001It's 7:01. This is the first time we're late. On a Monday, April 20th, 2026, and I call to order this regular meeting of the Richfield School Board. Attending this meetings, this evening's board meeting live and in the boardroom are board members Haley Tomkins, uh, Paula Cole, Kendall, Kirk Spencer, and on board chair Eric Carter. And we believe that Cali will be joining us as well. >> We believe I will. >> So I'll announce and we hope to have Call County Dennis as well over here joining us tonight. We're joined by one of our student representatives, Vanessa Rosa Miguel. Also at the table we have Superintendent Steve Yianowski and Assistant Superintendent Cassandra Quam. I'm on fire already. Other members of the district's leadership team are in attendance and we're happy to see them and may be
002part will be participating throughout the meeting as well. Ridgefield Public Schools mission is to inspire, empower each Wow. Bridgefield Public Schools mission is to inspire and empower each individual to learn, grow, and excel. And we aim to keep that focus at the heart of our discussions this evening. Thanks to all of you joining us here live and in the boardroom. We also want to thank those of us streaming the meeting or watching it after the fact via YouTube. We appreciate when people bear witness to our meetings where we conduct the necessary official business of the district. Our first item of business this evening is to approve the agenda before us. As approval of the agenda is a routine business item, I'll briefly pause to see if there's any questions or comments related to the agenda,
003like the fact that we have a closed session at the end. Exciting for those new joining us here. And seeing none, is anyone move to present approve the pres approve the agenda as presented? It's going to go super slow. >> I move to approve the agenda as presented. >> I second it. >> Thank you. We have a motion by Director Cole and a second by Director Lists. >> I'm just going to skip to vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> All oppose, please say nay. Chair votes I. And the agenda is approved. Uh we move into the information and proposals not action item section of the agenda. This evening we have an opportunity for public comment. Although no one has signed up tonight, I ask that you remember that we have
004public comment on the second meeting of each month, which will be next on May 18th at 7 PM, which is our regular board meeting. Uh, instructions on how to sign up can be found on the Richfield Public Schools website under menu about school board and public comments. Now over to Superintendent Yuski for the superintendent update. >> All right, two items on the superintendent report. Um, second item is strategic planning process update which I will be presenting. Uh but our first item is the elementary and secondary education presentation with academic directors Jensen's and Ward. So take it away team. >> Yeah. Good evening chair Carter, superintendent, members of the board and viewing public. Always an honor to be here with you. So tonight um we're going to cover a few things that we've been working on
005this year with you. Um during our presentation, we'll share some updates on our redact required professional development. Um, we'll also talk about um the work that we've done this year to enhance our multi-tered system of supports. We'll talk more about what that means later on. Uh, we'll also review our temporary online learning program that we offered this winter and potential impacts um on our our academic uh outcomes resulting from the disruptions to learning that our students experienced. And then we'll also give you an update on our curriculum review work in social studies this year. So with that we'll start with our readact. So um readact professional development has been a significant undertaking for our our team and our teachers over the past two years. Um we have about 175 teachers um including our prek5 classroom
006teachers and e teachers, K12 reading interventionists and special education staff. And then additional licensed staff who support reading instruction like our instructional coaches um our peer reviewers um and other TOSAs. Um those are teachers who were identified to complete phase one of the training based on their lensure and those teachers um are scheduled to be completed with the training by July 1st 2026. So in a in a couple months here um we've made a lot of progress towards getting all of that those staff members trained. We have an overall completion at this point um in midappril of 71% of staff being completely finished with that training. So I want to break that down a little bit into two groups of staff. So, our initial cohort who started this training last year during the 2024-25 school
007year consisted of about 159 teachers who are still employed here in Richfield Public Schools. Um, and those are the the teachers that definitely need to have this training completed by July 1st. Um, we've got 77% of those 159 teachers who are completely finished with the training. um we have another 10% who are within two units of completing the training. So definitely on track to finish by that that deadline. And then we do have about 20 teachers um who are behind in the recommended pacing um at this point it will be difficult for them to finish and so we are working closely with education richfield on how we can support them. Um, and then we have a second group of about 16 teachers who started with Richfield Public Schools this year or who were previously employed
008by the district but moved to a different role that now required them to participate in this training. Uh, and because letters, the professional development program that we selected is a 2-year uh, commitment, a two-year training, they started volume one this year and they will be granted a no fault extension to finish their training next year. So, uh, we've got lots of staff who are working really hard and I feel really confident that we're going to be at close to 90% u by the end of the school year. >> All right. And then unlike phase one that required all elementary teachers to be trained, um, phase two asked secondary teachers providing reading instruction to be trained. It's about 30 to 35 teachers, grades 6 through 12, primarily our English language arts teachers and our ELLL teachers.
009Um, in the winter, MDE approved four options for secondary professional development. A small team of us, uh, kind of previewed all four options, dug deeper into a couple, and selected OLA as the one we thought was the best. It aligned with our values, had a strong focus on multilingual students, and in fact, last summer, we had a team of multilingual um, uh, teachers who did some OLA um, training. So, felt a good fit. That training for those teachers will consist of 45 asynchronous hours with three onehour synchronous sessions kind of along the way. So, you know, every 15 hours or so there's a synchronous session to kind of review um the training they've done so far. Um our initial plan was to launch all this workshop week and then use our three PD days as
010those live synchronous trainings. However, um the process with MDE and OLA has gone really fast and it looks like we'll be able to offer an opportunity for staff who want to begin this summer to probably get twothirds of the way done before the school year and then finish up in the fall. Um all staff uh must complete this training by July 1st of 2027. >> Any questions about Redact training or would you prefer to save questions for the end? I think we ask questions now. >> Okay. >> Get them all out. >> I think we talked about this before. Are you training some of the paras? >> Yeah. So, in addition to the trainings required for certified staff, the redact does also require training for par professionals and support staff who um provide reading support
011or reading instruction. Um we decided that we would train all of our special education paras both at the early childhood level, elementary and secondary level as well as other instructional paras. Um and so they participated in professional development throughout this year. Um the vast majority of our pair professionals um have completed the training and we have a small cohort who will do the trainings next year. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yeah. Do we get in trouble for the teachers in phase one who will not be able to participate? Because I noticed that you said they're going to get the second group, the no folk because they just came to Reachfield. Uh are there going to be any consequences for us? >> Um there are currently no consequences imposed by the the state um because the training
012isn't tied to lensure. That's something that Pelby has been looking at to make it a condition of future lensure requirements so that a teacher wouldn't be able to re renew without that. Um we've taken approach right now to not be overly punitive but to really understand what's preventing staff from finishing the training and then putting in supports like um doing some makeup sessions. Um, some of our instructional coaches have been working one- on-one with teachers who are finding the content to be difficult if it's outside of their immediate training. So, um, yeah, definitely want to to support them um, from a requirement standpoint in our local literacy plan. We just have to indicate how we plan to support teachers in acquiring the knowledge that they need um, that they have been gaining through the training.
013>> Okay. Are those concentrated or are those pretty spread out throughout the the district? >> The staff who have not completed the training, it's primarily um special education staff. Um >> as long as you don't have to tell me. >> Yeah, I won't I won't reveal too many details, but primarily special education staff. Yes. >> Okay. And that makes sense because they Yeah, they have a lot of paperwork that we sadly >> Okay. >> They do. And there's some that um it it doesn't have the same kind of relevance that a kindergarten, first grade, second grade um you know teacher would definitely feel to their their work. It's really important background knowledge for them to have, but it feels like a little bit more of a stretch at times. >> It's also a little like
014they already use a lot of those same initiatives as part of special education for literacy. So I anticipate for some may be redundant. Uh did you have any push back having letters elementary and Ola for secondary? >> Uh no I mean I guess what worked out is letters didn't have an op wasn't on one of the options for secondary wasn't letters. >> Oh okay we had to choose something different. All right so okay all right thank you. Um you mentioned for secondary um director Ward that uh it's the English language arts. I'm curious about the Spanish language arts teachers. Are they supposed to take it as well? >> Yes, they will take it as well. Y >> thank you. >> And there we go. Let's go to the next section. >> All right. Wonderful. So,
015uh we also invested a lot of time in improving our multi-tered system of supports. I know that sounds like one of those educational uh you know catchphrases or words that I maybe want to unpack a little bit more. So a multi-tered system of support is how we refer to the various levels of um individualized and intensified instruction that students receive. So tier one is what we offer to all students. We call that core instruction. Um and then we recognize that for students to be successful there are some students who will need additional supports, right? small groupoup instruction, um specialized um support in reading or math. Um and then tier three um even more intensified individualized supports. And then tier four is where we place special education. So um and then we wrap around those those
016levels of instruction with teams, right, that communicate with each other, that work with each other. um and then also um uh some of the service providers that you see pictured there. So at the elementary level, our our MTSS improvement work this year primarily focused on two things. First, making schedule changes at all four of our elementary buildings that provided a dedicated time for more flexible intervention and enrichment that students have previously had. So we did some crossgrade level grouping so that students um we would identify what their area of need was and then they might move to another teacher's classroom for 30 minutes to receive a more targeted small groupoup intervention. Um the other thing that we focused on was implementing a regular cycle of data meetings. Um and so we worked with classroom teachers,
017e teachers, special education staff to um have them all meet together, trained principles and instructional coaches on how to facilitate these meetings um and then really tried to align the various services that students were were getting. So there were two primary types of data meetings that we held throughout the year. The first is what we called universal screening meetings. So these were held in September and January immediately following when we gave our universal screening assessments. So during these meetings we would look at the performance of a class and the performance of a grade level. Um if we found that fewer than 70% of students in a particular class were not meeting the grade level benchmark, our teacher teams were supported in coming up with a classwide intervention or modifications to the core. Right? So that
018idea that if we have 70% of students who are are on track um we can support the remaining 30% with those intensified other tiers of instruction. But if we have less than that we really need to focus on improving core instruction for those students. Um at those meetings then we also created intervention plans um small groupoup interventions for those students who were in that at risk the highest um level of need. So we had those classwide improvements and then we also had more targeted interventions. In between those universal screening meetings, uh we also conducted progress monitoring meetings. And so the purpose of these meetings were to get those teams back together to look at how effective the intervention plans we created at the universal screening meetings were and then to make adjustments, right? Um do
019we need to try a different intervention? um instead of providing the intervention two days a week, do we need to accelerate it to three days per week or or lengthen the time of it? Um so it really gave us that opportunity to make adjustments um and modify the plan um in response to the data that we were seeing about students growth. >> All right. And then at the secondary level, um a couple things we've done to improve our MTSS in reading and math is in reading. A few years ago, students were placed in reading tier based on grade level, grade six, grade seven, grade eight. And so in the last couple of years, we've rearranged our offerings to um roster those classes by literacy need as opposed to grade. So we have mixed grades um
020classes getting um whatever they need, right? And so we're using the FastBridge universal screening data to place students. And then we've also in the last couple of years purchased SIPs to help our um media students with um phological awareness and phonics. And in the past we've served about 50 to 70 students in our reading tier. Um this year at the middle school we added literacy lab classes to support those students who are kind of between SIPs and our general ELA class. We're using Lexia PowerUp to support those students with word study, grammar, and comprehension. We also added reading tier to 10th grade. In the past, we had it up to 9th grade, but this year we added 10th grade as well. And so this year, we're serving an additional 70 80 students than we than
021we have in the past. Um, in math, we're kind of starting that work. Um, math traditionally has always been, you know, math tier by grade level. This year we purchased HMH math 180 and we're using FastBridge data to place students in that program at different levels. So we have some students for instance in the fractions book. We have some students in the decimals books book. Um and then we also to kind of help our tier one we also purchased for all RMS students to kind of support intervention and enrichment time in in all our classes. And actually I looked before I got here in this school year um we have the middle school students have answered 700,000 questions in EXL. So um it's been it's been used pretty well by the teachers and the students
022for um like a first year implementation. So any questions on that piece? >> I can I can definitely see the MTSS model being uh as it should be. I'm very excited. Um, so it sounds like instead of doing grade level grouping, going by skill, I know fast bridge does have those list of things that recommendations like you have to do this. So it makes sense that if a group of kids are getting the same recommendation that they are together regardless of where they are. Uh, have you uh what has been the experience with this uh new systems that you have acquire? I know it takes a while for things to get going, but how how are you feeling about how uh you said it's being used a lot? Uh how do you feel about uh
023students? Um I don't know. Can we see into the future like uh is he helping? >> Yeah, I I can speak to the elementary level. So the scheduling a lot of a lot of buildings will call it win time, what I need time. Um it was a challenge for some schools where the teachers weren't used to training students. Um you know as a former elementary teachers we get a a little bit like these are my kids right and so shifting that mindset to these are all of our students and we all have the skills to support them took a little bit of time. So there was a you know some bumps at the beginning. Um but we have definitely seen more benefit. we have more students when we look at their graphs where we're seeing
024accelerated progress because they're getting the intervention that they actually need. Um, and teachers because they're sharing students have the capacity, right? They're focusing on learning one intervention really well rather than having to deliver three or four different interventions to just the students in their class. So, that sharing of students has definitely been a positive thing. And then at the secondary level, what's nice about um Lexia powerupl HMH 180 is not only do they have like performance indicators or progress monitoring within them, but they also have fidelity usage checks. So like I we can see that students are using it, you know, the amount of time they should be each week. and we're seeing growth and I think we're going to get into this next but for the students um who took the fast in the
025winter we see we saw a lot of good growth but students who were using those programs so >> thank you the I I totally get the the the turf wars with the elementary grades as a former elementary teacher and I also know that when I was a fifth grade teacher I had to teach seven math lessons and I did have to uh persuade my peers. So, can we do some switcheroos here of students and because the block is not long enough. So, I'm I'm glad to see that you have dealt into this very it is it is more challenging that it sounds uh and so I'm very grateful to you for just jumping on it and and doing the hard thing that needs to be done. And then to the teachers for letting you bring
026them along. Thank you. >> Hi. >> Um I'm curious if any of the I've been over here looking up like I what's this? What's this? Um but I'm curious, do any of those tie into any targeted services or kind of like outside of the school day? Are they are the students able to kind of keep that that learning going into that out of school time? Um, yes, actually can be used by students whenever they want. And one of the things I can see is we I I determine what the school day is, you know, 8:30 to 3:30, and it'll actually tell me, you know, how many hours our students have spent outside of school in the program. Um, and then same with Lexia PowerUp. In fact, one of our one of our biggest growers um
027in the program between fall and January was using the program a lot at home. So, yeah. Do >> you give any kind of credit to these kids for doing, you know, keeping up with a certain schedule or anything? I mean like in a math class if you get to a you know if you get to 10% in ISL you get does it reflect in any way? I mean is there any kind of reward? We hope the reward is intrinsic and >> um I think that's at the teacher level. I think um these programs do a lot of times have like certificates or badges students earn whether they're printed off or whether they earn them on the platform itself. Um, and we have found middle school students like being acknowledged for being successful. >> Yeah, that's
028what I was thinking. >> Yeah. But then they also do goal setting around, you know, my fast scores and if we can show that when you use this program, it it helps your fast scores. Um, yeah, we're hoping that the reward is at the end. >> Yeah. think uh to play off that I mean the the badge is the gamification of learning and that's everywhere right I mean it's not you say middle school I'm like uh or in the corporate world I'm like that's I have another vendor talk to me about badging I'm like right so I'd be surprised if we don't right I mean it's like how do we give them rewards give them candy um but so the the The thing that got my attention too is you're just talking about schedules. So,
029uh I I know that like the laptops have a schedule for usage. Does this override or work under that? >> I don't know if I understood the question. >> So, I'm I've been a little bit away from this and maybe someone who's got younger kids can answer. >> Oh, got it. >> Yeah. Like the laptop shuts down. Yes. >> Right. At like 11:00 or whatever. >> So, yes. >> So, it's covered in. But, but you mentioned schedules. So, if I went to my parents' computer, >> do you see what I'm saying? So, >> potentially. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess >> not necessarily. Well, depending on who you are, it's not about they're continuing to learn in the Wii hours of the night. And yes, >> I don't want to Right. >> I always looked
030at that. I thought it was a slippery slope for us as a school. It's like you're depending we're providing feedback thoughts on when the kids should be awake >> inherently by us setting the time on the PC, right? Um or by not. And so it's a real So that just got my attention of like have we given any thought to how that aligns with other kind of IT standards? Got it. >> Yes. the programs at the elementary that we use. We don't use quite as many of digital learning tools for our interventions at the elementary level, but we do have a few like like Dreambox would be an example. If you went on to a a caregivers's device, you would be able to access Dreambox whenever you want it. Yeah. >> Okay. Is there a
031way to restrict it? >> Not that I'm aware of, but that's something I could definitely follow up with our director of technology, uh, Justin Steel on. And the reason why I ask and I guess kind of where I'm just driving with this is that for me I'm all about consistency, right? It's like again I as a parent I remember at the time going wait a minute this shuts down at this time. I'm like guess that's not the worst, right? Like but I'd rather see it consistent. Like if if we're going to implement a time structure then we should look at all of our tools and like apply that structure. It should be written down. I don't know if it's communicated and then we should apply it consistently. >> Okay. We'll give that feedback to director
032steel and technology and we'll work on that. >> How about this? Next time he comes in, if you could talk to it, that'd be great. Actually, for Justin, >> he's here. Um, I guess we're ready to move on the next section. >> Okay, wonderful. Um, well, as we are all aware, this winter operation metro surge um directly impacted many of our students uh and their families, creating significant disruptions to learning. And so, um, just as a review, we did create in response a temporary online learning program. Um, and it was designed to be a flexible virtual learning option for students and families who did not feel safe attending school in person. So, um, we really wanted to ensure that students continued to receive um, highquality academic instruction, meaningful social connection, and then responsive supports as
033well um, given the challenges that many were experiencing. So uh we launched phase one of this program the week of January 20th. Phase one consisted of primarily asynchronous daily work um with some synchronous support provided for students. So um as an example at the elementary level, our instructional coaches, our EL and our special education staff um provided weekly check-ins and assignment support for students who were not attending school in person. and our secondary teachers um did morning social emotional check-ins as well as afternoon office hours. Um as we closely monitored the situation, it became increasingly apparent that more support was needed. So we launched what we called phase two of our program the week of February 16th. And um as well as the supports that we were already previously uh providing, we added some additional
034supports. So, all of our elementary students got to participate in their classes morning meeting for that social emotional connection and then our classroom teachers added in bi-weekly um check-ins with students to provide support with assignments as well. Um at the secondary level, we actually started offering synchronous classes via Google Meet um and then continued with those social emotional um check-ins and those office hours. Um, so I guess what I would want to to leave the group with is that we were um extremely excited to end our program at the end of February, beginning of March, and to welcome our students back to in-person learning. Um, there was noticeable affective differences in the buildings when they were full again, both from students who were missing their classmates, um, students who were out and happy to be
035back in school and the staff, right, who really miss their students as well. Um what remains to be seen is the full extent um that this disruption to learning will have on our academic outcomes both our MCA um results and our fastbridge um assessments. So we anticipate right that there will definitely be um some negative outcomes for students as when you are not in school uh learning that's that's going to have an impact on you. Um, but with our MTSS structures in place, um, we're really confident that we'll continue to meet those needs and address some of the learning gaps that this this created for our students. >> And we're going to run all the way to the end at this point and then we'll take final questions at the end of the next section.
036>> Sounds good. >> You want us to stop again for questions? >> We have one to two slides in each of the next two sections. >> These are shorter. All right. So, um, curriculum review, as you know, our curriculum review process is aligned with two board policies, 601 and 612. And we've established a timeline, um, for curriculum review cycles that are aligned to cycles of review and revision at the state level. And so, this year, our focus was on K12 social studies. So, our social studies review process started with an evaluation of our current materials. We always look first at what we already have in place and if there's a need to make changes to that. Um both our elementary and our secondary review teams did recommend after evaluating current materials that we look at
037some additional programs. Um there were some identified gaps um at all of the different levels. And so our elementary teams articulated a desire for more primary source materials, um, more material that was reflective, um, of our indigenous populations here in Minnesota, um, and something that was a little bit more sequenced out for them. So, we've done a lot of supplemental resources in social studies, um, and they wanted a little bit more of a structured curriculum. Um, at the secondary level, there was a a articulated desire for inquiry. based projects as well as opportunities for differentiated text. So some leveled readings, making sure we had um texts that were available in Spanish for students. Um and so those were some of the look fors as we started to work with vendors. So we had several different
038vendors come in and do presentations, evaluated those materials as well. And we also intentionally worked to get some community um input. So those vendors at the secondary level were at conferences. The elementary level we sent out a community survey to find out what um kinds of social studies learning and experience um caregivers wanted for their students. Um and then we came to a final recommendation. So our K5 review team has recommended that we move forward with TCMS exploring social studies Minnesota. And then at the secondary level, um, two primary vendors, um, the Minnesota Historical Society has a fantastic, um, curriculum called Northern Lights for our sixth grade class. And then TCI has several products that have been recommended for use in our, um, other middle school and high school courses. So, uh, moving forward, uh,
039we'll be doing some summer unit planning using those materials and then developing assessments as well. and then math. And then when it comes to math, we are beginning the process of our math curriculum review. Elementary, um Rachel is going around to ILTS and teachers in elementary level seeing if we want to do a full curriculum review or if we want to transition to the bridges third edition. Um, sounds like elementary teachers have found bridges to be very effective and strong materials. And so the question is, do we want to do a full review or do we want to move to just the updated version of the current materials? At the secondary level, we really launched the review on our March 20th profession development day. The team is beginning to identify, spelling error there, um, criteria
040for their rubrics to assess current materials and future materials to consider. And in fact, um, myself and a team of teachers are going up this Friday and Saturday to the Minnesota Conference of Teachers of Mathematics to kind of learn more about the new standards and to start previewing some of the materials um, we might want to consider for review. >> All right, our final topic tonight for you before we take any additional questions, just a quick update on our department. So, um, with the new cabinet structure that you're aware of, um, we will also have some changes in teaching and learning that will accompany that. So, um, Alex will be moving into a new position as assistant principal at Richfield Middle School next year. Um, and our current positions as director of elementary and director
041of secondary will be eliminated. Um, we will be hiring um, two teachers on special assignment to serve as teaching and learning coordinators. So, um, I'll continue to be doing a lot of the work at the director level that we've done in the past, but then, um, being able to enlist their support in some of the the boots on the ground things too that, um, that we'll need some assistance with moving forward. Now, we can take some additional questions. >> I was waiting for the next slide, but open to the floor. Um, one I guess is just a comment. The So, the teaching create teacher created materials. I thought that was our teachers actually creating those materials, but it's a company. >> It's a company. I know that's a that's a weird name. >> They're listening.
042They need to change rebrand. >> It's a company that was founded by teachers. Yeah, >> because I was going to ask like how are we being efficient about like the time that our teachers take to create this material and then you mentioned that it was um a company so I went to their website and found them. Um I have a question about the math curriculum as we look towards secondary. if you could um just share with us um the opportunities for kids to accelerate their math um and some standards that are in place for kids that are able to take on even more to accelerate to to higher level math classes. >> Yeah, I mean to be honest that's um going to be part of the math curriculum review is really looking at our course
043progression um the way the standards have moved to an anchor standard. There's also conversation about course progression at the high school level. And so, um, I think all of this is kind of incorporated in in what we'll be discussing over the next year plus. >> Yeah. And I know a lot of districts, surrounding districts have, you know, kelk BC as offered at high school. And the only way you can do that is if you accelerate kids to get there, right? Um, and so looking at ways to bring that back to I don't know how far back in the in the age you have to go in order to get kids that are able to accelerate in math. Yeah. >> To that point. Um, so >> but yes, no, those are all things we're going to
044be learning about this uh upcoming week and talking and um having conversations about. So >> Okay. Thank you. >> Could you put those more advanced classes into like PSO or something like that? >> Yeah. And some of them are. Yep. So, yes. >> I love that you're doing human geography. >> When will this stuff be implemented >> for social studies? >> Yeah. >> Uh, next school year. >> So, this coming school year, I'd like to see how many kids go into human geography. It's as close to anthropology as you're get without doing, >> which please. >> So, kids can definitely take those additional math classes in PSO, but if they don't start that acceleration earlier, >> they don't have the opportunity to do that before they graduate. >> Yeah. more questions. Know I've always got
045something. Um, so social studies ask a question of we talked about kind of getting community involvement. Um, but we didn't specifically call it like Native American groups or trying to bring in Native American studies. I'm just curious what we've done along those lines. >> Yeah. So, we've actually had some collaboration with APAC to review our our um texts that we're looking at. So, u the materials at the elementary level that we the teachers uh ended up recommending, they worked specifically with indigenous groups within Minnesota. I can um get you the name of the organization if you want um to ensure that even the social studies standards that specifically reference um Minnesota indigenous commun communities are addressed within those curriculum materials. So that's often um something that's really difficult with Minnesota standards is finding things that
046are specific to our Minnesota communities. Um, and because this is a Minnesota specific edition of the materials, um, that's something that they very intentionally, um, worked on. >> And is that elementary only or, >> um, you've done some work with the native language revital revitalization grant? Um, I mean, that's more English language arts, but also some work in social studies texts. >> I'll I'll let you speak. >> No. Yeah. Yes. And that's and that's part of the work as we as we go through the materials and um start to implement the units is that there are um supplemental texts we'll be looking at and bringing in at times. But um one of the lenss we looked at in the materials is a representation of indigenous groups. So, >> so just from a time perspective, if
047we're implementing this in the fall, like shouldn't we have selected the texts already or? >> Um, yes. And then but there's also um there are some texts within within the materials and then we will be looking at at other things as we go along the way. We're also looking at um um experiences that we can incorporate into into the learning as well. So why don't you give a little more detail around looking at because I know you have some information. So experiences in indigenous education for example >> I can speak to so we've done yeah we've done some professional development with staff. So on two of our professional development days we sent a group of about um up to 50 educators. I think we had about 25 in the first and about 30 or 35
048in the second to Ho Chiat which is the Dakota Cultural Center in Shakape. Um several of those teachers both at the secondary level who attended and the elementary level came back very interested in talking about scheduling field trips for their classes um to Hoicata T as an as an example of that. >> Yep. And then we looked at um Snake River um the fur trade center for an Ojiway experience in the fall. Um and so those are some of the some of the things we're trying to build as as we go here. So >> Sure. And the reason why I ask and kind of push a little bit is is um I get that it takes an incredible amount of planning, right? Of which I don't understand. And so to that end, as you know,
049we're April 20th, you know, school, I want to enjoy summer, but as you think about school early September, right? We're not that far away from a planning perspective. And then at what point, like I'm assuming we're not finalizing it August 30th. So then how far back do you have to make that decision of here's what we're going to have planned for the fall? And it's just try to make sure that we like I understand I guess is the question I'm asking, right? Yeah, that's some of our summer curriculum writing is for that that purpose of looking at what are what do the publishers already have and then do we need supplemental texts and if so then how do we design lesson plans or or other activities to go with those. So and and it's I
050mean we are going to implement in the fall and curriculum review and implementation is always an iterative process. So we implement something we see what the gaps are. Oh, this did not go as well as we would expect. And then we have that opportunity to come back and say, nope, we need a different text or we need a different lesson related to this. So, you know, sometimes we launch and not everything is fleshed out because um we we want to be able to see how it goes with students um and then and then modify. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> More questions then? Not. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. So now we are going to provide um the first of well will be several over the next set of months
051of our strategic planning process and our strategic planning process update. And so I just wanted to reiterate some of the steps we have gone through to remind us where we are. Uh in October as we know we are completed with our current strategic plan at the end of this school year. So we had a board study session discussing our overall mission and belief statements. We took a phase one community survey with open-ended questions, had 68 responses to help guide our next step of the process. Uh January to March, we met with um 43 staff and community groups representing over 602 people. Um there are more, but we don't have the exact tally on groups. Uh gathered a wide range of feedback. Uh have begun our initial drafting process. Um and in late May or our
052second board meeting in May, we uh plan to bring a draft to the board. Um at which point we will also then share out publicly our draft with an opportunity for community survey and input and feedback on that draft. Um and then gathering feedback and over the summer our plan is to have a final draft for board approval ideally on August 3rd. Um or definitely coming within August. Um so as we have gathered that feedback and looked at things, our mission statement will remain unchanged. Churchville public schools inspires and empowers each individual to grow, learn, grow and excel. Um, as a reminder, um, in our study session, we also then moved into our belief statements. Um, and we did make some change based on feedback both of this group and of others. Um, and also
053made sure that we are separating out that because we believe in the above beliefs or principles, we commit to taking action to prepare students for lifelong learning and self-determined successful future. So, you'll recognize in there in this draft uh language changes. This isn't the first time I've shown this um language changes based on that initial input from the board. Uh from there, phase one feedback. Uh we received uh 68 responses to beyond test scores. What are things we're doing well? Uh what are areas with untapped potential? And five years from now, what one or two things would you like to have seen us achieve? And you'll see some of the responses led mostly by parents and guardians in that particular survey, followed by staff and then followed by community members um feedback and themes in
054our areas. You'll see some of those um in each of the areas um and what we are looking at. And so you see that in bulleted form which then led us to um our phase two feedback asking people to actually read our current strategic plan. Uh we did receive um um a range of feedback. It did lean um little bit more 50-50, 52% white, meaning um 40 uh 47.9% uh students or families of color, which is not fully demographically representative. Um and it overwhelmingly leaned towards staff with 68% staff, 32% our community. Um and so pushing us to make sure that when we do have a draft, we're pushing that opposite direction and really getting out into the community to continue to get more uh representation. You'll see some of the feedback which I'd say
055we are synthesizing summarizing uh certainly not um everything ac uh but this is an example what of of what it looks like. Academics uh we got multiple proposals to change it to academic excellence. Um and there was a lot of support for that. Um, and then you'll see some areas uh that were really pushed for us to examine. Optimized class sizes, expanded career in tech, elevated rigor or advanced learning, equitable outcomes, and an ongoing commitment to bi literacy. And so what you're going to see in each of the next slides, and I'll walk through each a little bit, uh, but briefly, you'll see what that feedback looked like. Again, synthesized, summarized. Um, and you would see more of this, um, after teams worked to put together the full feedback in activities proposed with strong support,
056changing it to activities and student engagement, uh, because those came together. Uh, focusing on, and again, many of these things are things you will have recognized either based on our conversations or things from before. Eliminating barriers to access, expanding our variety of programming, communicating, and having school spirit, inclusion, and demographic alignment. and then also uh team investment in that work. Uh business and ops suggested moving towards um and you'll see a notice yes some support but not strong support. So something we're looking at staff and resource management um and so looking at areas of HR and staffing and transportation equity, our nutrition and meals, environmental stewardship and tech and AI policy, climate and culture. um looking at strong support for changing it and expanding it to staff and student support culture and safety. Um and
057so something encompassing a little bit more um pointing out that we don't um repeatedly name staff in our current plan. So staff well-being and safety, mental health and seal support, inclusive family partnerships, and cultivating belonging and equity. And again, you'll see some of the examples of what is being suggested um again synthesized and put together. Um and then uh that last area, communication and marketing. Uh looking at something along the lines of community trust and enrollment. Um looking at streamlining our communication channels, focusing on both internal and external communication, uh marketing and overall reputation and then really looking at a conversation around retention. Um something we actually talked about recently over just specifically recruitment. So, uh, we wanted to give you a taste of what some of that feedback of over 600 were from. Um,
058next step is for us to work together to create that first draft to bring to board for you all in late May. Um, then also right after we share that with you, sharing that with the community to gather some feedback um, and hopefully presenting that final draft to the board on August 6th, guiding our work for the next five years. Um, that would then >> Yes. >> August 3rd. Thank you. uh and then guiding our work for the next five years with regular updates through reporting and vision cards. So with that I will pause and see if there are questions about where we are in the process. There's a lot of really good comments um collected here and I'm curious if you can share with us the like the full list of all comments and
059the board. Absolutely. Absolutely. Y >> other questions, comments? >> I guess maybe one other question. I know that a lot of this collection happened during Operation Metro Surge >> and so just your your thoughts or feedback on >> you know only a third of the respondents were community members. Does that feel like enough to go to this next phase or do we need to do something else first? >> I think from a perspective of the next phase, I think it's enough. Um, what I think it says to us is we really have to focus once we draft on pushing that out and really emphasizing the parent and family community feedback. Um, a lot of what we received, um, and you'll see when you get the comments, a lot of what we received was, "You're doing
060great, just keep it up." Um, and so that was one of the things we heard repeatedly, repeatedly, and repeatedly. Um, a lot from our some similar to what you saw in the survey. Um, a lot of what we heard from our bilingual families and from our families of color was that was a lot of the feedback we received. Um, but yes, restating where I started, which is and we need to make sure that we we really aim that direction in feedback phase number three to make sure we're covering everything. How how do you see that um that push into the community? Like what kind of plans do you have in place for getting that next draft in front of the community? >> Um well, that's a great question. Um I think what we what we're
061trying to do is we figure we're figuring out how to put together the draft. Um and then we do have typically at that last few weeks of school, we have outreach worker time. Um that isn't used in the same way. conferences are over, our survey is over. Um, and as we've seen, our outreach workers do an incredible job gathering input. Um, and so what we have brainstormed, but really haven't come around to it, is um, sharing the entire draft bilingually, but then also hitting some areas to really just ask some pointed questions. Um, because that is what has gotten us the most feedback. And we're going to have to work that out for those uh, basically that month of May to early June. >> Yeah. Okay. I just have one comment. You know, as I
062read through the feedback and stuff, it's just really nice to see that we have used I mean, I see a lot of what we talked about in the safe and support of schools with the with the kids and the parents and that's just it's you know, while I'm not surprised it happened, it's it's I'm pleased to see that, you know, these kids will see that we have listened to them. >> Yeah. I think we do such a strong job of communicating with our community and receiving information back and forth that much of the things aren't a surprise. Um you know for me the two things that kind of were like huh um there was some feedback in regard to career pathways and I was thinking yep we huh hadn't thought of that not not that
063I hadn't thought of that as a thing but oh yeah we probably could strengthen that area. Um, and the other one I saw in a couple of the areas of feedback was really around naming staff and figuring out how do we focus on staff outside of an HR resource perspective and we don't have that in our current plans. Um, again, not that we don't do it, but it is not there. And I was like, huh, yeah, that is a great, you know, one of the positives all the staff feedback is that was a great way to reflect back something that yeah, we do need to integrate that into plan this plan. more questions, comments or not? Then I'll jump in and say I I mean I like I like seeing this as well. I um
064>> for me, you know, as a little bit nervous when we kind of did an initial review of this and our discussion was is we like the bones of it, right? And like are we saying the right thing by saying yes, we're endorsing it? And I think what I'm seeing here is exactly what we talked about in the right next step of not going deeper, right? And I like seeing the all the retitles look like going deeper, right? It looks like we're thinking about not just we did good with culture, now how do we go further with it and how do we bless you, how do we go deeper? So I I'm excited to see what comes next and how we're involved with it. >> It's gonna appear in a month. >> Again, time flies.
065If there are no more questions, that brings us to accommodations. >> All right. So, we are in employee appreciation days celebration in our accommodations. Uh, April is National Occupational Therapy Month and so OT's are architects of independence who help our students navigate the complexities of the school day with confidence. They transform lives into triumphs through their adaptations and support that makes a lifelong impact on their students. So, thank you OT's. April 21, tomorrow is National Library Workers Day. So, thank you to all our media staff members for curating spaces where curiosity thrives and every student can find their story. Uh, their dedication to fostering literacy and guiding our young researchers ensures that our media centers remain vibrant hubs of education for all of our students. Then, April 20th to 24th is National Public School volunteer
066week. So we thank our volunteers who give their time and energy generously to enrich our school community and support our students growth. Whether they prep classroom materials, chaperon field trips, mentor young learners, their dedication helps us have a stronger, more vibrant community where everyone can flourish. So we thank our volunteers. And finally, April 22nd is admin professionals day. In RPS, executive assistants, admin assistants, and management assistants serve as those essential gears to our district's engine. They manage the complex logistics of our schools with poise and dedication and their expertise in navigating every challenge ensures that our staff, students, and families are always supported. Thank you administrative professionals. So, thank you to all those team members and we celebrate you. >> Celebrate you, Cassandra. >> Okay. The next item is approval of the consent agenda which
067contains a collection of routinely or fairly fairly routine business items that we consent to pass in bulk without individual discussion. I'll pause for a moment to see if there uh there are any questions or comments before we proceed hearing and seeing none. Is anybody willing to create a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> I move that we uh approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by Director Tomkins and a second by Director Cole. Any discussion? Hearing seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And the consent agenda is approved. Brings us to all business. policies before us tonight. Policy 703 student activity fund and other organizations and administrative guidelines 703.1 second read. >>
068All right. So second read just showing you some of the updates. Uh many of them um policy itself is in regard to branding. Uh we did reorder things and took some things out in the guideline u because those are in the policy itself and so we did not need those necessarily reiterated. Um and then most of the language is just really providing clearer clarification um on what each of these components means. Um and so we have that for you today uh for again a second read reading with changes with the branding and verbiage integrated um so that you can review that prior to asking for a recommended passage at our next meeting. >> Any questions or comments? Um I I just had one um question when um you know we often see donations that come
069in for athletics and activities that we approve the generous donations for and I'm curious what the um how do either coaches or leaders or maybe even engaged parents find out about those um donations so that they can use them for the appropriate Got it. So there's communication. Generally the donation goes actually straight to the activity office for example or to our clubs who then share it with us. Um which we then communicate that to the board. Uh they then remain in the activity fund. >> Um and usually they are given for a specific reason. Um and so that activity or club or sport usually moves on it relatively quickly. >> Um it doesn't usually start with us frankly and go there. It usually starts here. They're approved by the board and rolls themselves. >> Um,
070our major monitoring is also to make sure that Title 9 is being appropriately managed. Um, and so one of the challenges of donations in some ways is we have to make sure that they are equitably spread um, across all of our activities um, and don't over overexpend on one sport, one gender over others. >> Okay. So, um I think what I'm hearing is the administ the athletic and and um activities office lets the district know. But so what I've experienced in in helping out with some athletics is we never find out about a donation. And it was only when I joined the school board and was approving them that I was like, "Oh, >> huh. What do we what can we use that for for this particular activity?" >> Interesting. and and so just want
071to make sure that there's some intentionality of communicating out those donations to the appropriate people within those activities or >> we will take an extra look in the next couple of weeks um to make sure what that communication channel is and make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks and be able to report it to the board in two weeks. >> Okay. >> Well, that just to be clear that's like the responsibility of the coach to go ahead and spend that versus necessarily like the the booster club for example. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Our coach wasn't notified either. >> Got it. So, I've seen like if it comes from the boosters into the school district, then that's usually it's usually parents know, coaches know, those kinds of things happen. And a lot of
072times those are specifically reimbursing for things that have already been p purchased. >> Um the the few that I've seen are like community members that make a donation that unbeknownst to the coach >> because it was maybe three coaches ago that had a relationship with that community member, but that community member continues to donate annually. >> Okay. What one of the things that got my attention was um rollover and kind of the misconception that I've heard coaches or others make that the the money at the end of the fiscal year disappears and just rolls into a big donation bucket. And I'm like the policy clearly states that that's not the case except for like a uh senior party. So class of 2025, right? If not all the funds are spent, then they'd roll in. if
073it's class specific, but that's the only time in the policy that it says that. And I don't know if that's something that we want to reflect on, like should those funds just kind of get rolled into a general fund or should they go with the senior class, so to speak. >> Um, we've typically pushed them to the next senior class. But what I'd say based on the conversation is we need to do some double-checking internally of the communication back and forth. make sure that the carryover that is held is being clearly communicated and also that there isn't a gap between a donation that might come in here and communicating out to both the activity director and also the coach of a particular sport or the head of a particular club. Uh just making sure that
074we have that system tight and in place and so there aren't those examples that can happen. Yeah, I could see that being an issue where if a donation comes in at the end of a of a season and the coach is kind of disengaged and there's not money to spend anymore and then you roll to the next year and you don't have those funds available to you anymore. >> They're supposed to be. >> Yep. >> They should >> according to the boss, right? Uh I would say based on what I read earlier is that this that the wording does need to change about the carryover for the senior class because that's not clear. >> Okay. >> It looks like it the way it reads is it looks like it says it's it's designated per class.
075>> Okay. >> So we can take it offline but if you could look for that >> we will take specific look at that wording and make sure that it's clear and that uh aligns to practice. Appreciate the input to making sure. Again, one of the things we are consistently trying to do is make sure that the policy is clear and then that our practices actually align to what the policy says. >> Uh that which is one of the things that we also do which is a helpful double check. >> Any more questions or comments? >> Then that brings us to policy 613 religion in the schools and administrative guidelines 613.1. >> All right. And this is also a similar second read. And so you'll notice in the policy um it is just on page one
076uh formatting changes on the second page adding some new language in regard to statute curricular activity for rel religious observance or also clarifying combination for Native American cultural practices observances or ceremonies. Um and so updating that um and then within the guideline um I believe it is mostly just um branding and updating um to make sure that it's updated. So with that again second read on that have in front of you for review prior to um our next board meeting for recommended passage hopefully. questions, comments. Everybody's looking away from me. That sounds like it means we're good to move on to new business. This evening, we have several items discussed for new business, two specifically. The first is resolution to discontinue teaching contracts and place teachers on unrequested leave of absence. >> Yes. So, we're
077bringing up Mr. Holy um in Take it away, sir. >> Good evening. Thank you very much. Um we do have for your approval tonight the resolution to discontinue teaching contracts to place teachers on nonrequested leave of absence for five teachers. Uh these um teachers came to the presentations came to you in March. Which month is it? Um came to you in March where we proposed placing teachers on nonrequested leave of absence. Now we're actually placing them on unrequested leave of absence. That initial proposal gave them notice of that proposal and opportunity to request reconsideration for that. Um, tonight we do bring those forward for formal approval. Um, there is the chance that some of these individual may be brought back either in part-time or full-time positions once we have more certainty about where their roles
078will be next year. Um, so with that, we do ask for your approval tonight. And again, these are all based on budgetary decisions, not um related to performance in any way. >> Any questions? Actually, I have a question just for clarity and I know the answer and I'm sure it's sitting right in front of me too is that they will um begin that leave of absence when at what point? >> Um at the end of this um school year. Sure. >> So kind of our fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30th. So at the end of the school year they would begin that unrequested leave of absence and then would have rights to recall as needed to. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. >> And so I just want to emphasize that and still have
079rights to recall. And so what happens and this is this becomes this cycle, right? There are then job transitions that will occur in the next six weeks or even two or three months and sometimes some of our team members end up called back to the rights to the positions where they have rights. >> Yeah. >> Since this is a leave of absence, is there a time period when we will reconsider I mean just officially reconsider whether it >> um they rem they remain on that unrequested leave of absence for a number of years. So um as a position becomes available during this year during the budget process um or stepping changes those individuals might open up again this year. If something opens up next year or the following year then we would look to these
080individuals if it is a position for which they're licensed to offer them recall at that point. >> Okay. Is there a motion? >> I'll move to approve the resolution to discontinue teaching contracts and place teachers on unrequested leave of absence as listed here. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by Director Spencer and a second by Director Cole. Any further discussion? It's always a unpleasant thing to do. We talked about last time. If there's no more questions, comments, doesn't look like it. Then we'll do my favorite thing and bring this to a resolution vote. We'll start with Director Cole >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> Director Liss >> I. >> Director Tomkins >> I. >> And the chair votes I. And the resolution is passed. Not sure if I call myself a
081name. Uh the last we have donations. >> All right, so we have three uh gracious donation groupings. Uh Richfield High School girls basketball team received a donation of $5,38.93 from Spartan Foundation for athletic training equipment. So thank you to the Spartan Foundation. RHS boys tennis team received a donation of $150 from the boys tennis booster club for new rackets. So thank you to the booster club. And then uh RHS Spartan food shelf received the following donations. $50 from Jennifer Frost of Richfield, $100 from Barbara and David Craker of Richfield. And so, thank you to our generous donors. >> Thank you to our donors. With that, >> so I I have a question going back to the policy that we just talked about. So, the girls basketball season is over. I'm assuming, and it might be
082a terrible assumption to make, that this is for equipment that was already purchased this season, but if it was not, could that girls basketball team use these funds next November because it's after the fiscal year. >> I believe so and I believe so. Um I can double check and have the answer about the Spartan Foundation donation and the timing. Uh I'll have that at the next meeting or prior to that. >> Okay. Uh and with that, I would recommend that we accept these incredible donations with gratitude. >> I second it. We have a motion on the table to accept these incredible donations of gratitude by director Spencer and second by director. All favor say I >> I say chair votes I and we accept these incredible donations with gratitude. >> Sorry was even hopefully that
083was all caught resolution to accept resolution motion to accept the incredible donations with gratitude. I apologize. I didn't get yelled at by George again. That was weird. Like it was right and then it I I'm going to say it for a third time. We accept these donations with incredible We accept these incredible donations with gratitude on the mic just to make sure we got that captured. Thank you for our donors. Struggling tonight. >> I could hear him laughing back there. He probably has control of these back. >> I did. Yeah, George is like muting me. I'll show him. Thanks, George. uh brings us to advanced planning uh section of our agenda versus legislative update. >> All right, only a few weeks left in the session and it continues to be up in the air. Um
084good news would be that um there was a bipartisan bill um that is not expected to be supported by the governor to revoke the $250 million in special education cross subsidy reductions. Um and so while there is bipartisan legislative support, there's probably not governor support. There are two bills coming out um both from the governor's office and from the senate to support um hold harmless or a meth something close to hold harmless uh saving somewhere between one and $1.5 million. However, the house is split on it and they have passed nothing in that area and so that is not necessarily going to pass either. Um and so basically where we're at is there are bills being pushed forward that support our requests. Um and there is a lot of barriers due to the split house.
085Um that could mean nothing happens. Um so long story short, who knows? Um and so we will continue to budget with the we don't make any assumptions. Um and so we're going to have to have conservative plans within our budget um unless something surprising occurs um from the legislature. questions, comments. If not, brings us to information and questions from the board. Brings us to suggested future agenda items. brings us right along to future meeting dates, which our next date, which we're all super excited about, is May the 4th be with you >> at 7 PM as a regular board meeting and then May 18th, which will be our regular meeting uh opportunity for public comment. Well, so that brings us to our normal item of business is to adjourn, but tonight we have a closed
086session to discuss labor negotiations. As such, we'll now consider a motion to move into close session as law by Minnesota State Statute 13D3 D 13D3 for labor negotiation strategies. >> So moved. >> So seconded. >> We have a motion by director Cole and a second by Director Liss to move into close session. All in favor, please say I. >> I. All post, please say nay. Chair votes I. And we will be moving into close session. After brief recess, we will be in close session. Uh we'll return to this meeting room to officially adjourn upon completion of the closed session, but there will be no further business other than to adjourn the meeting. For those of us following the live stream, this will be the end of the session. Thank you for watching.