001all right um I'd like to welcome everyone here tonight for a regular meeting for the board of education for blsas and called meeting to order and please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the plague 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 tonight um we have six board members in attendance director of Velazquez is absent tonight um and we will begin with open forum in accordance to board policy 203 a 15-minute time period is set aside to receive citizen input through the open Forum segment on the board agenda sign up sheets available at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting time at the door so I'll read our open and
002public forum rules for everyone input from students staff parents and community members and major decisions can be a valuable form of assistance to the board open forum is an opportunity to address the board at least 10 minutes prior to each meeting a sign up sheet is available at the meeting site for individuals to sign up to address the board only those whose names appear in the sign up sheet at the time of the meeting is called the order shall be permitted to address the board up to five speakers shall be provided a maximum of three minutes so 15 minutes total to address the board unless an exemption is granted by the board chair speakers will not be allowed to verbally attack disparage or potentially defame individual board members employees or students Norway speakers use vulgar
003or profane language also speakers may be precluded from disclosing personally identified via 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 board members shall listen respectfully to issues brought to them by the community but not engage the individuals during their time the board shall not deliberate or take action during the open Forum regarding an issue presented if follow-up by Administration is necessary the chair shall request that the superintendent follow up on the matter when the board chair proceeds with the meeting audience comments are no longer in order however the board members retain the right to call on District administrators for information to assist the ordinance deliberations so tonight we do have five speakers and our first
004is Rachel Carlson and she is here tonight to speak on parental rights thank you for allowing me to speak tonight I'd like to begin by sharing an ancient proverb if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together it seems that not one moment of the last three and a half years has gone fast but far too many have felt alone and for the young students struggling to recover from academic loss due to lockdowns alarmingly high increases of mental health concerns incidence of bullying and the lack of discipline for those behaviors going alone is anything but fast it is clear that stakeholders in our community want what is in the best interest of all of our children and it is also clear that we cannot wait any longer for
005our elected representatives to act many stakeholders have voiced their concerns and emails online forums public Gatherings and these very meetings to quote our former superintendent Dr stalho we must interrupt practices actions words and systems that harm the dignity and well-being of our students as a district we have a responsibility and are accountable to do better for all students in our schools we must ensure that all students have what they need to be successful feel a sense of belonging and are respected for who they are the role of a school board is to govern and the superintendent to implement the stakeholders are responsible for giving the Independent School District Direction on their vision tonight I present the Prior Lake Savage Board of Education a formal document created about an issue so important that I'm requesting that
006the parental rights and transparency resolution be added to the next study session for discussion I've provided a copy for each of you for review thank you thank you okay our next speaker tonight is Bill marker speaking on the policy advisory committee roster thank you good evening I've reviewed the roster of the policy advisory committee and I have to say I'm incredibly frustrated with the selections I question the rationale used to make the elections and did not believe many of the selections were chosen for their expertise in policy and legal work my concerns specifically relate to the following one because this committee will perform work that impacts taxpayers Administration staff and most importantly parents and students it is extremely important that the makeup of such committee is balanced in its beliefs and does not have the
007appearance of leaning to one side of thought versus the other the vast majority of director France and velazquez's selections for this committee openly espouse beliefs that many of the community does not agree with your selections were not balanced in my opinion two choosing the president of the local teachers union and other union members is not appropriate since Union contracts do not require the district to meet on matters of policy and this will be a new way for the unions to push their own policy demands outside of Labor contract negotiations by including union members on this committee you are not being fair to the taxpayers or for that matter the board itself three you chose a high school graduate with no career experience overseas and professionals who have Decades of career experience developing and implementing policy
008community members deserve experienced individuals developing or suggesting changes to policies since some of them may impact the local taxes we pay this committee should be made up of professionals with policy experience on real world matters not in a school environment four it is not appropriate to choose out of District residence since they do not pay the into the local tax base used to fund our schools you selected someone who lives outside the district and therefore does not contribute to the local tax base it is wrong for a non-resident to develop policy that may increase the taxes of District residents but whose own local taxes will not be implemented by said policy and lastly many of the members selected to serve on this committee have publicly bullied other citizens in our community on social media simply
009because of differing opinions their willingness to publicly attack others in the community should disqualify them from sitting on any Committee in the school district developing School District policies is one of the most important duties entrusted to school board directors because of this I have the following asks that the board number one start over with the process of selecting the committee and rather than having two board directors make the selections involve the entire board making the selection from the applicant pool we need a balanced approach When developing District policies and we need a balanced committee to use the use the criteria outline in board policy 213 to choose community members who and I quote have talent and experience in legal and policy work end quote make sure they have real world experience as well three choose
010Community Community Committee members who live in the district and we actually pay local taxes that fund our schools and four do not select anyone belonging to one of our school district unions since their contracts do not require the board to include them on matters of District policy thank you thank you um our next speaker tonight is Rick storley speaking on the equity and inclusion resolution [Applause] on June 12th Lorinda Welch made this comment there's a certain group in the community that was recently formed that goes against the district's commitment to equity and inclusion they want to exclude the voices of those who don't sing the same music they do and therefore do not deserve to be recognized and heard so the equity resolution contains three terms I'd like to look at tonight number one anti-racism
011candy wrote in his book how to be an anti-racist the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination Equity Equity allocates the exact resources needed to reach an equal outcome so question a family cannot do that how is the school district supposed to do it three gender identity a person's internal sense of being male female some combination of male and female or neither male nor female now a religion is a set of beliefs values and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader let's look at how the beliefs behind the eir statement are a form of religion white male straight privilege is original sin political correctness and safety is the law woke is to be born again critical social justice is the sacraments teachers union
012leadership are the priests gender and queer theory is the Canon Equity is heaven victims on a ladder of intersectionality are the Saints the local teachers and our children are indoctrinated to have a Salvation experience own their privilege and evangelize by number one getting woke number two repenting under pillage and number three shaming others my response to miss Welch and the Union we are all image bearers of God mankind is inherently evil we have a sin nature that is enmity towards our creator and all have fallen short of his glory there is nothing we can do including repenting at the altar of wokeness to become a good person there is good news God sent his son to show us the way the truth and the life if we repent of our sins put our faith and
013trust in Christ Jesus we can have reconciliation with him and others now all voices have value even when they don't sing the same songs our children are under attack LGBT or pride has devolved into grooming children to accept debauchery as normal and question their god-given identity the teachers union and mde has brain brainwashed many teachers to become tyrannical High Priests of this religion how dare anyone speak against the cult Off With Their Heads in the plsas contract with plsea Section 5 Fair practices States no attempt should be made to subversely change the religious political or moral values of the students of the district so the question to the board is how do the comments and actions of the teachers and the plsea on June 12th not breach the Union contract our children are being sacrificed
014mentally emotionally and spiritually at the altar of wokeness this is political and religious indoctrination the Predators are in the classroom their names are equity and inclusion our children are being harmed daily by this religious cult what will you do to protect them thank you for your time thank you our next speaker tonight I believe it's Christine Rowe speaking on the policy committee at last month's board meeting several audience members gagged faked cough and disrespected a board director when her name was mentioned everyone heard it but the board chair ignored this behavior and did nothing to ensure her fellow team member was respected yet the board chair goes over these rules at the beginning of each meeting much like she did tonight I'd like to remind everyone in this room that this board director who was
015disrespected by grown adults received the most votes by a landslide and was elected to support parental rights and transparency she whether you like it or not is sitting at this table with you she is on your team and you did nothing to stop that behavior tonight you are voting on the Committees in which the district encouraged parents and community members to apply to get in the game to get involved this afternoon I reviewed the final roster for the policy committee and with a quick search of social media I was pretty sure I had a clear understanding of why I as well as many others were not selected let me tell you social media is a powerful tour tool the final roster includes the president of our local teachers union the sister of a board chair
016the systems engineer of the husband of the middle school teacher who caused some waves in the community on content she shared in her classroom and six of the eight committee members selected for the policy committee are all in a like-minded Facebook group I found this rather interesting as a 20-year HR professional I'm speaking tonight for myself and Emily applicant who has extensive policy and legal experience were the candidates selected based on their professional experience ability to hold this district and its employees accountable and be respectful of diverse viewpoints or were they simply selected by the two board members based on their own personal relationships it appears you possibly only wanted parents and committee members who think just like you how are you going to ensure that everyone's viewpoints in our community are equally represented in
017When developing policy what I would like to believe that this process was Equitable it feels to me that you weren't really looking for volunteers from community members or parents like me who actually have policy experience I encourage you to keep working for your diversity of thought because parents like me are sitting back and watching how this game is being played thank you thank you and our final speaker tonight is Katie Gabriel speaking on student safety and board accountability foreign Crosby board directors and Dr Thomas my name is Katie Gabriel I use she her pronouns I live in Savage and I have two students in our district your work as a board brings with it a commitment to protect all of our students and to help them reach their full potential and I believe that many
018in our community are working towards that same goal as you and we continue to do this work I have a question for us all to consider what does it look like when we ensure that all of our students not just those who fit the gender binary who have white skin or share the same religious and or ideological beliefs that we do are safe welcomed valued and belong in our district exactly as they are as a board your power lies in your work together not as individuals I ask that you work to ensure that inflammatory rhetoric and misinformation is not a regular part of board meetings I ask that you follow your policies for self-governance and hold each other accountable in the presence of harmful words and actions robust debate before making decisions is helpful however
019when that debate at the table on social media in the news departs from the board's resolution committing to equity and inclusion you are causing the very harm that I believe this resolution is working to address when board members act in opposition to the equity resolution it makes some students and families feel unwelcome and worse unsafe and can even put them at greater risk than they already are none of you have your own individual groups of constituents we are all your constituents whether we voted for you as individuals or not we don't expect you all to agree that would not make for a strong board we do expect you all to live up to your commitment as a team working to serve every student as individuals you have to decide if you can go forward and
020fill this role with Integrity or not as a board you can work to ensure that the message you send as a team of leaders is one that is welcoming supportive and tirelessly working in service of all I ask as your constituent a taxpayer a Community member and especially as a parent that you'll be relentless in your commitment to ensuring that your words actions and votes serve all and that you hold each other accountable when individual members act outside of policy and or cause harm or spread misinformation if any of you feel you need to speak outside of the voice of the board the equity resolution or board policies then I ask you to think about whether or not the school board table is the right table for you to have a seat thank you that
021concludes our public forum tonight thanks to all the speakers for taking your time this evening I can I get an approval of the agenda please emotion so made director bernick a second um Drucker Atkinson all in favor aye opposed that passes 6-0 um next is our consent agenda so our consent agenda items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member or citizen so requests in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed do do we have any changes to the consent agenda this evening I'd like to request to pull the board committee roster for further discussion okay so H the board committee roster approval will get pulled out of consent
022agenda and move to the first item in new business for discussion um can I get a motion no I don't need emotion sorry just want to make sure I down my eyes cross on my teeth okay so um can I get the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda which includes financials purchase orders exceeding 25 000 monthly financial report enrollment report approval of school board minutes Personnel items and lastly the annual contract renewal with Normandale Swimming by director bernick can I get a second second by director bullion all in favor aye opposed that passes 6-0 which moves us on to the resolution for acceptance of gifts which we have none this evening so Laker Pride we're starting with the prayer Lake Savage Optimus Club art donation which I believe is an annual yes thank
023you chair Crosby yeah boarded records um tonight we have our annual art submission on behalf of accepting this to the district by one of our students and so Andrea Steger of the Prior Lake Savage Optimist Club will present the district with an annual Student Art piece and uh this year I believe this is done by Aubry Sutherland so Andrea come forward and you go to the podium to share some words if you want to talk a little bit about the piece and the process okay um I'm representing the Prior Lake Savage I'm better off talking to the yeah I represent the Prior Lake Savage Optimus club and every year we recognize about seven or eight students with prizes and in addition to that um we select a piece of work every year that we purchase
024for to hang on the walls of the right by Martha's office and I I I was able to pick this one this year and um I was just amazed that Aubry is only a freshman and um this is should really be looked at close up photograph you know there was another piece by Aubry that was just as good but I guess I'm I'd like to ask Aubry what the inspiration was um for this piece and who's slipper is this so can Aubry come up yes please yeah absolutely [Applause] thank you very much yeah this piece was inspired by a young dancer at my eye Studio West Mount classical training in Long Lake um her name is Ashley Moises and she is a lovely dancer she has amazing Lions um this piece is just something that
025I really enjoyed making I'd always really wanted to try something very realistic I hadn't this is my second charcoal piece I've ever done and I really enjoyed making it and yeah just very very fun to make and she's just a lovely person so it was very worth it so is is this your favorite medium to work with you said it's your second charcoal piece so you know you can paint with acrylic and oil and what is there some is this your favorite now so I do really enjoy charcoal and charcoal has always been something that I very much look forward to doing it's quite tedious because there's lots of layering that goes into it and blending but my all-time favorite definitely is watercolor just because it's enjoyable and it flows and it's very peaceful I
026like to sit outside when I watercolor paint so I love many art mediums so yeah that's definitely my favorite so um Aubrey received 200 we purchased a piece from the student and sometimes they sell to us and sometimes they don't um so you know she's starting to rack up the metals and I just have to mention a few other things real quick um she was featured in The All-American Elementary art fair four times she won the all district contest for the Scott County Sheriff's holiday greeting card one of three Prior Lake students to receive a Minnesota Scholastic Art Award winning the silver key and she was featured a featured artist at the South Suburban art conference so I I know that this is probably going to be something you do forever you know whether you
027pursue this creative career or not I mean you certainly are talented so before you before you sit down Aubry Aubry before you sit down we have something too we want to recognize you with a certificate but just to say a few words um you know one we're very proud of you as a student and representing our district and we really appreciate your level of artistic creativity and expression clearly you have talents that are just absolutely amazing and I could be wrong but a couple of weeks ago Lady Gaga was in town and everybody was chattering about that and why she was here and it just so happened that she was time to be here during the Uptown Art Fair so perhaps she was you know picking up some pieces to bring back to her collection
028so we can now say we knew you way back when if one of your pieces makes it to Lady Gaga's house one day but also I wanted to thank you all the the Prior Lake Savage Optimist Club too for your generous support of our students and our partnership with the district and I've got a couple of uh certificates and we'll stand over by the piece for a photo all right yes absolutely [Applause] ballet studio is now having their dude work she's commissioning working for her thank you I couldn't have said any of that better myself congratulations happy thank you thank you um our next um one more Laker pride is our birth to three team yes correct okay absolutely so um a lot of times we talk about K-12 education but really K-12 education is
029about birth to five uh that's where the foundations are laid and um we've got an amazing talented team of individuals who support this work in our district and our early intervention Team Works year round serving our students and our families from birth to age three who qualify for special education services this team was recently recognized by Governor walls and the Minnesota Department of Education for completion of their fifth year of the evidence-based quality intervention practices Innovation and tonight they're super excited to share the work that they've been doing with our students and their families and here tonight I'll let Laurie Parker introduce the overall ecse team thank you Dr Thomas I'm bored for having us here tonight I'm Lori Parker The Early Childhood special education coordinator and I'm very proud to introduce I'm going to
030pull up their picture because we only have a couple of us here tonight this is Anna frost and Julie Smith they're two speech pathologists who to work with our birth to three team as primary service providers we also have two early intervention teachers Lisa Murray and Jody lindmeyer who's new to our team and Elise Denise maylander who is an occupational therapist in our districtwide physical therapist also works with some of our families as well this team works with our littlest Lakers as Dr Thomas said in the district we work with their families as well as their children in helping to support those students who may be demonstrating a delay in their development or at risk of demonstrating developmental delays last year in the during the school year we received 110 referrals to this team alone
031so we are keeping busy and really enjoy working with these families in their homes and in their child care and in the community so I'll turn it over to them to tell you a little bit more about their work and the equip Innovation that we've been part of as Laurie mentioned my name is Julie Smith and I'm a speech pathologist and I wanted to go through the word that we were talking about equip that stands for evidence-based quality intervention practices and as Laurie mentioned we just finished our fifth year of innovation so we have put in countless hours of um learning to better our practice in partnering with families so that we can increase their capacity in using those strategies with their kids it's been a powerful and tedious five years but it's fun to
032be on the other side of it so eqip is an approach to Early Intervention which incorporates evidence-based practices to build caregiver capacity using coaching interaction practices and to embed intervention into daily routines in the child's natural environment so I'll explain a little bit about what that means so our goal as a coach is sustained performance in which the caregiver has the competence and the confidence to engage in self-reflection and self-correction and generalization of new skills and strategies in other situations as appropriate effective coaching can set the stage for lifelong learning on the part of the caregiver so this is so powerful because we get to combine our expertise and knowledge of early intervention evidence-based practice we combine it with the parents expertise they know their child the best they know what motivates them they know
033their routines and when that comes together when we use those evidence-based practices in a child's natural learning environment the learning takes place after we leave throughout their entire day which is extremely powerful um yeah I'll hand it over to Anna for a bit but I'll be back so just to share a little bit more about the equip Innovation we are one of 31 districts Statewide that has participated or is still participating in it and as Dr Thomas referenced at the beginning we were recognized by the governor for having completed our fifth year of the Innovation and so that's our certificate on the right there um and now just in case you're wondering where are we going with this next like now our job is to continue to implement this and embed it in our practices
034without as much support as we've been receiving as by being part of the Innovation and so that's where something called the benchmarks of quality come into play and what that is is a series of 28 indicators that we rate twice per year that look at the steps that we needed to take to make sure that we are embedding equip into all of our practices and the graph on the screen right now shows that uh in 2018 when we started we had 48 of those indicators in place and we're at 94 as of this spring so that just shows that we are in a really good place to continue this work moving forward without and the training and the support that we've had as being part of the innovation um so this is a picture of
035one of our families um Lisa Murray our early intervention teacher was their primary service provider which means that she was there for every single visit I was lucky enough to be just a related service provider um so I just wanted to share some feedback that they gave when we asked them kind of about their experience with the program they said giving parents the tools to lead our child's development makes so much sense because parents spend the most time with their kids and in many more settings we can provide so much more support than you can get in a clinic or a one-hour session alone melia's growth has been amazing under this model family friends and teachers tell us all the time that they cannot believe how much he's progressed our anxiety about new situations or
036having other people watch him is gone because milio can express himself and process the world around him and we have the tools to support him this family is an exceptional experience example of our program because they were very wary with services to begin with um they we received their referral we did contact them and they told us that they were going to pursue private evaluation and services and then they actually came back to us um they were uh didn't have a great experience just because their son had some really unique needs and um the private practice just wasn't working for him um so they were just a little wary about how on Earth if Private Practice didn't work out how on Earth were they going to make a difference in his development and they were
037such an example on how to reflect on their own practice and really combine their expertise with knowing their son and be open to learning about ours and his progress was immense it's a great journey to watch and that's the end thank you so much for your time thank you and thank you all [Applause] thank you guys thanks for coming tonight that was great okay on to Personnel items so tonight directorman will give us some information about additional 2324 ESS Staffing a requests that's in our board packet thank you chair Crosby members of the board Dr Thomas tonight we are bringing forward four different requests for additional Staffing in our non-certified group as outlined in the memo with the estimated cost and the rationale for the additions it's open to any questions that anyone may have
038uh before we go any questions can I get a motion to approve I made by director Olstead a second second by director Atkinson okay any questions or comments for director Hermann okay anyone okay just making sure all right so all in favor I um okay that passes six zero we have no unfinished business and new business we will go on to our added item of the board committee roster approval um so can I get a motion to approve the board committee roster I made my director Allstate can I get a second second eye director bernick and I'll open it up to comments questions discussion for the board and any questions for admin that are present that can help um thank you I think one of the things that um come up came up with the
039curriculum committee is that per Minnesota State Statute um we are required to have two-thirds parent and community members and I'm thrilled that we were able to include community members for our selections Jess and I are the board directors on this committee we worked with Dan Edwards um well I thought we we nailed that number at 18 community members and parents I'm questioning whether we're short one Community member because we're just shy of two-thirds and it really has to do with the fact that we've added more admin and so I wanted to bring to the table discussion to make sure we're all aligned and that we're meeting Minnesota state statute on possibly adding one of our alternates that we discussed to this roster and just if you have anything else you'd like to add to that
040does it need to be a Community member it's two-thirds to add Minnesota statute says two-thirds parents and community members is what the law says the our committee has to be made up of two-thirds parents and committee members so I think when we had met with Dan we had come up with three alternates and um I am right I'm okay going with our first alternate but I just wanted to like I said bring it to a discussion to the table go ahead okay thank you yeah I I spoke with Dr Edwards this morning about this matter actually and um to align to the state statute a couple options we have as to uh you know go to the list of alternates that you all had identified as kind of next in in the queue or you
041could reduce a member and at this point I would just say add an additional Community member that was his will as well when we spoke this morning so you all have a cue that's already there and I would just add that next person in the queue to go ahead and round it out to meet the statutory requirements of the thresholds of two-thirds no that's great we had a lot of great people and that's why we got our alternates so for this reason so yeah that would be fine so so I guess with the board um pending our reach out to the the individuals the next person in line um we would um your approval tonight would approve the two-thirds statutory requirement the individual may not be identified because we want to you know talk with
042that individual first but know that we would meet that requirement so do we need to come back then to get approval unlike the revised list or are we good to move forward I would ask the board if the board is willing to uh you know the board members and Dr Edwards I think have a good process that put together a nice robust list of individuals and you have three next in the queue I would just trust your process so I would ask the board if you'd be willing to approve the list this evening knowing that the next person in line we have three Potentials in line if the first says no the second it says no we have a third still I'm sure we're going to have a we'll have one of the three say
043yes yeah so if the board is willing to do that for efficiency because they want to they want to get the work started yeah and then we still have on on our list we still have a um I'm sorry I believe the elementary principle has been determined um correct uh Sam Frederickson is the elementary principal and then um the high school teacher is still TBD so at that time yeah once they come back um we can review that as well check out the email necessary right now so sure and I think for just for full disclosure our first meeting of this committee is in October so we do have time so if again will of the board if if it's okay to move forward great if not we do have a little bit of time
044since our committee doesn't meet for the first time excuse me first time until October but I just wanted to put that out there gotcha right I'm fine with it yeah um and I would expect that you guys would meet with Dr Edgars like you did originally in order to determine this and I'm not surprised you didn't have teachers so no and well and that's why we picked the alternate so that if something like this came to fruition then we would be all set and we could move forward quickly correct okay great okay thank you yeah so that's teaching and learning um any questions about the others um for the policy committee um I understand that we're original the original pack stated that we were to have two teachers represented and it appears we have three
045with Mr beaudette as the teachers union president um you know looking looking into the teachers union contract and knowing that um I think it's my understanding that policy is not something that's negotiable in the teachers union contract I'd have to pull it up to read the exact language um but I'm wondering if that serves as a conflict of interest on this committee and I'd like to better understand why maybe he was chosen or why there's three teachers versus two that was originally part of the the pack director Herman do you want to uh yeah um Dr Atkinson's member of the boards Dr Thomas when looking through all the applications we found that a lot of our applicants served in multiple different stakeholder groups parent groups are presenting Elementary Middle School High School staff groups as
046well as living in our community so when we're looking at the individuals who did apply he was an individual that not only met the staff group but also met the elementary parent and Middle School Parent categories can you help me understand um the just because I'm not sure I do the conflict of interest you see with the Union representation and let me just add that he is not there as a union representative he is a teacher as well as a parent with kids in two different areas both Elementary as well as secondary but he does serve as the president of the teachers union is that correct that is correct but he's not there in that capacity okay but he's listing under He's listed under teachers and building staff so perhaps they're that's where the confusion
047is because he's listed under teachers and building staff correct but so are the other two and he also serves as a parent of Elementary and Middle School we wanted a good distribution so so just to like can can you speak to that a little bit more about the conflict that yeah let me pull up the box I just it'll take me a second to pull up the teachers union contract if you just give me a second there's some language in the teachers union contract and Emily maybe you can find it faster than I can um but I believe it's right in the beginning of the contract that states that the teachers union that they are not as part of the contract they are not they cannot negotiate policy or managerial procedures as part of their
048contract if I if that is correct um director Atkinson I don't want to provide misinformation so I'm not exactly sure which part of the contract we're referring to if it's referring to the inherent managerial rights of the contract that's specific to the topics that can or cannot be negotiated within the contract it does not speak to the representation that members of a bargain unit can participate on different committees or advisory groups a different thing I forgot to previously I director Atkinson and I apologize we also were looking at the stop representation from different positions as well so bringing forward a special education perspective elementary teacher perspective and a social work worker perspective I failed to mention that earlier as well so I wanted to add that piece I would be happy to look further into
049the contract question for you but I'm not specifically aware which part you're referring to I apologize it's under Article 4 School District rights so these are the rights of our school district section one and again I'm not you know I'm not a lawyer as far as understanding learn contracts but this is why I'm bringing this to the attention the inherent manager rights the plsca recognizes that the school district is not required to meet and negotiate on matters of inherent mandatory policy which include but are not limited to to such areas of discretion or policy as the functions and programs of the school district its overall budget utilization of Technology the organizational structure and selection and Direction and number of personnel so with that in their contract is it a conflict of interest for our teachers
050union president to serve on this policy committee Dr Atkinson that it would not be in my opinion that it'd be a conflict of interest again that section specifically is referring to negotiations of the contract it doesn't preclude representation of teachers from the bargain unit or administrative assistants from a bargain unit principals are in a bargaining unit any of our other bargaining units from being Representatives on ner of our advisory committees what that specific and inherent managerial policy is referring to a statutorial requirements of what we are required to and what we are not required to negotiate around thanks for that clarification thank you thank you um any other questions or does that raise any other questions for board members is that is that has that clarified concerns I don't have any concerns about him wearing
051a couple hats we all do it we all know the lanes we're in right so I think he's an asset too his experience in Special Ed oh he's an asset with his experience and special ed and his experience in our community I think as a parent he's I don't know what would preclude him or I trust the process that we went through we haven't had a lot of questions on the finance one that I hope to pick out so it just feels like I mean I don't have any concerns if you've all done a really good job trust the process okay any other discussion from board members and then the um the other thing that I'd like to um just tried I'd like to better understand there's obviously we heard from a couple community members
052this evening about the selections that were made of the community members I'd like to better understand um how those selections were made and just kind of add some transparency to the process and I know from looking at the list we had a lot of great candidates that applied for both committees so I'd just like to better understand since were you involved in helping pick out the ones for your list what criteria did you use yes applications right yes I'd like you to I'd like someone to answer my question first please like me to reason go for it okay um Dr Atkinson members of the board Dr Thomas we met with the two board members and myself to review all the applications that were submitted along with the different stakeholder groups that um that we were
053trying to to meet um and then we look for a diverse perspective in um staff and community members different parent groups to make sure we had Elementary level middle level high school level we did limit our review of the applications this the applications submitted the data submitted we didn't look into anything outside of the applications being provided to us we kept it to be limited to the materials that were provided in the application process and then went through the list and trying to to find um different perspectives based off of those different areas staff community members community members that don't currently have students or students parents different levels as parents all the different perspectives and then like like you said director Atkinson we had a lot of great applications so just trying to narrow down
054that list to make sure that we met all those different categories thank you I think one of the questions that was brought up was um you know having applicants that had publicity experience and I know there was several on the list perhaps understanding why someone who didn't have policy experience why they would be selected for this committee versus someone who has 20 plus years policy experience um director Atkinson member of the boers Dr Thomas when looking at all of the application materials again we looked at the different stakeholder groups and the different experience that we were looking at not just with policy experience legal advocacy work um work within the education system trying to diversify the perspectives we did have a lot of really great legal and policy work applications that were selected on the
055committee so feel very confident in that we also have a lot of Human Resources experience that are on the committee advocacy experience around policy and developing policy in multiple different Industries so we looked at all of those different aspects when trying to figure out and matching within the different categories to make sure we met all the categories and had the diverse experience in the different areas we're looking for Mr Hermann any other questions or comments or director of France do you want to add to any of that as part of the leadership on the committee well one the first thing we want to do is make sure we had distribution so Elementary parents Middle School parents High School parents of those that had the policy experience or the necessary experiences we put on there we
056also wanted people who were community members who did not have kids in the district as well as at least one representative of of open enrolled uh students since that's a larger and larger percentage of our population and after that we ended up with um with a fairly tight list of trying to make sure that we had the distribution of elementary middle and high school in particular as well as community members so that was really really important great thanks for the clarification are we ready to move forward do you does I don't want to stop discussion but if we're ready to move forward we can vote I would just like to State one more thing that you know I think it's really important it says in the scope of the charter that providing diverse stakeholder perspectives
057is um is an important part of the policy Committee in doing my research on policy committees what I find was interesting is that as an independent school district we are one of the only districts in the state that has a policy advisory committee that now has community members and parents members as part of the um as part of this committee typically as three board directors plus admin now I'm not saying I don't support having parent and community members but I think it's important that they have that diverse perspectives are represented as represented on the charter um I would say you know I reviewed the list I also have some concerns with diverse perspectives being represented and I think it would be beneficial if we could go back and add maybe two that have maybe different
058perspectives to um than what's currently represented can I ask a clarifying question when we talk about diverse perspectives where are we obtaining that information just I mean I'm assuming it's from Facebook if I have to just be brutally honest and I would I would question and and maybe Emily could help us out here sure um just about in the HR world how much of social media plays a role in determining somebody's qualifications because you could pull up I could pull up a Facebook and see somebody as a friend with somebody and make an instant judgment and I choose not to do that but I'm curious how we would we would apply this because I'm just people filled out applications and stated what their work experienced some people even handed in resumes that didn't have like
059what bumper sticker might be on my car so I'm just curious we didn't want to go down that pathism as Emily stated on purpose we wanted to look at qualifications and distribution yeah so I mean when we picked out finance committee I mean at one point we did say we had more qualified people than we thought and we did add some if that's the conversation you want to have that's much different than I want to add people because I don't think it's showing a diversity of our community that's just but maybe Emily could help me out here the other thing I want to qualify is that before we decided on getting a you know engaging the community Through the various policies we did do an extensive search as well as feedback to the executive team
060at that time of the various schools that actually did have policy committees that did engage community members and there are quite a few not only in the state of Minnesota but across the United States of similar States so um and we we did the point of order can you just clarify which ones within Minnesota just because I've checked around and I haven't found any um and I'm not saying we did this a year and a half ago and I do not have it with me but we did do it and that's how we decided on making sure that community members were part of the uh of the committee and we did model the finance as well as other committees on that so and that was a combined effort as as chair Crosby knows so that
061was done a year and a half to two years ago before we made these changes I yeah I think we're I think we're ready to move forward unless you have more questions I the only thing I'll add is um kind of to your point director bernick like until we have people in seats doing the work you know we can only base the work on resumes and what they're bringing forward for their qualifications we can't make assumptions about anything else so I mean if we get into this six months from now and we're not getting diversity of thought on the policy committee then I think it's within the board's purview to say we need more interesting diversity of thought and more ideas um but I think for now I think we're ready to move forward that's
062my judgment call here in the interest of time again if you have more questions or no I think that's fair and knowing that the policy committee is open for anyone to attend I think that other people can attend it and we'll be able to see if there is diversity thought being respected within our committee so if I may just add one all the Committees are open for folks to attend and and so again in the spirit of transparency we are and I am committed as your superintendent and working with the board to ensure we are bringing uh diverse perspectives to the table because everyone has equal and intrinsic voice in this community and it's important that we hear those voices and they're not always going to be on the same side not always seeing eye
063to eye and that's okay and we're going to work through that but that's how we kind of 360 an issue or a conversation to make sure that we're not leaving things off the table so I just appreciate the board and the staff who have assembled these teams I think this really is executing on the vision of our transparency and I do trust the process of our board members and our staff and we will now watch the process unfold and as we see things from a management cited you all see things from a governance side we will have those conversations to course correct level set Etc as we go down this journey together but I just want to thank the board and the staff for your commitment to assembling these new committees thank you thank you
064thank you can I say just one more thing um I was really excited I I sit on the teaching and learning committee not financer policy but I was very very impressed with the number of applications that we received for that committee um uh and I was really excited about that and I don't want to speak for Dan because he's not here uh Dr Edwards um but he said it was it was quite a bit more applications than he's received in the last couple of years and that was really exciting um to me um and uh and I don't want to speak for you either Lisa but I just um really really really looking forward to this um and I think I think it's going to be great and I think it's going to bring a
065lot of people into the same room and um and have some really great conversations and I'm actually very very much looking forward to it so I just wanted to add that thank you thank you director Alston thank you all um okay all in favor of approving the um committee rosters as stands with the exception of adding someone to the to the teaching and learning to be the two-thirds Community impairment members um so all in favor opposed that passes 6-0 okay thank you everyone um in terms of our next step for new business we're on a summer program report including targeted services and special ed by director Chuka thank you for coming tonight absolutely [Music] all right chair Crosby members of the board Dr Thomas I'm here to talk to you about all the exciting things
066we do um throughout the summer I'm kind of pinch hitting for everyone so it's more than just special ed I'm going to talk about tonight we have summer services that run through special education we have targeted Services Credit Recovery Community Ed covering folks from birth to adulthood and I'm going to try to run through all of them in five minutes or less all right in special education we provide extended school year Services per students IEP based on meeting criteria that's laid out through regression recruitment self-sufficiency or some other unique need an IEP team identifies and I want to give a big shout out to all the staff that worked this summer and specifically also to my admin team of Christian Leaf Tao Emily virant Lori Parker and Kate Kyle they really helped organize extended school
067year services in June we ran center-based Services through K-12 at redtail Ridge Edgewood and Prior Lake we had nine teachers 14 Paris serve about 40 students um and then you heard about our birth tattoo team but they run all year but we ran um of course our birth to two home visits we did three to five year old referrals and evaluations for special education because early intervention is key so we don't always want to wait until fall to evaluate for those summer referrals and at the elementary level we provided support within targeted services with speech language pathology Behavior specialists um and then we also did some direct instruction and classroom support for about 14 students in special education through targeted Services we just layered on top our special education services we also did that at
068the secondary level by layering some paraprofessional support to support students who received special ed services that were actually seeing accessing Middle School targeted services and then another one to support special education students who were attending credit recovery outside of special education now I'll launch into that the district had a lot of other programming the bridges administrator uh Dave Brown organized Credit Recovery opportunities for students 912 through both in person and independent study allowing about 400 students to uh do credit recovery I somehow got off my slides here all right well here we go middle school and Elementary targeted Services we had 240 students access our elementary targeted services and we had 65 students access our Middle School targeted services so everything secondary was held at the high school this year due to construction and then
069our elementary was held at laola De Lago and Jeffers Pond this summer and then we in early childhood also did some things with Ready Set kindergarten through a grant which was some leftover ARP grant money and through that we also were able to provide transportation and then we have Community Ed 27 New youth courses offered so Joel Dahl and his community ed team run programming all year long but this summer they had 387 youth courses 53 adult courses and we were able to employ youth here in the community as well as 15 7 I'm sorry my mouth isn't working tonight 17 District staff members taught a class as well um we had look at that those numbers 2500 youth aged 0 to 18 access our community education programs we have 230 new drivers coming down
070the pipe there over 130 band lessons and then 31 kids took care took advantage of our Laker Learners tutoring students which is a new offering 93 adults and 43 430 total hours used by the district and community of our district facilities so if you think there's nothing going on in the summer in a school district this will tell you that that we are very busy and those you know 43 000 hours we didn't even have you know the middle schools five Hawks or Bridges open because of different things so uh and then kids company was very very busy with 500 students 80 staff again we were able to employ some of our local youth to help support those 500 students and I think that's it so if you have any questions I'm happy to answer
071I tried to go really fast in the interest of time all right thank you I just oh go ahead I was gonna say how does this summer enrollment compare to last summer did we go up did we go down did the so I think we'll have an impact I I believe Joel would have to answer that question but just summer swim alone is a pretty big program so I would have to imagine some of our community ed was down just because summer swim is a pretty big big thing but hopefully we can get that back and going but I can certainly have Joel follow up with you to let you know how that was for sure right okay I was just gonna add I saw Dave Brown left the room unfortunately but yeah um 400
072400 students in credit recovery after kind of you know the tumultuous times we've had that's wonderful yep you know that's a big deal for those kids and and for our district and our community so and he's out for two different um ways they can do it asynchronously a little bit at home but also for those students that want to come in we also offered an in-person option so he was very creative in that way I will say our students so I went to the couple of the programs in our ALC students were there in person so in summer they're making an active choice to be fully in person because they really and they were they were going through Credit Recovery like you wouldn't believe so it was just absolutely amazing to see you know and
073and I just want to be clear too um this wasn't just for students who have historically struggled that cobit really disrupt a lot of our high performing students too to get off track and so we had a really unique mix of students over the summer that we haven't had actually in the past so that was really good to see um so I just wanted to add that I love the fact that our our students who could choose not to be there were actually choosing to be there in person I absolutely and and I mean not to belabor this but the more kids that you get invested in their own learning that way and it removes some of the stigma of credit recovery because yeah they're it's just a thing like we just have to help
074kids reach their goals so I appreciate that which is what a lot of our summer programming is about whether it's 9 through 12 Credit Recovery or our first grade through eighth grade targeted Services it's it's about academics but it's also about building community and re-engaging in schools so that is the purpose all right he's back now now that we're done talking about him oh my bad all right thank you thank you thank you okay next on our agenda I really actually do need glasses uh a request for additional school buses so it's from recommended to add two buses to the current field of 53 buses to help with capacity issues due to the increase in ridership in the middle and high school routes so this isn't necessarily about it's an FYI thank you Mr Dello
075good evening chair Crosby board directors Dr Thomas we do have in front of you a request to add two buses to the fleet for the reasons of increased ridership we have some longer routes and we have some overcrowded buses not great but great yeah yeah thank you for solving the problem I do not believe this is a vote correct yeah I was gonna say I wonder I was one of the questions okay yeah was um what's the cost impact of um of adding the two additional buses for a year 140. it was two hundred and forty thousand dollars to add the two buses and we did budget for that so it is included in in the current in 23-24 budget it was budgeted she actually got brought up when we were talking about it but
076I do have a question are we still doing the bus share with uh charter schools and a couple of other schools in the area is in there yes okay so has that changed also because of the increased ridership or is that that would not impact our Dean for a bus okay fantastic thank you all right can I get a motion to approve this ask for two buses so made by director bernick can I get a second second by director Atkinson all in favor I I opposed that passes 6-0 thank you thank you uh next we'll be looking at the budget calendar for 23 24 uh the draft presented by Frederickson thank you chair Crosby directors Dr Thomas you have in front of you the draft timeline for the 24-25 budget planning I think the biggest
077thing to note on here is that we are hopefully if everybody agrees to this schedule we will be approving the budget two months earlier than we have in the past um we'll be asking for final approval in April um so we are moving a lot of things up we have um kind of scheduled it out so that any decisions that need to be made will be discussed at the finance advisory committee and then bring to board study sessions and then to the board for Direction until we finally do the approved budget in April and I think it just um we need to get kind of in front of some of the hiring we want to be able to offer positions quickly so that we can get staff hired before we lose them to other districts
078and I I think this will just help us with our overall planning as we move forward we still are planning to do the um Town Hall meetings will still continue to do two of those and then again some of those dates like the levy we can't change those those are required dates on that are due to the Minnesota Department of Education but I think we can easily move up our whole process by a couple months I'm happy to take any questions again this is a draft we can certainly um adjust things as we move along and see how all this works but this would be my recommendation can I get a motion to approve soulmate by tractor bullion in a second second by director of France um any comments or questions I'd just like to
079say thank you for this um anytime we can be more proactive instead of reactive is a a win in in my opinion and I appreciate the wanting to get you know ahead of things for hiring um I think it just will help us overall in our planning as well so thank you for all the work you've done in that Tammy I'd second that Tammy I think this is fantastic that we have this I just hope we can keep this type of schedule in a biennium year I don't want to set expectations too high there oh I'll just add if I may this is something that we talked about this first year and you heard Tammy and I speak to being accustomed to a little bit more aggressive calendar and so you see that before you
080today I think the other piece and several of you brought this up during the Staffing conversations was when um we were having by State Statute those who were probationary had to automatically get released and that was coming so late so again I think the integrity and the respect for our staff even though it's statute that guide some of those decisions we're going to be able to have a lot of those decisions much earlier work through our process and if able bring them back in a timely fashion and not be at the 11th Hour negotiating some of these bring backs because they've already been locked into somewhere a different place they actually now have time to let that process play out a little bit without just jumping to a job they can actually work with us
081to stay with us and that's what we're looking for is that continuity of Staffing so again I think there's a lot of unintended benefits that come from a more aggressive calendar yes it does make all of us work a little harder I wouldn't say harder it makes us work a little smarter and it's a Valentine's Day gift that we give to the principals they get all their Staffing allocations thereabouts yeah the only thing I would add is yeah just any complexities that there would be around decisions at the legislature but you know we can work backwards sometimes too if we have to so thanks for your time work on this and then I would just um for the finance committees if there's any adjustments that need to be made to those so that um I
082know there's been discussions within the finance meetings about um maybe different changes on how that committee is going to be utilized our finance directors can add to that but the one meeting I see is December 19th um and then we I mean I know this is the end of this year but we are looking at December 11th for the board meeting to approve the final budget but then we have an advisory meeting after that meeting so just um understanding if those Finance advisory meetings align with you know before the budget discussion so that they can have input so that December 11th is for the final this year's budget if we need to do that and again we'll have plenty of conversations between now and we're actually having her first finance committee meeting tomorrow we've added
083a couple more to our kind of our calendar for meeting with them so there will be plenty of time to have those conversations as long as we're following the calendar we know what dates to to expect um what we're going to talk about at the board so there'll be plenty of time um I think we'll we'll be fine okay so I would ask Julie since she's a Treasurer that obviously if that's for the current budget the December 19th meeting has no impact right doesn't have anything to do with approving anything ahead of time okay and those discussions would have happened in the August and October meetings yeah who wouldn't like the bus conversation be part of it like what we just approved yes it's a similar topic okay all right um all in favor of
084the proposed budget calendar opposed okay that passes 6-0 um then finally in terms of new business we're on the loving um setting a levy meeting date which we're required to do in the levy meeting will be held on Monday December 11th at 7 pm at the beginning of our regular board meeting so can I get a motion to approve so made by director Atkinson a second I director of France all in favor I opposed that passes 6-0 as well under policy tonight we have no first or second reading of policies um we are looking at a board policy approval for the school 534 School meals policy um I are you are you gonna you're available you're available okay so I'll take a motion to pass and then we and a second and then we can
085open it up so I made by director bullion and a second second hi director France thank you for coming tonight to answer any questions um um for the board we had already viewed this previously yeah no changes I have I have a question yeah okay um in the policy it says the communication of policy under five the school district post will post this policy on the school district's website or the website of the organization where the meal is served in addition to providing the required written notification described above um is it possible to post this within the school Cafe under the menu like the left hand menu so parents can see the policy or a link to the policy I mean I I understand we put it in our policy committees yeah you know our
086policy packets because this is specific to school meals and I know that there's some changes this year I'm just wondering if that's possible to put it there for in the school Cafe app yeah I don't know I can ask the or a link to it or a link to it yeah yeah there's a policy linked to it okay we could ask uh yeah oh and then I had one of their questions okay yeah okay it doesn't matter to me okay I don't think most parents will look for it there but yeah as long as it's where it's supposed to be and it's then the policy I don't care where you post it perfect thank you as a parent I I that's where I look for all my meal information would be in that app but
087um thank you uh the other thing is a question so when a child's meal balance goes to negative which my students do I know that I have an alert in there that says please notify me so that I can add review it and review it to make sure he's not just buying fruit snacks for his friends so um do they automatically get an alert though if the parent doesn't sign up alert because I believe that does State this in this policy so they have to sign up for that they have to choose to have an alert at a certain level okay so then and then we it's not an alert but we will send notifications when the mail account goes um negative so we do send it so they don't necessarily have to stand up
088for an alert well they don't okay because like I said it says that in the policy here we sorry if I made you so we we send um the notification per policy for negative balance the alert piece that you set may be higher than where we are no I understand that's how we would do it so basically if the parent doesn't set an alert they're still going to get an email saying that their their meal account is in balance and then we would share options of sign up for assistance or whatever the options are for our policy okay great thanks for clarifying that of course okay all in favor of approving policy 534. I I I post pass this six zero um so we are on administrative reports Dr Thomas have you got any updates
089uh as you heard from our summer reports been a busy summer so I've got a few and I'll be efficient uh very quick um so just recently just uh we had a prior Lake chamber membership meeting and uh and that was in July actually mid-july and just want to let you all know it was the uh the city managers Jason's City uh state of the city address which is always great to understand kind of what's Happening um specifically in this case uh around Prior Lake and there are some commercial and residential developments going into Prior Lake which is uh still going to only represent some modest growth we have some single-family home construction there is there are a couple of apartment projects being proposed as well um don't know how many kids will come with
090some of those I think that was going to be your Millennial lofty kind of spots with uh rooftop restaurants we also talked about the Cannabis legislation and it is something that the City of Prior Lake they will prohibit use of cannabis in public places the council passed an ordinance also requiring licensure to sell low-dose THC Edibles to help ensure and in part not being sold to minors so they're doing what they can to ensure that you know there's licensure requirements and until the state kind of gets their things together I think we're going to have some adjustments going on but just know that that's something that we're Vigilant and watching for um kind of in this Spirit of this bill knowing that it wasn't across the Finish Line that's why we also reintroduced the canine
091sweeps so that's something that we will continue with in partnership with our our local law enforcement as well and I I would say on that note there are some changes legislatively around SRO components and so we are meeting next week with both Prior Lake and the City of savage police departments their Chiefs and respective staffs and our safety and emergency staff to walk through some of those Logistics of any and all kind of changes or implications that they might have with regards to police in our schools and sros Etc so I'll provide an update with you all on that after we've had that meeting to level set together um several of you enjoyed a night to unite uh very first of August and that was a great opportunity uh to connect with our community and
092we had our administrators several of you going out to neighborhoods all through our Prior Lake Savage and Credit River so um just thank you all that that participated in that it's a great way to build community and met with a lot of our electives at various parties and um you know played with students I think the biggest draw was kids playing on our buses so thank you Jim for uh arranging buses who knew that that was going to be better than our water bottle swag so thank you for that and into our bus companies the drivers are great too because they were also connecting with families and these are some of the same drivers that are driving our students so on the routes just this past weekend we had Prior Lake days downtown Prior Lake
093a great opportunity that many of us in several of you as well participated in sponsoring a booth and uh really again opportunity opportunities for us to be present in our community at every kind of function that we can that is a big push I know the staff are tired of asked me asking them to go out to all these different things but the more we're in community the more we're going to build community the more we're going to have you know an ability to talk about the great things that are happening in our school so thank you to all the staff who are participating in that um we had our msba and mde back to school conference can kick off last week so there was two days worth actually three days worth of learning there
094so great opportunity to connect with a variety of board members and school leaders throughout the state of Minnesota I did put a brochure not a brochure a pamphlet from one of the pamphlet a packet from one of the sessions that I attended that I think is going to be a big issue that we're going to continue to have conversation about and so that's the type of learning that we're engaged in so always a great opportunity to to do that that summer workshop with both msba and mde and then we also heard from our lobbyists from all our respective groups as well that was really enlightening um just a couple more quick hits uh I I think I shared this with you all last year actually but I was selected to be part of a national
095fellowship program for learning centered leadership lab and this is where I'm partnered with other superintendents from around the country to share ideas of practice we also come to the lab with a problem of practice and just to share with you the board and and our community the problem of practice that I am bringing forward is to figure out how we lead effectively through difference obviously that's not unique to us but it's one that I think is really important and I think ideating nationally and understanding what other communities around the country are doing to find ways to lead effectively through that is going to be a great learning opportunity for me professionally but also to bring some of that learning back here to our district as we think about our efforts locally and so there will
096be several meetings that will come to a close this December but it's just been a great experience for me to really be a part of this National cohort in this Fellowship so I'm really honored to be a part of that and then recently I was also nominated and accepted by the board of amsd to serve on the executive board so I'll be serving a three-year term representing our district but also the metro-wide area for amsd executive board committee so I'm really excited about that and those will happen once a month on Fridays but that just happened on August 4th and so I just want to brief the board in our community that I'll be bringing our community voice forward and the Executive Board of amsd is really instrumental in setting forth the legislative agendas as
097well so there'll be a lot of advocacy and policy work even the biennium and even you know it's not big policy but there's money that might be discussed as well so that will be a lot of the work to all be engaged in there representing our district so truly honored to serve in that capacity last Lee I will say that there's been lots of conversation around School Technology and this is something that we've been talking about internally and we actually change some protocols this year this past year at our middle school campuses to reduce the amount of Technology access that our kids are having there's clearly a time and place for technology it's not going to go away uh but we all are in agreement that we have to find a balance and a level
098of well-being and how you appropriately interact with technology and so we'll be partnering with live more screen less this year to really work with our students and our families to develop protocols from the Grassroots if you will to really lead the changes that are going to be seen throughout our our system and I would wait you know wager to say this is more of a secondary conversation I've been also having conversations with Dr bezik at the high school because we changed some of our protocols at the middle school we have a cohort now of ninth graders who are ex who are under a practice that's very different than maybe what the high school philosophy has been and so we're kind of merging these two practices together and that will be part of the bar kind
099of ninth grade orientation if you will to help bring tighter controls and parameters around that but more so kind of what we're going to be doing at the middle school I think that's going to be our prototype that can be our launch kind of secondary wide so I just asked our principals to come forward tonight's just very briefly share a little bit about our new partnership with livemors queenless and what that will mean for our campus our Middle School campus this year and what is to kind of be a foreshadow for what could come for secondary as a whole absolutely good evening thank you Dr Thomas board chair Crosby board directors um to give you just a little bit of a background of what we did this past year if there was some conversation around
100wanting to bring more clarity for students because as you know when it has come to technology and cell phones in particular it really has been classroom to classroom and it's been different in each one and that can be confusing for students which also leads to students taking advantage in some situations and so we really wanted to try to bring a little more clarity around that so we actually had a group of teachers which work together to really form common expectations for the students and with that the phones were to be out during the put away when I say output away during the class periods and then at the end of the year we went ahead and provided a survey to our staff to say how did that work having a little more clarity around it
101and the results were very positive our teacher said that they saw a lot more student engagement they saw that they were actually dealing with less technology cell phone issues because of the fact that the students knew what the expectations were we did find that there certainly were still some areas of growth that we had in them areas that we can provide more clarity and so that's really what this coming year as we were starting to have conversations with live more screen less Sasha and I have met with them already three times this summer to really start talking about what are some things that we can do to provide more clarity for example if we're continuing to say that cell phone should not be out during class periods we have to make sure that that also
102means if a student says I need to go to the bathroom they're not taking their phone with them to then to be on the cell phone in the hallway or in the bathroom it's during that class period no matter whether you are inside or outside of the classroom that those should be put away and so those are some of the common expectations that we're going to be working with both our staff and our students this year and so one of the things that we're really excited about with live more screen less is the the pair education piece because as we move forward with this and we say is this where we want to be are there additional steps that we want to take it's really important that we have everybody when I say everyone I'm
103talking about staff students and parents being well educated on what we're doing and why we're doing it because then it's going to make whatever next potential steps we want to take forward much much easier do you have anything else to add or anything thank you thank you I'm excited to hear you thank you um I would just like to say thank you for your leadership on this um I've as you know I've been an advocate for this from the minute I sat on the sport table so thank you I know you guys are the ones who have to take the hard conversations have the hard conversations with the kids and so I just want to thank you thank you any administrative reports tonight I've got one um administrative I'm so sorry it's okay sorry thank
104you chair Crosby I just have one update just so you're aware of it we did have a U.S treasury note for one and a half million dollars mature this month so we were able to reinvest it in a 12-month a 16 month and an 18th month CD we got um our bids came in at a little over five percent so we were able to get in there before the um feds to re lowered the interest rates so we're anticipating about a ninety thousand dollar interest on that investment so it was perfect timing that's all I had thank you it's great okay board reports I have one okay okay um I attended the early bird session last Sunday night with the msba conference the title was high conflict strategic Retreat and compromise and I have trouble
105with con the word conflict sometimes because I don't think it's always about conflict I think that's a very strong word sometimes that gets overused but it was fascinating and I have a not so great handout from it the type is a little small but if anybody's interested but it was it was fascinating about how to have these conversations and how to um weed out the unnecessary and the necessary and it was just it was very fascinating and I was sitting in a room with 60 people from around the state I sat next to the Proctor superintendent who's just a lovely man he just finished his first year as superintendent there and um it was just it was just wonderful and one of the pieces that came out of that um going back to your leadership
106lab topic of lead through difference there was a book that's currently on my Amazon list so I'm waiting for that to arrive it's called Common Ground a search for common ground and it's these two gentlemen who have very different views on some things but they talk about K-12 education just any topic and it's basically their email correspondence with each other in this book and it's I'm so looking forward to reading it because I think it's a great practice and can't wait to share it and I just wanted to share it with you because it was a very very good night spent on a Sunday night in Brooklyn Park um and uh can't wait to read the book so and I think this is the last school board meeting before school starts so I just want
107to wish everybody a happy first day thank you other board members board reports um I just wanted to say that I was really encouraged by our professional development Workshop especially especially encouraged that the language of leadership that we learned from studer that day was something that our senior leadership team has already been learning um so I I love that because it it unifies Us in that in that training I'm expectant uh that modeling of that type of language the the um what's it called what do you think leading up leading up managing up managing up uh I'm expecting that by us modeling that language and growing in it that we will Foster healthier communication and those patterns will Foster trust and collaboration both internally in the district and outside externally with our community so I
108just I think I was grateful for that other broader parts tonight well I've um I was renewed as for the Washington DC K-12 stem committee so they take one representative from um each state and I've been on that for 10 years and they asked me to renew my membership and go to the committee meetings in DC with the education leaders in the individual states so and that that's not just Public Schools it's all education but that so I just said yes put on my crazy hat and put one more thing on my plate report congratulations yeah any other updates Summer's a little quieter but um and congratulations Dr Thomas on those uh two recognitions and we're excited for our district and for you and I mean all those things are really good for our community
109yeah and you so it's good news um I think that covers all board reports right okay so future events are um new teacher and service days which is the 21st through the 23rd and then we will have a board study session on August 28th at 6 pm and can I get a motion to adjour in the meeting so made by director bullion in a second second by director Atkinson all in favor hi opposed that passes 6-0 thank you we'll go into closed session for negotiation strategy discussion we'll take a little a little brief break