3-13-2024 Board of Education Meeting

001so we'll take we'll take notes and refer the item to the proper administrator for follow for public comment we will move into our Board of Education work session or Board of Education meeting we'll start with the mission 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's Society the Board of Education meeting will be live streamed via our district YouTube channel it is 632 p.m. and Zach would you please call roll this all right I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all now Zach would you call

002roll yes and I apologize if uh my congestion interferes with my ability to enunciate appropriately uh following board members are present at the District administration office uh Scott andron here Al doen here Zack dhal is here Monica sigara Schwartz here Heather Williams here and following board members are not present uh Shannon hos and Natalie Copeland uh 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 superintendent of pk5 Education Nikki Hansen assistant superintendent of E12 Education Services Dr Mike rard executive director of Community Education Adam Holm exe executive director of finance and business services Amy scall Executive Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations Tracy fnbo executive director of operations Gary gansi executive director of research enrollment and assessments

003Don roer director of community engagement and Communications Tammy Del land not here okay uh media technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott and custodian on site is Evan Voss thank you the first item on our agenda is the approval of the board meeting agenda I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's agenda so move Scott second Heather we have a motion on a second Zach can you call roll Heather Williams yes mon Schwartz yes Z orol say yes El doen yes Scott andron yes second item is the consent agenda the the consent agenda consists of non-controversial items that the 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 we have item a

004approval of personnel staff changes B approval of monthly financial report for January 2024 C the approval of the monthly treasurers report for January 2024 D approval of board policy 604 instructional curriculum as revised third reading e approval of board policy 613 grad uation requirements as revised third reading f is the approval of the board policy 620 credit for learning as revised third reading and G joint purchasing contract award Apollo Theater seating is there anyone who would like to remove an item from tonight's agenda seeing none I'm looking for a motion so move a second second Scott and Zach uh Zack could you call roll Zach doorold yes Monica SAR Schwarz yes Heather Williams yes Scott andreon yes El doen yes then we'll move into our information items uh the first item for the information items

005is one district one book 10th anniversary presented by Lori eert literacy coordinator uh good evening Mr doen super intendent putam and members of the board I am thrilled to be here tonight to just share a little Joy burst with you on one district one book and the 10th anniversary in um our schools so I brought with me a few props tonight these are some of the books that we've had over the past couple of years so that you can see um them in person so tonight we get to celebrate that we have completed another year of one district one book and um I want to highlight the many people the many jobs the many highlights that the schools do and the activities that all go into one district one book so here we go I

006formatt it in the sense of fun facts so that we could zip through all the fun facts in one district one book and I also want to just call out the presentation tonight is not of my doing it is from the communications team who does so much to support one dist one book so I thought it would be nice for you to have the same slice of presentation that the students have in their schools every day so here we go fun fact number one we've been around doing one district one book for 10 years there have been many iterations of one district one book but there are some common denominators in each of the years the first common denominator is that one district one book takes place in February every year which also overlaps with

007I love to read month um during this month every family gets to take home one book so by the time they finish our elementary school year they have six books that that are part of their family Library what has changed about taking home one book is that about six years ago Shields partnered with us and they have been supporting one district one book um by providing the funds necessary to purchase the books book titles are selected and recommended by a group of people typically it starts with our media Specialists who do wide reading and have a great knowledge of books that are out there that would be of high interest for students so we start by some recommendations for them from them but then it also has to be a book that fits well within

008one month that can be read um in bite-sized chunks each night in chapters it needs to be engaging we typically look for books that are part of a series so that when we finish we can say hey go to your library check out the next book in the series or another book by the same author um and we try to find titles and stories that have maybe a tiny lesson that the students can take away generally around the idea of friendship or helping or being a um good citizen um or problem solving and often times you find in children's books that shows up through little furry creatures so a lot of our books you will notice do have animals um as the main character but a couple years we've done um actual students and kids

009other things that are the same are having family access to resources and I'll talk about that as we go through the whole presentation um you will see up on the slide also that there are bookmarks we create a new bookmark every year to show the nights in the reading and then on the back of the bookmark there are questions to engage with your family for conversation and there's calendars of things to do at home fun fact number two we have sent approximately 22,6 38 books home with our fam since 2018 and if you want to kind of rough that in half approximately a little over half have been supplied and supported by the partnership with shields for which we are very grateful fun fact number three Shields is our partner they started with the book

010um The Vanishing coin back in 2018 and they do a fantastic job of organizing events at their store that match the theme of the book and I'll show you some of that in just a little bit so here the event at Shields takes place on this Saturday before the books are sent home on a Monday and so this is our launching event our big reveal we keep the title a secret until Saturday and then about 10:05 on Saturday morning we have the drum roll and the title of the book is revealed we do have someone in the room who I think has been to every single event and they are framed in the IM 742 so shout out to Mr Zach for bringing his yeah yes but I do have a picture of you from

011every year so um he's brought his family Faithfully every year in the center photo is Sarah maias who and her husband Mike they are both employees of 742 teachers in the district they also bring their students every single year and on the right corner is um Michaela wood who is also a 742 teacher so I just wanted to highlight that while we have many families that come for this we also have a lot of Staff engagement um they like to bring their kids and their family for that and here are some of the things that happened at Shields this year because the title uh was the world according to Humphrey what they did was to focus their activities around um Humphrey the hamster so the students actually got to create a hamster house habitat and

012take a little stuffy home with them and that was a huge highlight this Center picture this was a challenge I don't know Mr doorold if you spent time at this table they had I don't know how many was how many words it was 40 words that all had to deal with animals pet shops and you had to unscramble them and I thought oh boy that's going to be kind of a driveby you would not believe the number of families that stayed at that table to complete the 40 words and they were challenging I suppose you you could say the impetus was they could enter their name for a drawing for a gift card from Shields so there was a little benefit to that um on the right hand side you can see there's a hamster

013launch where it was a giant rubber band you pull back the hamster and you um were aiming for a bucket and that was a lot of fun we had several High School teachers with their students spending a lot of time at the hamster launch um they had a tent set up under the large tree in Shields if you've been to Shields you know what that one is and you could go in the tent typically we have had um volunteers do the reading this year we left the tent open and it was amazing to see the families that went in together to read books which is the goal um a family's reading together so that was um fun in the center picture you'll see they are um working on the hamster lunch again lots of Engagement

014around that and then the picture on the right look right above the little boy's head and you will see a little tiny stuffy hamster with an orange tag and they hide the hamsters all around the store and the students get to go around and find the hamsters and of course they have to fill in a sheet and then they can turn it in for a prize so this little boy was super happy to be able to find a hamster fun fact number four the packrat roll and read bus receives book donations uh people bring slightly used or new books and put them in the shopping cart and then we donate those to the Rolland Reed bus which is typically parked outside in the parking lot um on that Saturday this year we collected exactly 100

015books uh to donate to the packrat roll and read fun fact number four approximately 80 ISD 742 people are involved in just making this event happen that does not include the entire staff at Shields that sacrifices 4 hours of their day they are phenomenal um but I'm going to highlight a few of those 80 people that are involved in our process on the 742 side number one we have the entire Communications team from website to video to design to adding um close caption and just spearheading all of the communication that happens around one district one book The clerical team that supports uh through the purchasing of the book and printing of some of the resources there are two teams I call the Dream Team it's the media specialist in the building and the literacy teams

016in the building that help to throw out and roll out events at their schools the um High School sports teams and the National Honor Society often come and volunteer and help at Shields during that day we have Community Ed who facilitates the whole partnership with shields and provides Community Partners to to come and help at Shields americore rsbp Catholic Charities um senior rsbp members student readers teacher readers the equity Department the dhh teachers at Discovery and then of course the thousands of people of families that come and participate so we H it one district one book is a big thing it takes a lot of people to have a lot of fun um fun fact number six this year there were approximately 38 staff and students involved in recording the chapters the book is only

01715 chapters long so you might say well why do we have 38 people it is because this year we were able to expand the readings to include Spanish because the book was printed in Spanish we were able to um have a whole section of uh Spanish readers for the families who would prefer to listen in Spanish at home or to um practice their Spanish at home um some of our Merion families so each night the chapters are recorded and put on the district website so families can listen we had English Spanish and American Sign Language uh with Clos captioning and so just highlighting some of the people who did readings for us this year um each year we do try to expand our reach on who does the chapter readings for us um when we

018first started it was a lot of the learning and teaching team it was Administration I know Nikki R chapters um former superintendent jet red chapters um and then it kind of in the covid years we we kind of Switched and we pulled it even in Tighter and now we're trying to expand that out to include more of our teacher representations for um just our different families and student populations that are in our district so that is a goal that we are working towards and we're growing towards that goal fun fact number seven there were approximately 1,927 English and 420 Spanish video views by students and families so over the course of the month if they choose to listen to the book they can um pop on the video and listen at home or if you're

019busy you can pop it on in the car when you're driving um or you can read along the website as I mentioned earlier the communications team is instrumental in all of the the pieces around getting this out to family so this is what the website the web page looks like uh for the month of February we get it all dedicated to ourselves where you can access the Spanish chapters there's always an activity calendar where something to do each night that has to do with the book and it might be watching an interest video in this case about how to care for a hamster um many of the authors that we have worked with have specifically recorded welcome we're glad you're reading our book 742 students they so they're making it specific to us and not

020just a generic thanks for reading the book um so there are links in the activity calendars this year there was a board game that the author had created and one area of growth this year is we did create the family reading guide in English Somali and Spanish with the idea that if you want to have more conversation with your child here's what happened in the chapter here's a theme from the chapter here's how you can talk about it with your student with the idea of um growing vocabulary and also just growing the idea of wow books can teach us things we can learn and and enjoy books in a lot of different ways uh so that was new this year fun fact number eight after the students have read or listened to the chapter the

021previous night they come to school in the morning and they get to start the day by answering a trivia question from the previous days chapter reading so I thought it might be kind of fun for you to see how one school managed the trivia readings so this is Discovery and and uh the fabul fabulous media specialist there created these videos guys what are you up to I'm excited to help you out Mrs Maas and organize all of the answers that have been submitted for our questions to our the world according to humy so I organized them into grade levels and wow there's a lot of classes that have been answering the questions wow I am blown away so hey here we have kindergarten Here I see we have bre stra first grade Smith Street second

022grade uh CR be third grade Kramer oy and Quimby uh this looks like fifth grade cuz I see hacker uh shroll and felius um let's see here I see Miller Carl we that must be fourth grade wow I am blown away by all of these answers that these kids are coming up with what book are you reading in there Humphrey I'm reading little h of PR it's an amazing book and I think that Miss spy had it for her favorite book I think you're correct I think she was telling me that her grandma would always give her the next book within the Little House in the Prairie series well can you guys help me decide I have these Valentine's um bookmarks because I love to read the kids can use these bookmarks and I'm kind

023of looking oh I see that some classes have not missed a single chapter for answering questions do you guys see which ones I'm talking about oh yeah I see that we have a first grade gr and actually we have two second grade GRS yeah let's see here I have any more oh that one they still have a lot but I think I think Miss straight Miss Smith and Miss streets class have not missed a single question yet that's pretty amazing you guys isn't it wow you guys rock that's amazing amazing amazing amazing yeah so I think I think we could give the bookmark to those three classes yeah I think that that' be a good idea okay well thank you for organizing all the answers to what we've gotten from our students in our classroom

024and Humphrey you'll have to let us know how that book is okay okay hey humy we need to deliver these bookmarks and we need to deliver you to the classroom would you like to join me oh absolutely here we [Music] go we have some very creative people in our [Applause] district heyy guys what do you up to fun fact number nine buildings create one district one book kickoff events family engagement nights while they highlight the book so I just have a couple of pictures for you to see what happens in our school buildings on the left we have Sarah maias doing a share out of here comes the book um at Discovery in the middle picture there's a class super excited to have their book to be ready to take home that night and on

025the right hand side we actually have a visiting hamster at Westwood who would um shortly be delivering books to the classroom they decorate media centers so that it becomes kind of a fun little Transportation into a different world when they go into the media centers uh one uh of the media Specialists found all of these hamster I forget what they're called it some animal thing that used to be popular and had hamsters running all through these mazes in the library when the kids came in and that was part of their uh fun time in there on the right is a picture of um making a hamster wheel at the family night at oakill they had an amazing race at oakill where they had to compete and complete different activities throughout the whole building one of

026them in the center was to do some coding and have their little hamsters actually follow a path on the coding mat um and then they were working on building structures like hamster structures um with blocks on the floor so there's a lot that goes into one district one book and I think what I really want to do is just highlight the fact that our district is full of so many creative people that you give them a title of the book and they can take it and run with it and they can have a lot of fun in their build helping to instill that love for reading um and so I want to just close with one last Quick Little World According to Humphrey video for [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] y [Music] yeah [Music] a

027and that is the end of one district one book until next February Scott what um ages or grades are we dealing with so this is a K K through five program schools okay you have a quite an age spread how do you pick a book that's going to satisfied kids of that age spread right so that's why I brought these in so you can kind of see the difference in what we have um we typically like to think of okay what would grab interest and when we think of what would grab an interest knowing that the book like a kindergartener wouldn't necessarily be able to pick any of these up and read it but that's why we provide the video video viewing at home and it is meant to be family engagement to read with

028your family so it could be an older sibling it could be a parent it could be a babysitter um that would read the book to them if they're not able to actually read the book themselves but we also know it has to hold the interest of a fifth grader as well so we try to navigate and hit the middle ground but you can see last year's book was Mi um Escape from Mr Lemon Cello's Library definitely a higher interest higher readability but this book actually got some of the highest reviews that we've had so far because it was so engaging in um what was happening inside the book so we just we try to hit a middle ground um but yet knowing the interest if someone is able to read it to the student will

029hold for the month sounds good um have you given any thought to maybe trying at an upper level kids too there are a a for a couple of years we've done a program called book in a day and um now that Andy Lanning is working with secondary that's a conversation that we've had um where each of the middle schools the teachers were given a copy of a book and the idea was that they would read a chapter at the beginning h a beginning of class and by the time the students left that day they would have read or listened to an entire book um and that is pretty much up to the discretion of the middle schools participating in that but that is one thing that we have provided in the past okay well thank

030you question you may not know this um what do we know about our students and I guess Trends in terms of reading um and and the I guess the interesting thing that always catches me a little bit particularly in the day of book bands is that kids don't check out books any longer um they they spend a lot more time watching Tik toks than they do reading at least in my house and I think that that transcribes what do we know about our readers and um what sort of use do do libraries in the form of not not the media centerpiece of it but actual libraries what sort of checkout patterns do you see in the like in public libraries or in our school libraries um all of our media this I can tell you

031this all of our media Specialists work very hard to make their Library space a place that students like to come to and there is Library checkout every week for all classes um and I think students in most buildings get to check out two books a time as long as you know they bring them back but they they keep track of that because they don't ever want to say no to a student so I know all classes go every week to check out books um and then they do have some time in the media center where they um do read and it's pretty heartwarming to be in a building and the class comes in and the kids are searching through and scrambling to find their books and then they go and they find they have beautiful

032chair setups in the libraries where kids can sit in lots of different types of spaces to just read and enjoy their books is that at all grade levels or is that more in elementary that is K5 and I'm sorry I don't have knowledge of our secondaries can I interrupt Gary oh yes we have Gary the expert um the um circulation is good uh and as long as I've been involved in libraries the the younger the student the the higher the circulation um so we you know Elementary we have high circulation as you get to Middle School it drops off a get a bit as you get to high school it drops off more it's not that they aren't reading I remember when my daughter was in high school she uh I said why don't you

033go in the library she said because if I need a book I go to Barnes & Noble you buy one for me so you know they're they're still reading um the um uh one thing since I've come back in to getting involved with libraries over this past year is I've I've seen A Renewed interest as part of the Esser funding um we we've spent quite a bit of uh of funds on library books and and the focus has really B that high interest low vocabulary so we can meet some of our our literacy needs out there and then really trying to align the collection with with the interests of our students and that that those books reflect our students and uh um I have uh three book orders next to me tonight and I'm excited

034to read some of these books that are going into our library so it's good yeah Gary has a media specialist in the elementary levels that is specifically working on making that happen for all of those buildings and I can also say that the packrat reading program that we have that where um students do take books home every whenever they bring them back and they get these book rotations that's not a checkout it's just a here's your book take it home and read it when you're done bring it back and we'll give you new ones and so that is another opportunity for students to get books in their hands and I agree 100% we need to have books in our hands and doing that reading Scott um how do we select what books goes into our

035media center um for example we had somebody that wanted to donate books that okay the um actually it's a good segue Scott because uh we will be bringing our our our uh our selection policy to the board for for review there have been some changes and I I believe it's on the next uh uh board development agenda uh so we'll be we'll be bringing it but but basically in in a snapshot is we have a selection criteria uh that we follow um the idea is that we have a broad range of books the the beauty of a a library is it's it's not that it's this specific book in an elementary school maybe this book isn't for Amy but we've got 29,000 other books that that might be for her but but we do have

036a set criteria um that it that it aligns with our our curriculum aligns with our mission that it's age appropriate and and we'll be we we'll be going over that over the next few weeks so I was just thinking we have 900 teachers with 9900 different opinions as to what ought to be in the library this is going to be really good presentation you do the the uh one thing that I've seen that that's that I think is really cool at at our high schools the uh the media Specialists do a good job of reaching out to the students to find out what they're interested in so I I believe that there's you know not only staff voice in there but student voice as to to what type of resources that that they that they

037would like to [Music] see all right Lori thank you yes thank you for the opportunity and i' I'd also on behalf of the board like to say thanks to Shields for their donations it doesn't come without a price tag and we recognize that and we appreciate their participation immensely oh Monica I thank you for for all your work and and for this program um I along the questions that have been as already um I'm wondering uh if you look at what um some demographics about the kids that read um so I I know that kids that are from middle class or modlu families are more likely to read than kids that are um free Inu lunch or uh poor families or Working Families so so um how do we look at that and how do

038we look at the at what do what do they read so I think um try to provide the best opportunities for students to read so do we have books available and in this case with one district one book are we making it accessible for families who maybe the parents do work at night and so maybe they're not at home necessarily to read what the students so we do have those videos um ready for them to do the reading um the teachers do a good job of encouraging the reading uh for students to check out books and to read we send home books in packrat so the accessibility for books is always there for all of our students all of the time uh what happens when the students go home and how much time they spend

039reading we we don't necessarily track some teachers do reading logs but not necessarily early across the board uh so teachers would have a good idea how much time kids are spending reading um but that's not something we really track to say how much our students are reading independently at home but there's opportunity during the day for [Music] that how uh what do they do during the day we so in terms of reading during the day at school we have allocated in most of our grades 120 Minutes in the literacy block some are down to 90 minutes as the students get older um but there are accountable minutes during the day for literacy which includes an instructional lesson something that has to do with phonics um in teaching how to read how to decode um there

040is practicing using extended vocabulary um that they could use in reading and their writing and then there is actual practice reading time in the lesson and part of our curriculum does have a reading component where they respond in writing so you have to read in order to respond and then it has another text that goes with it for students to read independently either with support if they can't access it by themselves or independently or sometimes with a partner also MH okay okay thank you very much next up Dr Mike grard will review the proposed 2024 2025 school calendar the calendar was developed by the calendar committee which consists of school staff administrators and District Personnel good morning or excuse me good afternoon Vice chair dalren Dr putam and members of the board uh this evening

041we have our recommendation for the 2024 25 uh school year calendar you do have paper copies of those in front of you um along with calendar notes um I I will briefly go through each month each month I'm going to utilize the calendar notes that I have in front of me that way if you do have any questions we certainly can stop um as we move through so I I will start with August uh in August we know during those three days when we come back for Workshop week that those now are right now identified as workshop and family conferencing open house and professional development days um those are TBD days right now to be determined as our professional development committee and our district advisory committee will make some determinations on how each of those

042days work or look but we do know that our staff will be with us on those days um as you move into September we have Labor Day Off and September 3rd is that transition day when we have some students who are coming in especially for our sixth and nth graders new to uh their their buildings and then we have goal setting conferences going on for Early Childhood Elementary Kennedy and um no school for those students so we know that on September 4th all of our students are back in session as we start the school year uh in December excuse me in September we then have a 2hour early dismissal and we would be done with our first month of school as you move into October you see that on October 3rd we do have a

043staff professional development day that is an all day staff development and then on the 17th we have mea day or excuse me mea professional conference and then on the 18th is a no school day that concludes October question on October please uh October 3rd r Square in the middle of the week how' that happen so that is also um a holiday for rashash Shana thank you and there's a we could determine whether we could have that on October 3rd or October 4th and some of the work we did with our Equity team which is part of the committee uh we made a determination to use October 3rd as that day okay I was just wondering it it would seem like October 4th you all of a sudden the kids are a three-day weekend but and

044that was one of the considerations Scott but we also wanted to be looking at ways that we could uh be both looking at the holiday for families and but also considering um what's going to be a great day that we can be having professional development to so that's the recommendation at this time thank you welcome great question as we move into November uh we have a 2-hour early dismissal and then we go into our Thanksgiving holiday weekend on November 26 we end our first trimester and then excuse me November 26 then on November 27th uh we do have a halfday workshop day for our teaching staff hey Mike on November 5th is is election day do we have any polling places in the schools anymore or no no we did check with Mr gangji and

045I will assume that the answer is still no we have no polling it's no end with with to Mr okay thank you so that should conclude the month of November we move into December with um no days off or other activities going on until we meet the winter holiday break which is going from December 23rd through January 1st moving onward down into January uh we come back on January 2nd on January 17th is another 2hour early dismissal that we'll be utilizing for staff development and then that following Monday is Martin Luther King Day which would be a no school day into February we do have a 2-hour early dismissal on February 14th staff develop velopment and then on February 17th would be a no school day due to President's Day we end February um with

046the end of the trimester for second try on February 28th moving into March we have that first week off as being our mid-winter break and then at the end of the month on March 28th is our second full day Staff Development Day and then as you go into that weekend March 31st on that following Monday is our spring break day okay moving down into April April 18th is a no school day and for that's the only day off that we have for the month of April in May again we are or we are with students the vast majority of that month until May 26th which is Memorial Day and then May 30th is the last day of uh school year for our students and our third trimester ends with tech and Apollo graduation following on

047the 31st a halfday teacher workshop on June 2nd and hopefully no weather makeup days on June 3rd and 4th knock on uh this is the proposal for the 2425 uh school year calendar that's being proposed are there any other questions that I could try to ask answer excuse me I have one can did anyone physically count the school days to make sure that it matched up with contract days since we lost leap year numerous of us did um from HR to our members of our two or three bargaining units so okay and I counted it four times Al but I don't necessarily trust my own math so yes I think it's been vetted through a number at least eight people okay I just know that when I build a calendar I used last year and

048I just do the same thing over again and we had an extra day of this year I assume you might have been the 10th person that counted the days or no I did not count them no that's why I was asking uh any other questions if not I'm looking for a motion to approve this the administration recommends approval and the families are waiting so they can make their vacation plans for next year so moved he I need a second second with Monica and is there any further discussion if not Zach can you call oh Scott uh that October 3rd for the sake of our families I think it should be the fourth I mean I understand there's diversity things but for the sake of our families they would like to have a three-day weekend instead

049of a day off in the middle of the week it's I'd like to amend the mo the motion to uh change that from October 3rd to October 4th Lori respond Lori um Scott is proposing an amendment to the motion is there a second for that do not hear a second okay so we had a motion in a second on the table Zach would you like to call roll to the wait one second okay so I think that I'm getting messages saying that there may be an error in the calendar that March 31 um is actually supposed to be a school day I did see that we do have two days for spring break which sounds delightful on March 31 and in April 18 um but when I check on the Google uh it tells me

050that there is nothing special about March 31 in 2025 so I think that that should likely be a school day so I do believe Administration would be looking for um an approval of the school calendar as is with the as written here with the addition of March 31 as a school day you guys are making this complicated I'm just filling in we're keeping you on your toes we have to do we have to withdraw that motion then we have to if we're yes we withdraw the motion then so our apologies I will withdraw the motion okay Heather withdrew the motion to approve the calendar as presented so now we're going to amend the calendar to make March 31st a school day and I'm looking for a motion to approve the calendar with the amendment of

051March 31st being a school day can I just ask y we had assured that we had met with all the contract you had asked the question about contract and Counting does someone need to count before we yes should we take a little five minute recess we're going to take a f minute recess so that we can do a count on this 31st 12 4th e [Music] e I call call the meeting back to order and Mike what so you guys went through the calendar the administration recommends a change in relation to what Dr brought up that we would be March 31st should be a student contact date and with March 31st in there that gives us the correct number of student contact dates that's correct okay I move the calendar as corrected as corrected by

052for approval with March 31st being an in school day yes okay looking for a second second second by Zach any further discussion seeing none Zack would you call roll uh Monica suara Schwarz Zack doorold yes Al doen yes SC and Dron no Heather Williams yes calendar passes next is approval of tentative agreements and Tracy I believe you have one for us and this should be the very last one in this round of negotiations okay good evening board members I'm very excited to report out on the final contract uh for the 2325 um contract period uh for our clerical group uh so you all have a copy of the summary of the tentative agreement that was ratified Yesterday by our CL members uh this group uh on the on the summary sheet represents about 65 employees

053that doesn't include additional employees that are in fund four so really there's 73 or so members of our clerical staff um supporting our work around the district and we're really pleased to have reached this agreement with them so I'll summarize the agreement in year one it includes steps for all employees hired honor before January 1st of 2023 a 4.75% increase increase in hourly wages for all employees an additional 1% uh increase in hourly wages for employees in class 2 and an additional 2.75% increase in hourly wages for employees in class three and four as part of a compression adjustment based on the compensation study that the board authorized earlier this year uh the agreement also adds a three-year longevity step and increases longevity um steps 10 15 20 and 25 by 5 cents and you

054see the longevity schedule then following that on your summary sheet uh there's an increase in the district Insurance contribution to single plans moving the district contribution from $568 a month to $615 per month and an increase in the family plans from $139 per month to 10995 per month effective 4124 uh we added a new level ofac at 11 to 15 years um and you see now there is an an intermediate step then at 1115 for 18 days of vacation for those on vacation eligible staff we added special leave of two days per year for 10-month employees that was already in the contract for our 12-month employees so we extended that to our 10-month employees as well we increased the wellness pay percentage to 80% of eligible hours um from 60% previously uh we added a

055a paragraph on Reemployment after resignation that adds language to the contract that employees who leave the district employment but return within 18 months return without losing seniority or compensation levels that had been established during their tenure with us uh we added um longevity eligibility across all of our non-licensed groups so if an employee in in the clerical unit had previous ly been a parah in the district or a kitchen helper or a custodian all of that um service in the district as long as its continuous service is eligible for consideration as we calculate longevity for the groups and then finally we added the juneth holiday for staff that are working during that summer session uh that brings our new starting pay rates for our class 1 employees to 1639 an hour for Class 2 to

0561803 an hour for class 3 to 1993 per hour and for a class 4 employee to 211.45 cents per hour in year two uh there will be steps again for employees hired honor before January 1st of 2024 there'll be a 2% increase in hourly wages for all current employees um across the board and then new starting pay rates would move to um 1672 for class 1 183 9 for Class 2 $20.33 for class 3 and $21.88 for class 4 the total 2-year cost of this agreement is 11.26% and that is within the bargaining budget established by the board I'm looking for a motion to approve the clerical contract I move to [Music] approve motion Monica do we have a second second second Heather and is there any discussion Scott the um what we pay for

057the health insurance do we try to make that about the same over all the contracts or is or is this something special or what's the deal now this brings the clerical group now into alignment with all of the other contracts and so for single Insurance all employees of the district from from our non-licensed groups through our principles are all the same um for the for the single contribution and for the family contribution teachers and all other employee groups are now the same so that's what we've been working at for years been working on it for about 15 years so I'm really happy to have met those goals oh good job seeing no further discussion Zach would you call roll El doen yes Zach doorold CS Monica SAR Schwartz Heather WAMS yes Scott and Dron yes

058thank you Tracy and I just want to reiterate that that settles all of our contracts for the this year and the coming school year and in the coming school year we are projecting a balanced budget with which is a really good thing when you look at what's been going on around the metro area most of the the majority of school districts I think Alla 12 school districts are projecting deficit spending in their next budget and deficit spending turns into Cuts so I think that our staff can feel really good and really secure that they're going to have a job moving forward whereas you can't say that for every other District in the metro area at least so uh congratulations on in the contracts good work good work to all of the all of the negotiators

059and groups and thank you Tracy and team next up we have the Board of Education standing committee reports and I don't let's see I know that Scott you've got one and Natalie's Heather you're doing Natalie's okay so Scott uh the committee met on February 28th this is this is policy and governance committee yes governance and policy committee uh the committee met on February 28th 2024 assistant superintendent Revard and Harris presented a board policies to the committee and the following board paralyses were reviewed with no recomend recommendations for changes to be made by the committee uh board policy 304 uh superintendent contract duties and evaluation uh board policy 305 policy implementation uh board policy 306 administrator code of ethics board policy 503 student attendance and board policy 508 uh extended school year for C certain students

060with individual education plans IEPs uh board policy 503 student attendance will be presented to the full board for the first of their three readings that's our report and then achievement integration and Equity Heather Williams the achievement integration and Equity committee met this morning we had two agenda items the first was a report on the 2023 graduation um data uh Donna reported that the state has not publicly released that grad data and she will track and put together a report for us to review uh and then we'll get back to you on that uh the second was uh further discussion on a portrait of a 742 graduate uh we discussed how to Advance this work more expeditious expeditiously uh and in in alignment with other initiatives taking place in the district including the Strategic plan the

0615c's um and the marketing work uh that is currently being developed um so that we can um begin getting it out to families and and um thought leaders in in the community thank you next is future agenda items where you can suggest uh any topics that you may that may be of interest to you for a future agenda does anyone have any that they would like to recommend um yeah I have a question uh I think it last time we had talked about the possibility of a presentation on those Civics uh what's the status of that please Lori do you want to talk about that thank you Scott that um question came up at board agenda planning this morning and so I did send an email to the board um letting you know that the

062decision was made to not share that presentation publicly at this point um it was simply a recapping of how we teach the standards um for civics and government and that is not new information to this board at this time um as we know the state just finished its work on the um social study state standards and we're expecting information from them in the coming months on implementation guidance um and so when we receive that we'll be certainly providing that through um Jason and his team uh it's primarily affects the secondary um and so that will come forward uh when we have any change to make I did share um that uh that uh PowerPoint with the board however an email for your review uh thank you so basically we're waiting till the legislature gets her

063act together I think I well as much as I would like to say yes to that it's always fun to to throw the darts um they uh they've actually done their work and so now it's um we're waiting for um mde to just provide some guidance and to be fair they only just finished their work last week so we'll give them you know at least a week okay thank you absolutely okay and that concludes our board meeting for tonight so then we'll move into our apollow vision and sorry I got out my paperwork here uh Dr Lori putam and APO principal Justin scall will present a detailed overview of the Apollo Vision acting chair doen members of the Board of Education cabinet and Community listening from home uh we are uh speak I'll speak on

064behalf of Justin we are really excited about the opportunity to share um our vision for Apollo um which this board I know shares um and it's we've put a lot of uh work into uh the facility and that Community much needed work um and so it's a uh it's a great opportunity to be able to share that with the public um as well as talk have a very serious and candid conversation about what's needed yet to do um and how we might go about doing that um and you know all of the work all of the conversation that we're going to have tonight and all of the work that uh has been done um are focused on the necessary learning opportunities um at Apollo High School and for close to a decade we have discussed

065uh the need for schools whose facilities support us um in preparing all of our students on both sides of town for today's and tomorrow's citizenry and Workforce uh we know that it's been a long journey over this last decade we had a failed referendum several well had two failed referenda I should say um and then we had a fire um and uh we were getting close uh to being able to bring a a second or third referendum forward and then Co which very much derailed many plans not only for in our district but across the state um and we are grateful of course for the The Tech High School um that was provided to us by this community uh we don't take that support lightly um and our uh our students and our staff and

066of course I know all of us here are grateful for that um and we know that um Apollo um while we aren't looking for um equal for uh like we aren't looking for carbon copies we are looking for um opportunities that provide same or similar U Learning opportunities and safety [Music] measures so um one thing that we would ask is that as we go through um there's a lot of information um and so you can uh if you wouldn't mind please hold questions until the end um tonight you're going to hear us uh talk about our priorities for Apollo High School um they've guided the work that we've done and they guide the work that we will do um and those are for those of who can't see uh in the community who might be

067listening uh those priorities are um four fourfold first and foremost our safe School environments that remains our number one commitment to this community um and then we uh a close second is academic Excellence um we are uh committed to and in need of Future Ready learning and teaching facilities um at all of our schools particularly at Tech and Apollo because our obligation is to prepare this community's Workforce um certainly we we want to support all of Minnesota um but our commitment is to the Greater St Cloud community and with the um the kinds of facilities that support safe learning environment's academic Excellence um we are able to uh fully prepare um our students for whatever might come next here in this area and now I'll gladly turn is this still me oh I'm not going

068to turn it over to principal scall I'm want to talk a little bit about uh the total recent investments in Apollo um we have used uh $14.5 million in onetime state and federal funds um to invest in Apollo High School and we've been very careful stewards of these funds because they are one time um it's not and they're Lo use it or lose it so it wasn't though we could just suck it away like squirrels and we had to use it uh uh By the time uh this uh this June comes around um and so we've been very careful to do that in a way that minimizes the burden on local taxpayers um so that when we ask for a referendum to complete the work that needs to be done on Apollo our taxpayers can

069have full confidence that we have done every single thing that we can do in a fiscally responsible way with the funds that we have all right thank you so much Dr putam thank you everyone um so I get an opportunity to talk about uh what what we've done and specifically and then show some pictures of uh you can get an idea and those of you that been there and you all have to see the changes really starting almost eight years ago now and then what we have planned for this summer which is going to be um some extensive work that we're incredibly excited for and and we're um ready to start talking about those we want to share with everyone and then talk about what's going to happen and what we we'd like to see

070after that when we look at the one-time funding as Dr putam mentioned we looked at a classroom media and common Furniture we knew that furniture was something that that could be purchased now would be something that's going to benefit our students but is something that um in the future with changes to the building furniture be moved it can be reused and it would be a good investment that could happen at at that time when we did that four years ago uh classroom technology and and updating uh classrooms from projectors and screens to TVs just like the setup we're in today and you know making and modernizing those again knowing that as buildings and rooms change we can move those those pieces of technology to suit our students and their needs uh we did create an

071outdoor classroom and this is a great opportunity um outside of Door 17 which is on the east side of the building where our teachers can take um their students out we also added a key card reader to Door 17 so when our students and teachers are going out to to learn outside we're not propping that door our uh teachers are key carding in they're communicating with the office when they're outside so we know where those students are and it's used almost every day we set our um we set that up we in the process of setting that up today and this week and we also set our our Courtyard up so we're excited for the kids want to get outside and I don't think the weather's going to cooperate great but it it will be

072nice in the near future for sure we also uh our Orchestra room there was a need for um programming our music we were sharing uh three programs we're sharing two spaces and to be able to provide that opportunity for our students we um we constructed a new Orchestra room in a room that was once a wrestling room and you may ask how you'll do that and and I'll show you the picture of what it looked like before and where our students are practicing Orchestra now and it's a fantastic space for them and then also talking about uh Stadium improvements that we we did last year um using Esser and and fund balance to do that and that was an investment I know it was a group of students that came uh to this board and

073and you know shared some thoughts and feelings about that and that decision was made to make that investment now and then also adding that Stadium scoreboard which was a combination of fund balance and donations uh there's a team of myself uh Linda Voit who works with our activities Department in Carl heiney our activities director um collectively last spring and summer uh fundraised to shy of $100,000 to contribute to completing that Stadium scoreboard project which um all of you were there to when we open that Stadium we're able to see that beautiful new facility that we have for our students and for our community and then our LED Sino front so when you drive by Apollo um you can see what what the happenings are we're celebrating our students um making sure that we're keeping it

074relevant and up to dat so we we um are spreading the good word of what's Happening inside the building so here's some of those things in in pictures if you look at the far left uh the picture is a little dark but you can see that's our our old cafeteria cafeteria Furniture um it was not flexible at all it was uh you know the seating was fixed um it was you know x amount of of stools per table and as we as Furniture like that typically is if you look at the middle upper picture and then the bottom right picture we now have um new seating flexible seating different style we have booths we have tables with chairs we have high top tables so we have different um types of setups for all of our

075Learners to to find a place that they feel comfortable it's a little bit hard to see but in that top picture there's plugins at almost every Booth every table so kids can uh you know they can charge their Chromebooks they can charge their phones at lunch because at high school students can't have their phones out during lunch um so they can utilize that to try to create a little bit more of a college campus feel and and respect those Young Learners and their needs the next picture this is a a transformation of uh of what a wrestling room looked like to an orchestra room and I was fortunate enough to uh to find that picture of my now almost ninth grader when he was in about kindergarten in wrestling playing dodgeball and I knew I

076had a picture somewhere of what it used to look like um so that was that is the same space that was the wrestling room at Apollo that we no longer needed that space because we now are a co-op sport um we are Crush wrestling which is housed that Tech so we were able to take that space and utilize it for a different purpose and um it is a very functional uh you know one thing that I'll mention that's not on the far right picture not seen is the acoustic panels which really the addition of those acoustic panels allows that PL uh that space to be very functional for the need of our Orchestra students and our Orchestra teacher looking at the classroom Furniture this is something that was done for all classroom this summer and

077and you can see that the change those are the old trap tables as they were called um those were U you know those were all taken out chairs were replaced we were very intentional about the the type and style of desk and chairs um we talked to Folks at Tech we talk to other um you know other communities as far as what was best for Learners we did sit tests for our students and for our teachers um did model classrooms everything we could do to make sure we made the right choice and we're very pleased with what we what we chose and McKinley also um chose the exact same style and chair so that's at uh the McKinley site as well that you'd be able to see that and they've held up great we're very

078pleased with the decision we made with the new classroom Furniture last year last summer you can see this is our our outdoor stadium um this Stadium houses not only it's multiports multi activities um two soccer teams two lacrosse teams dance team football team uh boys and girls track and field uh you can see the update uh for what we used to look like on the far left and then after this summer the update that we've had in the bottom right picture the track is not completed it is completed it is lined uh the kids I don't ever remember I've coached high school track Junior High track been been around for a long time and they were outside on the first day of track on Monday running around on their new the new track I don't

079think even if there would have been snow on the ground they still probably would have want to be out there uh but it it was a great use for them um we've already seen this beautiful new facility uh Garner interest from all over the state uh Minnesota State High School league rented the facility to host a state football game Minnesota Vikings in collaboration with shields uh rented the facility to host a youth football camp the Vikings were so impressed with the facility they're coming back hopefully if our construction allows for parking uh but they want to host another camp at Apollo um this summer so our goal was to to BU build and and make this you know where we're situated um in accessibility for people all over Central Minnesota it's really so far doing

080what we wanted it to do and not only provide opportunity for our students for our for our community and for that rentals those rentals coming in as well and then from an education standpoint um it's hard to believe but this was January 31st uh our fi teacher found me and uh and asked can we bring the kids outside and we said absolutely the great thing about field Turf is that it dries very quickly and uh the the five classes were outside on January 31st with no snow uh participating in their classroom activities at the new stadium this past year and this is a before and after of what the scoreboard at uh mishy Stadium used to look like and then the uh new scoreboard the digital scoreboard that was installed this summer and again with

081the funding resources uh the fund balance and donations to complete that project so other improvements that have been made to date um HVAC improvements and over the um last summer especially we completed bwing and you can see that picture in the uh in the upper right that was one of the the walkthroughs that I did with uh with the construction company in Mike sper as we were completing that uh the bwing roof Replacements is uh something that was completed last summer gym improvements uh We've redone the gym floor we've added new bleachers in the past 10 years and then as part of the Summer's project but we were able to get it done over spring break uh the gym was recently painted for a brand new look and it was it was really exciting on

082Monday to see I I wanted to be down there when the first classes walked in and it may seem something so small but when we talk about all the things we have happening the summer um and the the refreshing that we're going to be doing to watch the kids walk into their their new gym just with a new new paint job that it had and the excitement to see we're just looking forward to what that's going to what we'll see in the future um and after the Summer's improvements uh the west parking lot and bus shoot have have been resurfaced uh we've done sidewalk improvements pool repairs we had to uh drain our pool and this summer we found that it needed to have some regrouting done so we had to do regrouting of the

083the tile of the pool and did some painting and added sound panels in there and you can see a picture of what our pool currently looks like and then we started some flooring replacement projects in 14 classrooms last year um that will lead into the work that we're doing this summer so starting June 3D we have a lot of things going on that we are really excited about um learning uh learning space and hallway finishes so all the flooring uh C in and hard flooring is being replaced in the entire building uh including the cafeteria the hallways except for what was done last summer I I want to be cleared you know being fiscally responsible we replace that that those projects are done um but we'll be completing the rest of the building really um

084as part of this Summer's work so when when students come back and families come in uh in late August they'll see brand new flooring in the entire building something that we're really excited for we're excited for all of these but for for our theater folks FKS and for our students that are participating in the Fine Arts we're going to be redoing our theater and doing Auditorium improvements and we're going to talk about I new seating was mentioned earlier uh we've seen some very initial pictures but it's uh it's going to be a beautiful space uh for all of our students and for our community to use when it's completed this fall so that's an exciting project that we have happening uh parking lot improvements we'll be looking to complete um redoing the north parking lot

085uh that comes in door 7 the activities entrance and if if you've been to Apollo it needs to be done and it's going to be done so we're excited to to have that addition the restroom Renovations um this is something we've been hearing from our from our students and from our stakeholders for a long time is that we need we need more restrooms we need to do something with the existing restrooms that we have and we listen and we're going to be doing that um we're going to be adding two new restrooms um in bwing which is the area uh right by the office so by the main office there's going to be two restrooms added um that will be accessible for students during the school day those are going to be individual stall bathrooms

086um that's something that's a a new uh something new that's happening as far as each uh stall will have its own door and then there's a shared wash space and that's also um and sticking with our our safety goal we know that that's going to be additional piece wanting all students to feel welcome and belong is another piece to do that so we'll have four restrooms that will be individual stall and then all of the other restrooms in the building will be completely renovated so they will be a new tile new fixtures new flooring uh so if you're coming in to to go to the player go to the basketball game those bathrooms when you come in at door s will be redone same with door two and throughout the building um so we're looking

087forward to those upgrades awing replacement is happening this summer so we'll be completing that's the last of our roof replacement that needs to happen uh the tech ed HV back is going to be completed this summer The 900 part of the building if if that term makes sense but the tech ed on the east side is going to be done and that will complete the HVAC up um improvements that have been needed over the years and that have been happening uh the tennis courts are being resurfaced uh this spring summer uh we have eight courts four of them are going to be multi-purpose tennis pickle ball uh so I know our community is going to appreciate that and four of them will be traditional tennis so we'll still be able to support our Crush tennis

088team our rentals our tournaments that we have but also with the um with the addition of having U pickle ball courts and four of them for the community and our our kids to use as part of physical education and after school activities and then an indoor digital scoreboard will be coming uh sometime uh May June into the uh the gym that will be used for all activities it will be used for assemblies you know any rentals that we have will be an opportunity there uh for our community to use so some of the AP Apollo facility needs um can only be funded through a referendum everything that I talked about before has we've been as Dr putam said fiscally responsible in terms of um using ltfm money onetime money done being very sure that we're

089looking at everything and being um good stewards of taxpayers dollars things that we didn't have the funding sources aren't there to do for a couple different reasons and I can explain um one would be the controlled entrance and an office addition um if you in our office and you come into our building it needs to be improved and we are in agreement of that with Apollo with doing new construction part of that if that were happen or add-on is that you need a storm shelter and that's something that could be addressed uh for the middle box a new gym a fourth gym would serve as the storm shelter which would then allow us to do the controlled entrance and office addition we wouldn't be able to do um that piece without the addition of that

090storm shelter and then site improvements um different things that we'd like to see um through throughout the site uh just you know updating some some things on the exterior and continue to um you know showcase the wonderful things that we have on the inside from an academic standpoint things that are extremely important uh to us uh to Apollo that that we we need to make sure that we're providing as Dr putam said that Workforce that's um that our students have opportunities that when they leave to be able to be um go into the world and do what they want to do health and science labs that's something that um we really want to be able to provide uh there's so many things that we can do with technology as providing real world scenarios and preparing

091our students and right now with our our current setup we don't have the ability to do that uh culinary lab we we have a great we have a great fax program our teachers are amazing they're doing a great job with what they have but quite frankly if you don't have gas stoves you're not preparing your students to go work in a kitchen and with what we have right now we're unable to do that uh robotics is one of the fastest growing activities uh really in in the state and in the country we have teams at Apollo that are going to to Nationals and we're very excited for that um they're practicing at North Junior High right now in in the wood shop area to see a robotics lab and have that area for them to

092truly be able to grow not only that activity but the curricular piece um during the day with those robotics classes and be able to have that multi-purpose room is something that we really really need to see to be able to you know really let that program grow to where it can music renovation and reconfig figuration I showed you the new Orchestra room we do have a choir in a band room um but they they need some work and we need to refigure those areas uh they just they need to be redone to be able to provide that true um experience for our our kids we've created or we're in the process of creating a beautiful theater one thing that we were unable to do was to create the theater scene shop um the scene shop

093would be the behind the stage piece where everything is being created and then being brought out right now it's it's uh off to the stage right um but it's right kind of in the mix of everything it's not very functional and it will continue to work that way so from when you're in the audience watching you're not going to see that but it is going to be there um it still will be the same as it is now and then equipment and Renovations for our Tech ad Labs just like anything uh technology staying caught up staying up to dat uh is extremely important and we want to make sure that we're you know keeping our tech ed area and all of the equipment in it as modern as it can so when our students leave

094they're working with the same equipment they'll have ELD in the field and then a few more um other facility needs that we could be um still be looking at that we were unable to address at this time is kitchen and serving areas and again thinking about construction and going back to I said reconfiguring things um you know that's something we're not able to do at this time locker rooms weight rooms um Renovations we're not not going to be touching the weight room that will stay as is uh the locker rooms we're going to put new Lockers in and we're going to put new flooring in but we're not going to be um you know we'd like to add uh single you showers where each each student has their own shower with a curtain um we'd

095like to Red do the bathrooms in there and we're unable to do those at this time and then Field improvements um just the general upgrade of fields all Fields having scoreboards all Fields having bleachers um having the ability not only for our students our Apollo students our crushed participants but that Community use piece we know that uh we need to see those improvements if we want um our other fields to be used as we're seeing the new updated field uh that we did last spring and that's a need that we would still have thank you principal scard um so we've got a had a great look at where we've been and now we want to turn to what's ahead um Justin went through very carefully showing us what we've done um and the funding sources

096that have been used um again those were either onetime sources or ltfm uh dollars which can only be used for renovation it can't be used for expansion um which really uh causes us some significant challenge um as we know um so the costs that uh are yet to um be incurred based on what we know we need to provide that economic Excellence the Future Ready facilities and the safe learning environment um are beyond our means uh despite our careful fiscal stewardship um and we know that the only way available to us to raise those funds um is through a referendum um and so we as an Administration um would like to make a recommendation to this board tonight um that we continue to have uh ongoing annual discussions um on the needs of uh the

097Apollo facilities we'd like to to again focus on those four areas um always going back to what do our students and our staff need to be safe and to um be provided the um best learning opportunities they can uh for their Futures and that of this community um we do recommend that there be um no referendum here in 2024 um it being we have had those conversations um as a with board members um oneon-one and um we know that a the time is late but um with the the number of um items coming to uh the ballot um that would increase the tax burden um for our uh our local citizens um along with the um uncertainty of the economy at this time we do not feel that this is uh the right time uh

098to go for the referend in 2024 and um as as principal skele showed us um we are doing the things that we can do and we have construction starting uh the even even uh the the day of graduation right we're jumping right in as soon as we can um so so there's a lot of work happening now um but uh we do need uh that to continually look at uh is the time right 2025 is the time right 2026 we know that we can't continue to put this off because the cost that will only grow and the onetime funds through Esser are um unlikely and probably hopefully unlikely to come again um uh and so you know what what I really um what we really want um this board and this community to take from

099this presentation um is that um while we have been good fiscal stewards while we have been careful while we have been cautious um and responsible um the question um about an Apollo referendum is not if we know the need is there the question is when questions Monica so thank you for the presentation and everything um so this is kind of award session so I kind of put in a discussion would it be too bad to decide let's say right now I mean doesn't have to be right now but let's say for the sake of argument decide right now that we're going to have a referendum on 2026 and that we start working right now towards the referendum can we make a decision with this level of anticipation what would be the problem of doing that

100speak I think and I I I can't say for sure that we couldn't but I think that it would be difficult because we don't we part of having a referendum is you need to get a a a plan together you need to know exactly what you're going to do and what the cost of that is going to be and if you start working out two or three years out it's really tough to put a number on what that's going to be and to hire Architects right now to go in and draw up and design plans and pay for that now for something that is out two or three years I think would be difficult also but it not necessarily impossible I I I hear what you're saying from the standpoint of uh getting it out

101in front of the community from from an expectation standpoint but I don't know how specific we could be with it that would be my thoughts but it's open to the board Heather obviously when you're looking at anything related to a referendum or major building changes or new facilities those sorts of things there's there's the piece that is what are we doing to serve our students right now there's also the piece that what do our demographics suggest we're going to look like in 10 15 20 30 years do we know what I mean what's being being projected what sort of conversations have you had with demographers um to help us think about what we think this population is going to do longer down the road than probably the next 5 years so we did a um

102a demographic study um just prior to covid and we did uh look uh had some conversations with u some um organizations last year um that that reviewed that demographic study and despite covid um still believed that it to be it to be a um a reasonable um data set from which to draw make decisions um and so what it it showed that they um you know we we know that that North uh side north east west west west the northwest side is is fairly landlocked right so uh there's not a lot of space left for devel They're laughing at me there's not a lot of space left for development um so uh we we expect that population at Apollo to be uh fairly stable and I believe that our last design for Apollo was 1400

103was that was done at400 which we believe um is is a a responsible size um with the expectations um for the future growth Scott I think that we've had plans done for Apollo previously um are those of any value anymore I mean we had a hanging Space Capsule at one time planned I I think when it comes to looking at the what would be next that would be the first place you'd start as what have we already time investment put into this including plans and see what's what's relevant for the now even though it's only been a few years and then build upon that so so absolutely I don't think anyone would say we're starting you know we've had these conversations we've had referendum so we need to take what we've done and see how

104we can continue with that adjust that plan and modify for even the you know the three or four years of change moving forward now okay got can I add to that real quick um and I just want to say that you know although some of those plans um there's some flexibility right as we look at the changing needs um we've been super careful um to make sure that the money that we've invested are in the portions of the facility that won't change that have not changed right no one's decided they're going to move we're going to move the theater to the whatever side of the building it would be uh right it's it's where it is and so we're putting right we're very responsible about putting money into the spaces that we know impact student

105learning impact safety and that won't change regardless of what happens with um a future referendum so thanks for letting me add that on okay uh was a couple of things that was what are getting some push back on Turf what are the advantages of having Turf you know I think the advantage I'd say if we just looked out there on Monday our baseball team was walking out to practice outside the first day of practice as our track team was walking off they weren't able to go on the grass that's that's an opportunity that wouldn't have been there for our students a year ago so you usability um and then the capability of the rentals I you know we're going to as we start to now we have to do the parking lot and those things

106this summer so it's a little tricky for this summer but moving forward once that's done we've already seen that um that want from the community to use it and to be on it and you can be on it from you know 5: in the morning till as long as you want the lights on 10 11:00 you know 9 months seven months out of the Year depending on the snow so that's really the the biggest piece that you just can't do with grass because it's not just not being able to use it it's keeping it um in shape before this season we were the only school that had a grass field that was playing every boy soccer game every girl soccer game and every varsity football game on a grass field and it was becoming unsafe

107by October 1st every year because that's a lot of kids on it Reigns one time in that field is um is gone there was multiple times we had to move playoff games for our kids to to turf fields at colleges or other schools just to keep them safe so those are some some of the reasons that it the decision was made uh does Turf reflect on knee injuries so I'm not 100% voiced in those studies so I don't feel fortable answering that so I know that there's there is things out there that would say you know the turf that we we made sure that we we got a quality that we felt comfortable with that was Equitable or very close to of grass as far from an injury standpoint I think the pros hit a

108lot harder maybe they caused their own injuries that could be that could be too um this storm sheler that was a change in state law as I understand it and in order to make any big improvements we have to have a storm sheler and that uh it's going to give us an opportunity for a new gym at the same time yes and I would so with any addition anything that we added on so if we we talked about doing um for example restructuring the where the offices are to be more a better flow coming into the building and creating that secured entrance um I just think it's important to say when we talk about a new gym it would be what we call an auxiliary gym it would be it would be one one court

109for volleyball or whatever it is you're playing to be off set of the the main gym and if you think about tech they've got the three courts and then they've got the auxiliary gym it would be a similar concept to being that that fourth gym space that auxiliary space that could be used you know for uh physical education classes um things you name it the blood drives all the things we do during the day but then Community use as well okay so it's basically a a change in the law that is forcing is to do the storm sheler yeah I'll I'll just elaborate on that um so the change in the law requires that anytime you do an addition um of square footage to a building that there is a space within the building then

110that is identified constructed or modified to to qualify as a storm shelter um that doesn't have to be a gym right um but based on those qualifications for what what a storm shelter entails a gym is the most cost-effective way to do it um we saw that as a challenge with our McKinley Edition right that is the only addition um that we're putting on that building and so the addition itself has to meet that storm shelter capacity which is extremely expensive um we'll have to have similar conversations um potentially down the road you know a number of years if we were to need additional learning space at Tech um because again if we were to ever need an addition at Tech um a portion of that addition will have to serve as that storm shelter

111for that building um and there's some significant added costs that come um with meeting those requirements so it's not that it has to be a gym a gym was already identified as a need and a and a priority um in terms of of space and use for both um instructional for fied um and adapted Sports use as well as activities so the need was identified prior to the sh shelter um change in law but it's it's more of a non-negotiable I guess you would say now um because it's really the only cost effective way that we can meet that requirement um if we put an addition on okay uh you mentioned uh restrooms um some with individual stalls some without yes so and I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the building but currently

112we've got uh two sets of restrooms there's a staff and a student on each side in what we call the 700s and the 800s so if you're down at the end of b-wing so those current existing ones are this summer will be reconstructed on each side so when you go by there'll be eight as you're walking and and we're doing our supervision you'll see eight doors that will always be open when they're not being used and then there'll be a place a common space almost uh like if you're at an elementary school to wash your hands those eight and there'll be one that's designated for staff only and then that's what the students will be using and it allows us to have supervision allows students privacy uh to be able to do that so we

113have both sides are going to be um taking the existing and making those into that and then we're adding brand new ones we're going to a classroom in a half um in what we call our 400s and our 500s um so really if you think like when you come in the main door door uh door two and you look right past the office you'll on that corner will be one the other end of the hall will be another so that will be an addition of 16 toilets that will be for students to use a benefit of that then is as well is when they're in those um in those learning areas now they don't have to walk all the way down they don't have to go to the auditorium they'll be right near their classroom

114be able to get there and back more efficiently and also providing that privacy um which has been a major request from the students and then the rest of the the restroom facilities so if you think about with this this beautiful new theater um those are going to stay the same those will be the as they are but then they will be taken down to stud and rebuilt back up um with the new tile the new fixture all all the things so they'll be brand new but they'll stay functional as as we know them now when you've been in there and that will be on both sides and the same with door 11 if you come in that area where the swimming pool is the back door to the gym we have a lot of community

115use there those bathrooms will be taken down a stud and then new um you know new tile new fixtures and all those so they'll be new in the sense but they'll just be updated and not changed in how they function okay um at Tech they have kind of an outdoor classroom in a courtyard now you're talking about an outdoor classroom by Door 17 I have no clue where that is sure sure so that's if you're right behind the softball dugouts where the Varsity Softball field is there's a little cut out there um Door 17 is in our language arts area so um it's on the east side of the building we had a cement slab that was laid and then we have the tables that there so the the teacher can take their students out

116with their Chromebooks and they can you know do the lesson there and it's it's a nice space for for classes to get outside enjoy the weather and and be able to spread out a little bit so okay sounds like already got it that that we have that exists and we just need to to get the tables back out and we're we're ready to go for that one so that's one of the things that we've already done okay um thank you thank you but just I'm still I'm still with the idea of um of let's plan that already let's let's let's let's put a date I mean what what would it take to do to put to to say I mean I I I get that we're not going to plan everything but we can plan

117Milestones so can we I mean I like to ask the administration to start thinking about mileston so and and I will I will suggest I mean I will not suggest next year because I don't think that next year is a good year for that but I will suggest the following year and I don't think that the F the after I don't think that a non-election year is good for a referendum so I would suggest the following year and and start preparing for that and starting put the voice out we can just get a good pulse of the community and I kind of would like to know what all all of you think about it all of you board members okay with me no you look like you were going to say something I think it

118should have been done a long time ago that's amazing oh election versus non election is more of a simple ask I think compared to previous yeah election year versus not election year with what I believe to be a more simple ask is something we need to research and this is not any nothing near what we've asked for in the past so I think that that needs to be taken into consideration I would agree with that I would say that in the past when those plans were done we were the the plans that were drawn up were probably more than it it wasn't a minimum ask let me put it that way it was it was a more of a stretch to ask there the biggest thing that's happened right now is we've spent millions of

119dollars on Apollo with onetime money and with Federal money and I we've we've found a lot of different sources to do a lot of different things and so the next time we go out to ask I think that we can we can tone back the grandiose plans that we had plus we can look and we've already completed a lot of the work that was going to be part of a referendum the last time so I think the cost of it is going to come down substantially I think that there was some also there was also some uh ways to accomplish this with a with very little tax impact to the public and that's using I mean Tech Believe It or Not Tech is getting close to being half paid off uh you do 20year bonds

12010 years goes by pretty quickly and we're getting really close to that well another 10 years Tech's going to be paid for and there are ways that we could borrow the money or fund the the improvements to Apollo and not start paying the principal down until after the tech bonds expire and so there would really be no no tax impact or very little tax impact and that would all have to be calculated I'm trying of just uh speaking right now but I think it could be done very with very little tax impact to the community um the one thing that I that I keep thinking of when I think about high school improvements is as you go through the state or around the state so oftentimes you go into small communities and the the high

121schools and the field the high schools the fields the facilities are some of you can just tell that that Community takes real pride in their high schools and that the the high school stands for their Community it's a it's a symbol of their community and St Cloud is not much different in the in the sense that we are a small town in central Minnesota and we have these facilities uh Tech is a beautiful school right now and Apollo is a beautiful school with beautiful facilities and for the community to be able to hold that up and say you know we we're proud of our high schools we're proud of our community and we're investing in our kids and and and the the the amount of uh good things that can happen in those schools if

122you if if they if you show if your community shows that they care about those schools it can go a long way towards educating those kids giving those kids school pride and having I mean just as simple as just having kids stay in school to complete and graduate and then move out into the workforce and that the health of a community depends on a really strong school system and you can't stop investing in schools and expect great results you have to invest in your schools constantly and I know I'm a taxpayer I don't like to pay any more in taxes than I have to but at the same time I don't want to come from a community where they let the schools become rundown institutions that nobody wants to go to and nobody wants to

123teach at and they don't have the facilities to teach the kids skills that they're going to need for the for the current Workforce and I mean it's been 50 years since Apollo's been had a real facelift and update and 50 years is a long time I mean 10 years ago I would challenge most of us in this room to say that we had a smartphone in our pocket 10 years ago and that's changed the world you've got a computer in your pocket at any time you want to use it 10 years ago that wasn't the case you had a flip phone and 5 years before that you you were really excited because you got a phone you could talk on when you were driving your car or out on a boat or something like that

124so I mean and that's that's 15 15 at most 20 years ago that we didn't even have cell phones so you think about how the world's changed in 20 years it's been 50 years since Apollo was built and we're still trying to say that that building meets all of the needs of the kids in the in the in the workforce that we're trying to educate today and the workforce has changed dramatically in 50 years so it's not unreasonable for a school board or a board of education to come back to to a community and say after 50 years we need to do some work to this school to bring it up to the standards that meet what our students need today and so that our kids your kids can be successful in today's society and

125we're going to in 50 years from now we're going to need more upgrades and Tech's going to need to be upgraded 50 years from now I can never promise that that isn't going to have to happen so I mean I'm I I agree with Lori I don't think right now is the right time to do it I think we'd have a difficult time passing a levy but we have done millions of dollars worth of improvements to Apollo and I think that we're doing the right thing in doing so we have a beautiful facility there I'd love to see it upgraded just a couple more steps bring the facility up to the same standards as the things that we're putting into it and especially the kids that we're putting into it it's might two sense Monica

126s I didn't understand what you said you you were saying that next year will be good don't know so you said that doesn't matter next year or the following so um how do we find out I think to find out I think the administration needs to identify exactly what they're looking for at Apollo and then put it to an architect or an architectural firm who can make some initial design plans we don't need it right down to where the studs are going to be but we need initial design plans and a a uh just a a good solid estimate on what that's going to cost to accomplish and I think from there you can start to move forward that's what I would like to happen cuz right now uh if we're talking about referendum for

1272024 right now I don't even think that is that the problem is that there is not a good environment for voting the big problem is that we're not prepare for it at all we don't have time to prepare for a 2004 referendum we haven't talked about it nobody knows about this nobody's thinking about it and I really think that we need all this time to start thinking about it and I I I would like to ask the administration to come with a realistic timeline without thinking if who's going to vote for it or not cuz the reality is nobody's going to vote for it if never is there if it's never put out there and and I and I'm not sure how much I mean I I like to propose when we start talking about

128budget again I like to start proposing a budget that is fixed put into the a fixed budget that we start putting every year for the referendum work if that budget is needed if that is part of the issue andan I'm not really know what it takes to do it but i' like to have that ation I like to have it now and not again in a year as Lori proposed in her presentation that we talk about this every year I don't want to talk about this every year I want to talk about right now so we have a referendum next year or the following we are very confident that we could have something we are very close to having what the board is talking about already um because this has not been a an every

129year conversation for administration this is a month-to-month conversation for administration right now so we are um confident that we could be ready um in a month two months to bring what you're looking for um to start having those conversations on cost and exact spec uh specific needs um and we feel confident that we could certainly bring forward a referendum in 2025 um if if that's uh we would have we would be able to provide the board the information you need for us to have the time we need to to go out in Fall 2025 we tend to have better luck in general elections and special elections I think I mean it's hard to say I mean we passed the one in a general election but I don't know that we have a whole lot of

130history of going out for referendums we went for the referendum for Apollo antech that failed and and went out for one more and it passed so but the Apollo portion of that one did not pass so I I don't know I mean I I can't say which is which is better I think the public is happier if we go in general elections yes thank you everyone just one more thing that I wanted to say about um Scott you were asking about Turf versus um grass and I just wanted to put it out there grass is not really a good thing grass is a living organism but it's a stle it doesn't bring veget doesn't bring animals doesn't bring insects doesn't bring anything it's just in the way and the the turf might be more costly

131up front but it doesn't it lowers the cost the cost in water it cost it lowers the cost in in use and maintenance um so the the grass is really really not that good and I will be until the end that we get off the get rid of the grass that we have whatever we have it I agree but I have constituents that have other opinions and I need answers that's why okay next and I hate to do this but I am just an interim chair here so so I get I get a pass um we're going to go back to the calendar for a second we can't vote we can't vote on anything right now because we aren't in session we closed our board meeting and we open the work session but I want

132to make everyone aware that I've I've been informed that March 31st did need to be a non-school day and so we're going to have to make that change to the calendar um I would ask that the administration move forward making that change but we're going to have to bring it back at the next meeting next week and we're going to have to revote on the authorization of the school calendar with March 31st as a day off so it it was correct so all that fire and fury and we're going to be back to where we were we will have to resend the motion that's fine yeah but we can't do it right now because we're not in session so anyway that will be coming back what happens if the person who um put forth the

133motion won't be here at so now we start over yeah I won't be here next week right yep we can make the motion we can make the motion to change the calendar next week and so we will have to so I I apologize I apologize for the confusion next time I will not ask a question about the [Laughter] 29th so next up on our agenda isos next up on our agenda is proposed revised board policy 503 First reading Dr Mike grard will review the [Music] policy action chair doen did you want to do 503 first or the let's do this update sorry all right good evening Mr doen thanks things have changed since I did this before and right now you get a lot you get a piece of paper with each one says and

134it's like I'm getting them all confused agenda yes but it's better the way it is right now it's just takes some getting used to for sure well good evening super intendent putam board members uh tonight for our elementary update we get to highlight our early childhood programs when I asked director Flynn about their greatest strengths she responded it was their caring and knowledgeable staff in our early Childhood Program we have a wide range of program offerings including preschool Early Childhood family education also known as ECF and birth to three special education services our services Provide support resources and early learning from birth to age four for students and families current highlights at quar view include our Early Childhood Program earning the highest rating from mde four star parent aware parent aware ratings are based on

135demonstration of use of research-based practices that prepare children for school and life also a highlight is the celebration of nearly 50 years of our ECFE program which provides support for parents promotes Child Development and fosters a sense of community our ECFE programs help establish early Student Success in school and in life and now for the uh secondary update you've done a great job inter room chair doen and you're back to you sat in that seat before so you know it's just getting back on like you're riding a bike so superintendent putam board members just a great followup to uh principal Scholar's uh presentation in superintendent putam on uh the vision for Apollo and here's why and and uh uh board member dog you talked about it and why it's important for our students to have

136updated facilities our Focus this this month and uh shout out to all the students the coaches the director athletic directors the families the uh all the spectators that have been out we just wrapped up the winter activity season and it started in October and when you have if you've been a a a player in any type of team and sports you commit you set goals you work with a team and in that it helps you learn a lot of different things about life in general and so uh for everyone that I couldn't I we didn't have enough slides to put all the photos specifically on how to highlight all the great things that are happening within our activities in athletics and so I apologize for those folks that I we didn't get on there our

137Communications Department has done a awesome job if you go on our web page to make sure you're getting all the highlights of all the activities all the great things that are happening and so I'll start with a with a few uh of the winter activities at Apollo uh our robotics teams uh all all made it to state from North to Apollo Kennedy they all made it to State the national teams came are competing from North and Apollo this year and so shout out to those teams the DECA team qualified for State at Apollo and Tech uh you see it down in the bottom left corner of our North students in robotics starting young uh Sarah lenbach got Mentor uh robotics Coach of the Year shout out to her you see the Kennedy uh folks down

138at the bottom around Robotics and then you see the all the robotics North Side teams in the middle you see uh our swiming dive shout out to our folks Justin talked about it we had facility updates and swimming and so one of the things tell our students tell us that this is why right if I have a good facility they this year uh place the highest in school history uh in the 11th in their in their uh in their area and so that's that's great we've had six different school records in swim this year at Apollo right and so tell those things of having a top facility to walk into those facilities it motivates our kids in that way so uh shout out to all the uh Folks at Apollo the north side our robotics

139uh the tech uh Southside robotics teams and all the teams that competed for for for state and now Nationals and uh shout out to lenbach and that group uh going to uh the Southside where you see it on the top screen uh Speech took a group of students to Harvard uh to really get a good experience around what Harvard looks like feels like uh our uh swim and dive Crush uh swimming over on the south side and uh within our partners uh finished went to State our band uh solo and Ensemble all top qualifiers in multiple areas you have down at the bottom or national Signing Day where you have uh students that are going to uh signed to play college uh football at the next level our math team uh qualified for state and

140then you have a uh uh Mr basketball finalist and uh tamaron Ferguson uh and uh uh conference uh First Team allam all our Crush activities uh continue to roll we have uh our adaptive Crush soccer uh winter State kicking butt uh you have the gymnastics team that has uh won conference and down the state uh you have uh Lela Jacobson with the spelling be this uh first in her area uh shout out to uh the Kenny family uh uh Cameron uh she won second year uh girls wrestling uh at at at State uh sorry Brothers uh both brothers plays first and fifth but uh we're giving her all the Kudos I know when I see them uh you create some great uh wrestlers over there in the Kinley family shout out to you all uh

141Dr Seuss uh was one of the plays all the middle schools have now had a second uh theater act play I couldn't put them all there and then our uh Crush bowling team uh female bowling team uh competed for state and so it's why it's important for making sure our facilities are up to date and our kids are thriving this is why all these students competed at the highest level in their respective areas across the state uh I don't know uh pages that you have this many students competing in all types of topnotch across the state in those areas and uh it's looking more and more diverse every time of what our uh uh students and our school and our student body and our families look like so shout out to all the activities folks

142that put a great winter season together uh you just heard it we we don't have to worry about uh any snow for the kids to get out and do all types of things with baseball lacrosse track and field they're out there I was just in the buildings and so shout out to Mother winter I know you're not gone out there but uh our students are out and uh using our facilities and they're competing at the highest level within their respective area so uh shout out to those folks again thank you Dr Harris to probably just jinxing us to a 12-in snowstorm next weekend but um good evening again as you know our Crush adapted floor hockey team made yet another state another yet trip to the state tournament amazing athletes who Comm continue to make

143our community proud in their participation at such a high level and our students who play on our adapted teams have educational and physical skill sets that sometimes are challenging for them but it's addressed by a group of Educators I wanted to share with you um about tonight sometimes we hear about them but we don't always know what they do they are tinant staff um their licensed education staff members who serve students and go to multiple buildings and they when they do this um these amazing Educators and there 70 of them um fall into this group and I just want to talk briefly about them this evening so our dape teachers which there are seven of them serve more than 387 students in our school district they ensure inclusive and accessible uh physical education programs for

144our kids we have seven occupational therapists and our occupational therapists serve 742 of our students we have physical therapists we have uh two teachers that work with our Blind and Visually Impaired and we have near 30 students who have that disability area that get this extra support because of these wonderful Educators that we have uh we have Deen Hardy hearing teachers we have school social workers and school psychologists um who are working to ensure that counseling services and intervention services are there our dhh our Deen Hardy hearing teachers are working to sure that auditory training sign language all of these skill sets are happening um and are being taught out in our schools by these staff members and they do a wonderful job and one of the products of that is having such great Crush

145athletic teams but also that we just have assess posibility uh for all of our students that is our school updates report for this evening if there's any questions I don't see any questions okay we'll try this one more time then next Mike rard will review revised board policy forgive me the moment there uh thank you again acting chair alren Dr putam and members of the board this evening we are reviewing uh board policy 503 which is student attendance last revised on May 5th 2021 um the update from msba occurred in January of 2021 purpose of this policy is to encourage regular School attendance we do have some minor changes this evening that we want to ensure that uh the entire School Board would be able to hear um as we move towards a third reading

146uh policy recognizes that students parents Guardians teachers and administrators are responsible to um have great attendance for for our kids uh the policy as a general statement of policy goes through what those responsibilities are for students parents teachers and administrators uh board development committee makes no recommendations of changes in those areas until we get down to the administrator's responsibilities uh we we do have some minor change recommended uh as the discussion at board development was talking about um when a student has been excused I'm at number four section B that it's not the school board that uh makes a decision on that when they student would be coming uh for graduation and the review of a student's attendance that it's actually the superintendent or um the design which is going to be the school principal

147um and that it's verified by Administration to be approved uh by the school board so that we recognize that it starts at school administration and then it moves to the school board so that is one of the uh recommendations that's coming out of the board development committee I'm going to move down there are um definitions of what excused absences are going to be uh no changes there until we get down to number one in our definition of what an illness is uh absences in excess of 15 days may require medical verification we wanted to take a look at changing that language from just being doctor uh to be medical verification doctor seems um a descriptor that might not necessarily cover um all the people who are working with our students um when they are ill

148um no other changes I did make note that there are additional information in isd742 policy related to student attendance that we do recognize that excused um include um religious holidays college and Technical College visits vacations with prior approval and school field trips those are not included in mba's model policy but we've chosen to make sure that they are included we did as a committee have a recommendation changing responsibility following an excused absence and we're changing that to being just any absence and then I'll I'll talk a little bit about um how we also um how that impacted the two paragraphs below all students are required to make up all assignments missed or to be complete or to complete alternative assignments as deemed appropriate in a time frame agreed upon between student caregiver and teacher what

149we've done is we've um proposed to Mark out the students whose absences are excused what we recognized is that we want all students working on assignments when they've missed work um whether it's been an excused or unexcused absence um that we recognize that as we assess students to show um that we want them to show the work so that we can make sure that we can give them the credit for the work that they have done and the second paragraph really starts to Define previously what missed work meant and having a timeline um regarding what missed work was going to be and how long they had to make it up um as as a board committee the recommendation is that we're having all students do that and that they're doing it in a time frame

150agreed upon between themselves their caregiver and the teacher for unexcused absences uh we we did make a recommendation uh to change that an absence by a student which was uh not validated um by a parent or Guardian Andor improved by the School District administration um as being a as being a change and we also recognized that there was um a unexcused absence that said work from home and should be reading school work from home no other changes related to tardiness or unexcused tardiness are recommended again we we did take a look at um when it comes to participate in extracurricular activities and school sponsored on the job training that instead of having Physicians being the way we're defining that that it be licensed medical providers and the recognition that the dissemination of this policy that

151is going to be in our handbook um and always available there um as one of the links that you would see in our student handbook my recollection serves me that is the proposal for changes for board policy 503 student attendance at this time is there any questions from the school board what is a school work at home so and why is not excuse so as a conversation with within the committee was that if you're doing school work at home um that that would if you're absent on that day and that you're doing your schoolwork at home that you're still absence and that just doing the school work at home doesn't make it an excused absence that at this maybe a better way to put it that under compulsory attendance law that you need to be

152at school and if you were going to be doing your regular work at home we would be looking at possibly a different model of how you're receiving your instruction cmba if you wanted to continue to do school work at home okay um Medical Dental or orthodontic treatment or counseling appointment does not need verification can you tell me which section we under I'm sorry the following reasons shall be sufficient to constitute ex Cube as absence as Nal B and then [Music] then I missed that [Music] now where did they go okay number four so could you repeat your question again Monica cuz we are now under so I'm just looking at number excused absences yes so you have number one and and parents have to verify or absence in excess of so many days need verification

153medical verification but if you have a dental appointment or dtic treatment or a counseling appointment you don't need verification no what probably the best way to put this is during the first 15 days days when you might have an absence um and the absence in excess of 15 days if it goes beyond 15 days uh the School District administration can require that you're providing medical medical verification for those days that is within the policy okay but parents in the first one parents will verify a students illness to the school Administration in the others they don't they they should be doing that for all of them what this is a definition of what type of what type of occurrence that could happen of what you would be excused for in trying to differentiate what would be

154an excused and unexcused where the 15-day part of number one comes into place is calling out that after 15 days the school district would be requiring the possibility of medical verification for any of those additional app es so I suggest that you um put something outside of the numeral just said the parents need to verify in every case if that is the case because it's only one so if I'm a student I can tell you that I had a doctor's appointment and my parents don't need to tell you anything according to what I'm seeing right now here is that the case no because if you go up to number one under excused absence Monica if I'm reading correctly and in understanding your question to be excused or an excuse absent um by the student's parent

155or legal guarding may be asked in verifying and writing the reason for the student's absence so right now as a matter of practice our parents are calling students in if they're sick or if there's any of those other excused absences that are listed under number one through 16 I think Monica if I can offer maybe something that will help um within those first 15 absences if a parent is calling in and saying I have an a dentist appointment that is excused on the 16th dental appointment we are asking for that medical verification so that we can ensure that students are in school getting their education yes I understand that um yeah I guess um but I guess if nobody else have issues with this maybe it's the way that I'm reading it I think Mike

156I think that we in the committee didn't we say that uh search for parent and maybe look at putting parent SL caregiver cuz I think that one just says parent right there no but the it says in the number eight Guardian up there it says caregiver parent or legal guardian but if you go down down to right there number one it just says parents will verify and I think we had brought up that throughout this we kind of interchanged parent parent Guardian parent caregiver and we wanted to get consistent with those and then there was another bullet uh number two not that number two though Lori maybe you want to can you take a look at 2 two 2 two there two two oh two two two keep going uh Roman numeral two NOP number

157two keep going excuse absence any absence in wish student going keep going there 2 two I I'm wondering if we don't need a student slash parent caregiver because if the student's seven we are not holding the seven-year-old accountable to for failure to comply thank you what any absence in which the student on is what you add my suggestion was in this it says it's holding the student accountable for failure to report is that how you read it yeah how I'm looking at that Dr put was any absence in which the student failed to comply I I think what are you alluding to that the caregiver failed to comply also in the reporting requirements correct because we do not hold 7 year-olds accountable I would agree I would agree with [Music] that thank you any other

158questions or concerns or additions no just do a search for parent and caregiver parent or all I'll do a search for all three of them see if we can get them consistent throughout the policy so in that point there is a part that is par or legal guardian and then the next is Parn of Guardian I don't know if matters if it helps with timing I can make sure we clean that that up for the second read and then we can I'll highlight them to make sure that they are all accurate yep so i' come back next week y okay any other concerns or comments anything else thank you from anyone if not I'm looking for a motion to adjourn so [Music] move second seconded by Scott Monica with the motion Scott second all in

159favor say I I opposed none and that will do it for tonight's meeting we'll be back here next week on Wednesday and Shannon will be back in the chair position I'll be comfortably sitting over there thank you everybody the Bal I got $1200 for the museum