12.16.25 Truth in Taxation & Work Session

001and call this meeting to order. Please rise and join us in the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we are starting off our meeting with our truth and taxation public hearing. Michelle, >> all right. Well, welcome everyone. Uh, every year we have to do a truth and taxation hearing. It's required by uh the state legislature to um talk about the power levy. So, we'll get started. Uh the first couple slides just talk about the law and the requirement is that we talk a little bit about our current year budget, our proposed property tax levy and then we must give the public time to comment. Um who and what impacts state

002levies? Uh the state legislature and the governor's office has the most impact on that. They establish our overall tax policies. They create our school levies and formulas. Um, school boards, well, we go out and we they ask um voters to approve operating referendums and bond referendums. So, we just went through that process in the fall. We asked for a bond referendum and a capital levy. Um that's similar to a bond um but for different purposes and uh we were unsuccessful during that time. Um so that is not on our levy. Um how is your property tax determined? The other thing that impacts our levies and what you pay is your property value. Uh the Minnesota state legislature sets all those formulas. We do not do that here. The tax burden is split between residential, commercial,

003and egg. Um the county auditor does that calculation. We don't do that here. The county auditor um always divides the total levy by the total tax capacity of the district to determine the tax rate needed and they take that tax rate and they times it by the value of your land. Um this is an interesting chart. the sources of funds that are used statewide. Um the state sources that run our our school district and the general fund, the state sources are 72% of that revenue statewide. Federal sources um things like Title One, special ed, federal are about 7%. Property taxes are six 16% in the state and other local um funding is about 5%. Um these charts are interesting. The inflation we show this a lot is that our funding per pupil does has not

004met inflation since 2003. it has gotten wider and wider and even though they've infused some money at different points we are that the graph is quite it's getting wider. Um then we talk about property tax levies. Um, we always hear about everybody's property tax and how much they pay. And we're not saying they don't pay, but nonschool areas have a bigger piece of that pie than school districts. Um, we are the blue line. Um, and of course this is a statewide chart. So, as you can see, there is quite the width between those two numbers. 3,991 and 9,149. I guess it's millions, but you get the point. >> There's quite a variance there of what's being brought in with taxpayers at the property tax level. Um, and we have school district funds. those that are

005in the school district know that we have different um buckets I'll call them. We have the general fund which runs the majority of our districts pays for our teachers or our custodial all the all the good things that go into keeping our kids uh in school. Food service the area where we um feed our kids from. We have community ed which takes care of extra things that families want to do and works with our early childhood kids birth all the way to adults. Uh the building fund is funds that we um vote on and pass here at different times to do different projects. And then of course the debt service fund which I call our house clean. So here is a snapshot of our budget. It's probably hard for some of you to see um

006on the screen there, but we show all these areas. Uh currently, our estimated revenue in the general fund, which includes all of the restricted, assigned, unassigned, all the committed is 46,417,471. It's a chunk of change and our estimated expenditures are more than um our revenues expected to come in at 48,677. So that variance is 2.2 million. We are for this presentation we don't break it down to look at all of the areas because we'd be here a while. But uh for those that know what the unassigned area is, out of that $2.2 million, we are uh estimating a one negative $1.5 million um variance in uh our current budget. We will be revising this budget um in January and February. So, we will see what the new numbers come out to be. Food service, we

007we uh have revenue coming in in about 2.7. We estimate expenditures right now at 2.8. Whoops. Community ed is also in the 2 millions, 2.4 million in revenue, 2.1 in expenditures. the building fund. Right now, the building fund actually receives money and then we do projects. We don't really get any more money for the bond except for interest. That 80,000 is estimating uh interest that may come in for the year off of those bonds as we're waiting to expend. But we do um projects on them. This last summer, uh you saw the middle school parking lot was done with uh our LTFM bond or our abatement bond. We did an LTF M bond, ventilation bond at the high school and then we had uh some work done at the intermediate school which was off of

008our regular LTFM bond. So there's a lot of work going on in the district. Debt service is our um like I said our house payment. The biggest part of that is the primary school was built in we moved into it in 2016. So we have a house payment on that. And then of course three bonds, the abatement bond, the LTFM bond and the um ventilation bond. So we bring that money in and that money goes out to pay the pay the house payment as I call it. Um, our general fund revenues, a large part of our revenue comes from student enrollment. We watch that heavily. We uh had a long conversation about that in our finance meeting and that will be in our regular board meetings start meeting in January. um local operating levies, which

009we're going to talk about more here, special education, federal grants, state programs, and participant fees. Uh end ofear adjusted membership. Um, as you can see, our enrollment had back in 20 was it 3,265 ADM. Uh, it went down in 21 to 3,122 ADM, went up in 22 and 23, and then came back down in 24. And as we were looking at that, we noticed that that was our projections out were that it would continue to erode. As you see, in 25 it went up to 3,246. That was in large part due to a K8 online program that we started in 25. And in 26, uh, we are looking at this moment at about flat enrollment from the previous year. But that's an estimated number at this moment. Uh open enrollment. Uh unfortunately we lose more

010students than we bring in. Uh that has gotten shorter the distance between the two in 25. And that's in large part to the online program K8 because we are pulling kids from all over the state. Uh food service is based on federal grants of free and reduced lunch. It's based on student participation. So students have to eat in order for us to have receive the money from the federal and state aid. All students in the state of Minnesota that are on the federal program uh eat pre and that started in and there are no levy dollars. We do not levy uh taxpayers in this fund at all. Uh community education is based on the adult population in the district. It's also based on the early childhood on the number of children under five. uh largely

011funded by participation fees and they also use grants. Other district funds uh as I said the building fund we have a long-term facilities bond that we are using. We have an abatement bond which was for the parking lots. The ventilation bond was for the high school ventilation in the band and choir area. And then debt service is our bond payments or as I say the house payment for the district. So here we are to the school district levy for 2526 but it affects the 2627 school year. So we will see that money next school year not this um on the board agenda. Jason, how do I get to the board agenda? Bring up that second attachment. >> Emily, are you on? >> Yeah. Yeah. What do you want me to bring up? >> The second

012attachment that shows all the levy dollar. >> Okay. One second. >> She's gonna bring it up. >> I'm a little tech challenged. So, >> there it is right there. Okay. >> I don't know where my presentation went, but >> Well, we're done with that. >> No. >> Okay, we'll get it back. >> Get a shot. Okay. Can you make it bigger by any chance? Maybe not. Okay, that's better. All right. Um, as I said, the state legislature sets most of our formulas. We have very little to say on the operating capital, uh, QC comp dollars, safe schools, career tech, all of that is state formula set by them. We, the legislature does all that work. Um, we do choose on the lease levy. Uh, we we do get some choices there. There are things that

013we lease levy for. One of them is the hockey arena. Um and then we're also in a Rum River co-op for special education and we have a lease um regarding the buildings uh that they use for the students that we send there. Um long-term facility maintenance. You see that we have um a highlighted yellow box for the 2627 school year. uh one says proposed and under levy and that's why is the yellow box. The yellow box is our LTFM which our general LTFM is well it's done by a state formula also but the legislature in the last cycle said you can vote at the board level whether to put on additional dollars for roofing. As many of you know, our school middle school rook is 26 years old and is in need of some care.

014Uh so that it was on the bond. So we we put 500,000 on here thinking that if the bond doesn't pass or we don't know that we would use just start with the roof um and um put it together piece mill by piece mill. So you can do section by section, right? Uh tonight the board is going to determine whether they are going to do that. So the presentation tonight shows the whole levy at the proposed rate for the most part. Um, but there is a caveat that it could go down at the end of the night based on uh under levying that rule because we put it on um in anticipation that we would need to make a decision one way or the other tonight. Uh our local optional allowance that case that 724

015came on a number of years ago. It started out as I think 324 then went to 424 now it's 724. Um that um is also formula set by the state of Minnesota largely driven by our enrollment. Um and then we have some smaller areas equity levy transition levy that was things to help balance out with other things that they changed. Uh, community education is the next section on here. Emily, can you slide down? There you go. Thank you. Community education levy. Um, as you can see, our standard community ed is relatively flat from the previous year. Um, early childhood, uh, that levy has gone down a little bit. doesn't mean we're going to get less money next year. They've they've moved a little bit uh more aid into that program. Uh home visiting is relatively

016stable. Adults with disabilities is a new area. Um and school age care is based on the amount that you um spend in any given year. So that goes up and down because if you don't spend all of it, they will take take it back. the it's actually 2 years after the fact because of the timing of. So, we're we're seeing um a reduction from two years ago in our levy regarding school age care. And then we have our general debt which uh happens every year. We're paying the house payment for our primary school and uh our other three bonds. Okay. Now I want to bring back our presentation. Where did you put that, Jason? >> If it's closed, it should be saved on the desktop in the top right. >> Thank you, Emily. there. >>

017That's just the case back. >> Okay. You don't want to hear it all again, do you? >> Oops. Okay. So, our school taxes are spent in three years, three areas. The general fund, the community ed fund, and the debt service. As you can see, community ed is actually a very small piece of our taxes in the district and most of it is debt service. It's pretty even debt service and general fund. I will tell you uh I was in a smaller school and that pie was almost all debt service in a previous district. So, it can change depending on um what district you're in and how your property taxes are, what they're paying for. Um the general fund property tax, this is looking at how much is our property tax. That 11% is um well,

018just our local property taxpayers. 89% of our revenue coming in is uh from state sources and a little bit of other community education. Um again 8% of it is property taxes and state leather is 92. Debt service is the other way. property taxes pay 94% of our debt service portion or our house payment as I call it 6% is supported by the state and that has eroded through the years these um they call it equalization of the state that has eroded in this area our proposed levy increase is 981,000 or 9.93% % increase. So, let's talk um you know Minnesota legislative changes. Uh there were quite a few in 23 that affect 25. Um they provided a benefit to home owners by increasing the homestead exclusion for valuations between 76,000 517. If you look at

019the top of your tax statement, you'll see there's a how much um your value um goes down. They put that on there. Increased. They also increased the first year limit for egg homestead from three land to 3.5 million uh from the 2.15 million. So that was quite a increase. Uh this is just a tax based trend that I like to do. Um this is just showing the growth in our district. You can see from 21 to 22 we had significant growth. Even from 20 to 21 we had 10.4% on our um rep random market value grew. And then in 22 um it went to 28. And then in 23 it came down to 6.9 and 24 to 1.4. Um so we haven't seen a lot of growth in the last um couple years. Um but

020prior to that we saw a lot of growth uh in our our tax base. Um this is showing the impact of the levy for Princeton residents. I just grabbed three values 150,000 250 and 300 on residential and I am showing this estimated change from 23. So if you had $150,000 home in 23 you paid 422 on that home. If you had a tax base estimated $426 at that value you're at $46. Um, so it was a negative 3.7% change from a couple years ago. We we tend to look at just the previous year, but we have been going down. Uh, it went up slightly from 25, but it's still down from 23 and even further from uh what we were paying in 2021 and 22. And commercial though went up uh from the time frame

021of uh 23 to uh 26. Uh what causes your property taxes to go up or down? Uh changes in market values, changes in class rates and history, which is usually um state legislation. if they change what your class rate is, changes in state legislature, and then voter approved referendums, which at this point we do not have one. Um, market values, as I said earlier, I do not control market values. People have called Matt because of that their market value. I can't do nothing about it. Um, so you have to go to the county. They have county board equalization meetings. They're usually held in the spring and I believe in April. Um, just remember that your final taxable market value usually includes your homestead exclusion. If you don't see one on there and you are in

022between those those dollar values uh up to that 517,000 um you should see a negative number to be taken off of your total value. Um, and if you have done improvements, it does take a little bit to get improvements on. So when if you were building here in the fall, let's say you did a a addition to your home, you would not see that on this statement. It would be the next year. Um when we were out and about with our um bond presentation, we did talk about property tax programs. If your property taxes go up a certain amount, you follow certain economic guidelines. There are multiple ways you can get help. I'm not going to go through all these tonight because we do have a long agenda. Um, but there are what, one, two.

023This is this, this is probably the most common one, the circuit breaker they call it. Um, they have a special property tax refund. They have a senior citizen deferral program. Um so that if you're 65 or older and you're struggling and you want to stay in your home, uh there is a way to do that. And then uh tonight the board will be voting on a resolution. Like I said, they are going to be looking at two different um possibilities here. the total proposed one andor under 11 uh $500,000 that we had added for the roof. Um but this is the resolution. So at this time it is time if anybody in the public would like to comment or ask questions but not all at once. I know. >> All right. Well, if we have

024no questions or comments, we will close the hearing and I actually appreciate having an audience. So, thanks for coming. Many years there is nobody here. Yes. >> So, Michelle got good practice tonight. So, thank you for being >> All right. We will roll on then with the rest of our meeting. Um uh let the roll call show all board members are present um except for Eric Strainberg. >> Um and we have no citizen comments. So we will go to um board member committee reports. And who would like to start? How about Melissa? Um I have community ed advisory, tiger connections, tiger care. Oh, and I was going to mention we fixed our light up Princeton tree, so it's not so sad anymore with the little tree. >> Someone cursed us. So, but anyway, so you

025should definitely go swing by light at Princeton and >> check that out. That's all I got. So, we can keep moving on. >> All right, Eric. >> Finance committee meeting before this meeting. Okay, done. Um, completed MSBA part B phase 4 training and then agenda planning. >> I also completed MSBA phase 4 training and met with Jason on insurance options opportunities. >> Interesting stuff. >> It was really >> done. Um, I had Tiger Connections. >> Okay. Um I had uh Tiger Care uh foundation meeting also and agenda planning and finance before this meeting. Um so we will go to student council report. Okay. This we have um early childhood and prek. Uh toddler and preschool story time with Miss Tiffany was yesterday and baby story time with Miss Amy is on the 17th. The primary

026has books our fun pro a books are fun program where students have the opportunity to earn up to 10 books and fun prizes. Each month the school focuses on a school character trait. The December the trait for December is integrity. Next Tuesday is PJ day. In the intermediate they have holiday dress up. This week they also have um the third graders will be talking about making friends. Fourth graders are working through a lesson introducing emotion management. Fifth graders will be learning about calming down. And the family reading pledge continues at the school. Uh for the middle school on the seventh and on the 11th uh the seventh and eighth graders had a choir concert. >> Um at the high school the blood drive date changed to February 28th. both. Um, they have a one act

027play January 16th at the pack at 7 and parent teacher conferences are January 26 through the 20th. Fall sports season ended. Student council selling winter candygrams. There is a door decorating contest for fourth hours which starts the 5th through the 17th. Um there's a Leo pop tab drive January 5th through February 5th. The goal is to collect 50 gallons. >> The jazz bands performed a very jazzy excess last night. Magical is performing this Friday and Saturday. A math league compet competition was held yesterday. A robotics league is continuing tonight. The dressup days starting on Wednesday are ugly sweater, color by grade, uh dress as a teacher, PJ day, and dress as a bunch of character. >> All right, thank you very much, Pat. Superintendent report. >> Yeah, another busy month, a good month. Um uh

028you know it's uh always great to get out and see what's happening in the in the schools. I always you know you you uh let uh some of the negative comments of social media sway your opinion of your school and then you go in your school and you say it's not that way at all. A lot of joy, a lot of good things happening, a lot of great education happen with our kids and a lot of um uh passionate instructors and students at our school that really enjoy. So, um I think we all got to keep that in perspective when when we see any kind of comments out there that say differently cuz uh that's not what happens at Princeton schools. We have great things happening. Um and um this month a few different things.

029Uh resource learning had their uh educational support staff um um acknowledgements and recognition dinner. So, that was really fun to see that. um uh quite a few different uh monthly internal meetings like always. U some of the impactful ones are like the uh admin PLC that we're going through right now the MT MTSS along with the teaching staff and coaches that are are helping lead that. Um we're really digging deep into how we deliver in the classrooms through the MTSS model. Um and some of that is about how we handle data and how do we look at data and how does that help our decision- making. I know we even today we had our admin meeting and we talked about okay let's look at some of the data what does that mean how should we

030read that um and when you look at data sometimes I think uh it can be a little bit misleading if you don't look at the growth of a student um because sometimes you just look at did they make it or not make it it doesn't determine if you're really making grounds with the student you want to look at if they make growth and uh we are doing a nice job of making growth with our students so I think that's important to acknowledge um uh few other meetings I had throughout the the month. The community advisory met with them um working uh with the uh the crisis team and we have a crisis up committee group to kind of see how what kind of enhance enhancements we can make to our crisis um um um response

031and uh expect to see a little more in that as we uh we um investigate and explore some options. Um, also digging in a little deeper on our Spanish immersion program and just making sure that we're delivering uh the expectations that we want in our in our school district. So, um, we'll continue to do that here over the next few months, too. So, expect to see a little more on that side of it. Um, the, uh, and you all know, I think that I signed up for the chamber leadership uh, series and last month was a nonprofit. That was really fun to see that all the different nonprofits in town. Um, and then on this Thursday I have another full day with the leadership group and it's um, uh, I think this one's about u

032responsive of community members that have leadership roles and how that looks. Um, so we'll see how that works out Thursday. Um, and there might be a little bit of Michelle's on the panel or actually they want me to be on the panel. So listen to me. >> Yeah. So that'll be great. Um, as some of you mentioned, we had the Tiger Care Foundation meeting. Uh, we are, uh, exploring, uh, is there a potential way of bringing the Tiger Care program back and and what that might look like if we did. So, we explore keep exploring that one. Um, met with RAP Strategies that helped us with the referendum uh, marketing and and putting together a postelection survey for for parents and staff so they can fill that out. We'll get that out in January. um

033and the ECMAC is which is our uh computer uh support uh consortium and uh had a meeting with them and there the big movement that's happening there is their servers are expiring so they have to um um re re-establish all their server space. So that's a big movement that will happen over this this year but uh they have a good plan for that. Um and then uh have a uh about every six weeks meeting with the Rum River superintendent group. And so we kind of sit and talk about what's happening in each district. So we had that one. Um and if you haven't been out and about and looked around in the last month, there's been a lot of holiday concerts and celebrations. And uh if if you haven't been to them, I feel bad

034for you because there's a lot of talent in our school district. our kids do really really well. It's really fun to see. Our staff does a nice job preparing them and um the kids are really delivering with some real good joy for for those that um want to uh partake in that. Um we had our our Palmer meeting that we meet with the with the bus company and talked a little bit about what's good and bad and different, what's going on with Palmer busing. Uh for some of you that know that uh there is new leadership at the the management of at Palmer now um and uh he's named Dan I can't remember >> and Yep. And he uh he's coming in with the eyes wide open and saying how can we make this as

035good and better as we that we can in our in our their service for us. And I think already we're seeing some movement. So I think that's good. Um, and not that the other ones didn't do well, but I think the corporate was not as supportive, but now they seem to be working well together and delivering for us. So, and we get a few more drivers uh license to help out, so that helps. Um, the old uh uh for me it was always C, schools, regular education, but now staff. I was at that meeting. Uh, fascinating presentation by MD's financial forecasters. They gave a report. Um, I'll just say that they gave a five-year report of what it was going to look like in the next five years on expenses and revenues over the state

036and I think my question to him as the end I say where's the optimism after this and there was a lot of uh more expenses and less revenues coming. So we'll see what uh if that plays out. Um, and then, uh, Lions meetings. I attend those. And, uh, if anybody wants to buy a raffle ticket for the, uh, fishing, uh, ice fishing competition, I have that. So, you get those for me for $10. And, uh, we had the chamber end of the year uh, meeting today. It's it's really kind of cool to see this community's just complete support of the school. I know that I'm in a new position, but I have more people when I go to those chamber lunchons come up to me and, you know, want to tell how supportive they are

037of the school system. And that's that's a really good feeling to have in a community when you know that uh the community, the business community is doing. So, um that's happening because of all the good work that's happening in our schools. So, um that's um pretty much all ahead for the month. Uh coming up in this next month, we will be do getting our review and comment ready to send to the state. Um so expect that on the January 6 meeting. So um that will come to you at that time. Um other than that, happy holidays to all. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to item number seven and approve our agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> Melissa Mo made by Melissa. Is there a second?

038>> Second by Scott. Um, any comments or questions on the agenda? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right. Agenda is approved. >> Is it too late to recognize? >> Uh, you can do it on the consent. Um item number eight, discuss and act on previous board meeting minutes. Um is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented? >> Oh, it's in second >> unison. All right. Ladies first. Um motion made by Don, second by Eric MS. Any comments or questions on minutes? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Minutes are approved. Consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Motion made by Melissa. Is there a second? >> Second by Jen. Comments. >> I just

039wanted to recognize some amazing staff we have retiring this year. And some some of these guys have been around or ladies I should say have been around for quite a while. So, I just wanted to kind of recognize it'll be a it'll be a new experience for the intermediate next year for sure, not having um Lauren Kim in there all the time. So, I just wanted to acknowledge >> MJ MJ. Yep. >> It's Yeah, it'll be a different beg to be on the clipboard program so she could go visit MJ. >> Yep. >> Yeah. That's a that's how you know you have a good employee when I think that's asking to be on the clipboard program. All right. Any other comments or questions on the consent? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> Opposed.

040All right. Consent agenda is approved. We will go to our first information item, primary school update. Hi, I'm Shannos. I'm a consult primary school presentation. Sorry, the same. >> All right. >> So, um the primary school I get to share and there's some wonderful teachers here from the school, too. So, I have our um continuous improvement plan. I'm not going to go through our whole plan. Nobody wants me to go through the whole thing. But um so we have our our big rock action plan. So I'll be just giving some highlights on the different areas um within our plan, but it is linked here. So this is our our vision statement. So I'm just going to read the um the top vision. So we foster a love for learning where students succeed in all areas

041of development. So we have our collective commitments um for our school. We believe in creating a safe and positive learning environment. We believe in educating the whole child. We believe in positive relationships with students and one another. We believe all students can learn. We believe in creating a love for learning. We believe we are one team working toward our vision. So this is our current enrollment. Um so you can see in kindergarten right now we have um 179. So that is lower. Um you can see first grade 193 and then second grade is 205 and it sounds like projections are kind of around the same for which you know aligns with what um SH was showing for data too. So our current total at our school is 577 students. This is our math goal and

042reading goal. So for um for our school we use fast assessment for this school since we don't have the MCAs in primary school. So, our math goal is the percentage of all students in grades K2 at Princeton Primary who are in the lowrisk category on the fast assessment um or a math. So, there's two parts to it depending what grade they are in um will increase from 61.84 in the spring to 63.84. That's our ended goal. And then for reading um again using the um the fast assessment, so we'll increase from 51.83% 83% in the spring to 53.83 that I just like to put some pictures in here. Mr. Ostri shared this. Oops. Mr. Ot shared um so PTO got some new um microscopes. So that was pretty neat to see the kids doing it.

043Um there's always a lot of hands-on learning happening in our science room which I think is really neat. So there's always fun things going on in there. Um, our gym looks super cool right now. It's all set up for the weekend. Did you see it? Yep. Um, so I don't know if you haven't been in there yet, go in. Um, but it's set up for the magical golf this weekend. So, it looks like a castle in there and the kids were doing some teamwork and working together to try to get the the ball to go up to the ceiling. They had different tasks they had to do. So, that was really fun to watch them problem solve, you know, even within a a PE lesson. So, that was really fun. So, in PE they typically

044um co-e. So, there's two classes at a time. I don't know if you can tell that there's actually two of the um two groups set up in there. So, just some more learning. Um some pictures I took this week. So, the neat thing about primary, we know that kids need hands-on learning. So, teachers do a lot of different things to help kids have that. So, this one they were writing spently words, but using clay to do that. Um, and just reading, seeing kids doing that in a variety of ways throughout our classrooms is always is always fun to see. So, these are just from the the week, you know. So, every classroom I go into, there's different things happening, a lot of learning um when it looks different in each room, which is neat. So,

045um, we talk about data and Pat alluded to this a little bit too, like we want to see growth. So, um, this is our So, in K1, we have different tests for every grade, which I think is the part that sometimes makes it a little bit harder because I don't feel like we're always comparing the exact same skills. >> So, in kindergarten, it's letters and sounds, and then in first grade, um, they start to build on their letters and sounds and have some words, and by second grade, it's fluency, and we're working on on reading. So, it looks different each grade. So sometimes you'll see a student is like they met the benchmark but then next year they they need so many more skills. So we see a lot of that you know in the

046primary school. So right now like our our kindergarten data is looking super super good and then um we want we want those skills to continue um and that's the the goal. So this is from the beginning of the year. Um we are starting screening again this week. So we'll have new data soon um to compare to and that's what we like to do so is compare the growth for our students. So this is second grade. They do the A reading. Um so the green is the at or above benchmark. So we like if you remember our goal from the beginning, we want more in the green um than in the red. And so we'll have something to compare with that for next time. And then this is second grade um the A math. So you

047can see there's more green for math um than red, which is good. That's what we're always looking for. Um, and then for first grade English early reading. So, we're looking um to make that growth in there, too. So, I feel like it's better when we have the comparisons to to see which we'll have soon. Um, first grade, early math, kind of the same trend as what we saw for second grade. And then kindergarten. Um, and again, that's letters and sounds that we're we were looking at. We're not expecting that they're reading um words coming in. And again, this is the beginning of the the school year. So there's a lot of green, but the benchmarks from the beginning of the school year for kindergarten. And then um early math, you can see a lot of

048green for the math the beginning of the year. So that's good. That means we're we have some, you know, the students are coming in with some skills that we can work on work with. So our action plan highlights um we're this year we're really focusing on our small group instruction. We've had some PD on that on our higher on higher level questioning and ways to um incorporate that into our classroom. And then teachers, they do number talks on their math which helps with um sharing about their problem solving and having a strategy focused approach. Um climate and culture. Uh we're doing a lot of the a lot of the same things that we that we had uh we've done in the past. So, we're still working on the the zones of regulation. Um the second

049step lessons within the the classrooms and we have we acknowledge students with our power um drawings every every Friday and um making sure that we're teaching the um the behavior grid for our students. So this year, um, we already heard this in the student council update, but, um, something that we're doing different this year is every focus, um, or every month we have a different focus. It's an SEAL or a character trait focus, and that's how we choose our tiger troopers. So each, um, month, each grade level chooses a student, but they choose based on these character traits. So um so so far this year for October it was kindness, November's gratitude, December is integrity. So we do teaching on what those different character traits are. So in elementary school it's a lot of books

050and reading about um the different traits and then they get they get chosen um by their teachers based on those traits. So that's a picture of our bulletin board that we have. So this was for um this was for our screen. Hard to tell in the picture. Um, and then those are some some students that their names were called and that's just a random drawing. So they're given blue tickets if they do different things throughout the school and any adult can give them a ticket and then Mr. Aster draws names and then they come down and and pick a prize. So just got grabbed a picture of that. But they like to come up to the I don't know they really like to look at that bulletin board and see different people up there. I've

051seen kids like wave at it and different. It's really cute to do that. And I like that we're focused on a different thing because sometimes we look at the students that would be like the student of the month kind of student. And this way like a student can be super super kind, but maybe they're not like a student that is doing all their work and different things. So it's just a way of um acknowledging different attributes. So this is our our behavior grid. I'm not going to go through all this, but this is um what we use to help us decide for different consequences and how we do that. just and then the MTSS framework. Um, and as Pat mentioned, we're doing MTSS. We're going through our um our PLC this year, so I'm you

052know, Mary's part of that also. So, I think that's good. So, I think we're we're in a good spot with our MTSS, but there's always room for improvement in anything. So, I think we're learning a lot, too, which is is good. And just some pictures. These are just some kids working. Um, teachers use all different things. This one is like the sheets that you can wipe off. People use whiteboards and it's just a you know just lots of different things happening. So this is um last year. So we had um we acknowledged the students that had perfect attendance. I feel like there's not always as many kids that had that but that group of kids in the I got to have come and have donuts with me and I had um to acknowledge perfect attendance

053I had no work. And that's just a picture of me with the tiger last year. Um just to show so proud of my school and the people that I work with. That's been really fun. And year two is a lot better than year one cuz I have um less things that I have to learn. And then Veterans Day parade was a beautiful day this year for our parade. Um so inter it's you know behind the schools. So intermediate and primary over there. And I'm not gonna All right. Does anybody have any questions for Shannon or comments or >> Well done. Thank you. >> All right. We'll move on to the intermediate school. John Yes. >> Two primary. Excuse me. >> Okay. too. A few jokes in there. >> He's the PDF. >> Oh, I need

054to do that. I need vlog. >> Oh, you did. Wow. Yeah, you can believe in It's exactly like last year better. >> Would the board one have any would it be updated with changes? >> There's just I will share it again. There's just a few changes. add like a slide and added a couple small things since um >> I was just Emily would be able to pull it up if we have >> maybe >> Sean's much better at technology than >> you know be rare Little authentication. That's a point for us. >> Good demonstration of our security. Thank you. >> It's good, but it's very irritating. Yes, it is. >> Yes. Yeah, I just >> Oh, I know. >> Where that That was just mildly painful. >> It was there. >> Just make this work.

055because I'm not in the right one. Family's there. You want to do something. >> Oh, go back. >> I'm only put it up. >> Oh, you want to see the next slide? >> Yeah. There. >> Okay. So this is my 25th year and that was the longest to get slideshow ready for me. >> Um yeah, thanks for having me. I want to share a little bit about the intermate school, answer any questions you might have and jump in there. Some really similar information as you'll hear from um primary middle school. just our moment uh where we're sitting 677 um pretty similar to last year but as we saw from Shannon the numbers are getting small as we go through kind of broken down into English sections and Spanish immersion sections as far as number of

056students >> we're studying currently gives you the number of students and the number of um immersion so immersion all the way through the system that looks But in similar district why I think you'll hear similar messages just wanting to make sure that what we're doing helps support our students um giving them what they need. So whatever that curriculum is what the instruction is to help support them. We've been a strong believer in relationships for a long long time. And so how do we continue to build those relationships? We feel that students respond more effectively and positively when we have relationships with those kids. And so the more we can build that relationship with students, the better they're going to respond to us and what we're trying to accomplish with them. Um Tiger, same thing that

057um Shannon had mentioned. And then this is um since 2005 we've been doing Basser Tiger Pride. So it's been a long time. It's been fun to be a part of that journey since the beginning. Similarly, we have that academic goals. We use the MCAs and um star reading to cover any math to determine what those goals are. And so when we look at I'll show you a little bit of data just kind of our beginning spot in the fall. We are testing again in um in early January. So we'll have be updated and kind of see how we've grown from fall to winter. Then we'll pick those again in the spring in addition to the MCAs. That's kind of gives you what the percentage are percentages were um what we're looking for for this next

058spring. This is just the math for all three grade levels showing where we're starting at. And this again is aligned to the Minnesota um state standards. You can see um the test radically is radically different in fifth grade and those numbers are higher than last fall, but still obviously not where we want to see those numbers at. That's a starting point. That's not the ending point. um we have a lot of lot of time left. This was back in fall. We updated again like I said in January. Same thing for reading kind of where we where the students came in in the fall. We took these tests very early on the first week of school um is where they where they came in and again we'll look at them in just uh less than a

059month and then we'll look at it again in the spring. Um and obviously in between those times staff will be working with that day to help support students. Just the goals with preach the the big rocks. This is the climate and culture one. Um we like to really help support students um okay >> socially mostly so they can perform perform academically and grow academically. And so some of the ways we measure that is by um taking uh some assessments that we do within how we're performing with Tiger Pride or PIS. And then we also want to hear from our families and students and uh staff as well. Something we started last year was this whole idea of earning your tiger stripes. And so similar to uh what the primary is doing, we we take one

060of these each month. And so um we are focused this month on integrity and um kind of looking at yours are kind of similar as far as some of it timing wise. Um so like each month we take one of these and then really develop it a little bit more for students. We we use it in our Tiger Pride news morning broadcast a couple times a week talk more about it giving some examples what it looks like and challenging them to to show that um tiger stripe. We do use the second step lessons as well and so those are shared um as you heard each week we share that in our weekly updates to families um and then it's going to be staff update for for um staff to use those each week. There's 22

061lessons over the course of the year so it's not every week but it's the majority of weeks throughout the school year. I mentioned that um we do have morning news program if you want to take a look at that you certainly can. We have uh we pre-record those with fifth graders uh the Friday before the week that happens. And so um it's a lot of fun. We have about 25 fifth graders who rotate through and um are part of the news program. We did have our Terry Pride family night in November. That was fun. You know, the families coming out just to have a good time and eat some food, play some games, and just do some family things together. Did want to mention one thing. So, the Association for Positive Behavior Support is kind

062of a national organization that supports PBIS. Um, and now you'll notice that uh this so there's two different camps. There's PBIS and there's PBS. They're the same thing basically, but for whatever I don't know the philosophy behind why it's one group doesn't have the I and the other group does. That's a good it's a good Google question. I don't know what the answer to that is. Um, but the cool thing is um it'll be in Minneapolis in uh this March. And the cool thing for me is I'm going to be able to have a chance to present and just talk about how uh North Elementary Prince immediate have had 21 years of PBS or positive behavior sport in the school. Um and so we'll be able I'll be able to share that information in March.

063It'll be kind of fun. Um youth volunteer to do a kindness retreat. Still looking for some small group leaders. So it's open to any of you who are old enough, which I think everybody here is. Everybody here is taking half of work. or >> um this will be January 20th and 21st. Um and so it's really a fun time for our fourth graders. We have them come out. Um one of the key things that we take away from it is we give the kids the skills or they give the kids the skills of interrupting, complimenting, inviting away. Just a way to deal with the kind of bullying type behavior, interrupting a bullying situation, compliment the person, invite them away instead of having that person directly confront um that person maybe doing some unkind things. It's

064just empowering them to not have to confront the person, but still help out and kind of be that upstander. So, um, mark your calendar 2021st. You're more than welcome to, uh, join us for that day. A lot of fun. They, uh, Youth Frontiers is a great organization. They do a great job. Appreciate the district supporting us and being able to do that. Um, MTSS, uh, like had been mentioned also is something that we as a district are reviewing and how we do that. um we have a we have a solid system, but um it'll be nice to have the district um kind of umbrella helping support that as we go through that process as a whole um whole district. We do have some outdoor education spaces that we like to um share and then I

065feel like I share this each year a little bit. It's kind of fun. One of the things that we do is we partner with the ad cyber week. You know that mattress deals 6% off. Um good stuff. So, one one thing that we do is we um we partner with the we partner with the Sherper National Wildlife System and one of the things that we they allow us to do is to place cameras on their property and so we have cameras on their property in addition to somewhere around the middle. It's a frog on Iceland in February. Not a great place to be otherwise you might be an otter like that. Um uh anyway, so we have an opportunity to do that each year and we share these uh wildlife Wednesdays once a week. um

066a minute or two of clips from the refuge middle school. There's also some information or also some cameras at the San Diego State Forest. Um so this is just like the best of the best stuff from this last year at the refuge um that we share at the Sherbet National Wildlife Festival. They think they're private, but they're not. They're like in the camera trying to do my thing over here. Um we're watching. So anyway, this is the stuff that we share at the Wildlife Refuge Festival um which is in the in the fall. And so we have this on a loop as visitors are coming through just kind of share some of the cool stuff that's happening that most people don't see. Uh typically these animals are not doing this. I had one person say,

067"Where do I go to see the coyotes?" >> Well, um got to be really patient. Probably sit in one spot camouflage for a long time and maybe you'll see one. Uh that's not how it works. So, uh, cameras are kind of nice to be able to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. So, I'm not we're not going to watch nine minutes of video, but it is kind of fun to see some of the stuff they have there. So, that's something we share with our with our students. Just trying to let them know um just outside the walls of outdoors is kind of a cool place to be sometimes. So, we do have some really great spaces that we can use to um for education. Now, operations, nothing new here. just wanting to make

068sure that part of the one of the big rocks that we're going to be focusing on making sure that our facilities are safe and that we have um good spaces, we have great um buildings around and show the crew to help keep our buildings looking safe or feeling safe. Um and um yeah, one of the things that we do a lot of is trying to hire the best people available as well. And um we have a lot of new faces uh each year, at least in the the support staff realm. And so as you heard there'll be some new faces in the office area too. Changes change can be good but it'll be it'll be changed for sure. Comments questions thoughts watch for a while. You can I can the links are there if you

069want to watch there's about 200 videos while videos you want to take a look at for about five years now. Um, congratulations. You were just or not the intermediate was just recognized for the PDA S at the state something. >> Oh yeah. So each I'm sorry you mentioned that. Um, so each year um schools can be can apply to be exemplar exemplar implementers of PBS. And so yeah, that's something that um we applied for. So it's nice to be recognized. Yeah, sure. You have any comments or questions or thoughts? Comments? >> I'm gonna go watch the 9minute video. >> I'm going to go watch the 9minute video. >> If you're going to watch any of them, that is the one to watch because it is really cool. After >> you're one of the primary or

070pioneers of UAS in the state, aren't you? >> Well, we were cohort one school and then I began doing school training about year four. So, I've been part of it for a long time. I'm a pioneer. um a lot of preparatory but um >> there wasn't a lot of schools doing it back then though. >> No, it was Yes. And it was kind of fun because the first few years a lot of schools were coming to us to visit and say, "Hey, well, how does PBS work?" And so we kind of had a little bit of a platform to share the good things that we were doing. Um so yeah, it's been it's been a fun journey. I don't mean to joke about this. It's been a really fun journey. I'm trying to log out

071from everything here so I don't have any issues with people like reading my emails and stuff saying that. I was going to go in and play a trip. >> I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but anyway, somebody make sure that's logged out. And then we're going >> Yeah. Send some really bad emails to people. Um, where am I? >> Thanks, John. >> Oh, that is funny. >> All right. Thank you board members and community for having me. Uh Sarah Marks Housen. It is my second year at the middle school and it is just a privilege to serve for our district. Been with the district for a while and we just have awesome things happening in all of our buildings and I'm just so proud to be at the middle school um here in my

072second year as well. So um let's get started. Uh uh similar to what all of our buildings do is we have our continuous improvement plan that guides us. Shannon spoke to this a little bit where we work collaboratively with our teacher team leaders um on our different action plans. And something that's always been really important to me is honoring people's passions. So we always say like if you're really excited about climate culture, come and be on that team. If you're excited about SLT, come and be on that team. And everyone's kind of welcome to come as needed. And so you could kind of uh check in on that link as well for kind of a deeper dive into what that looks like. When we look at our enrollment for middle school, here's historically over the

073last several years what that looks like for us. Um, right now this year is the lowest that we've been in a while and that's because of our current sixth grade group. That should jump back up next year a bit because I believe John, you're at 233ish or so for fifth grade. Um, so then that will going to go back up a little bit from our 204 that we have right now for six. Um, but that is definitely a transition, especially when you think about through that middle school lens of all of the different um, opportunities that you want to be able to provide for students. Lots of awesome things happening. One of our most recent was our togetherness day that we had right before Thanksgiving break. Uh, that it's a day where we spend 100%

074of it with our TAs, our teacher advisories. And um, TA is something that I personally believe in a lot in. Mrs. Frank and I, the assistant principal, we actually are taking a TA this year, too, just to help build those relationships and have that connection with our families and kids. And one of the things that we did this year as a switch um was we went to multi-age advisories. So, we have sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in in our advisory and then we have them as they kind of go through their middle school experience so that we can have that connection with them. and we used to have that and then with COVID it went to um one age for all of the reasons that CO brought. So we're coming back to that a little

075bit. And togetherness day what this is is this is a picture of our winning TA, Mr. Lud's TA. We had the one day give where students could come in and um bring in different things to donate to our local food shelf and they were our winners. A fun-filled day of activities. Um on the right is Mrs. Frank and I. We had a little bit of maybe too much fun. The middle school teachers that are here could maybe share that. Um but we had live turkey bingo um where Joe Theo came and live streamed it into the actual classrooms and there was a moment where the sound wasn't working and do you know how hard it is to entertain over that? So, I think at one point like we took our turkey feet and we're like

076bouncing it on the table. But it was just a super fun time um where we could just be a little silly with the students and just have togetherness and that sense of community with different activities. Um Cal Schmok did um an activity with the kids that day as well to kind of help with American Indian different types of education pieces and just a good just a good day. your heart is filled after togetherness >> and you're tired too. >> All good. So, as we look at our student learning team, um we make our goals each year as well and ours are based off of our MCA data. And so, this presentation is going to show you cumulatively more so from like last year where we look at and then how we're using that as a

077springboard for this year and what we're planning to help support. um last year for our math and reading goals, we did not meet our goals um collectively through our MCAs. And as we kind of dive into that data, and Pat spoke about this a little bit too, is that it's looking at um you know where you're at with that growth. So when we look historically over the last several years, this is our reading or excuse me, our math MCA data. um we've been kind of right in that high30s percent for our math MCA. So we are having a lot of conversations about um looking at our tier one types of instruction. Right now, our math MCA or our math standards are changing. And so, we are doing an incredible amount of professional development and training

078for our not only middle school teachers, but K12 about um the different math practices that are out there. There are eight common math practices for students and um we're diving deep into those and seeing how we can look at our scope and sequence and how that looks to the MCA benchmarks. myself as well are taking similar like when we had the letters training. I wanted to do the letters training. Now I want to do the math training too. Um I'm reading a book. In fact, just on Sunday in between my kids basketball games, I was reading about the math a practices. Um but it's quite it's quite interesting. And so we're having some really good dialogue about what that looks like and sounds like and then those transitional grades um between fifth and sixth, sixth

079to 7th and so on and so on from a vertical perspective as we take a look at that. But a lot of discussion around tier one and a lot of training and a lot of support to dive deep into that. When we look at our um reading, they have kind of historically you can kind of see where they where they're at. The last couple of years we've maintained pretty steadily. Uh the one thing that we're doing with our reading MCAs is that we are diving pretty deep. Last year we had a lot of conversation around this and are continuing this year um when looking at the idea of how we are all reading teachers and what that could look like and sound like and it makes me think of um Scarbor's reading rope and there's

080different parts of the reading rope and a teacher said to me at middle school that just kind of it stuck with me recently over the last month about sarah I'm not really sure how to teach decoding and I thought about that and I'm like well the students that maybe need that decoding help. They're going to be in your reading access classes. It's okay that we don't know the decoding, how to teach that necessarily, but what we can focus on is that top part of that language comprehension like a vocabulary and background knowledge and really kind of zoning in on those sorts of things. And we've been diving in pretty deep around the reading and we're going to get into what some of that looks like and sounds like too. um with our science, our science

081hats off to our science department uh for all of their hard work, they have uh consistently um if you kind of look at uh the state level have been above our state level as well. You might notice that in general for this last spring when the science MCAs happened that there was a general big dip from state level as well and that's because we had the new MCAs and that's not uncommon to have that dip that happens there. Um and um the middle school consistently um scored higher than the state average on that. So a lot of great great work happening there as well. uh when we take a look at all of the details around SLT that we're doing around student learning, some of those big highlight pieces are how we are those reading

082and writing teachers, how we try to implement that across all curricular areas while still honoring each of everyone's own department areas, everyone's own content, what our tier one looks like, and then how we can kind of fill some of those skill gap deficits. And some of that is having some schoolwide expectations around what reading and writing looks like for all of us in our contents areas. One of them is through our ACES. ACEs is how we are writing. In fact, we have these beautiful ACES posters that are up in all of the classrooms and students are starting to use that. It's an acronym for how to put together our thoughts and expand in our writing, how to use annotation, and then some writing expectations. One thing that we've been talking a lot about, people are

083probably sick of me talking about it, but it's so important is our Lexile levels. Okay, Lexile levels are when a student um takes their fall star assessment. Okay, they'll get an individualized Lexile level that will tell them essentially what book level they need to be reading at to bump up to the next level. Okay. Lexile levels are more supported by the science of reading versus like this is third or sixth grade material, seventh grade material. Okay. And so we took this so deep that last year even we started to revamp our whole media center. It was a huge hands-on project where we got some community volunteers. Uh I got my mom to come in in June and my own kids. And what we did was we reorganized the media center by genre because we want

084it to be a place that kids want to be. So we reorganized it by because if someone likes historical fiction, then we have historical fiction section. Oo, let's go right over there. Making it super easy. And then um what we also did was honing in on that Lexile level is about 23 of the books. We're not quite done yet because there's a lot of books in that media, but on the spine of the book, there is the Lexile level listed. So, when a student is checking out a book or when they're looking, however that might be in those multiple areas, we can very appropriately try to match them to their Lexile level to keep them moving. So, we're just trying to think of all those different ways. No matter what we do, no matter um

085you know, Mona Lee in the media, she can help with getting kids matched with Lexile in addition to classroom teachers. Um and then in our uh TA, we have a different book challenge. I'll pop back to this slide, but this is what it looks like where there's different um bookcases for each uh TA that they created. And then what those are, what these are are books, um, spines of books that as a student and or us as adult teammates read, we can write what it is. And there's a spot on it for the Lexile. So really just trying to in all of those capacities hone in on those those different things because when we all do a little bit, it adds up to be a big difference. looking at uh the scope and sequence, those

086unpacking the standards, working with MDE to get MDE to kind of come in and help partner with us in how standards are changing uh because some of them are um looking at that scarrow reading rope. Again, what can we focus on with that content knowledge? Um exposing kids to those higher lectiles. This is a graph. It's kind of hard to read, but this is this was an aha, at least for me last year when I saw this is this is when what the students on the MCA are exposed to as far as Lexile ranges. Okay, if you take a look at sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, so on the MCA, what we can expect to see is that in that top Lexile range, you might think, oh, it's probably going to be less for sixth

087grade than seventh or eighth, but it's not. It's all the same. So, that was a really big aha for us when we were talking and planning and thus kind of that focus on Lexiles. And there's a really great resource out there called Farm and Lit. Um it is a place where you can find higher Lexile content for every department, for every content teacher. So it honors maybe the conversations that are happening in social studies, but allowing us to expose kids to expose our students to that top Lexile range. And just on our last PD day, that was one of the um opportunities and time that people had was because we want to keep promoting up each of our own contents and then how do we just expose in all of those different ways with the

088Lexiles just trying to be super intentional with the way that we can kind of come come at it if you would to help support. When we look at GV, you're probably like, what is GV? It's our guaranteed and viable resources. Um this was a lot again a really big we we did a lot last year in our conversation. Um we spent the whole year last year talking about um for students that maybe have a reading deficit uh whether it's in decoding or word recognition or morphology or if it's within math like number sense. We talked about because we have a lot of different resources that we were using. Last year we were using I would say probably three or four different reading intervention resources. So then it makes it really hard to collaborate with our

089team members and then also measure what's working and what's not. And so we spent a lot of time looking at partnering with Jessica um and Andrea and our teacher leaders on what that looks like and sounds like. So, for example, if a student needs help with word recognition, whether they are receiving special ed services or whether they're receiving access services through general education, the need is the same and we want to use the same resource. And so, this year we have adopted same resources um between those different intervention groups. So, we're really really excited about that. Um and then part of what that looks like too is that we implemented CAPTY. CAPTY is um you know the only other profession that has more acronyms I think is the medical field grade besides education but CATI

090is a state approved assessment for reading to help identify which of the big five plus writing students need help in. >> So it's a very granular test where you can really pinpoint what students need and then you can give them that direct explicit intervention. So, we're trying really, really hard to use that data that we're getting from those CAPY assessments to appropriately match students. And as we're identifying more students through CAPY, then we're testing them. And we just did another round last Friday actually, where we tested 30 more students. And happy to say that we have graduated some out of Access. And then we're like, okay, now who can we put on in? Okay. And if they've graduated out of that access, maybe they're not fully out, but maybe it's that growth and it's that

091step in the right direction. Maybe they've mastered that word recognition and now we can get them some fluency interventions. So, it all goes back to being intentional with that data and matching kids to the right um intervention that they need. Um this has been lovely. I love this. This is very much complimentary to the Princeton paradigm. So when we go in and partner with teacher coaches to do observations, this just takes our Princeton paradigm and puts it in a really user friendly way to have conversations about what we're going to see in the classroom that's all focused around student learning. And so this is actually what like when I go and do observations, what I use in the planning conference um to help guide conversation, it's super organic and it just kind of all comes

092together. It's really quite lovely. They're those high impact workforce. Some other SLT highlights of things that we've been doing is uh last year we used a process that's called the IROD. It just simply means where you're gathering information, you're getting reactions from people. You're looking at options and then you make decisions. And one of the huge conversations that we had last year was, you know, when you think about all the things that a master schedule could do, you know that you can't do everything. So, what are our priorities? We reached out to all of the Mississippi 8 middle schools, all of the principles that I'm connected with in my principal admin PLC outside of Princeton. And essentially, we just ask questions that our team in the middle school in Princeton were wondering about learning more,

093like what's out there? What are what does it look like for different schools? And so we gathered all of that information and um essentially through that whole process what we did then was we did a schoolwide survey to say all right again we know that there's give and take in a master schedule. What are our three priorities for us as a building? And the priorities were longer class periods to fill skill gap deficits and then to have a wide experience for students. And the tricky thing about those three is that they are self-competing a little bit with each other. Okay. So then as we're continuing to gather information and learn from uh visit other schools, there was one school that we ended up going to visit where we had reps from all of the different

094departments and um that we thought that did those three the best with some with some compromises, right? And uh so from that what has started for this year that uh we're pretty excited about is a schoolwide flex period. Okay, so flex is a common time. It's kind of like a win time, a what I need time, but at a secondary model. And even at our admin PLC when we've been talking with MTSS, um this conversation actually came up, I think it was maybe in no November, um about the importance of having a schoolwide time where you can get kids what they need. And so this is the first year that we are experimenting with that at middle school. And um super proud of our staff who had just dove right into that because it's a

095new thing. Um and actually when we were looking back at last year on what our priorities were, 90% of our staff through that survey said, "Yeah, let's give it a whirl." So we are trying it. And so Wednesday is our academic day and Thursday is more of our choice day where we're trying to promote to students student agency like helping them with their executive function skills. those things of, well, I know I want to do this, but I really need to do this to kind of help guide and support with that because that's a huge piece at middle school. And there's a program that we started to use, student support time, um, that helps keep us organized for what that looks like and sounds like. And just super proud of our team for diving in

096and we're figuring it all out together. Um, and so really a time just to check and connect with kids and do some of those different things as well. All right, there's some pictures, Carrie. I think this is of your classroom. They are. So again, some great hands-on type of learning pieces happening. I love it. Some good things going on. Climate and culture. Um, those are our three main large focus areas. habits of a tiger. We're all pretty much familiar with those, but that's an important part of what we do, giving that lifelong those lifelong skills. Um, I plan, we didn't pro plan this, but similar to primary and intermediate, we at middle school also have like a theme of the month where we're trying to reinforce the pieces. And so, recently we just had uh

097the last month was gracious. And so, this is just an example of how someone can a student can nominate someone else for being gracious. And even today like we had our web students come on down and they could they could nominate a staff a family member and a peer. Um they uh not nominated but gave like a little ticket to say why they appreciated them. So it's just that constant all of those different things. Um doing some more restorative circles. Last year we had some restorative circle training. we're going to do another one. And that's been really cool to see that implemented this year in lots of different ways. There's been there's been more res I've been part of more restorative circles or at least having conversations about oo let's do a restorative circle to

098help repair that relationship or whatever that might be. And restorative circles are actually part of our TA curriculum as well. plan um as a proactive perspective. Um some different types of suicide or some different type of student experiences as well. We had a BEu be the extraordinary presentation in partnership with Malax County through a grant um where we could do some drug prevention and suicide prevention for students. Um Youth Frontier, similar to how Intermediate goes, we will go upcoming in January as well for a courage retreat for seventh graders. And something that we did last year that we're bringing back again this year is admin talks. This is a way for us to stay connected to students and collaborate with teachers. Um where we take time and we meet with the whole grade level, Mrs.

099Frank and I do about what's working well, what do we need some friendly reminders on, those kind of things. So that's all right. And some MTSS pieces. Working hard in MTSS. Lots of different things there. Um we're doing quite a bit in partnership with special education and within MTSS there is that diamond as we are very familiar with and as we get into some of those tiers there's different accommodations and modifications. So doing a lot of support and training and learning about what an accommodation can look like, what a modification can look like, and then um kind of role playing or talking through maybe some real life type types of examples is what we did most recently. And then having that bridge from the classroom to those different grade level MTSS pieces because once you

100kind of get to that secondary model, it does get a little bit trickier when you have Pat who has seven different teachers. Okay? And so how to um make that structure kind of come together and we worked on that last year quite a bit with structure and then continuing that for this year too. >> Uh careermies we're trying to implement this is an important one for us. Uh we and we're doing it through some of our steam and STEM classes and specifically with our eighth grade um students having that exposure to the different careermies and in some of those elective or allies classes uh when they're learning different pieces. Okay, it connects what we're learning connects to this career academy because of this reason. So really wanting to expose and and kind of go a

101little bit deeper with with careermies as that fits. And that's happening um a little bit more every every time here. >> All right. And go Tigers. There's been a lot of information tonight. Any questions about middle school? >> There's a lot going on. >> Yeah, >> good stuff. >> Thanks. I do want to just say with your um careermies there are I'm pretty involved in that on the like the high school end and they are maybe even two years ago you get the ninth graders that are like well I don't know what that is. I mean, even the 10th graders, but like they're coming from the middle school and have an idea and have a lot of exposure to it and it's really making a difference by the time they get up to high school.

102>> Yeah. Our our team is phenomenal. They do a great job sharing that and getting them excited about it. Just like that connection of the why, how this affects them after. >> They do a good job. >> Is a great place to be. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Sarah. >> I get to just exit out all of them. >> Make sure you sign John. >> I'm going to send a fishing email. Just kidding, John. >> You said all contacts. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for all the presentations. Nice job you guys. >> Thank you very much for all your hard work. Um we will move on to our first action item which is our 2025 levy pay.6. So, I'm going to make a motion

103to accept the under levy by 500,000 payable in 2026 as presented. >> Uh motion made by Eric Minkx. Is there a second to that? >> Second. >> Okay. Second by Melissa. All right. Discussion, comments, questions. That does not That takes out the roof. >> Yeah, it takes about 500,000. Well, not the whole roof, but what we were saying, >> I'm sure that we'll pass this by. >> Well, and that that's the thing. Um, in order to use the 500,000, we can't use it till July 1. Okay. And then it has to be used in the year of >> 2022 for that year 26 27. So basically we start July one where most likely the roof would take until probably into the school year um whatever section we were doing. Now if we pass them on

104then we'd have to marry them and to get that speed together to make that work be pretty difficult and then we would be within the guidelines. So um >> so if we leave it out we don't have to marry them later. >> Yes. And we leave that full amount in our referendum. >> Correct. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. I got it. Just wanted to make sure >> that was what we had talked about in finance today. >> The other the other thing is is that um when we piece meal a project because that is like a $2 million roof or somewhere around there. >> More of them 2.6 I think. >> 2.6. Okay. So this is 500,000. So we're talking this little junk, this little junk going to end up costing us way more than 2.6

105million >> if we do it that way. And I guess I mean it is a it's a bit of a gamble because we don't know if the referendum would pass, but we have this option next year. We could put that in there if we had to. We also have the option to bond. Yes, we can bond the amount >> um similar to what we did with the ventilation bond. >> Okay. And then we would be able to do the whole group which would probably be cheaper in the long run. >> It it is much cheaper. Yes, it's the best and it gives you a better quality group moving forward. >> Yeah. Right. So that was what uh finance was recommending was the underv. So >> any other comments or questions? I will just comment that

106I did um give you the ellers runs that shows the proposed will you will see all the positive percentages here. What would it goes up with the under levy? Our taxpayers will see a slight decrease in their taxes. >> And the full levy was 9 >> 93 and I think it's 4 something. >> 4 something with the 500,000. So >> 4.87. >> Any other questions? All right. Uh, resolution. So, we'll vote by roll call starting with Jen. >> Yes. >> All right. We are set on that. Um, item 11B, combining polling places. We have a resolution here um that is the same that we did for our November election combining our polling places to those same places and deod. >> I move to accept the resolution establishing combined polling places as presented. >> Okay. Is

107there a second? >> Motion made by Melissa, seconded by Scott. Any comments or questions on that one? All right. Uh, we'll vote by roll call on this one, too. We'll start with Scott. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. That one is passed. Our last action item is second reading of policies. Any uh comments, questions? I did um I did ask Don a question earlier today. guys saw that in our uh policy 213 we had meet and confer on that list and we haven't had meet and confer for a number of years. >> All the source board members being on there, >> right? >> Yeah. As a schoolboard committee, it had it hasn't been a board committee for a while. So, I don't know if you just want to take that off. Um I think we

108discussed this in the policy committee meeting and it it says in there committees may or may not be active at any given time. So it just gives liberty going forward. >> Okay. >> There is some reason why >> because we did send this to admin and finance. So this was a well vetted >> policy before it came here. These are more of a list of what could be used utilized by the board because of necessary because they're in the uh the appointment board appointment ones where the other ones are more the official board committees. So it's in the second group and then that second group you're like there's a tiger care committee. Well, we don't even have tiger care right now. So there you wouldn't have a board appointee at a tiger care committee because

109there's not such thing. So, it's more of a list of what could be committees that are needed at at given different times. >> All right. I move to accept the second reading of the policies as presented. >> All right. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Um Melissa, there's been a motion made by Melissa to accept the second reading of the policies and Jen has made the second. Any other comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. All right. Policies are approved. And uh we have no additions to the agenda. Um so we will go to item number 14. Need a motion to close the board meeting to discuss negotiation strategy. That motion m made by Eric Ming. Seconded by Don. Um any comments or questions? All in favor say

110I. I. >> All right.