001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Oh, shoot. Okay, it is Thursday, May 7th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. We are at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We would like to acknowledge that the land in which we gather is the land of the Mde Wakanton Dakota people. Mde Wakanton means dwellers of the Spirit Lake. First item on our agenda is 1.0 roll call, Dana. >> Elizabeth Bachmann Ekberg >> Here. >> Louise Heinz >> Here. >> Ryan Clark is absent. Melinda Dols is absent. Simi Patnaik >> Here. >> Sharon Van Lear >> Here. >> Tia Elveringa >> Here. >> Katie Schwartz >> Here. >> 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance, please stand. 3.0 is approval of our agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. Moved by Simi, oh no, Sharon. Seconded by Elizabeth.
002All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh 4.0 is our student board representative report. >> I just touched the microphone, Tia. And I was just thinking about we can't touch the microphone. We need to touch the base. Sorry, Louise. Your training is not working with me. I I missed the training. I just like panicked. Um thank you. This evening, uh we have just one of our student board reps with us. Um I'm thinking Andrew is off with band or orchestra music. And Matilda was not able to be here. And Matilda, of course, is our senior. Um but Tia, uh wanted to share just about a recent award and just a little bit about what's happening at the high school. So, go ahead, Tia. >> Um hi, everyone. I don't have much
003to share today. Um this like my last report was about how it's test season. It is still test season. >> [laughter] >> But I will be finishing up all my tests next week, and then it'll be, you know, weight off my shoulder, a little more lighthearted. But I would like to share that we recently had our junior book awards at Park High School, Um which was which is an award to honor juniors for their hard work academically and in leadership and in character. So basically juniors were able to fill out an application where they talked about themselves academically, their academic achievements, what we're involved in in school and clubs, our activities, where we have where we show leadership and the counselors at Park High School selected I think 18 juniors and on top of that
004they matched us with a college junior book award and I was awarded the Wellesley book award this year and on top of that I was awarded by a Wellesley alum Miss Pitnick and it was so excited. We were so stoked. I was when they were matching us to the college it was all blindly so they didn't know my name so it was just a coincidence that it was Miss Pitnick that awarded to me and it was just a really fun morning. My parents were able to come my whole family and meet Miss Pitnick and just it's always just really nice to be like honored and recognized for our hard work because really all the juniors that did get an award we all work so hard especially in our junior and senior year. So yeah. >>
005Yeah and that actually that actually brought tears to my eyes because what Taya didn't know is when I talked to Simi she expressed the same thing like you're never going to believe it. I gave the book award to Taya and so you know what Taya we are so proud of you and we really appreciate all the hard work not just academically but all that you do with your leadership at Park High School. We know and we can tell by the short time you've been with us just what an outstanding student you are so thank you. >> Thank you. >> 5.0 is our workshop items. We do have two this evening and the first one is 5.1 teaching and learning report science and that will be introduced by Ms. Kelly Janssen, assistant superintendent. >> All right,
006thank you. Um good evening, everyone. As you know, as part of our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness, or CACR, uh we take three times a year where we dive deeper into each of the subjects that we talk about there. And so, tonight is our teaching and learning science report. Um and so, I will turn it over to my amazing colleagues to get started. >> Thank you, Kelly. Good evening, everybody. Uh we are going to follow a very similar format to uh other reports that we've come to the board about uh with different subjects and different departments. Uh tonight we're going to start with our student performance data. We'll have some secondary updates that'll feel a little bit different than last year. Uh we'll have elementary update, and then you see we're trying to prime a
007little bit of an activity here in the middle. Uh we'll get some hands-on learning here uh shortly. We're going to start with the student performance data, and it's really important to sit in this space a little bit more this year, um and let me explain why. Uh the the data that we're going to look at this year with just one data point is really based on the MCA 4 science test from last spring. I want to highlight a couple of different things. It's a brand new assessment. Um so, it's not it's not an update to the MCA 3. Uh it's brand new, and it's testing and measuring learning in a fundamentally different way. Um you probably know this, but uh the NGSSS, the Next Generation Science Standards, uh have really informed the Minnesota uh standards
008in 2019, which then shows up in terms of the um type of rigor on the MCA 4. Uh so, I just wanted to point that out that you'll see one data point tonight versus a series, um because uh really it's a fundamentally different assessment. Thought that it might be helpful to really talk about what MDE provides in terms of guidance as well. They say the series of new assessments in science, the MCA 4, are aligned to the 2019 standards and were first administered in spring 2025. These assessments, just like the standards, are substantially different than the previous iterations of standards, assessments, and MCA 3. Results cannot be compared between science MCA 3 and the MCA 4. And I I just stopped there because I wanted to just understand why there was uh in terms of
009MCA. They They They go on to say, "Fully implementing new standards and assessment take time. And it may be a few years before we start to see the real benefits as educators and students become accustomed to the shifts in curriculum and instruction. It also is important to keep in mind that standards transition plan a district chose could potentially affect student results during the first few years of the administration of a new assessment." Really wanted to anchor our conversation tonight in some language from MDE rather than it it just being language that you're hearing from uh TLS. So, we look forward to trend data in the future that we're able to report to you. Um and as we start to further unpack what teaching and learning looks like in science classrooms to match those standards, um
010we will we'll just look forward to looking at student achievement through that lens of multiple years. So, I wanted to sit in that space first. >> So, part of the new test is a little tweak in the words. So, uh you'll see the MCA 3 here on the left-hand side, and we've been really used to looking at those words, which is meets and exceeds, and then partially meets and does not meet. And they have switched it for the MCA 4, so you're going to see that in the data here in a minute, that it's meets in advanced, and then intermediate, and beginning. So, that'll be a shift. Science is the first MCA 4 that we're going to see. Next year we'll be looking at the reading MCA 4 and then 2 years from now we'll
011see the MCA MCA 4 for math. So, let's start with grade five. So grade five is fifth grade is the first year that students take the MCAs for science. And this is showing and again this is our baseline. Fifth grade is 28% meets or advanced and then another 38% in that intermediate band. >> At grade eight you'll notice that 17% meets or in the meets or advanced. You will notice the dip from fifth to eighth grade. We can attribute this to a lot of things. It's important not to have causation here, but in terms of hypothesizing this is really the first cohort of students that our middle school cohort of students that have to face this level of rigor of assessment. And and we look forward to you know seeing the 10th grade results that
012actually if you can go ahead to the 10th grade Kelly for a second, please. The 10th grade results you will notice are more in that 46 range and we attribute that to the fact that from a content perspective it hasn't changed a lot because it's really focused on life science biology and and Bronson our our supervisor here can maybe add a little bit more to that. The the three-dimensional science and the rigor is still there, but the content is somewhat similar to the MCA 3 is is is my understanding. Would you add anything to that? >> Yeah, sure. Like you said, one one of the things we did is we brought in the new standards. We shifted Earth and Space Science from really eighth grade to sixth grade and so we're hypothesizing that possibly that
013is teachers adjusting to the grade of student or the level student that they're they're teaching in that that particular course. So, physical science went from sixth grade to eighth grade, and so that's a slight adjustment for our entire middle school cohort of students. Um we're not 100% sure, but that's a hypothesis of like, "Hey, why why do we see this show up?" Um as well as the new the new MCA 4 has just a higher level of complexity in articulating and defending and and being able to create a narrative based on evidence of why you believe something rather than the old MCAs was more based on can you just recall simple science facts? And so, it's just a different cognitive load for our students. Thank you. >> On this slide, we're looking at when we
014put all three uh fifth eighth and then the high school class together, it looks uh we performed at 29% meets and advanced, and then an additional 29% at intermediate. This is how uh we compare with with the state uh where in South Washington we are at 29% proficient. Um we'll see how many times I actually use uh the new words myself um as I explain this data because I'm very used to the other words. Um and then state for meets and advanced is at 26. This is we've looked at this slide for all of our different um areas. These are schools that we compared to uh before. And here's how it kind of fell for science in SoWashCo was kind of more we we in both reading and math kind of were in the middle
015of that, and for this it's looking like a little bit toward the top of of some of the other districts. >> In terms of pre-ACT, we know it's a predictor of ACT performance, and this the achievement level has stayed uh relatively stable um over the years and going on to ACT ACT is also you'll notice stayed pretty consistent in terms of the level of achievement at that 23 benchmark. And just just a note that reaching a 23 really indicates that you were going to see success of students at that college level entry science experience. And then our 12th grade students meeting or exceeding the science benchmark compared to the state is what you see here. Just a note 12th grade students in this score this represents their most recent score in the state of Minnesota
016we don't super score in districts in Minnesota so this is their most recent score that you would see there not to be confused obviously with individual students that are applying to colleges that might have opportunities to use their highest score but in Minnesota that's how we report it as the most recent score. >> All right we get to jump into secondary science and so here we go just a little brief shift from last year when we talked about this we looked at just the required science courses for students moving through to graduation. We're going to highlight those here that's 6th grade as we just already mentioned tonight is Earth and Space Science then Life Science in 7th grade to Physical Science in 8th grade that ends up being mirrored when you get to the high
017school so in 9th grade we do Earth and Space Science and then we move to Biology typically as a sophomore and then as juniors or and or seniors they have the option of taking Physical Science. They could satisfy that graduation requirement either Chemistry or Physics but what we really want to highlight tonight is all of the other options that students have as they move past the required courses. Just a note if you want to go back one Kelly, all the pictures in here are pictures of our actual science students doing great science. And as you look at some of these pictures, just note how often they're collaborating with each other. There's a narrative approach. Note how many times students are writing things down. And so we really want to highlight that students are doing science
018collaboratively with each other. They're building arguments based on evidence and recording that and then trying to figure out from the phenomenon how do they understand science. One note just for fun on this one, the far right picture. Their task there is to try to figure out how many marbles they can put in an aluminum boat. And I reached out and asked like how many is that? The record this year was 232, which I was shocked with. The all-time record is 414, which I can't imagine, but that was sort of fun. Just a fun tidbit fact for us. So as you think about the three aspects of science, you have Earth and Space Science, then you have Life Science, then you have Physical Science. These are all opportunities for students that extend beyond Earth and Space
019Science. So they can take Honors Earth and Space Science. That would replace that Earth and Space Science course for those students who want slightly higher higher rigor or more depth. They also can take Environmental Science, which expands on those things that they learned in Earth and Space Science. We'll jump to the next slide. Students later in their high school experience can take AP Environmental Science. That has the potential of earning a college credit. So that's an opportunity for our students. They can also take Renewable Energy, which is another course that expands on that Earth and Space Science foundation that they get both in 6th grade and 9th grade. Few more pictures of students doing Earth and Space Science labs, which is uh fun to see. And we'll jump to the next slide. So then our
020students in the Life Science or Biology, these are all opportunities that they have that go beyond that life science in seventh grade and often in as a sophomore. So, we have AP biology. Uh we also have the opportunity to take IB biology one and two. That's two full years. And that IB really focuses on developing the skills that students would night need to do pure applied sciences as they go through college. Um they can take an IB exam the end of that, which can also potentially earn college credit. A few more courses here. We have IB sports, uh exercise and health. We also have anatomy and physiology. A lot of students who are really interested in going into the medical fields will take these courses. Um these are just a few pictures of our students
021out doing uh life science. Uh I just love seeing the engagement of our middle school boys over there on the far left, um writing things down. You can just see the thinking going on. Uh on the far right, we have some of our students that are actually out at Lake Elmo, um doing science in real life as I call it, right? Not just in the classroom, which is fun to see that. Um and then in our physical science, we have a lot of options for our students as they matriculate through uh high school. They can take honors chemistry. That would replace their chemistry course. AP chemistry, another opportunity for students to earn college credit. Um and we can also do IB chemistry one and two. That's And again, a full two years of study in
022which students uh do a lot of in-depth lab work and then also have that potential to earn a college credit. Uh we can take AP physics one and two. That's another option where students can take a full two years. Uh you start looking at some of the the vocabulary there. It's fun, right? Thermochemistry and electricity, magnetism, light and waves. Um again, they can earn that college credit on both of those courses. IB physics also is an opportunity to gain uh college credit. And here we have just some pictures of students doing some of that uh studying sound and waves. The far uh top left picture, they're actually measuring the speed of sound, which they do by varying the amount of water in that large graduated cylinder. Uh then you can look at they're exploring waves
023with a Slinky that goes all the way down the hallway, which is really fun uh to see. Um and then we also have STEM opportunities as we think of that that uh partnership with science and STEM. So, these are in our middle schools, all middle school students are required to take these three STEM courses. They take that for 1/3 of the year of their middle school experience. So, in sixth grade, they do coding. Uh and then in seventh grade, they have a class that is called STEM 1, which really introduces the design principles of iterative process and trying to solve problems in a variety different ways. Uh and then STEM 2 is also there for the eighth graders, which they really start to look at robotics. And again, looking at how do we collect data
024and how do we revise our our processes as we go through that experimental process. Then we shift to high school. We have a a lot of STEM opportunities that go beyond those courses that they took in middle school. And so, I'm not going to read all of them, but I did bold those ones there that those students could potentially earn uh college credit for. I think now I pass it on to Jolene, correct? Now we're going to jump into elementary science. >> Okay, I get the honor of talking about elementary science and whatever I don't know, Ali Flada is sitting next to me to help me. So, that is fantastic. So, we're going to start with just a review as far as the curriculum uh for elementary and it is Discovery Education. Uh we have
025uh the hands-on materials that were provided uh for teachers as well, which you can see there. But, we really want to talk about what else we have going on at the elementary. So, one of the biggest things and who has seen this up in action? So, Starlab is a huge part um at this point, we do have it that it visits all 16 sites. So, when I started in South Washington, it was a little bit more of sign up if you want to kinds of things. Now, we have it in every single school. Um people are trained in how to uh talk in the Starlab and the exciting part is there will be a new Starlab next year. So, we are really excited. If anyone has been in the Starlab, it has been limping along
026for years. So, we are very excited um to actually purchase and the top picture there is going to be the new one. You don't have to crawl through. Now, it has a nice little door. Um so, there's some really nice things um in there. If you ever get a chance or or want to visit an elementary school, please contact us. We will tell you where the Starlab is to go in there and see it. It really is a really cool thing. Uh the other highlight here from uh the elementary level is the Bailey School Forest. So, the Bailey School Forest is a field trip that is free for any school. So, this is a a big deal that it is free to be able to take students. There's very few things. Our transportation department does
027provide the transportation free of cost for the schools. Of course, that does come to some cost at the district level, but at least for the school um we can go to the Bailey School Forest. Hands-on. We have the school forest kits that that are part of that. Um some really bringing science alive kind of like Ian was talking about as well. And then, the exciting part that I know we have all been waiting for is the STEM learning that we're doing at the elementary and uh for us it is uh mostly handled within our media specialists. It's part of their scope and sequence. So, it is a required part of their curriculum and Ally is here to talk to us a little bit about some different options at that that the media specialists have. >>
028Yes, so we have media specialists in all 16 elementaries and like Jolene said, they do handle our STEM learning. So, students K-5 are getting hands-on STEM learning with a variety of robots and different tools. So, here at the district we have an extensive STEM library that travels with our wonderful warehouse team. They deliver all of our STEM learning materials to all the different sites and then we do have a few core tools that are shared amongst only three schools. So, they have them for longer periods of time. And our media specialists also incorporate a lot of coding through programs like Scratch Jr. And then most of our elementaries also have a maker space which means some hands-on open-ended ways for kids to tinker and use their hands and collaborate with others. So, things like magnetic
029tiles and bristle blocks and Legos and things like that. So, for our coding robot progression, these are our four standard robots that we have in our elementary schools. The Bee-Bot is the very first one that's introduced typically in kindergarten. It's completely screen-free and it uses directional logic. So, right on top of the robot there's arrows. They will code their path and then they press go and then they see if their robot actually follows the path that they intended. And there's a lot of cross-curricular connections with that. We have our wonderful media specialists have kids code like how how take the mouse and get to the cookie after they read if you give a mouse a cookie, things like that. Um and so that's our first experience and then kids move into Indi cars, which we
030will talk a little bit more about in a minute. Um but those are an an additional screen-free uh robot that use uses color-based programming. So it has a color sensor on the bottom and each color is representative of a movement and that's typically a K2 robot. And then we move into Dash, which is an app-based robot. So they use their iPads to use block coding um to tell their robot what to do. And Dash is able to talk to them, he's able to spin, he's able to blink, um change colors, lots of uh fun animations. Um and then from there we move on to Bolt Plus, which is a Sphero product. And again, that's app-based and we're working on more advanced automation and data with Dash. So, for today, we're going to play with Indi
031a little bit. Um and just to introduce him, I'll do a little demo. Perfect. You got it? Can you hear me? Okay. So this is Indi here and this little robot, again, has a color sensor on the bottom that is able to detect what it's supposed to do. And you'll see up on the screen each color represents a movement. So green means go, red means stop, just like I try and tell my 3-year-old when we're driving, you know. Yellow is slow, it'll decrease the speed. Purple is a celebration, so the robot will turn around and spin. Um and then all of the ones on the right-hand side are degrees of turn. And so kids get really good at this knowing what the colors represent and then it's a lot of trial and error for the
032robot to do what they intended it to do. Um and then there's challenge cards that come with these, too. So a lot of, you know, what would you put there in order for it to get back to where you want it to go. Um and so, it looks just like this in the media center. The students get their kit with their colored tiles. They have an open workspace, and they're just kind of throwing tiles down to see what Indie will do. Um if Indie does not detect a color within 3 seconds, uh they will stop and just and wait for their next direction. Um and then if they keep driving for up to 5 seconds, it'll stop as well. So, um button on the back. I'm going to show you how this one works. So,
033green is go. If I put him on the green tile, he will start start to move. Yellow is slow down. My blue is a right turn 90°. My teal is a right turn 45°, and then my pink is a 90° turn to the left. And then purple should celebrate. So, I've already tested this one. I cheated a little bit. Um but you're going to have a chance to try a couple challenge cards here in a minute. So, Indie's on the eyeballs are are glowing. That's how I know he's on. I set him on my green. He's going to count down. And then he's going to find purple. Yeah. So, what we're going to do today, we have Indie kits. If people want to get in groups of three, um and within your kits, I gave
034you a little cheat sheet on the directions cuz those are the hardest ones to figure out. Um and then there's two challenge cards. So, you always want to start with green cuz that will tell the robot to go, and then your job is to try and figure out like this one. You want to get back to purple. And then on this one, you're also trying to get to purple. And that one just has like two question marks. What would I put there in order to get to my purple? Or you can just play and code your own little path for Indie. Yeah. >> Out of curiosity, how long So, this is for first and second graders? >> Yeah. >> Okay, so how long does it take like your average six or seven-year-old to master this?
035And I think I'm just sort of trying to set expectations for myself. >> Oh, I would say they do an intro lesson, the teacher does a model lesson, and then they are off to the races. So, um they pick it up pretty pretty darn quick. Yep. >> And they don't they don't care if >> Yeah. >> So, they just they'll >> All right, so we have some open space over here um and we'll have people deliver a kit to you to try Indie. >> I'll just All right. So, as you can see uh just endless possibilities. So, highly engaging, endless possibilities, great great options for any grandchildren out there or children. I wish I had it when I had my own little friends. I think my 14-year-old would still find that super engaging. So, um
036So, that is the end of our presentation. So, any questions you have for us? >> [laughter] >> Okay, we'll start with Simi with a couple questions, please. >> Um and start with Simi. I'm like high on my power. Okay. Um so, couple questions. One is when you talked about the performance descriptors, um are these like are these to scale or how does the scale work? Like what is the cutoff between beginning and intermediate and intermediate and meets? Like what it what sort of um level of prof- proficiency do students have to demonstrate at each of those gates? >> Anticipating that we might get that question, uh did did did some homework on it. Um let's start with intermediate because those are our students that we we would feel like are on the cusp, um that
037we're really hoping to Well, we're trying to support all students, but how far they are away from uh meets or advanced. This means they have partial understanding and skills. So, not far below the meets is what MDE would say. They can um they can uh interpret data and models. They can uh show understanding in familiar situations, but remember when we talked about that shift MCA4 in terms of phenomenon based and the application, that's where that's where they struggle and we need to support them more. Um in terms of beginning stage, um they would describe it as limited evidence of understanding. So, that intermediate group can can and we we can't draw this line so um definitively yet. Uh Jolene and I were talking a little bit about this before the presentation to say that our
038intermediate group may have been proficient on the MCA3. We're not that uh confident yet because we need some trend data and understand it better. But, we wanted to highlight the fact that it's really that application piece that they're missing in the intermediate. Does that help a bit? >> I think so. I think what I one of the things I sort of in full candor, like it's been a long time since my own children took the MCAs and they I mean, so I don't I don't remember what this was like for them as middle schoolers or elementary schoolers. And so, I just don't know what um is there a good example of what Can you provide an example of what an intermediate student might know versus not know compared to a meets student? >> Yeah, um
039so, I have it I just printed off some of the performance level descriptors cuz I thought it might help, right? So, if if I read as as a fifth grade student at an intermediate level, this is the performance level descriptor for that that stage. They can identify patterns showing that the sun's position in the sky changes throughout the day and describe changes in the Earth's surface over time. So, think of the complexity of being able to understand that and that's at the intermediate level. If we move to a a meets level, the student it says, "I can collect and use several data sets to describe daily seasonal changes and patterns of daylight to explain how Earth's surface changes over time. So, hopefully that example will let you see that it's complex thinking. It's It's being
040able to use a set of data to then draw a conclusion at the end. And so, I don't know if that is a good example or not, but maybe that starts to get at what they're trying to do with the MCA 4. >> Um No, that is that is helpful. Um So, one question I had So, these are based on 2019 standards, right? And they're just They were just rolled out last year. So, it takes 5 years for the standards to work their way through, then the test the test runs for 10 years. So, 5 years into the test, the state will come up with a new set of standards. Correct. >> Yes, that that's correct. So, so there's always a lag time, and I think that the state recognizes in a large system such
041as ours, we're going to have to first understand what those standards are, then build a team of teachers to look at how will we implement these standards, and we have to know the standards before we start implementing. And then there has to be an opportunity to have a cohort of students exposed to those standards before they take that test. So, was it 3 or 4 years ago we started with our third graders >> Okay. >> saying, "Now we're going to expose you to the new standards." Then that cohort moved to fourth grade, and then that cohort of students moved to fifth grade all in preparation to take that MCA 4 last year. >> Okay. And so, >> same thing with sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade starting 4 years ago so that they were ready
042to take the test last spring. >> Okay. And so, the first year the first students who took that Earth Space at in high school are current 11th graders, correct? >> That is correct. Yes. >> Okay. Um And then, how for middle school STEM, so you mentioned that each student or each student takes a triad of STEM in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade. How does that work? Cuz I know middle schoolers have a pretty compressed schedule. How does that work if they take world language or if they take music, you know, how do how do they fit all of this in or what what gets dropped? >> Yeah, the the fitting in is always a challenge in middle school, right? And so so they I might have to get back on exactly which courses they
043substitute in and out, but that's part of why we do one trimester. And so that's coupled against courses that they take one trimester. Kelly, do you know off the top of your head the schedule? >> The STEM courses are part of the wheel. Have you If you've heard the wheel, that's a a sequence of three courses that they take in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So there are students that are um wheel students, there are students who are Spanish students in eighth grade, there are students who are avid students. Um there are students who are pull-out EL. And so generally principals will sit down with the families and decide which of the two are going to be and and fine and music, I'm sorry, is the other one. So it's going to vary of which
044one based on the kid, based on the family of what their priorities are. So they do have to make some hard choices for sure. >> Okay. And so the STEM is the STEM class is in addition to the actual science class. >> Yes. >> Correct, yeah. >> Okay. >> Their core science course they'll take a full year in sixth grade, a full year in seventh, and a full year in eighth. >> And then they take the STEM separately. And then in elementary school you had mentioned that they take STEM the media center does media specialist do a lot with STEM. This is in addition to classroom work. Okay. >> Sharon, do you have any questions? >> See um Oh, no, I'm not Yeah, how do you get how do you get out of the beginning
045to the intermediate? What's the cri- Is there a criteria to move from one and one if you don't move from one to the other? What happened? >> [laughter] >> I could >> Well, I don't think, you know, there's any We use MCAs to look system-wide. So, really to look individually to one individual student and making decisions based on that score like changing their instruction based on that one score for that one student. That's not really what the test was uh designed for. So, what we want to look at is how do our kids across South Washington or one particular building and what we need to do. Um so, really the the basic, the beginning, uh is going to be students that will have some core knowledge, um but unable to really do any application of
046that. Um the intermediate is going to be, "Yeah, I can apply what I know, um but I'm not able to do that with multiple different data sets." It's Oh, the test is individually. Individual on the computer. It looks very different than the test I have been used to, um even when I took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and and even seeing MCAs even 10 years ago. It it has changed a lot. Um it used to be more multiple choice. Now they're clicking and dragging. They're uh taking different data sets, um and pulling things together. It's very It's much more interactive than it was when we were doing the bubble sheets with A, B, C, and D. Um it just isn't that way anymore and it's really requiring kids to take base knowledge because we
047still need to know information, right? That's still an important piece, but now how can I apply that and interweave it with all kinds of other things that I'm able to know and be able to do. So, it's it's a complex thing. So, we're really proud of kids and where they where they're going and what they're able to accomplish in in all of our areas. So. >> Yeah, well, I had one, so okay. >> Ryan. >> Yeah, I got two questions for you. So, is my understanding that chemistry is 11th grade and that's the last core science class that's required for state standard? Is that right? >> Yes, with the caveat that it's it's a physical science course, so a student could take either chemistry or physics. >> But they're not required to take both. >>
048Correct. Three years are required at high school for graduation. >> Okay, so making the assumption that kids take chemistry, do you know how many kids opt in for physics? Like generally speaking. >> I don't I don't know the exact number and students students take a variety. So, a lot of students will take In other words, there's there's more options for them and that's part of what we're looking at. So, not all students will take physics. Some will take AP biology or AP chem or IB and that restricts their ability to take physics. >> Only the only the IB is right? So, you could take AP chemistry as a junior and then choose to take AP physics as a senior, right? >> That's correct. >> So, kind of what I'm wondering is how many kids choose
049to take that harder science path? Cuz I think the other science courses are good, so I'm not denigrating them, but AP physics is a very hard course. So, how many of our seniors are opting to go to that hard science for the last level? Is it 5% 10%? Do we have an idea? Less? >> I I'll have to look up that number. I don't know it off the top of my head. >> Ryan, I don't know that off the top of my head either. We can get that to you though. >> Yeah, just I'm curious. >> question. >> Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious and I would >> Sorry. >> It doesn't have to be AP either just cuz physics is hard, so I know kids shy away from that, right? But >> I I think we're
050looking for the four-year science kid, right? The one that's going to take four years. And what we do in our career counseling or college counseling, if they're looking at selective universities in particular. >> Mhm. >> Um we are really encourage them to take four years of science. And even and I don't I shouldn't have said even like state colleges, a lot of colleges are requiring four years. And it's the it's the Minnesota that's the three years. So we definitely do counsel them that four years will benefit you very much in your future endeavors. >> Yes. >> Um but we will get exactly how many kids are taking that. >> Sure. And it's if you're going to go to a select college or a science-based program, then physics in high school is a mandatory thing. I
051would make the argument for folks in general, you should learn physics. So Taylor, you should have taken physics if you didn't. Right? It's a really good thing to know just in general life, right? Um and so that kind of leads me to my second question. So with the ACT, I understand now that science isn't necessarily a mandatory ACT test for many schools. But nonetheless, what are like what strategy do you guys have to try to increase our base ACT scores so that we have more kids who can meet that 23? Right? So we have what, 42 out of 100 right roughly right now? So that means that 58 can't. So what do we know what kind of strategies or what hypotheses do you have to you know, what experiments design experiments will you run to
052see what we can do to get more kids to be at a 23 or higher? That's a hard question. I'm sorry, but it's a good question because >> No, and >> It's it's a it's a good question because you can see our achievement has been relatively flat for several years. Um it to be honest with you Ryan, it's a growth area for us. So it's a challenge that we need to dig into it and understand it more. And and come up with a multi-year plan to address it. Just to begin it. >> No, I appreciate the candor so. And I I'm sure you guys know this, but I'm biased, right? So like I that's I think that that's very important for our young folks is regardless of what career path they go into, you need
053to know science. And as we progress in our technology-driven, you know, career fields, this kind of information is going to be more and more important. All right, so it's for young folks to have opportunities in the future, they need to know these types of things and need to score well in science even if it's not a mandatory thing for the ACT. So, that's that's my viewpoint even if they don't go into a science field and they're not a science nerd like me, who spends my day in a laboratory. So, that goes. Thank you for the the question. >> I think Ryan, you would be proud of the next generation science standards in that the the complexity is a Like, I'm thinking back, you know, memorizing the periodic table was part of science, right? And I
054think there's just so much more to science now. So, as far as the strategy, I think part of it is getting kids to do this type of stuff as part of science and realizing science is fun, science is applicable, science is part of my life every day. So, I think the standards changing and the way that we're teaching science and the work we've done in elementary is going to start to pay off as we get into those um secondary uh as well. So, yeah, great question though. >> Okay, Louise. >> Uh yes. So, a question basically that Ryan asked, I was so appreciative of taking a look at the number of science options that students have in high school. So, in general, that seems to me that it's pretty popular for students to take more
055than the three required years in some way, shape or form. So, that's exciting to me. Um and then, not a question, but just, you know, a shout-out for Bailey School Forest as well. You know, that's one of the greatest places to have an interdisciplinary um learning day. And and quite fantastic and I would invite people to see that as well. >> Elizabeth. >> [laughter and clears throat] >> Elizabeth. >> Thanks. Uh thanks for your presentation and for sharing your uh coding robots with us. That was really fun. I would My first question was for the elementary folks. I was just wondering about how much time students spend in science as they start in K going through fifth grade. And then does the media specialist time count as their science or it's in addition to? Okay.
056>> Sorry. It I didn't let you finish. It is in addition. The The media is in addition. And I'm trying off the top of my head to think about recommended minutes. Do you have them off the top of your head? Oh, Mark has it sitting here right now. Okay. So, 90 minutes per week for K-2 and 150 minutes for 3-5. And we do that per week to leave some flexibility because once you get the science experiments set up and you have everything in your classroom, it's much better to use kind of a bigger chunk and maybe not do that every single day. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. And then I had one for the secondary folks. And I realize this is kind of a qualitative question. So, if you don't have a great
057answer, that's okay. As someone who was teaching in this district not super long ago as the shift to NGSS standards happened, what the difference was in in the way that the curriculum was presented. It's just so much more integrated and kind of real-life applications. And so, I was just curious if you're seeing any uptick in elective sciences or interest of students in science courses because of that integrated approach and what kind of support teachers might have needed to get there with their curriculum moving away from just kind of rote memorization. I'm just thinking I used to teach cellular respiration. Cellular respiration was maybe one of the most boring things for students to actually watch like through the the cycle and learn it. But then all of a sudden it was in the NGSS standards and
058we were teaching like the Tylenol murders and like their cells and how quickly was poison in their blood. Right? Like it was so much more exciting. And so, I'm just kind of curious what you're seeing from students. >> Well, I think like yes, we see that enthusiasm, right? And does that translate into students taking more courses as they go on? I think that's we're waiting to see that. Um but absolutely we see kids being excited about that phenomenon based and looking at a holistic process rather than just an isolated cellular respiration. Right? Cuz it's fun to talk about carbon and oxygen and this stuff. But really when when they have that opportunity to say how does this work in real life? We see that. So yes, we see that. And now Ryan, I've been thinking
059also about your question cuz I think they couple together. The fact that we do have all those options available I think is an indicator that students are still taking because those courses will crash if we don't have enough students taking them. And so the fact that we have those courses still there is an indicator that oh, we have enough to fill a whole section. Um which you know, like if you get 30 students taking it, that to me is exciting. And so um but we can look at the numbers also and see what happens. >> Yeah, I was just going to ask and then the second part was kind of teachers. How are they getting extra support as they change their curriculum? >> Yeah, so we we uh walked through just in the last year
060each uh cohort of teachers building a scope and sequence on those new NGSS standards and how do we incorporate those phenomena into the practices that we put in front of students? And so they've been doing that. Um I'm excited to know this isn't quite our science world right now, but we are doing more work with our MTSS program or basically it's looking at district-wide professional learning teams. And so now we're starting to collaborate across buildings and say, "Hey, how do we all build on our science as we go, you know, so that it's independent of if I go to Park High School or East Ridge?" But that I get that same experience across those schools. And so I am hoping that that also translates into good things rubbing off. Right? Like we do this really
061well at Woodbury. How do we replicate that at East Ridge High School? And and that I think is going to help us >> Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Okay, I don't really have a question, but I absolutely want to know when StarLab, the new one, is in a school because I used to always go when they were. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Can't we all move on to 5.2 and that is our community education budget and that will be presented by Mr. Jake Winchell, director of community education. >> All right, well, thank you. It's a tough act to follow. I'll do my best. I don't have robots. >> [laughter] >> Chris might find the budget part exciting, but I'm not sure how many else will. So. >> [clears throat] >> And send me to so.
062>> [laughter] >> Yeah. Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here to share a little bit about the community education budget as we look forward to next year and also give you a few updates about community education, what we've been working on this year and some of the the fun things and the successes that we've had in community ed. Before I get started, I want to just do a quick brief overview and talk about the different departments that we offer in community ed and also talk about the leaders of those departments as we do have a couple new faces leading these teams. Starting with early early learning, our newest leader is Dr. Nicole Jones. She's been with us just a couple months, 3 months about. She's done a wonderful job getting on boarded and diving
063into the system and and making some meaningful changes while continuing some of the great things that our previous manager, Joyce Beer, did for many, many years in early learning. Joyce retired earlier this year. Kind of went out quietly, so I wanted to recognize her in the years that she provided and she served South Washington County Schools. Within early learning, we have ECFE, early child childhood screening and school readiness, which would be our 3 and 4-year-old preschool programs. We have community engagement led by Dr. Sheryl Jagger. That's our schooly program. If you see schooly out and about, Sheryl had a had a hand in that as well as she is our conduit to South Washington County Schools Education Foundation as well. We also have our adult programs led by Susie Evans. Um Susie operates um our
064adults with disabilities program, which is a consortium of um five metro school districts. A Great Rivers Adult Basic Education, which is made up of it's a another consortium hosted here by South South Washington County Schools. We also um Hastings Public Schools is a part of this consortium as well. We operate the senior center down at the District Program Center here in Cottage Grove. Um we offer trips and tours um both day trips and overnight trips and our adult enrichment programs. Then in operations, that's led by Darby Johnson, certainly not new to community education in South Washington County but new in her role this year and just like Dr. Nicole Jones, she's done an amazing job of continuing all the great things going on in that department while putting her own stamp on it and doing
065an an amazing job leading that team. They oversee lots of different areas including facility rentals, facility use, middle school athletics, aquatics, and gymnastics, youth enrichment, our camps and clinics, um and much more. And then last, that's the smallest box on there but the biggest part of our budget, biggest revenue driver, biggest part of our expenses is Kids Club, which is our school-age child care program. Now, I just wanted to hit on a couple highlights in some of our programs this year, starting with early learning. Um in ECFE, we've served over 2,000 families, children and families in ECFE through field trips, classes, and events. We've had over 220 prenatal to grade three home visits. We've done nine preschool pack nights, 11 child care staff training events where we actually go into um private um daycare facilities
066or preschool facilities and and train some of their staff where we had 322 participants served in that. Preschool, we have 623 three-to-five-year-olds served within our preschool programs. And in early childhood screening, we've had over a thousand screenings so far to date. And we continue our screen at three initiative, which we're looking to increase the number of three-year-olds screened um in total. And we've done a good job with that as you can see the numbers there. 58% of our screenings are 3-year-olds, 32% are 4-year-olds, 10% are 5-year-olds. And if somehow they make it to kindergarten without having gone through screening, we screen them within the first 30 days of kindergarten. Um that number that seven that number seven is is low compared to what I've seen in some other districts as well. On the other end
067of the age spectrum, we talked about our Great Rivers Adult Education Consortium. Again, um this is um between South Washington County Schools and Hastings Public Schools. Um we serve we run these classes out of Central Park in Woodbury and then District Programs Center here in Cottage Grove, in addition to Tilden Family Center down in Hastings and at the Dakota County Jail. We offer classes as well. We serve over 1,000 adults who spent more than 33,000 hours working on their education. And that number we we reached our growth cap for next year despite all the unrest this this winter with some people um being unwilling to come out and come to classes. Um we maintained our students throughout that. And um we did that by in person and we also offered an online option through that
068time. We had 26 adults earn their high school equivalency. We had a graduation earlier this winter. We'll have another one next week. Always one of my favorite events of the year. And we have our Generations Cafe, which is a work experience class down at the District Programs Center, where we train adults in workplace skills in the United States. Also within our adult programs, we have adult enrichment, um which is also adults adults with disabilities and our adults 50 plus programs. In adult enrichment, we had over 383 classes with over 2,000 registrations. Our Senior Center, we have over we have 414 members this year. They operate Monday through Thursday at the District Programs Center. More than 20 weekly games and activities. We As I said earlier, we offered uh day and evening trips and overnight trips,
069social activities such as monthly birthday bashes and lunch and learns, um four support groups for grief, diabetes, other things. and obviously we have a driver discount class which is always popular, too. Adults with disabilities, we offer again part of a consortium and we offer classes and events for adults with developmental disabilities. We're part of that five-district consortium which is called the Community Bridge. And this last year we offered 23 classes throughout the various communities in which this operates. Moving into operations, this is led again by Darby Johnson. Facility use, you all know how busy our facilities are. We had over 122 different renters in our in our schools providing programming for over 30,000 participants and 23,000 hours of use. And you know, I got to say as as hard as Darby and her teams work,
070too, I got to shout out our custodial staff, too, because you know, our buildings are really for sure open operate 7 days a week and it's almost 24 hours a day at times. So, in in order to house these events, we we do have to hire custodians at an overtime rate. And overtime is great, but sometimes you know, working every weekend isn't something everybody wants to sign up to do. So, we appreciate the partnership with our custodial teams. Our gyms are most popular about over half of our rented hours come in our gyms for volleyball and basketball and other various activities. Then we have our other community education activities count for another 50,000 hours of use annually. Youth in Richmond, almost 500 courses, nearly 800 sections or private lessons. We've served nearly 6,000 participants. We
071offer drivers education through Safeway Driving School. And we offer in-person and online classes. We offer classes in our high schools and then the summertime shift to the middle schools for the most part. 46 sections of drivers education, we served over 1,000 participants this year in drivers education. Also in operations under Darby, we run gymnastics, middle school athletics, aquatics and camps and clinics. Many of these programs operate year-round. Some of them are school year only, some of them are in the summer. You can see the thousands of participants that have participated in these classes throughout the course of the year. Moving into Kids Club or school-age child care, um you probably know that it that we operate 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday at all 16 elementary schools during the school year um for
072children in in ages grades kindergarten through fifth grade. One of the really neat things about Kids Club, and I think it's unique compared to some of the school-age child cares that I have been a part of is that they they there's a really well-planned out, really thought-out um program. It is not kids stay after school and play on the playground or play in the gym until mom and dad can get there and pick them up. They have their eight key learning areas where they focus on arts, STEM, literacy, physical activity, life skills, social-emotional learning, health and wellness, and language and culture. It is a really really well-thought-out program, and they do a lot of planning to make that a um an engaging activity and something for kids that they maybe don't dread going to. Certainly,
073they probably would rather go home, um but they plan a lot of fun activities for those kids. And um like I said, it's anything but just play on the playground until mom and dad can get there to pick you up. Um throughout this year, we've had we'll have 166 days of school-age care, [snorts] we'll have 22 days of non-school day care, and we'll have 53 days in the summer. And we do operate um uh on non-school days as mentioned there, but even on emergency closures, on cold closure days, we remain open. Um but if it was a snow day, an emergency closure snow day, we do close on those days as well. We have an 11 accredited sites, and next year will all all of our sites will become accredited. All are DHS certified. Um
074and this summer, we have almost 850 students enrolled for our summer program. This current school year, we have about 1,600 children enrolled in our before-and-after school care. And my favorite number there is last summer, we had over 362,000 contact hours last summer. And I'd imagine we do similar hours this coming summer. Moving into community engagement, which is our partnership with the Wasco Cares. This work is centered around students, families, and staff in the community working together as partners in education. On the student side, we create meaningful opportunities like internships, scholarships, service projects, and other opportunities beyond the classroom. Families, we build stronger connections through events and programs like summer schooly, helping families feel welcome and supported. With staff, they do staff grants, they do the employee giving campaign, and they also celebrate our district staff
075like our upcoming employee recognition event next week. And in the community, we leverage partnerships using volunteers and other local organizations to expand resources and opportunities for students and children. Something new this year, as I mentioned earlier with the Operation Metro Surge, is the emergency fund. And this is something that was organized by Wasco Cares. They activated this fund to respond quickly to the enhanced and urgent needs of our families, including food and utilities and rental assistance. As you can see here, we helped 75 families. Packed 256 emergency meal boxes, on nearly 12,000 pounds of food, had 125 volunteers raised almost $31,000, and had donations from over 15 states. Before I get into the budget, I thought I'd maybe stop there if anybody had questions just on what community education is or anything I've talked about
076so far. Certainly you can ask at the end, too, but before I change gears, I thought I'd offer it. >> I I would like to give a shout out to the early childhood advisory committee. This is the middle of their screen free week. So, they've planned just tons of activities throughout the week for our littles. >> Thank you for that. >> I just had a quick question. With the construction that's happening around the district, is there a difference in the summer programming offered this year, and then would it change back as the construction wraps up? >> That is that is a great question. We In the summertime, I didn't mention this, we do consolidate down to four sites typically, and we did choose our sites based on what sites we've used in the past, whether
077sites are being used by things like targeted services and extended school year, um and construction as well. Building construction and road construction. And we'll be at Nuevas Fronteras, Armstrong Elementary, Valley Valley Crossing, and Woodbury Elementary this summer. Good question. Okay, I'll move into budget. Um before we get talking about next year's budget, I just want to give an update about revenues by source and where where our money comes from. You can see here that in that pie chart there, the biggest uh section of that is certainly is fees. Um so, everything we do we we can't operate without our customers. So, we talk a lot about providing a good experience for our customers and providing good customer service. So, the fees would be anything from facility rental to Kids Club revenue to enrichment registrations, things
078like that. And basically, the rest of our revenue is made up of levy and aid. Then expenditures, as you can see in this one here, basically just like the general fund um our expenditures mostly go to salaries or goes to people. So, about 56% goes to salaries and wages, another 20% goes to benefits. And then 19% goes to purchased services, which is a lot of contracted things. So, again, a lot of people uh could be a vendor or somebody a contractor doing some work for us. And 3% goes to supplies and materials. So, as you can see here, almost all of what we do um goes back to our employees. Then based by department, I wanted to talk a little bit about where our revenues come from. Kids Club is the biggest part of that
079pie there, about 44% of our revenue comes from Kids Club. Early Learning generates about 23%, Operations about 21%, Adult Programs about 5 and 1/2%, and Admin 7%. As the expenditures match that pretty closely, um Kids Club being our biggest expense, followed by Early Learning at about 26%, operations at about 20, adult programs 6%, and community education admin about 5%. So, we get into our our proposed budget for next year. Um we're not looking for approval tonight, that'll come at a different meeting, but we've worked really hard in my 2 years here in SoWashCo to balance our budget. So, hats off to those leaders that I mentioned earlier today um to make the changes necessary to get us back on track. As you can see here, um early learning is a trouble spot for us as
080it is with many other districts. Um we're happy to see that both SoWashCo and um Minnesota Community Education Association both listed early learning funding as legislative priorities um cuz as you can see here at this um annual deficit in early learning has become an issue for us and and many other school districts as well. So, in future years I'll have a better year-over-year comparison as far as what this budget looks like compared to previous years, but uh being just my second year, we're still working on cleaning some things up. Um and I'll make sure that it's a good apples-to-apples comparison going forward in the future, but ultimately, you see here we're about a $16 million we do about $16 million in revenues, nearly the exact same in expenses, and in this um working copy of
081this because Chris and her team are still working on this, and my team was working on it this morning. As of now, you see that uh small surplus going into next year, but by the time you see this for approval um at an upcoming meeting, this might look a little bit different, but this is about what we're trending at right now. With that, I will open up for questions. >> Okay, we'll start with Brian. Do you have any questions? >> Thank you. >> Uh Louise? Elizabeth? >> Yep, just one quick question. Um for the early learning deficit, did that pick up when the requirement by the state was to make sure that the um the staff were licensed staff and they went in the teacher bargaining group? >> Yes, that That is a big part
082of that, for sure. Um maybe our maybe our setup has a little bit to do with that, too, but certainly when you're paying that that teacher salary, which they certainly deserve, um, but the revenue we receive from the state does not match what we can charge for tuition to make up that difference. >> unfunded mandate. >> It It certainly is, right? It almost feels like not that long ago a lot of early learning teachers were paid hourly and weren't licensed, and now there's a lot um, more requirements for that, and we're we're paying them based on that, but the funding isn't there with it. So, certainly a big part of it. >> Okay, Sharon, any questions? Semi? >> Um, so Jake, I don't know if this is a question for you or if this is
083a question for Chris, but [clears throat] you know, so we're we're running a half million dollar deficit in early learning, right? And what is our obligation in terms of the community ed budget, um, from the general fund? Do we have to, um, do we have to zero balance that in any given year or is this something that we can let ride for several years as we try to correct this? Um, cuz this looks like I mean, without the early learning deficit, I mean, this is honestly a very healthy Right. And I realize like that's sort of like, well, you know, how is the play, Mrs. Lincoln, right? But it's it's just very like, um, I mean, do we know I I and I guess the second question would be legislatively has the state indicated any
084appetite for changing how they're going to fund early early learning? >> I'll take this one. >> Oh, he's taking it from me. Um, so to that end, Semi, there's not a unlike food service where there's some requirements as to, um, more on the like limitations on the cash, right? Community ed, there's not necessarily that whole like you can't deficit spend, right? That said, they certainly need the cash to do so as well. So, there would be, um, potentially the opportunity that general fund, I think we've commented about that before even during audit presentations that the general fund would have to at some point step in to cover that deficit to bring them back to whole. I know this year and Jacob probably speak to it too, but there's been some legislation not so much on
085the actual increasing aid to that end which we know again Elizabeth and I think you alluded to right that really is that unfunded mandate for a very long time South Washington County Schools did pay our teachers in preschool on that program too and we were it's been a source of pride for the community as well. So I think we've done a great job with that, but it does come with that cost and so how do we address that going forward I think will be a continuing conversation with us and our legislators as well. I think to that end also I would say that this year what I saw was some um legislation and some bills to kind of help some community ed as far as to move shift funding, right? And so normally we can't
086transfer out of community ed to anywhere else and similarly other than general fund we don't have the opportunity typically to transfer into general into community ed. There was some legislation I think this year and Jacob probably I know the community ed association statewide was necessarily not wholly for it because interestingly enough it was moving some long-term facility maintenance dollars between and so it was like kind of you know a little bit of a head scratcher as to why and that had to do with Moorhead public schools and so you know without knowing the background around it, but so it did give me pause in that well maybe you know as we look and continue to navigate that is there opportunity is there anything we should look at at some point to perhaps ask legislators you
087know is there maybe a some type of transfer that we would consider making ever to be able to just kind of make that whole and then start fresh, right? And there's certainly just continuing for us to look at operationally what we can do there too. >> And so for for this is this the kind of thing then for community education do we need to um cuz right now the fund balance for community education is functionally zero, right? So, is this the kind of thing where we need to bring it up to the 16.6% that we have as a general fund balance or is this the kind of thing where it doesn't really matter? So, we can just let it sit at zero in perpetuity. >> Correct. You could let it sit at zero in perpetuity.
088>> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we'll move on to 6.0 and that is our information items and we do not have any this evening. That puts us at 7.0 and reports and comments and we'll start with the superintendent report. >> Thank you. Um as Thea said, she was testing since the last time she was here. Thea, we're dealing with road construction since the last time we were here and and we know board members, we know that's why you're kind of flying in here a little bit late because our buses are dealing with the same thing. Um I know today the district, I believe, sent out communication about some of that road construction. Um if it's any consolation, I get as equally as frustrated. I was headed up toward Altman and it said
089local traffic only and I thought, "For sure, I am local traffic. I need to get to our school." And I got to the top of the hill. Yeah, it was closed off and I had to turn around and the guys at the bottom of the hill, they kind of smiled and they're like, "Yeah, look at another lady thinking she's going to go through." Um [snorts] so, definitely just for our community, definitely slowing down our buses and just uh parents and families getting to and from, please make sure you give yourselves enough time. Um our city and uh county government web pages have all the needed information. Um shortly, within the next week to 2 weeks, our quarterly mailing will be going out and as a reminder, that is like the hottest piece of paper going
090out to our mailboxes. Our families love our quarterly newsletter and it's packed with really great information. On the front, actually, is a picture of the Park High School cafeteria and I do hope that that's the last time we're going to see a cafeteria that is that filled with kids. Uh Katie saw it tonight and she's like, "Oh, I remember eating lunch in a cafeteria that looked like that. Um someone also mentioned tonight our employee recognition. I think Jake mentioned that. Um next week we will celebrate our employees, their years of service, um our All-Stars along with retirees. And then finally, um in the next 2 weeks, so before we return back here to the next board meeting, we will have award senior award presentations at all of our high schools. And then of course, after
091that will be all of our uh graduation recognition. So, an exciting uh rest of May coming up for all of us. >> Okay. Thank you. We will move on to 8.0, and that is our future meeting dates. May 21st, 2026 is a school board business meeting here at the District Service Center at 6:00 p.m. Then June 11th, 2026 is our school board workshop meeting, also at the District Service Center at 6:00 p.m. With that, we are at 9.0, and we are adjourned.