February 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

001to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay roll call uh all members are present except for director ainson and our stud student rep Dan Bergen um the first order on the agenda is the open forum and uh before we get started we do have uh quite a number I believe six people that have signed up to speak so before we get started I'm going to read the rules for the open Forum in accordance with policy 203 the board sets aside up to 15 minutes to receive citizen input through an open Forum input from students students staff parents and community members and major decisions can be a valuable form of assistance to the board an

002open form is an opportunity to address the board the open form is a safe space for plsas community members to share experiences concerns and feedback in accordance with their first amendment rights The Forum is an opportunity for our community to elevate the conversation create healthy spaces for dialogue and demonstrate respect for opposing views so that we can all collectively do better the open form rules are as follows at least 10 minutes prior to each meeting a signup sheet will be available at the meeting site for individuals to sign up to address the board up to five speakers shall be provided a maximum of 3 minutes or 15 minutes total to address the board unless an exception is granted by the board chair speakers will not be allowed to verbally attack disparage or potentially defame individual

003board members employees or students nor May speakers use vulgar or profane language also speakers may be precluded from disclosing personally identifiable private data regarding employees or students speakers unwilling to conform to the rules or time constraints may be told his or her privilege of speaking has ended if you have any hand handouts or materials for the board please submit these items in advance to Martha wals members of the public should not approach the dis the board will not review handouts during public comment period board members will listen respectfully to issues brought to them by the community but will not engage individuals during their time the board shall not deliberate or take action during the open form regarding an issue presented each Forum speaker should indicate whether they would like followup by Administration um by by

004the speaker or if the follow-up Administration is necessary the chair shall request that the superintendent follow up on the matter after the open forum and when the board chair proceeds with the meeting the audience comments are no longer in order however board members retain the right to call on District administrators for information to assist the board in its deliberations thank you in advance to the speakers and to the audience for respectfully sharing listening and being engaged in the Prior Lake Savage area schools Community um because we had uh six speakers um I'm making the call so that we're going to extend the open form to allow all six speakers to speak and the first one is Anna um Brighton if I pronounce Bron Brenson okay uh on the advanced math removal hello thank you for

005uh listening today I am here today as I have received zero follow-up from Dr Edwards nor any board directors on Communications sent over two weeks ago myself and fellow community members are seeking further clarification on the rationale behind the removal advanced math courses for sixth sth grade students and to understand the impact this will have on those students as a parent of current and upcoming advanced math students I find this decision deeply concerning as to many others in the district as evident in the community petition with over 320 signatures I viewed all study sessions and board meetings study policy 513 spoken to teachers and briefly spoken to Dr Edwards yet our concerns persist regarding the Practical implementation of the changes and the limitations of policy 513 as it has failed countless families I've spoken to

006over the last eight years it is nearly impossible to truly differentiate instruction within a 45-minute class with 25 or more students who range from below grade level Learners to Advanced Learners all at once we would appreciate examples of how differentiation and instruction will manifest in a classroom and how our teachers will accommodate differentiated instruction when potentially adopting CPM math curriculum that focuses on collaborative instruction and collaborative group work our District's Mission clearly emphasizes and commits to educating all Learners to their full potential however ever the removal of advanced math courses is contradictory to those principles how are we as a district going to deliver on that mission and commit uh Commitment if we won't offer students who needed a higher level of instruction families in this District can throw a stone in any direction and

007land on a district that offers advanced math courses at the middle school level other districts successfully balance diverse learning needs while offering Advanced courses exemplified by district 196 util utilization of bridges math curriculum over the last 10 years in Elementary classrooms with continued provision a need for advanced math courses in their middle schools as an eastem District we attract families seeking challenges in mathematics we risk losing enrollment by neglecting the educational needs of our mathematically inclined students at a time when our district desperately needs to attract new enrollment but more importantly retain its current enroll leas it doesn't seem wise to keep our Advanced students from reaching their full potential this ultimately leads families to look elsewhere where their needs will be met we are supposed to be a district that Prides itself on Equity

008however we are not eliminating Advanced English science or social studies classes historically the advantage uh the average advanced math classes have served 60 to 120 students per grade how can we call ourselves Equitable if we are not offering all of our Advanced students course offerings that meet their individual learning needs I deeply respect appreciate and adore our teachers and educational staff we love our community and our district but fear that this decision may prompt families like mine to consider alternatives with more comprehensive offerings for our kindergarten through seventh grade gift and talented students again going to request a response from Dr Edwards uh with uh on what consultation took place with all of our district Math teachers were parents surveyed was any research viewed on the impacts of students future growth potential I'm also politely

009asking the board members for an explanation of how uh this decision supports our principle our guiding principles of educating all Learners to reach their full potential and finally we're asking for this decision to be opened back up to allow further Community discussion thank you for your time you our next speaker is Linda schmidtz did I get that right on the teaching and learning committee first off thank you for allowing me to speak I never thought I would be the person standing up at a Schoolboard meeting fighting for change I have watched adult bullying within our community changing narratives and our community being torn apart by clear agendas of others however I never would have expected I would be in the middle of it I'm a former public school teacher of 10 years a parent to

010four kids in the district actively involved in the community community a tutor to students in our district and an advocate for public education especially our teachers I'm not afraid to be honest and vulnerable and stand up for what is right for students and teachers I'm also a former division one athlete who has worked on teams my entire life I knew that when I was selected to be on the teaching and learning committee that I would be scrutinized and disliked because I would ask the hard questions I would speak my truth and push the status quo to make change and ultimately stand up to to Administration for what I believe is broken as most teachers are afraid to do so during the December 7th committee meeting I chose to speak up against policy 66 regarding inappropriate

011books that have filled our school libraries I asked Dr Edwards about who was involved in the subcommittee that came together to develop the changes to the policy and if parents were involved in this group as parents often have a different perspective than teachers for what is inappropriate for their child it is also our parental right to know what is being read to our children at this meeting my character was personally attacked by another Committee Member who stated that I show up only to persecute teachers anyone in this community knows that that knows me knows that I'm a huge advocate for teachers to my core however when I stated all teachers are like-minded individuals what I was trying to communicate was that while all teachers want what is best for kids what they believe is best

012for kids is different for what parents may think I was personally bullied in front of a room of about 21 adults including Dr Thomas and Dr Edwards no one from the administration stopped it it took a fellow Committee Member to step up and moderate the the situation after the incident I decided to approach the individual to apologize and problem solve together the interaction lasted about 30 seconds as shown on camera and I was aggressively asked to leave by gust Abdullah and yelled at by the individual about 2 hours later the rumors in town started swirling how I attacked someone in the parking lot due to this incident I was suspended from these meetings until April I find it incredibly ironic that I am suspended from a public meeting where all members of the Community the

013people paying the taxes are supposed to have a voice once again adult bullying is being shown within the community how do we expect our children to problem solve when we can't even problem solve as adults how can we expect our kids to not bully when as adults we're modeling it and most importantly our leaders are being bystanders how can we speak up against what is wrong when we are continually silenced or suspended not only as adult bullying happening in subcommittees but I've watched our board leaders bully others for different viewpoints it's embarrassing is this what we want to model at the Prior Lake School District is this our Prior Lake way are we really all in this together or just a select few how can all community members have a voice when differing opinions are

014silenced I'm here to say we must start caring more about what is best for children academically than we care about adults reputations and agendas I will continue to be brave to authentically be myself but most importantly I will continue to use my voice to speak up against what is wrong so many of us has have parents have stayed quiet stayed in the background and have chosen not to get involved I'm here to tell you that you have awoken a large group of parents that are done with this and you cannot silence the strong forever thank you okay our next speaker is shayene Rose on math intervention thank you school board for allowing me to speak the concerns I'm raising today are regarding math intervention and additional support in our elementary schools when rolling out a

015new math curriculum that makes my own heads want to spin did any of you think about setting aside funding for Paris support or math intervention to help our struggling students you have thrown our teachers into this chaos and expect them to adopt this curriculum with no additional support in the classrooms what organization rolls out a new program to its staff in this capacity and then goes and cuts funding to key positions that would help support the implementation and ongoing critical support for our students and staff it's absolutely mind-boggling I was more when I recently reviewed the presentation for student support services and the proposed cuts for 2024 when we are asked to cut our budgets as leaders in an organ organization we must consider the outcome or quality of the product being produced and make

016cuts to the areas that are not indirect relation to this outcome in a school district I would imagine those cuts to be from the top down not the other way around never cut anything that improves the outcome of the product never cut teachers Paras programs specialed Education Services early intervention and mass Advanced curriculum you name it if you want a tree to keep growing you trim the branches furthest away from the trunk not pull out the roots of what keeps it standing one thing I believe most parents like me in the prior L Prior Lake District is want is so simple we want our kids of all levels to be able to focus on Reading Writing and math they are foundational parents with gifted and talented children want you to not lower their bar out

017of the name of equity parents with children who are meeting expert expectations want you to continue to give them opportunities to choose from parents like me whose children don't fit into the bureaucratic rating of an IEP but who are failing foundational subjects like math want you to get them the support they deserve and parents with children who qualify for special ed do not want you to take away any more resources than you already have it's time for our board to stop playing games arguing over the 203 board operating Norms policies and start focusing on supporting our teachers and our children with intervention services needed thank you for your time next up is Rachel Carlson speaking on gifted and talented I'm here again asking the same question are we removing gifted and talented opportunities from our

018district actions seem to speak louder than words I got involved in PLS gifted program advoc in 2015 I quickly learned that for parents that want gifted education it will forever be an uphill battle to get our kids what they need to meet their full potential we are consistently told that we should trust that the district knows what and is acting in our children's best interests recent changes in curriculum make this difficult I recall a meeting that was held in 2018 with District leadership to discuss the lack of rigor offered for our students in the middle school back then we were told at that time that what was offered was enough and that we push our kids too hard academically this would suggest that as parents we do not actually know what is best for our

019children and this is absolutely false with the adoption of the new Bridges curriculum parent parents of gifted students began getting concerned about what is meant for their children we were ensured that this new curriculum offered enrichment elements that would adequately challenge our children with deeper understanding of math concepts and that research showed that speed acceleration may not be the best outcome for students and that this new curriculum provides more opportuni for students to connect socially with students in their school since when did learning math become a lesson in Seal when asked why there was such a low enrollment in the sage program last year fearing that students had indeed lost so much during the years of lockdowns that they are no longer qualifying for sage it was explained to me that last school year 200

020second graders had sat for the full coat but invitations into the program were tiered based on acceptance numbers and not not to exceed around 30 this makes me wonder how many students were not even offered the opportunity to pursue Sage that qualified this brings up the question of whether our district supports gifted children in their needs now researching the new uh Middle School curriculum CPM I came across far more negative reviews of this curriculum than positive in fact for a curriculum that was developed in 1989 I was shocked that most positive reviews came from the CPM website and not independent sources also while searching the CPM website for any data to support it and um that it will indeed improve our children's math proficiency I came across information that made me question our District's reasoning

021for SE for selecting it newsletters explaining that getting the right answer is perfectionism and that math is not Equitable how is asking a child for ways that a company can reduce its carbon footprint deepening their understanding of math concepts math is a way to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills there is no right if there is no right answer then there is no problem so what exactly are they learning I would like to know the following who was involved in selecting CPM for piloting and why was it selected were parents informed of this change before their children began the school year and are we removing one of the differentiation Specialists because we no longer have a gifted track for children so no longer need the differentiation thank you next is Heather Rosco uh speaking

022on book reviews hello my name is Heather Rosco and I've been a district resident for going on 28 years this year I've had two children in uh Prior Lake Schools um I want to thank you first for your continued emphasis on transpar or transparency this year um for me transparency is especially critical when it comes to policy 606 which outlines the process for how decisions are being made that directly impact our students constitutional right to access information including access to books in the media center the district's intent to be transparent with policy 606 is clear with the statement that the Review Committee follows open meeting law I for one have been grateful to attend these meetings uh my observation is that all attendees have been extremely respectful attendees have shared how grateful they are both

023for the thorough discussions that take place during these reviews and especially for the knowledge and expertise our media Specialists and teachers bring to these conversations I know that as a board and as administrators the tendency might be to try and keep these challenges Under Wraps maybe believing that the lack of attention will lessen the interest in or number of book challenges um however evidence from other districts across the country as well as districts here in Minnesota lead me to believe that book challenges are not going away anytime soon some districts are Fielding hundreds of book challenges um the time is now I think to shine a light on these challenges and make sure that our community is aware that these challenges are taking place as you review policy 606 I encourage you to aim towards

024increased transparency in addition to following open meeting law I encourage you to include guidance for publicly sharing formal challenges with the community prior to the review meeting community members should be made aware and have the opportunity to understand the rationale behind the committee's decisions these decisions directly impact what resources are available to our kids ultimately the should be informed when decisions are being made that impact our students right to access reading material I also hope the decision makers consider Provisions in policy 606 to allow the district discretion should the number of book challenges become burdensome it is clear from attending the committee meetings that participants invest time and careful consideration for these challenges and they come at a cost to both the participants and the district given that fiscal responsibility is incumbent on the school

025board policy 606 should include reasonable limitations for book challenges finally fir I firmly believe that kids deserve access to literature that inspires and reflects them please know that you our trained media Specialists and our teachers have the support of the community as you find ways to support our students right to read I ask that you please keep this in mind as you review policy 606 over the coming weeks thank you uh next up and last is Charles Johnson on social media good evening chair France superintendent Thomas and members of the board if you recall last year some community members read some rather explicit content found in the school libraries you then discussed the district's process for challenging reviewing and potentially removing inappropriate books from our libraries recently a book entitled The hate you give was

026challenged because some concerned parents believe this book was inappropriate and should not be in our Middle School libraries the book went through the review process and and was determined to be acceptable did you know that if a movie gets an how a movie gets an R-rated rating it could have three F bombs that means that someone under the age of 17 must be required to be accompanied by an adult that book has 100 F bombs among other adult themes and our school district said we're okay with 11 to 13y olds checking it out from our library after the review process a district employee publicly posted a picture with the book and proclaimed quote this book is saying on our Middle School shelves today I call that a big win for the day and goes on

027to say thank you to all the people that came to support me the district employee certainly SE celebrated that parents who were concerned enough to follow the review process parents who maybe did everything they could to extend their child's innocence just a couple more years and parents who care were defeated there's no humility appreciation for the parents this employee rejoiced that these parents and their values were lost to those of Educators such Behavior must be seriously addressed District staff are to partner with parents not be their opponents we all want what is best for every child in our district implying that someone won means someone lost if sides are drawn the students lose we must work together as parents teachers and District employees to improve our district for my kids your kids and every student

028in Prior Lake Savage area schools thank you okay that concludes our open Forum next on the agenda is I'm looking for a motion a first and a second to approve the agenda so made by director Crosby second by director fesus all in favor I I any opposed okay that passes 60 uh next is the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of the following the financials purchase orders above $225,000 monthly financial report the board minutes from January 8th and the 22nd and Personnel items and those personnal items include the retire the announcement of the retirement of Hidden Oaks principal Sasha uh KETV after 18 years of service um I need a motion to approve the consent agenda so may second and all in favor I any opposed that passes 60 okay Dr Thomas would you like

029to thank you chair friends and members of the board I just wanted to uh bring notice that uh we have a retirement as as you heard chair Frans mention um Sasha from our Hidden Oaks Middle School is uh retiring after this school year and he has spent many years providing leadership and support to many students and families throughout our community and I just wanted to take this opportunity to publicly um thank him for his years of service for the the many lives that he has touched uh and supported as uh being that bridge to allowing kids to pursue college career or just be life ready and so um on behalf of all of our staff here in the district um I just want to say thank you and uh we really appreciate him and wish

030him well uh being Grandpa and everything else that he wants to do in life and uh and uh he has assured me he is a phone call away so he's on my short list um for substitutes if we have leaves or anything like that from an administrative standpoint so thank you so much Sasha for everything that you do uh that you've done and we wish you the best thank you Mr [Music] K okay uh next is Laker Pride oh I'm sorry no next we have the acceptance of gifts and we have one gift from the tag worker family did I pronounce that right uh for for $500 for uh uh donated to the Westwood enhanced programming so first I need a motion and a second so made by director bullan second second by director Velasquez

031okay this is a roll call vote we'll start with uh director olad uh I director Cosby I director bernick I director bullan I director Velasquez I and that's I so that 60 and next we have Laker pride and the first item is to um do a review uh on livmore screen loss by uh Scott Peterson and Zachary Johnson um so I'll have uh Scott and Zach come forward and as they're coming forward I'll just uh share with the board and our community that uh we actually last year started looking at the impacts of cell phones at the middle school um and how we might be able to change some of the practices and protocols and uh uh both Dr Edwards and I have actually met with staff members there who really um thought it would

032be important to increase their efforts um this in in this current school year that we're in and so um through their leadership and that of several others uh We've enhanced um our our supports for ways that we can address uh the cell phones in our schools and really allow o for this to be a Grassroots initiative kind of co- uh conspired or co-c conspired with our students uh at the table as well um so they have ownership from the very beginning so I'm going to allow uh Zachary and Scott to uh give us an update as to where we're at um with our work with live more and Screen live more screen L this year awesome well good evening everybody my name is Zach Johnson I'm the dean of students at Twin Oaks Middle School

033this year um and so Scott are just going to kind of tank team this give you kind of us idea of what we've been doing and where we've gone so far this year so live more screen less is a local Twin Cities organization um that's focused on digital well-being in schools um so they really have started out kind of giving schools that opportunity what can we do to help support kids not only in like the practices that we're doing as a school but in like the mindsets that we help kids develop for their own digital well-being um throughout their lives so live more screen less defines digital well-being as balanced intentional and responsible use of Technology if you've been in either of our middle schools you maybe have seen some of those posters up we

034put those up right at the beginning of the school year and had that as a conversation point with students teachers and families as well um the goal of live more screen less and our goal this year has really been to educate our staff to facilitate conversations with students about their device use so that they can reflect on that own digital well-being get the students to start thinking about what things am I doing in my life both in school and out of school to keep myself in that state of well-being right so our journey with this be uh began in August when we met with the livmore screenless staff uh they have quite a crew that uh we meet with um a couple times a month to learn about the program Zach and I went through

035the education and the training uh to become live more screen less Champions anytime we had a question uh the crew at live more screen Le was there to meet with us uh guide us through their way troubleshoot any questions or any problems that we might have we recruited staff to participate in trainings we worked with Dr Jenny zush to develop staff surveys Implement those staff surveys then review that data with our building administrators we held focus group meetings with students to gain their perspective on what live more screen left L was about in addition we tried to share the message from live more screen less with our weekly parent parent newsletters we would include little blurbs uh posters and such that they had uh presented to us and we' share that with families as a

036way to potentially open up the discussion when parents read that ask their kids like what do it mean for them at home or what it mean for them at school so part of our our contract with limore screen L was educating our staff and so that was really came down to two modules that we did they were online modules that led staff through um their training so one of them is called get activated get activated we had about 30 staff involved in that that included teachers that included building Administration uh support staff like counselors social workers and then it included um District leadership as well um so I know Dr Thomas was part of that as well going through and doing that get activated training which really was activating the mindset that we wanted um

037our staff and eventually our students to have and then the next part was this get equipped training and the get equipped training was to help train our teacher Champions to facilitate conversations with students um so we had 10 staff members between our two campuses um that were involved in uh that get activated training and then those teacher Champions along with Scott and myself facilitated conversations with students around that digital well-being um so we had lots of different people involved and lots of different people in uh having their hands in the training process at that point Zach and I met with student groups uh we used our uh caring and compassionate conversation group to hold our discussions to hear uh the feedback from students on what they thought about live more screen less was about um

038our teacher Champions uh utiliz their advisories and went to other advisories just to hold focus groups to talk to the kids present them some information and then gather feedback in the form of exit tickets um approximately 5 to 10% of the middle school campus student body would have had a teacher talk to them about this uh to give us some data to give us uh the feedback that we needed at this point and then just to kind of give you an idea of what our current reality is you know at the middle school level our device use policy or personal device use policy is that we don't have students using devices during the academic time of the day so anytime class is going on we expect students devices whether it be cell phones SmartWatches airpods

039to be away unless a teacher allows them to use it during that time that would include not just in the classroom but outside of the classroom during that time so if they're in a pod area if they're in a hallway working on something else those devices need to be put away we do allow them to have it out during passing time and then during lunchtime as well so that's kind of what our current reality looks like at the middle school at this time Zach and I are here if you have any quick questions that we could answer thank you very much uh board directors any questions what were some of the conversations or subject matter in those I mean there's a lot you can cover right with responsibility with cell phones and things like that

040like what kinds of things were you discussing with the students by the time you got to get equipped yep uh it was very superficial with the time constraints that we had just kind of what did it mean when you were on the screen how did it maybe impact you in the moment when you were with friends or with your classmates or with family and what other options maybe could you have had and so it spurred on the thinking for a lot of students to just open up their minds and open up their comments to if they wanted to keep doing that maybe staring at a screen or put a screen down and engage in a conversation with other people and I would say a lot of the conversation was really around how students were feeling

041with their device use whether it being like the connected to social media outside of school gaming how late they're up and a lot of Reflection from students on that piece of it what what are they doing with it outside of school how is it making them feel personally and do they feel connected to their peers when they're doing it over a screen so I think that was the the pretty the big topic that was covered so how are they feeling you know it's kind of across the board right you get a you get a middle school student in there if you've worked with a 13 12 13-year-old some of them get it some of them are are willing and mature enough to have that conversation some of them say you should just let us use

042our phones whenever we want to so I think it's kind of that you get both sides of it so what's the impact been so far in the classroom as a result of the training and then also the personal device use policy implementation that's a really good question um some of our teacher Champions have led initiatives such as device free lunches or tech-free Tuesdays uh that they do that on their own um and they have individually they report them to be very successful um um as far as Zach and I's role this year with having a a very clear policy uh set forth to middle school you can't have it during the academic time uh we don't spend as much time working with it which has been great outstanding thank you um I have a question

043um so we started this program last year and at a limited way um did we get any feedback from parents or Kids that actually led into the decisions that are going on this year uh with the live more screen less and the way we're implementing this the Lessons Learned in other words from The Limited implementation of of at least one grade level and limited uh cell phone use from uh the previous year from the 22 2022 2023 school year we did not have any feedback from the previous years no okay was there any has there been any feedback this year from parents at this time there has not been we are just kind of at an update right now um mid-February here's where things are at uh we are still meeting with live more screen

044less um I think we have our next meeting might even be this week uh where we touch base and we see uh what other things can we or should we be doing and reaching out to parents is certainly something that is on the table thank you very much um you talked about the goal being a balanced approach and and shared um in the middle schools what how the teachers are handling uh that I'm just wondering um is there consistency across the board so every teacher um whatever they're teaching they have no um technology during the academic time that is across the board in the middle schools is that that's the expectation and I would say you know do we know what's happening in every classroom no right like we we can't be in every classroom

045I would say from the Twin Oaks perspective I've been really impressed with each grade level being very consistent across the board and we give them the opportunity to monitor that you know as as as they see fit but I've been consistency for sure across 8th grade seventh grade and sixth grade with those overall expectations being the same for everybody is there anything that you would say uh support-wise that you would be looking for even you know policy-wise or you know is there something that you see that you would ask for support in um implementing the because it is a major distraction I mean we can hear that from middle school high school I don't think maybe as much in Elementary in the elementary schools um but it is a it is a SE um severe

046distraction and so is there any supports that uh you could see would be helpful to put in place you know at at this time that's where we're we'll look to our building administrators uh to reach out to you guys and open up that have that open dialogue and to see if you guys would like to work collaboratively to put one together thank you yeah that was kind of that was kind of where I was headed to and almost more from like a budget stpoint I mean I think we all would agree that social media is impacting our kids our families our our homes how how do we get tools to deal with that right like we all want to get better educated so it I would be interested probably further down the road how to

047know how helpful live more screenless has been and if that is the the you know who we should partner with from a financial standpoint and a support standpoint and then also you know we're we're we're not involved in the day-to-day decisions but we're involved in a lot of the budgetary decisions that supports that so if it's working right if it's worth it great AES you yeah that kind of feedback I'd be interested in okay yeah I'll just close by saying that um you know when I took the training um you know we we superintendents have been having this conversation about the impacts of cell phones specifically in schools and um how do we manage that in a kind of post uh necessary environment um and the level of dependence that um has been uh growing

048I think also the mental health issues that we are seeing coming out um um from doctors and you know various Industries saying we we really need to look at how we can address this and so it's been something in my conversation spaces I will say that um the training is very compelling I I I don't know if anyone could go through that training without being phased by something that says we've we we have to do something um so uh it it will be something that we'll talk with more uh explicitly at the administrative level as to how we perhaps maybe make that training more readily available because it is a very compelling argument for uh needing to do something different and I just appreciate the two of you for leading this initiative at our Middle

049School campus and want to recognize you uh this evening um and just your uh uh contributions to making our learning communities more connected to the what I always say the original technology and that is the human relationship so thank you both and I have a couple of certificates for you thank you thank you thank you thank you okay the paparazzi idea that too a 16 thank you okay next on the agenda we have a special uh plsas Schoolboard recognition for director Enrique vquez so I'm going to hand this over to Dr Thomas to hand this to to give this or award this to uh director V and explain what it's for so in the spirit of school board uh recognition month we've got a few things that all cover I was going to save this

050one for the end but uh now the cat's out of the bag so no no putting it back that's that's our I was supposed to build up to this we're going to build up to it but it's it's here um so director Vasquez um is uh recognized by the Minnesota school boards Association for the 2024 director's award for successfully earning 100 points from msba sponsored sessions to improve your individual governing performance and so we just want to thank you for uh this is the equivalent of taking additional classes cus Etc so deepening your knowledge and um it's a significant investment given the fact that you are uh essentially volunteering your time in addition to a full-time job full-time dad full-time hubby all that and you're still finding time to invest in yourself as a as

051a board Governor so or a board director so uh congratulations on behalf of the Minnesota school boards Association for the 2024 uh director's award congrats Enrique [Applause] Enrique and I will continue the conversation um this evening to recognize our entire board um you all give tirelessly of yourselves um to work that is extremely consequential um you are setting forth policy uh you're setting forth budget and also curriculum everything to uh really help uh provide the conditions for our students to thrive and get all the skills that they need um to graduate and go off to chase their dreams and each of you play such a significant role you have very unique person ities but together as one body um have the strength that can really move a mountain and so I just want to say

052thank you on behalf of all the administration and staff throughout our district for all the work that you do here in our district as well as uh what you heard with director Velasquez many of you are also committing to those additional time service hours Etc you're join you're you're on committees uh not just within our district but you're on state level committees legislative action committees and you name it you're you're showing up so thank you so much for being a voice for our community uh and bringing our community's voice to um a lot of different areas that you are interacting with and so I have um not only a certificate of appreciation for uh from all of us here in the district but also um you each receive one from the Minnesota school board uh

053Association um in honor of your Serv Serv and recognition um for being a board director so I have two certificates for each of you um to recognize all the great work that you do so thank you so much thank you so much and I'm gonna hold on one second let me pass these to you and you know you're all going to have to stand forward as well so you might as well just join me up front the picture yeah we already did a picture earlier what about one with Enrique as you don't want to have the cheesy certificates and I think you all should join us up front in one B pictures please please social media with the just alone well we can do that one too let going then we'll do and Recon yes

054congrats I have certificates for director ainson and we also have one um I got two of them for uh director Atkinson and then I have one of our local for our student rep uh Dan who's not here this evening that I'll get to them as well and that is our Laker Pride for this evening um so next up I want to hand it over to executive director of administrative Services Herman to present the plsa uh 2023 to 2025 uh collective bargaining agreement and before we get started can I ask for a motion okay by director olad and director Crosby thank you chair FRS on members of the board we're presenting today on behalf of the certified staff negotiations committee the recommendation to propose or to approve the proposed terms and conditions um for the plsa

055contract as outlined in the memo and the packet that was within the board parameters provided at 99.74% um can I do one more thing after I had the motion can I do a vote all in favor after the first and second motion i i a motion I I opposed no okay 60 sorry I missed that all right and then director Herman already that so um director Herman can you go through the um various um changes or uh conditions that we're discussing yes um chair FRS as outlined in the memo and the board packet um the salary enhancements includes year one step and Lane movement with 1% Cola and adjustment to any step that was um to move up to at least a minimum of a 1.5% increase in year two step and Lane movement with

056the 3.4% Cola with adjustment to any step movement to a minimum of a 1.5% increase in enhancements to longevity in year one add $500 to each tier of longevity in year two add $500 to each tier of longevity there's enhancements to the wellness incentive expansion of the the national board certification enhancements to the Post employment benefits addition to remote work on staff um workday language language adjustments to the children's educa our teachers and parent educator article and additional language cleanup items which include things like changes in titles and dates and things along those lines thank you are there any questions no I I I'll just I want to say thank you to the leadership team for many many hours of work on this and um also thank you to the union leadership for also putting

057in a lot of work and effort to come together um these are not easy conversations they're really hard things to do and um I'm appreciative to be here tonight to to support this um I would just like to say that um I've looked at a lot of contracts in my time and I want first of all I know that how hard everyone worked on this um it was grueling um there was a lot of emotion and I appreciate everyone coming through with this and I also want to add that the language in this contract is the cleanest I've ever seen we've been slowly but surely picking up a lot of Theus and putting them into either contract language or resolving them and this one is is really a um hardw worked on contract that is

058very clean very easy to understand and um um just uh reflects the the combined work of both the union and the District administration so thank you thank you thank you I Echo that thank you to everybody involved it was a lot thank you okay chair friends and board directors I I also just want to Echo all of what was just said here this evening and uh really want to thank our Union leadership our district leadership um as well for the hours and time put in um it was a real uh course that we had to take of trying to get to where we're at today and I know it doesn't always come easy and I just really want to show my appreciation um for our ability to um have this this evening and also for

059our ability to look forward into how we continuously improve our practices in processes and how we show up as Leaders um and staff in our district to ensure that what we are doing is supportive of all of our employees as well as all of our um students and ultimately for the broader community so thank you so much okay so now I'm going to take a vote on the contract for ready we did I know but we did it prematurely and I should have done it after the discussion so can you humor me and let's do another one just to make sure it's formal um okay so all in favor I I opposed okay that passes 60 thank you all right so next we're going to go into our new business items and the first item

060on the agenda is the fast bridge data report director Z Bush director of assessment and Improvement it's all yours good evening director France members of the board superintendent Thomas um I'm here to give a midyear data review of our fastbridge data which is our kind of uh very quick dipstick measure of how students are doing in the middle of the year um we also had an early release uh focused on our midyear data to talk about growth this is a um I know I've mentioned this before it's a unique opportunity for us to look at how students are growing throughout the course of the year and make midyear adjustments for the second half of the year um this is kind of the only opportunity to do that so we really took uh staff through a

061um a structured data protocol to look at data um for their midyear um fastbridge data um we've had this on a number of documents but um just a review of our data beliefs in that um this is from Dr Thomas you know the data is not necessarily going to answer all of our questions it may uh bring up additional questions um and we'll do our best to answer anything that any questions that you do have um and that there's this is a single data point so just keeping in mind that this is one uh very quick assessment on student um progress that is not all-encompassing of what that student is able to do uh fast Bridge is a screener and it we give it three times a year at the elementary level um the um

062the core cont content areas in math and reading are the main U are the data I'm going to go over tonight uh before I go over the math data I know I've also talked about this uh quite extensively as we've gone through the math implementation it's very common to see an implementation dip in data uh which we were predicting uh based on the math implementation that things kind of have to get worse before they get better um that's just allowing teachers and staff enough time to get familiar with materials and students um we know that the math curriculum is a very different way of thinking about mathematical Concepts um so we would we would predict that this would happen with um full implementation being about three years out um the goal is really to reduce

063the amount of time and the amount that um the data does dip um during implementation uh given all of that we actually don't see a huge dip um in math we see a little bit uh in kindergarten here um just to orient you to these charts and it's a little different for kindergarten first grade um than compared to the other ones um but on the basically the horizontal line um indicates uh anything above that would be a student who is not at risk in this content area and then below that line would be students that were are at some risk or high risk um and so you can see the left uh bar is where we started in the fall with the students and then the right bar is where we are currently in the

064winter um so the goal generally would be to keep um you know in general the number and percentage of students the same or or increasing on top of the bar um so trying to decrease as much as possible those students um at risk on the bottom so here you can see our kindergarten class came in very high 86% % of students um were at um the um at no risk in the fall screener um that is down a little bit to 78% here in first grade it's about even um again we're expecting kind of a dip and so um yeah that 76 to 75 um is pretty much I don't think that would be statistically significant so about steady in first grade here um we actually saw a big jump in second grade um so

065we started the year with 71% of uh students in math um without any risk categories and now we're up to uh 79 without any of those risks um so we saw that 8 percentage point there in second grade um third grade is about even um I also want to point out in the bottom left I have uh the number of total students screened over the total number of students in that grade level um there are are certain students that are not screened on time based on absences or other pieces um you know those Mobility um things like that we do try and make up all of those so um this was pulled about a week ago uh for the board packet but um over time we hope to get almost all kids screened um and

066sometimes we just you know the systems aren't all lined up or you know a student misses extended periods but for the most part you know we're seeing that um our students are getting um systematically screened here uh fourth grade we saw a little bit of an increase uh two percentage points and then fifth grade uh down two percentage points so overall to me um the story is that things are pretty stable in terms of math which I think is um a good thing considering we were kind of anticipating that dip so hopefully things um continue to go in the right direction and um teachers again had it a lot of structur structured time to be able to reflect on this and figure out what's working um and things that they want to adjust for the

067second half of the year um at the time that I pulled this we did not have um enough Middle School data to pull they're just a little bit behind on their timeline there was less than two-thirds of the data um populated so um I don't have that displayed here um and then the high school is going to administer this um in the spring uh as for reading um we have not screened our Kinder kindergarteners yet um for those of you that recall last year we identified a timing misalignment between the assessment and the scope and sequence of our foundations curriculum um So based on teacher feedback we have uh delayed the winter screening window for kindergarten students so that they can get the instruction that is um assessed on the f gbridge winter assessment before

068they take the assessment um again that was a teacher-driven uh change that we implemented uh last year from a small pilot that we did so we will um we don't have that data yet because the kindergarteners are currently working on um that content here in first grade um same idea here for reading you can see the percentage of students at risk um at the bottom and not at risk on the top so we had um some Improvement there from fall to winter in first grade uh saw something similar there in second grade and then um a little dip in third grade um as we go into our older levels we'll see um some declines fourth and fifth um and then for Middle Middle School sixth 7eventh and eth um this uh piece also um obviously

069it's something we want to address um but it's not something that is completely unanticipated because when we look at the react and the science of reading and the information that we have in terms of um our reading curriculum we have purchased the foundations and implemented foundations which is a foundational literacy skill building curriculum at the lower grades um we don't have the component yet that we will need down the road for the react to implement um the vocabulary and comprehension component and how to bridge the foundational skills with that those more advanced um comprehension and vocabulary skills so that will be something over the next year as we work with our literacy committee uh we will be working on curriculum resources to support that other component of literacy instruction that we need to have implemented

070per the redact um and then I already mentioned this um we implemented this last year where fast Bridge family reports were sent home home um prior to conferences this allows um uh just more data in the hands of families um and for families to come to conferences with any questions they might have about their individual student and their um progress and then the plan for the second half of the year with their students then I'm happy to answer questions and then um if there's anything curricular as well um Dr Edwards can also come and answer any questions I have a question um regarding fastbridge being one of the data points and it is mainly Elementary is that correct mainly or it's it's all grades it is all grad all the way through the high school

071we just um introduced it at the high school this year um it wasn't previously used at the high school um and so that's why we're only doing two points at the high school this year it's brand new um last year we piloted it within the special education students at the high school school to kind of get more details on their um academic trajectory and now we have it implemented across but we just need um a little bit more time to do the three times of year at the high school but um we did do it in the fall at the high school so we're all the way through I guess um to expand on my question fastbridge being a data point for um how students are doing uh we also use MCAS I'm not quite

072sure what that other if there's other things that we use as data points um is fast Bridge something that is reported to mde as well like like MCAS do is that I guess what I'm trying to ask is um it is shared often that there's multiple data points and and sometimes it's hard to use one set of data point to have a good overall picture and I I I don't disagree with that at all um I think anytime when we're looking at things and we see decline especially in Reading um in math with the implementation of the the bridges program I did go to one of the math in um information nights because just cuz it's hard to grasp what students are seeing if I if I don't know uh so that was really informative

073for me um but just trying to when we see when we see decline you know there's concern and so I guess for me as a parent first and then as a board member when we're looking at these different data points um it's I guess I get confused on you know what are the next steps sometimes it's time that we just have to you know know with new implementation new programs new curriculum we have to maybe um wait to see how they bounce back but um with reading I don't believe that there has been any new implementation so to see decline there is concerning um I don't know director Bing if any of my question makes sense or not um yeah thank thank you for the question and um let me just speak to a couple

074of things and then I'll probably ask Dr Edwards to talk a little bit about um our early release dates and how that structure uh how this data has really shaped that structure um I I would say think of um think of MCA data as the check engine light coming on in your car and think of fastbridge data being it's time to change your oil reminder in your car if you don't change your oil in a timely fashion you could really destroy the engine and by the time that check engine light comes on it's very costly to address whatever that is typically um I use that as a maybe a different metaphor for folks to understand why we use certain data and why it's so important to look at multiple sets of data because if we

075only looked at MCAS it's too late the check engine light is on um and if we only look at um you know that oil light and never bother to say hey is the check engine light off because that's what we want that would be like proficiency so it's a both end conversation for us and our teachers need this formative data so that they can begin to make adjustments to their instruction and I'll just be honest with you um when we look at the reading data so the math data is something that we've known for some years that we needed to get a new math curriculum which is why we've implemented um our new new math curriculum this year and really have done well our staff to help mitigate the natural dip um it's kind of

076like when you get a transplant your body might initially reject it until it kind of adjusts to this new organ in your body um and and so once you get through that and it kind of calibrates we're good to go same with the new math curriculum and and the fact that our dip didn't go as low as we projected I think that shows signs of promise and so you know and to to what director zumers talked about as our students and our staff acclimate to this new curriculum that's within us um we'll find ways to get that rhythm going so that there will be that um natural progression of of increas in proficiency with regards to the reading um the early the early literacy um foundations shows that it's actually working it's it's actually doing

077what it's supposed to be doing and when we looked um kind of longitudinally Quasi longitudinally with our fourth grade uh cohort that's the cohort that's the inaug inaugural cohort of fundations and they have shown um fairly consistent consistently from kindergarten their natural progression year over year over year what we are seeing now in fourth grade and that's the cohort that I'm referencing two things two things that we're watching One K through three kids are learning to read That's that early literacy component when kids move into fourth grade and those intermediate levels of Elementary they are now reading to learn and and so that's a natural shift in rigor um for the individual it's also a uh shift in literacy accountability from an instructional standpoint because now they uh have to apply those reading skills to

078interact cross across multiple levels of content the in what you see here um in in the data is our fourth grade cohort does not and and and Beyond they do not have 2third of a comprehensive reading curriculum they only have onethird and that's the early literacy component um so the if you look at reading research kids who perform really well are kids who have vast and Rich vocabulary um It's usually the kids since birth haveen being read to or being exposed to thousands of words and they're developing that depth of knowledge um and I would partner that with a lot of life experiences to apply that knowledge and that vocabulary um in addition to that they are missing the comprehension component of a of an overall literacy curriculum and we did not have resources to

079buy a comprehensive curriculum and so when you don't have the comprehension piece um let's just focus on kind of fluency and comprehension that means how quickly can I read through something but how much do I actually retain and um you know and and and it's a balance you have to be able to get through content at a reasonable Pace um but you also have to be able to retain that so that you can recall what you've learned and apply it in future context and comprehens is a significant component to an overall literacy curriculum so I think this really begs to question for us as a district our value proposition of the ability to go out and buy a comprehensive curriculum reading curriculum um because we can see the early literacy component is solid the 2third

080that's not in in in existence and it will be and this is actually not just about us this is why we have um the react that uh came across this last legislative cycle it's a state problem so we need and and the state right now is going through the vetting and the approval of kind of prescribed uh reading of uh science uh research-based reading curricula that the state would approve um and so that's that's why we are looking at the data that we see in our in intermediate and Beyond and I'll turn to Dr Edwards if there's something that I've left out prior to me coming in but generally when I look at data this is the story that I'm seeing and what I'm hearing from our staff yeah I'll pick up there and just

081uh speak to definitely would reiterate all that you just said around uh the elements of a complete literacy curriculum that we are going to be and we just launched our uh reading implementation team uh just last week um might have been actually the week prior uh February 1st and uh we'll be roll rolling that out here this throughout the spring we'll be bringing an update uh anticipating I think April study session with the board and uh sharing a little bit more comprehensively about the science of reading and those elements that Dr Thomas referenced uh those additional elements beyond the phonics and pheic awareness so that definitely is to come and uh we'll be be we've got that team assembled of Staff the other point of emphasis I was going to make and you had set

082the up before you uh spoke about the reading about early release and I just want to emphasize that our work to date around the early release time that was uh we've been able to implement this year on a monthly basis um we've focused the first half of our time around the math implementation because we knew the heavy lift associated with that um much of our time particularly at the elementary level uh was dedicated to that uh in terms of making sure that our staff uh we utilize that available time to get them the training to implement the new math curriculum um and as this this particular slide that's up here points out that on early release uh the February 7th one just last week we uh took a look at this data um but I

083also wanted to add a a mention about how now the high school is utilizing fastbridge and uh when we did so this fall uh the so would have been the November and December uh early release days um and and in learning teams subsequently between those days I heard uh many references from our administrative team and our peer coaches at the high school level how teachers at the high school level now having this data in front of them uh as an indicator of where their students were at was quite eye openening uh and helpful to plan lessons to plan instruction to uh look at assessments and understand more fully their students in front of them because obviously as Dr Thomas pointed out the uh reading to learn is across all content areas particularly as our students

084progress through our system and uh becomes increasingly more important as they move into the upper elementary and on to the secondary level so this data is uh really important to us as well as the upcoming work and and as much as our F focus and attention on early release time this year has been around the implementation of math curriculum that same level of focus will be coming next year um as we move forward and hopefully in subsequent years as well our professional development time around uh training our teachers in the science of reading and the aspects and components of that um this is really a multi-year uh plan that we need to uh be embarking on thank you so my follow-up question to the read act and um implementation of vocabulary and comprehensive reading instruction

085and curriculum how how is the funding behind that at the state level uh there there's not funding associated with that mandate and um and and that's the challenge so um right now uh in this last legislative session when we talk about some of the under and or non-funded mandates this would be a significant one um I think you all can appreciate what was entailed as well as our staff um the amount of time and effort to Embark in a new math curriculum and the resources that it took not only the financial resources for the actual materials but the ongoing professional development investment for staff um for for students um eventually when we have the parent component as well um with these uh parent nights that uh um director bullying referenced or vice chair bullying referenced

086we have the equivalent if not greater with the read act um this is a real challenging point for every District that I'm in contact with and I think on our legislative agenda we made it very clear that um and and I think other um professional agendas as well fund the unfunded mandates from last cycle and do not add more unfunded mandates in this cycle um having conversations with a variety of our electives on you know both Democrat and Republican um I think the unanimous feel is they're going to have to have some tough conversations of can everything that came out of last session remain on the plate or will they repeal some things because there are so many uh unfunded or underfund underfunded requirements that are really putting districts in a compromised position and and

087so this would be probably one of our bigger ones and if I may jump in and add a little bit of additional historical context locally here to that conversation as well as a couple of clarifications with regard to the legislative session as we've continued to learn more about uh the components and mde has learned more um in rolling out uh what we're going to be looking at so first of all from a historical perspective um it was it had been for quite some time and I I don't I'm going to say 8 to 10 years that the curriculum budget associated with our local curriculum budget was hadn't had gone unchanged and um when we invested this past year in our math curriculum uh we were able to utilize some of our uh remaining Esser dollars

088to make that become a reality so as we built the budget for this year knowing that we have this significant uh investment on the horizon that is going to be needed that I'll say is underfunded and I'll get back to describing that just a little bit further um we we know we had to invest we know we had to reserve resources so we're I I don't want to go too far into this part of the conversation because it's going to come up in our budget reduction conversation later in our agenda here um but as we looked as I looked at the department budgets that I oversee um I could not foresee making reductions in the area of resource ources I.E curriculum so the res the reductions that you're seeing and we'll be speaking about later

089tonight are more personel related because we had to maintain uh the level of funding that we were able to realize in those current uh cycle year and frankly in the previous year as well um to meet the needs from a curricular standpoint to have the resources in front of our students and our teachers um and then I just go just a little bit further on the unfunded uh piece of it as mde um is continuing to uh has come out with some approved uh curricular resources for a balanced literacy curriculum uh however uh we've heard in our conversations with representatives from mde that the amount of money that was earmarked they said districts can be reimbursed if they purchase these curricular resources tied to these specific uh programs um the amount of reimbursable monies available

090is not nearly cost of implementing they just did not Reserve enough money so unfunded uh mandate is the point of emphasis I want to make under yes underfunded mandate is the point of emphasis I'd like to make there for the sorry for the read act specifically correct for the uh for the balanced literacy curricular resources that um and in order to be eligible you have to adopt one of the approved but again that eligible for a very small pot of money which probably don't anticipate a district such as ours potentially receiving if I may be a forecast that a little bit thank you yeah thanks for the context questions okay um I just had one question um these fast Bridge reports that go out to the families how granular are those reports um they're they're

091they're really they are designed for families it's it's a component of fast brid reporting that is a family report so it gives the overall information of the students trajectory over time and then it kind of breaks down each of the components in um a way that's um very clearly laid out for the family to be able to look at it um it's not granular in the sense um like if your if your student is receiving um intervention and they're getting benchmarked throughout the course of the year that would not be reflected on those um family reports that would be something that the teacher would present during conferences to talk about that more granular weekly data um but it would give a longitudinal trajectory over time of the student and then describe to families what that

092information means and how to interpret it thank you thank if I may add actually that brings me back to the original question that director bullan was asking around um what additional data sets and I also wanted to emphasize intervention data particularly at the K uh one2 level uh that our teachers are looking at and as well as the classroom based data that our teachers have access to that's more formative in nature and ongoing um outside of or in addition to these uh stop gaps these uh Oil Change uh that Dr Thomas was referencing earlier thank you very much um moving on to to our next thank you very much director Z Bush was very helpful uh moving on to our next uh item on the agenda for new business is the 2425 uh enrollment update

093with uh director Frederickson thank you chair friends Dr Thomas members of the board um you have um in your board packet the current enrollment historical data um as of the end of February and see we are still um about three students ahead of where we were at the end of last year but we're down 20 from October 1st which was the official um child count uh if you look at that report in kindergarten we currently have 576 kindergarten students and as we look at the 2425 enrollment uh we started the process about a month earlier this year because we've moved up all of our um timelines for for budget but right now we have 425 kindergarteners enrolled um if you compare it to this exact same time last year last year we had 357 so

094we're about 150 more than we had at this point last year but we did move the process um up a month uh overall our projection for the 2425 school year was 8,500 80 students and as of last Friday we have enrolled 8,394 so we're about 186 students under what we projected uh and our um Revenue was based on our projection of 8580 so we still have some work to do to get to the projected number of students that we have but it's still February so we still have some time to uh build up those numbers okay any questions when is the time frame that it needs to be by is it by by September uh we need to have 8,580 to meet our Revenue targets okay and you said you moved up the process a

095month we're in this begin enrollment process okay and typically when when do you when does it when do we meet is it really does it kind of keep increasing up until September usually yes it usually does in summer we gain a few kids um we have done the Open Enrollment students which is a little earlier than we've done last year um so we were able to for the most part all of our open enrolled um requests came we gave them their first choice um and we try to do that in order to keep them in the district so we were able to do that this year so we're hopeful we'll see some more students but we're still down from what we've projected given uh where we are today to what we are projected in Prior

096years even let's say March numbers do you feel confident that we will make that enrollment prediction or are we I would are we nervous I would like to say that we tend to be a little conservative so I would like to say we should hit that Target but given everything that's going on I we I mean we'll continue to watch it every month and if we need to make some adjustments um you know you you the final budget will be um presented to the board in June so we still have some time to make some adjustments but um right now we're assuming that we'll come in at what we projected okay one more layer to my question Tammy so when we do the final budget um in June is it typical that we've met the

097enrollment prediction by June typically yes okay that helps thank you questions um thank you director Frederickson um it looks like we're actually from comp comparison to last year to this year like you said we're up just a little bit so hopefully that's a good Trend a good projection Trend um but thank you very much for this detailed extremely detailed report and also the comparison to historical numbers at the same time uh next on the agenda is the um discussion of the preliminary budget and board action will be uh asked for at the end of this I also want to remind uh everybody in the audience that um this is a convers a very detailed conversation that we had at the previous study session um and board members have been meeting with various administrators this week

098and submitting questions um that does not preclude those questions to be reased during this meeting but I just wanted to um let people know that um this has been this is not new data for us we have been mulling it over for several weeks if not longer thank you thank you um most of this is going to be the same data that was presented to you at the board study session so I'm going to quickly go through the first nine slides just as kind of a refresher um a majority of our Revenue comes from the state sources uh both categorical and non-categorical but we also get um local dollars from property taxes and voter approved ref referendum the smallest portion of our revenue is from federal sources most of the dollars that districts get is

099identified in Minnesota statutes the largest portion is the general fund uh formula allowance which is generated by our student enrollment and in 2425 which is next school year the amount that is said in statute is $728 per um adjusted pupil unit and those formula dollars do not have restrictions on how they can be spent we also have categorical funding in our general fund and they have very specific uses that are allowed for those dollars and districts can only use those dollars um for what that specified source is you can't use it for anything other than that I think everybody's heard about the large funding in increases that were given to District's this legislative session and the challenge with the increases is that most of the dollars came with spending restrictions uh the new dollars did

100not make up for um continued inflation and some staffing shortages and it also included things like earn safe and sick time family medical leave some coursework requirements for students and then as we talked about the read Act we're going to concentrate on the general fund today but we also have um two other funds that we do get revenue for the Food Services which is fund two and Community Education which is fund four we're projecting that the revenue um for the 2425 school year is going to be about 117.5 million so in order to balance the the projected budget we are going to need to reduce our expenses by about $5 million um on something then you went back yep I'll go for I'll just hang on just a sec um the following the next slides

101are the proposed reductions that the senior leader team has identified if we look at the superintendent's office there's proposal for $32,000 in uh reductions and that includes um salary adjustments eliminating some professional development opportunities and some reduced support for new strategic initiatives we look at the human resources they're proposing 19,000 in reductions um Human Resources the business office uh both are proposing moving some expenses um from general fund to Food Services and Community Education funds we are allowed to do that as some of the work that we do supports those two funds um the also the executive directors of administrative Services business services and academic services are all proposing um salary adjustments and also included in the HR reduction are reductions in recruiting um special projects and moving the cost of the employee assistance program

102to UMR funding the district is also experiencing lower class sizes than we've seen in the past so many of our classrooms right now are below our targeted numbers so we're proposing to reduce the number of classrooms at the K8 levels um to increase some of those targeted class sizes but we'll still have classrooms at or below our Target and discussion caps and this will save about 1 $ 1.8 million the business office is proposing a reduction of 55,000 again a salary adjustment for the executive director REM moving some shared expenses to Food Services and Community Education and reducing some professional development opportunities academic Services is proposing reductions of 285,000 again the executive director salary adjustment and then reducing a differentiation specialist and a curriculum specialist so Dr Edwards is Shifting some duties and responsibilities from

103these two positions to other positions in its Department student Support Services is reducing about a million dollars from the general fund and that will be done by moving some expenses for the special education Tu tuition billing to federal funds which means that we can move expenses currently paid from the federal funds to the general fund which then generates special education reimbursement we're also not filling an assistant director position and reducing some of the staff in um the special education staff in some of the buildings the assessment Improvement department is proposing reductions of 43,000 inclusing including reducing test facilit ERS in kindergarten and first grade and no longer paying for nth graders to take the ACT test operational Services is proposing reducing the number of custodians resulting in savings of about 133,000 Communications is proposing reductions

104in the amount of 24,000 um which includes not producing some videos uh reducing printing postage and also reducing supplies the technology department is proposing reductions in the amount of 188,000 they are proposing to Sunset several software programs and gain some efficiencies in others and then some other proposed program cuts that we are proposing are eliminating the coordinator position at mcaps and having an assistant principal at the high school oversee the program and also our one of our middle school principals is retiring so we will not fill that position and have one principal overseeing a dual campus with all of those proposals we have about $3.9 million in savings which leaves a little under a million dollars to solve for we also could look at some Revenue increases by increasing some co-curricular and parking fees uh

105we also could charge families for the ACT test uh but we would not be able to do that for students on free and reduced price meals and some expense reductions we could look at reviewing onetoone um device distributions and then we could also targeted Target increase in some of the class sizes and some other targeted um position reductions so given all of that we've solved for just under um a million dollars and we are asking the board today to approve these reductions so that we can balance our budget to $17.7 million which should match our U projected Revenue I can take any questions um I need to take a motion and a second for this before we continue okay so by director Crosby and second second okay okay questions Tammy can you um reiterate or

106reiterate what you said the last slide um after everything that you went through or maybe it's a second to the last side yeah all of these reductions will still leave us about a little under a million dollar short so we'll still have to solve that and some possible ways we will do that are reviewing some of the onetoone device distribution and the um increasing some of those targeted class sizes or some additional staff reductions in those two items listed on that slide do we feel confident that we would make up that just under a million doar difference yes we will be able to at this point we're not exactly sure where that will look like we have to kind of see where enrollment is ending up and and what our current class sizes will be

107in the fall but um we should be able to reduce another million anytime we're talking about cuts of anything programs equals people often um I'm appreciative of each department going through and um seeing what they can do at um yeah I guess that's I don't have any further questions I can also just note that I gave you a a long spreadsheet that shows some of our um revenues and expenses over the last seven years and you can see that um the percentage that we've spent in each of those categories um Elementary education um special education all of those categories the percentage that we've spent year-over-year is almost exactly the same amount so our distribution of how we're spending the dollars hasn't changed in those seven years um but if you'll notice that since um 1920

108we have been deficit spending so um the anticipation is that we will continue to see expenses exceeding revenues just because of inflation because um staff salary increases benefit increases it's going to continue to go up but as we talk about enrollment staying flat or even coming in less our revenues not going to um increase significantly so um without making some of these without making these reductions we're also going to see reductions over the next few years I want to reiterate that what you're asking for from the board right now is to approve these reductions but is not the final budget correct we you you need this in order to continue budgeting for the rest of this uh going to next FIS cor correct we want to start um doing the Staffing process we want to

109get everything prepared for um when we start school again and so there's a lot of things that need to get done so we would like to move forward with the process and again we'll continue to monitor it if it looks better we'll be able to um have different conversations um but right now this is a conservative estimate and it may look better in June but um I don't want to take that risk um you know one of the things that um the history of funding state and federal funding um has not been a good one I think uh prior to between 2008 and 2012 we had several years where there is absolute zero increase with almost a 4 to 5% inflation rate uh that hit Transportation utilities things like that things that are fixed cost

110no matter how many people are in this room we still need the lights on we still have to pay for that um starting in 2012 I believe we've got 1% per year and then it slowly jumped up to 2% but the net deficit from State funding compared to inflationary rates for public school system is actually at a negative 133% I think ongoing is that is that something that sounds accurate yeah that's pretty clear if you look at the chart the inflation's here and funding is significantly below that yep and we've already um been notified by um I think it's one of the utility companies that they're going to have 10.4% increase in their um costs for next year um we know that some of the contractors that we have are because they're also hit with

111the um safe and um safe and secure time um they're sharing that cost with us so some of our contract are going up our insurance is going up so everything all those fixed costs we're seeing increases um and not getting any Revenue to offset those I'd like to thank you Tammy and all the Departments for going through this in such detail um one of the things that I step back and take a look at is um a month ago or so we met with Finance advisory committee you know community members from all of our community that have come in and they've tried to digest all of this information and and with that I would say I would encourage anybody in the public to look at that expense history because I think it tells a very

112clear story of of just the funding of our district it's easy to compare to other districts but we have to look at our own District at this point in time as we sat in those meetings a lot of them are coming from Corporate America and I didn't hear a lot of oh aha try this right it's just a very difficult model solely based on enrollment and funding that our state gives us um so as we look at this I know it feels like we are just asking everyone to do more for Less right and we hear it in our community and then we're going to hear about you know class- siiz targets and we're going to hear about curriculum needs and then we're going to look at just our overall fast bridge and we're all

113going to jump to these assumptions and conclusions but I would ask the community to look at it with a little bit of Grace and and take a take a step back and and pay attention to what you're seeing um because it's so true that funding hasn't kept up with all the cost to educate our our Learners and nobody wants anything taken away and when I look at this I don't think that we're just taking away taking away and cutting I think we're looking at how to we be fiscally responsible for our community and then with that said the fund balance at this point I know this is you know a tentative budget but if I look at the end of it and we end up where we are about in June you know that fund

114balance could potentially have some areas for us to make some expenditures on some onetime funds and not wait for our state to give us a dollar for something that costs us 10 like to say that so I think there's there's ways to look at it but I want the community to understand that that fund balance isn't to hire and then fire or let go so if there's ways to even with technology I know we're all we don't want to talk about you know because it's good and then it's bad at the same time but if it creates some assistance to our Educators I would like us to make sure that we aren't afraid to look at what those things are as we move forward does that make sense it's a long answer probably rely on

115Marcus for some of that too but I just think yeah I think that's the important thing to remember about fund balance is that it is onetime money and once you spend it it's it's gone so and that the fund balance is intended to be um how you mitigate for risk so we want to be very conscious of that and with the board policy I mean there's a reason that there's a board policy for that so we want to keep that in mind that um we don't want to spend all of our fund balance because we there are some risk involved I I've got several questions go ahead oh please go ahead um thank you um yeah I I and I I do want to piggy back off of director bernick this stinks this stinks this

116absolutely stinks and there is no amount of sugar coating that can be done I know you know that I know the Departments know that we know that um and I appreciate Sheriff Fran you saying at the beginning that this this isn't just the first time we're seeing this and we're making this heavy decision this is weeks and weeks of meetings and trying to understand and get different perspectives on things because it's so easy for us to see this on paper and not realize what this means you know in our district so I appreciate um all of the meetings that have been happening um the a couple of questions I have when it comes to class sizes and we talk on that slide that you have I apologize I don't have slide numbers um when we

117talk about the Caps could those change or are those are the Caps set in stone sorry have director Herman chime in on this one yes thank you um members of the board at this point in time um on that specific size about class right sizing we are not proposing any changes to the class size Target or discussion caps um that is US rolling up our projected enrollment based off of our enrollment this year and looking at our kindergarten numbers coming in um and making adjustments within the current Target and discussion caps um because of our enrollment staying steady and as you go up our grade level your your discussion Target and cap increases by grade level we're seeing some areas where we can cut some sections and stay within those those current Target um and

118discussion caps on the second to last slide when we talk about potential for additional um Revenue savings um or sorry expenditure reductions um that's where we might be looking at some targeted areas where we may have to talk about increasing the Target and discussion caps but on that size about right sizing that is not adjusting any of those current Target and discussion caps it's just making those adjustments to sections within those numbers okay thank you um I had a question on um student Support Services I didn't know and and we may not know yet um in terms of the FTE resource teacher the five resource Paras do we know what level that is yet or do we or is that a yeah we don't yet for for the teaching position it would come at secondary

119I have 16 resource teachers 9 through 12 that's across Bridges Laker line and the high school so reducing one there would still keep them in an okay position um you know their case loads will go up the numbers aren't going down but I think that's that's where it would have the least impact um Paras uh likely would be at the elementary because that's where we have the majority of our paas we're pretty low on paas at the secondary level where and exactly what that will look like will kind of depend on student need as we how many do we have total across the district yeah um let's see I have about a 100 between resource and Center based um looking at that early childhood through high school um this would likely be in resource at

120elementary where there's about 35 right now um thank you yeah um and then you know bringing up looking ahead Tammy you had mention sorry director Frederickson you had mentioned you know this it doesn't stop here um it doesn't stop at the 5 million it could be 8 million next year it and in addition to this so at what point do we entertain a vote this fall and go to our Comm I'm bringing it up as popular or unpopular as it might be but I I look at the Heartbreak of this at 5 million and then looking at doing this again next year potentially double this and I don't want to do it quite frankly and so at what point do we entertain that idea of going to voters to help invest in our district director

121olad and members of the board I think that's a very good question um because we can all see how this movie ends um if we play this out for successive years and I believe there's a graphic that we've uh shared that um again um a lot of this is on projections and assumptions and we have to do that nobody has a magic eightball to read the future of what where folks will be and resources and what the legislature will do or not do um so we have to utilize um these assumptions and again rolling those out um I believe it was the uh fiscal year 29 that we would reach a potential state of statutory operating debt where we will have come to a point where we don't have the resources and we have to

122now partner with the state to put together um a rebound Financial rebound plan uh to to become solvent again in another in about a two years time frame um it's just not an ending that we're striving to reach we believe we have options before us one of which you just brought to the table and so this is a conversation that we plan to bring to the board um in a retreat um to begin that conversation of what does that path look like and um what are the steps that would be entailed um if that is the will of the board um to uh go to the community um with an Ask um but clearly that's a solution that can be addressed um we also know the implications for not having regular funding and and and

123I think uh just it's important to share that this reality is not unique to Prior Lake Savage area schools um we had our legislative advance I think a couple of you are dialed into that um I was there in person with you know about you know 20 or so of our electeds and um I think there was a bit of disbelief in the room um of how are we all here um didn't we just pass this historical funding and I think a bit of reality um came across many of our uh elected officials that what eventually crossed the Finish Line um did not meet the needs of of many many districts across the entire state of Minnesota um so I I believe that's why we're going to have kind of a tense policy session this

124go around that's going to really set the stage for future legislative conversations because um what just happened we're very appreciative of the funding that we received want to be very clear about that and we were very appreciative of them at that legislative Advance um a week or so ago um and we want to have continued conversation with our electives electeds so that we are not put into this predicament where we have a lot of unand underfunded uh restrictions placed upon us that really kind of make us squeeze resources now those of you who have been with us for years our staff and our community um this was an exercise that we went through for many years in a row some of you might have been a part of those kind conversations if you were uh

125uh on the board back then but going through reductions like this is not it's not foreign to us um it's not forign to any district and I think there was a member of our um Finance advisory committee uh that kind of had this discovery of so this cycle just always repeats itself you know and when they kind of made that connection I'm like welcome to public school Finance yes this is a very unfortunate cycle that continuously happens um which is beyond what we control here that's a bigger legislative conversation in terms of how public education is funded but um so we will be prepared as an administrative team um to come to you all in a retreat um to help uh begin shaping what that conversation looks like so that you all are informed as

126a board of what options exist for you all and should that be the pathway forward um we will uh help frame what that looks like as well thank you I have some additional questions I'd like to add um yeah it it's a very grave situation there's no doubt about it we have some significant programs that are listed in here uh we have our student student services and specify special education uh mcaps program Bridges is another foundational program where without these specific key areas our students don't have the supports that they need to thrive and to do what it is that they do and to reach their fullest potential whether it's Bridges special education mcaps a very growing thriving program all by itself my concern is that by cutting the coordinator position and shifting those responsibilities

127to an assistant principal uh you kind of created an environment where that person is serving two masters and will likely fail at both serving as an assistant principal for the high school and then also serving in this capacity as um overseeing the responsibilities for mcaps that's problematic for me um I I'll speak right from where I am if there's is an assistant principal that has capacity to absorb this work why would that not be on the table to cut that position and retain the minap meaps coordinator just as uh we wouldn't go out and cut the coordinator for the bridges program because it's very focused very dedicated to the students and the success of all those that are in those programs um not really a question more of a statement why would we not consider

128it rhetorical um and then looking at our our special education increasing the number of cases that our case managers would be responsible for um perhaps director Chuka might be able to uh provide some insight here as far as what's the capacity that they would have to be able to absorb additional cases um are we are we what's the unintended consequence by adding to their case loads well there's always exposure right as we increase and ask teachers to do more with less um right now I mean we're I don't know how to answer that other than you know we're we're we're at where we're at and we have the budget that we have so I'm trying to meet the needs of the students within that budget parameter so other than you know some of the things

129that that we've put out there um you know to to what you said about the principal same thing with special Administration right cutting that and cutting cutting Paris cutting teachers every there isn't anything that's going to feel good anywhere not in special ed and not in in the district sorry if I may just expound on that as well um so I think this kind of ties back to director oled's question about just what what's the long-term fix um because we won't reduce our way out of this situation um and director Chuka and I have had conversations that in the short term I'll be very clear as well as much as we want to be away from classroom impacts a District of our size a budget of our size the ripple effect is pretty wide so

130there isn't anything in here that isn't going to have some type of impact throughout the entire system um and because we've unfortunately gone through this exercise um in our recent past for many years it's no longer trimming fat we're trimming muscle we're breaking bones um there's no way around around that so I believe we can address this director of blasquez in the short term and absorb the case load my I think what I would add to your question that we're questioning is after next year when we know that the identification of students requiring support within special education continues to Skyrocket and and so what happens a year from now um that's the unknown but that goes back to then what's the long term because we could probably say that about a variety of these decisions

131that we're bringing forth in terms of our recommendation this year we we would or for next year we would make it through this in a less than ideal manner I think subsequent years it becomes increasingly compounded um to the point where I mentioned FIS year 29 so I hope that gives you a little more context to some of the conversations that we're having because everything's going to get felt and and we've we've trimmed what is trimmable now we're making deep deep impact full cuts um I have a comment um kind of to piggy back on director oled's comment regarding going to the community um I think my biggest challenge is public education is government funded um we end up having the unfunded or underfunded underfunded mandates [Music] um and we're having to figure it out

132um we we um prepare legislative platform I know we're not like you said Dr Thomas we're not alone in this across the state maybe across the country um I think the EAS I don't want I don't even want to use the word easy it it's not easy to go to the it's not easy to always go to the public um it's where is the threshold like when legislatively we continually receive mandates that are unfunded or underfunded I mean what more can we do we we can have Community come and um we can buy for what we want at at the district level but the problem is above us and so um even our Representatives that that I'm in communication with they realize this too and so um I think me as a board member I'm

133thinking how do I strong wrly or how do I make a difference at that level how can I advocate more than I'm I already am that's where my frustration lies because we feel it here we're having to make these hard decisions here and we see what's going to happen year after year and yes going to the community is an option um it just seems that where's the cap where's the you know that when does when does the um legislative where is more of their accountability how does that make sense it it makes sense and and I guess a short answer is that um not only for us but also for our community this this also is where our community can take the conversation forward to our our elected officials um parent voice carries a a

134lot of weight um when it comes to to our legislators so um in our in our reps so I just encourage our community um to be in constant contact uh with our our elected officials to Vice chair's uh bolan's point to help convey the argument of the challenge that um how the business of Education if I may use that term is governed at the at the state level and how that get passed down to the local level and being being um having local control is good in words I think our community is seeing firsthand when local control is extremely restricted um so that's where I would be pushing for our community to really um be Advocates on behalf of our local community to not allow the the types of legislative decisions that are kind of

135putting us in this predicament that we're currently in I would say the end to that question or to my response um is going back to the spreadsheet um and maybe even some years ago 27 or 2007 or so I don't know when the time frame that we are going when we passed our last referendum I don't have that date was it uh the the 2017 one 17 I said 17 yeah 17 and that was for building well uh we had an operating Lobby that we currently have right now prior to that that's the one I'm referencing um and I think that's that's when this movie began and I just want to be you know and correct me if I'm wrong but this is where we um got received support from our community um and re

136and and left a significant Gap in on goinging funding so the challenge that we have here today with our current operating Levy um is that we are upwards of three times underfunded compared to other neighboring districts who have levies with their communities and I know it's a balance as you're saying uh Vice chair uh bullan at some point we do need to figure out what is a better balance because right now I think we're quite underwater and out of balance leaving a lot of resources that could be coming to our students some of the conversation from our community this after this evening earlier this evening with our public comment around the asks that they are wanting I'm I'm kind of paraphrasing that's that's their value proposition I get it I share that value proposition I

137don't share in the resources available to me as a superintendent that many of my colleagues in neighboring districts have based upon their local levies um and I think that's the challenge I think that we're going to have to have conversation about is how do we honor I think very credible values that we heard about tonight H you know gifted education differentiation resources to support holistic comprehensive reading curricula paying staff what they're worth I I mean all of those factors are important and I get it and within the resources that we have what can we do and it's less than ideal I I'll just say that it's less than ideal so when we have to make priority decisions on what goes forward given the budget parameters that we have what's the sweetest lemonade that we can

138make out of the lemons that are on our plate right now yeah and I just want want to reiterate that I and I didn't validate these numbers with you but if they were going to make us whole last legislative session given the fact that we're one of the few districts that doesn't have a comprehensive Levy um that the operating Levy that was passed in 2017 did not cover the basic expenses of the new building as well as the existing um that it would have been I calculated 133% from the state unrestricted plus fully funding special ed to make us whole that's not to move us forward or to keep us sustainable long term um but the bottom line is there is a direct correlation between those districts that have uh communities that support them and

139do vote for these referendums and um and we've seen them because we're we're in that we're in the we're in the metro area where we constantly are pitted up against some of them and that's something that we need to consider where our priorities are and what we're what we're able to do this is not a funding year for the state we're not going to get any more money out of the state this year and given the economy we're probably never going to come close to what we need in the following year when the bium does occur so we have to consider that we have to consider the fact of what we want to do for our students and what we can afford to do it's not a balanced it's we're we're heavily underwater here um

140but with that I'm going to ask ask if there's any more questions and um I have one more it's more um for the for the sake of our community um I know these conversations have happened in the past and now it's on paper um Dr Thomas or Dr Edwards um the Middle School principal this is going to be new for our Middle School Community um and so I know again other conversations whenever there's kind of budget discussions this is always kind of brought to the table and now it's on the table um so I just is there anything more to maybe add more context there to provide for our Middle School families like what this might look like director ol said right now um I have shared uh this information with the campus staff uh

141and based upon the actions of the board tonight we would then develop a a deeper uh communication plan you know beyond just the staff and what that would entail currently um uh the administration of of the camp of the middle school campuses are working with their respective teams uh uh gaining things that they need to take under consideration in order for this to be an effective model and that information will then be presented to me um in terms of how we would then uh create that final administrative structure so there they're they're in that data Gathering mode with our respective staffs and so as soon as I have that I'll share more publicly kind of what that model will entail and the resources and supports Etc so for example um I had a staff member

142uh ask me about the observation load how how would that be balanced out if we are down one uh building principle with those on high cycle compared to those are probationary staff and so how do we manage that great question right those are the things the new resp es that we are working through right now um and then to be able to ensure the success of both middle school campuses um with that singular principle so more to come on that one thank you um I'm going to go ahead and call for a vote on the proposed budget reductions to allow director Frederickson to continue on with the budget planning for this year uh all in favor I I opposed A passes 51 okay um next on the agenda is an annual resolution um this is

143an annual resolution although it comes right on the heels of our last discussion I just want to remind the board that we do this every year to allow uh The District administration um to be able to provide the management decisions to discontinue Andor reduce programs and positions if necessary not sure there's anything else to be said we do this every year um I would like to take a motion by director Crosby and second by director Velasquez and this is a roll call vote so director Velasquez I director bullan I director bernick I director Crosby i d director olad I I that passes 61 okay next on the agenda oops we have a um where am I on the agenda I'm sorry um oh okay um that we have a proclamation for the school bus driver

144Appreciation Week um and I am going to ask uh director olad to read the school bus driver appreciation week if you will find it sorry sorry one moment there we are thank you uh school bus driver appreciation week February 19 through the 23rd 2024 Prior Lake Savage area schools recognizes February 19th through the 23rd 2024 as school bus driver appreciation week and February 22nd 2024 as school school bus driver Appreciation Day Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers ensure the safety and well-being of our students while transporting them to and from school this week we celebrate our thanks and gratitude for these essential members of the Prior Lake Savage Area Community whereas over 120 Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers are employed through Baron's bus company and oh buy student transportation company my apologies

145where as Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers safely transport more than 8,800 students whereas Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers travel more than 1 million miles total over the course of each school year whereas Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers deal with many challenging situations each day including inclement weather and traffic whereas Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers are the first people to greet many of our students each morning and the last to say goodbye each afternoon therefore let it be resolved the Board of Education hereby extends its appreciation to Prior Lake Savage area school bus drivers for supporting the safety and sense of belonging of our students and declares February 19th through the 23rd 2024 to be school bus driver Appreciation Week in Prior Lake Savage area schools and director

146dwell thank you good evening sherff France School Board Dr Thomas um thank you for this recognition excuse me uh I'm going to post two copies at the bus garages and um I know they will appreciate this as do I thank you thank you for your service thank you okay next we have the second and final reading of uh policies I'm going to read off the policy numbers we have policy 406 409 409.1 416 417 418 419 428 5061 515 520 522 525 5251 526 531 609 622 and 722 these policies have already been reviewed and updated by our policy committee and they did uh they were reviewed vied and discussed at our last study session so I'm going to ask the board um do you have any questions on any individual policy or would you

147like to vote on these as one packet I have a comment and um maybe I have more than one comment okay um as being new on the policy committee um in working through these policies um for this meeting um I was using a different lens than I had before um this past year I've just read our policies and made you know gone through and whatever um questions I had or whether it be um punctuation um I would Mark those and we'd discuss them at the meeting um in I'm uh in discussing with uh director Herman um she had mentioned director Herman can I can I point it over to you you'll do much better at explaining our conversation or reiterating our conversation um than I will no problem thank you d uh Vice chair bullan

148members of the board um as we've discussed at multiple different board meetings when reviewing policies also at the policy advisory committee um one thing that has been identified as a continuous need is really focusing on consistency between all of our our policies um a lot of it um with grammar whether that's using the Oxford comma or not capitalizing titles or not um double spaces a whole bunch of those things that that truly matter at the end of the day but in terms of the scope and workload that the policy advisory committee had this year with the 400s 500s and 600s we've been really um focusing in on content um and as we um are are in a really great pattern of reviewing every three years which is very um a really good standard um higher

149better than than some districts are going at it still opens us up for this inconsistency Because by the time we update the policies now until we get through the whole threeyear cycle we have potentially new board members in place potentially new people in my position in place and then things get dropped as we're trying to go through consistency so um one thing that I would like to bring forward as a recommendation um next year the policy advisory committee's workload will not be as heavy in terms of the amount of policies and or the the heavy subject matters when you're looking at the 700s 800s and 900s so proposing that the first task that the policy advisory committee looks at next year for the first meeting is really defining what all those formatting expectations should look

150like going through all of our policies with only the lens of formatting so we can bring them all forward at once in one um streamlined approach to really make sure that we're hitting everything all at once and not having to individually remember them every every single time we update them policy and also making sure that we're doing it in the same time frame instead of over a three-year course of time when we have those inconsistencies potentially and people in their positions um that opens us up for are we capitalizing titles are we not or you know the whole that whole gamut so um I would like to propose that as an option to address this um concern that Vice chair bullan brought up um to me today but also that we've discussed as a board

151and also as a committee um over over the past year I can speak from the being on the committee when we first started this was a hot topic of the uh formatting and and we did make significant changes to the formatting um including things like getting rid of titles that didn't have anything underneath it moving the statute references down to the bottom and adding in revision dates Etc um but this is this is something that needs to be looked at not only an aggregate because also the way review policies but also um um because we're reviewing them by number but not by as was pointed out by content so um but yeah this is a learning period for the policy committee so thank you very much but I I believe that we had discussed this

152before so this is great yes thank you um to add I don't know that I finished with my context in that um in preparing for tonight's meeting going through these policies I actually was um doing I was reading through the policy and then I was um looking at msba model policies and I hadn't done that in my previous year um and so when you have that added context of of mba's model policy it can create more discrepancy than I would have had just reading it and so that's when I reached out to director Herman so uh thank you for um articulating the that um desire to kind of go through everything and because consistency really does matter um it makes things I don't know it it matters so I appreciate that um the another comment

153that I had was specifically um based on um policy 524 and um on unacceptable uses under um under that policy uh a there unacceptable uses and then it says a and um then number one um in that bulleted item um my question was is is there definitions for those um for those for that number um and director Herman would you be able to share um kind of what you shared with me um with the with that bullet point or that number one it is a a topic that is being brought forward whether it be in books and curriculum um um parent concerns Community concerns um and so uh my question to director Herman was if there was definitions um to back that and and if you could share I appreciate it thank you Vice chair

154bullan members of the board um so with a lot of the different um terms that are utilized in our policies we also steer clear of adding definitions that are in statute whether that's um state statute or federal statute to avoid any liability in the district when they no longer are accurate or they're conflicting um one good example um with those definitions if you look to the legal references later on in that policy when you're looking at the Minnesota statute on um internet access for students and um then the federal um statutes for children's online privacy protection act or the children's internet protection act of 2000 um each of those depending on the context of what we're utilizing those terms under it may change the definition that we name that we would be looking at so

155that's why we as a policy advisory committee um emphasized adding those legal re references so individuals can look back to those statutes whether it's state or federal to um have that ability to dig deeper um when when um the context allows for it but also to limit the district's liability for having incorrect definitions that may or may not be in conflict with state or federal statute especially when state or federal statutes themselves sometimes have differing um definitions and we have to dig a little bit deeper depending on the context of the situation on which statutes apply to the situation thank you those are my two comments okay does anybody else have any questions or comments okay do you want to vote for all of these as one okay so I'll take a motion which I

156hadn't done yet yet made and a second second by director Velasquez okay all in favor I I opposed okay that passes 60 and I am voting by the way I was just really quiet um okay so um after policy we now have administrative reports thank you chair Friends board directors um just giving you one second here couple of things I want to talk about um first I would like to talk a little bit about our strategic planning process um and and where we're at to date so we we kicked off and this is more of a update for our community as well um we kicked off our uh core planning team meeting uh a month or so ago and then just this month we opened up with our um uh public engagement sessions with our

157community and uh we have our we have our calendar spread out across a variety of different dates um days of the week uh times of day just to make sure that we are catching our family's schedules and allowing folks to participate in a variety of different venues and so um I want to thank all of our uh all of our community for coming out and I think it's really been a great opportunity for them to participate in really good conversation around their hopes and dreams for our district in the next five years or so um and I would say we have had about 25 to 30 um that have attended our first two sessions um I think we had about 35 or 36 actually at the high school and um and I think we've got

158four overarching questions that we are asking our community uh uh one of them is uh what do you like most about our district so if we are going to put together a strategic plan um what would you not want us to remove because you like it so much um I think uh another question is what are some of the unforeseen challenges in the next 3 to five years um I think there is a a question around um what is our greatest opportunity so this is kind of where could we grow more um what area or Andor if you want to look at it from a a point of weakness as well like where where could where could we really improve and then uh fourth question is what do you want to see in in a

159graduate when they walk out of our doors um what are the skill sets that you want to see um from from our students and so it's really opened up some really rich conversation and uh just deeply appreciative of of the community coming out for that um just a quick plug and reminder um all of our students are also welcome that was a question that was asked and so we have um advertised this with our students as well but just want to let students know that um particularly our some of our middle schoolers and high schoolers um but certainly any students welcome to be able to have a conversation about what are your hopes and dreams from a student perspective so I just want to put that plug out there for any of our students um

160who are who are dialed in uh we have some upcoming meetings uh we convene again on the 20th that's about a week or so from now that will be at Spring Lake Township Town Hall uh that'll be our town hall there from 1: until 3:00 uh and then we will have a series of kind of round two uh engagement sessions as well and that's uh March 23rd from 9 to 11 at Mcall Pond March 26th from 9: to 11: at Club prior and then April 9th from 6:00 to 9: um at prior Lake High School and I will say that one from 6:00 to 9:00 just because of the time we know that we're probably interrupting family dinner time and so we do have a light meal that's paid for through a state Grant um

161and we use our own in-house food services so the resources go back into um our fund too so thank you to uh Emily for supporting that and your staff for cooking that phenomenal uh wild rice and salad and brownies amazing yeah I think I couldn't taste it but I'm here and it's great darn Co symptoms but um so I just want to remind our community of of that and uh and and do look for um ways I mean we're we're trying to promote this to our businesses and so families and staff um if you go to our website and click the strategic planning link um please make sure you're promoting this in your social spaces um uh whether it's your place of business your social media I'm just trying to get as many people out

162as possible and and I do will and I will say um I I I know it's a happening conversation so everybody wants to be be there and be a part of that um I'm also wanting to ensure that we bring balance to Bringing um new voices um so if you have come out to this event in the past you're more than welcome to attend I would encourage you maybe to monitor your air time so that new voices can come in because uh we want to make sure we're getting unique conversations not echoed conversations if that makes sense so um so thank you for allowing um a balance of new and uh continued conversations to occur um we also are going to be uh doing our annual survey coming up uh this is our uh stakeholder

163survey and so that window will be from February 26 to March 15 this is our second year for this new format um with our partnership with stoter education so I just want to make sure that um our families and our students and our staff are aware of that window so again your feedback matters and it really has helped um shape some of the initiatives and decisions that we are making today um and then I would also just like to recognize our Minnesota teacher of the year candidates um Education Minnesota um recently announced Prior Lake Savage area school teachers uh Heather laru who's a third grade teacher at hre and Sher siden sticker uh she's a kindergarten teacher are actually at JP they are among 159 candidates for the 2024 Minnesota teacher of the year award

164I believe they were also in our local paper as well so let's give them a very local cheer and lift them up to uh really um uh put us on the map and so thank you both for being outstanding teachers and thank you to all of our thousands of teachers you're all outstanding and and obviously some of you get recognized and can possibly compete at the state level so best of luck to our two candidates um and over the next few weeks uh that list will be narrowed down to semi-finalists and then in March is when a panel will choose a group of finalists and then there will be the annual Teacher of the Year banquet and I believe that will be May 5th this year so um lot of stuff happening and a lot

165of positivity happening as well so those are my uh superintendent reports for the evening any other administrative reports okay so our student rep Dan Bergen is not here with us tonight so we're going to continue on with uh board reports anybody have any um we had our teaching and learning committee uh meeting right before this meeting earlier this evening and we um had kind of a mini Community session um with our uh for our Strate iic plan um planning and it was great it was it was a really great conversation um same questions same for questions posed um really rich conversation and I'm so glad we did that so that was earlier this evening um so another plug I guess for the other community meetings coming up because they're just they're really really great to

166get your voices out there and I would Echo as well bring the kids um and let's hear what they have to say about their next 3 to five years in our district um and then a Shameless plug for a Legally Blonde uh Legally Blonde the Community Education musical is Thursday Friday and Saturday I looked a few hours ago there are still tickets available um these kiddos and the staff have worked really hard on this and I think it's going to be amazing so plug to attend one of the the one of the musicals so thank you uh last Friday morning I went to scale which is Scott County area leadership and unique to our County which is awesome and um we had some good pre uh Dr Thomas was there as well we had good

167presentations from three nonprofits in the county who do excellent work with um a lot of at risk folks that live in our County uh notable to me after listening to them was um Scott County Treehouse they partner with our district and uh various other districts around Scott County doing work with at risk youth but one of the big um topics is around treny and um providing support to kids who are um Trent and have needs in that area and support groups and such so I know they have them in each local that they're in um I don't know if they have a support group in our high school it sounded like they have them in a couple other high schools but they have that might be something interesting to to discuss uh and the other

168the other presentation was given around the 2050 vision for Scott County and what that looks like they're having you know their first um discussions around that which was also informative so 8 AM tomorrow morning robust finance committee meeting on the tenative budget for 2024 um I had the elac Early Learning advisory Council committee meeting this past week and I learned a fun fact that Minnesota is the only state with ECFE Early Childhood family education in the whole country I I think I asked three times in a row like in the whole country she's like yeah the whole country and so it is 50 they're celebrating 50 years of that which I'm still in you can tell I'm still in awe over that um as a parent that did ECFE classes with both of my children

169and how much I loved them I think that's incredible so go Minnesota for ECFE um another um thing that I learned this past week is that they have partnered with cap agency who does wonderful uh work in in our County um to do uh food drive um food drives on early release days for the Westwood and Edgewood families and the goal is that one day we can have that um supporting all the all of our elementary schools and their families but um they're doing great work and I really enjoy um that committee a lot um I mentioned earlier that I went to the m math the bridges math night one of them um and um I just wanted to say it was something I'm really grateful that I had the time to go to it

170because I can listen to things but without actually seeing the what the students are doing it's hard to put it into perspective um it is much different and so with that I can understand some concern or fears based that arise with it uh listening to the different parent feedback and um the presenters um I I took tons of notes I I took two pages of notes um and I felt like what I came away with from that um after listening to the parents and listening to the presenters um and the gentleman from the U ofm that also helped us understand what it was about was that the math that math program seems to allow for a deeper understanding of Concepts which is really foundational and I I appreciated having um come to that conclusion I

171I kind of checked in with one of the um principles that was there that night to see if I was way off of Base way off base and in coming up with that um because I know with anything new there's you know challenges that arise and and all of that um but I do I do have hope for that program I I I um I'm I look forward to watching that roll out was all right so on January 16th we had the organizing committee meeting for Southwest Metro education not Education Foundation for the Southwest Metro governing board um had great presentations on some of the new initiatives that are coming forward there they have uh an apprenticeship in partnership with the other three intermediate districts uh to try and build capacity really for teachers looking

172to enter into that specific space specifically setting for special education so a two-year one of the the tenants of the apprenticeship is that people who come out with a two-year associates degree with a teaching licensure and a pathway toward a bachelor's degree so that they can continue to move forward and uh grow in this space uh this is in partnership with the other three Intermediate School Districts with the Department of Labor and Industry Minnesota Department of Education and public education labor standards board um and then also partnering with manido State on that uh in conjunction with that there's a pipeline grant that Southwest Metro is pursuing that basically funds this apprenticeship program so it's a yes and uh there's about $4.2 million that are available for them to be able to pursue this initiative so

173it's uh sounds like it's going to be an outstanding program another initiative is the DY for five Grant um so it's sou Metro they do more than just special education they also do a lot of uh of uh Technical Training and U skill building for the their students in both adult basic education as well as their career in technology so they're developing additional certifications for CompTIA so a computer training industry Association did I get it right close close enough close enough yeah uh boiler operator certified nursing assistant pharmacy technician medication Aid and they already have an EMT program and they're going with the benefit of this specific Grant they'll expand that uh curricula for EMT so that adults can actually get into the program rather than just their regular mainstream students so a lot of

174great initiatives a lot of great opportunities for students that don't necessarily see College as their pathway uh to continue to grow and develop and really build on some great job experience while learning so that they can uh easily enter the career field once they're done with the program um and then policy advisory committee we meet this Thursday 7 amm looking forward to it okay um as far as uh my board report um basically I went to the uh M amsd legislative session on February 2nd well I didn't go to it I logged in online uh direct uh Dr Thomas was there in person and it was uh quite quite informative about um what um our school districts are actually um experiencing due to budget cuts and also um providing their legislative priorities to our um

175uh to both parties and then we got to hear from both representatives of our parties in our uh State Legislature and their responses to questions as well as their comments so it was very very informative and we are not alone in many of our um many of our situations here the other thing that I did is on January 26 I went to the municipal legislative commission which uh for Region 2 which is uh the area that Prior Lake uh participates in and uh that was also only on behalf of cities uh a discussion with legislators and I went with um our mayor uh uh our um city manager uh city councilman and several Representatives so we could hear and ask questions to our legislators um I also attended the uh going away party uh for

176Dr Brown at uh Bridges and um that was very very touching it's it's amazing what one person uh their impact is on so many students and teachers and other administrators and even parents so that was very very impactful and positive that um principal um Donner uh not only has some big shoes to fill but also would do a phenomenal job holding down the fort until Mr Brown returns and that's it uh with that uh we're going to adjourn this business business meeting and transition to a Clos meeting to discuss the superintendent's midyear evaluation so I'd like to take a motion to ABJ to adjourn second second okay um all in favor I opposed okay that passes 60 we will take a five minute recess and go into close session