001[Music] good evening and welcome to the regularly scheduled board meeting for district 196 it is september 13th 2021. would you rise and join us with the pledge of allegiance and after the pledge of allegiance i'd like you to remain standing for a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all tonight i'd like to ask you to stand for a moment of silence for mark lutz mark was a school bus driver in district 196 our thoughts are with his family and with this 196 family thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen first of all approve the agenda um there are no additions or deletions tonight we have a pretty short
002agenda there are no items of old business no items of new business and no other action items so it'll be a relatively short business meeting here for the board tonight with that i'll ask for a motion in a second to prove the agenda is outlined second remove approval by sachin and the second by art all in favor of the agenda as outlined indicate by saying i i opposed thank you that passes on a 7-0 vote we'll turn on to recognitions recognitions by the school board and recognition by by the superintendent we'll turn it over to superintendent krieger thank you i want to start by recognizing our outstanding district 196 employees for getting us off to a great start for the 21-22 school year our students are excited to be back at school together learning in
003person with their teachers and friends making the personal connections are the foundation for success at the start of every school year we'll hear more about back to school in a report that four of our directors will be giving in just a few minutes but i will say that being out in the buildings hearing the stories hearing children's chatter that really does bring the joy that that makes us all care so much about public education also congratulations to the members of our district's award-winning finance department on earning the certificate of excellence in financial reporting for the 19th straight year the certificate is awarded by the association of school business officials international to recognize school districts that meet or exceed the program's high standards for financial reporting and accountability andy shornak a rosemont resident who currently chairs
004our district's budget advisory council said quote winning this award for over 15 years generates pride in our district and its efforts to go beyond the minimum requirements in providing transparency in its financial statements the comprehensive annual financial report provides full disclosure of the financials and is readily available to anyone who wants to review them this recognition reflects the hard work of the district's finance department and their high standards for financial reporting end quote thank you andy and thank you to everyone in our finance department congratulations to our finance department they do a great job and those reports are always available online next we'll move to special communication requests this evening people who would like to speak during our special communication request must submit a form at least five days in advance of our meeting ten
005speakers can receive up to four minutes each to share comments if there are more than ten speakers or requests a lottery will be conducted to determine the 10 speakers speakers may not allot their time to others and the use of a timer for public comment will remain remind speakers when they have 30 seconds remaining we expect speakers to finish their remarks when their time expires speakers are also reminded not to share complaints about specific employees or make inappropriate comments as a reminder opinions shared during the public portion public comment portion of the meeting do not necessarily represent the views of the school board or the district we ask that the audience are expected to remain calm civil and not disrupt speakers from being heard speakers when you come to the podium will you state your
006name and your connection to the school district our first speaker tonight is kelly kenley good evening kelly hello my name is kelly kenley and my pronouns are she her i have three kids who attend a district 196 elementary school my husband his father and his grandparents all attended 196 schools their family roots run deep in rosemont i asked to speak tonight to advocate for an expansion of the format for public comment opportunities on school board matters i have closely followed school board meetings since the start of covid in 2020 drawn in like many by interest in how the school district would handle the pandemic i have stayed engaged as the school board has tackled not only the pandemic response but navigated a recommitment to diversity equity and inclusion work within the schools i began with
007attending meetings online and then moved to attending in person this summer attending these meetings is hard i think we could all agree that the board meetings over the summer have been tense sometimes they have crossed the line into hostile i've had friends across the political spectrum tell me that they felt uncomfortable and have chosen to leave the meetings early or no longer attend at all due to the atmosphere in the room i myself was heartbroken when i realized in august that a school board meeting no longer feels like a safe place to bring my children i'll say that again a school board meeting no longer feels like a safe place for my children i fully understand the needs of the board that drove the decision to limit special communication requests to 10 speakers in the
008addition of listening sessions with a similarly limited number of speakers however i am concerned that this process and the overall tenor of recent school board meetings limits who is involved in the discussion and harms many stakeholder groups with its barriers to participation those whose voices are heard are those that are willing and able to stand up and speak in front of a hostile audience this is not a representative sample public speaking is hard but speaking at these school board meetings is currently next level intimidating in addition to having some serious nerves you need to have transportation child care and time in your work schedule to attend the meetings currently you must also be comfortable attending an in-person meeting where you are virtually assured there will be a contingent of people who are not vaccinated or
009following masking recommendations i know that anyone is free to contact the board with their views but those are private communications and do not contribute to the public discourse on issues in front of the school board i firmly believe that if you were to draw your conclusions from the special communications speakers over the last several school board meetings you would have an inaccurate view of the district's existing social studies curriculum and its approach to teaching diversity equity and inclusion as well as a skewed perception on community attitudes toward covet and the school's coveted policies i would like to propose that the board adopt a policy allowing district 196 stakeholders to submit written comments that would be published as a board document on the website along with the agenda and other materials for each board meeting the
010city of eagan does this for issues in front of their city council they are published on the city's website along with other agenda documents under the heading public comment adopting written special communications as an alternative or in addition to the 10 speakers at school board meetings and listening sessions would increase access to the process for all stakeholders it would eliminate barriers to participation related to transportation child care work schedule and health and safety concerns thank you for your consideration thank you [Applause] next is mary snyder good evening everybody how are you doing tonight how are we doing how are you feeling tonight my name is i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is mary snyder and i just want to let you know how much i appreciate being
011a part of this district 196 community i'm a parent in this district of two children thank you to those schools that got off my got my children off to a great start last week among many others under unprecedented circumstances thank you to you um i also have the true honor true honor of being a kindergarten teacher in this district for the past 25 years i'm also part of dakota county united educators which is which this organization allows me to advocate on behalf of our local students and i'm also a proud graduate of rosemont 1991 uh graduating class and i'm proud of that my main message tonight is about building a positive community i'm going to take some time to tell you what i do in my kindergarten class and what we do at five and
012six year olds to create a room of kindness and build a classroom of positivity when the world around us seems like it's falling apart i will continue to build positivity at five and six no matter what it takes i've been told the problem with me is i have too much passion that's someone told me that this person was having a bad day i have too much passion i wear that as a badge of honor and i will continue to have passion for children for community even for people that don't agree with me i will continue to do that so in addition to teaching all the minnesota core state standards in my classroom and there is a lot i teach children how to spread kindness how to work together how to teach i teach conflict resolution
013skills which all leads to building a positive classroom community i have the amazing honor of working with precious children each day your precious children each day and i don't take that lightly nor does any staff member in this district teaching conflict resolution skills to five and six-year-olds is not an easy task but when it comes together at this age it is truly beautiful i not only have the opportunity to build relationships with students i build relationships with their families which is special to me and i hold sacred dear to my heart each year i thank families for allowing me to letting me have the honor to be with their children their most precious thing in the world and for letting me be a part of their lives i am one of many teachers and staff
014members who want to make a difference in the lives of others we as a district as a district you are a part of this district every person in here is a part of this district we want to strive to create something that goes far beyond the walls of our classroom and far beyond the walls of the buildings we as teachers and staff members know that we are educating our future and we do not take this job lightly at all our hope is that we provide students with a path of becoming who they wish to be and hopefully taking with them a memory of district and people family members who rooted them on along the way even through the hard stuff even through the challenges that we rooted them on at the end of the day
015we are coming together to solve problems and work together like i teach my five and six-year-olds we want to wish them all the best and i want each and every m each and every minute each and every one of my students and your children wherever they are that we care about them and these are all of our kids no matter where we are no matter what district what school these are all of our children this district gave me my path my former teachers inspired me they made me feel how i feel today and i want to do that to the students in this district among all of our other teachers and staff members as well i give them the credit along with my parents this district provided me a solid education and now i have
016the opportunity to work with amazing colleagues and we work together and amazing families for the common good what is the common good nowadays we got to figure that out together right we are i have been trained by our district by best practices and we're surrounded by great minds of our own teaching teams but we at the end of the day we teach kindness working together growing even through the hard stuff thank you so much for listening and i speak on behalf of teachers and all districts thank you for letting us [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you our next speech speaker is ashley epis good evening ashley hello board members my name is ashley esses and i am a parent of two students in the district in an alumni of district 196 in its current second grade
017teacher i'm here to speak on three things my past experiences as a k-12 student in district 196 the importance of diversity equity inclusion for our students and lastly my values as an educator while sitting in our district board meetings i have heard many people speak against the advancements of diversity equity inclusion many parents were irate of the thought of their children being what they called indoctrinated by the teachings of anti-racism and critical race theory seeing this continued to fuel in me the fight to be a voice for those underserved and to sort of and solidified my purpose of why i became an educator due to my own experiences as a child and young adult as a black girl growing up in district 196 i saw little advancements in diversity and inclusion throughout my years in
018school when i walked through the school halls and into my classroom i did not see a community that reflected me or who i was not on the walls not in the books in the curriculum or in who taught me my middle school years were particularly tough i have horrible memories of my assistant principal at the time a man who was supposed to be a leader to encourage and build up his students and create a safe and inclusive learning environment but instead he tore down his students of color with rude antagonistic remarks this made learning the learning environment that felt that it's made for a learning environment that felt hostile and unsafe and made me and many other students of color hate school i didn't feel a connection with my teachers i didn't feel that i
019could be myself without judgment there were no educators at my school that that i felt safe to speak to about these awful experiences i was having not one of the teachers looked like me or could understand what i was going through fast forward now and as an adult having children of my own my children are still speaking to the many to many of the experiences i had as a student my the disappointment my children feel and the lack of representation within the curriculum still stands the racism that is allowed to be spewed at children of color still stands and it must be combated and stopped because all children deserve to have a school to have school be a safe place for them an anti-racist one where they feel safe valued and heard schools should provide
020an environment where all students have can learn and thrive our children deserve to have culturally competent and driven communities in schools this starts with all of us personally it starts with us dealing with our own personal biases it starts in our homes with the vows we teach our children it starts with all educators advocating for the needs of their students not just the ones that look like them or that they can relate to a person who is unwilling to deal with their own biases is one who is unwilling to create and create an environment that diverse that is i'm sorry let me start over uh one who is unwilling to create an environment that is diverse equitable and inclusive should not be extended the privilege to teaching and to teaching and leading our children if
021you are if you are unwilling to teach if you are unwilling to teach and practice anti-racism then you need to ask yourself what do you stand for if you are not against the problem then you are the problem as an educator who has the ability to develop my own curriculum within my classroom i implement critical race theory i have the ability and the obligation to teach my young students about the negative and hurtful truths of our american world history through the lens of critical thinking problem solving with the end gain of understanding and healing for a better world in my classroom my students are represented through my cult through their cultures interests and community they are represented in my classroom decor artifacts my books and my curriculum when my students come into my classroom they
022know that they belong they know they are safe and understood and valued when mike when they come in they know that they are that they matter because of my educational experience at the district 196 i was able to reflect and give my students better [Music] [Applause] our next our next speaker is cheryl likey good evening cheryl good evening thank you to the board for allowing the community this time to voice our thoughts and concerns my name is cheryl like and i've been a resident of rosemont for 20 years i'm here tonight to speak in support of the district developing curriculu curriculums around equity and inclusion my oldest two daughters were graduates of rosemont high school and the school of environmental studies and my youngest is now a freshman at rhs when i moved to minnesota
023from the east coast in 2000 we looked all over the metro for a area to call for a community to call home i remember hearing accolades about district 196 and this was a main deciding factor in choosing our home in my white middle class upbringing most of my exposure to people of different races and religions and backgrounds was from the tv and movies in school i was learning whitewashed versions of history i didn't understand then how harmful this incomplete story was to my way of thinking i hear some people say some recent actions like taking down statues of slave owners and disavowing the confederate flag is erasing history but that's the opposite of what i want i want my children to learn the full history but those statues and flags belong in a museum not
024on a bumper sticker or in public perks i want my children to know the sometimes brutal but honest history about how this country was formed i want them to learn about black wall street redlining distribute discriminatory drug housing health care and criminal justice policies and practice that continue to this day how civil rights leaders fought and made great strides but their work is not done but also to see that it's this generation that's standing up and saying we can be different we can do better i've heard enough stories from families in this district to know that we need to do better to make sure that all students despite their race religion gender or sexual identity are receiving the education that this district is known for the more i learn the whole truth i don't feel
025guilty i feel empowered empathetic and hopeful that we can learn from past mistakes with the truth our children can build a better future for everyone i also want to speak in support of our teachers in the five different schools my children have attended in the district i have been so happy with the education and support that they have received this past year while you're doing everything you can for our kids while getting attacked from every angle i see you and i appreciate you i know you want what's best for our kids while this is a controversial topic in the end we all want our children to thrive and be our best selves be their best selves we want them to come to school to learn knowledge compassion and how to think critically and for themselves
026i believe one of the best ways to do this is to know and learn about and from people from different backgrounds i hope district 196 continues to take this into account while building the curriculum thank you for your time and please remember to vote in the school board election in november [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is dana bacon hey folks i'm dana bacon i'm a parent in the district live in rosemont it's good to see you all again i spoke to you last month and i'll tell you my dad's doing well uh but tonight i'm here to talk about racism last month at the regular board meeting you heard from parents who said they were afraid that their kids were being taught what to think instead of how to think and that teaching
027about racism was poisoning the school curriculum other parents talked about how racial disparities can be explained away as a matter of people choosing to make the right choices in every case they suggested it wasn't the place of isd 196 to help students understand our nation's history of racism in any way other than as something from a bygone era it's hard for me to avoid an emotional response to these kinds of remarks racism explains only so much of what needs to improve in america but denying its destructive place in our culture and asking our schools through you to play a collaborative role in this denial it's reckless at best if anything our kids need to understand racism even more clearly if we're going to achieve the justice and equality all of us claim to want this
028is hardly the first time we've been at a moral crossroads like this more than 50 years ago president lyndon johnson assembled a commission in response to the 1967 race rats the kerner report called for major changes to address centuries of racism and included statements like these and forgive me for the language of the time what right white americans have never fully understood but what the negro can never forget is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto white institutions created it white institutions maintain it and white society condones it but in hindsight what was more powerful than that report was the note of caution that the committee received from a guy named dr kenneth clark he was a black psychologist and with his wife mamie they conducted those famous black and white doll studies
029outlining the harms that segregation caused even to small children clark told the commission i read the report of the 1919 riot in chicago and it is as if i were reading the report of the investigating committee of the harlem riot of 35 the report of the investigating committee of the harlem riot of 43 the report of the macon commission on the watts riot i must again in candor say to you members of this commission it is a kind of alice in wonderland with the same moving picture re-shown over and over again the same analysis the same recommendations and the same inaction so here we are again it's 20 21 now we're reliving the same kinds of tragedies of 1935 1943 1965 1967 and beyond i can appreciate the fear the anger and the misinformation that
030keeps some of us as we heard last month from facing up to our past but i can't bless the request to keep race out of the classrooms it's everywhere whether we like it or not and the only real question is whether we're going to be brave enough and honest enough with ourselves to talk about how we can end racism together as a society i ask you to continue to support a class curriculum that helps us learn our lessons better than before so that we can do better than before thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] next up next up this evening is drew hoffman i want to thank everybody for allowing me this opportunity to speak my name is drew hoffman i'm a fifth grade teacher in the district i've come a long way as an individual
031as a teacher and as a person within various communities i can remember very vividly my first multicultural studies class at st thomas when i first started taking classes to get certified as a teacher it was the first time i had heard about intrinsic biases and privilege to be honest i recoiled when i was told that i may have biases toward others or that i may have benefited from certain privileges in my life based on what i look like where i live what i believed and the opportunities i was given based on what my family had growing up i backed up into a corner defensive and said no way this is ridiculous i've worked hard in my life and this simply isn't true but as i listened more and as i had more conversations with people
032from different backgrounds truly listen to those that looked different than me or believed in something different and as i read and read and read some more i started to realize that racism and bias does actually exist and more importantly it existed within me and that was really hard to hear once i cracked that door just a little the self-worth was able to start i started to acknowledge thoughts that came into my head in the moment whereas before i would have let them linger and even worse i may have even acted on them i feel as though this self-work which started about 10 years ago for me has helped me understand people better and to acknowledge that every person has a unique story that shapes who they are what they believe how they act and how
033they learn as a teacher i encounter different students every day and it takes time to get to know them figure out what they like what they don't like get to know their families their pets their hobbies activity sports after that trust is built i try hard to learn each of my students stories in particular the stories of my tougher students who have a harder time learning because of behaviors deficits lack of focus lack of friends or struggle with the stress of divorce looking different identifying differently or sounding different than their peers every day a student walks into my classroom as a new student with a new set of successes and a new set of challenges it is my job as a teacher to figure this out and give each individual student what they need in
034order for them to give me their very best on that particular day i had a college professor tell me once in this classroom i refuse to treat you weekly but i will treat you fairly again at this time this made me skeptical because i grew up believing everyone should be treated equally albert einstein once said everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree you'll spend its entire life thinking it's stupid i'm a true believer that every student has their personal strengths as well as their personal challenges if i try to fit every student into the same box and pass them through as widgets on a conveyor belt onto the next year inevitably there will be students left behind because they don't fit the mold the idea
035of fairness that was proposed to me from my professor was my first introduction to equity and what that truly means within my classroom every year i have the same conversation with my students and ask them how they feel about this and the beautiful thing is that they they get it and they understand why it should be this way if a kid needs to move they may need a wobbly stool to stand that doesn't mean that everybody in the class needs that same accommodation if a student struggles with reading they may need to use an audio tool to help them progress through a book if a student shows up hungry or tired they may need an extra snack for time to rest in my classroom when others don't if a student comes from a tougher circumstance
036outside of school that student may need more of my attention and love because they don't may not receive that at home this is what equity is this is why it is important because every single student that walks into my classroom needs something different it is my job to provide them with that need every student has a story and the story needs to be heard the story needs to be acknowledged and the story needs to be accommodated for thank you [Applause] our next our next speaker this evening is ellie carter that was a that was a beautiful story drew thank you my name is ellie carter and i'm the parent of a second and a fourth grade student at thomas lake elementary i come before you today to respectfully respectfully request you to reconsider the conditions
037set for masking our schools specifically to eliminate the threshold at which masks would no longer be required my career for the last 11 years is as a board-certified infection preventionist at abbott northwestern hospital part of a line of health on august 26 at the special board meeting i didn't get a chance to speak that night um you all voted in support of the updated 196 covid plan and that demonstrated to our community that you consider safety a priority and believe in the science supporting masks you also knew it was not the direction in which some stakeholders wanted to go but you know masks work and i applaud you for choosing enhanced safety however we can do better by simply requiring masks regardless of transmission level neither the cdc nor mdh's most recently updated guidance for
038the school year recommend conditions for requiring masks in schools they both simply recommend universal masking indoors regardless of vaccination status and as of august 24th there are 19 minnesota districts many of them in the metro that have declared mandatory masking without conditions of level transmission the reason these recommendations are stated is because the delta variant is so transmissible even during times of moderate and low transmission it is so volatile that transmission can take off out of nowhere and according to mdh's variant update released september 7th all samples tested the mdh lab since july 18th 99 of them are the delta variant so let's picture time when we eventually get down to that moderate transmission level we want so badly it's anyone's guess what this next variant will be capable of there will still be virus
039circulating among people and still a very vulnerable and unvaccinated population in schools so let's not tempt fate by intentionally opening up our students and the villages surrounding them children's hospitals nationwide are already extremely strained to covet 19 caused by the delta variant and an unprecedented level of rsv right now lastly i would caution against introducing a condition of masking tied to student vaccination as of two weeks ago cdc reported about 50 percent of 12 to 15 year olds are currently vaccinated so i think it's reasonable to assume younger children vaccination will not exceed that level anytime soon once they are able to be vaccinated so introducing a condition based on vaccination would be essentially useless so i hope i hope you i hope i've helped you understand how the condition of transmission as it relates
040to masking in the 196 copic plan not only defies logic but cdc and mdh recommendations as well you've seen what's going on in other districts nationwide with their abrupt closures let's keep kids and these villages surrounding them safe and keep them in school by dropping the transmission-based conditions for masking and simply adopt universal masking inside of our schools regardless of vaccination status let's not look at this as an act of defiance to those who don't support masking instead we can look at it as an act of love for our children in the villages surrounding them thank you sincerely for all that you do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] our next speaker is jessica thompson good evening my name is jessica thompson i use the pronouns she her hers i am a parent of a currently enrolled student
041of district 196 i am here to request that the board consider a small administrative change to the open forum and special communications portions of the board meetings specifically i'd like to request that the stakeholder status of speakers be introduced verbally by the board both before and after the speaker's turn and published in writing on the meeting agendas and in the youtube video lower third labels the current regulations for public participation at school board meetings do ask that speakers give their name and connection to the district their stakeholder status before they begin speaking and that's also reminded here well many speakers do identify their stakeholder status either as part of their self-introduction or within the context of their comments some speakers don't it's my understanding that the board does have this information in front of them
042but the public doesn't and so it can be unclear at times who is talking even if they have identified themselves as a matter of accessibility consistency and transparency it's important that this information be made explicitly available at the time the speaker speaks so that they are giving their comment so that as they are giving their comments it's very clear what their stake is in our district as we've all experienced this year the comments made to this board have been pretty intense uh more bluntly there have been seemingly a lot of racist and scientists scientifically disproven comments and it makes a difference who's speaking certain stakeholders will hold more influence over or have more interactions with our children than others or more influence with the board or teachers or staff regardless of what is being said
043i think that most parents would agree that knowing who is saying it goes a long way to helping us understand what may or may not impact our own families and situations the effort to make this accessibility procedure change to announce and publish stakeholder status is small speakers already identify their status on their application to speak the board already reads aloud their name to call them up to speak and the names are already published ahead of the meetings so requiring that the board verbalize the status when introducing speakers both before and after they speak and publish status next to the names should take practically no additional effort i know there are many important items that vie for your attention on the agenda this change is small and simple but it will have a significant impact to
044those who listen to the comments it will better inform how we should consider the source and thus how we should understand the public discourse and disposition of our district thank you for your consideration [Applause] our next speaker is kyle thompson or kylie oh he's in the hallway kylie thompson i think that's what she said yeah we can go out of order we can flip are they coming perfect thank you no problem thank you for waiting good evening my name is kyle thompson my pronouns are he him his i'm a proud parent of a student in one in district 196. i'm just here to say thank you to the board simply put thank you for making the right call to mandate masks or face coverings in our district when the transmission level is substantial or high
045anybody that has youtube can see that you've had to sit here through some very polarizing comments you've had a very hard job to do and sometimes we the public don't make it very easy on you your hard decision is working kids don't care about wearing masks they care about making friends and seeing their friends in person you have our support thank you [Applause] our last speaker tonight under open forum is kristin capelle good evening good evening my name is kristin kapel i'm a parent of a rosemont high school sophomore rosemont which has the best teachers in the world and the best administrators and i also happen to be a pastor as i mentioned at the last meeting a little over a year ago after george floyd's murder a group of concerned parents and rosemont including
046myself hosted a gathering at central park we called that event listen and change with over 400 people in attendance the goal that day was for people like me who have always had the privileged and dominant voice in our country to sit down and listen to our bipark neighbors who have daily faced racism and discrimination in our community not one white person spoke that day but a lot of us listened to story after heartbreaking story of students in our schools professionals in our local businesses and community members trying to live their lives only to be pressed down sometimes violently by the very real dynamic of a systemic racism out of that event we formed a group of what is now almost 2 000 members who over the past year have continued to listen to voices of
047color in our community and all over the country so we can better understand the racism of our the racism our bipart neighbors battle day after day as maya angelou famously said to know better is to do better and that's our goal to know better and to do better just this past friday evening a bypass student in district 1996 sat in my house and told me heartbreaking stories of the racism they have faced in the hallways of our schools of being called racial slurs in our buildings even this year and of the st of the racism that they've experienced year after year it's not only our students of color who deal with discrimination it's also our lgbtqia plus students and anyone who is outside of the white hetero norm of our society who face daily uphill
048battles to be given fair and equitable education in an appropriately safe and calm learning environment i speak tonight because over the past several months i have been so disturbed and saddened by the rhetoric at the school board meetings and to be honest in our whole society purporting that the proper christian stance on all of the issues we are grappling with is one that profligates the audacious claim that the white hetero people who have had the dominant voice in this country for 250 years are all of a sudden being oppressed by equity and inclusion initiatives that seek to instill knowledge and compassion into our children about the systems that keep oppressed people oppressed first of all that stance in no way reflects the jesus that i know who always stood on the side of the oppressed
049having said that no religion should stand at the center of this community we are christian buddhist muslim sikh we are atheists agnostic jewish and baha'i we are a beautiful menagerie of all the people of the world which is one of the most miraculous things about this country and as a christian and as a pastor i believe we are all created in the image of god and deserve and are entitled to a fair and equitable education the hatred that has been spewed in our community and around our country is abhorrent so i want to make it clear that i along with so many people in this community love and stand with all of our bipark neighbors who continue to gasp for breath we love and stand with all of our lgbtqia plus neighbors because love is
050love is love and i promise to continue to strive to know better and to do better now superintendent krieger chairperson magnuson and all members of the school board if it wasn't obvious by now i want to commend you for bringing forward policies and practices that do better to create a safe and equitable learning environment especially for students in this community who have historically been discriminated against for the color of their skin religion sexual orientation physical mental or emotional ability socioeconomic status or any other way we sift people into categories i stand for and will continue to advocate and support education that teaches both the ugly and beautiful truths about american history that lifts up and values the presidents of diversity and that challenges and unites us toward a community that holds equity and love for
051all our neighbors at its center thank you for your time and thank you so much for your service on behalf of our community [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you next on the agenda tonight is the consent agenda items of the consent agenda this evening include the minutes of the august 9 9 2021 special school board meeting the minutes of the august 9th 2021 regular school board meeting the minutes of the august 26 2021 special school board meeting we have gifts advertising revenue treasures report for june 2021 scheduled investments for july 2021 summary of claims for july 2021 revenues and expenditures report for july 2021 permanent fund transfer schedule for fiscal year 2021 major equipment purchases and lease financing we have a personnel exhibit we have pay rates for substitute and temporary part-time employees we have pay
052rates for temporary or substitutes temporary and part-time community ed employees we have employee agreements we have employee agreements probationary we have a contract with dakota county sheriff's office for school resource officer services we have a student teacher agreement we have clinical school counseling experience from liberty university and we have a clinical school counseling experience for alder graduate school with that board i would ask for a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda unless there's something tonight someone would like to pull thank you promotion by mike in a second by joel to approve the consent agenda as outlined i'll favor the consent agenda by saying aye aye opposed thank you the consent agenda passes on a 7-0 vote will move on to items of report this evening and we are so excited to talk
053about back to school 2021-22 we're going to call it michael balsani sally salade janet fimmen and kya brown welcome as we move into hopefully somewhat more of a normal year this year i don't like the word normal somebody said that the other day it isn't our normal year it's a good year thank you very much good evening chairperson magnuson school board members and superintendent krieger i'm michael balsone i'm the director of secondary education and we're here tonight to present our annual back to school report with a continued focus on our theme of sea change in the areas of safety equity and achievement we've had the opportunity to visit several schools in the last two weeks and there is a renewed sense of positive energy and enthusiasm with all of our students and staff back in
054attendance we don't take these experiences for granted and we're looking forward to a strong year ahead i want to share a story to highlight the power of the positive mindset of our staff there we go these words come from an activity that happened during workshop week at one of our schools the principal asked the staff to submit one word during a staff meeting that describes their purpose coming into the new school year the school then took those words and created a word cloud and the way the word clouds work is that the words that are used more often show up in a larger font and so you can see uh if you take a few seconds to look up there you can see how they're sized according to how often they were submitted so in
055this case the most popular word submitted was love followed by connections perseverance hopeful patience relationships joy compassion and these are the words that describe the hearts and the minds of our staff as we begin this school year and as you can see we are focused on taking care of our students and preparing for a positive and supportive year we will focus our information this evening on three items summer programs student success assessment days and the school year ahead of us our goal is to keep our students safe engaged in learning in school in person all year long last year had a lot of challenges for families and we continue to make public health and safety protocols a priority so that we can continue our mission of educating students in the best possible ways kai brown
056director of community ed will now share more about our enhanced summer programs thanks michael coming off a year of multiple learning models district 196 staff worked to provide enhanced summer programming opportunities compared to previous years more opportunities were provided to students more students participated in a variety of ways and we employed more of our own staff members to teach and facilitate these programs ensuring high quality experiences of staff who know our students community education has always offered a wide range of programs for learners of all ages and this summer was no exception engagement in our summer programs exceeded that in 2019 prior to the pandemic it was clear that families and students were eager to participate in activities that were enriching inspiring and fun over 80 percent of the opportunities we offered ran or were
057full and served just under 19 000 learners we are grateful to the community for their interest in our programs and entrusting us to keep their students safe early childhood family education provided classes for parents and children ages birth to two years as well as special events and specific topic classes such as the power of showing up which explored the four building blocks of a child's healthy development nearly 700 enrichment classes were offered for youth with over ten thousand registrations cahoots are academic correspondence program preventing brain drain band lessons gymnastics and horsemanship camp proved to be our most popular classes we were thrilled to be able to offer over 900 swim classes and opportunities to our community this summer especially after reduced capacity during last school year due to the pandemic nearly 5 000 students honed
058their athletic skills got some exercise and some enjoyed the great outdoors in our always popular sports camps project explorer our adults with disabilities program was also able to expand their offerings this summer and host some in-person activities along with virtual ones including mini golf at king park hiking at various parks and lakes and some trips to watch the twins games adult basic education was also busy with 24 percent more students and 10 percent 10 percent more student hours than the 2019 summer session and 80 students in the diploma program earned 159 credits community groups were also utilizing our district buildings hundred scheduling 4 five hours of use this summer you have a delay sorry okay along with community education our district schools hosted a variety of summer programs in many different modes including take-home kits
059virtual and in-person take home kits were created with the focus on early early literacy activities for our k through one learners and also math in a bag activities ranging from emerging skills to multiplication for k through five students our reading recovery teachers extended lessons virtually to first grade students who were part of the program during the school year in-person programs were held at elementary schools and included stem enrichment summer accelerate can propel an extended school year in all programs social emotional learning was prioritized as part of the summer program experience we offered an array of summer school programs at the secondary level as well secondary students had the opportunity to make up credits for graduation and earned over 2500 credits this summer 650 middle school students registered for summer school to receive instruction in core
060subject areas and engage in enrichment activities a variety of other programs prepared students for success such as our freshman academies ell summer camps adventure camp at ses stem activities and math acceleration opportunities sally soliday director of elementary ed will now share how he prepared for back to school thank you kaya we now want to talk about our preparation and transition to returning to school this fall all of the following back to school opportunities have a focus on building relationships confidence and excitement of being coming of coming to school in person five days a week due to the pandemic last year our kindergarten bridge to school program was put on hold while disappointing it really gave us an opportunity to think about how we can improve this experience for incoming kindergarten students and families through this
061work it was determined that we only were serving approximately one-third of our incoming kindergarten students during the summer the end result of that planning team's work was creating kindergarten transition days that were were to provide equitable access to all incoming kindergarten students and families by moving these days from the summer calendar to our school calendar kindergarten transition days were held for half a day on both august 30th and august 31st these dates allowed for kindergarten students to be in our elementary buildings and online with their teacher and classmates the excitement and smiles were contagious from all as we welcome the class of if you believe it 2034. the students were able to calmly explore their school building meet school staff participate in activities explore the playground practice breakfast and lunch at school for the first
062time without the hustle and bustle of all grade levels present children were also able to experience riding the bus the program offered a parent education component that allowed parents to learn more about kindergarten and how they could support their child with our program improvements over nineteen hundred students attended kindergarten transition days compared to approximately six hundred in twenty nineteen teachers and families have shared that this new program was a positive experience for that kindergarten class of 2034. oh it'll take just some time okay too fast all right so now you've seen all our slides all right all of our elementary students have had the opportunity for a number of years to meet their teachers on assessment days and we have been fortunate to have that opportunity on september first and second elementary staff members were
063excited to welcome students and their families back to school and in person we were also excited to welcome 288 elementary students and families to our newest school 196 online for a number of our students this was their first time back in their buildings the assessment days were designed to build relationships by providing teachers an opportunity to meet with each student individually teachers were able to assess over 90 of our students during these two days across our 19 elementary schools including 196 online the valuable information gained from these assessments gives teachers data to tailor each child's instruction from the start of the school year now michael balsani will share about the secondary student success days thank you sally so student success day is at the secondary level were designed to welcome students back to school in
064a supportive environment focusing on social emotional needs relationships and back to school logistics such as locker combos school pictures technology devices and even learning how to read school maps some of the returning students hadn't participated in in-person learning for over a year each school developed a schedule that provided students opportunities to meet their teachers walk through their schedules interact with classmates build a sense of community establish routines and celebrate returning to school the photo on the right you can see up there is our new alc it opened up in our new location at the silverville learning center this fall i was able to be there on that very first day and that photo just kind of gives you a glimpse of the beautiful windows they have and the great view so that was a highlight
065for sure for that for those students student leaders also engaged younger students in a variety of schools with welcome activities and staff members were available to answer questions conference with families and prepare for a successful school year school staff is reporting that as a result of these two days the first day of full classes on september 8th allowed teachers and students to get the school year off to a strong start to talk more about that i'd like to introduce janet fimmen our director of special education thank you michael there's nothing like the energy and excitement of the first day of school it really truly is my favorite time of year and felt as though last year we lost that excitement so it's back our early estimates show our district-wide attendance to be up about 300
066students from last year bringing the district enrollment to a total number higher than before the pandemic began our district welcomed over 29 700 students including almost 800 students in early childhood programs almost twelve thousand five hundred kindergarten through fifth grade students over six thousand six hundred middle school students and almost nine thousand eight 800 high school students as you have heard throughout this presentation we are thrilled to be back and learning in person five days a week with covid19 mitigation strategies that are designed to help keep us learning in school all year long 196 online was opened as a new k-12 school in our district as an improved online provider in minnesota we currently have over 600 students k-12 enrolled and we are excited to be able to provide this option to our students and
067families in special education we started the school year servicing roughly 4 600 students district-wide over 120 students from last year all students with ieps had the opportunity to meet with either their classroom teacher or case manager before the start of the school year special education teachers will be holding iep meetings over the next several months months to discuss if there is a need for recovery services in early childhood special education staff connected with families and children prior to the start of school first using zoom to share information about classroom procedures and routines and then welcomed individual families and children to in-person meet and greets to start building the home school relationships the space we have available in elementary buildings has allowed us to continue growing our shared inclusion classroom model which allows the meeting the
068meet allows us to meet the needs of a wide range of of needs within one classroom this model offers offers students the opportunity to attend their home school in the year prior to kindergarten at dakota ridge we welcomed over 100 students back to school the majority of the students met with their classroom teachers on september 1st and 2nd this high attendance reinforced that families and students are eager to start the school year these chalk messages that you see here on the screen were seen at several buildings across our district staff appreciated being welcomed back with some amazing track drawings these messages were valued by all at transition plus our program that serves 18 to 21 year olds we welcomed 132 students back to school we continued with the theme of connection by investing intentional time
069to make connection and build relationships with our students similar to secondary schools because of the student success days our students were ready day one knowing their routines and procedures we had nearly 100 of students in attendance the first week of school at transition plus staff and students are excited to be together together again and i'll turn it back over to kyle brown to close out the presentation all right so moving forward once again community ed is offering a wide variety of classes and opportunities for people of all ages this fall both in virtual and online formats in order to engage enrich and inspire our community our early childhood family education program is offering nearly 40 classes for parents and children ages birth to third grade in a variety of topics including conscious discipline parenting during
070challenging times and grandparenting today a class for grandparents and their grandchildren just to name a few connections preschool our district preschool program for three and four-year-olds has over 73 year olds and nearly 304 year olds enrolled connections preschool continues to be a popular offering for families and increases in participation and demand each year right now we have over 143 year olds and over 164 year olds on a waitlist this is the equivalent of 10 half-day classrooms of which we do not have the space for in the district even with the addition of the new silverbell learning center youth will be enriched in a variety of classes including the always popular university language spanish classes which will be held at seven elementary schools across the district as well as a saturday morning sampler class a new
071class math fact fun will be offered providing an opportunity for extra practice using math tricks and games and martial arts classes are filling fast and provide a great opportunity for exercise and fun in-person and virtual classes have been created for adults to meet the interests of our community popular fitness classes including yoga zumba and pilates are back along with a few new additions cooking and bob ross method of oil painting are also showing to be popular this fall several class options are available for those interested in obtaining a professional certificate swim lessons will begin september 16th and the program continues to be popular as ever we are working hard to recruit additional swim staff to meet the demand water exercise is also available for adults looking for a low impact fitness option and for adults
072with disabilities bowling leagues are starting and we are already having over a hundred registered we have amazing volunteers from our high schools and they will be returning to assist with the activities we have planned adult basic education started strong last week with over 300 adults arriving to learn english work on their ged or high school diploma and again in-person and virtual classes are being offered these are just a sample of over the of the over one thousand classes and activities we have planned for our community this fall to provide boundless opportunities for our learners of all ages to learn and grow in a safe and inclusive environment in district 196 the sky is the limit for all ages thank you oh i got one more slide oh good sorry it's the delay there we go
073all right i'm going to close with a fun little story from the first day of at elementary school a principal was in the lunchroom during the first day of school helping children with their lunches and an excited kindergarten student said today is my first day of kindergarten my mom is not here and i'm eating dessert first each september our families entrust us with what they treasure most their children and we are steadfast in our mission to create a safe equitable and inclusive environment so that our community of all learners will flourish socially emotionally and academically each and every day in visiting schools and talking to staff principals and families it is apparent we are off to a wonderful start to what promises to be a great school year thank you [Applause] with that i'll ask
074if there are any questions or comments from the audience about the report before we move into the board discussion seeing none bored questions or comments what a great back to school if we got to visit several schools and what fun from teachers saying that they loved the success days before because they were ap teacher and they could get started day one to um seeing kindergarten kindergartners all excited on their second day of school knowing exactly where they were going what was going on and a teacher walking through there and looking at their lunch boxes and going was this a snack or was this your lunch and they weren't 100 sure but i'm sure everybody worked that out during the day to music teachers excited as heck because somebody in their elementary school was going to
075play the tuba to teachers doing all kinds of sharing so congratulations to a great start as a kindergartner told me with about the masks we only have to wear until the virus goes away and that's okay so we want to make sure all our students are safe and have a full chance to have a full year in classrooms so thank you to everyone for all the hard work and thank you for everybody for wearing masks any other questions or comments from board members thank you we're off to a great start not back to normal we're off to a great start go looking at our agenda this evening we have no items of old business we have no items of new business we have no other action items this evening we'll turn it over to board
076members and superintendent updates board members with anything they'd like to update us craig i'd just like to say i'm glad to see that people are showing their community spirit again back in the stadium seeing the football teams i personally have seen three of our four high school football teams already east view marching band had a big festival last saturday at eagan and rosemont is the 25th of this month if you want a good entertainment it's uh five o'clock on the 25th at the rosemont high school it's great you can hear our kids all practicing all the time so it's great community spirit out there thank you everybody sachin thank you um over this past uh about year or so we've gotten a lot of messages many of them in support but some of them quite
077a few of them deeply personal and particularly cruel as well and i want to share a quick story because perhaps the ones that impact most of us here definitely impact me are those who accuse our educators of indoctrination this past friday we got a chance to visit one of our schools and what we saw in that school was our educators pouring all of themselves into their students wanting to instill in each student each child the belief that they are enough that they are loved and they have the infinite potential to achieve their most wildest ambitions and as a parent of two bi-racial daughters i couldn't be any more grateful to have my kids attend our schools and i take particular exception whenever folks accuse our educators of being a preaching indoctrination so i am grateful
078i'm grateful to see that we're off to a wonderful start and i appreciate the community as it's coming together for us to charter better together in the future and lead with the examples our kids are taking us into thank you [Applause] thank you sachin any other board members with items they'd like to report this evening we'll turn it over to superintendent krieger okay first i would like to encourage all district 196 parents and guardians to update your family's information on record with the district by completing the online review in your infinite campus parent portal account this is important it is the one time each year the district asks parents to complete the review to ensure that schools have up-to-date contact information emergency contacts student health records and more it's important for schools to have current
079information in order to be notified in case of emergency changes in the school schedule and to receive regular communication from the schools and district all parents and guardians are encouraged to have their own infinite campus peer and account to start an account contact your child's school to receive an activation key and i'll end with some information on our school board candidates forum the league of women voters of dakota county is holding a virtual candidates form for candidates seeking election to the district 196 school board the september 29th form will be recorded and available to view afterward on the district 196 youtube channel district 196 tv and other local access channels this form is not sponsored by the district please be informed and participate by voting speaking of voting absentee balloting for the school board election
080begins this friday september 17th eligible voters do not need a reason to vote absentee absentee ballots can be completed by mail or in person at the district office in rosemont or one of the dakota county government centers located in apple valley hastings and west st paul eligible voters can also cast their ballot during early in-person voting the week before the election or on election day tuesday november 2nd at their designated school district polling place and just to end i want to share the enthusiasm we've heard from our report and others it has been an absolute privilege and honor to be with our kids and our staff as we started a great school year so thank you yes exactly thank you and thank everyone in this community for what you've done to keep our kids in
081school full time thank you our we're at the end of our meeting this evening and so i will ask for a motion to adjourn second a motion by joel in a second by corey to adjourn the meeting all in favor of adjournment indicate by saying aye aye thank you we're adjourned our next regularly scheduled board meeting is september 27th good evening [Music] you