001Uh, how about we start with Scott? >> I attended the MSBA conference on January 15th. >> All right, Don. Um, I had a student council rep meeting, MSBA the 15th and 16th, and then agenda planning. >> And Melissa, I also did the student um rep meeting and then I also I was not able to make the conference, so I had um a meeting with Deb to catch up on what I missed. And then today was the fourth grade kind kindness retreat there too. It was so much fun. Like I highly recommend that you get a chance to go volunteer doing it. Like I would say most of the kids if not all of them were participating most the time and then getting to see fourth graders who are usually like I don't know not usually
002some of them are usually a little more self-conscious and whatever and just seeing them dancing around and you know having fun and laughing. It was it was really really awesome. So um yeah and I was saying then oh we had public engagement >> then um I attended a portion of the um MSBA conference and then had public engagement. >> All right. Um I also attended the MSBA conference on the 15th and the 16th. Um we planning and uh public engagement before this meeting. So we will move on and student council report. >> Right. Starting with preschool, tomorrow is baby story time with Miss Amy at the Princeton Library. And next week is Parenting with Love and Logic Mondays, uh, January 6th through March 30th. >> For the primary, they're having a 2026 readathon. grades prek
003through fifth grade started which started January 9th through the 23rd and students are asked to read 10 minutes and are eligible for prizes. The school participated in a book blast event through the book fun program which is for students to get new books. The school continues to teach students about social and emotional learning and there is currently a um book fair for the kids and the proceeds go to to replace lost or damaged books in the media center. Um in the intermediate the youth frontiers kindness retreat which was today and tomorrow right uh in middle school uh deep portage is next week. The middle school speech team just had a competition last week. I think it was Friday something one of those days. The Valentine's flower sale was yesterday and there was a courage last
004week for the high school. A handful of students just performed yesterday at the Mississippi honor band uh honor choir and jazz band. So all all the students enjoyed the opportunity and they performed really well. >> High school midterms are January 23rd. >> Various high schoolers are helping out with the kindest retreat as Melissa mentioned. Uh it was today it will continue tomorrow. One performed uh well at the festival on Saturday. The snow dance is is coming February 13th at 8:30 and student council is selling ice cream at lunch this week. >> The one act performance Saturday at St. Francis if we went to move on to sections otherwise one act is over. >> The PTO gave out almost 1,500 books on January 9th. >> That's all. Awesome. Thank you very much. Uh we will move
005to the superintendent report. Pat, >> thank you. Um start off with the beginning of this week. I just want to recognize that yesterday was MLK Junior day and that we had a professional development day and no students that day. So people enjoyed their 3-day break. Um but also with the message that MLK Junior was about service and hopefully the people had a chance to get out and do some service out there. Um, and for us, for our professional development day, it was really really a good day for for teachers and to to kind of um roll up their sleeves and work on things that they've been wanting to work on. So, I think that that was a good day for that. Um, I always feel like public servants like educators do follow the servant leader
006um by just even in their work. So, big thanks to all those that are public servant in education and all the work they do. Um want to talk a little bit about uh uh this week is uh denoted by the by the state and by the governor that it's par profofessional week national or state professional par profofessional award week or recognition week. Um and I know our schools do it at different times. So some schools might be recognizing this week and some may not. So um not to say that they won't get recognized but if they're not this week they will. Um but with that said, um anybody that's working in a school system knows that uh pair professionals make a huge impact on learning and they really help some of our most needy uh
007uh students that can use support. So we want to honor and thank all of our pair of professionals for all the great work they do here at Princeton Schools. Um the rest of my time between the last meeting, I'd say between school visits and admin meetings and other uh um committee meetings um along with uh had a MASA uh meeting with a bunch of uh other superintendents in the region, region six and um a lot of the topics we had some staff development there, but then we also had some some uh some pointed topics of what's going on in the state and how to handle it and what do you know to to make sure we provide safety for all students and families that I think most of the staff had received the email that
008kind of came out of that meeting, if you will, and that discussion. We also talked a lot about that at our admin meeting. Um, and then we uh I had a we had a district-wide climate and culture uh kind of a check-in meeting uh here in the last week. Um, you want to bring joy to your to to your day, just listen what's going on in the schools. Um, there's so many positive things to bring positive culture into our schools by our staff. It's just incredible that when we have those check-ins, all the things that we do on a daily and a weekly basis, a monthly themes and so on to make sure that we're finding ways to bring joy to to our kids. So, I just want to thank all the staff for for
009making that happen. Um and then um uh we had a uh uh our last um eight ran uh Rum River supported uh district NTSS PLC training. Um we've had uh one a month here since the beginning of the school year. Um and what we really did was set up our framework of how do we move this forward uh for the next year. And um it's a that those that have been coming to it. It's a it's there's a lot of work uh to make sure that uh we have full fidelity of of delivering the MTSS model and there's a lot of nuances to it. Um but I'm really proud of the work that that has happened with that committee and how we've set oursel up for for the future. So um that was that was
010nice to kind of culminate that in our last meeting with the state. Um, I met with RAP Strategies and ICS here in the last week. Um, we're starting to have our beginning conversation of our next referendum campaign and a little bit of the uh feedback from our last campaign. So, I expect to see a survey coming out probably in the next month to get a little feedback from from how it went last time, but also um just uh what the voter turnout was and what it looked like for the last referendum and how to plan for the next. Um I too was at the MSBA conference. Um a lot of good sessions and and speakers. Um um I know the one that kind of blew me away the most is just how AI is developing
011so fast you can't even keep up with it. Um but there's some really good powerful things that we can use at the AI and um I'll admit I'm not a heavy user of it yet but I every time I look at I want to be because it it it just does a lot of powerful things. Um so it's pretty exciting. um starting to have midyear uh goal check-ins with the with the admin team to see how they're doing on their yearly goals. Uh and that's that's going well. Um and then we just had our public engagement meeting where we talked to about a couple things. Uh you know, kind of our uh setting up our our next campaign, if you will, um for the referendum and then a little bit on legislative priorities in our
012platform and we'll culminate all the different uh platforms that are out there from the different associations and see which ones uh prioritize best for us. Um, and I, you know, as I look at those platforms, one of the things that's probably the most, I don't know, eye shocking, if you will, is, uh, some of the talk of removing funding to schools when we all know that schools need funding the most. So, we'll see if our legislators come through with uh, holding strong on what we already have, but not moving us backwards. Um, and then, um, I know some are already asking, so I just want to say it. Um, yes, Friday looks cold. Um, and, uh, the threshold that I've used in the past, I've talked to a few locally, is that if it's a
013negative 25, uh, um, air temp orgative -35 windshield and and the reason those two are for both frost bit and don't want kids out in that, but also um, that's the temperature the buses uh, fuel starts to gel and they won't run. So, um, those will be the thresholds we watch and hopefully I'll know by Thursday night where we're at. So, we'll see. But that's >> feels like temp or the real temp. >> The real temp feels like 35. >> Both that is. >> All right. Thank you, Zach. >> Yeah. >> Uh, we'll move on to item seven. Approve the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So motion's been made by Melissa. Is there a second? >> Second by Scott. Um any comments or questions on the agenda hearing? None.
014All in favor say I. >> Opposed. All right. Agenda is approved. Item eight. Discuss and act on previous board meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented? So >> motion's been made by Scott. Is there a second? Second. What was you? Done. Okay. Um, any comments or questions on the minutes? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Minutes are approved. Item number nine, consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. Motion's been made by Melissa. Is there a second? >> Second by Jen. Any comments or questions on our consent agenda tonight? All right, hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, consent agenda is approved. We are on to our first information item, sped
015audit. Yeah. >> Oh, thanks. Well, we can start with introducing ourselves. >> Good evening. Yeah. Okay. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm Tanya Tacker, the executive director of special ed for Rum River. >> Madam Chair, >> well, that makes me feel a little brave. >> Sorry, it's a little formal. I'm probably >> Hey, how's it going? Better. I am Lana Tallberg, the new director of student services. I took over for Steve Milm and so just thank you again for having me here in Princeton. It's a wonderful community. You have amazing teachers and pair professionals and just staff in general and community in general. It's a really really kind community and so I'm so happy to be here. And we'll go through an audit that was actually done last year before I came.
016Tanya was a part of that. Um, and then we'll go through items that we've already touched on and started and kind of give you an update of where we're at. >> We usually like to start with all the positives, but in this case, we're going to talk a little bit about how um we conducted the review, some of the um findings of the review, and then recommendations, and then finally all the wonderful things that are happening within Princeton Public Schools. So, thank you, Jason. I'm sure. >> Yeah, you did great. So, you are the tech guy and the jack of all trades right here. >> Let's see if we can get this to work on. >> All right. >> Yeah, that's good. >> Hopefully, >> we'll just scroll. >> Okay, >> perfect. Okay, that works.
017>> Um, so the purpose of this audit was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the special ed department within Princeton public schools. Uh this review focused on the seven areas which you can see there. Staff climate schedules, recruiting staff, onboarding process, staff collaboration, ongoing professional development and curricular instruction. The work centered on improving student outcomes and then uh supporting staff uh um sustainability as well. Those these areas uh reflect core systems, not isolated issues at all. So we were making sure that we were looking at core issues. Oh, it's a little scroll like that. Got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so the data collection process included the following. We had staff surveys. We did we conducted listening sessions. We reviewed different documents, classroom observations. And then there was analysis of HR and student achievement
018data. Using this data that we had received from all this um data collection that we did, we were confident that the findings reflected consistent patterns and and not opinions. Um so the audit of Princeton public schools special ed department highlighted here um these key areas of strength and opportunities for improvement that you can see there is much pride in staff uh commitment alongside an awareness of system challenges which included staffing shortages inconsistencies with onboarding and gaps in professional development. Staff climate reflects concerns about workload and support impacting retention and morale. Scheduling insufficiencies contribute to service delivery challenges and potential to increase communication between gened and special ed departments. Curriculum alignment and instructional consistency required those targeted improvements as well. So those are some of the um findings that we had from when we conducted those
019surveys across special ed and general ed. Summaries of summary of the findings for listening SH sessions include that um it is confirmed more than one time. Uh that staff cared very deeply about students and worked very very well together. That was something that came out um a lot during those listening sessions. Uh teams reported also a noticeable rise in student needs both in intensity and frequency which is not uncommon to Princeton. It's happening in every single school district. Uh staffing shortages was a concern uh limit limit that limits flexibility, increases your workload and affects consistency of services which again a lot of these findings are not uncommon uh you know just to are not common just to Princeton. It's it's happening everywhere. um resource constraints challenge the systems ability to sustain high quality program and
020the outlined recommendations that we're going to share with you from this will respond directly to what staff shared during these sessions. Uh their aim to strengthen program stability, improve student outcomes, and support staff staff uh satisfaction and retention. When it came to curriculum and materials, um we found the findings included that staff are using a variety of tools to identify student needs uh with opportunities to strengthen consistency across the system. So there's a lot of just kind of you know pulling in different directions of different curriculum and materials and sometimes the the teachers make up their own um curriculum often. Um so that causes some you know inconsistencies across the the system. So um greater consistency in materials would benefit students as they transition between sites. Having a clear scope and sequence with support and
021structural continuity and shared expectations. Uh teachers did demonstrate or do demonstrate initiative in identifying skill gaps and selecting materials to meet student needs. So they do a excellent job at that. Um, however, like I mentioned, having something that was clear and across the different sites would be most beneficial for students and staff, of course. Um, staff development. Some of the findings that we found were district staff development days do provide a strong foundation and shared learning across roles. Special ed teachers gain value from general ed um professional learning, particularly around instructional practices and systems. they seem to like to have some time together with general ed teachers and sometimes they, you know, had some things that they would like to do on their own obviously that were more uh special ed focused. At the same
022time, like I mentioned, staff um did express a need for some learning targets for special education roles and responsibilities as well. So, navigating both of those needs um can be difficult. Um there were quite a few recommendations that we gathered from the surveys, from the staff themselves, um from uh the listening sessions, and then just over an overall analysis of the audit. So I'll have um Lana go through some of those recommendations. >> Okay? >> And then um if you have questions throughout, just let us know. >> Okay? And so we'll go through the recommendations next. So, we wanted to try to look for I'd rather look at that better. Okay. Um, we want to look for things that are low cost because we are trying to be financially smart about everything. We know that
023budget is tight for special ed and just for education in general. And so we're looking for high impact systems and curriculums that um are researchbased, evidence-based, things that we know for fact based on research that they work with kids with disabilities. And then also looking at the cost of that and I don't think she's in here but Jessica Tone Gunderson and Andrea Peppernau have been wonderful partners and working with me in that along with all of the special education teachers that have truly taken their time to look through curriculums that we've been looking at and just overall systems. um really making clear clear um descriptions of what special ed roles are and roles of a paraprofessional versus roles of a special education teacher versus roles of general ed teachers. Um use uh meeting times for
024during staff development that is pertinent to what people do in special education. And so we've with the principal support and they've been wonderful with partnering with us just making sure that special ed teachers are joining the team of the entire building for things that are that pertain to them and then that we're giving them time to work on the really specific um programming for special education where there's so much diversity from kids that are nonverbal, non-mobile all the way up to kids who are truly genius but maybe lack ing and social skills. And so we have such a large gamut of students that we have a lot of planning that we need to do on our end in special ed that's so unique to us as well as a ton of due process requirement. So
025what we've done during Well, I'm not going to get to what we've done. Um so they wanted to have some more time during staff development. They wanted to have a duty-free prep, which they should have, and a duty-free lunch, which they should have. Um, we want to strengthen the staff stability and retain our staff here in Princeton. Um, as well as having stability in our schedules and build a district-wide behavior support capacity so that there aren't a lot of behaviors interrupting the instruction of all of our students. >> Um, we'd like to refine co-eing models and align with student need. And so, what is co-eing? What does it look like? We need to really dig into that and find out is that truly effective for our students who are struggling and if not what should
026we be doing differently. Look at site schedules and balance service delivery and think about least restrictive environment. And least restrictive environment is trying to make sure that kids with disabilities are with their typically developing peers as much as they're able to handle with still making progress. conduct bianual reviews of the schedule and workload to guide staffing decisions. Even putting the numbers together tonight, which if I get to it all, um it changes on a dime. So, I'm changing it, changing it, changing. It's always changing. And you'll see that later on when I'm talking about numbers. Um so, we do need to continue visiting that with our staff case load numbers, the the amount of students moving in, moving out, the needs, the amount of minutes that we provide. um clarifying roles when it comes to
027behavior support. Uh there are a couple different behavior support systems here in Princeton. And one I and I might be getting it wrong because again I'm new, but how I view it is one is if there's a real big medical emergency and somebody is seizing on the floor and what do we do in that moment? And then one is if we're having heavy hard behavior in a classroom and it's disrupting um it's disrupting the environment for learning. And so those are two different behavior teams in my mind. So that's what we've been working on right now in our special ed teams. Strengthening behavior support spaces. So we've really been looking at space. The first thing you can usually control is your environmental controls, the space and how you use it. And so we've been really
028looking at and nope, that's what they wanted to do. Recommendation. um professional development and training really strengthening strengthening the administrator capacity to support special ed improvements and so partnering with our general ed administrators with special ed administrators to move forward in that providing role specific professional learning for special ed. So really um specific to special ed those types of trainings use district staff development days for flexibility which we mentioned um clear ident identification required of special ed training and inviting participants and I think what they mean by that is what's mandatory versus what's optional when it comes to trainings in special education and then um prioritizing mand mandated responsibilities when needed which is really truly their due process requirements. Um recommended to add 30 minutes weekly for pair of professionals and case managers to collaborate.
029Review student and classroom needs. Build student independence. Provide coaching and feedback. Dedicate one day during back to school for parent training to review IEPs. Meet with the case managers and prepare materials. and create clear onboarding with key resources including role guides, handbook, and behavior management. So, onboarding when people first start a job here in Princeton. Um, provide 101 training for all gen GenEd staff when it comes to special ed. Add IEP snapshots to Edgie Climber for easier gened access. review diagnostic and process and processes to identify skill gaps within the students that we serve in special education. And then identifying a scope and sequence um along with um good materials to use in the areas of reading, writing, social emotional um life skills when it comes to functional skills for after high school and executive
030functioning. and then offer training and coaching to ensure faithful use of those materials so that we don't buy materials and they just sit there. >> So, as Lana mentioned, this was done last year and that's a lot. It's a lot of information, a lot of recommendations that we had um provided to when I said Ben said, "Here's your list of to-dos." >> Yes, that's what I got. Um so you know that we obviously know that this is not something that can be you know taken care of within a couple of months a year or two. Um so you know it's an ongoing um effort um to improve some of these um or to implement some of these recommendations. And so what has been done so far is actually quite a bit which is really exciting
031uh for Princeton that um you took the the audit and the recommendations and started acting on those right away. So some of the things that um have been that was the floor I promise um that have been done in response to this audit u regarding staffing and workloads um they're beginning to group uh students together with uh similar needs for better use of space and resources utilizing pair professionals different differently I mean that also depends on the students that you you know have enrolled in your district as well depending on how you can use uh pair professionals using instructional models that work best for individuals. I know that um Lana and Jessica and Andrea have been researching some different instructional models and curriculum that uh would work well um for for the students um to
032be successful and and make progress towards their goals and objectives. increase uh clarity around special roles and expectations and then use median staff development time more strategically and really working on protecting that duty free dutyfree prep and lunch time. >> Oh, so I just want to add a little bit of detail because I see my sped people back there. >> Um when I talk about grouping, we in special ed, we have setting one, we have setting two, we have setting three, and the higher up you go, the more amount of special ed services you get away from general ed. So they um have setting three programs in almost every building right now for ASD and EBD or one or the other or combined. But we do have programs like that and we are continuing to
033work on those programs to continually improve and support those programs because they are the most difficult programs. as well as our DCD centerbased or sorry old word from old job uh setting three DCD programs. Um we have a really really good program for the kids in every building for our DCD population which is our kids with the most cognitive delays and functional life skill type needs. Um and then as far as utilizing pair professionals differently, um we are trying to use them more as a resource that kids can go to rather than being a pair of professional that's right there right on their head all the time >> because kids can really be independent more than what we sometimes think and they can come to us when they need the help. So we're trying to
034move in that direction. >> So I think those are the biggies that I wanted to add to that. >> No, that's okay. Yep. Do you want to use that? Sure. You want me to put that? Sure. >> Um, with the scheduling models, we, you know, it is, it is often easy when there's behavior happening to want to have the kids exit the general ed classroom. We're trying and we're moving forward little by little because it's something different. But we're trying to train our teachers on how do you give a break within the classroom? How can you how can you use some strategies to keep them in the room and deescalate them so that they can stay and and get that um general ed exposure, but then with the MTSS model also adding on more scoops
035of service. So if they have a need in reading, let them have exposure to the general ed reading curriculum and then come for another scoop of reading with special education, maybe another one if they need that. But we're really trying to give them the most amount of service that they can get and exposure with general ed um using that tier one all the way through our um special ed services. And then the controlled spaces are those setting three programs where when you're trying to control a space, you don't want a lot of things around that could hurt people. And so just making it a clean environment that's safe where kids can't erode and they can't get hurt. Mhm. >> And we've been working on that in the programs. I got some of my teachers seated.
036>> Yeah. So, regarding per uh professional development for teachers and paras, we do um there's a new teacher training specific to special education for um a great portion of that training that Princeton has implemented >> and that's a big change. They never used to do that. So, we took a lot of that time. >> And Rum No, you're fine. and Rome River um has um year after year any new teacher within our member districts, we provide new teacher training um in September. And then every summer we do a a teacher and pair professional training that is offered to um our member districts every year as well. So that's just kind of teddy down there as well. Staff development days, giving time for special ed specific topics. Uh due process time has been carved out with
037your special ed coordinator provided through Rum River and then also Lana. uh some time with collaboration with teachers. There are at least monthly special education meetings in each building. Sometimes there are more meetings um just to get together and brainstorm that I wanted weekly on that audit. But we also have to be again fiscally responsible. So we started with one a month. Yeah. And that's where we're at right now. >> Uh pair professionals having access to IEPs and training on specifics. That's also starting with uh training with bus drivers as well. Mhm. >> monthly collaboration time with pair professionals. They added 30 minutes a month to be able to do that. And then um Rum River developed a parameatrix that um Princeton and other member districts are utilizing uh to work on building independence, student
038independence and um yeah making it so that they are more independent and kind of like what um Lana had said, not right next to the the >> I just had a question about the bus striping is that so that's like for the vans there's trained more specifically on like what that child's student's IEP is >> yes I've been working so one of the roles I have is working with special trans and so I work with Sandy Gazzlin over at um Palmer >> and yeah we we do disability specific training and then if it's a particular student or a particular small group of students that a driver is having trouble with that have an IEP then we'll walk through the accommodations and behavior support plans that we have written at school so that they can mimic
039that and then some of my wonderful ful teachers have been making some social stories and some visuals for the um van and or bus drivers to use on the vehicles. So, >> it's really cool. >> That's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Last slide. >> So, we have gotten to the spot where we felt pretty proud because we've got all those IEPs uploaded into Edgie Climber. We are hoping that with the new Skyward when it's um coming out, we're using that that we can get our IEPs into the individual education plans into Skyward along with the behavior support plans and the health plans for kids with unique needs. So right now they're they're all in Edgy Climber as far as IEPs and then the health plans are all in Skyward. So people do have access to those.
040And then we are using FastBridge and STAR for our sumitive testing to get overall scores on kids and see where they're um where they are in terms of their ski academic skills and gaps. And then also we're um looking at again I just can't say enough good about the partnering I've been doing with Jessica Town Gunderson and Andrea U Pepper now because I don't know like it's easy in special ed sometimes to feel like you're an island but I don't feel that way. They've really been supporting the whole >> spectrum of curriculum from like again our nonverbal non-mobile type students all the way to our gifted and talented. So, it's neat to look at the whole picture of students for Princeton >> and we're looking at curriculums that truly do a good job of measuring
041data to see how they actually are performing um and not making up our own data sheets to try to figure that out. So, we are working on a new program um that's helping with that um new programs I should say in different areas. >> We're starting with reading and math >> and we're starting with reading and math. We have not gotten to social emotional learning yet. um we dove into reading the hardest uh first, but we are also working on math. >> Again, they're all evidence-based. We're looking up all the research on this and looking at the success rate in students when they are using those tools. Um and then we've also done some research on the surrounding districts and the districts through Rum River Co-op and um finding what other districts are using as
042well. So, that's a summary of the special um audit that we conducted last year. I think you guys are in a really good position as far as um recommendations that are being implemented so far and we'll just continue to monitor it and re-evaluate as we need to. Does anybody have any questions? >> Questions for them? Like Connie said in the very beginning, these things that were came out in the audit are not unusual to Princeton. I just feel tickled though that we're working so hard on all of it. And it's not a one-man show. It is a whole group e effort >> um with admin, teachers, parents, everybody. So, it's been really really good. >> Appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> Oh, no. Thank you. Uh, one thing I would like to
043mention, we do have two of our pair professionals that are actually going back to school to become licensed special ed teachers. And so we've got Melinda Zachman and Brett Triplet that are their mentor teachers. So it's an apprentice style um process. And so I believe next spring they will actually have their special license fully licensed uh which is a huge bonus for us. Obviously, the more licensed teachers we can have in those specialty areas, the better. And it'll be EBD and or ASD. So, the areas that are toughest to fill. So, >> thank you to the two pair of professionals and also our two staff members that are supporting them. >> Yeah. Great. >> All right. Do you want to jump to the >> we're going to do the accommodations? Thank you. >> All the
044students are here. And so we like to recognize uh students that have uh made it to state and may even go to nationals uh during the fall. So we want to recognize those students and uh and I have quite the pile of the FFA students here for the state and and I think we have is it four that made it to nationals. Is that right? Um, >> and I I'd like you to come up and grab your uh certificate as I read your name, then maybe make a round over here and shake all the board members hands. Just hang out over there cuz we're have a picture afterwards. Okay. So, we'll start with uh Peter Bol. Brian Poppy H. Congratulations. And Ty uh Emer Congratulations. >> Is there any of the other FFA uh students
045here? No, I think Well, let's get a picture with this group first. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then we have uh some some athletes to take care of here, too. And I might only have one in the crowd. We'll get you a signature unless you want to come up now. You got it. >> I got it. >> You jump in there. >> So, yeah. You should not see your >> Why don't we get here? >> So, does anybody want to talk about nationals a little bit? Just a little bit. >> How many different all the states? Is it international or >> most of the states but I think not all of them. >> Yeah, I think there's about 40 >> 43 43 states competed this year out of 50 states. >> Wow. >> There's
046only It's the top four at most from those 43 states, but we did see a few that only had maybe two >> or so. So, it was only >> your build for the second one. And your area of expertise was >> a mechanics. >> Mechanics. >> So welding, building construction and >> what else do we do? Machinery. >> Machinery. Stuff like that. >> And if I remember right that when I heard you, they gave you a task and you had only so much time to figure out how to make this test, build it and weld it and put it all together. >> Yeah. So this was actually a two-day contest. Day one was most of the written exam and um some other areas and then day two we had um day two we had the
047practicum areas. So we had to go all around the different areas and problem solve and do tests and figure out stuff with that. >> Sounds stressful. >> And day three was welding and everything >> competition >> building it. >> Wow. Well, fantastic job you guys. Who's our protection? or should we get somewhere? >> Two. Yeah, those slide >> whoever think they think they can be in front. >> Yeah, you guys step forward. >> You're the highlight. I'm going to go way in the back. >> You don't have it too. >> Yeah, >> I'll just do something. >> Melissa, kind of face the front. Thank you. >> Very professional. >> There we go. There's a few there. Sorry boy. >> Anybody else? Congrats. >> We don't get to say too many times that Princeton students went
048to nationals. So, thank you for all you've done represent. >> Thank you. We had a we had a couple uh swimmers and and one cross country go to state uh William Ogby went to state and cross country and uh Lydia Thompson went and uh and swim and dive and tonight we have here Kora. >> Lydia is here. Okay. before I went. Cora Zuras and Lydia Thompson is here. Richard >> picture. You get to be all by yourself in a picture. >> What grade is it? >> It's cold. >> Huh? Yeah. So you got a couple more years to compete, right? >> Exciting. What's your >> push this way? >> Oh, which what you have? >> I did the 100 breast strokes. So across four times. >> Yeah, I want to slide in. There we go.
049All right. Um Perfect. Congratulations. >> All right. There you go. >> All right. We'll see you here next year. >> She'll be back. for citizen comments. I told the right time. I think we might have some >> Oh, we do. >> Are are you here to have a citizen comment? >> Citizen comment. >> Yeah. >> To talk to the board. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, our timing got messed up. We we we're here half hour early because they uh >> I think that's >> done. Okay. >> And because the uh the um planning commission because of the holiday is on tonight and they needed the boardroom by >> 74. They started. So >> yeah. So we have to be out of here before. Just >> don't touch your pen. >> Yeah, you okay? >>
050You want to move the table around again? >> Um, no. Um, I've never done this before. Not ever. I'm super nervous. I don't know. Trying to look around the room to see if I know anybody, but I don't. I used to work. Hey, I do. Okay. >> Good evening, ISD4 or ISD 477. I'm going to stall. I'm going to stutter. I'm going to not do this very right. Um, I wanted to address you all as names, but I'm seeing some different ones than I am used to seeing. Uh, my name is Katie. My family and I have lived in Princeton for 15 years. Uh, we are actually transplants here is what we call ourselves. Uh, from ana. I used to work in the school district. I worked in the school district for actually quite a
051few years. Um, my husband uh works in this district. We have three children uh that attended the school district. Two are out of school now. One is currently still in school. Uh she's a high school student. Um she's our last child to attend. Uh a child that we have had to have real life discussions with a child that does not deserve to not feel safe as many others in our community do not. And I've seen it. I've seen it. I hear it. I know it. I'm pretty sure maybe some of you know it. I don't know. I also do know the town that we live in. Um, my reason my my reason for wanting to stand here this evening is not something I've ever ever wanted to do. And I've never done it. I've never
052come out and said anything, never been vocal about anything ever. Maybe on my own social media, you know, if you're friends with me, you're going to know that. But um I remember one year when I was working for the preschool here, I was a preschool teacher or a preschool parent, I'm sorry. Um before that school year started, it wasn't just that school year, the staff had an active shooter training. I'm sure it's still done. Um I vividly recall uh for that train from that training that was led by our police chief Fredericks, right? Is this still Fredericks? >> Yeah. Um, I remember him saying that this was uncomfortable. It It wasn't uncomfortable thing for us to do. Um, I remember him saying that this was uncomfortable, but it was something that was needed. In his
053words that day when we were all standing there trying to be like prepared to go into classrooms and do what we had to do to protect our children, he stated it was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when. He said that. Do I have them on video? No, I don't. But he said that I remember feeling uncomfortable and I was saddened by the the reality that we do still live in from that from that that we still do active shooter trainings and we prepare our children and we prepare our family and we prepare our community for any of that. The district has put in plan everything that we need to do for our community and for our children and our for our families. For that reason, these plans make families, staff,
054our students feel safer. ISD477 school board. My question is why has there not been any communication provided to the school district by the officials that this community elected in regards to I'm sure you all know where I'm going. Why has there not been any communication to our community that entrusts you with our children in regard to armed masked individuals creating terror and taking even American citizens not anything lockdown anything I'm sure that that's probably in the play but there has been nothing stated to this community I know that there are community members here that are doing things that they have to do to be able to protect the people of this community that are scared. We are not just engulfed in this community. People have to go out and do other things. We see things
055in other communities. We see it in our lives, in our children's lives. We see it out of this town. this tone is not the only thing that's going on. Maybe because you're not seeing it here. It's just a matter. I I I don't want it to be that. I don't want to say that it's going to be, but it might. It may be. I don't know that. But what I do know is that it really takes some really strong individuals to have that hard hard uncomfortable conversations to be able to do this. We are so far past point of political indifferences. It doesn't have anything to do with that anymore. Nothing. We are so far past that. I want to bring this back to what I was saying before. It's not a matter of if,
056it's a matter of when. I want to rephrase that and say it may not be if, it may be when. And that's what I'm going to go off of. What are the plans for ISD 477? When will family staff see the communication? I would like to quote MLK as we honored him yesterday. We had days off of school. You had work off yesterday. For some of us, he was a civil rights leader. To quote him, "There comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it's right. It should not take a mother, a community resident, or anyone else having to stand up and teach people or communicate that on integrity, human rights or transparency to put out a
057statement to our families. Your silence speaks volumes. I invite conversation and or anyone else to speak. I do thank you for your time. I know the position I'm put in for doing this and I do not want to be looked down on. or dismissed because this was the hardest thing I've ever had. So, yes, there's Thank you, Katie, for your comments. We do appreciate we do appreciate you coming and um speaking to us and we have your contact information so we'll be getting back to you and get you some answers to your questions. Okay, we're not going to dismiss it. >> Thank you. >> You're all right. We will move on to uh student services updates. Sorry. I was so I was so intrigued. >> All right. >> How much time do I have? >>
058Two hours. >> Remember when Lana got the blanket open? >> The first meeting a little while long back. >> People remember that. >> Yeah. >> You don't want to get Lana. timer. >> You do. I've got it at the beginning for 45 minutes. >> Don't worry, Lana. We got the timers. >> They know me. >> All right. >> Yep. I won't add lib. I'm just use the arrow down arrow key. It'll be >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. So as the director of student services, I oversee the ALC, special education, special transitation, honorward transition program, which is our 18 to 22 program, 504s, homeless liaison, migrant liaison, and nursing and duties as assigned by those guys. Okay. >> Um at I just want to kind of cover some things that we've been doing
059this year so far. Um, at the at the ALC, the area learning center, we've been mostly full capacity for the entire year. There's been a couple of times when a few kids haven't been showing up and we've got a waiting list at the high school and we work in collaboration with high school. So, that's been full most of the time. Our um last year they had 27 in 27 program graduates and 87% uh graduation rate, which is amazing for an ALC. They work with the open door for youth program out of Elk River that helps students who are homeless or in need um for a variety of different things in life. Um we also have the ALC pantry which our Onward program um comes over and they help organize all the food and donations that
060come from a variety of people in the community. And again, I can't believe how generous the community is. That pantry is full a lot of the time. um that ALC has dedicated staff. I'm one of the most amazing group of people and I feel like I've landed in euphoria with this group of people. They are wonderful. Um it is definitely a community environment at the ALC, not with just our staff, but our students. The ALC has done things this year like Feed My Starving Children. We will be doing a military recruitment coming up. Um, thanks to Terry Kerwin, we had the 49ers um, come out and talk about union work and how to drive big machinery and earn a lot of money. >> Um, thank you to uh, Jenny Damon. We had, here we go,
061Sim River, Professor Shagaki, >> Shageki, >> Miami, and Professor Matthew Julius provided a lesson to the ALC students um, as part of Jenny Damon's published work. She is a She is amazing. She's a scientist. She has published an article that is amazing. She's brilliant. And so she brought those professors in to do some lessons with the kids. It was really cool. We plan on going to cosmetology and crystal cabinets and central Minnesota jobs and training and St. Cloud Construct. And that's tomorrow, >> correct? >> Next week. >> No, that's next week. Sorry about >> we have had Rufus come to our building. So I had to get a picture of Rufus. So that's him. >> Um also one of the things is I had a we had a Lea honore teacher of the year through
062onward and that is Abby Mole. Couldn't be more proud. >> She teaches our 18 to 22 program and I have never seen such a great transition teacher. Um she does a great job with those kids. I should say young adult. >> Here's some visual of our um professor that came out. I'm not going to try it. Um these are our professors that came out. You can see um Miss Jenny Damon there teaching as well. And then our guest of honor in the back there, Mr. Divine came. >> Here is Feed My Starving Children where we had the whole crew out there. Look at that big crew that showed up and it was amazing. Those kids are so wonderful and they put their all into it that day. And what did we feed? 84 kids that
063day. >> It's like family. >> Family for a year. >> So, it was a lot of food we got put together in boxes to be shipped off. Um, and here's just some pictures from Feed My Starving Children of the Kids and staff. Um, at the Princeton, uh, at the Area Learning Center, we serve students under a variety of learning models. We really meet the kids where they're at. Again, um, we have students that support that student pantry. We really um, try to get the kids um, connections out in the community so that once they do graduate, they're going to feel comfortable approaching those places. Um, and then that continued relationship with Open Door and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development as well as the Minnesota Department of Ed. And we we really value
064community time. Um, we also have been partnering with um Fairview here in town at Northland Fairview for our care and treatment program and the amount of kids that are going there continues to increase. I we have Roy Hannenburgg as the special education teacher who provides indirect service along with Crystal Croning who supports the students two hours a day over at Fairview. Those students um do 2 hours online education and then they have six hours of mental health or chemical depend dependency counseling. It's been a really amazing connection with that um team over there. We really focus this. Okay, now I'm going to go on to special ed. We're trying to focus really on high lever practices that really do close that gap or help kids to improve scores and improve their reading levels and overall
065academic and social emotional learning um levels. Um, we have revised our PLC time to collaborate more and give time to our special ed folks that need time for those things we mentioned earlier, such as how do we do a behavior management system buildingwide? Um, and how do we, you know, just get an an improvement in our programs constantly. Um, special ed graduation rate went from, so I go backwards. So in 19 or in 1970, no in in 2022 it was at 60% graduation of our students on an IEP. Then in 2023 it went up to 63% and in 2024 we're up to 87%. That is amazing statistics. Um high number of students continuing in onward. So our kids that do need to continue past the age of 18 do use our onward program along with
066some kids from outside of the community. We have some Malaka and Elk River I believe in that program as well. Okay. And then I mentioned that um overall numbers in special ed when you look at full child count of how many kids we have in special education in this district in 2022 23 we had 640. it went and you could see the continual climb and we're all we're up we went down by one student. So, I was teasing Steve that we exited one student this year, but we're still at a pretty high number of uh 73. >> Whoops. um the Onward program, they go out to um businesses such as Walmart, fitness center, the hospital, Tiger Club, thrift stores, hardware stores, and Abby has talked to me about how they do scavenger hunts around town
067in variety stores. So, she might say, "You have mice in your house. What are you going to do?" And they go to the hardware store and they have to go through the store to find out what are they going to do if they have mice in their house. And so, she tries to make real life experiences for the um students. so that they can problem solve on their own once they leave high school and living on their own. It's an amazing opportunity. Here's some kids of our Onward pictures of our Onward students. Um, and so, oh shoot, I'm going to move this picture of all of us for just a minute there. So, just a variety of pictures of them at different events. Was really fun. this bottom right one I got to be a
068part of and they were doing winter holiday games and trivia. >> Um the Onward program I believe last year had 13 or no it had less than that. It had 11 kids and they they gained six kids this year. Um, so it's really grown and I think we only instead I'm going off of last year I think they only had to add one pair of professional the gain of all those kids if I recall. Um, but they do manage that space really really well. They are welloiled machine and I didn't have a picture of on the job training but I sure had a picture of the guy that runs it. So, >> so I was everybody's talking about this Wall-E guy. Wall-ally, Wally, Wall-E, Wall-E. And then some one day somebody came up and talked
069to me about Scott. And I'm like, who's Scott? >> Oh, you know, Walquest. Oh, Scott. Wall-ally. Oh, he's the Wall-E. Wall-ally and Scott. Same guy. So, anyway, he does a great job. He's amazing. And he also stops over at our ALC, works with kids over there. Building updates. And this is just super short, guys. I know we're doing way more on here, but I want to just give you an update with family center. That building is they are growing. So just this fall they were at 80 kids in speech. They have moved up to 112 and they have many more in assessment right now. Just speech. ECSE they had 44 in their part B age third 3 to five and they have grown to 73 students with eight in evaluation right now and again that
070will continue to climb. Um birth of three has grown and again I haven't been here until this year but just listening to the historical data that has grown a lot over the last few years. At the primary school, we're really focusing in on our DCD setting three program as well as our ASD and EBD. I may be saying this wrong, aren't I? The ASD and EBD programs at the primary. Um I have a couple of those people out there tonight, but those programs are actually running really well. We do still have um behaviors that we are handling in the building and we have brought in our behavior analysts from the co-op as well as the support of our coordinator and I try to get down there as much as I can and we're doing the
071best we can to be boots on the ground in those buildings to help support and get systems in place. um whether it be incentives or just structure in routines, visual schedules, social stories, and we're also trying to build that capacity within the entire building of staff, not not just paras, not just special ed teachers, um also general ed teachers, our custodial staff, our kitchen staff, anybody that really interacts with the kids. And I do want to say the primary school has new new people on the team or new to the building and they sure are meshing well as a strong special ed team. At the intermediate school, we've really seen an increase of behavior in that building. Again, we have utilized behavior analysts and um there's a huge turnover in our special ed staff in
072that in that particular building. And so it's really a matter of getting to know each other and how we all work together and who does what and then um just working to continue um to grow together as a team. Uh at the middle school and I should say in both primary and intermediate we did reduce our par profofessional staff. Um both of those buildings reduced in the fall and we have been doing I feel like we've been doing okay with that. Again, it comes down to how do we use our paras and where do we use our paraprofessionals? >> And again, I'm going to ditto whatever I think you said. We can't live without our pair of professionals. They really are they kind of are the meat and potatoes of how we continue to function.
073Um middle school, we have started a pullout model rather than they used to do co-eing and they're starting with pullout models and doing that tier one instruction. um getting getting exposure to that and then coming out for their second school of services. And we've also changed how we use our pair of professionals on that team rather than pushing in so much. We have resource rooms with paras that can support kids that come to them. And then at the high school, that is our probably most veteran staff of special ed um staff. They have been there a long time. They um they just work like a welloiled machine. they just kind of pick up for each other and do as needed. And um they have been amazing. They they don't complain. They're just hard worker bees
074and their case loads are incredibly high. The one thing that just to be aware of, there's a lot of eighth graders right now with really high needs that will be moving into the high school next year. Speech has been a an area that it's not just Princeton. There's a huge uh shortage nationwide. there. Speech clinicians are almost impossible to find right now. I put the numbers of how many speech we have uh clinicians right now out in the buildings. And then I put um next to the buildings where we're using virtual services where we have to contract through an agency. And it's it's not ideal, but we are making it work. Again, I just have to give a lot of kudos to our speech clinicians who have helped these people get our speech station set
075up where they can do online virtual speech therapy. Um, and I do think it's the wave of the future. Uh, there just aren't a lot of speech college programs out there for people to get the degrees, but then if they do, they are required to have doctorate now and to have that high of education, they're going to want a higher salary than what schools can offer. So, I just think this might be the wave of the future for uh schools. >> Here's our two officers that keep us safe. Speaking of safety, these guys come around quite frequently along with Jesse, but I didn't have her picture. I just had her dogs. Um, but these two guys are really great. They come whenever we need them. They're very quick to respond. Drew is probably the one
076with us the most, but both of them have been in and out of the building quite a bit. So that's been really nice to have them over at the ALC. And according to my ALC people, they had we didn't have that kind of um support so much before. So this has been awesome. Nursing, we had six out of eight health a health staff in the health offices either move on to new positions or retire. So we had quite a turnover. Um right now we have a new nurse, Jessica Tweeter. She's our licensed school nurse. I got my letters mixed up there. Saturday night L. No, she is our school licensed nurse, our licensed school nurse. Um, she is really, really brilliant. She's a smart lady. She's going to get those health offices really um in
077good shape. And then we have Amy Gunderson and Shelley Atwood who are health or health office care professionals. And then we still have a couple >> with a long-term leave coming up. I help with 504 plans if needed. The I got to give kudos to the guidance counselors in Princeton and the social worker. They are amazing people who again another team of people that work so collaboratively. It's been amazing learning from them and working with them. They're just great. Not only with 504 plans, but the homeless and migrant support. Anytime we have families move in, we're all over it. even over Christmas break um or winter break. Uh I had one of them contact me because we had a homeless family move in during break and we wanted to make sure they had a home,
078they had warmth, they had food, and so we were taking care of that even during a time that she wasn't working. >> Um our goals, I'm just going to go go real quickly over this. Um, I don't know how they got 0% on MCAs last year, but they want to increase at the ALC or I do to 30%. I'm guessing people didn't take it or they shut down and stopped taking it. There's no these kids are smart over there. So, we're going to get uh better percentages on MCAs next year and both math and reading. Uh, we want to increase our alignment with the high school. So, I've been working a lot with Ryan in trying to make sure that we're kind of in sync with what the high school is doing and and not
079only with curriculum and the rigor of what we do um but also just with staff development and also student opportunities. They had a speaker um talking about the danger of vape and vaping and I just thought, well, wow, I would love my ALC students to join something like that. So, from now on, Ryan and I are going to partner on doing things together that way. As far as math, English, language arts, um pre-employment skills, science, the ALC is amazing. They really do dig in and try to get those kids um to learn the most they can, and that environment does really um give them a great opportunity for that. Um I think we need to increase our awareness of homeless and migrant people in Princeton. all the trainings I've gone to specifically to that. I
080think there may be more, but we're just not identifying them, but they have to kind of identify themselves too for us to know. So, just continued um education and conversation on that. And then always working with our outside agencies. I guess the one I've been working with the most is Palmer. Working with them a lot this year. So, thank you. That was a quick version of what I've been doing this year. >> Thanks, Jason, for putting it out. Any questions for Lana? >> Let us know. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Lana. I know you want me to. >> Well done. >> You look >> It's my birthday. I'm going to go home and eat now. >> Husband's dad. >> I just celebrated tonight. >> Happy birthday. >> Okay. Bye, you guys.
081Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. we will move on to parameters and our first parameter is enrollment. >> We discussed enrollment quite a bit last time so we're not going to do a real deep dive. Um when we does have it on for um us to vote on tonight if you don't feel comfortable um that's that's okay too. um if you want to think about it longer, but the more I thought about it and looked at it, um I would recommend that you know our kindergarten estimates are our seatbased estimates for inside the district. That doesn't include anything for online and uh we opened our doors with about 20 kids in K this year. So if you add that even to our lowest number um Ellers the three-year average that -28 you know you're
082pretty much coming out flat. >> So I uh am comfortable if you're comfortable going with >> um the estimate of 3175 for next year keeping it flat um based on the estimate for this year. >> Okay. Um Jason have any other thoughts on that? >> Um yeah, just basically like our our brick and mortar kids, we have 180 of them this year in kindergarten. We're projecting only 187 for next year. So really our our um online students will support kind of holding at that that number that's uh that 3175. Um, obviously as we continue to move forward, hopefully we can grow the online program, but uh, our brick and mortar is what you know what we're known for and unfortunately our our upper classes are bigger than our lower classes and that's going to cause
083some problems later on. >> All right, any questions on enrollment? >> State average. So this used to be a big conversation the state average for the parameters and now we are between 2 and 3% unless the state decides to change that in legislative law. Um the estimate right now is coming out at 2.6 um is what I heard initially that that can change um because it is an estimate at this point they won't lock that in until later in the season. So, >> all right. Uh, class sizes. >> Class sizes, uh, we are recommending that we stay with our guidelines that we've had the last two years, um, and not make a change to our class size guidelines. So, those are ranges for our grade levels from kindergarten through 12th grade. Um, basically keeping them
084the same. The other document that is in there was discussed with the finance department. um that is more around where we're at or where we're starting to look around staffing. Um obviously as our again as our smaller class sizes keep working their way up. It's going to start affecting where we're at with our staffing numbers um and our brick and mortars and um you know ideally we want to keep as many staff as possible but there's also ratios that we got to stay within to maintain. So um >> questions. >> So did you guys decide that they are capping Spanish immersion program this next year? Is that >> uh that has not been yet? >> Yeah, this projection. >> Any other questions on will be uh these will be for on action items at our
085next board meeting. Okay. >> All right. uh 2026 27 school calendar. >> Oh, and then jump to that. Okay. I have I have platform >> legislative platform. Sorry, >> I missed it. >> And it just uh from us, we had that conversation today at our engagement meeting. We're looking at the probably four to five different type of um organizations that that have that we're a part of whether it's MSA whether it's in SBA the MSBA um and and staff and and so on to show what they have MA what they have for their suggested legislative platform and we'll we'll make it our own by using the different items that they're suggesting. Um, you know, I'd say a lot of it uh that's concerning from the meetings I've had outside the district is is is that
086the state is somehow trying to figure out how to make us as a school district and across the state um get less funding than what we have right now. And we're so we're just trying to say, you know, keep us held harmless. Watch the convinced funding of where we have right now and don't have any big hits there. um don't take away access that they've been talking about. So there's some some big items that if the state hints of what they are thinking about happen um it could be pretty devastating. So we need to have a platform that our legislators know where they have to keep us whole, if you will. >> Yep. >> Sure. >> All right. And public engagement will be working on that one. Pat, um item 10E. Well, now we're on
087school. Now we're on school calendar. Uh so a survey was sent out right before or in about mid December. Uh we had 620 uh responses from our community and about 293 responses from our staff. Um questions initially started with the question about do we want to start early because for the next two years with Labor Day being as late as it can be uh the state has given us the opportunity to adjust our calendars. Um the initial survey that went out uh I'm going to take the wording uh problem on me. Um the initial piece uh basically said would you prefer to start students in late August for the 2627 school year 2728. Um initially staff were not in favor of that until they realized that Labor Day was that late. Um and once that
088happened then it was a significant shift in in voting. Um with our community members um they're really split only it's a 51% 52% of our community said that they would like to start ahead of time uh versus after uh Labor Day. And so not a huge um piece with that. Um, when we talk about ending May, uh, the community is a little more, uh, open to wanting to be done in May, uh, with about 55%, but again, not a huge discrepancy. Um, our staff would really like to be done in May by about 65%. Um, so then we took a look at the break periods. Um, for the last couple years, we've had weekl long breaks at Thanksgiving, uh, with some staff development in there. The community was very opposed to that. they want their
089kids in school during that week. Uh and so um that that was uh clear on the survey. Um and then when we start looking at the winter break, um obviously most people want as many days as they can get around that time frame. The biggest piece being that they do not want to have school on December 23rd, um if at all possible from both the community and the staff. Um, and so, uh, I've been working up some calendars to try to make that work. Um, you guys have all of the data in your in your board packet. So, I'm not going to go through everything, but, um, basically the big things that we're the community wants is consistency yeartoear with their breaks. Um, as much early notification as possible. Everybody wants to match the districts
090around us calendars. Unfortunately, not every one of their calendars match. So, that's really difficult. Um, >> go as late as Elk River does. >> No. No. And yeah, there's everybody has um some differences within their c calendars and schedules that we just we don't always match. Um, and it was funny because there's groups that say, "Hey, we want more short breaks, taking off Fridays and Mondays." And we have others that say, "We want less short breaks. Don't take the Fridays and Mondays." So, no matter what you do, you're going to please half. >> Um, and so, uh, we are going to be taking a look at, uh, I did send out a couple of sample schedules or calendars to the staff. Um, got some really positive feedback there. Been working with the administration on calendars
091as well, uh, with like conference times and those things. Um, we've had some discussion around going back to a true trimester all the way through. Um, I don't think we're quite there yet. So that'll be something that over the next two years we'll take a look at. Um but basically the calendars we're looking at for the next couple years would have us starting the week before Labor Day going 3 days um in school having Friday off of Labor Day weekend still so that people that want to attend the state fair certainly can um again working through then um breaking up that November break so that it's down to a staff. The way trimesters work, we end up landing pretty close to that every time. So that last day of the trimester will be like the
092Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We can do a grading day then on that Wednesday and then start the new trimester um right after Thanksgiving. Um for next year it would look like a full two week uh Christmas break uh winter break, whatever you want, however you want to say it. Um, and then the the concern that comes up uh is that we do have about 43 consecutive days in April and May. Um, now granted, we could get some weather days in there that would break that up from time to time, but the way uh Easter falls and the holidays fall, there's really not a good way to make that happen and still be done by um May. Otherwise, that would drag us out into mid June, which is not something uh the groups wanted. I would like
093to say that uh the next year looks much better. So um it breaks out. Easter's much later, so there's a break in April. Everything looks much better for that calendar. Um still working through some of the details on it. Um trying to get a finalized copy to you guys to vote on the next meeting. >> Any questions for Jason on the calendar? All right, we have one action item tonight and that is surrounding enrollment. Is there a motion? Um, did somebody want to make a motion first of all? Um, Michelle recommended the 3175. Um, or do you have something else in mind you want to use as our parameter? >> 3175. So, I'd like to make a motion to this to estimate the 2026 2027 K through2 enrollment at 3,175 students. >> Okay. Motion's been
094made by Melissa. Is there a second? >> Second by Jen. Any comments or questions on that? >> All right. Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I oppose. All right. Uh that is passed. We have no additions to the agenda. Um, and we will move into our closed meeting. Is there a motion to go into closed meeting to discuss negotiation strategy? >> Motion made by Don. Is there a second? >> Second by Scott. Uh, any comments or questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. meeting. >> I think we'll have to move into we can do it here or something else.