001Call this meeting to order. Please rise and join us in the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right, let the roll call show that uh all board members are present except for Eric Stramberg and uh Jenna Super is on her way. So, we're expecting her soon. Um next up, student showcase new school play. My name is Jack Gerber. I direct the middle school play. Um we performed the very end of March so we still had some of our props and our lines were still somewhat fresh in our heads. Um we did a play called Circus Olympus which is um a bunch of circus troops. That's why you see them in circus circus costumes telling mythology stories. So this particular
002story we are going and diving in the middle of it and it's the story of uh Hades and Pphanie where Hades um basically stole Pphanie to the underworld and deer her mother is pretty ticked that uh she's hanging up in ease. So here we go uh in the middle of this scene. And so Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the deep and dark underworld. It was a long, scary, moldy journey. I so totally used to do that when I was a kid. Can you touch your tongue to your nose? I can twist my tongue. That is so cool. You are so Can you crack your knuckles? I've always wanted to do that. I can wiggle my ears. You are so talented. You are. You are. Oh, hail mighty Hades, god of the underworld. Although I
003shake and tremble in your presence. Who's this guy? Hermes, what do you want? Why are you bother bugging me in my eternal happiness? Right. Well, there seems to be a bit of a brewhaha over your eternal happiness. Uh-oh. Mommy got upset, didn't she? If you call stopping the growth of a little thing on Earth upset. Hey, I told you we should have sent her a postcard. I have to go. But I want you to stay. And I want to stay, but when mommy gets upset. Bing land, folks. Yeah, I have to go. Stay, Stephie. I want to stay. I want to stay. I'm staying. Crops dying. Trees dying, flowers dying. Flowers. People don't let flowers die. But you pick them. That's different. That's what I do when it's time. 3. I don't like it when
004we all at once. You don't either, right? Oh, but everything's dead. I miss the flowers. I haven't seen them in so long. Oh, a flower. Hey, pill. Oh, wo. Oh, double wo. Oh, you triple. Wait a minute. With the wo the pomegranate seeds. How could we forget the seeds? You're so smart, Haiti. You're much smarter than me. No, you are. You are. Before I tossed my lunch all over this nice marble floor. Can we get back to the seeds? Right. So when I went down to the underworld, Haiti gave me a tour and I saw all the spirits and the three-handed puppy and Uncle Sharon and Uncle Sharon. And then there was these pomegranate seeds. She ate some four. She did. I did. I admit it. They were really good. And there's not much to
005eat around here. Hey, we have to do something about that. Anything for you, my sweet. You're the sweetest. You are. I'm going to start shoving pine cones up my nose any second now. What does this even mean? Since Pphanie ate four pomegranate seeds, she's bound to the underworld for 4 months. I get to stay. No matter what her mother says. All right. Now, stop. Wait a minute. If I don't bring Pphanie back, my goose is going to be charcoal. There are 12 months in a year, right? Right. Praphanie spends four of them with me, four pomegranate seeds, and spends the rest of the year with the meter. No flowers dying all at once. And no charcoal Hermes. Hooray. And so Pphanie returned to her mother who was not 100% happy to hear about the pomegranate
006seeds. But she was happy. Praphanie was happy. That went very well. So when Pphanie was with her mother, the land flourished and crops were bountiful. But when the time came for Pphanie to return to Haiti Poo, I heard that the land became cold and barren. Plants and flowers were covered in a blanket of snow. And that is how the seasons came to be. I told you it would all work out. Do you think we could have each of you just go down the row and tell us your name and what grade you're in and anything else you want to tell us about yourself? Sure. My name is TA Hudkins. I'm in the seventh grade and I don't know. I really like this. This is probably the best like the best thing I've ever been in
007along with track. My name is Lydia Muntz. I am in eighth grade and this was my first year doing the middle school play through Princeton and I thought it was a really cool experience. My name is Lily Clemens. I am in seventh grade. Um I think it's really cool to just see the community behind the production. Like not everyone has the biggest role, but we're all so positive backstage and it's so cool to see. My name is Talon Diddle. I'm in eighth grade. Uh this is my third year running in the plays. Uh this is the second time I've got a speaking role and it's just a fun community to be in. Uh my name is Sophia Halberg and I'm in seventh grade and uh yeah, it's my second time doing the musical and I
008really love it. I don't know. It's really fun. My name is Julia Holmes. I'm in sixth grade and I had a lot of fun in the musical. Hi, my name is Kayla Greenwood. I am in sixth grade and I think that this is something that most people should join because it's like a positive experience in a way to get to know like what the character is and how you like can act. My name is Joy EA and this is my first my first play in in acting and I thought it was a really fun experience. Um, my name is Olivia and and I'm in sixth grade and and my go play. Nice. Well, I will tell you that it is easy easily observable to see your confidence and how much charisma you have just in
009your speaking to us. And it tells me that the things that you learn from being part of this production has transferred and will transfer into all kinds of other things in life because we have an opportunity to see students in front of us all the time and they're all most of the time much more nervous uh than you were and you just just all did an outstanding job. Board members, any specific questions? Looked like you were all having fun. Great job. Thank you so much, parents. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for bringing them this. Great work. Fun to see. Thank you. Before you please, we're gonna have the school board come out and we're going to take a picture with you and the board. You want to board members will stand kind
010of along the back there. So if you want to come to the frontal face this way. This way. Yeah. The board me slide back. Slide back. You can probably stand up if you want. Yeah, you guys are you can stand up if you want. Most of you are not taller than Mr. M. Stand up. So he won't. We'll look between you guys. if you don't mind being behind. Okay. So, let's move forward so they can move in here. Here we go. Put the mic in. Are we good? Are we good? Can you see us? Yeah, I can see most of you. He needs Scott to go left. Yeah, that Yeah, but that's okay. And Deb's got to go to my right. She's hiding. There we go. Perfect. All right. One, two, three. Good. All right.
011Are you gonna send out at the end? I can. Yes. Unless you want to jump in. Thank you guys so very much. Okay. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you so much. I'm sorry that you died right away. Grace. All right, we will move on to citizen comments. I am thinking everybody's leaving. So, unless Diana has a comment. [Music] No comments, madam chair. There is no comments listed on the sheet. We'll move on to board member committee reports starting with Melissa. Uh we had um a speech text meeting we went to that was really successful. The we picked our student well interviewed and then chose our student um council representatives. So the senior will start coming with Ellie next month and then we had the legislative breakfast which was really awesome and also there was a
012try showcase and they did really really well. Better than last year I can say that my daughter was in it but yeah I think that'll that'll do. All right Eric thanks. Well it's good to be back after a couple couple of months months. Um but uh so but uh yeah it's good to be back and I went to finance department meeting. I missed all of you. Oh, we missed you too. Yes, we did. Done. Um I had agenda planning. Um completed phase three of MSBA training. Um interviewed and selected the student school board. That was the first time. Scott, I met with Jason, went over a couple of the superintendent applications and also went to the try showcase. I thought they did fantastic. I love seeing all the instruments that they all Yeah, it was
013so cool. All right. Um I had uh an executive board meeting with um the with staff and agenda planning, legislative breakfast. spent some a lot of time going over superintendent applications and uh then finance before this student council is not here tonight and so we go to superintendent report. Well, obviously you know there there's a lot going on but I'm going to limit my comments because we have such a full agenda tonight. So unless you have any questions specifically for me I will uh give my time back. All right. Does anybody have any questions? All right, we'll move on to item seven, approve the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So move. Motion's been made by Melissa, second by Eric Minks. Any comments or questions on the agenda? Hearing none,
014all in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right, agenda is approved. Um item number eight, discuss and act on previous board meeting minutes from April 1st. Is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented? So moved. Motion's been made by Don. Is there a second? Second. Second by Scott. Any comments or questions on the minutes? All right. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. We move on to item nine, consent agenda. There a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So move. Motion's been made by Melissa. Is there a second? Second. Second by Eric MS. Any comments or questions on the consent? We want to acknowledge um Julie. Oh, the retirement. Yes. Yeah. Middle school secretary. Phenomenal lady. How many years? Put me on the spot. Uh, it's been a long time. It's
015been a long time. I think she was here. I think she was here when I came here already. Yeah, it was well. She used to work in the district office. She was going to leave some big shoes to fill. So, she and always smiling, always just super positive when you come in the building. and um she'll be missed. Absolutely. Um any other comments on the consent hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. Consent agenda is approved. We go to our first information item, superintendent search update. So we closed our superintendent applications on April 9th. Uh we had three school board members and three staff members come in and do evaluations of the applications. We had 23 qual high highly qualified candidates. Um the committee was able to narrow that down to
016five candidates that we will be bringing in tomorrow night for their first round of interviews. Uh we have 33 staff members and uh 33 individuals that will be involved with the interview process tomorrow night. Um we're the plan is to get that then uh down to finalists that will be coming in for interviews on April 23rd. Uh the finalists will be the ones that are announced to the public. And so once we uh get that taken care of and selected, then we'll go from there. All right. Any questions? All right. We'll see y'all at 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock tomorrow. Okay. Now, I know I'm not part of this, but they start at 2, right? The interviews actually start at 2:30. Okay. Um but the staff uh need to be there at 2. do a brief
017training on interview etiquette and then uh they'll be breaking out into their groups and then each of the candidates will be doing five different groups going through five different interview teams. Um we have uh we have a teaching and learning group. We have our climate and culture. We have our operations and involvement. We have a presentation group and then we have a student group uh that will be asking questions of our five candidates. We're splitting up the board members and the board members are splitting up so that each of you will be in a separate grouping. Um so we will not have a quorum in any of those and then after the evening uh when we do get back together we will go into close session for discussion of private personal data. Okay. So logistically
018school gets over at 1:45 there and it's a zoo and it's probably going to be a zoo until what about 155? Yes. Yeah. So, if you plan to come at 1:45, it's going to be a zoo. I'd recommend coming at 155 once the drop off line and you can park in the front or in the back. Um, you could probably get in in the back as well. Well, you all Bob. So, there's a receiving door in the back. You can come in. That' be maybe a little less hectic and easier when the buses are gone. Yeah. It's all already heated. So, if you need Yeah. Okay, I'll be bringing the students over. They're going to be greeting the candidates and then taking them to their designated Okay, start spots. All right, there's five. Five. Any
019other questions? All right. Item, our next item, our Rum River special ed co-op. Okay, short short commentary on this. I'm sorry to the board that you have to vote on this again. As you know that there was one district that was having a little bit of a difficulty uh getting their board to vote to approve this that stalled some things. Um that board did come around and vote to join this process for a new uh building. But because of the stalling and some of the the things changed, they had they have to have us revoked and because we have the two vote the two process this month. It's on information. You have an opportunity to review. If you have any questions, we'll get that answered for you. And then the vote will be next month.
020It's the same as the it's like the same agreement though that we had. It it's it's pretty much the same. I will tell you that the price jumped a little bit and that was the biggest reason why we did because of course when you wait everything cost more money. Yep. And that you know that stall is was was costly. So all right so look for that uh in May. All right we're on to board development. Gail Gilman is here from MSBA and she's gonna walk us through this. Hi Gail, can you hear us? You did tell her 620. Yes, I can hear you. Getting my turned on. There you go. How's Hi, Gil. Can you Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Yes. Can you hear? Yes, I can. You're good. You look great with the
021I've got the owl moving around and those are really fun to uh I can see everybody and everything that's going on. I did that one time. I know, but then it hit the We had a big loud noise. So, are you ready for me to go or do you have any other introductory comments that you'd like to make? You have us uh Gail now for as long as this portion takes. Okay. For Okay, very good. Well, it is good to be with you. I joined on a little earlier because I saw that you had students joining you and I'm telling you that like really warmed my heart. What a delight. And as a former schoolboard member, we used to do things like that. So, it was really fun to see. But I'm glad to be
022here with you today. I appreciate the opportunity to come back and visit with you. Um, this will be the third time to talk about your self- evaluation and I'm glad that that you decided to take it again. This is uh going to be an opportunity for me to provide you with some some information but then also for you to do some reflection as well. So, um, looking forward to our time together today and a shout out of thanks to your superintendent and to your board chair and also to Melissa for some of the background work that they did in helping make sure everybody took the evaluation and getting things coordinated for this evening. So, I've not met all of you before. I know that there are some new faces on the board superintendent team. Um,
023I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself first and then we'll let you do some introductions and then we'll kind of dig in with the self- evaluation. Kind of get the stage set first before we do. So, for those of you that I haven't met, my name is Gail Gilman. I serve as director of strategic planning and board leadership with Minnesota School Boards Association, and we continue to be so grateful for you and your ongoing membership in the association. and it's always a pleasure to serve you and help provide resources for you as well. Um, my background is in family and youth education. My undergrad and graduate work was all done at the University of Minnesota and I was on the faculty at the U of M for the majority of my career.
024I um segueed for a few years and I worked with Minnesota board on aging which was uh perfect for me because my mom is uh going to be turning 96 in just a few weeks and is needing a lot more care. So I'm putting a lot of those skills to work where before I was teaching people and now I'm actually getting to put that into practice as well. I uh joined schoolboards association in 2017 and my interest in joining the team is that I'm a former school board member. I served on the new board of education for two terms and during those years I served as vice chair and also clerk and represented our board on the riverbend education co-op board. So that's a little bit about me. Um, let's just go around the room
025and, uh, let you do some introductions. Uh, tell me who you are, how long you've been on the board, and if there's any anything else like what do you do when you're not a school board member? Not doesn't have to be lengthy, but just maybe some key things that you'd like to share. So, who would like to go first? Would you like me to? Yes. Okay. Okay. Yep. All right. I'm Scott Bowman. I've been on the board for four months. Okay. I am not on the boarding district. I teach science um in the neighboring district of Ogleby. Very neat. Very good. Thanks. Well, welcome as a new board member, too, Scott. I hope you enjoy it as much as all the rest of us have. I'm learning a lot. Yes. Very good. Uh Don Berdo,
026this is my fifth year um being on the board and um we have a my husband and I have a business. I also work at a church in town part time and then I have two boys. Um, one is a is at NDSU and the other one's a sophomore at the high school here. Okay, very good. Thank you, Don. Uh, my name is Deb M and I've been on the Princeton School Board for somewhere around 30 years and um I am retired now. So, I keep busy. Um, I do daycare for my three and a half yearear-old grandson and um, I also am a part-time uh, CrossFit coach and involved in the food pantry here too on their board. So, very good. Thank you. And Deb, I think you got to participate. You were here
027for the other two board self-evaluations too. I remember that. So, very good. Thank you. Uh, my name is Eric Minks. This is my I'm in my 14th year. Okay. And I'm retired police officer after 25 years and now I am farming. Um that's an interesting switch, Eric. Very good. And I and I like that because I'm a farm girl. So anyway, but I'm Melissa Lynch. This is my third year on the board, I think. And um I have a senior in high school here and a second grader here. And I I don't know. I'm like a professional volunteer kind of I guess. Very good. Every school district needs the professional volunteers for sure. Thank you. I'm Jennifer Super and I've been on the board uh four months like Scott. Okay. um during I guess professionally
028I'm an emergency manager. I work for the judicial branch. Okay. And I have two children in the district. Okay. Very good. Well, welcome to you as a new board member as well. Good to have you board. And we have one board member absent here tonight. So that's that's everybody. Okay, sounds good. And we're going to let your superintendent do a quick intro, too. My name is Ben Barton and I'm in my seventh year as superintendent of Princeton public schools in my 13th year total. And I'm grandpa and that's a big reason why Gail I'm not going to be the superintendent in Princeton anymore after June 30th and the board's in search of a new leader for the district. Um I've uh secured a position that will bring me closer to my two children and my
029two grandchildren. So, it will be very bittersweet leaving. What a great board. I tell everybody that the this is a great superintendent position to have because we have a very very strong school board. Very good. Well, thank you, Ben. Um, what a calling as a grandpa in that transition and thanks for all that you have done, too. I know I've had the opportunity to work with you a fair amount over the years interacting. So appreciate what you've done and I'm sure I know you will be missed. Very good. I think Gail, let's acknowledge that we have uh two other of our directors in the room too that are participating. Unless you don't want to. Please, please. Yeah. But but we have two we have they'll introduce themselves. Go ahead, Michelle. Oh, sure. Jason, I'm Michelle
030Zack. I'm the director of business services and I have been here for 13 years now. Wow. Very good. Nice to meet you. Thank you. I'm Jason Sunny. I'm the director of human resources here at Princeton Public Schools. Uh this is my seventh year. I had the pleasure of coming on when Ben came in and the pleasure of staying when he leaves. So, I've had I have a senior this year and I've had other uh students go through the system. Um and uh we like to do a lot of boating and other things in our spare time. So, Okay. Good. Great. Well, it's good having you here as well. So, appreciate that. So as we are interacting in the however much time we usually all lot two to two and a half hours it you know
031may take that much time it might not but I'm pretty flexible um want to just make sure that you know that this is very informal I have some things that I'll share with you to set the stage and then we'll um once I do that we'll get into taking a look at the results from your self assessment and talk through that and I've actually marked up a few notes notes of things that I think would be noteworthy to comment on and you might beat me to the punch in that you might say hm here's something we could talk about. So we will we'll uh take those as they come you know as we're interacting just remember that you know I always like to look at what kind of the agreements are as a group and
032remember that the competence is in the group so you'll get out of it what you put into it. Um trust that your fellow board members um and with the fellow board members that they'll be open and honest and respectful discussion. uh listen for understanding. And I every time I mention this, I always think about my own schoolboard experience where we had uh a board member who was really a mentor to me was a seasoned board member was the John Deere implement dealer in town named Don Potter. And uh so many times as a board member um or at board meetings when we got into deep discussion, he'd always say, you know, there's a reason that you have one mouth and two ears. And so we've all heard that before, but I always like to repeat
033it and just say, you know, be willing to listen um for understanding and be curious. Um certainly uh last but not least recognize your commitment as board members, as superintendent, as HR director, as business official as well because your work is important. It is vital to your school district. And um even though it might not feel like you're appreciated always, you are appreciated. So I just want to take the time to honor that as well. And then uh the a few documents, a few um models that I want to share with you. I think everybody has these in front of them in board book. Um so I don't think I'm going to need to screen share, but if there is anything that you want me to screen share, I've got them prepped so we can
034pop them up rather quickly. But the first item that I wanted to talk about, and I think this is especially helpful since you have really a newly formed board with um your two newer board members, Jennifer and Scott. And so as you think about the stages of board development, and I'm going to start with the word forming. So forming, storming, norming, performing. And then it says deforming. Sometimes we like to say reforming or transforming. That sounds a little bit more positive than the word deforming. But as you think about board development, forming is when you come together that first time as a new team. So you um welcomed uh both Scott and Jennifer probably at your organizational meeting. Um and it might have been that they've attended had attended board meetings prior to that just
035to watch but that was the time when you really were at that forming stage. You had the the new faces at the board and it was a time of kind of getting orientated. You did some things probably as a board team but also they did some things too with some trainings and things like that. And so this is that time of getting to know each other. And then we recognize that boards will sometimes move into what we call the storming phase. It's kind of like h you know you got a lot of questions. It might be a little chaotic. There might be um you know a lot of information that you need to provide for new board members. Um could be a review for seasoned board members or ongoing board members. And it's a time
036where there's a little bit of could be a little bit of push and pull. Maybe maybe not. Then usually boards will move into what we call the norming stage where there starts to be a lot more agreement on how the group works together. Um it's kind of moving from me and me as a new board member when I needed to learn a lot um to we where things are are starting to kind of click and come together. You get into a bit of a routine and you start u knowing what's going to happen at board meetings and what expectations are and things like that. The next stage is performing and and obviously that's the stage that you want to be in most of the time and that's when things really start clicking and um who
037was it Deb that said you had just been at um did I hear you say you were at phase three recently? It was Don or Don said that. Okay. Um, Don, so uh, so for Don, did um, I'm sure in phase three they must have talked about um, the performing stage a little bit and did they talk about sometimes you're clicking so well that things move quickly and I don't know if you remember that discussion. I'm guessing that was probably one of the things that my colleague Katie might have talked about. And so at that point in time when you're performing things are really clicking along. Um, one of the cautions in this phase is that you have to remember to bring your community along as well. So that uh it might take some extra
038effort to do some explanation about how you got to a particular decision and why you're voting tonight after weeks or meetings of doing discussions and reviews and things like that. So um at any rate performing is that high productivity and then it becomes the deforming or reforming transforming and that's when you say goodbye. Um you obviously must have said goodbye to a couple of of fellow board members and probably some you know possibly some reminiscing or some celebrating their time. your superintendent, you'll have a similar transition in that way when you're saying goodbye to one superintendent and and welcoming another superintendent as well. So these stages are what we generally see with a group. And as as you think about those and hear that description, does anybody have any thoughts about where you see yourself
039right now? Well, for I think everybody might be in a different stage and so Um, but for you, you're not even on the schedule anymore. Still learn. I think as a group, we're probably norming because, you know, with two new board members, I think we're getting in the groove. Um, but I mean, as a group, there's always room for improvement. So, Okay, great. I would have said it. So, we'll move Norman right along. Norman, right along. Okay, good. Anybody have any other comments that you'd like to suggest based on the board govern or the um stages of board development. Okay, keep in mind that sometimes you might feel like you're norming or performing and then there'll be some topic, some decision that causes you to move backwards. That's really normal. So, don't get too frustrated
040by it. Just know that you, you know, will eventually get back into sync as well. And um I always say honor those stages. I mean, that's part of your growth as well. Um that's I think the the um richness in having new voices, new board members at the table. It's the richness in having people like Deb or um let's see who was uh my thinking um Eric uh being on the board for a number of years. So those board members that have been around and are seasoned. So you've got that combination. So don't shy away from those stages. just embrace them is our message with that and recognizing that that that's part of of your growth as well. The um next model that I want to share is the board governance model and you get
041to see this in phase one. So, your new board members, Scott and Jennifer, if you went to phase one, I'm guessing you probably did. You probably got to see this. And it's also included in phase three as well. And the messaging behind this it model is that on the upper leftand corner, your role as board members are is to govern. You set those expectations and parameters. And on the top of the circle under the word establish, you'll see those words expectations and parameters. And also having a strategic plan or goals in place that you are moving towards within uh your school district. And then the lower half of the circle are the responsibilities of your superintendent who manages provides the leadership and the supervision of whatever your goals are or whatever you have in your
042strategic plan. So it becomes a partnership. You cannot operate as a board without your superintendent and your superintendent cannot and staff cannot operate without you as a board. It's kind of an unique partnership and the dotted line indicates that there is movement between. So it's not just your superintendent acting in a vacuum or board members acting in a vacuum, but there's always conversation. And so as there are activities related to whatever your goals are in within your school district, you will have um updates probably from your superintendent or from other staff members um explaining what's happening so that you as board members are in the know and um can can um be assured that those expectations are are being put into place. any any observations or comments from board members on the board governance model.
043Well, I would just say I I feel like the board does I mentioned right off the bat, Gail, that this is a really strong board. Yep. that they're strong because they they really do understand model and they went through lots and lots of training for a few years uh with teamworks international as well and I think this is where our our seasoned board members have been able to kind of continue that on and as we get new board members and they mentor the new board members that that's that's continued to happen. Um, so I mean the board may want to at some point in time revisit that kind of a training given the fact that there's so few that actually went through that teamworks international training, you know, but that's for you to decide at
044a later date. Great. Uh, one other comment on the board governance model is don't lose sight of what's at the center of the circle and that's student achievement for all. That's what we're about as board members is student success, student achievement. The next model that I included in the packet to just kind of provide a big picture of your work as board members is the school district goal alignment. And what you'll notice here in the red rectangular box talks about district goals. So whatever your goals are um should be tied to the goals of your superintendent. They should be tied to your goals as a board. They should be tied to staff and student goals and uh theoretically to your community goals too that your your decisions are based on what the community uh has
045provided as input as well. And so that's the beauty of having goals or a strategic plan in place that you have that alignment. no surprises for anybody and kind of clear expectations and at the top of this model you'll see the same thing student achievement for all which is what that work is all about. So, any questions about the goal alignment? Okay. Then I'm going to transition to make a few comments about the standards for board leadership. And again, these are included in phase one. So, your newly elected board members have probably seen these, had first blush at them. Um and then they they definitely are included in phase three and you'll note that there are five standards. The first one is conduct and ethics. Second is vision. Third is structure. Fourth is accountability. Fifth
046is advocacy and communication. And with conduct and ethics, that's how you as a board superintendent team work together, make decisions together, trust one another, respect one another, communicate with one another. So, it's really about your interactions as a team, and that really sets the basis, the tone for the work that you're doing. And I think when Ben talked earlier about some of the other training that you've had a part been able to be a part of including these workshops as well with um the board self-evaluation, it really gives you those opportunities to hone in on that sense of teamwork. And um when you're operating at high capacity, high peak, that really trickles in a very positive way within your school district. And if you've ever had bumpy times, uh, or you've observed other school districts
047where there have been things that have been kind of bumpy, that becomes almost a deterrent with your staff, with your community, and with your students. So, that's conduct and ethics. Um, standard number two is vision. That's having that roadmap, that direction for your school district and um, looking at the big picture that we as board members are responsible for. Um uh standard number three is structure and that is the physical and the organizational structures. Uh physical structures are just that it's the buildings grounds. Organizational structures are having staff in place having the technology in place and also having curriculum in place. Standard four is accountability. um monitoring all the conditions within your school district um from performance starting with the superintendent through all the staff and um data as far as student progress. So all
048the all the conditions and then standard five is advocacy and communication and that's how you tell your story of the great things that are happening in the PR Princeton School District. And the reason that I wanted to highlight these is you'll note that each standard has uh varying numbers of benchmarks um A through E, A through D, A through F, A through H and A through E. So the stand or the benchmarks for each standard were the questions on the board self-evaluation. So that's how we bring this all together in um we share those standards and then this is an assessment of how you're working together based on those standards and based on those benchmarks with um board self-evaluation. Just remember that there uh was no right or wrong answer. This isn't pass or fail.
049There's no grade, no letter grade that's assigned. It's really a a snapshot in time of when uh each of you took this and it when you took it, it was about you and your assessment. Now when we come together for the discussion uh this evening, it's about the group more so than the individuals and you'll see that unfold. Um it is longitudinal and you have taken it three times. So, the the fun piece with that is you'll get to see the comparison of 2019 and 2021 in the uh results that you're going to take a look at. And so then as you uh take a look at your board self- evaluation on page one, two, three, four, there is a one-page horizontal bar graph that is what I call like the executive report. And whenever
050I work with a school district and um I always take a look at this first because it gives me a really good picture of where things are at and I can tell kind of at first blush what I might expect or what might be some of the challenges or some of the opportunities. Um, keep in mind this evaluation is as much about congratulating yourself for a job well done as it is at identifying a few opportunities that you might want to work on in the future. And with your responses when you were taking this, your options for each of the benchmarks were always, most of the time, some of the time, never, or don't know. With always and most of the time, that's really where you want to be. And with some of the time
051the challenge or the question is yeah how can you move that from from some of the time to most of the time with the never or the responses in red. We'll talk about those uh is it never or is it the the fact that the question was confusing and so you're thinking never. Um maybe you haven't been on the board long enough to talk about that benchmark. And then with the um responses in black, don't know. It's like I just I don't know. And it could be responses from newer board members um or any board member for that matter. And so the idea being that you want to move your responses to the always and most of the time. With that said, um your results are way above average as compared to a lot of
052schools that I work with and I've worked with well over half of the schools in the state with this particular tool. And so um some of my observations is there was a trend towards the positive in every category for you from 2019 to um this point in time. So I thought that was a positive. The other thing that I also know just from doing so many of these is that for boards who have at least 50% or greater of always and most of the time, it's a an indicator that you truly are high performing. And so I think this also speaks very well for where you are at and um where you will continue to to be at as a team. And so you should be very very proud of that. The responses here are
053reported in percentage. When we move on to the next pages, you will see the number of responses per individual. The reason we do percentage here is because there are varying number of benchmarks as I mentioned before when I said A through E or A through F or A through H. So I've calculated these in percentage so that it becomes an apples to apples uh uh summary for you so you can do the comparison. Uh so with that bit of background does anybody have any questions comments any observations about the aggregate data the overview report? anything you're wondering about? I'm glad to see we're a functioning board and on the paper, too. That's nice. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I think one um data point that would be interesting to know is Scott and I maybe especially we
054took it hardly two week two months. So, if in 2021 and 2019 they took it at a point that the board members were not quite so brand new, um I would say that that probably influenced some of my I don't know answers. A good observation. That was my first year. And so, no, it was about the same time frame. It was within the first few months that I took this and that was my first year. At that time, were you the only new board member? Yep. Weren't you? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So, we had one. Mhm. 2019. I 19 we would have had just Jim. Okay. Because you two came back on. But did Sue come on with Jim? Nope. STE Chad and just went off. That's right. I don't remember. Yeah. I don't think so.
055Yeah. So, good good observation with that. 2021. Yeah. I'm trying to remember where in the standards a couple of my I don't knows were because I feel like it was later on in the survey where I was really like digging deep to figure out, okay, do I really know this answered and just question? That's where I got to a few of the I don't knows. But like I I felt just interacting with this board like just coming on um conduct and ethics that was a no-brainer for me. Like it seems like everything I observed before getting on the board and then coming on to the board like we all like generally speaking and respect each other. Yep. Very good. Well, let's uh dig into the next pages as we take a look at each of
056the standards. And just to kind of set the stage for what you'll see on each page. So, you'll always see the standard number, standard one. You'll see the name, conduct and ethics. You'll see the benchmark of success um in this case on page five, conducting board and district business in a fair, respectful, and responsible manner. So, that was the benchmark. And then the questions that relate to the benchmark will always be on the page. So you kind of get an idea of that's what will be your kind of your point of reference if you will. And so the first two questions um basing your decision on what's best for student success and commit to a clear and shared purpose. and you are all in in agreement on that which is positive and you should be
057commended for that because I do work with some boards once in a while where that is a much more colorful response or we don't see that um kind of cohesiveness the next page and again I have made some notes that I will comment on but I'm going to encourage you to comment as well if there are some things that you're wondering about. The um next statement that I will comment on is number six talks about having a defined process for gathering input prior to making critical decisions. So you've got a couple of some of the times um on here and because you've got the the two newer board members. So, did anybody want to talk about what is your process when you're making a critical decision? Uh, critical decision, superintendent hire, that's a really critical
058decision. Whenever you're goal setting or strategic planning, that's pretty critical. Your budget is pretty critical. So, do you have a process that you follow um to make those decisions? And maybe just to state that a little bit in a different way, I'm guessing that you don't just show up at a board meeting and select a superintendent or approve a budget. So, how how do you go about that? What are is your process for some of those big decisions? Well, you mentioned budget, right? I mean, that's decision and our board, we have a finance committee, right? So there's three board members that sit on that and we generally will go over the same information several times and then once things come out of committee then it would come a briefing at the board and many times
059that would come from a board report or a superintendent report or finance director will put some things on the the agenda and then it will always come as information and then it and then there would be a final vote. and budget is a prime example of our boards. We we're super methodical about it and we kind of go through that circle a few times vote to a point where they're probably sick of seeing the same stuff because see it so much but we take several months to kind of go through that and it goes through several different channels. Perfect. That's a great example and that's really what we're getting at and I it doesn't need to be the exact same process for every critical decision but to have that process and helping board members understand
060especially your new board members but making sure that's an agreed upon process and so you know sometimes it is going to be kind of over and over and over talking about little pieces um related to the budget. uh it could be having uh other staff come in and give presentations on particular topics for you know another critical decision. Let's say it's a facilities discussion. And so just knowing that those things those decisions don't happen on a whim that there usually is a process. Uh the second uh statement that I wanted to comment on real quickly is number seven and an annual assessment and that's exactly what you're doing this evening. I'm not sure if you have other processes in place. MSBA for other years. Um MSBA recommends that you do something intentional on an annual
061basis. And it certainly does not have to be what we're doing this evening, but at some meeting at least once a year to just be intentional about sitting back and saying, "Hey, how how do how are we doing as a team? Is there anything that we need to address? Is there anything that we want to, you know, implement a change or done differently? And I So I'll just pause for a second. Are do you do something like that at least annually where you have some of those conversations? We set our board goals, but I don't think that that's not necessarily annual. Okay. Okay. So just food for thought to maybe do something like that. I would also uh suggest that with two new board members, maybe in a few months from now, do a check-in,
062make sure everybody feels like things are moving ahead, okay? And um you know, just an informal discussion. In the uh phase three booklet, there are a few other assessments that you can use, too. So, you could pull out one of them and um use that as a a talking point at one of your meetings as well. I think there were three different options in there. I'm trying to go from memory. There was the critique and there was the roles and responsibilities. I think there was a third one. So those would be other tools that you could use too. And then uh on question eight, it talks about setting goals for improvement based off of, you know, what you want to do um differently. For this evening, you're going to notice I'm kind of taking notes
063because my intent is that I'll create a summary for you. So you'll have a few ideas. if there's one or two things that you want to consider implementing for the next year. Um, but that would also be something that when you're doing your own assessment, you can have a conversation and um say, "Okay, well, let's let's try this." So, anybody have any comments about the statements on page six? Well, with number seven, Uhhuh. you know, you look at 21 to 25. Um that was also co Yes. Y understanding when I came onto the board that you um prior to like 20 you guys were doing quite um training on different things and then that's when you put in like the mentor handbook you there's a lot of different things then co kind of just hasn't
064come back or so is there a certain time of the year that we set our goals No, we did it after we typically would do it after we did the um the board's goals. Typically after um we did the assessment or this is evaluation, but we've done board goals every year. I've been here. We've up well those were created from 21 and we've been recycled. We visited them a couple times since then. Recycle is not to worry about. Yes, [Music] that was a good question. So you may want to identify a time that you bring that back to the table and um talk about those goals again. Just revisit them. It might be that their goals you're still working on. They might be tweaked or you might say, "Ah, you know, couple of them we're
065going to continue working on and now we want to add a new one." There's no right or wrong as far as the time of the year that you do it either. I I I know that um summers for us were slower and when I was on the board, and I'm guessing they might be for you, too. And sometimes that's when we had some of those discussions, but any time of the year is appropriate. Some boards actually do include that with their organizational meeting as well. So you've got options on that revisit that or else um when we've done Ben's evaluation sometimes. Yeah, we've done it that time. Yep. Okay, perfect. On page seven, let's see. Um first of all, I'm was doing the applause meter here for you on your responses to nine and 10.
066um that is so important to honor and respect the roles of your superintendent and be comfortable in delegating authority. And so I am hopeful that that will continue because you have a really good track record with that as you can see on statement 11 written protocols and you mentioned um your goals before and let's see I think did you say something um you talked about a process for mentoring new board members um with written protocols these are the things that just kind of happen granularly within boards where it's like that's how we've always done it. And so MSBA recommends having a board handbook. Now I do you have a handbook? You might have one that's been created. Is that something you've worked on in the past? No, we don't have one. Okay. Uh in um
067this past so I've talked about this a lot and we never our staff never quite had the time to get a template a model put together. So last summer was the magic time when we finally had the right staff in the right place at the right time and we launched that template for the handbook uh during summer seminar last year. When I do my summary, I will include the template for you. And if that's something that you might you might decide to take on as a project, that would be great. Your handbook then would include things um it would be a complement to your code of ethics and it um would be something that might address how committees are assigned, how you respond to questions, texts, emails, phone calls from community members. um who speaks
068to the press, who speaks to legal counsel, how do you address one another at board meetings? A lot of boards prefer to be a little bit more formal um because when you need it, you need it. Um how do you get items on the agenda? So, those would be some of the things. Mentoring new board members would be another one. And so, in that handbook, that template has really a fill-in-thelank. So, it's kind of a one-stop shop for you. If it's a tool that you think would be helpful, I would encourage you to use it. Some schools will work on a section at a time and then kind of go back to it. And usually when it's all completed, we recommend that it's something you talk about as an agreement at your organizational meeting in
069January. And if there's anything that you know board members feel like they want to tweak, that would be the time to do it. The advantage is that you have everything in one place. The advantage is that you don't have to rely on your memory. Um, the advantage is that when seasoned board members or superintendents are no longer on your team, um, you haven't lost that institutional knowledge that they provide. It's a good tool for onboarding new board members. And lastly, if you ever get in a position where board members get off track or a bit rogue, you've got a tool that you can go back to to kind of reference and and pull things back together again. So, um, so that is what the handbook is. And again, I'll send you some information on that.
070And, uh, and as far as who does it, that would be another thing, too. Uh, some schools appoint a committee. Some schools have uh board members who volunteer to do it. Some schools have had staff members. Um, I've had several schools where it was an admin assistant to the superintendent. And if Melissa's still listening in tonight, I don't want her to panic that I'm not suggesting that, but I just those are your options. So, there's no right or wrong on it. Um, as far as who actually does it. Uh, and I think the bottom line is that once it is in place, you talk about it as a board superintendent team and then agree that that's going to be your handbook for the year. That and I think that would be a good place too
071for all of our superintendent since we're doing well that's not in the handbook as well. Search process. Yep. Well, the that a board can change them. Yeah. But this is just like the handbook. You can change that too. Yeah. just documented somewhere that all documented. So HR that's not really leave that for HR in my opinion. Whoops. He's smiling. He didn't shake his head. No. So the philosophy of searching for a superintendent. Yes. Because that's one of our prior because right this is one of the main functions of the board is the superintendent, right? To hire them. the we would I don't know that we'd want to put the process in. Well, however we but it's a good place to Yes. address the values and the community engagement and [Music] yep it'll it'll have the
072prompts in there and again you decide what works best for you. um some or all or there might be some things missing that you think about, oh no, this is unique to our school and to our school board. So, you'll add it in. So, once you have a chance to take a look at it, it it will probably be easier for you to discuss it and then determine um what your next steps might be. Page eight, we're still in conduct and ethics. And uh statement 12 talks about govern using policies that align with researchbased best practices. And just as a a comment on this one, just know that because you are receiving MSBA's model policies that is already happening for you. We actually go through a pretty intensive process of creating the policies that come
073to you. And so during this legislative session, we are monitoring what's happening with, you know, the read act or election years or whatever. And um once the legislative session adjourns, then our staff kick into gear and start creating those model policies. It's done kind of in a team effort depending upon the topic and who has the expertise. Our general counsel, Terry Mororrow, is the one who takes the lead with that and works with our governmental relations team, uh, Denise Dietrich and Kim Lewis. And, um, once the model policies are created by us, we send them off to our legal council for one more review before they come to you. And then when you receive those model policies, you will know if those are policies that can be adapted based on your school or if they
074need to be adopted as is and then you can um respond accordingly. So wanted to make sure that I I shared that so everyone is understanding about the policies on statement 14. uh talks about collaborating across the region and um MSBA provides you with a number of resources to make that happen such as leadership conference our summer seminar um phases 1 2 3 and four coffee and conversations the first and third Tuesdays of the month board chair chat on the first month uh Wednesday of the month the third Thursday webinar which this week Thursday will be on superintendent evaluation. Barb Dorne will be doing that and that'll be at 1:00. It'll also be recorded and on our website. We also provide officers workshop and negotiation seminars. And at all of those there's always opportunities to
075interact. And so that is kind of a a good base for you to begin as far as having conversations and finding out what's happening in other districts. And then certainly um you are probably taking advantage of other associations um at Princeton. Are you a member of AMSD or MA? Which either one of those one at a time? Ma Ma. Okay. Uh so you've also got the resources with them as well. Some opportunities. Yeah. when I on the new all board uh we were a member of MA as well. Okay. Any other comments about the collaboration piece? As we move on to the next page, we're still under conduct and ethics. I did not have any comments. uh as you look at your responses, they're all like so positive and so favorable that you just really
076need to again pat yourselves on the back. Uh number 15 is exactly what you did this evening with your students as they presented early on. So having those opportunities I think is so I think it's so crucial for us as board members. It's important that we get to have that those opportunities. But for the students and others who come to your meetings, uh that is just a great way for them to connect with you as board members and congrats on treating everybody with respect as well. I have worked with boards where there's a lot of red in there. Um and that's a very sad thing to see. As we move on to page 10, this is the last set of questions. Last set of benchmarks under conduct and ethics. 18 that mutual trust and commitment
077that is awesome. 19 talks about professional development. So my messaging always is to invest in your professional development as board members and as a board superintendent team. It educates you. It informs you. It sets a precedence that you're wanting to know and learn as much as you can about your role and it sets a precedence in that your staff are part of you know they have their professional development opportunities and it's just a healthy the right thing to do. So doesn't have to be attending expensive conferences or trainings. It could be something as you know we're doing this evening and there might be other opportunities but do take that time. What are some of the things that you have done with your own professional development? Is it as the group total or is this like
078it can be individual or group? Yeah, I think I've done all the phases and member what is it? What are the training board or not board training? What is it? The officer training. Officers. Okay, great. Well, our our newbies, we did one and two. And actually, as their board mentors, the two that are mentoring, the newbies also did phase one and two again with them. So, at three and then Scott that in the fall. Um I think one thing, you know, we try to all go to the winter conference together. Okay. Y um I've attended the summer one. Okay. And then um a couple of us went to MAS in um in the fall, their annual fall conference. Okay. And we board members that religiously go to the staff meetings every couple months. We belong
079to the staff also. Okay. I personally enjoy the coffee and conversation. [Music] Um the legislative updates that Denise and Kim give. I learn from those. I learn same. If you guys aren't watching those, you should absolutely way smarter than breaking down. All right. And then the recordings because you can't Yeah, there is recordings. Yeah. Yep. So if you what we're doing now is is development. I mean we did the legis the breakfast where we hosted legislators into at our high school and the board put that on and we've learned a lot from legislators. Hopefully they learned a lot from us. Hopefully. Very good. So it sounds like you have really been putting a priority on the professional development and I know that you'll encourage your new board members to do the same with statement 21
080talks about orientating your new board members forming that new team. So there were a couple of comments about this already, but just tell me what is that process that you use for mentoring new board members, bringing them on board. You have a handbook. Okay. I know there's some parts there's part of the MSBA. There's lots of list. Yep. There's lots of resources attached to it. some of what um I think some of it is from uh phase one that's what been there is from and I think a real shared process as well you got the mentor but there's a lot of steps with the superintendent working you know kind of handinhand with the superintendent on that with the new ones and then um having coffee or checking in with um whoever you're mentoring um finding
081out if they got questions or that they feel comfortable reaching out to you as well that you start that open communication right away. We also have a each of them have a session with the like our director for example like HR director will spend time going through everything soup to nuts on HR right so a mini like teaching lesson on what they're doing and then it gives them an opportunity to ask questions same with finance right Michelle spends time so the mentor and the mentee you know will meet with the director level positions too okay to learn specifics nuances of that department. Perfect. Perfect. This really fits here too. But I think for each of us um our time that we spend with Ben too, coffee time I think happens during that as well. Um
082just not during a brand new pace but throughout the year we got stuff or you know that we have that open communication as well. Okay. I think you've got a great model in place for that. And it was fun to hear that you have a a handbook for your new board members, too. And you can utilize some of those tools out of phase one and phase two. And it might be that your new board member handbook gets morphed in or um and merged into that handbook that we talked about before. Just as a thought, you can see as you take a look at it. So very good and good to hear that you have mentors as well for your new board members. So those are all the items all the benchmarks on conduct and ethics.
083Is there anything that any of you are thinking you know this would be a good time to talk about whatever it might be related to how you interact? Anything that you're wondering about or want to talk about? Um the only other thing that um I guess we haven't really mentioned but I think it was a goal of the um board as well is we've put together a student rep handbook. Oh wow. Okay. Um that we're really Yeah, we've really had that come along in the last year or so. So this year So when they come on Yeah. So, we have a student and they're part of our student council and they come in and report to us and the reps, both of whom are gone now, actually, they started process last year and Don and
084I have been working on it this year, kind of developing more of the application and work council advisor and stuff. So, Okay. Wow, that's wonderful. I've not heard of too many schools that talk about having that. So the um MSBA started to have a few more resources for the student reps as well. There was an activity uh workshop in I think Shakipi area last fall. There's going to be another one in Fergus Falls maybe in the month of May coming up. So we're trying to be a little bit more intentional. The handbook idea for your student reps is is really a good one. Uh and the other thing that we are working on is uh learning mod um learning management system uh use incre developing a tool that would be for your student board members
085as well that they could sit and watch. Uh but they can also attend phase one. I'm not sure if you knew that or not but if you haven't and you think that would be valuable at some point you could sure have them register. So the last two years we have attended the MSP student and shockpiece. So, we've done that the rest. Perfect. Okay, great. Yeah, and I have not been, but I have heard a lot of really good things about it. If you've been back, you must like it and feel like it's a good experience. I'm guessing I think it's where it's very beneficial is the students get to network with their peers. Here, I was very pleased that the adults left and we were separate and then the student reps stayed in one room
086and got training, okay, process. And I think that was very beneficial because they were working on one-on- ones versus having an adult. Sure. They're kind of guiding them. They got to create the whole thing. So, I was really pleased with that. Good. Good. Perfect. Well, let's move on to the next standard vision. So, I'm on page 11 and I really did not have any comments on the items that I see here. uh you're doing something right because you're all pretty much in agreement on your your vision. I shouldn't say pretty much, you are in agreement. So, probably enough said about that unless you as board members have a comment that you'd like to make with those first statements. It's having that basically those um it's having with those three statements, it's having that commitment to
087student success. on page 12 under vision, a vision that's shared by your stakeholders and you've got one don't know on there. Um, how how do you involve stakeholders in your district's vision? What are the thoughts from some of the other from the seasoned board members of how you've done that? task. Now we have to remember something. Have you had some um activities where you've actually brought stakeholders in and you've had some like listening sessions or discussions to get feedback or I think when I answered that I was thinking about referendums and involving in our community stakeholders because that's the catchphrase. Okay. Um, so that's that's what I was thinking about when I answered that question. Yeah, I think I was um thinking about our community. We're doing a community task force right now. Have been
088since September, right? March. March. Last March. Good. Um, because we're talking through a building bond referendum or operating line. So I mean we've reached out to many many many many people in so many in so many ways okay very good good I knew you were doing something because of your responses so that's great uh the next statement just talks about um how you communicate that rationale for the decisions if it's decision based on building and bond referendum um is there a way that you do communicate that we've got some some of the times there. Well, um I think we're trying to work on it, you know, like all the community task force that's all on our website, all the meeting notes. Great. That's all there. Um I would say that we've been doing the mailers
089and then there's yeah something specific when Ben does his article for the newspaper. we have him cast or even tiger times is every Friday. Okay. So, we communicate a lot of different ways, I think. Perfect. Very good. It sounds like it, too. And I I think I remember that from visiting with um your board last the last couple of times as well. Okay. On page 13, these three statements all tie to having a strategic plan or having goals in place. And it would appear that that is working for you as well with the responses. Um that you have some type of goals and that your decisions are based off of those goals or off the strategic plan and that you have some type of monitoring in place as well. And so I'll pause for just
090a second. Is there any comments that the group has regarding these three statements with goals or with strategic plan or anything you think your newer board members might want to know? anything well of um staff that piece um I think of the fall kickoff when we go board members are welcome to attend um the welcome back for the teachers and all staff and I think that we always talk about the strategic plan and I think it's good that there are some board members present during that you know just and then we also attend like the year end one and then we also um that doesn't really talk about strategic plan but no that's like yay the year's over that's right I mean our we call it our continuous improvement plan okay we don't really use
091the strategic plan uh language but it it really is something in our district that we live. I mean, we live it's really drives everything that we do. Um, you know, in terms of like hard smart goals associated with some of that, like the student learning piece really for the most part that is our board doesn't set those per se. Um, that generally comes from our reading and a math goal that each of our sites create because we're a comp school district and then we also have a district. So, you know, we some of the stuff that we have in terms of having a positive climate and culture, right? Um, we do surveys and things in the district, but, you know, that could be an area if the board wanted to try and find some more
092of an objectable way to tie numbers to it. You know, we haven't we really relied mostly on kind of our sites and our of doing it. It doesn't necessarily come from the board level. Okay. Sounds good. I will say it's presented like we have our principles come and present to us on all the um like all the different goals and what they are and what they're working to and how they're working to it. So I do personally feel like and I know that if I had a question on any of that and they're here we can ask them or we can email whatever. So I feel like we are pretty informed of that even though we're not necessarily actually creating it and also you know about setting a goal for that you know the specific
093strategical for building you know where no what do I does that make sense? Well I think what you're saying is the board trusts our people and they empower our people to help create some of those goals. I think that sounds perfect. Yeah, go ahead. I think I cut somebody off. Oh, um I do think we're at an interesting time in our district and our community with the discussions about levies and referendums and a new um incoming superintendent and the forecasted budget challenges and just the direction that education is going. So, I am intrigued to see how that will influence our strategic planning and just the conversations that are had over the next year plus. Absolutely. It definitely will be something to monitor. I think you're you're spot on with that comment. So, thank you. Well,
094I'll move us along to page 14. This is still under vision. talks about uh student achievement or student success or academic excellence, whatever the term is that you use in your school. And again, based on your responses, uh you are all cohesive in knowing or identifying that that is a priority. Um, we've got one don't know response on there and it might be because there hasn't been that opportunity to review student achievement um for might have been from one of your newer board members, but it certainly tells me that that is at the forefront of your discussions um with the reports that you're getting with the resources that are brought to the board. So that is the vision section. Anybody have any comments or questions? I would just say that we are all I mean
095I feel like we are all pretty aligned on our vision and putting the student and regardless of what is going on and what the subject is I feel like we all stay pretty true to that. So good and it's apparent in your responses too. Thanks for saying that though, Melissa. I appreciate that. Great. Well, let's move on to structure. And again, this is uh the area where we talk about the physical and the organizational structure. So, you'll see kind of a hodgepodge of statements here. Uh the first couple of statements talk about safety and security. And with both of these, the responsibility is your superintendence. As board members, you just want to ensure that it's happening. And usually that will happen with an update at a board meeting or discussion or, you know, if there's
096some things that you need to do a deeper dive, those are the the items that your superintendent will bring to you for discussion at maybe a work session and ultimately making a decision. I don't have any other comments on these unless board members have anything you want to add or questions. Yeah, you know, I I'll own that. I We meet every month with our crisis team and we have a lot of people involved. We call it our crisis prevention mitigation response. I don't think I've really briefed the board on that in the last little bit of time. I mean, we've been we've been doing it, but we haven't occasionally. Yeah, that's good to know. And that might be helpful, especially with two new board members, too. Just an update. And I'm going to guess you
097had more reports on that during the pandemic, Ben. Would that be safe to say when a lot of things health and safety moment of hate to even say it, but that's Yeah, that's what comes to my mind usually with that. let at least right now but in addition to some other things. Okay, I'll move us along to page 16 and with structure this part of the uh assessment you're talking about your staff teachers administrators and providing for their professional development. And so with 34 it talks about ensure hiring and retention of high highly qualified staff. 35 talks about evaluating staff based on student success and 36 talks about staff development for your staff. And the big takeaway with these three questions is that the responsibility falls to your superintendent. As board members, you want to
098ensure that these things are happening. It's either through policies or procedures that are in place or updates that you receive as board members. And as an example with that, at some point you might end up receiving a report from your superintendent on what retention practices are used. It might be your HR person that provides that report. So there or or the hiring practices or the update on number of applicants. So kind of the big picture just so that you can ensure those things are happening. Uh staff evaluations as a new board member. I was really curious about the process. I didn't need to know about the evaluations of the two people that live next door to me who are teachers in our school district. But I was just curious about what is that process? When
099does it happen? Who does it? And uh you've got some don't knows here. So that might be a sign that at some point down the road maybe just a update on what that process looks like in your school. And again, it's not to bring any individuals evaluations to the board. That would you know that's part of data privacy that you would not bring. But just the the big picture and then staff development and you probably do have a policy on that. I it might be in the 600 series on providing staff development. I'm going to guess the one staff development you are engaged in right now would be the read act for your staff. Does that sound accurate for your school as well? Yeah. Among all kinds of different things. Yeah. So, so any board
100members, those of you that have been around for a few years, do you have any comments on these? Seems like you're all pretty cohesive in your responses. Okay. And and I would just suggest at some point in time maybe review what's happening in your school district so that your new board members have a good understanding of what's happening and how you handle those. You know, there's an example of like like our two new board members through the mentoring process. If you haven't had a chance to sit down with like Jessica yet, I would that would be an expectation I would have of Jessica that she would kind of share with you the different roles and responsibilities she has. One of which is staff development and share with you what what we've done uh over the
101last couple of years, what our plans are for next year and those kinds of things. I probably this out before I met with her. So, shame on me, but it happens. Yeah, that and that I think that's a really great suggestion as well so that uh your two new board members have a good understanding that okay on page 17 we're still talking about structure and this time the benchmarks are related to curriculum technology and highquality facilities. So what we call the learning essentials and the let's see probably the one statement that I made some notes on is on statement 40 also 39 too with um your budget supporting staff development and I used the readact as an example before. So as board members you might be seeing some items in the budget that relate to
102training for redact or other professional development. So just know that that will happen. On um statement 40 it talks about process including community to include community and parent involvement in selecting curriculum. This is actually tied into the what we used to call the world's best workforce. Uh now it is called striving for comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. It's the same act. It just has a new name thanks to the legislature in 2023 I believe or no yeah 2024 actually I think is when they changed the name. And so part of that encourages some kind of an advisory committee. Uh so is that something that you have set up in your school or how does that happen? I mean that's probably an area that we have a great need for improvement if that's an expectation. I
103mean our the district oversight as it relates to curriculum and instruction would come from our student learning leadership team that would be at a district level that's made up of admin and then reps from teachers from each department. Uh and then we have a a K5 K5 or K6 and a 712 that's somewhat departmentalized and uh that group provides direction and oversight to map curriculum and the process that we would go through when we were going to select new materials to support that curriculum. Um I think that there's always a big misconception of what curriculum really is. We don't determine we we don't really feel that your textbook or material materials are your curriculum. Um those are just simply resources that support uh and their tools to implement your curriculum. Um but you know we
104have tried to rely on the fact that we've had some parent representation through our a different committee that used to be learning and living which now it's a different name entire community connection that would report to that student learning leadership team. I I'm saying lots of words to just tell you that we need to improve in that area. Yeah. Okay. Extent you would include like the Tiger Careermies in question 40 like um talking to you like that process did include a whole lot of like businesses in the community and setting that program up. Yep. Not quite curriculum but program. Yeah. I I think I was I think I'm one of those red numbers there because what I'm comparing it to is um you know what the what district used to do um what the district
105used to have to do um through we had a per committee planning evaluation review I think is what it was that's actually how I got involved with the school district as a parent. Wow. Okay. And we did a lot of looking at curriculum. Um, and that's what spurred me to run for school board. Um, that's why I I'm like, well, we don't do anything like that now. And I whether that was good, bad, or whatever. Um, that's kind of where I was coming from. That's why I I put never cuz you don't. Okay. I I think the bigger takeaway on this one is if you're providing opportunities for parent and community involvement. And so I I'm just going to segue back to Scott's comment. I think that there might be some other things that you're
106already doing or opportunities that you can could consider in the future. So you talked about was it called Tiger Connections? Is that what I heard you say? Yeah. Yeah. And and so are there other things like that that you can just, you know, that you're able to say, "Yeah, here's where we give parents the opportunity to participate." I think that's and the community members just so that you have um have those avenues for helping inform people what's going on in the school and helping them feel like they're a part of your school as well. Anything else that comes to mind? Um parent teacher organization. Well, I have a question regarding that. I have a comment regarding that question specifically. Sure, Eric. Um, is MSBA recommending that there is something that involves community and parent involvement
107in selecting curriculum? Because I'd be 100% against that. Really, I'd be 100% for it. Really? But that's what we We're not the parents. They're not the final say, but they're on a You want the one guy in the community that we all know. I know. I know. But that's who would be involved. Sometimes it's a good deal. I I would I get what you're saying. Heavily hesitate to to have something in play like that when we we pay very good money for this side to make those decisions. My fully formed opinion is that like through Tiger Careermies and the other things it's important to know the community goals but the actual selection I mean that lies with the educators. Yes. Because the question says selecting curriculum. So that's what I kind of got tripped up
108because I Well, Scott, you're a science teacher. Would you would you and you're teaching AP, you know, whatever way smarter than me. Would you you'd feel comfortable Bob down the street telling me what uh so like what curriculum to select just like the standards you know give goals and like general benchmarks towards curriculum gets taught in the classroom like community goals I think are a part of that. Yeah. Um, that doesn't mean that like Bob is going to come in and say, "Okay, I'm going to look at your physics textbook and oh, there's a concept in there that I don't like or you're not teaching you're not teaching uh electromagnetic concepts early on that I wouldn't want. But uh taking a step back and saying okay like what like are these meeting our standards state
109in our community? Yeah. Kind of taking a step back and saying okay what what does the community value before I you know go out and consider a physics textbook or other curriculum in my class. Um might be a helpful resource. So, we have our tiger, what are they called that I'm thinking of? Our tiger, you know, twice a year. We got lots of tigers. It's the little It's I can't tiger pride. Tiger pride. Yes. The stuff that we have tiger pride, right, that we developed with the community. Habits of a tiger. Habits of a tiger. Thank you. Community. Yes. It's been a long couple of days, guys. We have habits of a tiger. And I think that because we base so much of what we do off of that, right, which was developed within our
110community, it was I think that and then trusting the teachers because honestly I don't if I tried to pick out a curriculum, which is what it said, which is why I took this is the way I took this the thing too includes community and parent involvement and selecting curriculum. I should not be picking my daughter's science chemistry curriculum. Like that's just a bad idea. I shouldn't. So maybe I was gonna say maybe it's just the way the question is worded. But I definitely think community input in saying this is these are our values and this is you know okay yeah you got to meet the state standard and then these are the values that we want instilled in our kids. then that's one thing and making sure our curriculum aligns with that. But having a
111parent come in and Well, I would I would so I will backtrack a little bit. I I mean I agree with you on that. I mean it doesn't hurt to have community to recommendate or like to I'm an advisory. That's how I Yeah. I mean I'm not like they get the final say on what reading book we're going to have. You guys need to change that question. Yeah. Yeah. Read the word. So that was that was fantastic discussion amongst you. So I going back to Eric's uh question before about what MSBA would recommend. So our messaging is having parent involvement. Part of the reason that question is in there is because that actually is in the legislation with the um community or parent involvement in selecting the curriculum. However, every school handles that differently and
112uh when I was on the board, we actually had parent and community involvement and they sat in on the meetings and heard the discussion so that they became more aware. other schools will um have the parents or community members there in an advisory capacity and sometimes you know it's a parent that really is interested and um other times it's somebody who might have a teaching background and you know they have an interest in that respect. So I think for you however you handle that you know rightsize it for you what seems to make the most sense you've got some um avenues in place right now for doing that. So, I think that's great. And so, I think the bigger takeaway is are there other ways that in addition to this one that you could have
113that parent involvement? And I've heard you talk about a few examples. So, anytime you can provide those opportunities, it's going to be a win-win, a benefit for you because it's a group that you can go back to that has a good understanding of whatever XYZ topic is and also uh they can help promote and um inform other community members as well. So, uh Deb and Eric, you were both right on that. There was no right or wrong with it. It's what you decide to do. Does that calls for us to have this? Should we actually draft a statement as to how we involve the community and the parents in the process? You could look at that within your handbook. Again, I think it it's whatever you decide to do. you know, if it's uh having
114something that is in writing, I don't know that it would be policy per se, but if it is a practice of opportunities or if it's just here are the ways families can be involved, parents can be involved, community can be involved. So again, whatever makes sense for you just again exploring what those opportunities might be. When I've been listening to this, I've been thinking about our policy on library books because there form out there that um community members or parents can fill out if they have questions about a library book and then we forward our media special because they're the ones that has the training. But I'm wondering if we can't do something along these lines because as a parent you can see the curricula request the curriculum that your child is being taught in
115each subject and see everything that's happening. So if they got a question within that, they could submit something that would go probably to teaching and learning and then they could review it from there and you know seven different answers from our board interpreted the question in seven different ways and how do we ensure that we're in sync with the response to that question at least publicly facing um and move forward, I guess, was kind of where my thought was on that. And and I would suggest so I'll make a note of that when I do the summary and that might be a topic for you to discuss as a group because again, there's no right or wrong. It's what what um what you kind of come to consensus on as a board on what you're
116going to do with it. And I hope that doesn't sound wishy-washy. Um if it does, you can let me know. But I think just having a conversation of how are you going are there ways that you're going to encourage community and parent involvement and what might those be? Does that help or was that muddying things up for you? Clear as mud. Clear as mud. Okay. I think you can you certainly can start with that world's best workforce or the striving for um comprehensive achievement and civic readiness and ensuring that you've got that in place. And it sounds like from what Ben was saying, you have that and it might be just um inviting some parents to sit in on those discussions. So that would be a starting point I would suggest. Okay, I'll move us
117along to page 18 still under structure and this is uh follow this is a continuation of the the um section that we were just looking at. So here it talks about curriculum supplemental materials and tying with the standards. you kind of talked about that uh process in place for updating technology. Uh so we've got some don't knows here. Uh what do you have some kind of a process for updating technology and is it being reported to the board? That might be a question for Ben. Other board members too might know the answer to that. Check the guy come in technology director come in. Yeah, we don't have a director. Uh okay. So this is I mean this is how it works. I mean, we we have uh I think a monthly meeting with our tech
118IT department meets with myself and Michelle and Jason. Jessica's part of that and we we analyze um all of our needs and we kind of have a threeyear 5year plan like we do for facilities when we know that what different devices are going to need to be replaced at certain points in time. What switches what you know um that's kind of in our finance about it mostly through finance. So then you're going to hear about it mostly just through the the budget side of things and then when you adopt the budget you're going to you're going to see but I mean that's somewhat okay because our board is very well verssed in the governance model right and this is there's a lot of management associated with developing your plan for what devices you're going to
119you know renew at what given time. Um, but I feel like this is part of like we trust you guys to do this and then you report to us and then when we have questions and Lord knows I always have a lot of questions. I always feel like they're answered for sure. And all due respect to this process, I always feel like every time we do it, these questions kind of try and kind of try and push board members to get in the weeds and that some things. And that is that is opposite of what all of our training has been and it's opposite of like why they've been so good as a board and we punch it like if they start wanting to say you know tell me I want to be part of
120the procedure on how we're you know when when we're going to buy a new computer for the third grade buy apples instead of Chromebooks. Yeah. Because you like better right and now with the tariffs by the way. Right. The votes are everything's double for computers. So, no more computers. Good. Sorry. So, I mean, that's just needed commentary, but some of these I feel like some of kind of push members to be like, well, maybe I should be doing that. Should be checking in and doing that. And that's I think that's why we three people that responded don't know. Right. Right. And I think that's the takeaway. So Ben, I think you did a great job in describing and that was what I was hoping you would do because you do have three people who just
121wanted to know the process. And so for board members, this goes back to those questions about hiring and retention and evaluation and staff development. So a lot of this work is definitely the responsibility of your superintendent andor administration, whoever that's delegated to. As board members, you just want to ensure that it's happening. And how that is ensured is if there's an update. Um, and it can be something that is scheduled or as needed. And technically that's happening too because I heard Ben say that when you're going to hear about it as board members, it's going to be tied to the budget. And so I I think you are spot on with that. I noticed the responses and especially the don't knows. So that's why it was good to just target that one. But I would
122agree with Ben. This is not about board members, you know, getting more into the weeds on things. It's just making sure that, you know, and you're informed. Okay. I will move us along. We got a couple more pages on structure. So on page 19 talking about um the effective learning environment, student supports and let's see with so uh you've got a couple of don't knows on 44. Um how do you communicate that there's an expectation that all classrooms will implement effective instructional practices and not to put you on the spot Ben? I mean I've got some thoughts too of how this happens but do you have comments you'd like to make with this one? Oh, the board is aware of this. Looks like there's room for to be more explicit, but if you if you
123take a look at our continuous improvement plan under student learning, there's only three outcomes there. One of which is to uh effectively implement the Princeton paradigm, which is our rebranding of the Marzano instructional strategies that our district's teachers have been trained on for many years. And that's what we utilize and that's how we evaluate our teachers as well. That's how we do our peer reviews. That's what a lot of our PLC's and things are kind of based on as it relates to instructional uh instructional practices. Um so, and then also when we have Jessica come in and do any presentations to the board, um she can she can be more explicit in terms of like what uh you know what is this Princeton paradigm, you know, and kind of provide more narrative associated with that.
124And then certainly for our newer board members too. Again, I mean there's a ton of things that she was going to have Jessica is going to have to talk about. One of which is I would hope she'd share with you what the Princeton paradigm is and what are the key components of that. Okay. You said you had some Yeah. Well, so no, I think that was was perfect with that. I think again it's um possibly something that might be written. you mentioned your continuous improvement plan and so I was thinking it could possibly have been a goal that was written. So I wanted to make sure that board all board members understood that. So there is there is that expectation and um you do have those you have that put into place. Okay. I think
125well and one other nugget that I guess I was going to add there too is one of the ways that um you make sure that that happens is with staff evaluations as well. It's kind of a result of that. Okay, I'll move us along to page 20 still under structure. Um these are all um talking about the budget. So Michelle is sitting up straight in her chair now cuz she's really excited about this topic. And the only one that I was going to comment on is 47 seeking public input during the budget process. And you can see this is one that has um had similar responses. You're you know over the years with your school district. Uh that's a tough one with public input. Have you found any successes in how to do that? Any
126comments? Knows because like that's why they elected us I guess. But also when I'm thinking about like our next big step will be like a referendum of some sort hopefully and we are seeking a ton of public input that way. Good. So, it's directly, but I I just don't see like the public elected us to like work on the budget, right? Except that I've hired Michelle, who's a budget, expert. Yep, that's right. He tells us and answers our questions. So, I I guess I don't I don't know. I've never been in a school district where they were like, "All right, guys, come on down. What should we cut? And we have in the past and that's pro that's where I was coming from because I was one of the reds too when uh we we
127haven't yet gone through a process where we've cut programming since I've been here. We may have adjusted the class sizes some but uh we haven't gone and said okay here's all of our activities. I'm using them because they're they're easy and fast. But we are going to cut basketball and we're going to get rid of tennis and we're going to and then um usually what you what they used to do is have people come in and Yeah. We we've had meetings in in Yeah. And give their public comment and receive comments on that list and it's usually pretty ugly, I guess. And I guess I haven't been on the board at a time when we've had to do that, but I I also just can't picture someone coming in and like when I'm thinking budget,
128I'm thinking like what project are we going to do next? What what roof can we avoid fixing a little bit longer or something like that? And we rely on the people that do that for their job here to tell us that and then make that decision. So I and it's a lot. So I can't imagine just anyone off the street coming in and well and one of the reasons I think why we haven't why we haven't done it in a very long time is because we haven't needed to. I mean, we I mean, yes, we have financial issues, but they're not like dire where we were in the past where, okay, now we're getting down to some pretty nitty-gritty things. We need to, you know, bring in public input. We haven't had the need to
129do that. I don't, you know, we're not. It's urgency. Well, and we kind of have, we're getting to that need and that's where this task force is coming in. So that's why I guess now I'm kind of thinking being a little bit more proactive I think with the community task force and you know trying to educate the public on what our you know what our budget is what the process is where we're at where we might be if we don't do something. Um, so yeah. Well, then just going through phase three training, you know, they do those different scenarios and you know, I've been on the board 5 years and no, I haven't seen that, but there are a lot of districts that are going through that right now. So I think that we are
130set up I feel like with the organization of the task force and different things I've been a part of where as a group it's set up or we get I feel like that if it got to that point that we are set up to gather community members and to create that process if that makes sense. Yeah. you're about we're about two years away if if there's no referendum passed and there's no additional anything from the state you know where you're going to run dry on your on your fund balance and you know we've already over the years because we've had to cut for 750,000 pretty much every year I've been here where you know we cut all the extra admin there's no more deans there's no you know you cut social workers you cut APs,
131you cut different director level positions, you know, and then and then you get rolling into uh you know, we tried to we tried to protect class size as long as we could. We have super respectable class sizes and we do when you compare us to everywhere else, you know, but we did have to just up those, you know. I think the board will probably have to wrestle with maybe upping them again if things don't get any better financially, but then but then you'll get to a threshold like, boy, we really can't we can't increase class size anymore than what we have. So then you're going to be looking at programs. Yeah. And you're going to be then you have to kind of do some brainstorming. what are some possibilities? Right? And there'll be a handful
132of them that you'll start with. And that's where you want to get some input from community members. And that's generally when the community will get a little bit more emotionally involved because, you know, we've seen over the years that, you know, yeah, you got a mill you have to cut a million bucks and people don't get super emotional when if we have to raise class size by one extra student in in a class. to the general public that isn't something they get super, you know, of course our teachers don't like it and our, you know, it's tough on our staff and it makes it everything harder. Um, but yeah, I think we're couple two years away, three years away. We'll see. I would say I was the community until January. And I mean we went
133through a building referendum in 2021 and in the fall of 20. So there was a lot of community discussion around district's money. I felt if you wanted to participate in those community meetings you could gain the you could collect the information. Then it failed. So there was a little bit more conversation after that and then there was a little bit of a lull but the conversation came back really quickly again in March of 2024 and so there wasn't a lot of downtime in there that I didn't really feel I felt like as a community person I attended the meetings I had the opportunity to have a really a pretty good sense of where the district's finances were at. So I think if the community wants to know they can certainly find the information. Okay. Very
134good. A a great discussion from the group of some of the things that you've done, some of the the thoughts that you have. Um few other thoughts just to add to that. Again, there's no right or wrong answer with that, but uh some schools have, you know, certainly um encouraged superintendent andor board chair presentations whenever you have that opportunity to meet with a service group or organizations just talking a little bit about school finance. Even some of the things that uh Ben was sharing too that this is what we're kind of forecasting, just kind of warming people up to some of those things. um might be some things that you share on your school website just in general about school finance. So, you know, there are people that will check and are very interested in
135that. So, something you might consider if you haven't already, I know a number of schools uh presentations for staff at a couple points during the year just to kind of keep those lines of communication open as well as what they can look at. Um, you talked about the um, Ben, what is it? A a weekly newsletter article that you do also that you know just some I mean it depends what audience you're talking about but our parents it's called Tiger Times. Yeah. Well, it's most of the time it's every other week. Okay. Um, a district newsletter if you will. So, you know, whenever Yeah. appropriate just some comments there maybe would be something you could think about. uh the um the whole idea of just informing the community if you do get to a point
136where you you want to generate some feedback, a survey that would go out or listening sessions. And then another thing that has worked with some schools and they have had actually a lot of success is having a what they call a finance committee that's made up of folks with finance expertise in the community. So, somebody from financial institutions or um business officials from other um uh other businesses that you have within your within your school district. And the idea being that they could do a little bit deeper dive and understand or learn about school finance just as you um board members do so that when there are conversations out and about in the community, you've kind of got that core of folks who can speak knowledgeably about school finance. I've also heard from schools where
137uh that was the impetus for people running for school board at some point in time. So, those are just things that you can think about if you are wanting to get that word out and um creating some of those relationships, getting that information and maybe some of the discussions out there too as you think about what um some tougher decisions you might need to make in the next couple of years. So, food for thought. One thing too that I don't think has been mentioned but I've seen it is as a district we're very involved in the chamber and I know some are involved but has talked about budget at chamber meetings very that I've attend okay attended here that um he does and I think that's a great way because businesses interact with all community
138at all times so when they know or if they don't hear something correct they can correct people as well. So, absolutely good. Very good. Well, there's um one other benchmark on page 21 that relates to structure talks about the um monitoring your budget and uh probably it I don't have to say much more about that. You obviously are doing a great job with that and I'm I'm sure that's a credit to both Michelle and to Ben for making sure that those those messages are coming back to the board. So, that was structure. I'll move us along to accountability. And with this benchmark, it's talking about uh continuous appro improvement in student achievement um throughout the school. And this these three questions, excuse me, they relate to a strategic plan or having goals in place. And
139so here it's talking about whatever you have in place, having a timely review of those goals and that coherence that you have with whatever your goals are and um school improvement plans and then the annual review as well. So there might be things that you review as needed that your superintendent's bringing updates to you at at the board table and then intent being intentional about having an annual review of whatever those goals are. Uh and I didn't have any other notes unless board members have comments that you'd like to make about the scoopa statements. I just have to say this new superintendent, you need to make some really high goals just so you Good job, Ben. I like that. I like that. Okay, the goals are going to dip. Doesn't mean we are not. Oh,
140very good. So, um 23. Speaking that was a perfect segue. So, speaking of superintendent, page 23 under accountability, we talk about uh superintendent and goals for your superintendent and uh conducting the performance review. And so, usually we say that the goals for the superintendent should tie to whatever the goals are in your strategic plan or your district goals. In addition to that, superintendent will probably come forward and have uh some professional development goals as well. With that said, what kind of a process have you been using with superintendent evaluation in your district? Well, we use one of your models, MSBAs. Um you know, we use your traditional one. Yep. Um we did dabble with that new way of doing it. Yeah, we I don't know. It just didn't take it didn't seem like it was
141it worked for us. And I guess our board was pretty comfortable with the traditional I think were there 10 questions or they're like based on the superintendent standards okay rubric and then you score and then and then every board does a good board member does a good job of basically writing some narrative and commentary on that. Perfect. And then uh we go over it in close session. And uh that generally morphs into you know obviously the superintendent evaluation but it's kind of a evaluation discussion of just how the whole board and the super works together and we'll normally have some takeaways from that. Okay. I think that's a that's a wonderful model and I think you kind of hit all the the key points too with that Ben. I think having number one is just
142doing it, getting it scheduled. Uh, usually your your board chair is the one who's responsible for making sure that it gets on the calendar, but sometimes that might happen differently and having a tool and I've heard what you're doing with that. You utilize close session and um I would always take advantage of that anytime you have an opportunity to have a close session discussion um where you can just speak frankly. um su some superintendent prefer that they not go into close session and then you just conduct it during an open meeting. And I think the other takeaway is as far as number of goals um my colleague Barb Dorne who will be doing the third Thursday webinar on this topic um this Thursday at 1:00. I mentioned that before too um always says make sure
143you have one but no more than three goals for your superintendent. You know having more than that is a lot. your superintendent has a school district to run. So tying those goals to whatever your strategic plan or your goals, your district goals are makes just makes a lot of sense. So that's those are kind of the takeaways. And then as you transition to uh a new person in that role, it might look a little bit different as far as how often. So annually is is you know where you're probably at right now. But with a new superintendent, you might decide on quarterly, midyear, and whatever. But you'll be able to you'll know you'll be able to figure that out at that time. Moving on to page 24, still on accountability. The benchmarks here all tie
144to academic progress. And so really it's the results, the measurements. And a term that I um have used in the past is, you know, as a board you should be obsessing on results, not always the test score results, but on results in other things that are reported to you and shared with you. I think even just the result or impact of those young students that came in this evening is a measurement for you too of accountability of you know and I listen to them of you know what they are what what they like how long they've been participating in the performing arts and so when you're spending most of your agendas talking about student academic success you know you've arrived and you're at that high performing level so that's a goal and when you look
145at your responses. There's some room to grow here. In the big scheme of things though, you obviously are putting a fair amount of time into that and hopefully you'll continue to do so. Does anybody have any comments about what you see here with the the statements? probably the I don't know again I'm very black and white so I need to know and say I know y that's fine it would be fun for this group uh now to take it sooner versus later even if you don't do the facilitated discussion but just take it uh in another year and kind of see where things land with with your team but okay that was accountability and then the last standard is advocacy and communication with statement 62. Just remember that a lot of this work is one
146of the resources we provide through Minnesota schoolboards association with our governmental relations team with our advocacy tour, delegate assembly day at the capitol. Um Friday chats I think Deb you mentioned you were you were one of the people that mentioned that you really enjoy them. For me, that's one of my best 30 minutes of the week. I just love that in how Kim and Denise can just so clearly give us a summary of what's been happening, what we need to kind of keep our eyes on um over the weekend. This is actually the the um uh a break for the legislature right now. So, you probably received an email that said there was a little activity that you could do and reaching out to your elected officials. Uh that's on our website. And then all
147the Friday chats are on the website, too. if you've missed it, um you can always go back and take a look at them. The let's see the other I think those were the that was the only one I really wanted to talk about. Um 65 is another one that I usually like to visit about with the board members um your process. So how do you handle the comments and feedback? Maybe in particular emails that you receive, emails or text messages. Well, from community members, we we always those things if we get something individually, we always forward those things to Ben. Okay. He's in the know and I think vice versa, Ben will uh give us a heads up sometimes when there's something happening too. So um but but our process is we actually I think
148that maybe this came about one of these meetings here where we were talking like setting board goals or something. We actually did like a mini I don't know if it was a handbook but like a document a procedural handbook or a doc there was a piece in there how you know because a lot of times someone's going to send a long email they'll do to all the board members right so then board members are always like well who should reply and then either you all apply you know you run the danger of many people replying and then not being consistent different answers Mhm. You know, or everybody thinks someone else is going to respond and nobody responds. You know, that goes over like a lead balloon. So, it it always then are what we do
149here is the board chair and the superintendent will discuss and discuss which one of the two would be most appropriate to respond. Most of the time, it's going to be their superintendent. In circumstances it makes more sense to have board chair do it and then in most cases they do it but we talk about it and sometimes do it like the lady with the libraryies books. Yeah. Yep. and she well I like your process and that would be what we would recommend too that you at least know how to handle that and best avenue is always to just work through your superintendent. he's got the big picture on things and sometimes, you know, the response might vary and and probably avoid as as individual board members avoid responding as much as possible unless it's something
150really simple like, hey, when is the next board meeting or do you know which building the spring concert is in? Or something like that. Obviously, you can take care of those, but yeah, and I think that's helpful just to review with your new board members as well. So then as we move on to page 26, uh, statement 66 talks about making sure the public knows about our roles and responsibilities as board members. And I think a lot of it is just having that statement that you share which can come right off of the board governance model that our role as board members is to govern. We really look at the big picture, the high level picture of the school district and the day-to-day operations are the responsibility of our superintendent so that community members understand
151that as Gail as the board member, I'm only one person and my power is only at the board table and that I can't fix anything. And so helping them understand that and sometimes you just have to say that over and over again. Any comments from board members about that and helping the public to understand what your role is. Well, when we took this in 2021, if you look at the result, that was actually one of our board goals form public engagement committee now. Yeah. And so you see how far we've come. think we need to take our list of goals. I think we got it. I think we did it. Yep. I think you did a really good job. I observed that same thing. So, thank you for sharing that. What I will do when
152I create my summary is uh the some of the the things that I've talked about this evening, I will put those in writing as well with this particular question so that as it comes back, you've got it for all of you, including your new board members to review. Uh let's see on page 27. I don't think I had any comments about these. These are just in how you're getting the information out to your community about your school district. We've kind of talked about some of that too in relation to how you communicate the rationale um for decisions made. And then the last two questions 70 and 71. I always like to just comment on these two because I think a piece of what we do when we're gathering information is seek community and staff input.
153And you can seek that in a variety of ways. It can be a very formal process with surveys, listening sessions, or it can just be those casual conversations that come up where somebody, you know, talks to you and they're sharing something and so you just like tell me more about that. You know, what are your thoughts? And making sure that they understand that um you're appreciative of those comments that you'll take them back to the group. the group being the board where number 71 you'll carefully consider all input and so it can be a real formal process when you are working on uh getting information out about a a bond or it could be when you're working on a strategic plan or talking about the budget. So, you gather the information, you bring it back
154to the board table where you carefully consider and um the input I've received along with the input from the rest of the board members is what we talk about and then we make a decision based off of that. And sometimes we take, you know, some of those ideas and sometimes we can't because of, you know, the fact that we just know it's not appropriate or it's not going to work for our school district. So the idea of seeking and then carefully considering is a a takeaway for you to think about as well. Those are the advocacy and communication benchmarks. Any comments or questions? Thank Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm just going to before I do a final wrap up here, are there any takeaways that you want to make sure that
155I highlight in my notes? I've got a couple things that I'll share with you, but I wanted to hear from you first. Anything that you want to make sure I take note of for Yeah, the board handbook is like, I think. Okay. And then um 40 was a question for what what was question 40? That was the curriculum. The parent the parent involvement piece curriculum. Okay. And I think we need to set something more formally about board goals making because we don't I mean like more formal about making sure we're doing it annually. Mhm. Does that make sense? Yep. We can do our Here's what's going to happen. We need We need a retreat. Retreat. Go to the farm. You know what? I have green bins. You could help switch 40 to 47. Red on
15647. 47 was the one about uh informing community of the budget maybe a a finance committee. I had that one marked too. Yep. When you develop be forced to actually wrestle with how you want to do all these things because you're going to have to put it in the handbook. Oh yeah. That handbook's going to actually capture all these things. So then we won't have to do this anymore. Well, I mean probably calendar. Good thought, Eric. Each month and you're gonna put in there set board goals this month. Great. Absolutely. So, yes, these will all be be included in your handbook, I'm guessing. Anything else? do an amazing job and well I'll be here to help you but um there are districts that have done really nice jobs with this that we probably get our
157hands on some of those I think and if they have the template as she said back in spring I think the examples from other districts would be helpful too just to sometimes we get really locked into templates and it stifles our creative very open. That's a good idea. What what I think I will do with that, there's a couple of schools that I know who um are using a handbook and you I think using the same template. Hastings is one. Farmington is another one. I think Rochester is another. Um there's some that are there's a lot of schools that are working on them right now. But I will I'll share those examples. I'll share the template and then I'll share the names of the schools where you can contact them and just get a copy
158of theirs or you could go on their website and take a look at them. That's a really that is a good suggestion to have those to just work off of too. So very good. So your your feedback about followup is um spot on with what I had listed as well. So um with that, thank you for your time this evening. I just want you to remember that you are appreciated. You are a fun group to work with. You're a welloiled machine. And I've saw that all three times that I've worked with your district. So that means kudos to your superintendent and staff and your board chair and all of you as board members. And um remember that you can always reach out and connect with me if there's anything I can help answer questions about
159or assist you in any way. I am here. So with that, any last questions for me? I have nothing. Okay. Very good. Well, good luck as um you transition, Ben, to you as you transition and then as board members um this is really important work in identifying a new leader. So, I'll be I'll be sending good thoughts to you and I know that you'll have a great outcome. So, very good. Stay in touch. Take care everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. I think I will eat on life savers. We heard you. Hornets. There's like hornets over here. Yeah, I heard it over here. Yep. I can hear it. Oh, Jard. Honest. I haven't eaten a thing today. So, this is what I've been This is my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That could
160have been that. All right, we got one action item here. This is an annual thing that we do that's not quite so fun. Um, resolution for non-renewing of probationary teachers. Motion's been made by Eric MS. Is there a second? Second. Second by Scott. Any uh questions on that or any input, Jason? Uh these are probationary teachers that because of our budget and reduction and reducing our student population. Um unfortunately these were staff that were being released and they have been notified uh prior to our meeting and so they'll get the official letter after this meeting. I wanted to just add too that I do know quite a few of these individuals and they are great yes teachers and I am and just individuals and so it's really bummed I mean we all know it's a
161crappy thing we have to do but I just wanted to say that out loud well if history repeats itself like we've done most years and I don't know that it's going to happen this year but as things we'll get some late resignations and some weird stuff happens and they're always our first call and more many times we're able to bring them back. So we'll see. A few of them are tier one license leners so we have to not renew those and then we post for the position typically then they reapply and we're able to hire them back as Ben said. Yeah, it's it's a mix of people. We have opportunities potentially to bring some of them back. All right. Any questions on that before we vote? Uh, it is a resolution. So, we will start.
162We'll do a roll call vote. Sorry, Miss Scott. I can vote yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Resolution passes. Uh, we have no additions to the agenda. As you can see, we have lots of future meetings. Um, is there a motion to adjurnn? Second. Second. I got it. Emily, it's Melissa. All right, Melissa. There was a motion made by Melissa, seconded by Eric Minkx. All in favor say I. Oppos.