5-1-2024 Board of Education Meeting

001Channel and viewing information can be found on our district website the meeting is now called to order it is May 1st 2024 and the time is 6:32 p.m. our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage Inspire educate prepare and Empower all Learners in partnership with their surrounding Community to be successful in today's and tomorrow Society Zach 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 liberty and justice for [Music] all thank you and then can you please call Ro [Music] uh the following board members are present at the District administration office Scott andron here Natalie Copeland here El dalren here Zack

002dhol is here Shannon hos here and the following members are currently not present Monica Shar Schwarz and Heather Williams the following cabinet members and staff are present at the District administration office superintendent Dr Lorie putam assistant superintendent of secondary education Dr Jason Harris assistant A5 education Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of E12 Education Services Dr Mike rard executive director of Community Education Adam Holm executive director of finance and business services Amy scal Executive Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations Tracy Flynn bow executive director of operations Gary gangji executive director of research enrollment and assessments Donna roer director of community engagement and communication cmy the land media technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott and custodian on site is Evan Voss thank you next I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's Board of Education meeting and

003work session agenda so move second I have a motion by Scott a second by Natalie Zack can you call vote can Shannon H yes Zach dhol yes El delgren yes Natalie Copeland yes Scott and Dr yes thank you then we have the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of non-controversial items that a board adopts routinely without debate any 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 Financial reports for March 2024 item C approval of monthly Treasures report for March 2024 item D approval of board policy 501 School weapons policy as revised third reading and item e bid award Apollo Theater improvements at this time

004does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda okay then I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as read so move second and again we have a motion by Scott uh second by Natalie Zach can you call vote again Natalie Copeland yes Scott andreon yes Shannon hos yes SE orol yes Al doen yes all right thank you then up tonight we have looking forward to this we have one information item Community Education and adult basic education Adam Holm executive director of communication is joined by Jennifer Noble supervisor of Community Education Program and Caroline near housee supervisor of adult uh basic education and lots of guests and Adam I just have to tell you I have one box of kleenexes from Jan and one from myself so bring it

005on thank you good evening chairperson ha Schoolboard members and superintendent Dr putam my name is Caroline nus and I'm the supervisor of the adult basic education program so St Cloud is the fiscal host of the central Minnesota adult education program we are a consortia made of 30 31 school districts we have 17 locations across those districts and approximately 1,700 students in the St Cloud area alone this year we are serving approximately 862 or close to 900 in the St Cloud area we offer 35 different classes at five different sites our largest by far is Cory View but we also have a site in sartel St Joseph the Great River Regional Library and also one at Lac Cruz Community Center which we share with um CM CEO the classes that we offer include English language classes

006levels 1 through six we also offer diploma classes for those um people who have not completed their high school diploma the GED is of course another option we also offer classes to prepare people to take the citizenship exam and we do actually help adults prepare for college to take the accuplacer exam and then this year which I'll explain on the next slide we are offering a new nutrition Pathways course um the state one of the priorities of the state that we have been tasked with is to prepare our adults to enter career Pathways so having said that this year I really wanted to introduce something new and so I created an IET course that stands for integrated Education and Training and I partnered with Centra Care and career Solutions um to offer a nutrition pathway

007course an essential it is helping our Learners prepared to work as nutrition AIDS or dietary AIDS at centri care or long-term care facilities and then another thing that I have done um to try to expand our offerings is Adam and I met with a group of Latino Faith leaders this year and listened to them and their needs and their wants and we realized that um a number of their congregations have um worship on Thursday nights and that is traditionally when our evening classes meet which is Tuesdays and Thursdays so I decided to expand our offerings and I now hold Monday and Wednesday evening classes uh St Cloud adult education has 13 licensed teachers 10 classroom support staff and a half the amount of volunteers we love our volunteers and they add a lot to our

008program just a quick recap um I touched on this last year as well as to how adult education is funded it is funded differently than the K12 system the majority of our funding comes from State funds and that depends on contact hours so for every hour that a student studies with us we are reimbursed at a particular contact hour rate this year that rate is $114 after that it depends on census data so you can see the next largest piece piece of the pie is population then um adults who are limited English proficient and then finally adults who are 21 years of age and older without a diploma this is a graph that represents our contact hours over the last 5 years and what I'm really proud of is you can see that we obviously

009took a big dip um during Co but we have now climbed back out of that dip and we are even ahead of where we were in 1920 and just today I was actually on a web chat with mde and the state average um program programs in the state are averaging 15% higher in contact hours than they were last year but we as a Consortium are ahead by 24% so we are doing really well we actually have weight lists for our summer school classes um and so next year we can see an increase in our funding because of this Cory view is an official Pearson view test center site and so each day we see testers everybody ranging from GED test to mtle and to the par educator exams and of course we are so proud

010of our GED graduates we have about 75 people in the Consortium who graduated this year this year's ceremony is May 22nd at 6:00 p.m. at the sartel middle school and I know many of you enjoy attending so I look forward to seeing you there well thank you Caroline Community Education summer in Richmond class registration is in full swing our Aquatics classes continue to fill with 77 class offerings for spring and 230 offerings for summer looking back our spring after school art programming was very successful with 15 students on average signed up at school sites our Saturday programming such as Dash basketball is also seen about 15 participants and during January we had 25 students participate in our fidgets games and music after school class at Oak Hill and we continue to partner with existing and

011new local businesses such as emotion and motion Ultimate Frisbee and gray duck art for new classes we also received grants for the ACT prep course from get ready from the state of Minnesota for our Tech Apollo and McKinley high schoolers preparing for college and summer introduces hundreds of new learning opportunities from Ceramics to BMX fencing to horse camps drones languages and More in Adult Enrichment our open gym opportunities have seen impressive growth each day with Kennedy averaging 38 participants for our popular pickle ball class North is averaging 43 participants for soccer and volleyball and South is averaging 55 participants for soccer Korean cooking instructor Susie Carlson who spoke at our last presentation had two sold out food classes including sweet crunchy fried chicken each class serves 12 participants and Susie continues to have a dedicated

012following of participants who love her delicious Korean recipes and upbeat instruction our part partnership with specialized health and safety management and instructor Susie wistrom helped eight participants receive their certificates for adult and pediatric CPR AED and first aid training from the American Heart Association in March we offered 14 project challenge classes serving 993 participants with 225 total enrollments we had our first Bingo class at Tech in the Commons and it was a huge success there was plenty of space chairs with backs and wonderful support from the tech custodial staff we were able to safely accommodate 35 people at bingo using this new location we can currently host 45 participants with the Bingo cards that we have as for our class Supply we also had our second moveing groove dance class and we increased our participation

013from 600 to 10 showing growth in the program the instructor Erica Ashman continues to work to modify her dance classes for our participants to be the most successful Facility Services is busy serving our internal and external clients we have approximately 150 rental clients at all 15 sites with approximately 20,000 number of hours rented and all online facility requests and payments are now facilitated through elio the same software that we utilize for our class registration we currently have 940 active volunteers of all ages our volunteer specialist Works alongside the school administrators to determine needs and assigns volunteers accordingly and we also support District programs with volunteers such as our one district one book program that also engages our community businesses such as Shields and now we'd like to share our Community Education imagine video from our

014Communications Department 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 for 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 ad adult diploma we have six levels of English language learning there would be six levels of ESL when somebody graduates from ESL they can move into the GED or adult diploma program or we can help transition them into post-secondary education you get to interact with a lot of people from different cultures and different backgrounds and a lot of our students have like different aspirations and reasons for being here and it's really inspiring to see how dedicated they

015are with their work I think it's a very great way to kind of gain those interpersonal skills I get to interact with the students and see kind of how their mind works and how they make connections from like their language to English We Love Our Community Partners especially our volunteers they're a huge help to our program they help teachers be able to break down the material made in smaller groups and really help students focus on targeted instruction I was a classroom teacher until 2016 and I retired and I taught second grade just love working with students so it was a natural fit when I retired and I had so much more time I also love working with Joe and any of the other teachers they just go out of their way to to make it

016easy for you and to show their appreciation teaching with a adults is is very fun cuz you're able to make different connections with them than you would with kids I love the students they are so motivated and they are working so hard volunteers I can really imagine you know maybe you would spark something in that maybe they would decide to get their teaching degree or you know maybe they can find like a new passion or something that they want to work towards same with our students expanding your education and expanding your learning and understanding of the world really opens up a lot of opportunities it offers so much for the teachers and for the students I just imagine I'm hoping that it will continue and expand even bigger than it is I think it's just

017been very worthwhile I loveed doing [Music] bowling imagine all of the opportunities that we can provide working with our district the community and our participants to create a shared Community Experience Project challenge is our adults with disability specific programming through Community ad we offer these services to people with any intellectual or physical disability and it allows us to give people in our community with disabilities a community to come together and have shared experiences these opportunities are really important because we make sure that they are accessible we have modifications and variations that allow people of all different abilities to participate we like a lot of like basketball games stuff like that I get to be with all my [Music] friends we also do what we can to make sure that they are accessible financially so we

018work with getting grants and working with other Community Partners to allow these opportunities to be truly accessible in every sense of the word for as many people as we can you get to meet new people and and new staff for part of challenge I think the strongest impact that we directly see is the experience that participants get through the inclusion and Equity that we try and offer through project challenge when we're developing class we pretty much just try and think what would I want to do and how can I work to make this accessible for everyone in our community imagine that imagine that imagine that imagine that [Music] okay there we go um we have two students adult education students who would like to share their stories with you tonight so first I would like

019to introduce Barbara Berto Ruiz nice to meet you um um I would like to introduce myself I'm Barbara baretto I'm from Venezuela I have been living in St Cloud for almost three years I would like to share you my story I came to United State because I disagreed with the political system of my country I work for the government for two years if you don't agree with their ideas or thoughts you are considered an enemy would not be able to work there anymore the president and his inner cycle control everything we couldn't live safely so my husband and I went to Peru in Peru we live for 3 years but a new president was elected the new president and Venezuela's presidents signed an allianc in the allianc the citizens that were in the government that

020are living in Peru must return to Venezuela my husband and I work for the government it wasn't a safe place for us for this reason we decided immigrate to United States before leave Venezuela I I went to the college I have a bachelor degree in Business Administration I was studying education but I couldn't finish my program some people say when when we are talking about cross the border oh it's easy just cross the border but the reality is different we were kidnapped for 3 days in a town far far away from the city the person who was helping us wanted more money we cross the border between Mexico and Texas in Texas we start our Asylum process we moved to Minnesota in July 2021 and then my English learning journey start uh my friend mentioned

021the esult program in District 742 she explained to me how to sign up for taking classes I took the test in September 2021 I start uh in the level three four with the teacher Naomi she was wonderful I learned a lot I still H was she videos he pronunciation videos in the spring semester I went I went up to the level five I met the teacher Caroline she was patient and understanding but I need I took a new test for reading reading and listening skills the next level with a teacher d i complete my ESL program but I want to continue continue improving my language skills in the level six in from desk I saw information about per professional certificate course I grabbed a brocher and I contacted them I start this course after I

022passed the casses test I confessed that when I start this course I thought I wasn't able to achieve it because I didn't feel confident about my English skills all the information about the course was in English and the meeting with my teacher by Zoom too it was a huge and amazing challenge I love every method or technique I learned for teaching in a classroom I learned how to rentify the understanding of the students through cues prompts on different ways to support their learning I achiev it I obtain my par professional certificate I encourage my classmates to try I would like to work as a par educator I would be a pleasure to be part of this wonderful School District about my English skills I still learning every day my goal is to speak fluently and

023communicate effectively I will do my best thank [Applause] [Music] you thank you for sharing your story sorry Barbara uh and now I'd like to introduce nemus Nester Martinez evening my name is neia nesto Martinez I was born in Mexico and I've been living in the state of Minnesota for over 20 years I'm a student at Central Minesota a and I'm also part of the district 7 742 family I'm currently working at cor review uh in the front office helping other students thank you for allowing me to speak to all of you today I remember when I told my mother that I wanted to quit school we were living in Mexico City I was 11 years old and since it wasn't the first time that I have made this kind of comments about school she finally

024agreed my father at the my my father had immigrated to the United States of America to improve our economic situation and I feel responsible for supporting my family so I got my first job when I uh was 11 years old um I started working in a construction company hard work supposed to the heat of the day most of the working hours I remember that while working I taught the school education was not for me and then I and then I I will have to work in those conditions of my life I arrived in Minnesota in the year um I was 15 years old and in my mind there was only the intention of the intention of making money lots of it after my first year in Minnesota I realized that I needed to learn the

025language and I decided to take an English course but the idea of going back to school fulltime was not in my plans I live day by day and I thought that I could maintain this routine for the rest of my life after all everyone does the same thing though uh everybody excuse me I everybody Al does the same thing right finally according to me I found the right profession as a professional house painter I learned I learned the trade in less than a year and everything was going pretty good for me I had many plans in mine but life had other plans for me one more house to paint I thought I remember the living room walls in that house were about 16 ft high that day I had an accident that Chang changed the

026course of my life forever I fell off the ladder uh roughly 16 ft in the air I fractured both feet and as a result I was in a wheelchair for a long time to this day I suffer from chronic pain it was time to make a decision get depressed give up or find a solution school yes I told myself I have to try one more time I know I can do this and finally I made a decision to go back to school and with the support of my beautiful wife araseli I reached out to AB there I found a new beginning hope I have always asked in my prayers to find someone who believes in me someone who gave me a chance and I met Caroline ners supervisor of Central Minnesota a she along with

027Adam Holm and the entire AV staff are helping me to obtain my adult diploma so I can go to college I have been I have been in school for a year I have a ways to go but I have a dream and I will reach it I would like to thank all the teachers who are present in in this place uh this evening every member of this beautiful family District 742 for all they do to contribute to the admission to engage Inspire educate prepare and Empower all learners to all of you thank you very much for accepting [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me is there any questions for our speakers or for any of our team Monica I was going to say nothing but um I can't much much [Music] for um I I I Barbara

028not many people has the opportunity to listen on a story like yours and there is a lot of stereotypes around here that I have run across about why people come to United State and how is is to cross the border I really really appreci appreciate your bravery and going to commend you for telling us all those details um thank you for that neas thank you both of you for coming to this family and for call as family um again your details of your story were teing up for me thank you for that passion that you put in your letters in your words um how you talk to us how you're talking to the people here um I I I think that you have a good path to make a lot of money if you continue

029if you continue with the letters and the pen and the computer so I wish you the best to both of you and thank you um to our wonderful staff for all the work that you do and all the ones that are there the back sporing [Music] um yeah I was I was chair of the is this working okay I was chair of the community advisory committee for a while but it's been a while and wow there's been a lot of changes um you were talking about um contact hours versus population in in the funding when did that change it used to be mostly population from what I remember uh without due respect I've been in Abbe for about 11 years so maybe this was before 11 years ago but the majority has always been contact

030hours so if if it was different before for like 11 years ago I could I could be wrong but it's always been a mix Scott and then due to our large population of St Cloud that really helps us yes um but overall it's um due to our contact hours and then even when the it took maybe because when it took the dip they leveled it out maybe that's what he's thinking about no I think Scott I think you're confusing Community Education with adult education got it okay I we yeah got it okay thanks H uh one of the things that um I think you folks did was a a senior driving class do you do a senior driving class anymore yeah it's very popular um we did have to move it um over to Cory

031view but it fills up very quickly and it's a very popular class but it is held at Cory View Center now instead of offsite yeah and you get that significant and reduces your insurance rates so it's well worth doing um is there a on facility rental property uh is there a priority on that when you run facilities as to who gets what in what order so the schools always come first and then it's it's otherwise it's pretty open so I think they try to go we wait till the schools especially our high schools get all their practices in and the junior highs get their practices in and then we wait till 5:00 at our elementaries just to make sure the school's out but we do in if the school okays it so we'd either partner

032with Nikki or the principal is it okay to offer this reading class or this um art class and then that's pretty much school only because of all the stuff going on right after so it would just be at Kennedy or be at Madison okay uh I was interested in that nutrition course that you've put together can you tell us me a little more about that sure so um I in designing the course I met with um a couple of people from centri care and I said what do you look for in employees and they named some top things like Communications skills and time management um you know what does it mean to take a food order and Etc and then I took that and aligned it with our adult education standards and came up with

033um scope and sequence and I kind of borrowed curriculum from another program in St Paul who's already been doing this and I designed the class uh we enrolled the students and so the students learn about oh everything from like um if somebody has special dietary needs what does that mean so they're learning a lot of vocabulary and they're practicing taking food orders and then they actually went um to centricare they took a field trip and they toured the Nutrition department and other parts of the hospital and a fun update which I forgot to say in my presentation so I'm glad you you asked um yesterday I was speaking with the teacher and as of yesterday three of our students who are taking it this semester are waiting to schedule their first um phone screening interview

034with centri care so they are applying and hopefully fingers crossed that they will get the jobs I hope so thank you um are there other uh programs that are also coordinated with centri care just first this is the first um next year um my plan is to do an English language class focused on Child Care um and maybe hopefully get students primed or ready to work in early childhood or daycare centers around town um but this one is the first one that I've partnered with Centra Care on oh good going thank you that's [Music] good um first off congratulations to both of our speakers and what you're doing is awesome I know with AB students it's it isn't generally people who have taken the easiest path in life and there you've gone through a lot

035to get where you're at but where you're at is a really good place and very proud of the fact that you made the decision to come come come come to us and and move forward uh with a with an education um my question is actually not a real difficult one probably but I was looking at the pictures in the very beginning in the ab courses in St Joe are they they're held at resur Resurrection Lutheran Church is that correct and yes they are yeah and I'm wondering why why not Kennedy what o that is a great question question um that was kind of in place before I began Adam would you know the answer to that yeah so in there during the day right yeah so it's during the school day okay so um but

036we were at the city um and um that one wasn't as convenient as our current location and they're open arms and they want us there and they don't charge us a fee um so uh the bigger one is if we would go to Kennedy we'd have to do like we do at Cory view with some locked doors and right now they're they have this um the space to themselves and that's what we ran in to also with the city is you know with all the adults like to come and go like it's a college field um and and there so there's no limitations where we currently are just like at Lac Cruz um you know that's right over by St Cloud State and we have the whole um townhouse during that time for our classes

037okay okay I was just curious thank you um Natalie then Monica do you want to jump in now okay okay I have a couple of questions for Caroline so I can compose myself before thanking Barbara andas um your stories were out of this World um no I'm not talking to you yet okay um Caroline so uh I really want to thank you for adding am I saying that right Caroline is that your okay thank you um for changing uh the needs once you heard from Community I think that's really um not always done you know I think it's done in our district but you know sometimes um we make programming and we're not the ones who use the programming you know in general and people in general I mean and then people that really need

038it can access it so thanks for breaking down the barriers um to access an opportunity I appreciate that um what would it take this is a two-part question what would it take to move people off the summer waiting list and into classes and which classes have the longest waiting list excellent question uh the answer to part one of your question is more space it's not money first it's space it's space okay I'm out of classrooms okay um and then the second part I was so eager to answer that because you know you guys can maybe help fix that right yeah thanks for telling us um sure uh oh and then which ones have the biggest weight list yes it's our it's our lower levels so it's level I'm seeing we're seeing a lot of demand

039for levels like 1 two and three okay so are very lowest levels okay thank you but we we should be clear it's when we say space it's when the students can make it so if the students could make it from noon to 3: we have plenty of space but meeting their schedules their wants and needs and then our area other communities their students come to us because of our flexibility um and we've even Amy's been unbelievably fantastic so we have money and Amy watches it and um but if we need for but it's it's all it's all good so when we wanted to do Monday and Wednesday nights it wasn't the fact it was we went to Amy and Amy said and then Tracy to make sure we can hire to with the money but

040it it was a big process but it was just nice that everybody came together and said we're going to add Monday and Wednesday nights and not just for a couple weeks it's it's been almost since December or January uh November actually is when we started yeah so and it just keeps growing so um it money is not our issue right now it's um meeting the needs of when they can come so we have spaces but um what they can make is right and we don't I mean we give we do the waiting list we can start another class but they then they won't come because it doesn't meet their needs right okay space and time then thank you um muchas gracias uh Barbara and Nas um Barbara I'm wondering when you will finish if you

041know when you'll finish your par course I finish I finished my par course in last February oh okay yes I have my certificate but I'm waiting for my documents yes my authorization for working and is coming up maybe in three weeks really okay I was just wondering why you don't work for us already so thank you I'm like you're here for a job because yes is the answer sorry not my job actually thank you Barbara thank you good luck with that um nemus what are what are you hoping to uh major in in in college and please say it's teaching yes for sure yes I really uh I really love how uh uh teachers you uh how how they have the passion to in the patience to teach so yes I aiming towards that but

042uh but one my I would say my big biggest dream is is is to be a psychologist but I know that's far far away but uh yes uh something like that you can start an education and then go to school psychology I mean the is here for you for sure thank you thank you so much for I know um very brave to share your story and very moving and gracias [Music] graci thank you um I I just made me think about something when you were answering our questions um maybe Caroline or or Anam then we used to have um um parenting class is that not part of the is that part of ECF is that is that a different part we still have the family literacy program running but it's not part of you or

043is it so they register through early childhood but then the parent so from 8:30 to 10:30 the parent and the child are together down in early childhood getting instruction and they are together then from 10:30 to 12:30 the parent separates from the child and comes up and studies with us and then they meet their child back downstairs at 12:30 in early childhood is that class part of adult basic education or not I mean yes it is they are they are considered adult education students but they first register through Florence in early childhood could you tell us more about the class what is the the like what what what how many people do you have how how successful or not it is I find it to be a very important class and I didn't hear much

044about it I I agree and actually there are not many adult education programs left around the state that do offer family literacy so thank you for still supporting that and offering that um from my understanding the parent and child work with a family educator from those first two hours and they work on just parenting topics um unfortunately I'm not the expert Florence would be the expert um but then um the parent comes up to us and studies in their English language class or the adult diploma instruction class um and then they meet their child back when they are finished so back in the day you used to have those classes in h Spanish and Somali that's no longer the case um I do not believe so we we'd have to reach out to ECF I'll

045find that out and get it to you what they have down in their classrooms I'm I'm also since you're reaching up to them I'm also interested in what is the promotion that you do for those classes because I never heard anything about them and that's probably why we don't have a lot of people coming to those classes it is listed on our web page on the district website and also on the Early Childhood website web page I understand that that is almost no Outreach I mean I don't see many parents looking for classes for being parents in a website that's that's not what like what it will come to mind for me as a that a parent say okay let me see I'm going to learn how to be a parent here let me reach

046out to ECFE tomorrow and see you know how their what their numbers are and then um what languages they're in I can get that information to you yes thank you I appreciate it no worries oh before Dr putam um talks can I just mention one thing about our two speakers they're part of our um pipeline to work in our district you know the we've been working on that for years and with Tracy and and Shane is that when we find quality people in our classrooms the teachers will either call me or find me in the hallway or find Caroline and then we reach out to Shane or to Tracy and say you know here's what we have here's their degrees she already has the ba but she wants to be in our perah program and

047then we have that perah to teacher program so there there's just two success stories here and we also have Maria she's one of our students she's at Discovery and you met uh paa who's a family Advocate and then Nester liked it working here so much in our family he recruited his wife who is now a family advocate in the equity program so we just keep growing that program or we're going to do others with centri care and all those but um my heart is our our best and brightest students we always try to work uh with the HR department to keep them here um because um they're just an example of what the great things going on in the you know adult education program Adam you uh you took some of what I was going

048to say I was actually going to give you kudos for that um Adam at one a while ago not that long ago but a while ago was a a coach um which you part of that of course comes there some you know recruiting um that comes no no he says but there's certainly a you certainly have an eye for talent you have an eye for stars and so you bring us these stars um that and we are blessed to get to hear um once a year I always look forward to this and um every time I I cry um and it's because of the um the resilience right and the hope that you um bring and that you embody and so I'm so very grateful um that you um were willing to come tonight and

049to our AB staff and our community ed staff um the those of you who aren't here but you know please take back our thanks um the work that you guys do um is is so profound and um you know I I I hope that you take this as a highest compliment right we don't we we never hear about you right and and that is for me the highest compliment because that means you are out doing incredible work with our community and you're taking care of it right like you're it just never comes up as a right like I I'm I'm struggling trying to say what I mean but like you never cause fire right like you are just out like being these amazing professionals and changing lives um and you just handle it with such

050Grace and professionalism and so we are super grateful um Barbara I hope that you are thinking that you will come teach for us um you have your bachelor's degree right we we have many opportunities to teach in um bilingual education and so I I texted Tracy I was like why isn't she teaching for us so [Laughter] so she's back there and she's on it and Neer I had the pleasure of getting to see you work in August um uh we were doing some community outreach and um I I actually was like Adam who is that right cuz the way that you um the way that people are drawn to you and that you um I watched you just dive in to these complete strangers and like draw them into conversation about 742 and about education

051and enrollment and um you have a really um special way about you with people so when you said psychologist it didn't surprise me at all thank you very much I it's our I I saw it we all see it um and grateful that you chose to work um with us and that you brought your beautiful wife into the fold um she's a she's a dream also she's back there um so thank you uh so sincerely uh for for what you're doing and and for the um the gift that you all gave us tonight with your stories thank you um just want to tell at the record show that Monica sear Schwarz um arrived 6:39 p.m. I have so I didn't have that on record okay moving on to uh reports Board of Education standing committee

052reports I believe we just have one which is uh board development policy and governance committee chair Scott Andreas um the committee met uh April 24th uh 2024 and assistant superintendent rard and Mr gangji presented a board policies to the committee uh there are two board policies that were reviewed with no recommendations for changes to be made uh they would be a board policy 518 uh DNR dni orders which means do not recess itate um and board policy 519 interview of students by outside agencies uh we had two other board policies uh number 501 the school weapons policy and number 708 uh transportation for non-public students and that will be presented to the full board this evening for the first of three readings thank you and did I miss anybody okay then we have future agenda

053items uh May regular board meeting topics will include Transitional services update summer learning opportunities approval of list of graduates for Apollo and Tech High School and policy readings at this time does any board member want to suggest a future agenda item okay then I I'm looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's board meeting and do I have a second we're reversing it up here so a I have a motion by Natalie a second by Scott all in favor say I opposed okay uh regular board meeting is adjourned at 7:24 p.m. and at that same time opening up our uh Board of Education work session um first up we have the Walker West music partnership update um uh tonight um several people coming forward here we have Ian Omar director of equity Services Mariah Chamberlain music

054teacher uh Bara Davis and I apologize if I um uh family access and community leaon and Laura stepner director of Elementary curriculum welcome we have been looking forward I have been looking forward to this since you were here a year ago and then I think please introduce yourself because I just had four names here but we're glad you're all here all right good evening chair Haw superintendent Punam and members of the school board uh this evening I'm in I am introducing the Walker West Academy Walker West alongside District leaders will provide an update on our second year of programming and partnership the presentation will highlight professional developments parent engagements and instructional collaboration with the music department the goal of this program is to increase our students particip ipation and engagement in music programs throughout the

055district and I'm happy to witness our wonderful progress these efforts are neither a Sprint nor a marathon but a relay the highlight of this partnership has been the opportunity to work with so many outstanding and passionate individuals at Walker West I'm thankful for the opportunity to work with Dian Kya Tanya who isn't here Braxton and many others who have been beyond amazing in their efforts to engage Empower and Inspire participation in our music programs with that I pass the mic off to Diane no can we just switch hello hello hello hello that check check hello check check check check I think it was check check we're good all right thank you ion hello everybody it's great to be back um I think a year ago we were you know talking about what we were hoping

056would happen and that we would have good outcomes and have some great things to share with you this year um we had a great year and I'm really excited to um show you some of our progress um and so let's just Dive Right In uh this year's goals uh year two the just to refresh we are in a three-year partnership year one was not really a full year we we got started and with an advisory Council of um 14 people and um that was the planning uh to lay the groundwork for this particular year for our year two so that's where we are with the end of year two and our goals were to offer instructural programs by Walker West Music Academy teaching artists that are culturally appropriate and commiserate with the changing demographics of

057the St Cloud area schools uh we did that um we wanted to provide professional development for St Cloud area schools music teachers yes check uh we created new programs from local Somali musicians that bring new artists into the schools um that's a Hal truth um we uh had Somali artists but we brought them in from um St Paul and or Twin Cities and you know our hope is and it always has been is to have that come from the community here and so that's part of moving forward what what we intend to do and how we intend to do that but we started with bringing our people from um uh the Twin Cities um and then increased enrollment uh for students of color in middle school music classes um Laura will speak to that data

058and um so yeah that was our our our year two goals um and getting right into it three schools were chosen to host the Walker West residencies in fifth grade music classes based on location and demographics those three schools were Madison Lincoln and Discovery um we chose the fifth grade music classes because we felt like that was where it could have the most impact on uh students going into middle school so that that was the reason for fifth grade music classes our teaching artists we had five of them Chadwick Niles Phillips who taught songwriting and rap to Madison and Lincoln soam Mena did West African drumming at Discovery hary kah and anab um Muhammad did Somali song dance and storytelling at Discovery and brother Ghana mayay did West African drumming at Madison and Lincoln so

059that was five artists that we brought up 360 students participated in residencies provided by The Walker West teaching artists um the pictures you see there that's Harvey and um at Discovery and on the right it is um brother Ghana at Lincoln right yeah yeah all right there were 160 contact hours for uh fifth grade students with Walker West teaching artists picture on the left is uh Karen Cruz's neatly organized double class of uh and that's brother Ghana clear at the very end oh did I say lincol oh I didn't say Madison all right um so 20 72 students studied and performed West African drumming dance and song with brother Ghana and Bay and we have uh some testimonials and some yeah my name is Ian and I'm in fifth grade and the most thing that

060I really like about brother Ghana is that when we were performing to the younger grades and uh when they were doing the dances it was like [Music] this is Brother Gana at um Lincoln [Music] oh they together I like [Music] it yeah uh same 272 students same 272 students uh performed and wrote RS um with Chadwick Niles Phillips um at Madison now on the left we have a little clip on the right it's the um uh in uh at Madison um Karen Cruz took it a a step further and that's a she had the students do do the style of um rap and songwriting that they learned with uh Chadwick at their Veterans Day celebration so that was you know that's that's what we want that's part of the relay so cuz you know I

061can't spit say I'm in fifth grade I'm in fifth grade I'm going in sixth grade if I get good graad I get good gra then I'mma get paid I'm get paid if I get good grace good then I'mma get paid I'm get if I get good graad I get good then I'mma get and when I feel this way it me want to say feel this way to this way it makes me to say K be rapping everybody be capping all y'all be acing like y'all not lying but y'all hear crying sneak is not a rap so why y'all be acting when I say no you say cap No Cap No Cap No Cap I can't hear you no no all right know um at Discovery um we had 88 students who learned West African druming

062with so ensa uh we don't have any footage of that that would be my bad um this um particular uh residency started um September 18th yeah right at the beginning of the year we won't be doing that again um um and plus um Cynthia is uh new teacher at that school so she hardly and then that school had um SOA and then in November shortly after soas was done had hary and anab um so she was a first year teacher there and so that was that was hard um and yeah we've we won't I think it's hard for any of them to have um somebody at the very beginning of the year you don't really get your classroom established and all all of those important things um uh you can see the comments from the

063schools we do from the students we did uh we do um uh evaluations um for every artist and so we do have some paper trail um on on students and comments and all that this one I don't have access oh no that one's the best oh no oh no phone well let's I have it on my phone too but that doesn't really help why well we can make it happen why don't we play the other one I can pull this one sounds good do you want to speak to this Dan uh yeah um this was Harvey and an's um uh Somali music dance and storytelling um I visited the class um one time and you know it was really it's really good it was with the the students um that we wanted to be engaged

064were engaged and it was um good for everyone um to get that and have that special um sort of um um well not treatment but that special probably a a like a um a something they'd never had before um so this this felt good all right so let's listen to this guy three hello my name is Mohamad I'm in fifth grade turn the volume up at all on these videos computer problem all the way on the computer do we have the remote for the television is it right there oh I can put the microphone okay let's try here was when they when they taught us how to and hello my name is Muhammad I'm in fifth grade and my favorite part were here was when they when they taught us how to use the kahon

065and the and what did it feel like to get to dance with them I I felt excited and I and I wanted to I want I wanted to do that every day did we hear that I wanted to do that every day right um I can on I will on the screen here okay so if anyone can oh you want me to air air drop on an iPhone I am yeah so if you [Music] airplane all right here's another student ready and I'm in hi my name is Ayan and I'm in fifth grade of melas's class and I like how har and they separated the groups and taught us a dance and then we all did it together individually what was your favorite part when when we did so when you did what so what's

066that you move your arms the girls move their arms like this when the boys do like a different dance what the boys do the boys were doing something like this um it was like this like something like that yeah cool how did it make you feel to get to to get to dance with them and sing with them it was fun and um I like how we we got to do drumming when other people did the dance if you didn't want to do the dance you could do druming with another person and then you would kind of create a beat for like the dance and it was really fun great okay look at us also all right um baa is going to speak to to the uh Community engagement activity that Harvey and anab were

067uh took part in so there was a community engagement activity at Discovery and 30 community members participated it was amazing to see students parents community members engag in a music musical performance that har and N performed at um it was one of the many moments within our school system where culture community and curriculum deepened our impact and created a a Rippling sense of belonging felt by those in attendance as hary and anob were two artists in residency from Walker West they provided songs dance and lyrics in Somali participants engaged in call and response dance and cultural exchange through storytelling harrian andab next year will work on connecting with our local artists to increase participation from our amazing St Cloud cultural group um and we're also connecting with the central Minnesota Arts board to really create

068and Foster our own residents in that connection through Walker West thank you Mar um Mariah is going to speak to our professional development we had two professional development days um do you want to make sure everyone knew that was you in the video [Laughter] now it is um yeah I I was definitely put on the spot but so were all the kids and so was everybody that was just kind of the spirit I don't think press and hold Special Touch check check check there we go yep I was definitely put on the spot but that's kind of the nature of the game um we had amazing response from our music teachers regarding the professional development it was a huge treat that kind of stuff doesn't usually doesn't come all the time for music teachers it

069was very specific it was very relevant it it allowed us to have a dialogue um with the artists from Walker West um and it allowed us to um kind of tap into what is making your program successful in St Paul our teacher were able to collaborate and put that into the 742 context and so we really look forward to more of that um some of the things that were included in the PD were the songwriting and rap so Chadwick was here and it was a small group of teachers that got to work with him um instrument ensembles that's one thing that I thought was really it was very impactful for me hearing um how how at Walker West The Walker West way is um of teach in instrument ensembles and then bringing that into how

070we're going to do that in 742 and what we're going to change um what we also we got to do West African drumming the whole vertical K12 team which was really amazing um and then we got one-on-one time with harby and anub too um I think yeah the dialogue was amazing with the extra time it wasn't just like a sit and get it's like a a conversation Community conversation like this is what we're experiencing what do you do to combat that and then how can we bring that into our context so yeah it was great we want more okay we we're we're looking ahead all right now to the uh real numbers um Laura has uh Laura staber probably all know Laura um she's done some very uh good work um and um I know

071that what she's presented is uh simple for us so that that's really good she's done a lot of uh data disaggregation and so um Laura I'll let you go so these beautiful people do all the music and then I do the spreadsheets so we all have our part um we were very intentional and Diane spoke to the the work that the advisory team did and I got to participate in the advisory team in the beginning part and it was very intentional to figure out where to put the resources it was a lot of deep conversation a lot of thoughtful multiple perspectives um and like Diane mentioned we ended on fifth grade because we really wanted to change the trajectory of sixth grade and so our preliminary data does show some slight increases in next year's

072sixth grade enrollment in band Orchestra and choir classes um we do have more to dig into but I'm excited to share some highlights with you tonight because um when we went into this partnership we were all very clear that our music programs aren't as robust or diverse as we'd like them to be and so we're excited to see that we see some impact from our Walker West partnership um so this I'm going to just talk through what you seeing up on the screen and so what you're going to see here is the green section is the sixth grade music numbers right now and this does not represent Kennedy um because we're comparing North and South that's where our Walker West residencies were so we're looking at the data compared to the feeder schools from The

073Walker West partnership so you're going to see right now in our sixth grade music programs we have about 254 students that are participating um and you can see the percentages of the student group so we can see that of those 254 students currently in sixth grade we have 26 about 26% of those students are black 47% white 14% Hispanic 3% Asian and 1% American Indian the counselors go into the fifth grade classes in the spring and they work with students to say what is your music choice what is it that you are planning to do next year so we know that things will change from April of the fifth grade year to the actual students in the classes that's the nature of life um so what we are looking at now is just what are

074our fifth grade students selecting for themselves and what are these that is why this is our projected data because they're not in sixth grade yet so we are seeing that we now have 310 students who have indicated that they would like a music choice so we see an increase in the total number of students and then we also see some increases in our representation data so we see an 11.3% increase in the number of black students when compared to last year that are selecting a music choice um and that's something that we're really excited about um we also see a decrease in white student representation and that does make sense because it is more aligned with our overall student representation So currently our representation isn't a match for our community and that decrease actually shows

075us that white students are definitely still participating but we're becoming more in line with our overall demographics and then we had some really great data highlights at that school level um so I was able to dig really deeply into Discovery Lincoln and Madison projected choices as compared to what those students chose the sixth grade students chose last year as fifth graders so we think about former Discovery Lincoln and Madison students currently enrolled in sixth grade that makes up 105 students so our sixth graders right now at North and South 105 of them came from either Discovery Lincoln or Madison looking at next year we see 166 students projected from those schools so we see a pretty significant increase now I don't have for you are the numbers exactly the same but the sections are very

076relatively the same and so we would expect that the total number of students would be very similar from year to year so we're excited to see that that we're seeing um 61 more students from those three schools selecting music choices we also noticed that when we compared the representation from Discovery projected for next year as compared to what is in the classes this year we saw almost 10% more Hispanic students from Discovery selecting music choices we also saw a huge increase in interest at Lincoln um so when we take a look at the students who are in music right now who are Lincoln students our students are projected to be more than double the amount of Lincoln students selecting music choices next year as opposed to what we currently see in our representation this year

077we also saw a 10.5% increase in Black representation from our link students and 13.3% in our Madison students so it's very exciting to see that hard data of um what did those smiles and moments and experiences do for students overall picture of themselves as musicians and their choices for their future in music um one of the things that I got this whole the our advisory Council which um is wonderful um there were many meetings where we all kind of left totally in the weeds like what is this what are we doing where where are we going with this what especially when we were starting to plan programming um before we really got a handle on that um but one of the things that really um well I no I'm not going to go there um

078no no it was the fact that we got where we got was nothing short of amazing and we the year itself has been um real surprise because I didn't know how that dat data was going to come out and we didn't know one of my fears as we um were doing all this is that we weren't really uh specifically doing anything for instrumental music but what the data shows is that the interest has been peaked and the interest has been uh the the kids have um decided that they want to know more about music so when they do go to the middle school then they see that they have other choices so I think that's that's the takeaway from uh the work that we've done so for year three um our goals are to make

079St Cloud area schools independent of Walker West as we look to cocreate culturally relevant instructional practices by providing teaching artists to further to further further that mission uh we will continue to provide uh professional development this speak to these um practices and of course to further increase our enrollment from students of color in middle school and high school music classes moving forward we're developing year three programming and we uh will have Chadwick uh come back and do songwriting and rap in three elementary schools and or middle schools we're still looking at a middle school um some Middle School options to kind of get them on board with us um brother Ghana will be in three elementary schools well we should refer we shouldn't say three he'll be brother Ghana and Chadwick will be doing three

080classes I don't know if that means they'll be in three elementary schools but that we have budget for three classes the budget is for three classes yes Courtland Pickins is um uh from the Twin Cities he's a gospel choir um uh clinician and we are looking at putting him at one high school it's um was high school is we don't know yet oh we don't oh okay um is Jessica is yeah yeah okay Harvey and anab um are going to come back um but we're going to use them in a little different capacity as cultural ambassadors and use them in the community and to promote uh school music and um if there's enough money we'll bring them back to um discover Discovery or maybe some of the other elementary schools but for now it looks

081like we're going to use them as uh more involved in the community and again to to get to a goal of reaching out to the community here to get the kind of programming that they've been able to provide uh and then the continued professional development um one day this year um yeah so we're we're planning ahead and looking forward to what year three will bring so what questions do you have anybody have any questions Scott um what is your relationship with the central Minnesota Arts board [Music] they sponsor a lot of stuff around here so we're currently working on a grant with song on really continuing to Foster our community Talent so that way we don't have to rely on artists and residents coming from St Paul or the Metro so we're working with the

082central Minnesota art board on a grant so that we can be self- sustaining okay thank you glad were you raising your hand hand [Music] okay thank you so much for this very very excited about um all the stuff that you were doing and I still remember you from last year um we're talking about salsa and Maris still waiting for the salsa and the Maria cheis that well I know we we can't we we just don't have that programming that's not our Focus I mean that's an opportunity for St Cloud so tell me more about your your focus um yeah well I mean within our our mission we we okay we um you know we teach music kind of with with the africanamerican cultural experience but it's open to all you know all Races and you

083know we want to you know the focus is on exploring growing and and Gathering through music and then this year um we uh put a change in our mission to focus on performance and so now we're sending our you know our our kids out in the community and they're performing all over the place they're playing at the Twins game they're playing at the soccer game they're playing at community events and we're really just trying to get them out there and get them you know exposed to things and it's and we have kids of all colors you know all all Races it's uh Walker West is a very diverse uh school I mean people think well you know it's it's it's uh run by um you know by me and it's run by you know most

08480% or 90% of our faculty are African-American but we have people from all over the Twin Cities that come to Walker West and that's kind of the the way we teach it's it's called um play to learn and the way play to learn is if you've ever been to an AFC African American Church uh there's this call and response and um we do more ear training and then we get the notes and we have a saying just as you teach a child to speak before you teach them to read and write we want our students to speak on their instruments first and then the reading and writing will come later because as a musician if you can listen with the ear and speak with that and then you get the notes then it just raises

085your level of musicianship and that's kind of the way we teach so we teach classical we teach Jazz gospel hip hop and all the rest of that but it's with this call and response and this play to learn method did that answer your question yeah okay thank you so much um and and I appreciate the the call for opportunity so I was going a little bit more towards the the um Advisory Group that you did um if if you can tell me more about the Advisory Group and and what what was the so did you had a an emphasis already because that's your a speciality going to that Advisory Group uh were you looking for for for representation for what type of representation or how did you how do you form that group The the

086group was formed um we had let me start with St Cloud uh the original group had here here here here plus um sashen and two community members um from here uh from Walker West Community um here here um and Tanya who and Marie Marie and this this I'm sure that doesn't mean anything to you but but we had four employees from Walker West and then um one two uh community members also from St Paul and then two St Cloud music teachers in addition to Mariah who's also a music teacher of course of course did you say s Paul community members from s Paul or s cloud St Paul one of the community members that we had was recommended because he had worked with the Somali population at the cedar Cultural Center he ran programming for

087that and he was really a valuable member of the community because he had conts all over the same yeah he's the one that connected us to harb and Anor so yeah um thank you um La when you were looking at the numbers so I was interested in in so I I the the goal of bringing the the Kami was was to increase participation of a specific groups or to increase participation in general or to balance the population of music with the population of the district what was the in terms of numbers what was the goal so I think it was multifaceted one was overall representation so we all recognize that we um have programs that aren't accessed by as many students as we want them to be we also recognize that in in addition to

088not being as high of numbers as we had hoped that our student demographics weren't reflected in our programming so when we went into it we really wanted to think about how do we provide programming that speaks to our diverse Learners and that's really where we designed our programming so we intentionally were thinking about who's not represented in our programming now and how might we peque their interest like Diane said if if along the way we piak the interest of more students that weren't specifically targeted with our strategies we were all for that because we know that music is amazing and wonderful and and a fantastic experience so when I think about the committee we spent a lot of time talking about both of those things one our numbers aren't where we want them to be

089and we want to grow them and the best way that we can grow them is we can take a look at our students who are choosing not to participate and we can offer program in experiences that align with those students cultural um their cultural experiences and their lived experiences to help our students see music in a way that connects to them so does that answer your question so it really was both yes um so follow up with that question um do you further desegregate the data to understand for example you have um black students I don't remember how you C I think they you said black so is a is a further desegregated like to know uh black students U African-American or Somali or other African students we haven't segregated it at that level um

090we really did look at the the representation but we didn't drill in further for for next year um other groups um so the the in terms of plans for next year is that what are the plans for I don't know that I hear them was the last the last slide yeah um forward there we go yeah no the next next one yeah yeah that's those are the the things that we're uh like in development um so continue with the emphasis uh so what what is the plan Western Academy so I think we have a couple of things in place one is the professional development is to help our teachers change their practices so they've had the two opportunities this year followed by the another opportunity as well um Mariah and I have also talked about

091what does that mean for giving our teachers some time to revamp their curriculum so it's one thing to learn but we also have to provide that space and opportunity for teachers to say I've learned this now how might I change what I do so that's one piece we also and Bara can speak to this it's it really making we've understood that our um bringing musicians to our students that are representative of who they are has been extremely powerful and so we want to continue that but we also want to continue it like Bara said with our local community so Bara do you want to speak to that at all anymore Jes it yes so we are being intentional by partnering with the central Minnesota Arts board and song has been amazing with connecting us with

092the grant writers and to speak to your point about representation so when we first started our Advisory Group we reached out to our American Indian parent Council we reached out to our Latino parent group and we reached out to our African American p parent group we meet monthly and we reached out three different times and the two Representatives that we got were from our African-American black parent group um but yes we are continuing to develop that in um partnership with the central Minnesota Arts board again to have that Grant to be able to sustain it and really create and Foster our own local artists did that answer your question okay um so I I I like to see um more more um more planning into into what is the future like I'm I'm curious to

093see what's the future Beyond Academy probably that's the work for this year because you still have the moment more year um the the the it's so hard to talk about culture and and and to talk about culture in a place as diverse as this one and to to to talk about focus in in cultural relevant when we have that many cultures that we have um and I and I hope to hear more about how has that conversation been internally for us what it means to be cultural relevant in our district um I I did not heard you talking about it so in terms of next next year I'm I'm I'm I'm interested on that part um I I love the numbers and I I did not I was not expecting more number numbers of bigger

094bigger numbers I it made me a little more realistic it's hard to get into it and and also I I there is always a trying out um when when kids got excited and then they're seeing going they're going to get more there so it's not for the first ones that are the ones that are going those are the brave ones then the ones that are coming later are the ones that is when when I expect to see numbers is kind of for next year um and for the Academy um continue to your emphasis I do want to encourage you to research about a slavery in Latino America and all the roots of music that came from the slavery in Latin American black people and all the roots than African um music that we have there

095salsa is one of them um we have Kumbia which is one of the dancers from the slaves um from my country Colombia um so um just just to expand into your broad cultural keeping your your your focus can I speak to that briefly um Ki cardinus uh program director at Walker West um it's kind of working on on this project and um I do remember your comment from the last meeting that we were here about representation specifically for the Latino American community in our work and I think what's been really beautiful to see in our evaluations is what students are excited about learning next and one of the things that really stood for me reading our first round of evaluations was how many students were requesting um Latin Latin American Music be taught um I

096think when we speak about what we do as Walker West and the body of artists that we're already drawing upon typically when we do our work that's what we're talking about with representing the African-American Community um we're absolutely interested in building more relationships with with artists um from from more backgrounds and I think the relationship that Bas is building with the central Minnesota Arts board is going to represent really wonderful opportunities to cultivate the local community um and to start to meet the needs that can be more culturally relevant here in in St Cloud and hopefully what we're doing here can be a model for for how we can be addressing all the various cultural groups that we that we need to address here in community can I can I a comment uh you know

097when we talk about music um I think the key thing uh especially the way we teach at Walker West you have to engage these students before you get them to learn if you don't engage them you'll lose them and the way we teach is you know like for instance my my son he's going to Colombia College in Chicago and he's decided he's going to be a music Major um you know when he sat down uh we didn't say uh hey you're going to learn Beethoven today uh he said no I want to learn some Stevie Wonder and so he started off with Stevie Wonder and learned how to play you know little Stevie Wonder and then we threw a little Sinatra in there then we threw a little B to it in there oh Beyonce

098okay we throw that in there too and so we really try to focus on engaging with the student first and what I'm I'm hoping we brought to the St Cloud I mean as an example is how do you engage these students enough that they want to take it to the next grader take it to the next level how do you stir up their curios it to want to do that and I think that can go across all cultures um I mean if you don't engage them no matter what the culture is you're not going to get them I mean and I'm just I just I think that's the the broad takeaway that I have so I wonder if not to put you on the spot where I already did but you got to see this

099firsthand you got to see the engagement and I know you and I had conversations about surprises that you had um is there there anything that you'd want to share from your perspective on how creating this access to engaging programming made a difference in your music classroom I would say I'm I was probably moving in this direction to start with um but the level of Engagement just the constant the constant movement the constant dancing the constant drumming um it that was what would hook them first and then we can get into some extra stuff we can get into music note reading we can get into some history we can get into making the connections between what they're engaging with at that moment and then also um like the more the more traditional I guess just kind

100of um giving that to students as well um but reaching them with the kind of music that they would engage with first and that's something that we're really wanting our staff to make sure that we work on we focus on more time together will be awesome because then we'll be able to get together and figure out how we can build that into our curriculum um and yeah I would say it I mean I I was spoiled at Lincoln um and so we want to be able to spread that learning and that engagement out districtwide in the next year thank you just one last comment kind of respond to what saying um I I I do understand what you're talking about when you're talking about engagement and uh I I love that the example that you

101gave about just getting in druming and Jazz and and and going and throwing ban there and those kind of things um I I do I mean again talking about culture is very um very difficult and the culture of the children that you're working with um is probably very different to the culture of the parents of those children um and they are exposed to different things so uh they're probably going to love V when the parents may not even listen to her right um depends of what parents are are we talking about right um so I I I and when I mention Kumbia uh I'm I'm mentioning something that is a folkloric dance from my country um and it's also a a a popular uh uh expression in Mexico too and other countries of Latin America

102it's a good example because of that but uh but when I mention those things I I'm going more into the folkloric and I'm going into different things that is the the the um data frame but I I I wanted the point that I want to make is that um in in terms of music and music offerings parents are also very important parents are very important because they're on the ones encouraging the kids there and um you do make the connection when you're talking about um druming and certain roots with things that are more familiar to the parents um that they want to see their children do it um so that's that's kind of what I not not that you not that I'm asking you to change anything or to change your focus but um it's

103kind of more for for in terms of how do we Define all this and what is Our intention and how are we discussing this I think that is also important in in our in our um advisory groups and how we we put it all together um in our district like more the common for district and for the teaching that you're doing um yeah just I I'll better be quiet I no those are good questions appreciate that dialogue yeah maybe another day start the meeting this is all very exciting and I'm so proud of all of y'all and of our district for having hard conversations and having really messy conversations that by the end of the conversation you're like I don't even know where to go from here but somehow we figure out where to go

104and then we see the results which I was able to see visiting Mariah's classroom B and I were there we danced I'm just going to tell you that and drummed and what I want to say about two students in in Mariah's classroom one uh young woman had three family members there and she was so proud and she was just like she would look back at her parents or whoever it was and not really you know not really go up to them but she was just like yep I'm performing now it was it's that performance piece that what it seemed to me is I don't know if she would be a student that would necessarily perform like that if not given the chance and there was a um a young man as well who had multiple

105solos and he seemed very shy but when he got up to the drum he was like yep here we go like the most confidence I've seen out of a fifth grader ever so it was just really and that's just two students and times that times everything um that we've experienced here in our district and is just really beautiful um I would can you give me a 50,000 foot view of what do play to learn look like the Walker is at the Walker West way of teaching instrumental music yeah and it comes from it it it comes from just the you know our africanamerican culture and I and I don't know if you've ever been in a black church you know I mean singing and storytelling and and you know communication is through you know especially

106if you talk about slavery and you know people communicate it through songs right and and all of that is is embedded in how we teach even with classical music uh we really want people to listen because good good musicians listen and the ear is as important as the eye you know reading the notes that's the eye the ear is the listening we combine them both because we think you know you really engage people when you listen and you do the ear first because you're G to play it okay okay now you play that okay let's try it again okay let's put a little twist on it you know and let's let's put a little improvisation on it let's make it fun and when you get people when you get the students to where it's fun

107and it's engaging then they say oh wow let's take this to the next level let's try something else and and that's what you know the play to learn is you know it's the ear and the eye the ear and the eye you know we start with the ear because we teach a child to speak before we teach them to read and write and then once they once they get it learn to speak we teach them to read and write and I think that's oh I'm sorry Y no no that's I was say that's a culture change for Central Minnesota for some families for my family it would be you know like I I took piano when I was 3 years old but didn't learn any improvisation until we had to do it in college and

108I had no idea I was a music Major and I'm like what do you mean just played the chord in the left hand I had I mean I was classically trained and I was missing so much music because that's all I did so um well I had to reprogram myself when I came to Walker West cuz I learned by playing notes yeah yeah I sat down and start taking lessons like oh the inversion of the fourth and the fifth and the sixth and the seventh and oh you got to listen to this and you got to listen to this chord change and I just threw the sheet music away and just said okay all right let me listen M that's a just a different way of living actually is and I think that's what we're

109seeing is the beginning of a culture change in our community in our in 742 in knowing what does music look like for us and what does it look like when we do it together and and it's not I also did an expect 101 to 160 something I I I I don't know what I expected but that's amazing that's amazing and thank you for that I also really loved that I knew what the rap um student the student who was rapping who said like I can't hear you and he said No Cap I'll just thank my children to know what no cap even means um but like to use their language right to use the language of of kids today and it was just beautiful I also want to point out that in Mariah's class it

110wasn't like there was a four bar phrase and then you okay let's learn that it was like 32 bars of stuff that these kids knew in their mind like it was just it was amazing to me they weren't looking at anything that was up there you know they they were looking at their director who was who they trusted and that was really beautiful um I could go on and on but I won't um the other thing I'll mention besides Central Minnesota Arts board is we uh at our local education and activities Foundation we have a Music Matters fund so you might want to reach out to them uh I can give you the director's email it might be me it might be me uh so and someone at this table also might be the main

111funer of that so I'm just saying we're help we want to help you um you guys thank you so much and thank you for making it a three-year opportunity um I know the first year it was like but we're getting not only are we getting somewhere we're somewhere and we still have another year to go so thank you so much Zach so last year everybody got to say something for at least 10 minutes I didn't say anything um it was it was a long it was a long night July I think um it but so no matter what all they say I'm still the big fan okay um cuz if it wasn't for band and specifically jazz band tener sacks and B um I definitely went to made it to college and I don't even

112know if I would have like finished school um if I did it would have been poorly so this again just want to say is is exciting exciting to have music fans here and um I uh my kids go to Madison so you we can kind of see the difference in the energy just from those little things I mean it it radiates and it's contagious I remember uh when Little Jazz Quartet came into school when I was younger and that like kind of sealed the deal I mean I already knew like I wanted tener sacks but you know that's still the deal so so thank you for partnering with us and I look forward to uh seeing things in the future that's all I have a question for for our district if my child comes home

113and wants to play the trumpet then what how do they go about accessing a trumpet and what's that going to cost me check check okay um well they need to be as far as in our district we start providing that in sixth grade and it doesn't matter sixth grade through 12th grade it doesn't matter what grade they can start whenever they would want um that's one thing that we're really proud of that there's multiple entry points into band it's not like they need to start in sixth grade and then you know go all the way through so if they wanted to start in 11th grade they could start um and then income based um we have really amassed a lot of instruments with our district that we can pretty much provide an instrument for a

114kid who wants to play free of charge if like based on um income income based so it's possible like without hardly any barriers with no barriers and do you feel like our students um when they're exposed to this these opportunities that are presented to themselves kind of understand that that hey when you go home you know we're going to work with you in order to get a trumpet cuz my kids would have been like yeah Mom's going to say no um just be it's expensive um but that was years ago so I think we've we've done a really nice job of building a culture of you want to try this you get to like we'll make it possible for you to try it our kids are not held back by that I don't know if

115we can do it um and the elementary teachers are really really adamant about you want to try any of these instruments like nothing's holding you back thank you very much for doing that I think you and again my kids are older that maybe and maybe I didn't know but felt like we had to access our own musical instrument has that changed do you think okay it used to be that way okay thanks um anybody else well we feel so fortunate thank you very much for for choosing us and blessing us so was very impressive thank you [Music] okay next up we have the schools update we have Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of PK through five education Dr Jason Harris assistant superintendent of secondary education and Dr Mike rard assistant superintendent of E12 Education Services all

116right good evening chair Haw superintendent putam and board members tonight for our elementary update we get to highlight our Kennedy Colts when asked about Kennedy's greatest strengths principal height expressed how their staff does a wonderful job of going above and beyond to meet student needs she is proud of their great Community culture and how they work together to support all students and families in a variety of ways current highlights at Kennedy include some of the amazing recent events including a student Spring Showcase where they had around 630 people in attendance they served a meal and families were able to explore the building and celebrate the great growth and accomplishments of their Scholars this school year and on the the board here you can see some of the pictures of the work that was on display

117at that last event all right uh good evening Cher H superintendent Plum board members uh just this evening all the great things that are happening within our district before I even get there from our adult basic it to our music where we know music is everything in the world how do you engage students and so it just some fabulous things we also at the secondary level uh uh looked at the highlights of Kennedy Community School at the middle level and our contined effort to build a partnership with the high school Apollo High School and Kennedy the Apollo students and the coaches got a chance to go over to Kennedy and kind of just what we heard go share their experiences explain all the opportunities that they're going to have when they go into high school

118and Spark their interest right and so you see it here in a diverse sense principal will height principal scholaro and then our Apollo and Kennedy students just taking a picture and then hearing about all the activities that they can get involved with when they get to Apollo High School and that's just another way to plant the seeds you see the coaches soccer basketball and you see the students just having a good time and that's just a great way to continue to say hey I see you I feel you when you come over to the high school we're going to be here uh ready for you to get involved in the community so just some great things happening good evening chair HW and superintendent putam and members of the board I am on um tonight I'm

119going to highlight a little bit about Katherine Johnson as we all know Katherine Johnson does have grade levels between kindergarten through 12th grade and then we have an 18 to 22 program that we talked earlier about this year with InStep uh this evening I'm going to talk a little bit though about our setting four program um which is our day program that is operated by the special ed Department uh this year we have 25 elementary students we have 30 middle school students and 30 high school students who are benefiting from this level of service at kjak um so some of the some of the pictures we see are kind of some of the incredible things that are happening for our kjack kids um working on reading projects is what you see over on the left

120hand side and this is a combination group where we have some of our level four students also working with our InStep kids so it's this wonderful opportunity for mentorship to be occurring at the same time the middle picture is what you will encounter in the mornings um because there's a coffee uh shop right there as you walk in the front door with uh kids uh sharing uh the coffee that they put together and selling it so a little bit of entrepreneurial skills are happening which Segways very nicely into the picture to the right there that was initially a botney project that they were working on in middle school science that now is becoming a flower um sale that if you look down to the very bottom picture um I've purchased two of those so hopefully

121my mom and my wife haven't been listening because Mother's Day is now checked off at the Revard family um because you can purchase those right now and if anyone's interested um I'll get you that information um for our kjck friends so so there's also lots of different opportunities going on for kjak students that's the same as what you would see at our other schools on the left we do have students going over to the YMCA and this is a reward day but they also made sure to work on the safety around water that our second grad students are also working on across the district so both of those activities were happening when they were visiting the YMCA um our student at the middle is working on some transitional skills with some sewing activities and music

122is happening over at kjak also as our student works on that trumpet that um chair HW is wondering about um those things are happening over at kjack too so as I reflect a little bit kjck really is in its infancy yet there's so many wonderful things that are happening there for district 7 forward to to be proud of uh that's our school update for this evening unless there are some questions okay thank uh then of course we have two policy readings tonight uh first readings on both of them uh uh Gary gangji executive director of operations first is presenting he's presenting both of them uh first up is the proposed new board policy 66.5 first reading for Library materials good evening got kind of a unique uh unique policy tonight I I I don't ever

123recall us having a policy like this this is a policy that msba uh has recommended for this year that is a um that is a0 five it's a former policy that's been broken off into its its own policy so it is uh as preparing it we we didn't really have a policy for us to update and so um what I have this evening is the the uh proposed policy from msba the the model policy um we took that policy uh applied it to what we do sent it out to our legal council uh to have them review it and then we took it to board development so it had a little bit different path than we usually have um just some background on on policy 606 you've seen that many times and that's instructional materials

124Li library books were always lumped together with instructional materials and now they've been separated the the reason being is instructional materials we often think of textbooks and and resources like that if there's a concern about a instructional resource we're we're limited on what those alternate resources can be now with a library book if there's a concern about a library book in most of our libraries we have 30 40,000 other resources to choose from and so um that is one of the reasons why it was separated out another reason why it was separated out is there's there's some statute that defines what a library media specialist is what that role is and that's what this addresses so with that background um I obviously I won't read the whole through the the whole policy I'll just point

125a couple things out um in definitions we get we get a u a look at what's in statute as far as what library is what a library material is and what a library media specialist is or who a library media specialist is um it's it's really important with statute because we have classroom libraries and then we have Library collections classroom libraries are more instructional materials which would be the 606 uh Library materials be library books which are 605 and in definitions you'll as you read through that you'll see um you'll see that defined also I want to point out in D of definitions um it where it addresses the library media Specialists a a number of school districts also including us also have technology integrationists and even though those positions look very similar they're quite

126different especially when you look at statute and so that's what that definition is in there um when we get to responsibility of of selection uh we talked uh a bit about this in board development um a library media specialist will go through and pick library books but what's important to note is the library media specialist is recommending which materials we procure um there is still an approval process for that where there's an administrative approval for purchasing that book um the um we have a set criteria for selection and in uh Roman numeral 4 it it outlines what that is um and and this is pretty standard across uh uh school districts across the state what you see in yellow um is where some changes were made when we went through board development and I just

127want to talk a little bit about that with um with number three there is a a bit of discussion about um what we should uh not exclude uh I believe the language was more exclusion exclusionary when um this first came and instead board development talked about what we should not exclude um the uh for for number four that was just a uh recommendation from our legal council that we really don't have media materials we have Library materials so that's just a a minor change on that one uh I think we drop down to D Mike um in indeed that's where we we address donations and I know this came up earlier a few months ago where we talked about accepting donations and donations are are are difficult to manage and I've been around uh a

128long enough to remember when we would get boxes of National Geographics uh uh we would get volumes I mean volumes of uh encyclopedias and what what I recall doing at the time because I was a medius working as a media specialist I was spending a lot of time um disposing of materials and um um we've talked a lot about um about accepting donations and we would we would uh prefer to spend our time selecting materials using our selection policy uh versus going through and determining if we need to dispose of it and so that's um that's where we're at on on on that one uh and we we talked a bit about that in board development um when we get to Roman numeral um the addition in um board development we we uh uh had

129a bit of conversation about it is when someone wants a material removed or reconsidered who um uh who who can that be who's our stakeholder and initially we did not have resident of the school of the school district we had an employee a a student of at least 18 years of age parent or guardian and with in the committee after discussion resident of student was resident of the district was added um our legal represent Representatives uh actually recommended B that uh that we put a limit on the number of books that can be challenged in a year because it does take quite quite a few District resources when we go through a book Challenge and as we talked about it in committee uh the committee decided that uh uh for now to strike that and

130if it it becomes an issue we could come back and revisit it um moving on to go down to page four am I the D yeah okay in our um in our instructional materials we have a three-step process if if there's a concern about a material um is as we look at that three-step process it would be if someone has a concern they would have an informal meeting with the the principal and the teacher for 606 in this case it would be the the media specialist excuse me and then if it isn't resolved they would move on to the next step which is a more formal um uh a formal request for review however it's the same players the only difference is the formal request is it's written down as we talked about that it

131it seemed like a unnecessary step if you couldn't resolve it sitting down having a conversation writing it on a form probably wouldn't resolve it either so we uh we decided to eliminate that step and so if if it cannot be resolved at the first uh that that informal meeting then uh the principal would refer it to the appropriate assistant uh uh superintend for that level and then the assistant superintendent would uh reach out to the person with the concern um to discuss it and then offer the option for a more formal review once we get to the formal review then that would involve a committee that U um is appointed by the superintendent um and there are certain timelines that we follow those are all in procedure uh um it's it's very prescriptive so that

132it's it's handled in a timely manner um with library books um again there's probably not an alternative the discussion probably would be is the is the book placed at the appropriate level for the maturity of the student um and and uh so that's why I I'm a little reluctant when we we talk about a challenge a removal to discuss question about where's that material best placed um the other piece that we had some discussion on was what to do when a book is uh asked to be reconsidered um typically that book stays on the shelf uh because some some discussion needs to take place but it's still a resource um the board development did discuss that and um we did add some language with the uh with the um um uh advice of the legal

133council on how to say it the M material may be uh temporary temporary removed from the collection during in the VI review process at the discretion of the superintendent on preliminary determination that at least one criteria for removal is set forth in paragraph uh 6.5 is satisfied so basically it's if for some reason something slipped through the cracks and it's creating a major disruption the superintendent would have that option um the um it I I don't know if it would be exercised but we had a lot of discussion about that that that step be there in case something would so um I think I'm going to stop there because we have a number of folks from the committee here I want to make sure that I've represented the discussion go ahead it seems that the

134big important issue is the criteria if the criteria is followed over a long period of time we shouldn't have a lot of bad books in there correct and the removal of bad books is going to take some some bureaucracy to make sure that there actually are bad books yeah um I'm I'm hesitant to call him a a bad book with my library background um um I'm trying to find another word uh you know probably a um um a a questionable book how's that okay oh that's that sounds very nice k um and and Scott to to your point there that's where it gets difficult when we take donations because we don't go through that selection process and we don't have that review and that's one of the the safeguards when we when when we when

135we do it through the traditional selection and purchase okay so that's that's primarily what it's all about good criteria to begin with over a long period of time and a long process to remove after it's been there correct thank you on page five I I don't think we talked about this the um page F page five number five number four you crossed out that says objectively inaccurate as a whole can you share with us why that's crossed out you know Natalie I I was sitting here uh just reviewing my notes and I was trying to remember I still got it at quarter to nine apparently I don't know how but I was trying I was trying to remember why why that was um removed and so I I think I I'll ask board members if

136you recall the discussion on that it's a mystery um if no one recalls since we are bringing this back for two more readings I'll I'll read through our notes from our legal council to see if it was there or if it was that's what I was wondering objectively inaccurate sounds very very Broad and who gets to object and who doesn't thinking I I hope no one asked me that oh you know what it's cuz you're leaving soon so I'm going to ask you the hard questions sorry um Al was gonna say something no I don't recall a big discussion no anybody else have any questions or comments on this mon so um I I am um I'm concerned to take out the the the the number of uh removals but the administration is not concerned

137taking it out so you haven't received a lot of them or the I was involved with libraries years back I haven't been until this year again so I can speak to when I was involved in it we didn't get a lot of challenges for library books and I'm pretty confident that we we haven't had any since moving to the district office I can recall one and it was resolved informally okay um the the I I also was piing the objectively inaccurate as a whole um that that I kind of understand what I want to get it at but I I will not be surprised that is the legal Cil saying that doesn't make sense um but um but I my question is about classification of books so things that you cannot prove I mean how

138how do you classify the books or and and I did not see that into the policy might not belong here but um is that do do people ask to like yeah could you tell me a little bit more about the classification of books when when do you say to kids this is fiction and this is not fiction or whatever or or or when is this for social class and this is not sure the um nowadays it's a lot easier to classify a book you used to happen was you'd have to go through and you'd have to had this big catalog that you had to go through and determine um um how you classify it and I'm really going to show my age because uh then we'd have to fill out three index cards one one

139subject one author you know um um now when you order a book you get something called a mark record that will come and someone has gone through and and they will say that this is um you know they'll say What genre it is it will they'll say what what subject matter and so they they really have helped out the the processing okay well um yeah I'm just curious about that but the other thing is that I'm also um I also have a question do kids read books [Laughter] yes yes Circ circulation is quite good is it good yes okay great um so I I I was um surprised that you said when you were reading that that we don't have um multi media materials I mean is that it's not pertinent to this policy or

140that we don't really have them it's it's we don't call it that anymore um for a while for a while we call it media materials because we not only had um had had books uh we were we were using film strips we were using so you know it's education goes with with Trends and we went and we made this big broad category what we're talk now if if you go into a library you won't have that because most of that's available online and we re we really don't make it part of circulation I have two comments on objectively inaccurate as a whole um during during Co we should have all learned that objectively inaccurate depends on who's making the statement and so it it having that in there is it opens the door for a

141politically decided criteria and second comment on number four is if we're reviewing books or if we're removing books because they're objectively inaccurate as a whole we would have to remove the entire fiction side of the [Music] library um some school districts had a lot of uh Minnesota data practices requests or more commonly Freedom of Information requests on what's in the libraries um have we had that here and what's been the result of these [Music] requests you receive D no no we haven't been a lot of requests and no sure makes your do a lot easier it does okay yeah I have one more and is that um I I did not see um so you you mentioned briefly how we um what do you call disposal books like when um and in the CR criteria

142for how we select group books I didn't see anything that said anything about like I if we if if some books get more ed or um like how do you balance because because the criteria so shows a balance in in what you are going to get but I but I didn't see any relationship between that and what we have that I figured that is part of the job of the person that is doing there so not necessary to put it there but could you tell me a little bit more about that or how it happens sure yep so so so we have our policy that that we follow that tells us how we how we select books how we handle books how we um um how we address book challenges um but then we we

143have more procedural things and and one thing that that we have is we have a library collection development plan and and this is more of this is more procedural things for for our media Specialists um it it will include the selection and all that but it will also say how we dispose of books um what types of things to look for um it it will also um if if if we have a book that's good it's going to have a lot of wear and we're going to have to replace it and that's usually a pretty good sign that maybe we need a couple copies and so all of that's in as part of their collection development plan yeah I think Al was right on that number four up there um objectively inaccurate is in the

144eye of the beholder uh for example the Texas legislature just passed a law that there has never been is not now and never shall be slavery in Texas you had a little bit of forced relocation and that's as far as the state of Texas will go it's all in the eye of [Music] Beholder okay um I think Gary we can move on to the other one then all right the second policy actually brought forward uh not that long ago um well I guess it was 22 so it's been a couple years uh this is transportation of nonpublic school students and this is uh again due to some some legislative changes um first of all you you'll see at the end of of uh of uh each paragraph there's the stat a statute number and we're

145seeing a lot of this where um MSP is saying we don't need that and so um you you'll see that that's struck so that's um I think Tracy calls those ministerial changes that um within this um this really is pretty much the practice of of 742 in in most school districts at any time we can we can make an agreement with a a public school or excuse me a non Public School uh to transport students that we who we wouldn't necessarily transport and and what this uh what what these policy changes are saying is that it's okay to have a plan like that and then if you do have a plan uh you can do that with um the buses that the district runs or the buses that you contract and then it it describes

146how that payment is and then it will also say that if for transporting students that are not public school students that uh um that the school district uh behavioral standards on the bus are expected um so this really isn't a change of practice I think it just lays it out for um any school districts that that may have had some questions I I I I don't know the origination of the the legislation but um uh it's there so we will update our policy and then um because some some uh wording was there uh we used to uh it used to be a uh a through F and so the former F becomes I that's why that's I like those are the changes on that one have on that one all right thank you very much

147on our agenda looking for more Mo to adjourn tonight's work session and do I have a second a motion by Scott a second by Natalie all in favor say I opposed all right uh meeting is adjourned we are 8:55 p.m. have a good night thanks for watching we'll be back the 15th of May