School Board Workshop - February 1, 2024

0012.0 Pledge of Allegiance please rise Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for all okay 3.0 is approval of our agenda can I get a motion to approve so moved second moved by Melinda seconded by Eric all those in favor I any opposed motion passes 4.0 is our Workshop items 4.1 is our American Indian parent advisory and annual report that will be presented by Kelly Jansen assistant superintendent good evening I am pleased to introduce James McGee our director of diversity equity and inclusion and our Native American parent committee chair Bob Tweety um who are here tonight to talk about our participation in the American Indian education aid program through the Minnesota Department of Education and ask

002the board to acknowledge and sign the American Indian education annual compliance overview that James works with Bob and our Native American parent advisory to complete the American Indian education aid program supports three particular areas of our strategic plan Mastery of learning and expectations student Pathways and systemic supports and engagement and Partnerships and to tell you more I'll turn it over to James and Bob thank you all um so uh part of the uh opportunity that we have as a school district um uh districts within the state that have at least 20 students who identify as American Indian can take advantage or be a part of this um programming uh in our district uh we have 337 students this year who have identified as Native American or indigenous uh it's about 2% of our student population

003and we've elected to be part of this program uh the intent of American Indian education Aid is to enable districts uh and schools to enhance American Indian education programs and initiatives uh to build sustainably sustainable programs uh that are culturally and historically authentic and relevant uh not just for our of American students but for all students to be able to access some of the requirements uh this meeting is one of the requirements of the program where we uh give a board report about the goals of our program uh progress toward goals and the strategies that we have in place to achieve these goals uh as part of the program um one of the other requirements is that we have an active uh Native American parent advisory or American Indian parent advisory we're going to see

004some terms that we use interchangeably I'll talk a little more about that in a bit but some of it is State language some of it is uh language that we've used uh elected to use within our district uh Bob is representing our uh Native American parent advisory tonight uh and we have had the meeting with that committee uh and to vote concurrent uh on our um progress toward our goals like I said Bob is the chair of this and it is also supported by um Britney amitrano who is um our Native American Cultural liazon right now uh 0 five of her job is dedicated solely coordinator for indigenous education in our district uh it also ensures that we have uh somebody in place to work specifically with our students in schools our Native American students

005in schools uh the partnership with the parent advisory makes it so that we've got accountability and voice so that it is not the Dei Department that is calling the shots on what strategies we put in in place uh what goals we want to measure it is really driven by our parent advisory uh and then we're tasked with making it happen whether it means Staffing or um putting programs into place uh we are doing this collaboratively with our parent advisory uh and the last point on this uh our parent advisory and and Dei in our conversations we've elected to use the term indigenous education when referring to sashko programs and initiatives so when you see indigenous education that is the language that we're using in sashko for our district programming you will see American Indian education

006that's State language uh and Native American uh education uh that's state and federal language that you'll see as well so the legislation that was passed uh last May uh had some notable uh impacts for us as a school district uh some of those include uh the prohibition of using American Indians as mascots in most cases uh allowing culturally significant tribal regalia for Native American students or indigenous students at graduation ceremonies uh prioritization of indigenous education being embedded into our academic standards and into our ethnic studies uh and further clarifying uh how we do student counts for uh students who identify as indigenous within our district and then some of the highlights that we want to also point out uh is the increase in Aid uh that has been provided through this program last year the

007aid that we got from the state um for American Indian education was 89 and some change uh and this year it uh up to 1985 uh this increase is making it more possible for us to put meaningful programs into place for our indigenous students as well as for our community uh to be able to access uh culturally affirming and authentic uh texts resources family nights and engagement one of the other highlights of this legislation is that we have the opportunity to hire a dedicated indigenous education coordinator right now now Britney our our um cultur leison uh 0 five of her job has been dedicated to indigenous education um it's she's been doing incredible work uh and it's still there's still work to be done and so we're excited to be able to post this 1.0

008position that will be solely dedicated to making sure that this programming goals and strategies are being followed through on and that we have uh consistent connections with our parent advisory with our teaching and learning staff our I staff um and to build on the work that Britney and others before her have put into place this job is currently posted and so as we're looking for candidates if you know anybody please feel free to forward this posting um because we're looking for a fantastic candidate so when we do the application for this state aid there are six goal areas that are set forth to us by the state uh support of secondary post-secondary preparation for students uh supporting academic achievement for uh American Indian students making the curriculum relevant uh providing uh positive reinforcement for self-image

009and self-perception developing Intercultural awareness among students families and staff and then supplemental uh educational programming we're going to talk about some of the uh not we're not going to hit all of this tonight but I do want to hit some of the highlights of strategies and goals that we're working toward uh in these areas so goal number uh goal area number one is our postsecondary prep uh and our Soo goal and support of that goal area uh is looking at our ACT scores for our indigenous students uh we have a goal of increasing our uh composite score from 21.5 to 22.5 this school year uh we also will be following up with students uh indigenous students who graduate uh this year to see are we going to college not that we believe every student needs

010to go to college but for those that want to pursue that have they been set up to to be able to access that some of the other strategies we have to support this goal are ACT prep classes that'll take place in April uh and Breakaway tutoring services for secondary indigenous students uh I just wanted to throw this in there this is our our four-year graduation rate over four-year graduation rate over the last couple years um as you can see we had a big uptick in 2022 the 5% of our indigenous students that did not graduate this year or in 2022 did not drop out and they were pursuing a continued path toward graduation goal area number two is about the support of academic achievement of our indigenous students uh there's a number of different measures

011that we have for this looking at the uh achievement Gap or achievement levels between our indigenous students and our po our whole student population both on reading and on math uh one of the ones that we want to highlight specifically is the tutoring that we're doing for elementary students uh in literacy uh We've partnered with teaching and learning so that uh our literacy tutoring program for indigenous students is an extension of of uh an American reading company curriculum resource that we use or Arc uh and so when we're measuring uh success uh um toward this goal we're looking at both our formative like ongoing so we're looking at their eara scores the the granular data that we can get um frequently to help uh shift instruction in in these tutoring sessions but also then looking

012at the overall MCA scores for literacy um Sean if you go on you can see um uh go one more of you would uh over the past two years students that have participated in the program um let me caveat we're not saying that this is the only reading instruction these students get we're not saying that this is the only thing that would make or break a student uh literacy achievement however we do know this is a supplement to what they're already getting so students that had been involved in any capacity over the last two years uh averaged uh 66 years of growth on their eara that's the test that's associated with the American reading company any curriculum resource uh students who have participated both years over the last two years did show one year of

013growth uh in their literacy scores according to the eara um and the map reading scores for students uh has also increased we don't use map necessarily as a summative measure but when we do look at map those are some of the uh we're able to pull teaching strategies what are some of the holes that students might have in their literacy instruction that we're able to supplement through tutoring uh and the last goal area that I'm going to talk specifically about is uh making our curriculum relevant to the needs interests and cultural heritage of indigenous students uh a lot of the work that Britney and the parent advisory do uh is regarding our family nights and having culturally authentic family nights so our moccasin making nights um and different activities where we're build um creating and

014building the regalia that students are going to wear uh when they graduate um things that we are building on this year are our cultural learning trunks that we want to make available to all swko staff these are trunks that have culturally uh authentic and historically significant artifacts uh but we also want to pair that with lessons and units and making sure that it's connecting to our benchmarks so that teachers are able to seamlessly embed it into their instruction as a supplement to their social study standards or literacy standards or um partnering with teachers to figure out where does this fit um as a supplement to what you're already doing uh we're also making it uh more trainings available to make sure that teachers have access to culturally authentic and historically accurate indigenous education for themselves

015so as we over the next couple years Implement more indigenous uh benchmarks indigenous learning benchmarks that they've got the support and training to be able to teach those in their class uh and then of course we want to continue to build our libraries these are uh text sets that we use both for our tutoring uh but we also want to build our our libraries that teachers can either access we've uh done book giveaways for teachers and and principes uh we have students when they're in our literacy training or literacy tutoring program we make sure that they also walk away with culturally authentic texts as well so building up those libraries so teachers have options um for representative texts that all students can see themselves represented in um for goal areas four and six uh in

016anticipation of the hire of our new indigenous Ed coordinator uh we're going to be revising the the goals a little bit based on feedback from our parent advisory uh and what we're seeing in District to make sure that the goals are directly aligned to the goal area are that the state put forth and the internal goals that we have uh so some of the strategies that we have for those uh remaining areas include uh making sure that we have cultural lias on support so we have somebody who is being who is providing student support in our schools uh ensuring that we have an active Native American parent advisory um increasing the number of cultural field trips that students are able to go on uh making sure that we've got plenty of family engagement events both

017ones that are specifically for the indigenous Community as well as events that are open to the broader Community to come come and learn and connect with their neighbors uh and finally we've had a number of land acknowledgement and tribal flag ceremonies this year specifically at uh Eastridge on indigenous people's day and then there was a a flag ceremony at Park High School uh for the installment of their land acknowledgement and um the flags um of the Minnesota tribes uh represented there right in the foyer Park so those are some of the things that we're doing to support go areas four five and six uh that's a lot uh there's a lot to the legislation um but I do want to open it up if you have any questions just specifically about some of the other

018strategies that we have in place goals uh and what we intend to do uh with the funding over the next year thank you James does anybody have any questions um I do yeah of course uh so James I did have just a couple questions one is um you said that there were 337 students correct native students um did the legislation the most recent legislation affect how we count native students or have an impact on how our native students are identified it's a great question not this year necessarily there was some further clarification because there is a difference in the federal Count versus the state count uh and so it further clarified that uh when we're looking at these student counts we are going by the state designation not the federal designation that's not necessarily new

019but there was some further clarification in the leg and then how does funding for this program you know because I saw that it basically doubles or a little bit more than doubled between last year and this year so how is funding set up for this program for our Native American Education initiatives from the state right like how did they determine that do you know chis I'm going to look at you for a moment we are by pupil and then there was an increase in Aid by pup correct oh I can totally help with this um so their formula I think in on one of james' slides it did mention that there's a base formula that you get um in automatic I believe it's $40,000 for the first 20 students and then beyond that there's a

020per student so like 337 minus 20 like we get additional eight on a per pupil basis thereafter okay thanks thanks CHR any other questions okay thank you we really appreciate the support for digigen education in our district uh we felt very supported especially with the the programs that have happened over the past couple years and then with the addition of this role uh we're very excited for what's to come so thank you so much for the support thank you thank you Bob thank you Bob okay on to 4 point2 and that is our operational plan overview and that will be presented by Julie neelson superintend thank you I will not only be presented by Julie neelson superintendent but a lot of people around this table as well um you know it's fun to be to

021this point because it felt like it was just a year ago we were starting our strategic planning work and it was actually started in February of and so to be to this point right now this evening we'll be sharing our operational plan um it was a really long process of gathering feedback and getting to this point um on May 18th 2023 the school board approved the strategic planning road map which was the Mission Vision and our priority areas um the presentation this evening will provide the board and Community with the work being done in what we consider to be our five strategic priority areas so if you look up on the screen or in your packet you're going to see the mission of the school district our five core values and then right underneath there

022whether we call them buckets strategic directions our priorities um you're going to see those five outlined this evening uh our individual directors and assistant superintendents will be taking the various areas and walking through what the big work is in those areas um if we go to the next slide um it's important that as we look at the work each year there are different phases and we Define them differently as learning work where we're testing things out we're researching we're taking a look we're digging in maybe testing the second column you're going to see is implementation work that's moving the learning work to the next level of actually implementing in our system and thinking about and considering how do we measure those items and really when we look at our operational plan it's about all the

023work we're doing and how we're measuring to get results and then finally the third area is the standard work which we're defining as at least 80% applying the initiative effectively where it's observable um to note in our presentation tonight it is strictly our operational plan so the board and the community are going to hear about the big work I will talk more at the end about the vision card and you're actually going to see our vision card come up in Dan's area I believe um around Dan and Abby thank you I thought I was a to Dan and Abby um where the vision card sits right now in terms of learning work moving into implementation work so you will hear more about the metrics portion um closer to the end um because we have a

024number of people talking this evening I think what might be easiest if we can go through each operational area um and just if you have any questions as you go through maybe just highlight and we'll keep the presentation rolling and then we can Circle back to any one of the individual areas answer questions so at this time I'm going to start by turning it over to uh Kelly Jansen Kelly's going to do the student experience then drct brookens will do the master of learning and expectations next up will will be Christin Schaefer and Aaron McCoy doing student Pathways and systemic supports and then as I shared Abby Baker and Dan Pine will do operation Staffing and finance and to wrap up the presentation engagement and Partnerships will be done by Bob Lawrence and Sean hogendorf

025so Kelly if you would take it away all right thank you very much um as Julie mentioned you get to hear from all from many of us tonight and just as you know each of us will first start with kind of providing a brief highlight of the why and connecting it back to our core values and then give an overview of the work that's that the district is happening this year and for next year so 23 24 and 24 25 um what we'd like you to know is it's not an exhaustive list as Julie mentioned but it really is our big work and you may notice that some of the big work titles are seen under different strategic directions and what we have noticed as we have built this out after hours and hours and

026hours and hours of work um at and um is that those the reason that they're listed in a different ways is because they have a connection back to that strategic direction or the buckets underneath them are a little bit different so when you look at strategic or student experience at the core of it is really promoting positive student interaction student voice acceptance and welcoming communities um it is strongly connected to three of our core values Equity integrity and connections and when you consider how we've defined these values they are the core of our why total pun intended there um and ensuring each individual receives what they need to reach their full potential demonstrating care reliability and honesty while keeping students at the center of decision-making and building meaningful relationships through empathy kindness patience and respect

027that lead to trust and understanding and that is our why behind student experiences for a big work in 2324 I want to start with what we have established as standard work so the far right side these are the things as Julie mentioned we feel pretty confident are happening um in at least 80% proficiency throughout the district or where it's where it's identified um we found that they fit into five major categories schoolwide social emotional learning districtwide literacy initiatives student ambassadors School Improvement plans and safe and secure schools so those are the five buckets that you'll most likely see consistent throughout the student experience um and when we think about those the core of the student expence being defined as promoting positive student interactions student voice acceptance and welcoming communities you see that in the bullets

028underneath each of those big Works under standard work uh as we move into implementation work for student experience student ambassadors and school Improvement plans drop off if you notice there are only three big buckets of work there uh because we really are not considering any new processes we're confident those are implemented but we haven't quite moved those into that continuous Improvement cycle yet they're fairly new but we know that they're happening with with a consistency rate um however schoolwide social emotional learning districtwide literacy initiatives and safe and secure schools remain because we are continuing to work toward implementation of the items you see listed under each of those categories and finally in the 2324 in the learning work category we have similar big work as you see schoolwide and districtwide literacy but we have added

029a very big category of high school redesign um and we know this has potential to impact our middle school as well um but uh Christine Schaefer and our director of teaching learning for secondary Tia clayon are working on what do we really want our high schools to look like and how are we going to um align this work with the bond passing and what are opportunities for our students in terms of career and college Pathways um and so that work has started and it's been in learning work if you go to the next year you will see that um in 2425 that High School redesign does move into some implementation work so we will be taking the feedback from this year and looking at those things you see listed under high school redesign um some

030of the other examples in moving from 2324 to 2425 literacy um the literacy work the districtwide literacy we move towards implementation of secondary interventions secondary initiatives um disciplinary literacy second literacy has really been a f focus of Elementary as you can see there's a lot of that in standard work um we know we need to do a better job in secondary as far as literacy goes and so we have been moving from learning work to implementation work with those and at someday we hope those are also in standard work as I mentioned previously just a reminder this isn't an exhaustive list but we did put lots of time with the directors and the Departments um and putting this together lots of reiterations uh to get to where we are and we're really confident that this

031really demonstrates what we're doing for the student experience in sashko as it relates to um our strategic plan and our core values so thank you and I will turn it over to Dr brookin thank you Kelly uh moving from the student experience we move to how are they showing up academically and it's the Mastery of learning and expectations uh when we think about this particular uh strategic Direction the emphasis is on Student Success by setting clear expectations and making sure that our students are owning their their education and owning their learning uh the core values that are emphasized here are around equity and Excellence Equity has already uh been described by Kelly Janson so I will do uh a brief uh description of excellence and that is setting a high standard through quality instruction an

032opportunities with the focus on continuous Improvement and risk-taking and so when we go back to that why that risk-taking really comes uh to the Forefront because students are owning their education and they're being uh active in uh what they're learning and how they're learning it and so when we get to the actual uh table I'm going to do a reverse of what Kelly did I'm going to start with learning work and build up to standard work the big buckets are centered on world's best Workforce which you all uh have uh received reports uh on in December and we do that annually and that will continue to be the driving force for our Mastery of learning and expectations because we have a uh expectation and responsibility to report on how we are meeting uh this expectation

033that is set forth by the state and so the the work here that I want to emphasize is uh with the legislation that's been passed from um this past summer there is an emphas emphasis on the read act and we are really diving into and unpacking the read act at all levels really learning um what is embedded in there and how it's going to impact our our staff and our students across all levels and so that uh requires us to I would say uh we meet as an instructional cabinet and we are really going through the the the read act and determining how we're going to meet the expectations contained in that read act and putting that in front of our principles and it eventually goes to our staff uh as we move to implementation

034work around the world's best Workforce the emphasis there is continuing the professional development in elementary literacy we adopted a curriculum resource last year at the American reading company and uh last year we started with a robust professional development opportunity that included principles and also teaching staff and reading Specialists that continued uh with this year with um the uh Elementary principles continuing to uh have small group huddles and focus uh professional learning opportunities with the uh Arc uh American reading company company with their coaches and that is uh actually identifying what we call levers and aims to really uh hone in and identify specific strategies that teachers can utilize to really move student achievement forward and that professional development has continued this year and it will go into next year and then as we go into

035the standard work around the world's best Workforce plan the emphasis there is on the intervention and extension time provided during the school day that is taking place at the elementary level through our uh what we call whenn time what I need and at the secondary level it is a a day at every uh high school and not sure about Middle School but definitely at every High School uh where they block out time and students get opportunity to do retakes uh do some deeper learning and extension work and that is uh taking place clear uh at every high school and it will continue with our standard work and as we move to continous Improvement we will look for opportunities to refine that and and make it more robust for even more students feel comfortable with participating

036in that piece as we go into the next school year 2425 starting with learning work again our emphasis will be uh as Kelly mentioned learning more about how the react and disciplinary literacy are impacting secondary I know for Stu the student experience is showing up showing up in the implementation work but the learning work is uh not only going through professional development and we have a robust plan uh to make sure that every staff member is trained uh as as pertains to the reck but really uh learning how does that show up at our secondary sites uh given our schedule and and and those constraints within the schedule to make sure that our teachers are com confident and competent to deliver um what they're learning and uh the PE the professional learning opportunities and showing

037up in the classroom with their students the implementation work that I want to emphasize is really honing in on how we're using the universal and diagnostic screeners uh to focus instruction in literacy and in math and I know math is really not discussed a lot but it it is part of the work that we are doing um and so with the universal and diagnostic screeners our teachers will be more equipped and and I would say better equipped to have a what we call a laser-like focus on uh identifying U skills and U competencies that students need in order to reach Mastery and with these diagnostic screeners we are going to be able to really pinpoint uh this student show that they need more support and comprehension fluency and these are the strategies that a sh

038that a teacher should be utilizing in to get that done and then also identifying frequency and uh a very uh focused time period on when those interventions and and instruction can happen and as you move to standard work it is really looking at a list of resources to support instruction and when I mentioned the uh using the diagnostic and Universal screeners from there we will be able to identify the intervention resources tied to a particular need where a teacher can go into a repository and the list and and really pick out I'm going to use this particular strategy for this group of students for this time period and then begin to share that knowledge through plc's um uh I would say across departments and also U learn how we can uh utilize that uh across

039the entire system Middle School uh high school and also Elementary so we're getting smarter with the resources and now we're going to be able to communicate across those different levels and with that I will pass the Baton to Christine safer and eron McCoy all right right thank you Dr briens so we've talked about student experience and we've talked about Mastery of learning for students so next is student Pathways and systemic supports so what are we working on and what do we have in place to help students get that student experience and get the Mastery of learning so that's what we'll talk about here and if we look at what that is so what are those learning opportunities what are the systems that we have in place for both academic and social emotional support and the

040core values we circled here our Equity each student gets what they need educational Innovation educating students students through new ideas and methods to increase engagement educational Innovation and so if we look at our big work for 2324 I'm going to start over in standard work on the far right some some things that we've had in place for a long time targeted services and our summer programming walkthroughs in our classroom that implementation of curriculum and our achievement integration plan that James talked a little bit about tonight so that is our standard work we've had those things in place for many many years in our district implementation work that we're working on this year the integration plan that um K12 indigenous education program that James mentioned School Improvement plans we're working with each school on the goals

041for each of their schools targeted Services we're working on programming for K5 for before and after school so Wasco online as you know we're working on comprehensive course offerings for 9 through 12 mental health and social emotional learning where we have collocated services and I think Erin's going to talk a little bit more about um next and then our multi-tiered system of supports so at the elementary what are those processes we have in place for intervention for every school every student in the core classroom so that is our implementation work this year our learning work as Kelly mentioned the high school redesign the high school redesign is in both of these um the piece is a little bit different here where we're actually looking at researching student Pathways so what are the pathways in our

042high schools that students have and what do they want we're going to do a survey and ask students and families what they're looking for and then partnering with our community and business partners to get some best practice ideas for for that as well uh next multi-tiered system of supports again those tier two and tier three so once we have the systems in place for all students when we uh do our assessments and evaluations what else do students need that maybe need just a little a little extra intervention both at elementary and secondary targeted Services we're working on middle school after school programming and then our principal evaluation process we're looking at revamping that to make it more meaningful for principles um as a three-year process as opposed to doing the same process every year providing

043more professional development and again asking them what they need and what they'd like to learn more about so that is our learning work for this year 2425 I'll pass it over to eron McCoy thank you Christine So Christine excuse me I apologize if my voice is a little off tonight um So Christine kind of talked us through where we're at in terms of standard work what we're working on and what we're just getting started with and as you cycle down to next year you'll just see that kind of flow the other way as our colleagues referenced earlier we haven't identified any new priorities for work next year we've got plenty um plenty to tackle as you see evidenced in this presentation uh so circling back to the reference to our collocated uh Mental Health Services

044I just wanted to share a little bit about that work and why it's staying in that implementation phase for two uh years in a row currently we partner with five Community Partners and we were very excited to expand that this year with the addition of four embedded Mental Health Partners so we have collocated Services that's a partnership with an organization where maybe a therapist comes in here or there um based on identified needs and plans for individual students and what's new and exciting about our partnership reflected here with canvas is that we have dedicated therapists in each of our Comprehensive High Schools they're there every day and then we have one additional or four total um who supports our Alternative High School our alternative or our Online High School excuse me and our 18 plus

045programming and so we'll be looking at um reflecting on how that first year went and maybe making some adjustments and hopefully expanding that into next year um as we go forward and then uh just wanted to kind of circle back to that topic of the big buckets or why we prioritize this work as directors and as Leaders uh it's not just because we think it's good work for kids or the right work for kids this is all tied to bigger um pieces um policies statute we talked about the read act our safe and secures schools certainly aligns with some of our statutes around bullying prevention uh world's best Workforce aligns with statute I think some of these references are right in your materials tonight and certainly when it comes to special education there's lots of

046rules and statute uh that that is tied to so with that we'll move on to the next group good evening um Dan Pine and I will take you through the next strategic direction of operations Staffing and finance and the why of this strategic direction is that we will invest in our employees be accountable for Effective and efficient management of resources um the core values that this strategic direction is tied to is equity and Excellence although I think Dan and I could argue that it's somewhat tied to all of them those are the two core values that we are highlighting this evening so as we look at our our big work this year um as we if as we look at our standard work uh things that we do we feel we do very well and

047do a lot of uh contract negotiations um this year is the teachers principals uh the bus drivers bus assistants and the office professionals um we'll just start right up pretty quick Abby and do some more negotiations in a couple days so with four more groups um Finance we're constantly monitoring the budget and the fund balance as you you'll hear tonight tonight as we had to do another presentation long range facility planning uh we've been planning for a long time um we're constantly monitoring space needs uh exploring alternate sites and of course we have long-term facility maintenance and we have the bond um projects that we're starting we'll talk more about tonight and then our recognition programs our be amazing and our employee recognition event um things that are we're working on this year um professional

048development as we look for non-licensed staff um and then looking at an onboarding mentoring and professional development um programs of course Recruitment and Retention trying to um entice more staff of color and trying hard to fill our special education staffing needs and then on our transportation system um we're putting in a new um new transportation software which will allow us to have students carry Badges and and um swipe in when they get on the bus next year and we're working hard on getting that implemented uh for next school year then our learning work that we're um just starting to work on some more professional development as with relates to the react um HR is working on um improving performance reviews and evaluations um we are looking at our operational system workflows um as we can

049try to go more what go more paperless I should say or if we have to change systems as the old one is becoming obsolete and then on the transportation side um we've been um examining um what we can do to make our system sustainable looking at different ways of looking at mileage requirements how we measure hazardous and an opin program and then right now we're at lry City Planning we're just in the beginning of our construction planning as we look to have construction going on for the next three years and and the technology side um as we purchased a lot of things with um with our covid dollars um some of that life cycle is starting to go away and we have to look at new student device distribution and I'll turn over the next

050year to Abby so for this upcoming year 2024 2025 our standard work continues to be contract negotiations as that is on a 2-year cycle and so the groups that are on that cycle will be negotiating with um and then again our standard work in finance is monitoring the budget and fund balance as that is ongoing work for us um looking at a delivery system for transportation as it pertains to new routing options and then our long range facility planning as we still continue to monitor space needs I'm looking at alternative sites and looking at the long-term maintenance 10-year plan um implementation work for next year continues to be professional development M as we've heard a lot tonight about professional development act um opportunities for non-licensed staff um recruit Recruitment and Retention stay as implementation work

051um Asis performance reviews and evaluations um some of long range facility planning that delivery system for transportation um the technology life cycle stays in implementation and then Vision cards which I'll talk about in a second and then in learning work for next year would be operational systems um that would remain in learning work again for next year as we look at our HR finance and payroll systems um so right now we are looking at Vision cards and how we um can measure some of these some of our work around our metrics we're looking at um taking pieces of the staff survey the community survey um looking what an acceptable Target would be um looking what goal targets would be and then looking at those targets that would need Improvement where we would have to um

052pay special attention if the metrics came in at certain numbers now I will turn it over to Sean hogendorf and Bob Lawrence to go over the next strategic direction I've got two hands going on here so um I'm going to talk a little bit about engagements and partnership thanks Bob I'm going to talk a little bit about engagement and Partnerships with Bob here and um you know our Y is really uh we work together to promote engagement and share resources to to build stronger family connections and family and Community connections um we've talked a little bit about all the core values and how that touches on all of our different um directions um the three that I think we picked here um here would be really to focus on is connections which is obvious in

053the in the definition equity and educational innovention Innovation pardon me um so really some of I'm going to start from the left side here and go uh learning work into implementation and standard we're keeping you on your toes tonight the [Laughter] middle um so so really the the we're multilingual supports is at the core of a lot of what we're doing in our core work here um you know right now we're working to create a comprehensive system and a set of Standards aimed at enhancing our M multilingual supports for our families um the initiative focuses on uh improving translations and interpreting services to ensure effective um Communications and understanding of our school system with our growing um and diverse population of um of families and so um we already do um currently transl most of

054everything we do in Spanish in m in Somali chinese vietnamese and then our website is also um available in um Arabic um however what we're starting to look to do is figure out some of the translations for our newsletter platform which is now you won't have to click through links to get to the translation so you'll be able to move the translation right into that also when I talk about the newsletter platform um and I'll get to that in a hot second but um you also will be able to um sorry um aon's laughing I mean um it but when we do crisis Communications through that that will allow that to be translated right away as well and so um we'll be we'll be taking care of that um also what we're looking at is

055a way to for student reports to be translated and so we're looking at the system that right now report cards and things like that don't always get translated and so um we we're working through a system in which our schools will have a way to put documents into a um system that would translate those and then those could be shared out with families as well um and then some of our interpreting Services we're just looking at how we might be able to um increase those things during um School conferences and then also into the registration process as well um and then going back to the standard newsletter platform that we talked about really it's it's it's about translations and it's about accessibility but it's also about creating consistencies and Communications across the schools and the

056levels and so if you get used to what a school newsletter might look like in elementary school we want that to look very similar in our middle schools and then in our high schools because that becomes easier to read and then you know what to expect as you come through that platform um and then it would just you know that helps with our branding and things like that but that's all secondary really this translating all of our Communications and um making that consistency um another one of the big um Learning Works that we're working on right now is our literacy campaign um some of you may have seen um us roll that out in our last family newsletter um chair sports um even put out a video out there for us um thank you very

057much for that um but you know this this is the start of sort of a partnership with families that we're trying to get everybody to engage in literacy and um you know we've got a lot of different ideas that are we're we're thinking through and that we're looking to roll out um and then really we're trying to engage the community and Outreach in that and have events in that we're really looking at Community re things like that we really want to bring literacy to life for our for our students through their families and through Partnerships in the community um we've got a lot of really cool ideas about that that I think um you'll enjoy and you know it's it's not just a one-year thing this is moving forward into the you know the next

058few years and then the last part here in the learning work that I'm going to talk about before I hand it over to Bob is the tech support for families um I think that you know the family education um we really want to be able to teach families about this the technology that our students are using and so um you know a lot of information is shared in campus and schooly and sees Sal and all these things but a lot of families may not know how to use some of those things or there's a learning curve on how to use some of those things and so what we're really going to try to do is create a plan that we're teaching families as well as soon as possible how you know what these platforms are

059what they get they're going to find there and how to utilize them um and so that'll be through some online tutorials and then also in that second part there where we're talking about having like adult education Open Lab sessions so um you know our parents can come and and learn uh about the different Technologies um and how to use them and how to support their kids when they're at home with these things um and so so um and then you know we're taking some of those family skills that we may be using in early childhood family education and try to grow that beyond that so that when you have students in elementary school or if you're new into our middle schools we're also having different opportunities for families to learn about um how to engage

060with their kids and in their education there as well and with that I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Bob well thank you so as we think about the what we do in relation to uh this work and how we're implementing we have some some broad categories and I'll talk about each of them Community engagement is really about how we uh share resources with whether that's the business Community other partners families and so uh certainly offering activities that connect families with our schools but also developing processes and which uh we can better oversee and facilitate Partnerships with whether that's the business Community or um service communities or service organizations within our community we also partner really closely as you know because we've we've talked about it at Board of meetings with soash cares

061which is our Education Foundation which is really focusing on those basic needs and sta recognition as well as uh classroom grants and then Outreach is when we're going out so there's some activities here you'll see that are activities that we we put on and provide and there's others that are CommunityWide activities that we go and we We join to um share information about the district and then as we heard earlier uh we have a number of cultural events and so James talked about a parent night and and we have parent nights and we have larger cultural events so really that's about sharing resources and information that we have out into our community and then finally um you'll see both in the implementation and standard work we have a number of advisory committees within different uh

062departments within our our district the implementation work now is we've realized that that's a lot of uh highly committed community members who are who have agreed to help us uh process some whether it's change or new initiatives or just um as Bob was here tonight just to support the work that's being done as a as a community member and a parent and so uh the implementation is really to draw those groups together a couple of times per year to really look at that big picture districtwide uh conversation or or or um initiatives and then the work that we that we do and we do well is intentional community outreach and this really about making it accessible uh as Sean talked about um translations and interpreting Services we do provide uh information in multiple languages in

063a lot of different platforms one that we want to point out well um we know it's fun exciting to have videos and get things out on social media we did go back to having the print campaign and sending out a mailer to every household in our community we know that the majority of houses don't have kids in school so they're not necessarily out looking for our information and we hear during some of our um Outreach that the Community member at community at large might not be aware of what's happening in the schools so we went back to mailing that in and remind me how often we quarterly thank you quarterly uh to every household and then we want to make sure that it's easy to read that the language we use um that people understand

064what is being communicated another way that we um engage the community in in standard work is through our early learning programming uh we worked really hard to align programming within our early learning uh departments but really uh the the engagement part is doing shared professional development and offering opportunities for um communities providers and daycares who are teaching young kids as they're getting ready to come to school and so we want to give them the resour ources so that they have a similar experience to the kids that are in our programs and then I already talked about the standard work that we do have advisory committees throughout the district um that that is community members and families and parents coming to help us uh think through the work that we do and then really similar to

065every other group you'll just see this sort of Shifting as we go we haven't um talked a whole lot about the learning work for next year because we have a lot going on but we'll continue to implement and then uh the standard work remains so not a lot to to share there so I'm going to wrap it up um but I think as you heard our leaders talk about the work the big work being done in the system um why is an operational plan important um and we know the board has a governance plan but an operational plan from our perspective and our directors is monitoring the work within our system but also taking a look at how we're spending our time and are we not only spending our time but investing our dollars in

066the things that we say that we're going to do um and so that really is the basis do you push ahead a little bit with one of these initiatives or do you need to hold back because remember we're talking about implementation with people and if all of those areas dealt with our teachers or all of them dealt with our bus drivers depending upon what we're talking about it would be a lot of things that we pushing into different V and various groups and so that's really is the purpose of the operational plan to oversee the work in the district um and the movement through but also how we spend our time I wanted to provide the board just with a sample Le um because this really is the important part of the work the work

067is one thing but are we getting outcomes for students and what does that look like this is the sample um that at the end of the year um in June we're going to have our draft ready and actually many of our areas already are pretty well developed in terms of the measurements of the initiatives but to give an example that there will be a measure so what we're looking at and then there will be a metrics to say are we hitting the goal and so what we will come back to the board with is to say um if I to just took a look at this one and looked at um grade kindergarten students assessed to be ready for kindergarten so how many students who are going to kindergarten are ready for kindergarten what we

068would do for the board is we would color in wherever we fell and why is that it gives us an indication of where we're at and what we have to improve on but each of our five uh strategic priorities will have measurement to them that will be reported back to the board and we'll try to report in sequence so you get an update on our big work as well as measuring that big work um as we move forward um as you saw the vision card right now uh was in implement or in um learning work and we'll be moving to standard or excuse me implementation work as we go into the fall so with that um I would just offer if there are any questions for the group around our big work you saw a

069lot of overlapping themes um you know even as we talk about the core values and it's it's fun we're at a point now where I think everybody can you know whip the five core values off and we really do use them as part of our work so any questions from board members any questions sure I have a question I think this would probably be for Kelly can you talk a little bit more about um the middle school after school programming the targeted services I think that was in your area but I can talk about it um so with our uh coordinator of targeted Services she's really been doing some Outreach to our middle schools to be intentional about providing targeted Services after school one of the barriers has been providing Transportation um but she has

070been able to work with transportation that we are piloting in one of our middle schools this year where it's an extended time so I believe it's two hours or two two two and a half hours two hours after school one day a week that is the targeted services and we are a ble to provide that Transportation after that at that time so um that is happening in one of our schools we're going to see how it goes she's confident that if we had a similar model in other schools we could provide the same thing and so we do hope to extend that next year after we look at um it's very popular lots of kids I've been there a couple times and it's lots of kids having a lot of fun uh while working on

071their skills and so um it's happening in one and we hope it happens in all four next year yeah that's great that's was how is the transportation I'm going to work with that and it works because it's a 2-hour session so our third tier is done and then the bus is loop back any other questions Eric yeah um Kelly I think you had this section too or had this section was uh student experience is that right that was a long time ago good memory yeah all the column switching screw me up um there's a term in there I'm not 100% familiar with so I just wonder if you can explain a little bit further but conscious uh discipline and then there's a there's a category for elementary middle school and high school and they're in

072different places yeah um so conscious discipline is really a um it's what they would say it's an adult mindset first so it's how adults show up in the space to work with kids and recognize where kids are when they're addressing behaviors and so um our elementary have been on the journey for six seven years and probably at least half are pretty well implemented um it's a gradual process so that's pretty common that it takes that long for a whole staff to kind of get on board with I'm going to check where I'm at and before I deal with this kid and then where's Tyrone coming to me at and then what's the best way to approach Tyrone so I can improve his behavior um and so the Elementary's been working on a while Middle School

073what's happening in middle school and it relates to academics as well like Bridges and Arc kids are coming from the elementary with language and it's consistent and so what Middle School's been seeing with conscious discipline is that kids are coming from conscious discipline schools and they're using language about the brain State and where they are in their brain State and so Middle School staff's kind of like what is this conscious discipline so we started the journey this fall and learning about it um we did a kickoff on January 29th with all of our Middle School staff and then next year all of our Middle School be getting on board and then Christine's working with high school um to kind of get them started I would say probably after next year that that High School redesign

074has taken up a lot of space and time but um it's it's hard to explain and I'm certainly not an expert but it really is um correcting behavior and teaching kids life skills is probably the best way I can um like when a student behaves what's the reason behind it and what's missing and how do I provide them options to to make a better life skill one of the biggest light bulbs at the conference was out of covid kids are really lacking impulse control they just they don't have a lot of impulse control and what the root of that was what the research is starting to tell us is that they didn't have Choice during covid they didn't get to choose what to wear to school every day they didn't get to you know choose

075who am I going to sit by a lunch there was just so many choices that were taken away and so that's turning up an impulse control so what are the things that we can do in and make sure that we're providing kids lots of choice so that they're getting that skill back of being able to make the right choice so that's one example that when when the Middle School principles and I were at the conference we're like that makes sense this is why our kids are are acting this way sometimes so it's trying to get to the root of what's happening so is this something that we've been implementing since 20120 toward 2021 is that kind of right or not probably even sooner for elementaries okay um um in particular a couple Pine Hill um

076Liberty Ridge Crest View I'm yeah so probably a little bit sooner than that but I would say the majority of them started getting on board probably okay I don't know if you know the answer to this where did this come from I I guess this concept so the founder of it's Dr Becky Bailey um she's out I don't know where she is out of um she she started her doctoral research on kids behaviors and just wanted to find a better way for adults to address kids behaviors and teach them life skills versus um complete consequence right she she still believes in consequence but she believes that teaching needs to come with that consequence and so um she was kind of the start of it it really started as a pretty small company but it has

077it's it has grown a lot a lot of schools are using the con concepts of conscious discipline even if they're not calling it conscious discipline is there any way to determine the success of it yeah so some of the metrics we're using are of course Behavior referrals um but even what the research will say around conscious discipline is that um student academics definitely improve because they're spending more time in the classroom instead of in the office um and I think student like the way that they feel about themselves the way that they see themselves the way that that they're interacting with the world around them kids are feeling better about themselves because they're taught to make better choices versus told it's wrong but not told what's the right way to do it so um they

078they have a lot of research there's a lot of white papers that have been written I can certainly pass those along but we've set some goals for Middle School in particular of like where we're hoping to go with this and what our metrics I think Kelly's point is that when students aren't demonstrating the appropriate behaviors there needs to be teaching if kids can't read we don't take the book away from them and so we really have to be thoughtful about when students show up in our classroom with different experiences how do we as the adults I actually have been to just a couple of sessions and I really look at it like it's more about the adults in the classroom and their response and less about what might happen with the students it's about the

079approach the teacher uses first of all to engage kids and secondly so the students students want to be in the classroom um and I would say that while conscious discipline is up there there have been other uh similar things used throughout the district um Valley Crossing when we purchased Valley Crossing when I was a starting teacher at Valley Crossing they utilized um something called responsive classroom and they currently are utilizing responsive classroom and continue to do that and so I think there are different ways that um school districts get at the teaching of behaviors these just happen to be a couple that we have here in South Washington County so who determines is is that the principal's decision to determine the the I guess the system that that school is going to use yeah I

080would say the principal in conjunction with the level so elementaries middles or high school but yes how you want Behavior and the culture and climate of your school uh we have left in much part to the school leaders um and the students they serve any other questions um I had a couple so um Tyrone I had one question you were talking about Universal and diagnostic screeners to focus instruction in literacy and math and you were saying that we do a lot of that work already in literacy or we've started that work in literacy but this is new or emerging for math can you talk a little bit more about what that looks like and is that across all levels or is that really Elementary focused it's starting at the elementary level and U this current

081school year we developed screeners but with the read act what the state is producing uh we're going to go with a uh I would say a state recommended screener uh for literacy but like I said for this year we develop our own screener around literacy uh uh for elementary and then we also are doing it for Math and the purpose of that is to really hone in on what the gaps and the holes are for our students so that teachers as they are planing their instruction they can really focus in on um what is lacking in and and uh make sure that they have structured instruction in such a way that they can teach uh the scope and sequence what they're or expected to teach and then also do some small group instruction to kind

082of catch students up and then what we also are learning is you can also use it for acceleration and uh um well maybe for acceleration for students who you know have already mastered that particular uh uh skill or concept and they could benefit from uh some enrichment and acceleration with it and so is the idea that um these assessments are being given multiple times throughout a school year or they are given like in September and then good question um for on the uh on the MTH front we gave it in the uh fall we gave it again in the winter and we have plans to give in the spring but we're getting some feedback from our teaching staff saying okay can we pump the brakes so we can really get a handle on this and

083know exactly how we can use this data to uh inform our instruction overwhelming or taxing the morale of of teaching staff so it's it was given twice uh with the uh on the literacy uh point three times a year or as needed one thing with um our literacy assessment the elementary level is ongoing whereas in the past years when uh we gave the bass assessment it was given three times a year with the uh adoption of the American reading company and the early assessment it's it's embedded into the GD Li and it's continuous and ongoing and so the screener P um we want to get to a level where we can also utilize that as needed so when students are are showing progress uh and they show that you know they're ready to move to

084that next level let's do a screener figure out uh where they are what is needed and then begin to uh identify our path to move them forward U to meet those grade level standards and so is the idea that like this is a standard like every fourth grader takes the has the same screener yes okay um thank you um and then Sean I had one question for you um you had mentioned um all of the different languages into which we interpret or translate our website and stuff like that do you know what percentage of our non-english-speaking families are covered by the language interpretation that we do already I can try to get that for you but not not off top in my head and I think that we're trying to part of the learning work

085of this is also to try to that's a hard question answer right so when you ask families what language would you prefer sometimes you get a lot of different answers and and sometimes it's what do I speak at home or how would you prefer that and so we're really looking at how do we even Shore that up a little bit right how do we know exactly so I think we know our top five languages I don't know what percentage that is I can I can get that to you but I think I'm also trying to figure out what are some of those other percentages as well to see if there's other languages that we need to be considering as well do we know off hand and I don't know if anybody knows this how many

086different languages our students speak 43 yeah I think it was 63 is what I remember 63 different languages in addition to English okay thank you is there a difference between American English and British English kidding any other questions uh actually I do I have a quick question uh so for Abby and Dan so you guys don't feel left out can you describe your what you're thinking with the delivery system for transportation with respect to the student badges kind of give a little bit more detail around what that is and how you intend to implement it um it's it's pretty much what you would imagine um each rider that's eligible for transportation has issued a badge um at this point when those badges will not have photos on them um one them I'm sorry photos they

087won't have their pictures on there um the uh bus drivers will have um tablets in there the students will swipe in the tablet will say yes he should be here or no she should not um and this way we can track the number of riders right now we just do it manually um it's uh how we'll put it out I mean we're still working on the logistics how the students will get their Badges and things like that and new students and things like that but it's it's basically what you think it's it's just going into a probably more modern stage that we're not in yet but basically the students will get on the bus swipe their badge um the tablet will give the information that yes the student is in the right bus and then

088it's easier management is there any thought about tying that into into building access then like how you know folks have their their badges to get into a building like I would at work would we intend to do the same thing with some of the security updates that are pending in the future well all employees um have badge access to the building the students don't though right no and I guess that'd be more I don't know what kind of falls under Kelly's department now with security and safety oh that's right I think the one thing we talked about students scanning into schools is that when you're at Big schools and you have 2,000 kids coming in nobody's scanning everybody's going in with everybody else the doors are open they're going in what we have talked about

089though is a badge that might be more Universal and connect up with the media center or might connect up with the cafeteria so students get used to carrying a badge I think that Kelly anything right now they do have a student ID on one side is their student number on the other side is their um lunch number or P the lunch code so not code but to swipe um we did have a conversation about having this be allinone but they are the proximity scanners and right now the scanners we have in our high schools and middle schools are barcode scanners so there was a difference in that and then the OB and the cost obviously for the proximity scanners is much more than the than the barcode ones so we've had those conversations I think

090we're just going to let it get underneath and see how goes on the bus buses and then we'll see if we can meld them yeah fair enough that's kind of a trick question because I assumed trying to have 2,000 kids go through a door and scan wouldn't work right so it kind of begs the question the same thing for kids they is there a loss of efficiency or time loss where the kids have to Quee and then they're swiping and it doesn't read and then you know so just something to think about um I'm GNA bring this up I've got some experience with kids they're really irresponsible and they lose things all the time I want to say so I mean how do you plan to deal with that because that's going to happen all

091the time kids are going to lose their badges non-stop can I take it down I'm on the committee so I I was just thinking Ryan as you were asking the question I don't know when new board members come on how just shared with you in your welcome or in your check-ins with Julie around how we tackle projects and so um we have pretty tight systems I think they've gotten better every year where we identify what lenses and what related or interested parties need to be at the table to think through all the good things that you've brought up and so this is no exception to that and I think we chuckled a little bit too around how how kids lose things and so we're going to respond just the same way we do when they

092lose their lunch card or when they lose their um you know anything related to to how we respond to when they lose things already we really think this will I think we know we can reasonably predict this will increase effic efficiency versus having to check off a student name um every time they come on and swipe it'll be a lot quicker and then the safety component at a glance of being able to see who's on your bus and if they should be on your bus if you've ever experienced as a parent a child getting on the wrong bus it's it is terrifying um and certainly uh disrupts any efficiency in our routes so I think when our kids lose those cars we'll we'll work through our our processes that we already follow when they lose

093other things that are related to their school materials I think Eric there's a there's a communication component to this as well where there's going to be a learning piece that we try to explain with parents too of you know maybe it's keep them in the backpack or or you know like you know there might be kind of like put the tag on a backpack you know yes kids can lose a backpack too right but but I mean I think that that instead of having it in your pocket all the time there might be some tips and things like that that we we try to learn and and share as well doesn't um ultman have like a badge system one of the schools have something the newer schools where they had some type of badge to

094get into certain areas at one point the middle schools and the high schools all have student scanners the middle schools have them in the health office the counseling office the high and attendance when you check in and the high schools have them in checkin media centers Health office student inclusion centers Media Center yep so they do have some student scanners um that we are in year two of implementation with so any other questions okay thank you everyone uh we can move on to 5.0 information items 5.1 is financial update and that will be given by Dan pan Executive Director of Finance and operations well thank you yes we will kind of getting back to our um Financial updates as we get got through our Levy season and budget season and budgets are coming up so

095tonight just want to kind of give you an update on where we're looking at financially right now um I do like to go back and back three years and remind um the public and the board that the school board approved about $9 million in um adjustments to the budget actually decreases to the budget and then also an increase of about 300,000 and then they also directed Administration to seek an increase in its operating Levy um they also approve adjustments for the next two years and we're in the final year of that right now of of about $16 million um the reason I bring that up is because it it really all goes towards you know where we're at today so those are all implemented in 2122 budget we were able to present balanced budgets um

096actually in 2122 22 23 and 23 24 um over the years we didn't always present balanced budgets and the main reason that we were able to balance these budgets was was the increase in Revenue thanks to to the um support generosity of the taxpayers in this school district as we look you know to the Future what's going to happen um we're constantly looking at enrollment and enrollment is um if nothing else um I think I've got um the superintendent to constantly ask what the enrollment is um our budget this year is used used as a that I used for the the budget the projected was about 18,500 students um as we look through the first um half of the school year and I basically take counts and try to average them out because we get

097paid on the average for the year um as of the 23rd of January the projected right now is about 18866 which would be um 366 more students in budget which is always good um we get paid about an average with all the AIDS and such about $11,500 per student our revenue is affected by the amount of the basic formula plus operating levies um and of course the largest portion of our revenues determined by just multiplying that number of students by the basic formula basic formula um is set by state legisl and you can see back in 2003 it was set at $496 if one were to um take that amount and increase by the rate of inflation as the law will start doing next year um tying the formula to inflation um that formula number

098right now would be $863 S as opposed to the current formula of 7,281 it's a difference of about $356 per student um you take that difference in our district and it' be an additional $27 million in Revenue um that Gap has been filled over the years by many districts on an individual basis by operating levies and like I said we were fortunate to pass an operating Levy that's near the cap and is also um tied to inflation this um these numbers here too are are not um local numbers these are these are um from the missile Department of Education um and that they provided the inflation estimates and the formula numbers so as you look at our recent enrollment history back in 19 2019 2020 that was actually our largest enrollment ever about 18754 in

09920 in the next school year um the full pandemic school year um we dropped to about 18,50 that that drop um was less than most Metro school districts and then in 2122 it it went back up to 18558 and then last year it Rose to 18770 which would be the largest enrollment the districts ever had and we figured this year should top that at about 18866 now when we look at our enrollment projections especially for the budget we basically just use a coher survival method meaning you know what happened in the last 10 years to this this grade as they progress through the system um so as we see that we're peeking out in 24 um we're we're having a class that's been basically the largest class in the system since um they joined as

100kindergarteners in in Fall of 2011 um they're leaving us they're all graduating this year year um so we have a kind of a smaller kindergarten class coming in in this year mainly because of the lowest birth rate since 1979 in in 2020 um so we're not seeing a I'm really not projecting an increase for next year it be stay pretty flat and then we'll show a little bit of growth um and this is all dependent on core survival and birth rates obviously if we have movein from new housing and things like that i' have not put um numbers in for that because we don't want to budget too high in our Revenue so a year ago we predicted the unassigned general fund balance would be about 10% and that's a year ago when we when

101we talked to you at the end of this of 2223 that we just wrapped up it actually finished at about 133% um the budget we're in now the 23 24 budget was balanced and scheduled to leave a fund balance of about 13.5% as we look to the Future um 2425 will be financially challenging um we know the state formula is only going to be increasing by 2% after that fiscal year um the state formula will be will be um tied to inflation um with a floor of 2% and a ceiling of 3% but you will be able to match hopefully match the increases in in costs to the state formula we know Roma is decreasing because of the low birth rates that we're experence experiencing or we had about 3 four years ago um we

102know labor costs are increasing with with the new contracts being settled and the labor market the way it is right now um we're very fortunate to have operating that be tied to inflation and we're starting to work on our 24 25 budget um we will try to in the next couple weeks revise the current budget to see how we're going to end up there are some things that we budgeted for that didn't happen it hasn't snowed much so we haven't had to do a lot of snow plowing that which helps you didn't just say that yeah you just totally Jinx the next snow I see is like 10 years 10 days out so um but you know we also had our new contract settled so we have to put all those numbers into place and

103um we're we're anxious to see how our budget's going to look for this year and then we'll have to look at next year as far as um new revenues go most of uh my funding resources and and knowledge and projections all come from what we know what the state legislature does um this session is not a funding session um so I'm really not expecting any new K12 funding we may you know we've put some platforms together with my various groups and and there's some asking but um I think it's it's not going to be one in which there's going to be a lot of new funding for um for uh K12 schools um they scheduled the special education cross to increase but that's not till 2627 in which which the funding will increase from 44%

104of the Cross subsidy to 50% of the Cross subsidy so we're just going to have to kind of stay tuned to see what's going on I think we're going to have probably get our first update in a couple weeks on what's going on up there but um I think there's some logistical things that we'd like them to tackle like you know the unemployment issue how do we handle the staffing issues from that um the um free meals um do we have enough staff to keep doing this and things like that so that's where we're kind of at um we'll know once we present the the revised budget to you then you'll have a lot better idea of how we're going to end up and then what we need to do for next year thank you

105Dan does anybody have any questions no okay well then we'll move on to 5.2 and that will be our monthly construction update and Dan is up again uh thank you again I'll just give everybody an update on what's going on with with all our 15 different BR Bond projects as a um reminder to the board and the public that the um the public approved $200 million in um School construction and at our last general election um question one focused on um 160 million focus on Safety and Security and expanding the secondary schools question two for 40 million focus on um expanding Four elementary schools and um improving the restroom facilities at at um five other four other elmi schools or five other Eli schools because Pine Hills doubled up on that our design process really

106really revolves around I would say say you know it revolves around the user groups um we have hired two architect firms to handle the 15 different projects one is World Architects and one is coma Architects Krauss Anderson is our construction manager as approved by the board The Architects are working on their different projects and they are Guided by the user groups that are led by assistant superintendent as you can see on there um they have advisory groups they have leadership teams and that all that input goes into the designers who will then put together the drawings and write the specs so we can go off for permits and bids anything that happens in the meantime goes through the construction advisory committee for decisions to be made and the construction advisory committee will go up to

107exec cabinet if they need a decision on certain aspects of the plan of course the school board is always advised by the EXA cabinet and the superintendent on what's going on so we began the design and planning process for 15 projects across the district the highest priority in the election was um addressing Safety and Security and overcrowding in our secondary schools and those are the projects we're starting on first we're meeting with groups of staff to gather input feedback and start the design work for additions Renovations at krove Lake Oldman and Woodbury middle schools and of course our three high schools East Ridge Park and Woodbury high schools and then January 2025 a year from now we'll start working on the four Elementary School construction projects and improving the restrooms this chart oops can you

108go back I'm sorry this chart is is one that's easy to look at to see actually really at the end of the blue is when stuff is done and that's where you can see just at a glance you know what projects will be done first um and basically the the middle school projects the secured entrances should and then the expansion open should all be done by the fall of 2026 and then the East rid high school expansion hopefully will be done by the fall of 2026 and you can see the rest uh the main thing when you look at this chart is you look at the green at the end of the green that's when we go out for permits and when we let for bids and then as soon as those are exciting times

109for be en counters as we TR to see if we're going to fit inside our budgets and stuff like that so as we talk about some of the different user groups the Park High School user group has been working um on the Kitchen Cafe they have Kitchen Cafe User Group they have a front entry student services user group and they have a Career Tech education User Group um and they've been meeting to discuss different things and and our designers The Architects are taking all this in as they put as they want to put together their plans East Ridge as a classroom addition user group that's met as they talked about pod layouts science classrooms online learner space and they also have a a CTE education User Group also as they talk about science art facts

110business robotics the OM man Middle School user group has held their first meeting on January 17th they discussed their roles they looked at the scope and schedule Tred started to identify priorities and discuss kitchen and cafeteria spaces need and flows we've also held meetings with train and Industry Partners to GA feedback to identify current and upcoming Trends in CTE Career Tech education um and to talk about needs and wants for current CTE and trade spaces in our schools and we're working to organize virtual tours virtual tours of new high schools in the area we've also held construction standards meetings to create consistency across the district for products used in our buildings those standards include Safety and Security construction standards um nutrition services standards um technology standards HVAC standards mechanical electrical and plumbing and then also

111core shell and finish standards um the uh construction advisory committee and the exec committee you know had met to talk about decision on what to do as there's questions on the Woodbury High School pool which as you know Woodbury High School is going through a major renovation and in the plan um those that pool would not fit into where the the cafeteria was going to go as we looked at at the Woodbury Mill School pool the decision was made to permanently close the woodb high school pool at the end of the 2425 boys swimming season um woodb Middle School Clos will be permanently pool will be permanently Clos also that has not been in operation for a couple years already um but it'll be definitely as we work to change the space in Wy middle

112school so as that comes around we're working with the with School administration um at activities uh coaches to create Equitable practice and competition times for the EAS Ridge High School and Woodbury High School swimming and Diving teams at both Lake and opman middle schools there will not be any cuts to our swimming programs all our swim teams will have the space to practice and compete there will not be any changes to the Park High School swimming and Diving programs there is a plan to reopen the community pool which is in South St St Paul Park um before the wber high school pool is decommissioned the community pool will be available to Community Education for swim lessons and to other renters interested in using the space we will monitor the use and cost of maintaining this

113community pool over the next two years before determining the next steps as we look forward user group meetings will begin at Woodbury High School Woodbury Middle School in February um User Group meetings for Caso Middle School will begin in April and all along we've been doing site surveys and soil boring drillings um at the several sites across the districts and if anybody wants any construction updates they can visit so.org any questions thank you Dan does anybody have any questions uh I just had one uh how are you so I remember before the previous Bond we had um our student ambassadors come and they talk to us about all of the things that they would like to see in our schools are we involving students um as we do these Renovations and if so like to

114what extent um oh our assistant sups are leading the um user group so maybe I'll see if they want to answer that yep so right now we're working with a lot of Staff in all of the schools the high schools in particular is where we started and yes we will bring a lot of that back to our district youth ambassadors and each principal will bring that back to their school ambassadors yes but we're still really early in the process we have nothing to bring to them probably until the fall okay and I'm actually thinking having been part of the ultman construction is when we really involved the students was when it came time for Furnitures and furniture and fixtures um and we had sample rooms the kids got to try out different equipment um sometimes

115the organization of space um is difficult for kids to give input when it's such a large scale but definitely when we get to the FFN portion thanks any other questions okay thank you Dan thank you on to 5.3 first reading of proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nelson superintend I know that everyone loves the workshop meeting because every meeting with the exception of just one I think we always do policies and so I appreciate the team that surrounds me because uh we have really stuck to our um schedule in terms of reviewing policy um this evening um I'm bringing forward uh policies that are reviewed yearly and have been revised to reflect updates in the Minnesota statute's definition of terms legal references and cross references our board policy committee along with

116leaders around this table um have been consulted and reviewed the policies prior to this meeting uh this evening I'm bringing forth policy 410 family and medical leave there was just one proposed change in language section 4 um letter b and the cross references policy 413 harassment and violence there was a proposed change to the definition of sexual orientation which adheres to the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the 2023 legislation so the definition was just changed 414 mandated reporting of child neglect or physical or sexual abuse no proposed changes mandated reporting of Mal treatment of vulnerable adults no proposed changes um the next was were just slight grammatical changes and that was policy 505 distribution of non-school sponsor materials 514 our bullying prohibition policy there were no proposed changes um 522 Title 9 non-discrimination policy grievance

117procedure and process um no proposed changes policy 616 School District system accountability um information was added to that policy around our Circ process um and we are working on making sure we spell out all those acronyms standards and instruction review cycle um finally 626 is a new policy um and that policy is around on literacy and the read act just to incorporate in that legislation and finally 806 crisis management there were no proposed changes and so with that I would open it up if there are any other questions from board members any questions I do have one uh Julie in regards to definitions in the policy are we required I know the the definition of sexual orientation was changed are we required to adhere to the to uh leg the legislative legislative law sorry in

118that are we required to do that we are required to hear to the language in the in the statute yes okay yeah and that is why it was included now in the policy because we are required to adhere to that okay thank you any other questions okay seeing no questions we do allow public comment after policies no one has signed up so we will move on to 6.0 reports and comments superintendent Nel thank you I was telling Katie before the meeting I can have one small Post-It note and talk for a good 30 minutes but I'm going to make this real quick um on Sunday it's a new night for our um Suburban East Conference Music Festival many board members typically attend it's usually on I think a Thursday night this year it's on this

119coming Sunday it will feature our high school um band students orchest student Orchestra students and choir students and it's a select group from across the entire conference um and that particular concert will start at 6 o'clock um on Su night um next I just wanted to highlight very briefly um on Monday was a professional de development day for our staff um various groups I know our transportation staff had professional development um the bulk of our teaching staff were at Easter idge a couple other sites but it was really just a tremendous day and I know when we have days on the calendar and as board members you know we're going to have more days next year with the react but sometimes there's the wonderment from um parents about why do teachers need a day off

120why do they need a day off and I I think it's important that we're reminded that in many other professions there are opportunities for professional development all the time we're talking about the teachers and the staff who work with our kids every day and so I think for the board to know for our community here from me that those days are well invested in the people that work with our little human beings every single day and so it was a great day um probably the most powerful thing is while we had great outside speakers come in we have teacher leaders on our staff that are leading sessions and supporting their colleagues and that is the most beneficial part um next also while not wanting to leave one out um one act or Minnesota State High

121School league will have the one act play Festival which will be at St katees and that is scheduled for Thursday February 8th um and I also want to let all of you know that I was on tour today at District Program Center I did the early learning the Alternative High School and the senior center and um I got to the senior center I talked with a great group of 10 guys you know I could talk a little farming with him with that one over big and then I circled the building and had some conversations and I went back and there was a session on hands and feet and I thought I have come to the right place they are giving massages and so I stepped in and I said well where are the massages and

122they said no it's a card game it's called hands and feet anyone ever play hands and feet never heard of it never heard of it exactly it's a massage oh hand and foot I don't know hands feet uh all I know is I thought it was a massage when I was going there and all I saw were ladies sitting around the table and a couple of guys sprinkled in there but there was 500 on one side and hands and foot hand and foot one hand one foot again I got two hands and two feet and I wanted a massage but that wasn't happening but really just what a nice opportunity for our seniors to get together um and we have a number of our adult um students or adults learning um English who are were

123also in in a class and they run the little Cafeteria down there with the coffee shop um making scones today's soup was broccoli cheese I believe um I don't think they had high sales today um I think they said one pole but um just really um great individuals down there um and as we sign off tonight I just want to recognize each of you as board members February is Schoolboard recognition month and our executive cabinet wanted to say thank you for your commitment to our Public Schools the student staff and parents that we serve um here in South Washington County schools and so we wanted to treat you to a Nothing Bunt Cake um and a certificate of appreciation so thank you so much for um what you do for our students um and for

124all of us thank you okay um on to board member reports do any board members have any events or upcoming activities that they would like to share we are not no no those would be shared with Dana uh she sent out an email today um we will just share any upcoming events that might be happening on any committees we have um such as like the uh Bob the foundation and that yes on February 29th on leap day uh would be coming up okay and then we will move into 7.0 future meeting dates February 22nd um is a Schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6m and then March 14th is a Schoolboard Workshop meeting um here at the district service center at 6 pm and with that 8.0 and we are adjourned

125after spring break right I I was assum