001What's the date today? I know. February 3rd. Hello, everybody. I'd like to call the February 3rd school board meeting to order and ask everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America nation, honor... All right, welcome, everybody. I apologize for the really full house, but if you're out in the back and you still want to come in... Don't know you could stand up front with us. We'll be fine And I'd like to thank you for the delightful introduction music. We really enjoyed the background music you can come back anytime Okay, so sorry. I have first item on the agenda is Approving the agenda if there's no changes or edits. I'd ask for a motion to approve Thank You Morgan second by Byron all those in favor signify
002by saying aye All right. Thank you. Next item is the consent agenda. If there's no changes or edits to that, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Thank you, Marcus. Second by Tim. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. That is approved as well. Next is our listening session report from Morgan. We had nobody with us at the listening session today as a reminder when we have these meetings here We do have a listening session available from 5 until 6 o'clock. So check out our website for information about that Thank You Morgan Next item our favorite item is it recognitions. I'll turn it over to the superintendent Thank you, Chair Larson. Well, we have two student groups with us here tonight, the Mendota Elementary School Black History Month Choir and our
003award-winning middle school math teams. So first we're going to call up the students. I don't have to call them up. They're all standing right here. Call up the students from the Black History Month Choir along with their principal, Steve Goldad. And so I'll just share a little bit about them. The Mendota Elementary Black History Month Choir is a special group of elementary students. students who I had the privilege of hearing early, was it just last week? My goodness. Wow. January. What's that? It was January. January's long. It was a long month. January. Oh, I got it. I got it. And they've shared their voices and talents in honor of Black History Month and this dedicated choir has performed multiple times throughout the community as i mentioned at the two rivers key club mlk day of
004service earlier this month so please steve if you could please help introduce the members of the choir here thank you chair larson superintendent olsen skog this is the black history month choir from endota elementary school it's our honor to perform for you two songs this evening under the co-direction of our new music teacher mr hayes and his great helper julie sakora often known as Grandma Julie Edmond Doda Elementary School. We'll talk about that a little later. As Superintendent Olsen-Skog did mention, we perform not only at our mid-year assembly, also at the Martin Luther King Day event at Two Rivers. We're performing for you tonight and we'll also be performing on February 22nd at our Black History Month celebration at Mendota Elementary School. It starts at noon. We're serving lunch about 12, 15. We'll have a
005program at 1 and we'd love to invite all of you to that. And again, the date was February 22nd. With that's enough of me, let's get going, Mr. Hayes, with the choir. And so please join me in welcoming the Black History Month Choir from Mendota Elementary School. We shall overcome. We shall overcome. It was amazing. I think I said at one of our last meetings it was the first time we'd been sung to, and now we've been sung to again. This is a wonderful change, and we welcome you to come sing to us any time. Would you all be willing to introduce yourself? Get up on, if Mr. Goldad provided a crate, just tell us your name and your grade. My name is Sophia. My name's David. My name's Royalty. My name is Sully. My
006name's Nora. My name's Danny. My name is Tegan. My name is Juliet. Excellent turn-taking. Does anyone have questions for anyone in this crew? Oh, good. Go ahead. She's over there. I know you guys performed two songs for us. Which one is your favorite and why? Who wants to answer? What's their favorite song and why? You don't want to answer? Sully, you want to try? You can go up there. I like Little Light because it's all good. I just like it better than the other one. Star. We're telling which one you like better. This Little Light of Mine because it has so many different verses. Okay, you don't all have to talk if you don't want to. Anybody else have a question for this group? Go ahead. John first. John first. First of all, you sound
007great. Thank you. It's awesome to be the second time that I've heard you. Many of us have heard you for a second time. Did any of you stay? So for the MLK event where you sang, did any of you stay? And what was the favorite act of service that you did? So they had all the tables there. Did any of you stay? And was there something you did that you liked? Maybe it didn't stick. You don't remember? I think they did. Do you want to talk about them? I know they were there. I know they were there. I saw Tag and Painting Rocks. Royalty. I know Royalty's dad was in a commercial with Alan Page when he was younger. Did you take any activities? Did you do any activities that day? Do you remember at
008this high school with all those people in the bleachers? It was a long time ago. It's a long time ago for kids that are young. And old kids, too, like us. Me. Anybody want to answer? No? Okay. Next question, I guess. Sorry, John. Marcus. Good luck, Marcus. This may be more for the principal than the students, but how did the idea of the Black History Month Choir come about? That's a great question. You know, we wanted to, last year, it all started with African American parent, I'm gonna have to ask, phone a friend, Peter Mao, what's it? Yes, African American Parent Involvement Day. And then that, we did that one year, had a great showing, second year, not so much. So then we moved to a Black History Month event. And we knew we wanted
009to have some entertainment at that event. nothing better than children singing. So we started last year and started a choir. Julie was nice enough last year to start it along with Anna Dunbar, our teacher at the time. And Mr. Hayes has been kind enough to step right in this year. And so this is the second year really of the Black History Month Choir. It's a combination of a number of different students at all different grade levels. We've had... Patrick was nice enough to teach the whole school the songs and then we had two special rehearsals For this group and there's others too that couldn't make it tonight And then we are putting together. It's kind of as we go this opportunity to perform and they've been great. So Thank you. You guys sang beautifully and
010very inspirational. Thank you for being here tonight Yeah, thank you Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna take a picture So if you could line up right up here and face that way we can take a group photo Just do what Steve does. Do you want him to shift? We can squeeze together a little bit. Sarah, just tell us what to do. Are we good? You are good. All right, look right here. Okay, if any parents want to come up and take a picture, you can stand up. Mr. Hayes and Mr. Goldedge should be in a picture. And I forgot, and Julie too. Come on up. Mr. Hayes. Come on. I require. I know. Are we done? Are we done? Okay. All right. Thank you. Well, that was fantastic. And next, we're going to call up the
011members from the Friendly Hills and Heritage math teams, along with the Heritage math teacher and coach, Emily Berkwis, and then the Friendly Hills math teacher and coach, Julie Rasmussen. Come on up. While they're coming up, I'll tell you a little bit. Our middle school math teams just finished another great season. The Friendly Hills Middle School Math Team took first place in the Southeast Metro Division, and the Heritage E-STEM Magnet School Team took second place. So Emily and Julie, please tell us a little bit more about your math teams and help me introduce the mathletes that are here tonight. Sorry? Do you repeat the question? Just introduce this awesome group that you have here and tell us anything you'd like to tell us about them. Do you want them to introduce themselves like the choir did?
012Madam Chair? Sure. Sounds great. Come on up. Everyone, tell us your name and your grade. Name and grade. And your school. It's important, I guess. Name, grade, and school. My name is Xavier. I'm in fifth grade and I go to school at Friendly Hills Middle School. Nice. My name is Luke. I'm in seventh grade and I go to Friendly Hills Middle School. My name is Nolan. I'm in sixth grade and I go to Friendly Hills. My name is Fever. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Friendly Hills. My name is Joy. I'm in seventh grade and I go to Friendly Hills. My name is Skye and I'm in seventh grade and I go to Heritage Easton. My name is Rohit. I'm in eighth grade. I go to Friendly Hills Middle School. I'm Adele and
013I go to Friendly Hills Middle School. I'm sixth grade. My name is Aberdeen. I'm in sixth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Parody. I'm in fifth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Orion. I'm in sixth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Mary Jane. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Imogen. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Ava. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Friendly Hills. My name is Elizabeth. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Quilana. I am in seventh grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Griffin. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Friendly Hills Middle School. My name is Gus. I'm in sixth
014grade and I go to Heritage. My name is Jonah. I'm in eighth grade. I go to Heritage. My name is Teddy. I'm in fifth grade and I go to Heritage. I'm Nihal, I'm an 8th grader and I go to Friendly Hills Middle School. I'm Declan, I'm in 6th grade and I go to Friendly Hills. I'm Camilo, I'm in 6th grade and I go to Friendly Hills. I'm Evan, I'm in 8th grade and I go to Friendly Hills. I'm Luke, I go to Friendly Hills Middle School and I'm in 8th grade. Did we get everybody? Anyone hiding? No? Okay, do teachers want to tell us more about what it means to be on math team and like what they've done? Sure, so our season starts the second week of school. There are five cumulative meets throughout
015the season. We just ended a couple weeks ago. So we compete against South St. Paul and St. Croix Lutheran. In the past, St. Thomas and Invergrove and St. Paul Academy have been in our division. Yeah, we've been the top two a couple years in a row now, which is really cool to represent the district. At practices, they'll answer questions on whiteboards or just working together. Each meet has three rounds, so they compete individually, and they compete in teams of six. Heritage had a gold and a silver team this year. Friendly Hills had a gold, a silver, and a bronze team. Is there a question? That's a good question. How many of you are eighth graders? Raise your hand. I just want to throw a plug out there that there's enough of you to ask Dr.
016Johnson to form a math team at the high school next year. He's not here, so I can say that. There was a student that tried to start it last year, but she was like two weeks too late. Oh, here we go. So they do plan on having one this next year. Then we can recognize you again. All right, questions for these guys. Oh, come on. Go ahead, Byron. I have a question. Well, congratulations, both teams. Who has a good example of a really tough question that was asked? You're ready. Come on up. Well, I'm in fifth grade, so most of the questions I'm doing is going to be hard. Yeah. All of them. All of them. 2024 coins and then... I did not like that question. Oh, boy. So today we were practicing, and there
017was a question that we were all struggling with. It was, you have 2024 coins, and they're all pennies, and every eighth one you switch to a nickel, and then every 11th one you switch to a dime, and then every 23rd one you switch to a quarter, and it's what is the total value of your cents then? but then you have to count for the overlap of the eighth on the nickels and dimes. Yeah. We didn't solve it. She had it for us. I appreciate that. I don't know if you noticed, but school board members started writing it down. I couldn't even finish writing it down. I don't think anyone finished it. I know Luke had a riddle for me earlier. Maybe he could share that. Wasn't it, Luke? Yes. Who had a riddle? Yeah, it
018was Luke. You're right there. Come here. You had a riddle for me. Share the riddle. I have six eggs. I broke two. And I cooked two. And then I also ate two. How many eggs do I have left? I got it right. I just want to point that out. Anyone want to guess? Oh, go ahead, Peter. Might you have broken, cooked, and ate the same eggs? Yes. Yay. Confidence in our superintendent. That's good. Was there a particular member of the team that had a special medal on in a picture I saw? Yes. So they also compete individually throughout the season. So Griffin Smith from Friendly Hills placed first in our entire division. From Friendly Hills, we had second, third, and fourth. So in second was Mary Jane Kimbrell. And in third was Elizabeth Pendergrass. And
019in fourth was Jonah Stapleton. Any other questions for this crew? Otherwise, I think there's a bright future of math. All right, how should we take a picture? Everybody line it up. I think we're standing. They're a little taller. What about Declan? Hey, Declan. He kind of counts. I like especially seeing girls on Mat-Tune. It makes me happy. If I was on Mat-Tune in high school, it's the way to go. There's going to be a lot of pictures. All right, you've got to look this way. Oh, boy. That's a lot of parents. All right. Look at Sarah first. Everyone look at Sarah Blair. Right here. All right, now parents can take it. Maybe step behind Teddy. Maybe Teddy can discuss it. Be visible. Coaches, come in and pitch her. Come on. Come on, coaches. I wonder
020where she went. Come on up. Come on, Julie. Okay. Thanks, everybody. I think some of those kids will be back for other things in the future. It's a prediction. Just a guess. I'll just wait a minute. I do. Not today. Okay. Had to wait for the math crew to leave. Although I'm glad not everyone left. Thank you for staying if you stayed very grateful second next item on our agenda is the student representatives report Yet again before we give our report the audience flees we did we had a little side Patrick we had a little side conversation while they were leaving that we might switch it up next time put you guys first. Would that be okay? I'm fine with it. Okay I love a captive audience Hello everyone, I'm Noelle Hassan and I'm Patrick
021Baumbach and we were so excited to share with you some highlights from the district-wide events that we've had this past month. Okay, so first off, starting with the Early Learning Center, we kicked off with an early learning parent meeting on the 8th where families connected and learned more about their little one's educational journey. We next went to kindergarten registration on the 23rd, which is a big step up for the kiddos from going to preschool to kindergarten. And we finally wrapped up our month in January, technically February 1st, with I Love to Read Pajama Party, which was filled with fun stories and lots of comfy PJs. Then, moving on to the elementary school level, Mendota's Kindergarten Showcase was on the 9th and it gave families a glimpse into the exciting world of kindergarten. Next, our Mendota
022Basketball League, which had started on the 17th, was a big hit and had a lot of young athletes filled with enthusiasm on court. Next, for the Mendota Sledding Party, it was on the 30th. It was a blast. Families enjoyed the winter fun together. And we also had a Mendota Soccer League kick off on February 1st, bringing even more energy to our school community. And then Garlow had their own sledding day on the 11th, which was full of snowy adventures. We then closed out the month with the student of the quarter celebration on the 24th at Pilot Knob, recognizing our hardworking students at the elementary level. Next, moving on to our middle school, our fifth and sixth grade band, orchestra, and choir concert was a wonderful showcase of talent and hard work. And then throughout the
023week of January 27th, both middle schools had participated in ACCESS testing. So thank you to everyone who joined and made these events so special. And we love hearing from our Early Learning Center, elementary schools, and middle schools. And now on to high school. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th, the Two Rivers Theater hosted their annual One Acts. This time they moved it to the winter. And one of which was chosen to compete at the NSHSL One Act competitions. Could not find out how we did, but hopefully good. Moving on, students in our Work-Based Learning program celebrated their success earlier this month by sharing presentations on the various experiences they had that were shaped by the program. So students shared their experiences in the workplace at places such as Caribou and Green Mill. And on the
02420th, as we've previously mentioned, the Two Rivers Key Club held its biggest event of the year, which is actually their biggest event ever, our celebratory event of Dr. Martin Luther King. Luther King Jr.'s legacy had over 500 people make the trip despite the cold weather. I believe it was in the negatives that day. And to put that in perspective, last year we had about 170 people and the year before there were about eight. So that really shows how our community can come together. We were also very honored to have former Justice Alan Page speak to our attendees. And then yesterday, Two Rivers Music Programs hosted the annual Song Cake Breakfast, which is an all-you-can-eat breakfast with music that they provided by our band, orchestra, and choir. And we had many family, friends, and volunteers show
025up to the event, and it was very successful. And on to what's coming up. The Two Rivers Speech Team is hosting a tournament this weekend. After doing the numbers during my seventh hour, we will have an estimated 1,200 entries between Two Rivers and Friendly Hills. We also have a lullaby concert coming up from our music programs on the 9th and the Sweetheart Dance on the 15th. And finally, a college fair on the 28th for students to connect with over 60 colleges and universities. Thank you all for listening to our district-wide report. Thank you. Thank you guys there's a lot going on Is there gonna be more going on now we turn it over to the superintendent? Well, I have a couple of things actually I I wanted to note some of the same ones so
026I'm gonna start by acknowledging that February is Black History Month and that school district 197 honors and celebrates Black History Month and African Americans many contributions and achievements both locally and globally and so we're committed to ensuring that all of our students feel welcome, connected, affirmed in our schools each and every day. One more noted appreciation for our Mendota Choir that came here this evening. Also this week, in addition, is its National School Counseling Week. And according to the American School Counseling Association, this week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. So to these important people who serve in our school every day, I just want to say thank you. for all that they do for our students. So next, I'd like to recognize
027something that was just mentioned, and actually, I was going to share the same stats. From 8 to 170 to 400, it's an incredible amount of growth. And just mention some of the activities that happened during this day, from tie blankets to decorating bags for local charities to making cards for Letters of Love, and there was a whole bunch more that happened. And then on that note, thanks to our community. They planned and they planned and they planned for this event. And then we had so many people show up that you just tore through all of the stuff that we had to do and we were done and we had... used up all of our supplies and we were able to give away everything that was brought in terms of acts of service. There was bookcases
028that was made. It was just a fantastic day. And I mentioned this once before, but it was a little bit quiet and not official. So now that it's official, I'd like to give another shout out to Pilot Knob Stem Magnet School. Principal Tom Benson for being honored as the South Suburban Division Leader receiving the Leadership Award by the Minnesota Elementary School Principals Association. And this award goes to principals who demonstrate exemplary leadership within their schools and communities. It was noted that Principal Benson's dedication to literacy. Family education and hands-on STEM learning has impacted students, families, and the school community. Initiatives that were noted in the award was PK Reads, the Family Literacy Book Clubs, which connects families through reading and STEM-based literacy activities that turn stories into hands-on learning experiences. So we are so proud
029of Principal Benson and his commitment to our students and families, and we congratulate him on this well-deserved award. Let's give Principal Benson, even though he's not here, a round of applause. And finally, we had our inaugural coffee with the superintendent today. We had more people than just Luke there. We had about 12 or 15 people show up, and topics ranged from just what's going on locally and federally. We talked about what technology and the balance that it brings, and achieving a balance between too much, too little, just right. We talked about... Cell phones, we talked about, it was a great conversation. So I encourage you, if you weren't able to make it today, we've got another one coming up. This one was at the district office, but we've got one at. with a slightly cozier
030atmosphere coming up at Amore. We've got another one at Z's Diner later on this year. So it's a great opportunity to come like the listening session. This is more targeted at topics that the administration might want to hear from you about and feedback that you would have for us and for the school district. And you get free coffee. Thank you, everybody. And that concludes my report, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right, next item on our agenda, we get to hear from Mr. Goldad again, our site report from Mendota. Welcome, Mr. Goldad. Great, thanks. Glad to be back. I want to start my presentation today by highlighting and honoring and thanking some important people to the Mendota community. So I'd like to invite up quickly Julie Sikora, her daughter Lauren Crapo, and their grandson and son,
031David. Now I didn't know who was showing up, but the whole family shut up, so let's get everybody up here So Ava come up. Ava's a student at Two Rivers Henry's the missing one. He's a Friendly Hills kid student and Freddie, Freddie come on up, Friendly Hills Middle School. Oh good, you came up already, good. And I'm sure the dads are mad, granddad and dad, so we'll also recognize David and Adam are here too. But this is a super cool story, right? Grandma, volunteers at school, started last year, was our accompanist when our music teacher was out on a maternity leave. Comes in helps us with all kinds of music things videotapes all of our events that you might see on talent square TV Lauren is the beautiful mother of all these four children that
032all attend our 197 schools. And she joined our staff team as a special ed para. She gets the Mom of the Year Award in my mind. She's out there at very early Sunday morning walking. It's probably only her free time. And then David is the only one left at Mendota. That's why we were going to originally honor him. But Freddie and Ava are graduates of Mendota. So this is such a cool story. I wanted to highlight it. and honor them and thank them for all of their service to our school and our school district. So, they're also shy. Second is our presentation is, I know we're trying to increase student voice, so I brought two students with me today. They're going to introduce themselves, and they're very excited. You don't have to write, you don't
033have to use it. There we go. Hello, my name is Star. I am in Ms. Schilt's class. My name is Sophia Thomas and my name, wait, hold on. Hello, my name is Sophia and I'm in Ms. Shields' class. Can both of you get those microphones right in front of your face? Make sure that people listening on TV can hear you. There you go, thank you. Here are my favorite things about Medota. People are nice, I like to go to art, I like math. And here are my favorite things about Medota. I like to go to art every week. I like fourth grade and I like the carnival that we have every year. I am looking forward to middle school because I am going to learn more math. And I'm looking forward to middle school because
034I get to meet new friends. Thank you for supporting our school. Stay up here girls. Ready for a second? A couple things I'd like to highlight about Sophia and Star. They were on a student group that interviewed a veteran for our Veterans Day Assembly. And the video we showed at the Veterans Day Assembly, they did a great job of interviewing two veterans. In fact... the cray post grandpa was there on the other side so it's all it's all coming together think of that so and the girls volunteered to come tonight uh just to make sure girls i i didn't tell you to say any of that stuff right right because i wanted you to say nice stuff about me and you said no no that's not true so i just so appreciate having their student
035voice here tonight so thank you girls all right thank you and now i'd like to invite up yeah Now I'd like to invite up Sarah Kane who's gonna help me with the presentation tonight because as you know I am just a spokesperson it really takes a team to get this all done and Sarah is our instructional coach and worked closely with our teachers so I invited her to be a part of tonight's presentation. Okay let's yes we might need the clicker. You just click on the side? Yeah. Oh. Yes great. Next. the clicker's not cooperating okay there it goes so we have our police statement uh and so with some great pictures there from throughout the school year we hold that understanding that children we educate in terms of their individual characteristics cultural backgrounds and
036development stages is equally as important as mastering the content we deliver we are very proud of the relationships we have not only with our students with our families and also amongst our staff and our mission. You can read our mission. This is a picture from our walk-a-thon. Our PTA is kind enough to give every child a t-shirt and our theme this year is trees, which you'll see again. These are some focuses that we have this year. First of all, I'll point out that this, Sarah, can you tell them about the artwork? Oh, so we have a digital art class after school in Richmond, and this young lady, Hannah, just made this on her own. I think it was on Picolage. So it was adorable. I thought it went very well with everything we're doing this
037year. Also, Mr. Clu's next daughter, in case any of you catch that from the bottom of the picture. So we are looking at... teaching values like perseverance empathy kindness through the character strong curriculum which is new this year with our elementary school counselors and i was happy to hear it's natural counseling week school counselor week we're also trying to emphasize Growth mindset, because we found out from our survey that we did last year of our students that we need to do a little more work about reminding them of the importance of growth mindset, so we're doing that. We mentioned trees, and we're always building community in an inclusive way. Just some more photos. Star, there you are. You saw that star there on the left-hand side. Points of pride. Okay, I think a lot of
038you already know we had a walking field trip at Bedode this year that was... Which the Nell Bari was that and really helped organize? Along with a lot of other community members parents Steve really led the way for this to all happen I think it was really well received the kids loved it. The parents loved it You know, yes, it went very very well. They even had a chance to have some fry bread And we're already planning next year's field trip to pilot Pellet now pill which again it will be on indigenous peoples day We practiced oh hey, wah hey, but you didn't go for it. No, I didn't go for it. I don't blame you. So I'd also like to thank my cousin, Jenny Dahl, who moved into the community about a year ago
039and helped us plan the Abadote trip as well. So we are thrilled with the amount of work we're doing with diversity, equity, inclusivity. I did mention our Black History Month luncheon on the 22nd of February. We're also planning a... Latino Fiesta Fiesta for March 8th all led by Dominique harness as our chairperson Dominique Joined our staff this year as a special ed teacher as well And so it's great to have her and all the activities that she brings to our community We wanted to highlight the work that our teachers are doing with foundational reading curriculum. I'm sure you've gotten some updates on those that we're piling three different curriculums. We're down to two. I love the way that our children, our students and our children are getting direct instruction on phonics and on reading. I
040look forward to seeing what curriculum we choose, but I applaud the work the teachers are doing and implementing those new curriculums, sharing them with each other. learning, of course they're all doing the science of reading training as well, and I'm just, the teachers are really digging in and loving it. And so, and we see that being, they've always loved reading, so that was a great foundation, and the additional skills they're receiving or learning about has helped our students become better readers. So thank you especially to our K-1 and 2 teachers who are doing those pilots of those programs. All right, what's new? there's a few things coming up so the end of February we're really excited to have Isaiah Allen is coming and he actually went to Garlow so he's from the district and he
041lives in West St. Paul right now so he wrote a book a smile which is on the slide and so he's coming the end of February to meet with all grades all students and he's actually gonna be doing a writing activity with the third and fourth graders so we're really excited for his upcoming visit We also are trying something new this year. So we always had a little bit of an issue with yearbooks and not all kids received one. So with equity in mind, we decided this year we're gonna try to create our own yearbook. Just designed it ourselves. The PTA is funding it, which is great. And then we'll have the print center print it. And so every kid will get a free yearbook. that was designed at school. So, yeah, we're really hopeful
042this is well received and just happy that all kids can get a yearbook. I really want to compliment Sarah on her work on that project and I also want to highlight the fact that it was really a building and pan collaboration although we never really all got together in the same room it was really I believe Lauren took information to pan and then Sarah got in for Sarah Blair got information and so it's really been a team effort and taken quite a long time but we look forward to seeing how it works out this year to make sure that every child at Mendoza Elementary School gets a yearbook which would be for the first time since I've started working here, so that's exciting. And then the last thing, so in May, we are organizing an
043artist in residency with Tara Aiken, who's a local author, or sorry, artist. And so she is coming, and she'll be working with the fourth graders, and they're going to be creating a mural, which will go in the courtyard by Mary Jo Skemp-Prigla. So that will be happening. It'll be a few weeks long, so she'll work with all the fourth graders, get their ideas, and then the fourth graders will actually also paint with her. So we are looking forward to that. Thank you very much. That's the presentation from Mendota for this school year. Awesome. Thank you. You don't get to leave, Sarah. I'm guessing the board has some questions or comments. I'm excited. That means there's an opportunity to paint again. I love all the murals, right? It'll be good. All right. Questions for these two?
044Go ahead, Marcus. So I actually have a question for Star. Great. Yeah, come on up, Star. Wait a minute. We'd love to have you back, Star. Come on up. So, Star, I heard you mention twice that you were looking forward to middle school because you like math. Are you excited to hear that there are math teams there, and is that something you think you might be interested in joining in the future? Yeah. Good recruiting, Marcus. Thank you. Good job. She'd be a great member of the math team. We hope she does that. All right, other questions. Go ahead, Byron. Thanks for all the work that you're doing for our kids at Mendota. It's wonderful. Do you have a theme or something in mind for the mural? I think we're really gonna try to have the
045kids come up with their ideas and what's meaningful for them or to them. A few things, Steve and I have been talking to Tara since probably September, so we've gone back and forth about a lot of different things. We did tell her things that we think are important. We have a tree theme this year. Obviously, the Bedote was huge. That was a very big theme for us as well this year. Can you remember anything else that came up? Those were the two biggies. You may remember if you've been, when we remodeled, we really pulled in the theme of, you know, the meeting of two rivers, the Minnesota and the Mississippi. That's why the blues were brought into the building. And so we've really tried to, with our land acknowledgement and through all kinds of, our
046theme, all kinds of different ways we're trying to make sure that our students leave with the importance of, to the Native Americans of where those two rivers come together. And so that's, we've been purposeful in trying to do that. And so we, there was some reluctance on the artist part to go strictly Native American, because she's not a native. So then we said, well, if we can get two rivers in there and trees, so, and then we do, she wanted to get student input as well. So there'll be student input from every fourth grader during art class. Great, look forward to it. Thanks. Awesome. Go ahead, John. Thank you, and this is a question for any of you Which is um for the field trip that you took to the day Like what is something
047that you either liked or learned from that field trip? We're so happy you asked because I told them I bet you they're gonna ask a question about the field trip when we meet tonight I like the walking part and I also like the girl who danced with the girls. That's Nell. We like her too. I like the dance. Do you like the fry bread? Huh? Do you remember the fry bread? Yeah, did you like that? Yeah That was another hit fry bread was that and one of our kindergarten Students who is Native Americans grandma made the fry bread and then brought it we Handed out at one of the stations. I think the board requests an invitation to this event next year I mean that that's a amazing sounding field trip what is a great
048experience for the kids and sounds like all the teachers and adults that participated really enjoyed it too so very cool wonderful anything else for this crew well thank you so much steve thank you thank you for having us all right next item on our agenda is the report from heritage with our favorite new principal and her lovely assistant two of my favorite people welcome heidi All right. Good evening. Heidi Corey, new principal at Heritage, and I have with me Rachel London-Nias, who is our new associate principal. So we brought the newbies. And no adorable children. We'll bring children next time. So at Heritage, kind of our motto for the year was Heritage Joy. So we started the school year with two new administrators and an admin team of three and lots of new staff just
049grounding ourselves in how do we bring joy every single day to our students, to each other. This is a picture from... workshop week where everybody now walks around with their heritage joy shirt and just reminding staff even in the hard days there's a joy to be found so always trying to find that joy. We are the E-STEM magnet in middle school. So lots of experiences getting our kids' hands dirty, literally and figuratively. We have tons of partnerships. And our magnet coordinator, Branna Haver, is always looking for new opportunities, new partnerships, new places we can take our kids, new experiences we can get them. We had fifth graders going to Dodge today, getting on their snow pants and doing all of that. lots of partnerships with the U of M doing different things getting our kids
050to campus getting the U of M into our building trout in the classroom there are three or four classrooms right now that started with little tiny babies and they will grow trout in their classroom and watch them every day as they grow tons of experiences for our kids I think our Marine team is up to about 300 students participating in Marine teams. So when we get farther into the spring, come to our Marine team night. There's tanks everywhere. Nowhere but heritage do you see teachers walking down the hallway carrying bags of fish because they're putting them in someone's tank, right? Science club, tons of STEM experiences. For our seventh graders, Camp St. Croix is one of the highlights. They get to go for three days overnight. Miss London got to go with them. It was
051a super cool experience for them. And then you got to see our math team, so that's something else that we do through our math. e-STEM focus. Some of the new things for us, a STEM store and a STEM lab that is much more hands-on, bringing things into classrooms but also bringing kids out into that STEM lab and saying, what can you make with this stuff that we have here? A new partnership with Wilderness Inquiry, again, getting kids out in nature in different ways. And some partnerships with Dakota County, other grants that we're working through for our e-STEM. And just some pictures. Like, I give a lot of tours of our building. However we can get our kids' hands on experiential learning, we're doing it. So lots and lots of different experiences for them, Science Museum
052History Center, Feed My Starving Children. Any way that we can get them that learning, we're trying to do that. All right, so feedback from students staff and families as part of our middle school review really highlighted the need for increased student voice and choice as a result of that We've enhanced student choice starting in fifth grade with more and more options as students progress throughout middle school Seventh and eighth graders now have access to diverse electives that are designed to foster exploration of interests autonomy motivation and ultimately boost student engagement in the work these electives are proposed by staff reflecting their areas of interest and expertise and current educational trends these are a few of the elective students have access to this year what's happening at heritage is somewhat of a school newspaper made virtual
053made visual students are able to explore interests at heritage interview people and record and share it with the rest of the school marine science helps students learn what it's like to be a scientist and have more hands-on experience with all the animals throughout our building teenager 101 really teaches some of those life skills that many of our middle schoolers can use. Theater gives students a view into what it is like to be an actor. Coding and mechanical systems, another hands-on coding option. And then Warrior Prep is a class that's really helping prepare our students for what life will be like at high school. All right. One strategy Heritage implemented to improve school climate, which is part of our SIP plan this year, was to create a student council. led by our instructional coach, Chelsea McCabe,
054and comprised of 16 fifth through eighth graders at Heritage. Our student council really strives to empower students. in shaping their school community by representing student voices, identifying areas for improvement, and working collaboratively with staff and administrators to make improvements. They have already given feedback and led to changes in the cafeteria experience, which just proves the value of student voice and continual school improvement. So one thing that I needed to make sure we highlighted is our family and community connections. Again, with all of those partnerships for E-STEM. Partnering with families and partnering with our community is really important to us at heritage And just some of the ways that we do that is through parent Academy primarily for Hispanic speaking families Our heritage boosters kind of had a dip for a little while there. They're coming
055back Putting on some community events and things coming up our equity team hosted a black family sharing session that was a pretty powerful event where we as as white educators listen to the perspectives and stories that our our black families brought to us and out of that one kind of our team had planned for one event they the community has requested monthly meetings so i met with kj from rock today so that will be an ongoing partnership of our our our school community and then our black community as well one other partnership we have is with the power of people leadership institute where we have girls taking action and boys of hope two different groups promoting and helping our students to just uplift their leadership skills in the middle school getting them ready for high
056school and just being advocates for themselves Lots of opportunities for families to help on all of those field trips you saw and be part of that community as well so trying to build all of those partnerships together and Then one kind of wrapping back up with heritage joy student celebrations For our positive interventions and supports this year in the fall. Mr. Kennefick our other administrator Helped us to do a fill the tank with our positive habits cards filled the As a school, we tried to fill the tank with how many could we fill it with. We had a fall festival that included a car show, there was some volleyball, our boosters helped with popcorn, there was a car show. lots of different things for students to just hang out together to be in community together
057and then before before winter break in december we also had a success day really making sure we're focused on getting kids to class on time right our classes for some of our grade levels with the schedule change shortened so if you're if you're late You're missing things. So we had really great success in helping kids to make sure they're in class, ready to learn on time, and had a success day for that before winter break. We're working on what the next one looks like. One of the other things, and we're both new, so I don't know how this existed before, but our... students for the most part are loving spirit days. We've had a couple of different spirit weeks and they're excited to show up in whatever the theme is for that day. They're excited
058to go down to the library and have their picture taken with their friends. But just anything we can do to you know bring our middle schoolers in to have them excited about coming to school. Yes to learn and to be with their with their friends and do the fun things that we have going on. Questions for us as the newbie administrators here. Thank you both. Yeah, should we clap for them first? Well good job on your first presentation, I hope there's many more and we're not very scary I promise questions for these two or comments or whatever Oh Morgan I have a soon-to-be fifth grader at Heritage next year who is very, very excited for all of the programming and several middle school neighbors on my block who come home every day with that joy.
059And so I just wanted to say thank you for bringing that to them and making the transition on mom a little easier. Absolutely. Okay, Marcus. I'll really kind of tag on because my daughter is already there, and I can tell you that she is super excited about next year. her classes, her electives, and the balance that is offered. We gave her some autonomy to kind of come up with her own schedule. We just wanted her to challenge herself and to have a well-balanced schedule. And I'm super proud of her, but the choices that were available to her as a parent was almost overwhelming. She kind of honed in on everything herself, and I think she did a great job. But it speaks to all of the different opportunities. So there is a lot to be
060excited about. So thank you guys, and she loves being there. She just loves the feel of the school, and she's having a great year and looking forward to next year. Thank you. We love having her. Okay, anything else? Go ahead. I love the theme of joy. That's always come to mind, I think, when people think of middle school. Right. I love it when pictures get that palpable sense. It sounds like you have a number, like you're inviting the community and families into the school in different ways. It sounds amazing. I want to compliment you on what you shared about the Black Family Sharing Sessions. I think that is... really um admirable uh and appreciated that that you did that and i was wondering um for people who aren't familiar with rock i know you mentioned
061that you met with someone if you just share a little bit about that organization and why you met with them and what they do yeah so so rock stands for residents of color collaborative and kj happens to be the organizer of that organization she also is the grandparent of a heritage student so actually um superintendent olson sco connected her and I and one thing our team and really the listening session came out of our equity team. One thing that I think sharing with anybody else looking to that doing it in partnership with. with Rock and with KJ and her folks was the right move for us. We as white people, right, like white educators, needed to partner to make sure that we had authentic conversations happening in that space. Thank you so much. Appreciate that.
062Thank you for doing that. I will say, like, you're... your theme screams out from your pictures. There's a lot of joy in all those pictures, especially the very first one of all the staff and the shirts. Delightful. It was a wonderful way to start the year to see that picture. They tie-dyed them all themselves. Wow, very nice. You can see the spirit. Everyone's a little different. I love it. Towards my next question, I was like, so how do parents get their hands on those shirts? I don't want you to have to tie-dye 200 shirts. Our heritage boosters are actually working on some heritage gear so we can work it into the gear. Fantastic. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Thank you, too. Thank you. All right, I think the last item on our agenda is
063an action item. Approval of the resolution and transition plan for School District 197, School Board general elections held after 2023 to be moved to even number years. I assume I'm turning it over to you. Thank you, Chair Larson. Yes. I'll just start with a recap of the discussion that we had a couple weeks ago at the work session and give... for the viewing audience and the board, just a reminder of what was discussed. The administration brought initially informationally and then through the course of conversation to a recommendation to the board to transition our elections from. odd years where they currently sit to even years and this was for a host of reasons that were detailed last time are recapped in the board packet this time but i'll hit them again one of which is cost
064it's a it is a it is a significant cost to the district we we can show clearly over fifty thousand dollars worth of expenditures per election but in addition to that we estimate there's an additional 20 to 30 or even greater thousand dollars in costs that come from individuals time that gets redirected from their typical jobs to this so this would be budgets are tight as we've heard both at the state level and local level and so that is one of the reasons for the administration's recommendation is based on cost there are other reasons that have that the board has been that we administration has offered the board one is that there can be voter confusion um in order to save costs even though there's significant costs already described but that is less than it
065would be if we didn't combine our polling locations as we as we do but the problem with that is that then people are voting in different places in even years and odd years so there can be some confusion around that We are down to a handful of districts that even host odd year elections. So there's about 331. That's a pretty accurate number to say. There's 331 Minnesota school districts. And as of the information that was provided to us by the Minnesota School Board Association, about 27 of them. About. That one actually is changing. So that one maybe about is the right word. There's 27 school districts who currently out of 331 that currently have odd year elections. And the majority of those are in the Metro area. And that's based on that same data set,
06618 Metro area school districts. but there's another five approximately five six school districts including ourselves that is all considering changing so that number will drop below a third of metro area school districts and for all the reasons that that i've described and more to describe i mentioned the cost but it is there is time resources that are taken away and actually Because this was a question of the board, I'm just gonna read it if I could. It was an email that we received from Michelle Blue, who's the director of elections for Dakota County. And because we've been in conversations with them about how to, elections are getting more and more complex. And they're more and more heavily scrutinized. And so as a result of that, there's been more and more steps that have been put
067in place over the course of the years to make sure that all the checks and the balances are there. And so here's the response. from the director, again, of elections from Dakota County. Switching school district elections from odd years to even years significantly improves efficiency for election officials and reduces risks associated with districts managing elections independently. In even year cycles, county and city election officials who are trained experts in election administration and legal compliance handle key aspects of the process, ensuring consistency in procedures, security, and application of election laws. laws. This eliminates the need for school district staff who may not be election specialists to oversee complex tasks such as recruiting and training election judges, managing polling locations, ensuring compliance with statutory changes, and testing election equipment. Additionally, consolidating elections minimizes administrative burdens, reduces redundant
068costs for supplies and staffing, and decreases the risk of procedural errors that could compromise election integrity and by moving to even your elections school district staff can rely on experienced election teams avoid potential legal and logistical missteps and allow staff to focus on their core mission supporting students and election policy There is what was added to the packet that wasn't discussed in the prior meeting was more the technical process for transitioning from one to the other. There is a specific type of resolution that we have used a template from MSBA and then put into our local context along with the process for transitioning from a transition plan, which is essentially a set of dates from transitioning from one to the other. i think that recaps what we discussed last meeting along with some questions that
069i've received in between the two meetings but i stand for any questions that the board would have wonderful so since we do have a resolution in front of us i would need a motion and a second in order to discuss motion by byron second by marcus thank you um maybe if we can kind of be orderly. We can all take a turn to make sure everybody gets to ask their questions before somebody asks additional questions, if that's fair. Who wants to go first? Okay. Go ahead. I was going to go first. Go ahead. I don't have a question, more of a comment. I can say that this past Friday, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, AMSD's legislative committee, discussed this as well. Of the districts who still have some odd year elections, more than half
070of them indicated that they would be moving towards even year elections simply because of... many of the reasons that peter stated and also just to have some uniformity across their boards just easier to manage so talking with a couple of the folks who indicated they're moving and then some who said they are still considering if they should move or not it feels like many are really kind of leaning in this direction and it could be more favorable for them just to manage and for efficiency and making sure that they're capping their costs obviously Many districts are trying to balance budgets and so every dollar counts and I think that's the same for our District as well and you think about where we can apply those funds towards different things. I think that becomes very meaningful
071So again, I can keep you posted on what comes of that But it feels like a great many of them are moving towards an even year election if that helps as people are considering the decision That's good information Marcus I would just kind of piling on to the fiscal part I Personally, I take the being a good financial steward of the district's money seriously, and I know you all do too So I just want to clarify a couple things Peter I know that the cost to the district to have the elections in odd years is about $50,000 to be clear if it's even years that fee goes away Or does it go to pretty much everything? There's a very minimal cost. We're talking about, I think, so this year there was a $1,700 cost. That's
072a cost-sharing agreement for some of the polling equipment that still remains in our schools. to be maintained and then the the staffing costs that time would go down because we would no longer be an in-person voting location correct the staffing costs are next to nothing when we when if it was even here. Because again, the difference is that we're not running the elections. The city is either taking the lead or the county is taking the lead. The school district is pulled out. That is something else that I think was in between the lines of the director of elections messages, but there's this question of proximity between the people running the elections and the things for which they're running the elections. And so how to create some distance there. even though I will personally say I
073have the utmost confidence in every election that has been run in the school district and all of the work that goes into making it be a smooth election filled with the utmost integrity. And having said that, I also know that the time that's involved and just... the money that's involved and just the question I think is worth the board's consideration is how to eliminate the questions of too close of proximity between the people running it and what we're voting for. Are there questions or comments before we would vote? Go ahead, John. I've said this before, but I just want to mention it again for anyone that's listening to our meeting, that this does not prohibit us from still having elections on odd number years for bonds or referendums. They don't have to then be exclusively
074on even numbered years But I really want to make that clear so that no one will come back and say why are you having this? you know you're voting on a bond or a referendum on an Unnumbered year, they're supposed to be on even so I wanted to make that clear and I also support the move for financial reasons for Liability reasons for us as well because Dakota County then would be handling any kind of questions that came out about Improprieties in a vote or a question which we hopefully don't have but yes. All right, John go ahead Sure, I think there are I think A good idea. Absolutely support it. I think there are some cons to share, like, just in terms of, like, right, and as I think about it, I think there
075is an outstanding question of, like, does it become either more expensive or more challenging to run for a school board position in even years? I think the reality is we don't. really know other than I think we've all had that experience as one that certainly was not the most enjoyable aspect of serving the community and being on the school board. I think they're, you know, a little concerned that, right, competing for time with other candidates and other issues. It's a little bit of a concern, but again, it's hard to say how that will play out. So while there are some cons, overwhelmingly, a lot of benefits. And I think number one, I think it's really important to call out, besides the financial implication, i want to say thank you to our election clerk because it's
076like one of those probably thankless jobs i imagine in terms of like the stakes are high and i think the idea of the risks at pla that are at stake they're great they're significant and especially in today's political environment separating them out i think is it's important for the district i think it's important for board members for that separation and i think it's important for that role as well too so i think that's significant last I think no thank you yeah And I think the last thing that probably is worth flagging is appreciated the administration bringing this to our attention before our first meeting. So you shared information then. So thank you. It was discussed. I was sick, but it was discussed at a working session. There was a fantastic video recap. of that working
077session that was posted on Facebook. So another opportunity for people in the community to learn. that we're talking about this. Just a little plug for that. There's an opportunity for a public listening session. No, a plug for that video feedback we do, or the video recording at the end. A little plug for that. I think there were a decent number of hits. Yeah, great. So opportunity for today's listening session. No one came, but there was that opportunity. I don't know if there was an opportunity to talk to the district during coffee with the superintendent. I don't know if you heard from any about that. during that meeting and then there was also a fantastic article in the west st paul reader about this topic so while it may feel quick possibly to some i feel
078like at the end of the day there's been a lot of opportunity to listen and to learn and to engage with the district or school board members about the topic and i can say i only heard from one person so and they didn't have any concerns so thank you thanks john go ahead morgan um i was out ill in our last meeting i really appreciate the transparency around the cost of the election at first can i ask a clarifying question so hypothetically if somebody were to question our election results would the would the cost of auditing that fall on us as a district if we didn't approve this do we know that but Dakota County would take care of it. Yeah. So if we had to put more staff time into defending the process that
079we, I mean, I would say that my best guess on those lines comes from the director of elections and the statement that she made that said, let's see, she said something about liability in here. Hold on, just give me a moment. That's what sparked my question was the thought of the liability. Yeah by moving to even year election school districts can rely on experienced election teams avoid potential legal and logistical missteps so I would I would assume that that Suggests some costs. I mean if there's if there's legal missteps then at a bare minimum. There's our Legal fees and times that would be involved. Thank you very much. Not that I would ever suspect All right. Any other questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? All right. I call the vote. All those in
080favor signify. Oh, no. We're going to do a roll call vote. Thank you, Mary. There goes Mary again, being delightful. So just I'll say your name and signify with the aye or no. I don't know. Where did I write everyone's names to record it? That's true. All right. Tim? Aye. Aye. Marcus? Aye. Randy? Aye. Me? Aye. John? Aye. Byron? Aye. Morgan? Aye. All right, that item passes. Thank you, everybody. All right, next item. I'd look for an item to adjourn. Oh, wait, do I have... Just kidding. I have dates to mention. Failed due to lack of a second. All right, upcoming dates. This is always fun. Oh, February 3rd, which is today. Spring sports registration opens and activities, I'd add. February 9th is the Lullaby Concert at 3 at Two Rivers, which is always a
081delightful event, open to all ages. February 14th, there's no school. It's a PD day, but preschool registration opens that day. Madam Chair, if I could just, no, you didn't. February 14th, the No School Due to PD Day is another one of those three days that we added this year that is allowing our staff to do the important work of learning in depth about reading instruction and the science of reading, as well as some other training that we're able to fit in for our staff that doesn't normally have the opportunity to do so. Thank you to our families for accommodating three extra days of taking care of your kiddos while we learn how to better meet their needs. Thank you. Maybe we'll get a good blizzard that weekend for some sledding. Because no school on February
08217th as well for President's Day. And then February 18th is the 2SLGBTQ plus parent and guardian meeting. And with that, I would accept a motion to adjourn. Byron torture. Thank you. Can I get a second from John all those in favor signify by saying aye aye Those opposed and we're adjourned. Thank you everybody