lane so the key thing is the roundabout kept up we could not have made this change there's just no way this change could have worked if we still had the four-way stop sign could not have worked and so the fact is that with that roundabout being able to keep traffic flowing and as our community continues to learn how to use the roundabout everybody gets a little different level of comfort every time you use it what I would say is I I looked at Nancy at the end
072of them like this went really well and you could just feel you could see it in the drive I've seen those drivers before when you're back out under Jefferson Parkway people get nervous right they don't want to be no one wants to be disrupting traffic I'm from New York and I still don't want to disrupt crap it took me years to learn not to but I mean it just you don't want to disrupt traffic so people feel the stress the people behind them we've all been in the circumstance where you just feel like oh and so that's when just people get frustrated and concerned and that impatience happens we didn't feel any of that today very limited some of it with people just learning the new symptom of the new system um so cautious optimism
073because we are we did take some real uh intentional steps to make a change during the school year I want to reiterate what Nancy said during her uh her presentation that this is an example of government agencies working together well so when we were able we had to wait to get the final approval for MnDOT which took a little bit longer and we were hoping to have this ready for the beginning of the school year couldn't happen before the school year because we still needed some MnDOT approval we got MnDOT approval that the city helped us get and then with the change at mea break we were concerned about changing driver Behavior because it's easier said than done right after people have been doing something this way for so long it's easier said than done
074to get the people to change their habits and so we really worked hard with the city um anybody who didn't know I mean if a parent who didn't know I think we sent a total of 10 messages right so there were messages that went directly to the Bridgewater families uh there were messages that went to the entire School District Community uh Nancy recorded a voice message that all Bridgewater families got it was on Kym and radio it was in the Northfield news uh it was on people's Facebook pages so we really worked hard to use our cascading communication to make sure everybody knew we knew that was good we still had some people try to make it right come in the outdoor but that's the way it goes sometimes those things can die hard from
075time to time but I would characterize it to be a success uh today and so um again some of the pieces that are really important is having families make sure that having the children get out of the pass of the driver's side so if they're sitting in the back make sure that they get out on that side so that they're not trying to cross traffic if they are crossing traffic or if they do have to get out on the passenger side excuse me we've directed them to walk in front of their own vehicle and we had police assistants and other adults helping that today because of course safety is the number one piece in this and the kids did a great job today uh so I'm happy to give the board this report this is
076an issue that has plagued us for let's just say a little bit of time we all know it's plagued us for quite some time a number of things came together again the city really helped us they produced the video that we were able to share with folks they helped us with additional support in terms of police support traffic management uh today and they will be all week so this is an example of some really quality uh collaboration between the city and the school district afternoon hopefully if ever Nancy of everything goes as well uh for the rest of the week as it did today we're going to be in Fairly good shape so for parents and for former students who have been dealing with that for some time we're thankful that we are able to
077finally make this change and we're hopeful that it continues to be a positive uh thing here so the other benefit is that students are not dismissing from the gym rather than going outside so on those days when it is hiring students can be inside dry until their parents come and of course they it's Bridgewater so they're very organized they've got tags hanging from their mirrors saying the name of the student there are people radioing in and kids coming out it's quite the operation at the end of the day so Bridgewater does an excellent job of that so thank you to Nancy thank you to Ben mardig and Dave Bennett and chief Elliott from the city and Cole Nelson from our team and uh Tracy Claussen who they did all that repainting of that driveway on
078Thursday and a lot of things that we were very fortunate we kept begging for good weather we got good enough weather to be be able to do it so all of those things came together for a successful piece so thanks to everybody involved with that and of course you create you try to address one problem and then we have another and so we are now working with the city on some increased congestion on Lincoln Parkway near Greenvale Park Elementary School you noticed in the enrollment report that we have a significant increase in number of children attending Greenville Park compared to the last couple of years not the same as what it has been historically there was well above 500 students for a number of years we're in that 460 range right now but we've seen
079more and more families driving their children we're seeing some backing up onto Lincoln Parkway um of course there's a little bit more room on Lincoln Parkway than there is on Jefferson Parkway there's no median but it is still creating some issues we've had some area residents share their concerns we share those concerns wanting to make sure that we are thoughtful about it so uh principal Sam Richardson and I did attend the city council meeting last Monday night or Tuesday night excuse me uh this was an agenda item the city is going to move forward with several Immediate Solutions it's going to include relocating the dynamic speed signs they're right outside here on Second Street from when this was in elementary school and so they're solar powered so they don't need to worry about electricity but
080they're going to relocate those Dynamic speed signs that show you how fast you're going those are going to be relocated to Lincoln Parkway far enough so that people see it and slow down and in fact talking with Chief Elliott uh those kinds of interventions have an 83 efficacy rate which means 83 percent of the time when people see that blinking speed and they're going too fast they actually slow down now that does diminish over time but what you hope is that you get driver Behavior Uh into a reasonable a reasonable place that's one thing um they're looking at a number of other Solutions as well um they're they are the city council also directed staff to bring some specific recommendations around things like traffic delineators so if you think about the bump outs that you
081might have seen for example there are these rather than bump out what they are they're using these uh probably waist higher chest High uh plastic um sticks is what I'm going to call another they're called the delineator and to really just again give a visual to people that you're coming into an area where you need to slow down they're also looking at adding some pedestrian activated beacons similar to what we have in front of the high school and in the Middle School uh and there's a handful of other things that they're looking at to support cross-safe Crossing in that area when and when not uh cross crossing guard services are are and aren't available so some really good move on Jefferson Parkway and some work that we have to do on Lincoln Parkway again in
082partnership with the city our final item in the report today is just a super shout out to Northfield Community Action Center so we know that food insecurity has been a real issue during the pandemic it's been something that we've all been concerned about we have heard it uh very clearly from a lot of our families that they have really struggled um so part of the idea with Northfield Community Education Center which is the former Greenville park building was to become again more and more of a center for the north side of the community and in the packet I included a photo of the new food shelf that is located inside the community ed Center so it will serve families of course for free in that area it's offering a mix of fresh fruits and vegetables
083Frozen Foods Pantry Staples and other Essentials you walk into it it looks like a convenience store it's in the former teacher's lounge in in the ncec um but you walk in and it feels like you're in a very small convenience store and so I think it just is a very different thought process as opposed to what I think some people might perceive a food shelf to be but the program is outstanding we are already seeing in fact I just learned today to begin with because because of the health concerns during the pandemic they were doing it based on an appointment only basis which of course can be taxing that's a can be Troublesome for some people um so they are going to be creating some more regular hours that I understand they're going to start
084fairly soon so I just heard that they don't have details on that for you but uh we're really pleased again to be able to partner with people in the Community Partnerships is one of our five strategic commitments and we're thrilled uh we're not thrilled that we have to do this but we are thrilled that we have an opportunity to help people who have food secure insecurity especially those living on the North side so thanks to the CAC for their good work in partnering us with us to get that going so with that that is my operations report for this evening thank you great report so board members questions comments on the report Amy thank you Dr Hillman for the full report I have a question about the Q test yes from what you were saying
085it sounds like the Q test can only uh the machine can only analyze one test at a time is that right yes and we have we have uh capacity we have actually 10 machines um we are going to be able to we're going to start with four because that's what we think our Personnel can handle at and at one time doesn't sound like but it's the ability to be able to handle those uh tests simultaneously so we're going to be starting with four appointments basically per hour okay so how does that add up to 29. 19 I said 19. so it's five and a half hours there's got to be some time for the person's lunch there's a little bit of time at the beginning of the day and a little bit of time at
086the end of the day the total per day of 19 tests per day okay I'm confused because we're doing four machines so three an hour four per hour so you're gonna start basically we have it mapped out upstairs you have the you have the with it with us neither the so you got the picture so we're basically going to try to start the first appointment at nine and then about 15 minutes later and then 15 minutes later to again get the staggered start so we're essentially so from nine to ten we're doing four from ten to eleven we're doing four okay we're not able to use all 10 yet or even simultaneously we're going to use all four at the same time it's just going to be staggered we could start everybody at nine o'clock
087right and have everybody but then people are gonna need to wait a little bit right and so rather than people all lining up and waiting what we decided to do is stagger the start so the first deployment I believe is at 9am then 9 15. 9 30 and 9 45 again to give that and then we're going to start it we just keep rolling with that so the intent is to be able to do is to start with four at a time we'll continue to increase capacity as we are able and continue to look at some other hours as able this is how we're going to start it because we want to be able to start it and be able to appropriately handle and we don't want people to be showing up thinking that I'm
088out of here in 10 minutes it does take a little bit of time we want people to get the individual attention that they need again we are this is not something that is necessarily in our wheelhouse but we've gotten some advice on how to run it and we want it to be successful we want people to feel like they have some some kind of individual attention and with our dedication to continuous Improvement we know that we will the program three weeks from now will probably look very different than it does when we started hopefully later this week uh do people make their appointments online then that's a great question so to begin with they are going to call our district office to make the appointment and so we're using a Google form that's going to
089allow us to be able to uh to start with we want to be able to talk to people on the phone to make the appointment with the intention of being able to transition into an online registration within just the first little bit again we want to start slow and be able to have that individual conversation with people and then release it as we move ahead and that's the same person or people who will be doing the test or answering the phone no so our district reception line will be able to handle those calls great yeah I imagine there'll be a lot of people early in the morning who are hoping to get their kids to school and so I think that's as you learn more you'll probably need to front load the testing a bit
090to get those early morning people that's the goal and our hope again the differences of having something in town between in town and having to leave a town to be able to get it we think is going to be helpful and we also you've heard I mean we we are struggling with some uh employment areas right and our educational assistants are one of them so uh being able to start this is also uh dependent upon how we can make sure that we have the Staffing to be able to run it and we're very happy we're very thrilled with whom we got to start this thing so it's it's going to be a very good start but we we have five and a half hours a day that we're able to start it with and we're
091going to try to maximize that but we also need to understand that that you know we're going to need some time to be able to process the tests and again start slow and then hopefully speed up as we move ahead thank you other questions Jeff yeah on the testing give me an example of what we're doing now as opposed to then using testing and then you know what the difference is going to be yeah so in an example where you have let's say A you know a fourth grader um who has um some congestion you know a runny nose um maybe they have a little bit of a cough right and so they'd meet the decision tree criteria or they have a couple of symptoms just using those as an example typically what they would
092have to do is in order to be able to they would be asked to go home right because we're trying to prevent any kind of spread at school we know some of most of the direct most of those cases are not covered cases right but those are a couple of the symptoms so those families would go and get a test now you can get some tests in town but not always sometimes you have to go to Faribault sometimes you have to go to Lakeville if you use something like the Vault test which can be effective but it takes two or three days that's a mail-in kind of test right so you have to take the the saliva test you send it home you send it off and it takes a couple of days to get
093those so that is the part where right now you can have a student who might have to be home for a couple of days until they get those test results or a physician can also give what's called an alternate diagnosis so when we get those results that student can come back to school with the Q test the student won't have to leave the community they'll have something right here uh right next door as a matter of fact and once they get that test result they can be able to go back to school once they're feeling better so that's the that's the difference in what we had before and what we're going to have and it does it's fascinating because we know there's a you'd think that there's a lot more testing capacity but we think
094that there's a number of things just with the way that the labs are processing the test of reduction in the number of people compared to what we had say at the height in early summer uh and again what we want to be able to do is try to remove barriers you know from folks and I just do want to remind people that we did get a grant uh from the Minnesota Department of I think it's the Department of Health gave the grant to be able to pay for since the tests are free for us which is good um they gave us a grant to be able to help with some staffing and things like that so that's what we're spending that grant money on to begin with and again if we need to our hope
095would be able that we could ramp that up a little bit more quickly as well we have we have probably seven or eight people trained um but those people typically all have other full-time jobs but they could be able to step in and help out on an emergency basis as needed you think you're able to test the people that want to be tested or you don't know that yet um I my perception is no I I think that 19 tests is a is a great thing that's good um but what I can tell you is I don't think that that's probably always going to be enough right so our we are not intending to replace the testing program in the community that's not what our intent is our intent is to add on uh so
096that we can try to provide some additional service and if we can ramp up further we'll certainly look to do so but again we want to start start small because this is not something that we this is not necessarily our area of expertise to begin with we've gotten some great advice we've had some support from of course our local Partners um so we'll start slow to go fast Jeff other questions comments questions um so it says in your report that it will start on or around the 28th and so when you are ready to start testing how will you let the community know yeah so we'll use our the same way that we typically share with folks so we'll use our skylert system and it will either be an individual depends on if it's ready
097by the time our family update goes out this week otherwise it will be multiple messages it will start most likely in a family update we'll provide multiple messages the messages are all translated um as you know anytime that we send a district-wide message not only do our Spanish speakers get that message in print they also get a voicemail phone call Marble the contos are districts translator helps us with that to make sure that those families get this in multiple ways we'll of course use our social media sites but kymn know and then I think the other part is it's going to be very retail in terms of if there's a student who's called in you know the school office may say hey if you call the district office you will probably have a chance to
098get an appointment so we'll use a variety I'm not terribly worried about I think this is the kind of thing that people will know pretty quickly that it's available and I think I I'm hopeful maybe I'm wrong but I'm hopeful that we actually have less desire than what I think we will but I'm worried that we well we know 19 appointments is probably not going to be enough to start but it's it's a it's a value-added compared to what we have in the system already um I had another question separate from the um covid I was curious to hear how um the Bridgewater traffic pattern change when the vehicles were stacked in the driveway and so the one closest to the sidewalk you know the student is getting out and getting on the sidewalk immediately
099and if they're on the other side of the car they're going around and in front of their own vehicle how did it work for the car next to them they're yeah they're not double stacked okay so it's a single line so there's a there's a single line for drop off and then there's a passing Lane right so okay okay you're not we're not double stacking yet to drop off I hope oh that is not what we're that would not be what we would want to do so it's this the inside Lane is specifically for the drop-off and then the outer Lane is for people who are that they can exit that unloading Zone loading or unloading and then they can just keep moving toward the exit uh Tom uh some questions about the the traffic
100and I'd like to thank mayor Parnell and the city for their quick work on on this um so for the Greenvale moving the speed sign does that speed sign change so it's usually 30 miles an hour there except during school time zone it's 20 does it change to flash at the 20 and then switch back to 30. yeah my understanding time is those can be programmed and my understanding is I think that they are programmed to only be on during the school day at least that's that Spring Creek where we have the other set of them that we use in in front of the middle school you'll notice that the the signs do shut off at a certain time so my understanding is that they can be programmed and I I do not know the
101details of how the city programs those might I would assume that we could do it in a variety of different ways it seems like there's always things going on over at that Greenville area that you know until well I was behind someone who's going a little fast and then in um on Lincoln Speedway I mean Lincoln Parkway um tonight so um and and that was at 5 30 so maybe if it went to six o'clock or well I mean they can look into that yeah I know we're working with the city first of all I'm trying to get those relocated again like everything else that's a specialized skill right I mean in terms of it you think well just move them well it's not how it works actually right it takes a a group of
102people who have the equipment and the know-how to be able to you know to install those properly my understanding is they were fairly close to be able to get a contract or two we know what it what it's like right now to get a contractor to do a lot of anything it's just the backup and work people are just very busy and so we know that people look to schools and try to help them but even with that that is just something that we just know that there's more work than those contractors can handle right now and then the the things that are being done if that development proceeds in that area these are just well not temporary but it'll all be looked at again I assume in the future and make adjustments yeah so
103I think that was something that the city council was pretty clear on some of these things that could be additional the the piece like moving the dynamic speed sign that's uh that's done that's going to happen as soon as it's not done it's going to happen as soon as it can practically but things like the delineators and things like The Pedestrian activated beacons and they have not approved it yet right but the council was pretty clear in their discussion that if things were implemented before that property was developed and there was a need to change it that their expectation will be that we would change it then that not we but the city would change it afterwards and so we know that there are some additional studies going to happen in that area and I
104do feel confident that if there's something that's implemented beforehand that the city and the school district together have a commitment to making any changes necessary after to ensure that that area is as safe as practicable and can they put deer crossing signs because I came that close to anyone the other night I prayed in front of Greenvale so again this is one of those things that is out of my my uh Center of skills um we'll have to defer that one to the city time apply to all of that like we'll know some medical piece of medical information about these people can we tell ourselves that piece of information so there is a piece that they sign off on at the beginning you know it's I think there's a piece where you're coming to us
105to provide us a test we're using the Q system we are handing them a piece of paper as opposed to emailing them their results um so we've worked with the Department we were following the Department of Health guidance on how to implement a school-based testing center no I would like to comment a bit regarding well can you just pull your microphone down there you go I'd like to comment a bit regarding the uh what's that sign called a the dynamic speed side speed sign um I live on Linden and there is traffic going uh there are pedestrians on Linden almost day and night we have a motion detector that helps light the way and it's on most of the time because there are a lot of people walking or biking in that area so I
106would be thoughtful for my decision about the dynamic the speed limit is set on a dynamic sign and if there's any way to be able to activate that Dynamic sign from the Linden or the you know the Linden Crossing of of the of Lincoln Thank You London and so now I know you're talking about the other kind of signal which is actually there's apparently there are four or five different kinds of signs you can get with us what you're talking about is The Pedestrian activated Beacon so that's where I come to the corner of Lincoln in London I'm on London I'm going to cross Lincoln I press a button all of a sudden these yellow lights start blinking so that people know that I'm going to pass those would be available the entirety right once
107they're once they are installed they would be able to be used regardless of the time the dynamic speed signs again what they do is they will gauge a vehicle speed as they enter and if it is above the the predetermined speed zone because it's not necessarily a limit for example it's signed at 20 miles an hour when children are a person but it's above 20 miles an hour that starts to Blink and so um The Pedestrian activated Beacon which is really to assist people crossing the parkway uh when there aren't crossing guards present if those are installed if again the city council has approved those yet but they indicated a strong desire to do so if they when they do those would be available 24 7. well there is a in goal of trying to
108see how fast you can go around that curve without squeezing your wheels so it's kind of a it's an awkward awkward situation for a lot of reasons there's a church there there's pedestrians or there's a school there um and I'm fairly certain that's been for for much longer than the new building has been there been there as long as Lincoln has been there yes but it exasperated because of more traffic now or more pedestrians and traffic than there were so anything we can do to make that much safer you know as I said I if I were a crossing guard I'd raise my life insurance thank you thanks Joe other questions comments I just had a couple questions we just um to uh um talk about first the the traffic I don't know if board
109members have had a chance to be at the high school when it releases to see the new crosswalk and how incredibly incredibly well that's working that's was really great to see um so I just appreciate all the attention to this and and thinking about when we were able to work with the city when they put in the roundabout to add that crosswalk at the high school and how important that has been for our students safety at the high school um in terms of the kobit 19 testing program just thank you for all of the work on that when uh and and initially just a demonstration of our stewardship and our ability to just say no we will we will make this work the state released the grant opportunities and there was only about 30 percent
110of the districts that said they wanted anything to do with it so um we were on it and we're given the grant money um since then most of the districts have seen the light and realize it's a testing program is something you have to do again reluctantly but it's important we know it's going to be a game changer in terms of our students especially the test to stay program but I just want to acknowledge that our district was you know one of only 30 percent so 70 percent of the district said yeah no thanks um and so I just really appreciate that we went after those funds around a little over two hundred thousand dollars which which is um you know a significant amount of money it allowed us to hire that individual and to
111really work through the details so I just appreciate the attention to all of the details it's you know just the logistics there's always doubles in the details and um just to make it work Cole Dorothy Anita yourself Cheryl everyone that that had a hand in making sure that it's going to be successful and we understand they'll be some Kinks that have to get worked out in terms of how it flows but boy it's just really going to be excellent and then my last comment would be about the e-learn learning Date Update and I think it's just a real demonstration of how much we have learned about technology and how we're able to interact with students and we're fully leveraging you know zoom and seesaw and schoology and our talking points and and um you know
112our staff's ability to to connect with students which is what we learned um you know so so it's definitely a silver lining and and um districts talking you know State officials talking about districts being able to learn from that and this is just a demonstration of of that and and I just again appreciate how we are really how much we learned and how we're able to leverage everything we learned them to really ensure that our our students are getting the best experiences possible on those days when when they aren't able to be in school so so with that I think we have that's that's the report so thank you um so that that is um our last report for the evening so we can move on now to the approval of the consent grouping as
113a reminder there were a few personal items in the table file that were added to the consent grouping is there anything anyone would like to pull from consent for separate consideration I do want to just make one comment yeah on in the the uh consent agenda the minutes from October 11th inadvertently under the area of committee reports uh we missed the word no there weren't any committee reports we said that there were committee reports but didn't get it so we just was just a typo we did not include the word no so the minutes that are part of the consent grouping should be modified just to reflect that there were no committee reports that the October 11th meeting okay thank you for thank you for making that um clarification and for whoever spotted that that
114was a good catch um so there isn't anything anyone would like to pull is there a motion to approve the consent grouping moved by Jeff is there a second by Corey all those in favor of approving the consent grouping say aye aye opposed motion carries we'll move on now to items for individual action we do have three this evening um before I ask for a motion on the first um item for individual action which is the pay Equity implementation report I'll just ask Dr Hillman to give a brief overview of that I'll ask for emotion and then we can ask for questions and comments on that Dr Hillman yes as you recall uh school districts across the state um as well as many other entities are required to submit the pay Equity report once every
115three years I in January you approved our uh January 2021 you approved the initial submission of that pay Equity report and we knew we told you there was a strong possibility that we would not pass the salary range tests that tests the years that it takes an employee to move from their beginning salary to their maximum salary uh we eventually as the state then once you approve submitting it the state reviews it and as we had predicted we were not going to be able to pass that test at that point we did an implementation plan that included working with the Northfield Education Association to modify our salary schedule to reduce the total number of steps from 15 to 10 that was one of the strategies that was suggested for us to be able to along
116with a handful of other minor modifications to be able to come into compliance with that so after working through that we went back and worked with our consultant Kathleen Murphy again to do some preliminary analysis and we are required to submit the plan again and so again we're simply asking you tonight to approve this submission of the implementation report the state will then review it and based on our analysis we believe that the state will approve our implementation report so I just need to ask you to officially approve the submission of that report this evening okay thank you so I will ask for a motion to approve the pay pay Equity implementation report as presented moved by Tom is there a second by Corey any questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye
117opposed motion carries our next item for individual action is the adjustment of the e-learning day as Dr Hillman outlined in his superintendent update so is there a motion to approve the adjustment of e-learning day starting point from the third day closure to the second day second full day closure as outlined moved by Claudia is there a second second by Amy any questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries we will now make the motion um for the item we added to individual actions so is there a motion to approve the hiring of a special education assistant at a total projected cost of salary and benefits of 31 000 with approximately 55 percent of the salary reimbursed through special education revenue for a net cost of twenty two thousand six hundred
118and six dollars moved by Claudia is there a second by Amy any questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye a poet or a post motion carries um that is it for items for individual action we'll now move to items for information a bright spot for sure in our uh enrollment options in history report Dr Hillman yes I'm gonna invite uh director of financial murder store to assist me as needed through the presentation here so at this time every year for many many years we've presented to you something called the enrollment options report uh several years ago we added something called the enrollment options history report so the first part simply takes the annual look and Compares last year for the current year in terms of enrollment and we look at it in
119a number of different ways we look at Northfield students who are going to other schools so Minnesota has one of the most sophisticated systems of public school choice in the country and so students have an option to choose another traditional public school they have an option to select a public charter school of course they could choose a non-public school or they could choose homeschool and so we do that analysis each year we provide you every single location where students go to as an orfield resident in every single location that they they come to you as an open enrolled student so when we take a look at we all know that last year's data was very interesting we saw nationally a significant reduction in the number of students attending traditional Public Schools as families made a
120lot of different decisions based upon the uncertainties associated with the beginning of the pandemic when we take a look at last year to this year last year we had 875 students choose some school other than Northfield so those are 875 School District residents who chose something different they could have chosen one of the fine two charter schools that we are the authorizer for I want to remind people we're one of only two remaining public school districts in the state that go through the rigorous process of authorizing charter school so they could choose Prairie Creek or they could choose Arcadia some of them choose a number of other different Charter Schools they could choose it on public school like St Dominic and other great partner that we have here in the community and we've long had
121an excellent relationship with our homeschool families as well we provide some options for shared time enrollment where a homeschool families can have their students attend school for certain specific courses most often as they get older so you can take a look at last year we had 875 students attend someplace else this year we had 853 chose to attend somewhere else so that uh went down by 22 two students this year and we also see that we stayed very similar so this year we had 454 students coming to our schools from other traditional public school districts compared to 455 last year so that remained I think we can call that stable so you can see all the of the lists of places where students attended you can see again the 2021 to 2122 comparison you'll see
122the total non-public last should be 153 students choose a non-public school this year 128. when you look at home school students you'll see that last year we had a total of 207 students choose home school from 94 families this year 180 from 85 families when you look at students going to Charter Schools we saw an increase in that this year from from last year to this year with 278 resident students choosing charter schools last year to 287 this year we saw an increase at Arcadia that could be possible that some of those families last year chose to homeschool there are residents so they would have been under homeschool last year and now are going to one of the charter schools that's a possibility uh second page of that report shows you the students in and
123out of each School District once in a while you'll see a student where you say well geez How could a student for example attend Wilmer you know how could they come here from Wilmer once in a while we'll see is we'll see where there's a parent who has custody of a child and for whatever reason there's a temporary piece where that student will come here for a period of time so when you see an outlier like that well how could someone drive from Walmart every day that is typically it typically has something to do with a custody related piece and the student um still the custody or the official address would still be in that community that seems further away but they are staying with either a non-custodial parent they may be staying with a
124grandparent there could be a variety of different reasons so you can see um all of the students who have come in this year versus last year then the second part of it is the enrollment option is history that goes back a decade so it goes back to 2011-12 and again what you'll see is when we take a look at that um last year we had a deficit of we've long had a deficit and again I think a lot of places look at those deficits as something that's a problem um of course those students would bring generate revenue and come to Northfield Public Schools but we've long been a leader in public school choice by us what used to be called sponsoring and now authorizing charter schools so you'll see that we did decrease the number
125of students who the net the net loss of students from 420 last year to 399 this year so that is an improvement um we had been projecting declining enrollment anyway right we've been sharing that with that with you for several years now um and the fact that we're you know we're still we still increased we're better this year than we were last year I think uh does say that we're holding our own in that enrollment options area Val that's my analysis do you have any other words of wisdom to share as you're one of the chief Chris nesset our student Information Systems person is is uh really generates the bulk of this report a bit but Bal who's responsible for sharing our enrollment with the state does some analysis as well I think you covered
126it really well okay we try to be thorough what questions might people have about this year's enrollment report Amy I noticed that in the last 10 years we've more than doubled the number of students that come from faribo yes here is that mainly because of the program at the alc or is there something more to that yeah I think that for as many people there's probably as many reasons I want to just be clear you know we have less than a total of 100 students at the area Learning Center I think we're about 90 this year Val roughly so we saw the most precipitous change in this in 2017-18 if I recall and I think for the residents who are coming to from Faribault there's as many reasons as there are people for some people
127they live very close to the line you know of the district there's we see that with Cannon Falls we also see that with New Prague where some people just they they go to church in a different Community they go to the grocery store in a different community so even though they're technically within our school district they might choose that District or vice versa there are people who live close up they say well we typically interact in Northfield so we're going to take our student there so to try to characterize I do know that the farewell public schools have done some uh research on this they've in the last couple years they really have looked at it to see what is causing and um I think that they have really looked at some perceptions of some
128of the programming and they're working very hard to share the real quality programming that they have with their community but again for as many families as choose it there's probably as many reasons it seems like and a significant part of ours what's the flip side on going from here to Faribault so for in 2122 we have 309 students coming from Faribault to Northfield we have four students going from Northfield to Faribault and I just comments on Randolph because that seems to be a yeah so you know we've seen we saw an increase uh in students who have gone we've seen an increase of take a look at the enrollment options history so you'll see an increase of students who have gone to Randolph uh for several consecutive years if you look at the top the
129Northfield students out so you'll see that you know in from 2018-19 to 2019 20 we went from 59 to 72 and then it was that's you know that's unstable for the last couple years uh to be clear Randolph adopted some different safety protocols uh than we did this year and we had a number of families who specifically told us that was the reason that they chose Randolph I think the other piece I I sign all of those documents to go out Jeff the other piece is that there are uh many times where what's written on the document prior to the pandemic right people really in some cases people really looking for that more rural School feeling in terms of just some what they perceive to be smaller class sizes there are some different programs that
130Randolph has that we don't we of course are blessed with many different programs but sometimes a smaller School District might specifically have a very successful agricultural program that we've partnered with them for several years and we send our some students to Randolph for the first couple of periods of the day after sometimes we see some people who really like the the school and so they choose to go there we're as we're very fortunate to have outstanding school districts all around us and so you see that um you're going to see all of these people who make choices to go to different places I think it reinforces the fact that Minnesota already has the most sophisticated system of choice in the country and so we're leaders in that in many ways and so there are already
131plenty of choices for people any other questions or comments thank you for this report it's always really a valuable one to to know where our where our enrollment is um so that is it Friday for information future meetings we have quite a few in November um Monday November 8th just prior to the 7 P.M regular school board meeting we will have the world's best Workforce presentation that will begin here in the district office boardroom at 6 15 p.m again Then followed by the regular school board meeting that same evening Monday November 8th at 7 pm Thursday November 18th at 5 PM we are confirming the board work session that will be at the district office conference room 105 and then our uh second board meeting of the month of November will be Monday November 22nd
132at 7 pm here um also in the district office boardroom so with that I asked thanks to everyone for a great meeting and to our audience members for you what observing us through our our Vital work um I asked for a motion to adjourn moved by Noel is there a second by Jeff all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries we are adjourned