001is now called to order. It is May 7th, 2025 and the time is 6:30 p.m. Our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, prepare, empower all learners in partnership with their surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Heather, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? 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. Thank you. And then when you're ready, can you please call a roll? The following board members are present. Oops. at the district administration office. Scott Andre here. Natalie Copeland here. Al Dalgrren here. Zack Doorhold here. Diana Fenton here. Shannon Haw here. Heather Williams here.
002The following cabinet members and staff are president of the district administration office. Superintendent do Dr. Lorie Putnham, assistant superintendent of secondary education. Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of E5 learning. Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E12 educational services. Shannon Avenson, executive director of community education. Adam Holm, executive director of human resources and labor relations. Tracy Flynn Bau, executive director of operations, Joel Heightamp, executive director of special projects, Gary Ganji, director of community engagement and communications, Tammy Dand, media technicians, Paul Novak and Gordy Scott, and the custodian on site is Austin Goodwater. Thank you. Then I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's board of education meeting and work session agenda. So move. Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? Shannon Hos, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Zack Doholt, yes. Al
003Dalgrren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Okay. And then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items that the board adopts routinely without debate. Any member may single member may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. On tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of personnel staff changes. Item B, approval of monthly finan financial reports for March 2025. Item C, approval of monthly treasures report for March 2025. And item D, call for bids milk. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? Okay, looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as read. So move second. Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can
004you call vote? Natalie Copeland, yes. Zack Dhold, yes. Shannon Haw, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Al Dalgren, yes. Scott Andre, yes. All right, thank you. Um, up tonight we have oneformational item. Always looking forward to this. We have the community education and adult basic education update. We have Adam Holm, executive director of community education. And then we have Jennifer Noble, supervisor of community education program and Carolyn Durhouse, supervisor of adult basic education. And then some wonderful guest speakers tonight. Looking forward to this. Thank you for joining us. [Music] In my classroom, how I try to create a sense of belonging is just in very simple ways where I try to show them I'm happy to see them. I use their name. I um will interact with them. I let them know that they
005are important to me and important to our classroom. And so I think that's just overall kind of what we do here. Like we want people to feel like they belong. Um this is a safe place for them. You can be comfortable here. We will help you. And then they're learning. They work so hard to learn. We practice working on things where they can communicate with their doctor. They can communicate at the store. They know how to speak about money and bills and things like that, the things that they need every day. And hopefully it just makes them feel more comfortable dealing with those things. Adult education is a service that we provide to adults who are 17 years of age and older, who are not enrolled in the K12 system, and they're coming to us
006for either one of two reasons. They'd like to learn English as a second language or they are coming to study to get their GED or adult diploma. I need to learn English. I'm coming to to speak reading, writing is something important to me. Before I didn't know anything, now I know everything little bit. I read little bit. I understand everything now. Read and writing. Bus is my folks and I like it and I understand it now. I'm not like before. Feel like when we're here in class, we'll do things together like they'll do activities where they work with a partner or we play games and have fun together and um yeah, it's it's really good for them. [Music] Kids Connection is a before school program that helps families um give their kids a place to
007go before school starts. If they have to get to work earlier than normal, it just gives them a place to go and just hang out in the mornings. Gets them in routine in a space they're comfortable with. Just having that solid routine is helpful for all children. And I love giving them agency. Like the schedule is very important. So we do stick to a schedule and I have the kids help me. They get some agency in writing the schedule for each month. Each month we write a new one. I really would like to empower them to have their voice heard and that really does kickstart that sense of belonging right away for anyone who's coming in and maintaining that is to give them that opportunity to share what they think. Having it at the schools
008helps the parents just have that comfort of knowing like this is a familiar location. There's no what if? How's my kid going to get to their class? Where are they going to go? So, it helps get rid of that worry for them cuz they do have a spot for their kids to go and they know that it's a safe place for them to be and to know that they'll go to school and like get to their classes when they need to. I love AB. We love kids [Music] connection. And thank you to our communications team for this video to help us tell our story. Well, good evening everyone. My name is Jennifer Noble and I am the supervisor for community ed. We're excited to share a program update with you this evening. The district 742
009adult enrichment program gives participants a chance to sample affordable activities, refine skills, socialize, and pursue interests. Our instructors come from the community and have a genuine desire to share their knowledge with you. These fees supported activities are located in our community or in our school buildings. With a wide range of choices, adult enrichment truly has something for everyone, including fitness programs such as the walking program and open gym. This past year, we had 6,81 total open gym participants at elementary and middle schools. Open gym pickle ball is quickly shaping up to be a favorite. Adult enrichment classes are offered in a variety of categories such as health and fitness, computer and technology, finance, dance, creative, home and garden, food, special interest, travel, and more. This past year, we had 1,162 adult enrichment participants, which are
010unique users of the program, sign up for classes. A highlight was the driver discount program for adults ages 55 plus which is offered in conjunction with SCSU and the precision driving center. Participants completing this course can save money on auto insurance. Other adult enrichment classes this past year which were favorites include yoga, pottery, line dancing, and learning how to cook a variety of cultural foods. Project Challenge offered through District 742 provides speciallydesed communityed programs for anyone 16 years of age or older with a disability. And we aspire to provide classes that foster independence and personal growth, teach basic living skills as well as to spend time with friends by offering recreational and social opportunities for them. This past year, Project Challenge served 211 participants with 2,631 enrollments. We offered 172 classes in the categories of
011arts and crafts, just for fun, recreation, and fitness, special events, and trips. Popular classes such as bowling and movie nights are held at area business locations, and our newest fitness class, wellness beats, is offered through recre therapeutics. We also partner with ARC Minnesota on classes. ARK works with across the state to provide advocacy and information for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their trusted supporters. Thank you. Through our youth enrichment program, we strive to help young participants pursue their interests, expand their abilities, and develop their creative side in a safe, friendly, and inclusive environment. These programs take place at a variety of times and locations and are offered for preschool through high school age kids. This past year, we served 3,31 participants with 252 unique users. Through youth enrichment, we offered 658 classes including
012arts and crafts, food, sports, recreation, food, babysitting, horse camps, technology, drones, BMX, nature, and more. We also held 298 aquatics classes through youth enrichment with 1,124 participants with 785 unique users. Our summer registration is open and we are hiring. As a district, we also had 1,079 active volunteers, including Apollo and Tech High School National Honor Societies, Apollo Swim and Dive, and the City of St. Cloud Retired and Senior Volunteer Program RSVP volunteers who supported the One District One Book Literacy Program launch event at program sponsor Shield Store. And last but not least, a big shout out to the Madison Elementary volunteers who logged 650 hours in March alone. Volunteer applications for 2025 to 26 school year can be found under community ed on the district website. We invite all members of our community to take
013part in one or several of our classes, activities, and programs targeted towards enriching the lives of individuals, friends, families, and students. And if you see something you like, share it with someone else who may enjoy it, too. And now I'd like to introduce Caroline their host, supervisor for adult education. Caroline, good evening. Thank you so much for having us. Okay. Um, in the state of Minnesota, adult education is divided into consorcia. We are part of the Central Minnesota Consortium. We have 30 school districts, 14 active sites, and 1,900 students. In our immediate St. Cloud area, we have 880 students. And in the St. Cloud area, we offer 35 different classes at five different sites. Our largest site by far is Quarry View. We are very busy over there. We have a site in St. Joseph.
014Um Lac Cruz Community Center which is over by the college. Um a site at the Great Rivers Regional Library downtown. And then a site in Sartell. All right. In the video, you heard me describe our two main populations that we serve. Um, so our largest population are those seeking to learn English. We have six levels of English language classes. We also offer state standard adult diploma and GED classes. Um citizenship and people can also come to us to just beef up their um reading and writing skills and to prepare for the ACUPPLACER. And this year our career pathway class was English for child care. This year I conducted a school climate survey. Um I really wanted to measure the four pillars of our school district. Safety, collaboration, excellence, and belonging. And I was very very
015pleased with our results. And I think it's a real testament to our dedicated and professional staff. Uh 92% of the 277 students who responded said all students in my school are treated equally. 97% said yes, the teachers treat me with respect. 97% said teachers care about me. 96% said they feel like they belong. 99% said they are learning in my class and the same for the things I am learning are important to me. This is a graph that just shows our growth over the last five years and yes, we are still growing. Um this is in the St. Cloud area and uh we just finished our contact hour reporting year and we finished um over 90,000 hours this year. Our graduation ceremony is coming up. We have about 78 people so far who have passed
016either their GED or their adult diploma. This year's ceremony is at 6:00 on May 28th at Tech High School. And I know many of you like to see that. So, um I hope you'll be able to join us. And before I turn it over to my student speakers, I would like to say um partnerships and relationships in the community is something that I value and is important. Um we have a few different special partnerships. Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization allows us to hold classes at L Cruz. We have a relationship with Career Solutions, the workforce center. uh they send a representative over to enroll our 17 to 24 year olds in a program and once they finish either their GED or adult diploma they may be eligible for free training at the technical college. And
017then other partnerships like the once upon a child donations have been very much appreciated by our students and we make sure that um both our daytime and our evening students have access to those. So thank you all for your support of our program. And now I would like to introduce the first speaker. Her name is Sharon Randall. and Sharon, you will have to explain the significance of the Culver's treats. Okay. Hello. How you guys doing today? My name is Sharon. I just want to say that I am very grateful to be here today. Can you guys hear me? I do talk loud, but I won't talk too loud right now. So, um, my journey is I came a long way to get here. Right. My story goes way back yonder. So, um, I was born
018and raised in Chicago, Illinois. It was like a struggle. Um, I was like, uh, got into some lot of stuff and, you know, using drugs and stuff like that. I had kids at a young age, hanging out. School wasn't, no, I ain't see no interest going to school. The teacher throw you something, say, do it. I ain't know what it was. Hey, when they let me out, the bus let me out. I'm going through the front door and out the back door that smoking weed doing whatever. So I didn't see no interest in going to school back then, you know. So as I got go along, I don't want to cry. I never cried in a while, but it's so emotionally not, but it's a good emotion, right? So as I got um older, I
019was abused, you know, and all this stuff, you know, I gave someone power over me, right? So when I learned how to take that power back, right, I grew. I always had God in my heart. I left him, but he never left me. So when I came around and I prayed, I got on my knees. I just say, "God, use me." And with that being said, I went to the rehab and I followed through. Went to the rehab. I was consistent, you know. I was getting in trouble and the judge told me she had the keys. She shook the keys. She said, "These are the keys to you guys successful." Right. I told I raised my hand, your honor. Disrespect, but those keys do not belongs to me. You going to have this first drop
020going to be dirty, but the rest of the drops are not going to be dirty. I had a second chance. I said, "Okay, God, I see you. You working through peoples. I see you." So, I really I did the program. I did whatever I had to do. They called me a rock star. My drugs, my test were never dirty anymore cuz I wanted a chance. When I went to the program, they asked me, "What do you want to do?" I said, "I want to make a change." And I changed. So, with that being said, I've been c I celebrate within a few more months, 10 years clean from drugs, from anything, right? I was consistent. I took my life back. I was very determination to come back to school. So when I came to AV
021AB right program and I I had Googled it up I live up the street right down the street from it. No excuse. So when I came there I took the test I was qualified. So um Naomi I never forget it like yesterday. She said well you know it's a lot of people you on wait list. As I turned around to go down the stairs, she said, "Oh, wait a minute, Sharon. It's room." I said, "Okay, God, I see you again. Keep on, keep on." And I knew at that time it was for me. You know, it was my turn. It was my turn to keep on going. I never gave up. I kept going. I kept going. I kept going. And it was my job to make sure I get my high school diploma. I
022will be 61 years old. And you know what? You're never too old to learn. And you know what, guys? I feel so grateful this program, all the teachers. I I am so glad that you guys and you know we have this program to help us out. You know, when I got there that math, oh my god. I was like uh uh no. I was like, "No, what you talking about? You got to do algebra." I said, "When? I don't even know that." But when I got there, the teachers helped me to understand what I was doing. I've been acing it. I've been getting hundreds. I've been getting 90s. I've been getting 80s. All my classes, I've been doing it. I have no low grade. No low grades. I've been doing it. So, with that being
023said, I'm I'm going to graduate next year. But it's okay. But I gave my diploma in about two months. And I am so very grateful, y'all. When I say I want to have me a prom. Yes, I do. I want to have a prom, y'all. I'm going to go through the ocean. Bam. you know, I want to if I have to come out my pocket, I will. Just it's something that I, you know, made priority for me to do. And for you guys, I really appreciate you guys for being here for us to have the opportunity to to for us to learn without y'all. I don't know where I'd be. And the teacher, especially Carolina, oh my god, all the teachers. I see you back there, Drew. He picks my brains. I promise you, my
024teacher. Yes. He picks my brain. I'm glad he here to support me, you know. and I just give out the energy, good energy, because I want everybody to win, you know. With that being said, I really appreciate it. I'm going to give it to you. Okay. Thank you guys. [Applause] Thank you so much, Sharon. And Sharon, can I The custard you have is because of Sharon. She works at Culver, so that was her treat for you all tonight. only Adam did it. Thank you. Okay, our next student speaker is Maria Del Rosario Kamacho Castellan. Hello everyone. Uh first of all, thank you for this opportunity today to talk about this wonderful program that is IV. Um my name is Maria Kamacho. Uh I was born in Minnesota, but I was raised in Mexico. Um, four
025years ago, I had to pack 20 years of my life and in a suitcase and lay leave everything behind, my family, my friends, and everything I knew to move to Minnesota uh with the hope of a better future. Um, my mother language is Spanish. So, when I came back to Minnesota, I didn't know any English at all. Um, one day I heard about this program from one of my brother's friends. Um, and I got I stopped by Quarry View to get registered a week after that. I was really interested in learning English, so I got tested the same day and I got placed into the level one and two of ESL classes. Um, at first I didn't understand very well what was going on in class. But something I would like to say is that
026teachers and staff were always very kind and very patient. Um, and I really like the classes. I tried to push myself uh to learn the new vocabulary and practice speaking and listening as much as I could. Um, that way I made it to the level three and four and I went to school every day without missing any class. Um then I got tested again and I got into the level into the level five sorry and after that I got into the level six. Um it took me a year to get to this level uh that is the highest level of ESL classes and once I got into the level six I got offered the GED and diploma classes. Uh I already graduated from high school in Mexico but I am looking forward to go to
027college. So this seemed like a great opportunity to me to improve my English and prepare to go to college. So I started um diploma classes with Drew too. Um and after a while I got a job offer and to work at Discovery Elementary School working as a clerical. I was working in a retail store at that time. So this was a big opportunity to me. I applied to the job. I got an interview and I got the job. It made me very happy. And a few months later, I got another job offer to work at Quarview working as a clerical too in the AB program. Um, and now I work with amazing people and I help a Spanish speakers and both of my jobs. Um, and that's something I could not even imagine when I
028first came back to Minnesota. Um, I keep preparing myself to go to college because even if I am away from my family, I want to make them proud. So now being a small part of the IB program, that makes me very happy. Thank you. [Applause] Before we ask for questions also so people understand Maria's journey. So she works at 10:30 in the morning at Discovery and then then she takes the bus cuz we're on the bus line and then from Discovery then at night you come and you work night school for AB. So she works you know at Discovery during the day and then at night and then on weekends and other days she works for a local retailer. So really she has three jobs. She's going to school and eventually you're going to become
029a a teacher and hopefully in our district. Yes, that's what we push to her all the time. So, are there any questions? Scott, what brought Maria back to Minnesota? You said you were you were born here and I assume your family went to Mexico. what brought you back? Um, so my mom took me to Mexico when I was one year old and I have um my oldest brother living here. He he's been living here for 23 years now. Uh so he asked me uh two weeks before I got into Minnesota like if you want to come to Minnesota and you know go to college here and I said yeah and I just prepared in two weeks. I got everything on my suitcase and I traveled like 20 hours to get to Minnesota. Yes. Thank you.
030Thank you. Adam, can you talk a little bit about the different sources of funding? So like in community ed, I know we get the magazine and there's a charge for um all of the different classes. Does that cover the full cost as well? I mean, do the teachers also get a portion of that? How does that work? And then like with AB, um h again, where do where do funding sources come from? Yeah. So, with AB, there's four funings, four different streams. Population. Um and you can probably rattle them all off, but there there's just four categories and then from that, but our main source of funding is contact hours. So when you see we're over 90,000 hours, that allows us to grow. The rest is um it all comes together, but our contact hours
031is our main source of revenue. And so this year and last year, they've really had a high focus on attendance. And if you don't attend enough, they politely ask you to refocus and let somebody else come that can come every day so that they can benefit from that. And then community ed, we also there's some state and federal grants um you or funding. Um and then we try to charge enough to break even for the class. Um but like you notice like maybe aquatics, we know how important that is to our community. So we know it's it's either right to break even or at even at a little loss just so that we make it affordable so everybody can chip in or we wave a lot of fees if they ask um but ideally it's
032break even or we can make a little bit of money. Uh facilities is different. We know that there um everybody pays that comes through me. Uh we have a few um partnerships where um they might get reduced they pay the hard costs um but um that's very uh limited and that all runs to our superintendent and then she would say yep this they're meeting all the qualifications. So, is teacher appreciation week this week and so I would love to know from um or this month or something. It should always be teacher appreciation, which is the truth. Um but I'm wondering for Sharon and Maria, can you tell us about one of your teachers that really made a big difference in your journey? I would say everyone, but especially Naomi and Drew. Um they I have
033learning a lot from them. uh and now miss a very patient person Drew as well and I'm really grateful um that I share classroom with them. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yeah. So basically all of them, but I have to say Drew and and um Sandy because they very very patient and they compassionate and they want to see you win. They want to see you learn. So Drew, I really appreciate him so much. I do. And he always picking my brains, y'all. I'm telling you. He always picking my brain. And I was like, "Is this what I supposed to do?" He like, "Yeah, well I don't want to write." Well, he said, "Well, ain't no way around it. You got to do it." And I said, "Okay, I'll do it." Thanks, Sharon. I hear
034that. And and we're very fortunate. So, their teachers support him. They're even here, Cindy and Drew. Um you know, Drew's um a licensed teacher. Cindy came to us from the college. He's a former college professor and her passion now is um with us. So, we're very fortunate with the staff that we have and they they choose um to help our students um not only in the classroom, but you can see they didn't have to be here tonight and and they took time. And then we have a future um leader in our community, too. The granddaughter uh came. I won't use her name, but she's a m one of our students in our community at the high school as well. So, the generations just keep going of of great students that we have in our learning
035communities. What an awesome presentation. Thank you too for sharing your stories and thank you um this is just wonderful. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. Um unbelievable um representation of our community and we're so fortunate to have you here. Thank you. and thanks for the ice cream. Yeah, by the way, okay, we have two discussion items tonight. Uh, first up we have the NAPAC Native American Parent Advisory Committee Board Response Letter um being presented tonight by Ayan Omar, a equity services director. And you have everyone has the copy of the letter in front of them and it's also been emailed out a little while ago. almost now I'm on. Oh, there I am. Uh, good evening, Chair Hos, Superintendent Putnham, and members of the school board. Um Minnesota Department of Education statute requires
036district with at least 20 American Indian students reported by October 1st MARS deadline to be eligible for American Indian education program funding. These districts must also have an American Indian parent advisory committee or NAPAC in our case um or be actively working with the office of American Indian education to establish one. St. Cloud Area School District is fortunate to have a strong American Indian education programming um supported by our dedicated NAPAC parents, Kip Perkins, our American Indian Education coordinator and our most recent addition, Heather Broadda, our American Indian Education cultural liaison, and of course, our wider commu wider school community. Kip and Heather are vital in affirming the cultural identity and past of our American Indian students and their families. They also ensure our staff have the necessary resources and skills to meet our students
037with care through meaningful, equitable, and culturally relevant education. Each year before March 1st, NAPAC meets to discuss the educational services provided by St. Cloud Area School District to American Indian students. And on January 7th of this year, the support with the support of Kip Perkins and Heather Broa, NAPAC convened to vote, sign resolution documents, and develop recommendation for future programming. On February 19th, Kip and Heather Bro uh provided an update on our American Indian Education programming and activities to the school board. The presentation was followed by NAPAC chair Rosemary Wacker's pres presentation uh on NAPAC's vote of non-concurrence and resolution. The school board has 60 days to provide a written response to NAPAC's recommendation which will then be be submitted to MDE Office of American Indian Education. And I'm well aware it's beyond the 60
038days thanks to weather. Um but we still hope to submit. Um in front of you, you should find the board response. Um as shared in the response letter, the school board values its relationship with NAPAC and appreciates their collaborative input and ongoing partnership. The board directs the administration to review NAPAC's suggestions uh support implementation and promote greater collaboration to enhance outcome for American Indian students. At this time, please take a moment to read the letter if you haven't done so already. Then I will pass around my copy for signatures so I may submit to MDE. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. It was nice to see there's a little bit of recognition for all the work we already have done. I mean, a lot of times we don't get anything from these folks. Thank you. I'm
039going start off saying that first of all, you know, it's it's it it's our goal to have every American Indian student graduate with honors. I mean, that that would be the ideal situation for everyone. And it's also our goal to make sure that every American Indian student that their culture is honored, that they un that they know and that we know about their culture uh and and that it's incorporated and that we're incorporating it into our teaching programs. what I get a little frustrated with this process because and there's a there's a couple of reasons. Number one, I think it sends a really a bad message to the community. It's it's sending a message to the community that we are non-concurrent. We're not doing what we should be doing. And we have a very strong
040American Indian program in our district in comparison to other school districts around and by and large other school districts throughout the state are concurrent. Their their American Indian parent advisory committees are voting those districts to be compliant. I watched one of our local school districts board meeting where the APAC uh presented and they had almost no programming within their school district for American Indian students. The only real progress that was made over the course of the last year was that they hired an American Indian uh an uh they they on the staff they hired a KIP. They hired someone like Kip to guide the American Indian uh education within their school district and they had a new superintendent who was giving the program more time than it had received in the past and they were
041overwhelmingly concurrent. They they they they were just overflowing with joy for what was going on. And then in our district where I see the number of things that we do for our American Indian students, and I'm not saying there's not opportunities to do more. I'm not, again, our goal would be to have every American Indian student graduate with honors and go on to the college of their choice. That would be our goal. But when you take a system or a program like this and you have some dis there's no consistency from school district to school district, there's no standards. There's no there's nothing to base this on other than uh it's a parent advisory committee that's saying well we think you're compliant or we don't think you're compliant. It seems like in this school district
042that our American Indian parent advisory committee has taken the approach that if they get if they say that we're concurrent, we're going to quit. And so that the only thing that they have to to keep us engaged with them is to hold us non-concurrent so that we're always fighting and struggling. But again, that's sending a message to our community that our school district is not concurrent. We apparently aren't doing what we should be doing with American Indian students and we're not giving it the the gravitas that it deserves within our community. And I and I I feel that that's false. I think that we're doing a lot of good things. I I wholeheartedly hope and believe that we should continue to work with KIP and with the American Indian parent advisory committee to produce positive
043outcomes for American Indian students. But this continuous non-concurrence and then a written letter from the school board which has I mean this I I'm going to tell you this this letter right here has been numbed down to where it's really a meaningless letter saying we've received your vote of non-concurrence, but it's not [Music] saying that anything is going to I mean there's there's no meat in here. It's just a a letter saying, "Okay, we're going to we're going to sign this so that we can be in compliance with the state standards." So, I have a lot of frustration with this entire program. I understand that this is likely going to go undergo some changes in the coming years. Uh where that may they may come up with a a a program or a a a
044template that avoids some of that inconsistency, but I'm really frustrated with it. I haven't decided if I'm going to sign it or not. Natalie So what I'm going to say is nothing new. We are the history. We have to think about our history. We have to think of who we've been as a country. We have to think of the things we've done as a country, specifically to indigenous folks. the fact that in our own community there was a just recently there was an indigenous group that came and exumed bodies of kids that died under the care of an institution here in the late 1800s. That's not very long ago. It's really not. And so yes, there's the process and there's the letter and that's what institutionally we have to do. So that's what we're doing
045today and I'm definitely going to sign it. Um because this is the work that we have to do as a community. This is the work we don't have to do it. Actually, that's not even true. This is the work we want to do as 742. So we don't I don't ever measure us against other school districts. I think we say that to our kids, too. for our students. I don't say to my kids, "Well, so and so and Sartell got this, but you got this." Or so and so in northern Minnesota. No, no. They're they're just really they're it's not us against somebody else. It's just us against us really or us for us. And what I mean by that is in here you see the language of shared goal. And that's what this process
046is about. So okay, there's the process in the letter and if the governor will change it, maybe he will, maybe he won't. That's not really the work that is really being talked about here. This letter isn't the work. The work is who we are and what we do and what our values are. So the joy that may be seen in another district versus the accountability we have in ours. There's there's something to be said about the way that this district is that we are willing to hear the hard stuff and we're willing to sit in the hard stuff. This is the hard stuff. This is stuff that I don't know that it will be figured out in my lifetime. But I do know that it isn't a willy-nilly you're you're in non-concurrence. When we hear
047them when we hear the indigenous parents talk, they say graduation rates and that's true. That's true about indigenous kids in our district and we want to do better on that. So by signing we're not saying I mean we're a horrible district and we're never going to get any better. It's saying we're in this with our parents, with our indigenous students, and I could talk for hours on this, as you know, but let's let I I I would advise us and and ask us as a board to see the process in the letter as one thing, but see who we are and what we're doing with our community as another thing. And I'll stop there. Well, the one part of the letter that I feel is really important right now, um, not only did Natalie mention
048graduation rates, but I I see an item in this letter that says improved access to American Indian education for all students and staff. And the one thing that I really feel now with all of the change in the new standards is providing the professional development. Not only do we need all of our teachers going up for their 5-year renewal being supported in professional development to be rellicensed. We have an effort to reook at a lot of our curriculum as we adopt the new standards to provide our teachers with the resource and the professional development that is needed to teach the past that is now required in our standards and we haven't had enough time in our district as we adopt these new standards to develop all this. I was at a professional development last week
049at St. cloud state which was the majority of teachers from another district who were getting relation I didn't see a lot of representatives from our district and I know you our professional development our teachers have the resources and all our staff to have what we need I feel that I'm signing this letter because there is work we need to be doing as a Okay. Anybody else or Scott? Um, I just came from the um Native American graduation ceremony and the there were two people there that uh spoke about their past. And it hasn't been that long since since boarding schools where kids were taken away from their parents and some some of the those people actually remember or their grandparents were actually gone through the process and I understand that there's a lot of really
050negative history over the years. Um, I think we've come a long way and we're even finally getting a little bit of recognition that we've come a long way. Um, needless to say, we got a ways to go yet. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Do you have a pen, too? Okay. Thank you. While that's being uh passed along, um queuing up, our next discussion item here is the 2025 2026 budget forecast based on state funding. And presenting this is our superintendent, Dr. Lori Putnham. Thank you, uh, Chair Hos, uh, members of the board, and our, uh, folks in the room, and, uh, people hopefully listening from home. Um, I'm excited to be able to share this, um, information with you, um, because it provides a, an overview of our preliminary budget forecast for the 2526 school
051year, grounded in the current state funding landscape. Um, as you know, most of our revenue, about 85% is tied to our general fund revenue is tied directly to state allocations. So, shifts in legislative funding have significant implications for our planning. Um, we'll begin with a look at what we know about the governor's budget and current house and senate proposals and explore how those have already impacted and may yet continue to impact our budget. I will also share the ways that we've responded conservatively and cautiously to the loss of legislative funding as we completed staffing for 2526 and as we prepare our budgets for approval in June. So, as you take a look at this slide, uh before we even begin considering staffing decisions for 2526, um we were already facing several key budget assumptions that
052place significant strain on our general fund. First, we're seeing the expiration of $370,000 in one-time literacy aid. Its expiration creates an immediate gap in our ability to sustain those supports moving forward without identifying alternative funding sources. Second, we continue to experience the impact of unemployment costs for summer staff not being fully funded. For FY26, we are estimating a shortfall of $250,000 related to this ongoing issue. While we've advocated at the state level for a more permanent solution, this remains a local liability that we had to plan for. Third, uh you can go back, Shannon. Thanks. Third, the governor's proposed change to the compensatory revenue formula represents a significant concern. As proposed, it would revise the method by which districts calculate this critical funding stream, particularly impacting districts like ours with a high direct certification rate.
053The result under the current proposal is a projected loss of $485,000 for our school district. While this number may shift through the legislative process, it remains a key assumption for now and speaks to the broader issue of volatility in funding tied to student poverty indicators. Altogether, these three areas alone represent over 1.1 million in anticipated reductions or underfunded obligations. And that's before we even began with our staffing considerations. It underscores the importance of grounding our staffing and budgeting in conservative, transparent assumptions so we can navigate the next phase with clarity and shared understanding. So to proactively address the known when you add those first two boxes up, that's $620,000. To pro proactively address that $620,000 made up of the expiration of one-time literacy aid and the underfunded unemployment insurance costs, we implemented a series of
054central office and enrollmentbased staffing reductions. These decisions were made carefully and strategically with the intent to pro protect direct classroom instruction as much as possible while still meeting our fiduciary responsibility. Key reductions included the elimination of five central office positions, the executive director of special projects, the learning and teaching director, two learning and teaching coordinators, and the district truency and attendance coordinator. We also consolidated special education leadership, replacing the special education uh assistant superintendent with a single executive director role. In communications, we reduced the director position from full-time to a.7 FTE, aligning support capacity with budget constraints while maintaining this essential service, these essential services. Additionally, we made enrollmentbased adjustments to classroom teaching staff, reducing 2.5 FTE based on actual and projected student counts. This ensures our staffing levels remain in balance with enrollment, which
055is a key sustainability practice. These reductions totaled approximately $620,000, covering the gap caused by those known budget pressures. While difficult, they reflect our commitment to long-term fiscal health and our goal to protect student-f facing roles and programs whenever possible. This slide walks through the projected impact of the governor's initial hold harmless proposal related to compensatory revenue. While the name suggests districts would be protected from funding losses, that is unfortunately not the case for St. Cloud Area Schools and many other school districts. Under his plan or this plan, our district would experience a $485,000 reduction compared to current law. That's a significant shortfall, and it's worth stating very clearly that this version of hold harmless does not in fact hold us harmless. And our district compensatory revenue is entirely allocated to staffing. It funds district support
056positions like interventionists, multilingual teachers, and student support staff who work with leaders with learners who need the most support. Because of the way this revenue is tied to staffing, we had to make our initial staffing decisions based on the lower allocation amount. The result is a district-wide reduction of six FTE, which directly affects our ability to provide targeted academic and social emotional supports for students. After staffing was complete in April, uh the governor released addition released additional budget recommendations and the house and senate have also now released their budget proposals. Some of these proposals include additional reductions and others include new funding. We are not counting on new funding being likely given the state's overall budget forecast and how far apart the three proposals are. The most concerning aspect of the House and Senate proposals
057is the Senate compensatory, again, hold harmless, and the House's proposal to eliminate school library aid. The Senate compensatory proposal will result in a decrease of over $1.1 million, which is over 600,000 less than what we were allocated for staffing. The one positive is that all three have included onetime funding to cover 100% of the unemployment for FY26. So, it is likely that that will be provided. Um, while the district has already made reductions to cover the unfunded employment costs, it is likely that these reductions could be needed to cover further loss of revenue elsewhere, such as in compensatory revenue or school library aid. In addition to state level funding changes, several other factors are putting additional pressure on our 2526 budget planning. First, paid family leave will add a new financial obligation. Starting January 1,
0582026, a8 payroll tax will go into effect. And for our district, this is estimated to cost approximately $600,000 in FY26. And while the intent of the policy is certainly to be supportive, the financial burden currently falls to employers, and we're preparing for that impact. Second, we budgeted federal funded allocations conservatively, estimating a 5% reduction in title allocations. This production, this projection is based on the anticipated drop in free and reduced lunch prices across the state, a downstream effect of the universal free meals program. Since federal funding formulas rely on these counts, we're seeing potential declines despite continued local need. Third, we are accounting for onetime local costs, including city special assessments and special and a special election. Together, those items total approximately $350,000 costs that must be covered through our fund balance as they fall
059outside regular operating expenses. And lastly, we continue to see increasing special education needs, which I'll speak to more specifically on the next slide. These rising needs come with staffing and service implications that our general fund must absorb when categorical aid falls short. So, one of the most significant pressures on our budget and our staffing continues to be the rising need for special education services. Between the 2324 and 2425 school years, we've seen an 8.9% increase in students receiving special education services. That's an additional 251 students. This growth is not only substantial in terms of numbers, but it also brings with it increased complexity of student need, service plans, and compliance obligations. To respond, we've had to make targeted staffing adjustments. We reallocated seven FTE from within our compensatory holdback allocation to support special education staffing
060where the needs are most acute. In addition, we've added six new FTE positions funded from projected increases in special education revenue. This approach allows us to stay compliant with federal and state requirements while continue to meet student needs in the least restrictive environments. Even with these other increases, the demand continues to outpace the categorical funding provided, which is why we most uh must rely on general fund dollars to cover the gap. This is yet another example of how student- centered budgeting requires us to make difficult tradeoffs while staying focused on our most vulnerable learners. So, in response to the ongoing budget uncertainty and the specific uh risks posed by proposed state legislation, our board legislative committee took action by sending a formal letter to our area legislators. The communication outlined the potential impact of proposed
061funding changes on our district and urged reconsideration of key provisions. In particular, we expressed significant concern about the proposed hold harmless compensatory revenue formulas, which as you've seen would result in a substantial funding loss for our district. We emphasize that this plan fails to account for districts like ours that serve high numbers of students qualifying through direct certification, effectively punishing districts doing the right work to reach underserved families. We also raised serious concerns about proposed cuts to school library aid. For us, this is not just a light item. It's a dedicated funding stream we've already incorporated into our staffing and programming plans. Its removal would force us to re-evaluate key literacy and resource supports in our schools. Our message was clear. These changes are not abstract policy shifts. They have real immediate implications for student,
062staff, and programs, and we continue to stay actively engaged as a legislative session moves forward and certainly encourage our community to do the same. So, as we look ahead to 2025-26, we remain committed to fiscal responsibility and to maintaining a balanced budget even in the absence of our operating referendum. Despite significant and growing subsidies in special education and English language learner services, we continue to make disciplined student- centered decisions that protect our classrooms and prioritize our students. Our approach reflects a core belief that we must do everything we can with the resources we have while continuing to advocate for the funding our students deserves. So, thank you to this board and the legislative committee for your support uh to our staff for your partnership and for our community's shared commitment to our schools and our
063students. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions or comments or anything? Heather, I'll start sobering. Um maybe a couple of things. One is um I think one of the strengths of this district has been that that you have been committed um always to a balanced budget and making the hard decisions in real time. it gets harder when there's multiple and kind of a perfect storm of hard decisions that have to be made. Um, and the messaging, you know, part of it would be to say first of all, um, you know, as a board member, I want to say that I think that the work that you all do to put forward budgets and and um to communicate with transparency and to identify what the issues are is critically important in a in a space in
064a world where um there are so many headlines where that's not happening. And you know, I've been trying to track them even in the state of Minnesota and and um you know, there have been lots of headlines about um institute or schools that are upside down and and you know, years of of either um using CO money in ways that wasn't sustainable or um you know just abnormalities or things that maybe weren't caught. And I want to make clear that at least in my experience and I think this board's experience that has not been the case here. The co money was used very appropriately um for one-time and and short-term projects not uh invested in in things that were unsustainable. But when you see changes happening uh and being placed on you at some point
065it becomes um that there's no place else to reach. One question I maybe have and and I don't know what it would take, but Lori, this presentation uh and your explanation of it I think is very succinct uh and it's very helpful and I know or I would expect that we're likely um as changes occur, we're likely to get um additional questions um email and that sort of thing. Is there any way to cut this presentation? Um, and so that in responses to parents or community members, they would be able to instead of referencing go to this meeting and watch the whole thing, here is a however many minutes we just spent on it, here's a a clip that you can watch specifically that addresses some of this because I think, you know, particularly as
066as you know, we've already seen some questions about class sizes, uh, shifting resources, those sorts of things, it might be helpful to be able to send uh just a link with, you the five to seven minutes of information that they could grasp in that time. I think that's a a great uh wonder, Heather. And one thing that I'd be happy to do if this board felt it would be useful would be I can do a screencast of this presentation and push it out to student uh to families and staff. Um or we can wait until people ask. So, I'm happy to do whatever this board feels is is preferable. I would do both. Do both. Be happy to do that. I would push it out and then still have it available so if people didn't
067see it, you can respond with the same consistent message. We could put it on our website, too. That way, it's available easily. Yeah. Just going to add a little piece to it that that school districts tend to get a really bad rap for always saying, "We need more money. We need more money. We need more money. You got to increase our budget. And we do. We do that because we do have to increase our budget every year. Costs go up, things cost more, salaries go up, wages go up, expenses go up, and we have to be able to pay for it. And the only way that we're going to pay for it is if they allocate more money to us. In other words, they give us a funding increase. cities and counties, they levy taxes
068on a mill rate, which is applied to the value of your home. And as the value of your home goes up, the mill rate stays the same, but the county gets more money. So if the value of your home goes up 10%, same mill rate, the county gets 10% more money. And the county is out there saying, "We didn't raise your taxes this year. We did not raise your taxes and we haven't raised them for the last 10 years. But the school district is out there saying, "You need to give us more money. You need to give us more money. You need to give us more money." And the the the context of those two together makes school districts sounds like sound like beggars of money and counties and cities as being very responsible with
069the resources that they collect. And it's just not the case. We get money allocated to us on a budget. They give us a dollar amount every year and they say this is how much you're getting and it's not flexible. That's how much we're getting. Uh when the state then comes out and does something like puts the unemployment benefits in place and there's a a huge unemployment tax burden placed upon the school district. That money has to come out of a budget that's allocated on a dollar basis, not on a percentage basis. And it isn't increasing. So, it's taking money away from us when they come out with paid family leave, which is going to be a complete disaster for the state. Um, we haven't even begun to see what's going to happen with that one
070yet. But when that happens, there's another that's a tax burden on the school district. We have to come up with our portion and it's very likely a tax burden on the employees of the school district who have to come up with the other half out of their paychecks. So now you're looking at another scenario where the district is being hit with an expend an expenditure that didn't exist before and it has to come out of a consist the current money. There is no more money available to pay for that stuff. And so when we say that our funds are dropping and when we say we're cutting and we see these expenses going up and we have to cut, that's because of things like this. And until they can come up with some kind of a
071solution to where we can see some inflationary adjustments and some dollars that increase annually based on inflation rates, it's going to continue to happen. But I just it really bothers me every year when I hear, you know, counties and cities are so happy to go out and say, "We're not raising your taxes this year." But yet they're getting more money. And they're getting it in two ways. They're getting it because the value of the property is going up and the value of the properties built is increasing. There's more properties out there that they're able to leverage that mill rate against. So, they're kind of fibbing in a sense that they're not raising taxes, but ours is a steady ours is a dollar amount and there's no no fluctuation. There's no there's no way for us
072to change that. And so the only way that we can continue to operate is to go out and ask for more funding. That's why you hear that from school districts. So, when you talked about the onetime literacy aid, the $370,000, I know that's for in general for the read act, but was it meant to for a lot of the PD that was done or like how did I remember talking about it, but I don't remember the full the the flow through on this. It was one time to because they put the readact in because they said we had to do it and they give us some money for it but now we still have to do it and we don't get any money for it. Is that basically where we are? What was that money
073meant for specifically? I think the one time right was meant for the the training costs. Um and every district did it differently. Um certainly some of the coaching right we pay for some of the staffing out of that. Um and so we saw some reduction in our um instructional coaches right through attrition. Um it and you know I think the one thing I did I did forget to say that I'd be remissed to to leave out was that um with all of those reductions um we were able to either find different um different homes uh because somebody else um you know if a MHA got reduced here that we were able to find a different home with a different funding stream elsewhere um like through special education or something or um people were retiring um
074so or moving right so our we don't have we it's not like we displaced humans. I know that this board and and us care very deeply, right, about that. And so I just also want to be clear that those reductions aren't um costing people their jobs. Um it had nothing to do with like the non-renews or anything. Um so that one-time literacy aid was was right intended for one-time costs, but we know of course that those costs um are often continuing. Um and certainly, you know, just like children, you know, we adults uh take time to learn things too. Um and so you know training on is ongoing and then the support needed to actually now take this learning and integrate it and then deliver it all effectively um is is certainly an ongoing cost.
075Yeah. Thanks for saying that plainly because I knew that we didn't hire teachers with that money, but I just want the community to know that that like that's that's a different thing. Um I think it what's happening with compensatory funding is really sad. you know, I I think that that's the number one indicator, unfortunately, poverty is of graduation rates, things of that nature. Um, and I understand what's happening and why it happened, but uh, it's it's really it's sad to put this burden on not that any of our students are burdens, but to but to decrease the funding that we really need to serve our kids who are experiencing poverty. And that's not something in this community that's going to go away this this year, next year, in 10 years. Like we we deal with
076extreme poverty in our community. Um and so I hope that moving forward there's even more um thought from the governor and from our legislators about that. Um that's just the reality we are we live in. Um, I might have missed it, but I don't think I saw the legislative committee letter if if it was was it sent out to the board or no, the full board. I may have forgotten to do that. Okay. Yeah, if we could get I will send that to you. My apologies. That's right. I'll send it to the full board. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. I know that um federal money makes up uh only about 8% of our budget, but uh what does that federal money consist of? It sounded like stuff from the Department of Agriculture for food or or
077could you go into that a little bit? To the best of my ability. Um I don't have Amy here to phone a friend. Uh so the the what I was talking about was the reduction um specifically in compensatory funding. So title funding. Um uh it is based on um just like we get our funding from the state based on our free and reduced lunch count, right? The state gets their money from the government based on our free and reduced lunch counts. And we saw um with the the changes in the law how we qualified people a decrease um that direct certification specifically. And so um as the state's rate goes down right we get less go less money from the federal government and which um is being projected at a loss of about 5%. Um
078and certainly there was we know there was some loss the the farm to table um money from the agriculture um and then just like with this current you know legislative season there's there's still a lot that's up in the air. We know that's the same with the federal government, but there's um been some potential forecasting of some cuts to title three, um some potential cuts to two and four, um all of which would would also significantly impact us, but again, we don't we won't know until um the cake comes out of the oven. So, hey, okay. So, some of this is Department of Agriculture, but other a lot of it is just plain old money. Yes, most would would be uh dispersed to the Department of Education. Okay. Okay. Thank you for putting that all
079together. Uh next up then we're moving to reports. We have the board of education standing committee reports. I believe we have three tonight. First we have the board development policy governance committee chair Zack Dorhal. So the committee met on April 23rd and executive director of finance business services Amy Scallardude presented proposed board policy 721 uniform grant guidance policy regarding federal revenue sources 704 which is development and maintenance of an inventory of fixed assets and a fixed asset accounting system and 798 purchasing procedures soliciting prices bids and quotations And superintendent Harris presented proposed board policies uh 203 which is operation of the school board governing rules and proposed B board proposed board policy 203 schoolboard procedures rules of order. Uh policies were reviewed in policy 72174798 were recommended to move forward for a first read at
080the May 21st 21st board meeting. That's all I got. Thank you. And then we have the legis legislative committee chair El Dalgrren. Yeah, the board legislative committee met on April 21st. Uh we had a couple of different items on the agenda. The first one was a presentation from Jerry Vancorf concerning the St. Cloud Education Rights Advisory Council. Just Jerry giving us an update on what's been going on with that. And I'm not going to read through that right now. Uh there's been a lot of back and forth with MDE as MDE and SCARAK and they've come to some settlement agreements and there's a task force that has been uh developed to work on education funding and it's just kind of going back and forth between Jerry and the state right now and it's a lot
081more complicated than I actually really understand. So rather than say something wrong, but uh I will send the report to everybody. Um and it's it's outlined what we discussed in there. The second thing that we talked about was our legislative priorities discussion for 2425 and those were already set. They were set by the board. I just wanted to have a copy of that and that we would acknowledge that in our meeting. And then the third thing was the member discussion on what the what the goals of the committee are. And you know we kind of we we discussed where we want to go with it and we came up with a few of our goals. Um one is to as a as a group monitor and watch what's happening at the legislature and within the
082state and just try to stay a breast of of what what is going on and where we can advocate and where it is helpful for us to advocate. Second is to come up with a legislative platform annually. And the third would be to do things such as what we just did with writing a letter to the legislature um advocating on behalf of St. Cloud for our funding and our funding issues and just trying to remain active that way. We are going to meet quarterly I believe. And one of the things that we wanted to do is prior to uh pulling our legislative platform together that we would meet with the representatives of the teachers union or the of the unions and see if there's some common ground where we can get the unions on board
083too. So that we would be able to go forth with a legislative platform that is that has common ground between the the union leadership and the legislative comm uh the legislative committee and the school board to see if we can't get better followth through and get better uh get get more ears on on those issues as they occur. So, our right now we're looking at sometime this fall we would meet with the we would have hold a meeting along with the union leadership uh prior to setting a legislative platform moving into the end of the year. That was about it. Scott, uh we did a legislative platform in January, didn't we? With Yeah, we brought I said that. Yes. Okay. So, what we're doing is looking ahead for the future then. All right. Thank you.
084And then we have a personnel negotiations committee chair Natalie Copeland. Uh yes, we met on April 22nd. We talked about two things. One was that the committee uh recommends consistent with past practice a one-time 5-day vacation payout for the superintendent as compensation for unused vacation days due to the referendum campaign and presentation schedule. So payment will be reflected um that payment will be reflected on the consent agenda on May 21st at our board meeting and then it would be set for payment on the May 31st payroll. And the other item we talked about was that we reviewed the superintendent's proposal for executive contract changes for assistant superintendent and executive directors of finance and human resources for 2526. um this align alignment uh to align placements with new executive contracts for operations technology and innovation and
085special education. So the committee reviewed salary comparisons and budget implications and is supporting the recommendations um to move the contracts forward for full board review and approval and that would happen on June 6 of 2025. And that's it. Thank you. Did I miss anybody? Okay. Then we have future agenda items. The May 21st, 2025 board meeting topics will include the district retirey recognition and that will be held at 5:45 p.m. before our board meeting. We we will have the at the board meeting transitional services update, graduation and end of year celebrations, the 2025 summer school review, approval of list of graduates for Apollo and Tech High School, and some policy readings. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item? Okay, last up for tonight, we have school updates. We
086have Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 Learning. Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of secondary education and Shannon Ason, assistant superintendent of E12 educational services. All right, good evening, Chair Hos, superintendent Putnham. Tonight for our elementary update, we get to hear from our early childhood programming as well as our Kennedy Colts. Here featured in our safety photos, you will see our Corey View students who during a construction theme month are preschoolers eagerly stepped into the roles of little builders. Proudly wearing their yellow safety construction hats with their smiles on their faces and hats firmly placed. They explored building activities with creativity, teamwork, and curiosity. And there to the right you will see um our second grade students at Kennedy learning about water safety and our partnership with the YMCA. For belonging you will see our Corey
087View Littles and our ECF families gathered in a circle greeting creating a welcoming space where everyone felt seen and connected. This simple yet meaningful activity helped build a sense of belonging as children and parents greeted one another, shared smiles, and strengthened their community together. And on the right, you will see two Kennedy students who kicked off the school year as they had friendship time with their classes and worked on various activities to build community, including making friendship bracelets. Here we see collaboration highlighted at Quarry View. We know it takes a village to raise a child. Here you see a Rotarian partnering with a preschooler during an art activity, working side by side to create imaginative artwork. Through their collaboration, the child experienced encouragement, conversation, and shared the activity. As to the right, you will see
088two Kennedy students there working on coding with one of their robots. And then lastly, excellence through high expectations and high support. You see here at Corey View during a table activity, preschoolers engaged in building and working with letters, strengthening both their early literacy skills and fine motor development. This hands-on experience promotes excellence by encouraging letter recognition and emergent writing. And at Kennedy, you will see our five through eight students uh have the opportunity to obtain a responsibility pass where they need to consistently show and lead in the cult way of being kind, safe, and responsible. These students are award rewarded for showing their exemplary behaviors. And here is one of the celebrations, a root beer float party with a table of friends. All right. Good evening, uh, Chair Ha, Superintendent Putnham, board members. Uh, we're
089going to update all the high schools, McKenley Tech, and Apollo. Uh, safety was created specifically in the sense of our art students created work. You see a picture on the left side with Mr. C. They created this uh, a portrait of him. uh in the hallways and then on the right side you see uh tech students had an art show and they created safety specifically in the visual arts of the pictures. Right? I was walking through and this just grabbed me from some of the students uh specifically around that and so they created safety in their visual arts belonging. We had over a 100 newcomer students from Apollo take part in going to a field trip between St. Cloud State and St. Cloud Technical to really start to look at their uh post-secary career options.
090Uh students came back real energized and just seeing the setting on the college university setting. uh collaboration took place specifically with uh our uh Field of Dreams uh great season for Tech girls uh softball that was created specifically by uh Elizabeth Henna. She's a tech alum but new uh district employee specifically in the visual arts and they created a 23 dreams uh uh film film kind of documentary of that great season. You see in the middle pictures uh tech on the top had a family uh southside family night. You had families come in and just have fun with the students. And then you see down at the bottom uh the Adams family uh tech staff and students created some great work with uh our new state of the arts auditorium with uh Adams family. And
091then on the uh the further end you see both signing days from tech and Apollo for students signing on the next stages of their uh academic career if it was uh we even had this year uh students that signed for the services and then the arts and so we had a wide range. So that was a great collaboration amongst our folks and then high expectations then high supports uh resource training uh awards students that within our local area high school seniors that have demonstrated academic excellence uh leadership and contributions to our community. We had eight students from our district, four from Apollo and four for tech that were awarded uh within that students of excellence award. And then you had our bilingual sales uh at Tech and Apollo and we had multiple students that were
092awarded in multiple languages. Uh I can't I think 15 different languages around that that were awarded and so uh just some great things taking place there around excellence within our students our school community. Good evening. I'm going to highlight some of the recent professional development that was uh given by our uh special education team and our student services teams. Um as part of our professional development day at the end of March, our mental health staff, which we have about 80 to 90 mental health related staff, had the opportunity to tour the child advocacy center and Clara's house. Um multiple tours had to be offered because they kept filling up. And it's just a great opportunity for our staff to see those spaces and and really get to know those programs so that they can connect
093our families to those valuable resources. So that was wellreceived. Belonging. Um some of you may have heard we were super excited. Kate Swenson from she's from Minnesota and known across the nation is an author creator of the blog Facebook page uh finding Cooper's voice. She speaks regularly about autism, parenting, and motherhood. Our special education director, Danny Mayor, coordinated a speaking event for the community in March and then she presented the next morning to an auditorium filled with staff um for our professional development day. And our we had several staff who said this is was the most amazing professional development experience they have ever had. Um it was just uh just amazing to to have that opportunity not only for our community, for our parents, but also for our staff. So a huge thanks to Danny
094collaboration. Um, SEAK, that same evening, um, we had our special education advisory council met that evening. Um, and SEAK is a group of parents, community members, and school staff that advises and advocates for students with disabilities and their families. Um, we did send an invitation over to three over uh 3,000 families, and that included the invitation to Kate Swenson's event. Um, while we didn't get quite the turnout we wanted for the SEAK meeting, we still did get some new parents to join us and we really genuinely appreciated the opportunity to hear from them. And then high expectations and high supports. Our amazing mental health team got to learn a little bit more about CRY. That's our crisis responses uh initiative. um a partnership that we have as well as JCAT, another partnership that we have
095um the juvenile uh community action team um and they are partnerships with law enforcement and Sterns County and they provide wraparound services to our students and families. So, a great opportunity for our mental health team to to learn more about those resources as well. Thank you. I have to apologize. I rolled right from the board meeting into the work session and Jan sent me a text. So she said, "Well, that was at 7:51." So here we are ask I'm asking for a motion to adjourn um the work session um I guess end the board meeting at 7:51. So move a motion by Scott and a second by Natalie. All in favor say I. I opposed. All right. Well, that is adjourned then. 8:00 on the nose. Thank you. Have a good night. Uh, thanks for
096watching. We'll be back May 21st. Hey, Adam. How many gyms have pickle ball courts? This is uh