001Welcome to our meeting tonight. I'd like everybody to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And I already said the wrong words. I'd like to call the meeting to order. If you're wondering why it's me, I'm Sarah Larson. I was the vice chair last year. So this is our first meeting of the new board. Welcome, everybody. So I will preside until we have our elections of the new chair, vice chair, and treasurer. And our first item of business is to do the oath of office for our newly elected members. So the new folks can go down to the flag, and we'll do the oath. Yes.
002If there are family or friends, we will do photos at the end of the oath, and so feel free to come on up at that time. All right. I swear, affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this state. I swear, affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this state. And that I will discharge faithfully the duties of the Office of School Board Member. And that I will discharge faithfully the duties of the office of school board member. Of independent school district number 197 to the best of my judgment and ability. Of independent school district number 197 to the best of my judgment and ability. I wasn't kidding. If anybody from the families or they want to come up. Okay. Nope. We're not going
003to do pictures. We'll just have to get those taken later. All right. How about after we do the recognitions and we take pictures of the kids, we can also, if you guys want to do pictures with your families. Perfect. Okay. Next item on the agenda is election of new officers. I don't know why I picked up the gavel. Okay. So nominations are now in order for the office of the chair. I would like to nominate Sarah Larson for chair. All right. Sarah Larson has been nominated, which is weird because that's me. Are there any other nominations for the Office of Chair? Are there any further nominations for the Office of Chair? If there are no further nominations for the Office of Chair, nominations of the Chair are now closed. All those in favor of electing
004Sarah Larson for the Office of Chair signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Thank you. All right. We got two more. Got two more. All right. Nominations are now in order for the Office of Vice Chair Clerk. I would like to nominate John Vaupel as Vice Chair. Thank you. John Vaupel has been nominated. Are there any other nominations for the Office of Vice Chair Clerk? Are there any further nominations for the Office of Vice Chair Clerk? If there are no further nominations for the Office of Vice Chair Clerk, nominations for the office are now closed. All those in favor of electing John Valpel for the Office of Vice Chair Clerk signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Wonderful. John Valpel is now Vice Chair Clerk. All right. Nominations are now in order for the Office
005of Treasurer. I'd like to nominate Byron Schwab for the Office of Treasurer. Thank you. Byron Schwab has been nominated. Are there any other nominations for the Office of Treasurer? Any further nominations for the Office of Treasurer? If there are no further nominations for the Office of Treasurer, nominations for the Office of Treasurer are now closed. All those in favor of electing Byron Schwab for the Office of Treasurer signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Wonderful. Byron Schwab, you're now the treasurer. Thank you. All right. Now we move to our more traditional agenda, except we have some changes. Item number five is approval of the agenda, but we have one change. We're removing item 12, which is the site report from Pilot Now. We will do that at a later time. So with that change, can
006I get a motion for approval of the agenda? Motion to approve the agenda. Byron made the motion. What's the word I'm looking for? And moved to approve. Moved by Bryren. I'll second. And seconded by Marcus. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Wonderful. Agenda is approved. Next item is our consent agenda. And we actually have an addition to the consent agenda as well that you are all given. You all have item H. So item H is the approval of ISD 197 school board member to the ISD 917 school board, which is Byron Schwab. You all have it? Wonderful. So that item's been added to the agenda, or to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? John made a motion. Thank you. Seconded. Thank you. Tim?
007All right. So we're approving the consent agenda. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Thank you. That is complete. All right. Item number seven on our agenda is our listening session report from John. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. We had no attendees to our listening session today. Therefore, I have nothing to report out other than to say that we encourage the public to continue to attend listening sessions. Great report. Thanks, John. Thank you. All right. Our next item, and my personal favorite, is recognitions. Am I turning it to you? Yep, we are. And we've got some students that we are excited to recognize tonight. We'll start with our middle school students from both Friendly Hills and Heritage E-STEM Magnet School. So we'd like to bring up Quetzale Cardoza, Axel Clemmy,
008and when I call your names, come on right up to the podium. So Axel Clemmy from Heritage, and then Vivian Dua, and then Sol Mogelson from Friendly Hills. And please join them, Raina Ferguson, Peyton, Kristen, and Shannon, the school leaders from each of their sites. Wonderful, wonderful. So this group of students, we have one more recognition after this, but this group of students that we are honoring, we are honoring in recognition of the National Mentoring Month, which is occurring this month. It's a time to raise awareness of the power of mentoring and to celebrate supportive and meaningful mentoring relationships. And then Axel, Ketsali, Saul, and Vivian have been nominated by their school leaders for their mentorship and leadership at their respective schools. And so with that, I'm actually going to hand it to our school
009leaders to share some comments about each of our nominees. So let's have Raina and, are you both giving comments? So let's have both Raina and Peyton come on up. All right, come on up. I guess I will go first. I am introducing Quetzale, who is one of our web leaders at Heritage. Quetzale has been the first to volunteer for a number of opportunities. So she volunteered to read the announcements in Spanish each day for quarter one, and then also as a backup person when the current people are sick. Ketsali jumps in volunteers every time a counselor or a fifth grader or a sixth grader needs assistance with something. She's also the first and only person to volunteer to help the fifth graders sort breakfast in the mornings. Ketsali is super important to our web program.
010not only for her Spanish speaking abilities, which supports a lot of our newcomers in fifth and sixth grade, but also for the positivity that she brings every day. Kitsali comes with a smile on her face no matter what's going on. And I think that that is a huge benefit to our school and to our community. I get to speak about Axel. Axel is another one of our eighth graders at Heritage. He's also one of our web leaders. He, like Katsali, is one of the first to volunteer and offer his support for new students, helping counselors and supporting fifth graders that are new to middle school tasks, especially opening up lockers. Many eighth graders carry a backpack around and don't go to their locker, so they've forgotten how to open it. But Axel has relearned how,
011and he teaches the fifth graders how, or any new student. He is also a big brother. So we have a mentoring program at Heritage. All of the web leaders are paired up with a big brother or big sister. And today, just as an example, there was a little brother without his big brother there. Axel jumped right in, was the first volunteer. No time for anybody else to volunteer because he was on it. He also is gonna be working with one of our seventh graders who's on his wrestling team to help mentor him academically. So once again, just jumping in wherever he can, always has a smile on his face, and always super kind and displaying our heritage habits. Well, let's give those two mentors a round of applause. Kristen and Shannon, if you could come
012up, and then we will provide the board with an opportunity to ask questions or comment. All righty. Vivian. is one of our eighth graders. She's a web leader. She's in student council. She's an avid and she's lucky enough to have me in homeroom. So she, you know, just gets the, okay, Ms. Quinn just called. You need to go to the office right now. There's a new student. And she's like, yep. All right. I got it. She's also the one that I'm like, you got to go to this teacher's classroom and grab this thing. And she's that student, you know, you can trust to run and go grab the thing and not make the stops along the way to say hi to their friends, which is a really Good skill to have as an eighth grader.
013She's always willing to work with the fifth and sixth graders with homework help, tutoring, things like that. She's also willing to go and help her classmates with tutorials in AVID or if we have flex time, anything like that. She's always willing to go and just help everybody be a better student. And she is a true leader at Friendly Hills and we're very lucky to have her. And then we have Saul, also an eighth grader at Friendly Hills. He's always willing to help out when needed, always has a smile on his face. He is a web leader, and he's a great mentor. He's able to work with any student, no matter their grade, or if he knows them well or not. He's another one we just always are calling on for different tasks or duties. He
014also, when I asked him to be part of our district equity team, he eagerly stepped up, knowing it was an out-of-school commitment. And I just couldn't believe, like an eighth grader, like being around all different adults from our district and high schoolers, just, yeah, let's do it. All right, students, I imagine our board might have a couple questions for you. So why don't you step closer to the microphones? Who's got questions? Go ahead, Morgan. Well, first, thank you all so much for stepping into leadership roles. The question I have for you is, what would you tell younger students is a benefit to them for stepping into the role that you're in? I think a lot of the lessons you learn in middle school help any way along your journey to high school. It's a big
015step from elementary school to middle school, so I just think it's really important that you get kind of used to it. I think kind of like Saul was saying, like learning the lessons along the way and kind of like it's very, very different from elementary school and like you're not really as much babied so much as you are like kind of welcomed into this like bigger society and then like you're prepared for high school, which is another gigantic step. So I think it's kind of just surrounding yourself by good people and like being on top of your work and all of that stuff is kind of just lessons that you learn along the way. So I think being viewed by teachers, counselors, literally anyone around the building, viewed as the person responsible for helping any
016student, any teacher in anything that they might need. Good answer. Anyone else have questions for them? Unless Axel wants to answer. Okay. Sam has a question. Oh, sorry. It's just a comment. Katsali, I would just like to say how proud I am of you because I've watched you, like, grow through swimming and watching you grow as a leader through web is just so cool. And congratulations on all you've accomplished. Anything else over there? Any questions? I guess, what is, like, your favorite part of the web program? I just like working with kids. I think it's perfect. Sign up and then you get to spend time with the kids. You see them in the halls every day. They'll come up to you smiling, say hello. Kind of makes, you can tell it makes their day and
017makes my day. Basically, I'm piggybacking off of Sagan. It's like... I have this one kid, Skye, and she is so kind and so amazing and definitely a helper towards everyone. It felt like the kids that I was put with definitely needed a little extra guidance, and she helped move them along with me as well. And it felt like almost she was kind of a web leader too. But yeah, she'll come up and give me hugs and basically just helping kids just feels good and knowing that they have someone to look up to or that they can count on is nice. I think they've said everything I have wanted to say. I just love being around fifth and sixth graders to help in anything that they might need. And I also have experiences with fifth graders
018who come up to me, give me a hug, tell me how their day was, and it's just lovely to see them. I like to be somebody that... People look up to and so that when they're like in my position when they're older they want to be like Oh, I want to be like that guy That's that's what I was gonna say as a mom who has a younger Middle school student. I just want to say thank you to you as eighth graders for being kind for being leaders in the school for being someone that the younger kids can look up to you and that makes them feel safe and excited to be there and You doing that at those middle schools, it's more valuable than you'll ever know in the way that you affect those
019younger students. So I thank you, and I'm honored to know you and proud to have you here tonight. So well done. Thank you. Any other questions for these four? Go ahead, Byron. I also want to thank you for the work that you do as web leaders. Congratulations. It really does make a difference. Just out of interest, how long have you been in District 197? And if so, which elementary did you attend? I've been there since my whole life. I went to Mendota. I've been here since second grade. I moved here from Highland Park. I went to Mendota Elementary, so yeah. I have been in the district since fourth grade and I went to Garlow. I've been in the district since kindergarten and I went to Garlow as well. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?
020I love that we had middle schoolers here getting recognized. So thank you to the four back there for helping to make this happen. And thanks for noticing these kids and bringing them out for us tonight. And I'm excited to see if we get to see you again someday when you get to high school and we get to recognize you for something else. So thank you for coming. All right, so for our next recognition, we'd like Arena to join us. Arena is a 12th grader at Two Rivers High School. She also serves on the Superintendent Students Advisory Council. We had a great conversation last Friday. But tonight, she is here to, we're going to recognize, is... Ben here. There's Ben. Oh, Ben, come on up. So Ben is her speech and debate coach. We know that
021from past accolades. But tonight is about something entirely different. Yeah, so really excited to be here. Thank you again, Mr. Olsen-Skogut, Madam Chair, and the rest of the board. Really exciting. honor and opportunity for Irina moving forward as she moves into her post-secondary life. There's about 2,000 students annually who are selected by the QuestBridge Scholars Program. This program focuses on identifying students who have hardships or students who face challenges that they really believe have great academic potential in their post-secondary learning. And as a result of that, QuestBridge pays for your tuition, they pay for your room and board, they pay for your food, they pay for travel expenses for you to get where you're going a few times a year and cover books. They really try to make your post-secondary experience very little to no
022cost. And so this past summer, well really starting last spring, Arena and I began to work on her QuestBridge application and work through what this would look like. I've been teaching for 15 years. I've had one other student get selected for QuestBridge. Not only do you have to get admitted to a QuestBridge match school, which UPenn is a pretty nice school. There are not many QuestBridge match schools that are less rigorous than UPenn. that's generally the type of school they're looking to send students to so not only do you have to be one of the 2 000 students selected for the scholarship but you've got to qualify to go to one of these schools to to receive that scholarship as well so arena has faced plenty of challenges in life. Those who were here when
023she spoke to teachers in the kickoff heard about her journey as a English language learner at ISD 197 and her growth. And she has taken on all the things she can take out in high school, I think. If you're missing something, I don't know what it is. In the midst of all of this, and I personally believe the reason she got selected just beyond all of the kind of box-checking things that you would say make someone a good applicant for QuestBridge, her time at Living Well and volunteering and giving back, when she knows she also has to go to work and she knows that she's in all of these activities, those are the things that really stood out to me, and then just kind of her grit and determination. in the activities that I coach
024and she participates in. This year was pretty nice outcome in debate. She made quarterfinals of the state tournament. Last year she made a national tournament in speech. It's just been really wonderful to have her in a program that continues to grow. And she was in a position as a junior to basically be told, hey, you're like the. only a couple juniors here that means you're now a leader welcome to it i hope it works well and it definitely has and she's been a key reason why our programs have grown from mid-20s to high 30s and low 40s so just appreciate everything she's done but i was glad to have an opportunity to share with the board this really like i said i've had two students selected in 15 years so We're hopeful. There is one
025other student at Two Rivers who has been selected as a QuestBridge scholar. He needs a match. That's Sam. And so we're hopeful that Sam matches as well. But to be selected and to be matched in early admission is just very rare accomplishment. So glad that I could share this information with you all. Thank you. Okay, I know we have questions for Irina, and I'm not going to go first. Oh, good. Go ahead, Lori. Hi, Irina. Hi. I would just like to say a huge congratulations. You are such an incredible person. Working with you in SSAC, I mean, you speak so eloquently and so profound. I mean, like, your ideas that you bring up are something that, like, I would never think of. But through this whole, like, journey that Mr. Greger was saying, what do
026you think was, like, the, had the most biggest impact? Like, what? what was it that got you there? Because clearly out of 15 years, this is very special, this is very rare. So what would you say that big impact was or what helped you the most get to the position that you're in? Yeah, so when it comes to just my application as a whole, I really tried to tell a story. I don't know which way to look, but I really tried to tell a story that I really want to help people. And although I wanted to overcomplicate my short answers and my essays, I... started with the sentence, I want to help kids. And as I expressed throughout my application and I showed throughout my extracurriculars is that I love volunteering at Living Well, which
027is for Living Well Disability Services. So I make frozen meals or I deliver them or I just interact with the individuals at the homes and it just lightens my day to do that. And just in my college admission application as a whole, I tried to push the idea that like Whatever happens in life, no matter like how big or small, you can always change somebody's day by a small action. And I think I really push that idea in the application. Oh, that's great. That's perfect. Thank you. Great. Who else? Anyone? Go ahead, Marcus. Irina, I'd be curious to know, hearing you say that, what's influenced your passion? from wanting to help others? Yeah, so I hope to be like a mix between like a cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology major at Penn. And it all stemmed
028with my aunt. She works at an orphanage in Romania. And so I helped her out a lot when I was there during the summer. And just the idea that I get to work with these children that, you know, have like a rough time at home. home or different circumstances. I just loved getting to know them. And the part of psychology aspect of it, I love psychology. I love how one small event can change the way you think for the rest of your life, growing up specifically. So I do wish that after Penn and after... many more years of schooling that I end up being a pediatric neuropsychologist and I get to work with these kids and I get to make a difference no matter like how small. That's fantastic. Thank you. There's a great need
029for that. I'd like to add that your mom would probably add, as long as you come back and live here. Yeah. All right. Other questions for Irina? Go ahead, Tim. First and foremost, congratulations. This is wonderful. It's clear based upon what your teacher said that you're very talented, very driven, but you have a very wide view of the world and where there's need. And I will simply say sometimes to effectuate change, you have to... You can't get around having a pedigree helps and you're doing the right things not from a position of arrogance I want this hanging on my wall these places and these platforms are gonna allow you to leverage your desire leverage your education to fulfill What is a very noble desire? So I wish you the best of luck and congratulations again.
030Thank you Other questions for arena or comments. I would like to know what went through your mind when you found out that you got it So it was the day of the speech tournament, not speech, debate, oh my goodness. It was the day of the debate tournament and like the whole day I had like a lot of tests that day as well. So I had a lot on my mind and I wanted to perform well because it's my senior year and I want to do well at the last state tournament. But I knew that I was getting matched and I like looked online that it would be around three. I saw the notification on my phone. I was freaking out. I was like, ah! But, you know, regardless of the outcome, like I wasn't super
031set on matching. So it's OK if I didn't. There's always other options. There's always regular decision. I already applied to the UC schools as well, just in case. And so this was exciting. I took my friends aside and in the hallway, I clicked like the like the refresh of the notification and said I matched. But I did not look at where I was just freaking out. I was like, I did it. I don't care where I go. But yeah, and then I saw the University of Pennsylvania and it was one of my top schools. It was just, it was mind blowing. It was, for me, it was a very emotional day overall because it means so much to me that I was able to achieve something like this and never in my wildest dreams did
032I think I would get here. For me, I mean. My parents sacrificed a lot to come to this country. And for me, I just wanted to go to college. So anywhere would have been like an achievement for myself. And knowing that. me being a first generation student in America and English not even being my first language, but being to achieve the rigorous academic work and all the activities and for like in high V League school to see that and see what my passion is for like my future was just everything. My parents cried, I cried. It was emotional. But yeah, I mean. I cried. Yeah, you were the first adult I told. I'm sorry that I knew before you came. I just happened to be there. No, congratulations. I mean, you're a role model. You're
033a mentor. You are a good friend. I'm proud to know you. I'm proud that you're a member of our school. I want to share a memory of you at Mendota in the talent show, singing songs by herself as like a third grader or fourth grader. Never would I have known that English wasn't your first language then. And the guts that it took for you to do that back then. It all makes sense now knowing you as a senior. So I would also like to say that your very sweet father asked me that day, is this uncommon? Is this a big deal? I might have yelled, yes. So congratulations to George and Gabby. And congratulations, Rena. We're very proud. Yes. Thank you. And now we're going to take a little break to do pictures. So all
034the kids that were recognized and the new school board members and their families. And the staff members that came. You're not off the... talk amongst yourselves gather for photos All right. Congratulations. Not my most beautiful day, but you know. Okay Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's going to be in student life. Beautiful. I'm so excited. Thank you. You too, queen. I know. You ate. Really, it's so good. I'm so proud of you. You guys have a good night. Thank you. See you tomorrow. This is true. It is. I know. They're playing tonight. It is the national championship game. Yeah, my mom was like, I'm going to come to the student union. She's like, it's a national football championship, and obviously with my dad as a coach. Wait. I don't know why this is so cute. Scary? Oh!
035I was like, at first I was like, oh God, and then I was like, that does not even make sense. Thank you. The room keeps getting... Next item on our agenda is the student representative report. So go ahead, Lori and Sam. Good evening everyone and we hope you had a wonderful wonderful winter break and Happy New Year Hopefully we all got some time to rest and just recharge throughout the district Our students are starting to get back into the groove of things and they're super excited to get back into business Because we've only been back at school for a week This won't be the longest report, but that doesn't mean that we have some really cool stuff for you So I'm gonna pass it on to Laura. All right for elementary schools Garlow is having
036a Culver's night tomorrow night from 4 to 7 at the West St. Paul Culver's. So, you know, they always have good mixers and blizzards there. Also for Garlow, from 1 to 3 p.m. on the 13th, they're having a sledding day in their own outdoor area. And on the 23rd, Garlow will also be hosting a Pi Night from 5.30 to 6.30. And on the 18th, from 4 to 6.30, throughout all of the elementary schools, they're having their Kindergarten Registration Day. And Mendota will be having a PTA sledding party on the 23rd. How fun. And we finally got a little bit of snow, so hopefully Garlow and Mendota will be able to do that. And for our middle schools... Friendly Hills will be having their winter music concerts coming up starting at 7 p.m. with the sixth
037grade concert on the 9th and the fifth grade concert on the 11th. Also, Heritage is having an LGBTQ plus IA parent and guardian night on the 10th of January from 6 to 7.30, and they're having a traditional winter storytelling and family resource night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the IMC on the 18th of January. Now for Two Rivers, with the end of first semester coming to a close, finals are approaching for our high school students, and although we just got off of a long break, many students are looking forward to the upcoming four-day weekend from the 25th through the 28th. Winter sports have been in full swing, and I feel like one of the best ways to connect with the student body can be at school events. And our teams have been providing
038some pretty amazing games to watch. Boys basketball was thrilled with their huge win over North and South St. Paul for the first time in a couple of years, while boys hockey beat Hill-Murray in overtime for the first time since 1974, which is 50 years. They beat them 3-2. The dance team wore Metro East Conference championships in both... champions in both kick and jazz this year and just recently the varsity jazz team took first place at their own invite. The team found this very encouraging because they were competing against their new AAA section. Well, there has not been a lot of snow for the Nordic team this year. That didn't stop the girls' varsity team from taking first place at their last race. Speech and Debate had their first tournament at Mounds Park Academy, where they
039took second overall, while Boys Swim and Dive also had a very impressive beginning to their season. Their first dual meet of the season was against Simley, where they won for the first time in 20 years, 105-78. The musical rehearsals have been in full swing. Senior Chloe Holmes says that something that really stood out was a highlight this past Friday when they learned a new dance. It really brought the cast together and they were able to be really proud of something that they created and put together as a whole. Girls hockey has also had an amazing showing beating Hastings for the first time in a couple years and tying simly Lastly girls basketball also had some highlights senior Gabby Critcheter says that we have surpassed our record from the past two years and are loving our
040new coach For the first time in program history, they have four teams and they are 1 and 0 for conference play so far on The 15th of January from 9 a.m. To 12 p.m. Key Club is hosting an MLK day of service the program Wanted to dedicate that day of school to give back to community and serve Everyone is invited and there will be a very own guest speaker, Marcus Hill, as well as tons of fun service projects and snacks. So please invite your friends and spread the word. Yes. In conclusion for the student board report, this wraps up the meeting and well, basically there's no conclusion because we just did it and we're excited to continue sharing what is going on with the student body as a whole in the end of the 2024
041school year. So thank you. Thank you and wave your arms over there if I forget to ask if you have questions in the future. Sounds good. All right. Thank you. So our next item is the ISD 917 program overview. So I welcome Dr. Michael Faber. Oh my gosh, just kidding. I'm skipping the superintendent. Dr. Faber, you can have a seat. Next item is Peter Wilson's book. We'll make it quick. You'll be up here in a second. All right. So good evening and welcome to the first school board meeting of 2024. Before we move on to the next year. I just love hearing, and we keep hearing them, first time in 20 years, first time, I mean, just the first time in 50 years, I think, was one of them. Our students and our staff are
042experiencing tremendous success in many different arenas. But looking back to 2023, True Rivers High School was named a top high school by U.S. News and World Report. We inaugurated our inaugural class into the Warrior Hall of Fame. Staff members from across the district received awards for their exceptional work. Students from all of our schools continue to shine both inside and out. You saw some more examples tonight and you'll continue to see them at each of our board meetings into the future. So first, to start this year, I just want to say thank you to our students, our staff, and our families for making these moments possible. Now, as we think about 2024, we were just talking about this at the Parent Ambassador Network, or PAN for short, this morning, but students at Moreland Arts and
043Health Sciences Magnet. have kicked off their, oh, do we need to slow down for some pictures? All right, no worries, we can keep going. Oh, here it is, right there. Students at Moreland Arts and Health Science Magnet have kicked off their large-scale community mural through a school-wide residency project. So students and staff are... working together to create a mural for the backside that faces the playground and that's scheduled to be installed later this spring. So here's a few pictures of them working together with a professional muralist on some brainstorming activities a few weeks ago. So that's very exciting. Here is a visual reminder, just a reminder to our families, that the annual district survey is now open and will remain open for families through February 2nd. So the goals of our survey are to gather
044feedback from our district parents. There's also staff surveys and student surveys, but this one is for our families, their parents, and guardians, and it helps us measure progress towards our strategic goals. Earlier today, each parent and guardian should have received a personalized link to their survey. And while the survey is optional, we really strongly encourage it. The more feedback the district gets, the better we can meet the needs of our students and families. So thank you in advance for taking some time on that survey between now and February 2nd when it closes. And then finally... I love that he doesn't know this. I'm pleased to announce that our very own Byron Schwab has attained the Minnesota School Board Association Director's Award for 2023-24. Here's your certificate, Byron. Congratulations. And I will tell the viewing audience,
045this recognition is reserved for board members who complete 100 or more hours of attendance at MSBA-sponsored meetings and activities within the four-year period. MSBA, so the Minnesota School Board Association, states that they appreciate the efforts and the dedication of all of our school board members and how they put forth all of those efforts for the sake of our public school children. So Byron and the rest of this year's MSBA award winners will be honored at the Leadership Recognition Luncheon later this week. So thank you to Byron for your commitment to our students and our community. And with that, Madam Chair, I conclude my report so that Michael can come up again. I'm so glad I totally didn't skip it because congratulations, Myron. All right. Thank you. And actually, I would like to introduce Dr. Faber.
046Intermediate School District 917 provides high-quality, equitable, specialized programming to meet the needs of students. 917 currently serves nine member districts in the South Metro area. in the area of special education, career and technical education, and alternative learning. The nine school districts are South St. Paul, Burnsville, Egan, Savage, Farmington, Lakeville, Randolph, West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Egan, Invergrove Heights, Hastings, and Bloomington. Each school district has a representative who serves on their board. I am pleased to be... appointed to another three-year term on the 917 board and I'm also very pleased to have been able to represent our district on that board for the past I believe five years. So here is Dr. Michael favor to tell us a little bit more about a 917. Dr. favor is 917 superintendent. Welcome. Thank you. Madam chair, board members,
047superintendent, students, guests. Your assistant who's just amazing? Never felt the place So, thank you. I call my assistant Linda boss. I'm sure Peter doesn't say We're gonna talk a little bit I'm going to be respectfully quick about 917 and Kind of bring you up to date on some of the things that are happening in 917 first and foremost mission Representative Schwab mentioned our mission and our vision. It's kind of our vision and our mission and what we do, what we're about. Our core values. We have nine core values, and they have come from our strategic plan. These core values are the language of our students, our staff, our families. And from that, they talked about or it was talked about the daily experience they want to see every day. every student, every day, and what
048it looks like. And along with this, at 917, we talk about we belong to each other. We belong to each other. So what does that look like in behavior? What does that look like in beliefs? How we work together and continuing to belong to each other. This is something that came out in April, Standards of Effective Practice. I'm sure some of you are familiar with it. And what this is, is about how teachers are going to be developed in the future. This is very important, and I just wanted to share this with you, because people that are coming out of the pipeline to go into the profession, there's some key components. that are going to be asked of teachers and how they develop, how they've been developed. And so what does that mean for our
049current teachers and what we expect from them and our culture, again, of belonging to each other. I'm not going to read all of this. You can see it. But if you haven't seen it, I would ask you to take a moment because it's pretty important. At 917, our core values in many ways is our North Star. So as we're going through this, you know, one of the questions I have for you, maybe at the end, what exactly is your North Star? Because I say this because they're all our children. Your students, our students, they're all our children. So how do we reflect that? And how can I support you in helping you guide your North Star in this district? So I'm curious as to what is your North Star? Our strategic directions came from our
050strategic plan. We completed the strategic plan as I was entering. This is my third year as superintendent. Going into my fourth year, I hope, going into my fourth year, and strategic directions are in place. I wanted to give you kind of... Working definitions as well as our academic programs. We have a number of programs, you know, and if you know anything about special ed, there's acronyms for just about everything. I mean, so I want to provide you with a slide that helps unpack our acronyms as we move forward through this process. Our alternative education program that we offer at DCALS, housed in Rosemont and also West St. Paul, I think across from that Colbert's. That's... going to be honored. We're located there. Thank you for the help with that building and the career and technical
051education that we offer. We also partner through Perkins. We have $300,000 that as a collaborative we work together on to help your CTE programming, help all of our other member districts programming and trying not to duplicate services, to plant services. But what do you need to enhance and grow the services that you want to offer through CTE? That's career and technical education. Quick fact, just the legislative, In 1969, organized the authorized, I'm sorry, Chapter 136D, authorized intermediates. So there's four intermediates in the state. And I'll talk a little bit about that and a unique partnership that we have in working together. Excuse me. Just some quick facts about 917. Representative Schwab talked about the nine-member districts, where we're located, our main offices. Our enrollment's a little down because our staffing is down. I want to
052talk about what we're doing there. It's kind of a breakdown of some of our students and our employment numbers and our budget. This may change as of tomorrow with people being elected and selected to the board, but here are some of the leaders from nine-member districts. This is the crew. What a crew. What we do at our meetings, we embed our core values. So during our meetings, we talk about innovation, we talk about collaboration, and how we present to the board is through those nine core values that we embody and live and work in. Some of our strategic partners. I don't know if you're familiar with Rev Academy, but I would highly recommend you take a look at Rev Academy. They're doing some great work with the business, business offices and collaboration. We don't have
053a staff handbook. We have what we call a culture guide. And what we do with our culture guide is we're, again, being very intentional about sharing that sense of purpose and belonging. how we set up all staff for success, centers around our core values, and it helps answer some of the basic questions around the work we do. What is the desired culture we want and we will have at 917? Okay, here's what's exciting for me. We really worked hard. around staffing. It's part of my evaluation. The board wanted to make sure that we're doing everything possible with staffing. First of all, first one, and I left you links to this, our teacher apprentice program. We're working with four of the other three intermediates, but we're developing a teacher apprentice program. We're the only one that
054has been granted authority to have a... Teacher Apprentice Program currently in the state which is exciting because we get to design it the way that we want and people will model our design. What's exciting about this is this is not through MDE. This is through the Department of Labor. Kind of like an apprentice program for someone who wants to go into carpentry, someone who wants to go into Auto mechanics, but the competencies it's a competency based program. So you're not going to get something that's watered down But it's going to be programming that's very intentional. So for example We're going to hire a pair of professionals Who come in? Go to work every day And work towards being a teacher if that is their interest They'll get a hands-on experience Now, preparation programs, you can
055go out and prepare some people for this job, but there's no better preparation than being there doing the job because when you're working with setting for kids, for example, unless you've been there and have been a part of it, it's really difficult to keep, recruit, and retain teachers. So this is exciting for us. And we're partnering with the other four member, the three intermediates and working together to develop this. Resilience, resistance, resilience and reimagining is a grant that we've partnered with Metro State. Humanities Center. And part of that grant is through PELSB. We've applied for this grant. We received $160,000 and we can offer affinity groups for teachers of color throughout our member districts and even throughout the state. So if you have some teachers that are interested, teachers of color and indigenous teachers, we
056will help establish affinity groups, work closely. to help retain teachers. Innovative approaches to hiring. We just recently have hired four international teachers. Those four international teachers are gonna be part of the SUN program. And I wanna be real clear when I say this, these are highly qualified teachers. Sometimes when you hear people talk about and I've had to check some of my my own staff when you talk about international teachers for some reason people believe Refugees these are people with masters PhDs been in the profession and How they qualify and we're excited because we're going to start with four. They should be here people should be here roughly February mid-march and it should have an impact on our wait list as we begin to roll teachers in. It's a three-year commitment, so we're going to
057have the teachers for three years, and we're really excited about that, and we're going to look to bring more teachers over from Canada, from anywhere, as well as Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, anywhere we can find highly qualified teachers. Staff listen circles I'm smithing with your principal from the high school and we're talking about the importance of no listening the staff about what it takes to retain them and We can't recruit our way out of this We're going to have to really focus on retention and retaining staff. So we put together listening circles so that as we've just settled our contract, some of the things that they've asked for, we've made sure that we've included in our contract, such as more time to work collaboratively. mental health supports. We're going to be working with a program called
058Violence around some of the mental health supports that people need. So we're excited about that. Lastly, sharing our story. We have a wonderful story at 917. I want to say this also about teaching. I think teachers, we have to do a better job of sharing our story. So we're really focusing on the amazing work that teachers do and the amazing work that 917 does. We do some excellent work. Part of what we've done over the last year or so is have established a data hub so that you can get information, exactly everything from referral information to information you may need around race, gender, disproportionality, some of those kind of things. Here's a list of students taking career and technical. If you notice, it's gotten small over the years, and I think that's because, I think
059it's called tri-district. You all kind of do your own thing, and we don't have a lot of students in CTE programming going that way. This is one of the ways Perkins supports what you do. Special education services. Here's where the impact of staffing can really see it. This is specifically for ISD 917 over time. Everything and all of the programs, case dash, if you look back at the definition of those programs, you understand the placement. And itinerant services, our speech, our deaf and hard of hearing, some of those kind of programs that are offered. Alternative schools. We have roughly at alternative schools mostly at DeKalb's North. I will say here I'm impressed and I applaud your superintendent. He often wants to meet and have ideas and talk with students about why they're leaving, why they're
060choosing an alternative school. So he's one of the few superintendents that have reached out consistently. To meet with students and understand what the system can do better. So I applaud Peter for that You know a stack Any questions? Thank you. Dr. Faber open it up to questions from the board Go ahead Sure. Thank you. Thanks for coming, joining us again, Dr. Faber. This is not the first time, obviously. Great presentation. I was curious if you could, looking at the slide for ISD 197, special education participation at ISD 917. You have data in terms of for this school year, how many students are enrolled and how many are on the waiting list. I'm not particularly familiar with the SUN program, but thanks to your acronym chart, which I so appreciate, it stands for Students with Unique
061Needs. And I see that there are 19 students on the waiting list. Would you talk, it's not a program I'm familiar with, but could you just talk a little bit about what that program is? what the reasons might be for why the waiting list is so long. The reason is staffing. And the four teachers we've just hired are all going to be in the SUN program. Okay. So it's specifically going to that waiting list. It's what it is, students with unique needs. And I think, I know your special ed director is really familiar with the programming that happens. It's really individualized for students. And our biggest issue is staffing. We've lost a number of teachers and psychologists to member districts. And I'm okay with that if that's what we're going to be. If we're going
062to be the St. Paul Saints to the Minnesota Twins, I just want to make sure that we are staffing appropriately to do so, if that's the case. And I want people to be happy. where they are and We're looking at that now as we're branching out and bringing in more teachers possibly more than we need or anticipate because Somehow they end up in other districts. I remember districts somehow somewhere stop smirking Peter. So I'll someone It certainly does thank you and a staffing one's got to be a challenging one, but it sounds like you have some nice solutions in place to Try to counter that. Yeah, I think this apprentice program. Yeah, be really exciting and I'm just gonna brag a little bit We prepare special education teachers better than anyone we do and I'm
063proud of that So someone who comes in as a pair who has an opportunity To work make maybe make a little extra money We're figuring that out with the contract and also work towards being a teacher at no cost. It's exciting. Again, we're the only one in the state right now. And it's through the Department of Labor, which is very different than through teaching and learning. But the competencies, the quality will be there. Working with Mankato, that's part of that process. Go ahead, Morgan. Thank you so much for this presentation. That's actually what my question is about because I'm from here, taught in Texas, and then came back home to teach here and have been wondering so much about... pathways to certification and especially in special education. So wondering if the apprenticeship program is being
064watched as a pilot or if you're, I know it's going through the Department of Labor, but is MDE watching it or kind of looking at it to look at the success of the program? We've been meeting with some representatives and we're asking them to monitor. and watch what we're doing to see if this is a pilot for other member districts or other districts. Now I'm not supposed to say this because this is kind of a dream. We may get to a point where you say, I have three paraprofessionals that I'd like to move and be a part of this program with them coming back to work in your district. How can we work together to develop them? That's a kind of innovation. That I'm looking for if you're interested you come on down right now.
065What's up a meeting and have a conversation figure out if If you can begin working at night I'm not a special ed teacher Maybe someday in my future I'd like to be good. Can I ask a follow-up question on that then? Um, so My sister was a para for a while and then had to get a variance to teach in a setting for school. Is there a licensing issue with that where people are being given a special license to go through the program? Or how is that working? Or not because it's Department of Labor? You will have a journey teacher, basically a mentor teacher. So let's say Byron was a teacher in the class and that would be Byron's para. I will be my journey teacher. Okay. Show me and mentor me on how to
066write IEPs, competency, standard-based instruction, some of those kind of things. And then I would have to reflect that as I exit the program to earn my license through Mankato State and the state. Awesome. Thank you so much. So it's competency-based. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? That's a great question. All right. Well, thank you for coming tonight. And I look forward to seeing you again next year. Thank you. I'm going to get the next item. Correct. It is the site report from Two Rivers High School. So I welcome Dr. Johnson. It will. Fantastic. Good evening, board chair. Congratulations for new board members. Superintendent Olsen-Skog, Cabinet, and guests and friends. I am, I don't know why I get this way when I come here. I just get overwhelmed, especially when I see so many of
067my students here. And so I want to say a couple of things. You're going to hear me say I a lot, but no, all this has not been an individual effort. It is not and I'll talk about I'll talk to that in a moment but I Own this I own this I love every person under my roof and I mean that and So I hopefully I can honor them in this presentation tonight because I am absolutely honored to be the principal of Two Rivers High School And I'm going to share some things with you that's been going on so far this year. And I'm also going to look to share what's coming up. The first question is, who are we? And actually, let's say, who am I? I really work hard at being a servant
068leader. That means giving of self and sometimes to a fault. However, tonight I'm going to serve. So hang on. So it's teaching. Everybody that left are going to wish they were still here. So this is not gluten-free. And if there's anyone that is that requires a gluten-free diet, that would be fantastic. Yep. You all look like you need a little snack. And I already said I'm going to play while I'm up here, so let's have some fun, right? Because it's exciting. It's exciting. And that's what we want to bring to this space. I'll talk about where those come from in a moment. But who we are is we're hashtag warrior strong. And you can define that by some of the students you see here right now. Absolutely. Marina, who was here earlier. We're striving to
069be the best at what we do, at all levels. Absolutely. Do we have work to do? We do. Okay? We want to do better academically. We want to raise our achievement level. We want to have more perfect ACT scores and full-ride scholarships. We have some right now, which is fantastic. We want more. We really do. Athletically, just all around. And it's exciting right now this time because we're finding some successes in a bunch of different arenas, right? It helps to build the school pride and some hopes and dreams of what we could actually become. Let me see if I did this too fast. Oh, no, I'm right on track. Awesome. And so at Two Rivers, we work hard at offering outstanding academic programming in a learning environment that I would say is just the right
070size. You know, it's big enough to when you look at the variety of offerings that we have at Two Rivers, we can do those things. We have the student body to support it and the staff to support it. And small enough. to allow for the formation of authentic relationships, student to student, student to staff, staff to staff, families to school. Those pieces are critical. We are growing our comprehensive and rigorous classes so that they challenge our students and allow them to be prepared for college and or career, whichever they choose. We don't dictate what you do after high school, but we want to prepare you for whatever choice you want to make, you're ready for it. And so I do get emotional and I do get filled when I see Irina, Loray, Samantha, Gabrielle, and
071Reese. I get excited. I have a lot to be proud of. and we do as a school and as a community. It's been fun watching our students grow and compete and support one another. I believe we have the best superfans in the state still. We started some of the superfans last year and this year how they show up for one another. And if you didn't know it, fantastic dance team doing amazing things. We have a palm squad doing great things and we also have a new cheerleading team. How more, what else can we bring to the table here? Right? So I'm proud of our students and what they're doing. If you had the opportunity to be at homecoming this year, I was behind Byron. I think that's my permanent spot, which I'm digging because I
072can run up and get extra candies from him when I'm out. We had nearly 1,700 fans at our football game. It was packed. And thank you, thank you, thank you to my families and friends that came out to help support our dance where we had nearly over 900 students show up. And it was a phenomenal event. I really want Two Rivers to be a place where kids can, and students can come and meet students, find their people. realize their hopes and dreams, let us partner with families in order for them to get there. I have some folks, someone that I'm going to introduce in a couple of minutes, but win, lose, or draw, being hashtag Warriors Draw means that we come together as a community. Another point of pride, and I want to say this
073publicly, I have an amazing staff. I know Dr. Faber talked about retention and recruiting. I am proud of the fact that we have almost a 99% retention rate of staff at Two Rivers, our licensed staff. That is phenomenal because I talked to my colleagues across the state and that's not the case. Why? Because from front to back, we're trying to show people we care about you. You are professionals. You're really, really good at your job. We value that. We see that in our students' achievement. We see that in how our student's growing. We need you here. We give them some freedom. We give them some space. That allows for consistency. And the consistency then spills over from the students to the students and allows that success to happen. Every day, Two Rivers staff members plays
074a critical role in the success of our students. Every day, they have actions with our students, either be in the classroom, on the school bus, in the lunchroom, or just walking down the hallway. Staff let students know that they are seen. And so again, I want to publicly thank them for what they do because we are growing. Make no mistake. I know we closed open enrollment, but people are moving into the district, which is phenomenal and exciting. I keep saying I want them all. Come on. Let's go. We need to build some more spaces out. I have this audacious thing I keep telling superintendent. We'll talk about that in a year or so. But the space is really working this year. We just ran out of. teachers at the time to be able to support
075all the folks that want to come here. And I don't want to continue to ask my staff to do overloads. And they have been gracious in doing it. And we're meeting the needs. We have our warrior leadership team. I'm going to ask Reese Walsh to come up and I'm going to have her just talk a little bit about that. I'm going to also ask because there's four members of the warrior leadership team in the building right now. And just to talk about some things that you're proud of, that you're excited about in the space. And yeah. I'm Reese. As you said, I am on the warrior leadership team. I'm on the Warrior Leadership Team. I joined last year, so this is my second year on the team, or second year on the group organization. So
076a few weeks ago, we went to a convention with a lot of different schools there and a lot of different things you can go to, like talking about sports, mental health, and how we can make our school a better place and not have some negativity around that school area. I'm not a very social person so talking to other people at lots of different schools like talking to people from my own school is hard. But talking to people from different schools is a daunting thing and I could tell it was for other people so seeing that was like very putting me at ease because like knowing other people are scared too was nice. So it made it easier to interact with other people. It was very interesting to see other people from different schools. And it
077was very nice to know that there's a world outside of just your high school, because it can feel very small sometimes when it's just your high school every day all day. So that was nice, and it was very exciting. And like Principal Dr. Johnson was talking about, Staff is very important. Like, I'm in the lunchroom and I'm like, don't pick up my trash. I'm like, oh my God, what would Principal Johnson think if I just left my trash on the table? So that is very important to have that teacher-student interaction. It's very nice. And having a great relationship with my teachers and my principal is also very important. Like, I probably wouldn't be here if you didn't ask me to. It was a great opportunity to see how this works and, like, what it's like
078and if I want to do this someday. And I... There was one time, there was like this one group of, like one cluster of activity that we're doing, we're talking about microaggressions and talking about students saying things or how that might affect a student and I was like, I was just, I can connect with it but it was just like hard because I was realizing that that doesn't happen at our school very much, to me at least. So that was a great thing to notice and it was a great thing to see that our school is really great at like. a great environment to be at. I really loved being there and listening to Principal Johnson talk a second and I was like, I want to go to that school, I want to go there.
079So like it was really fun to hear him talk about it and like really hooked me up because before I went to high school I didn't really understand like it's just school but now competing in two sports at that school I have a lot of pride for my school and a lot of pride for the teachers that go there and the students that go there and I do believe that we do have a very great fan base. There are people or teachers I've never met coming up to me when I was about to run at sections saying, good job, compete, do your best. And I was like, oh, OK. And that was very nice to see people trying to hype me up before my competition, which is very daunting anyway. So we do have a
080very great environment at our school. And we have a great principal and great teachers. And it is really a great environment to be at. And I'm very proud that I go to that school. Thank you. And so, Risa's going to hang out because I know you all have questions. Do you want to ask those now or at the end? Yep. Okay. We're going to pull you back up in a couple minutes. Okay? Awesome. You can have a seat. You can take those notes too. Thank you. Just to continue to create opportunities just like that for our students is very important. I tell students all the time when they come to the space, if we don't have a club or group that you're interested in, let us know. We'll create it. Get me 10 students and
081let's find an advisor and we'll do it. The red velvet little cupcakes that you had, those are made by our new cooking club. Who know? Who knew? And hopefully coming soon, there'll be a little bit bigger offering for you other than those. I am very proud of the direction we're going in our rigorous courses and the offerings. This is Kerry Jo and Miles Lane. I'm just going to speak to it just briefly. And I know with that grant, the goal was to create five rigorous courses by the end of this school year. Not only have they done that, but they've created 12 courses and another seven or so in the pipeline. What that means for our students is being able to find a rigorous course that is of interest to you. That is huge. Because
082now if you were picking something that I'm really interested in and have been for a long time but there's not been the opportunity, now is the opportunity. That is closing the opportunities gap. More students having been able to access higher rigor courses will again move our school in the direction that we want to go and that is if no one knows is to be the best school in the country. That is the goal. That is the goal, right? Top to bottom. I'm also proud of our BAR program, and that is the Building Assets Reducing Risk program that I talked a little bit about last year. This year, we're in full force, and I promise you, first day of school, I think our attendance sheet said we have, that we're enrolled 479th graders. Guess how many
083showed up the first day? 400. All of them showed up, and they showed up consistently. It's been even more important that we have a process and a system in place academically to support all the students in all their different abilities. What's fantastic is every child is talked about each week. These meetings are set up during the school day, so it allows teachers that common time to collaborate. What's working, what's not working? How is Al in your class? Let me utilize that skill to help Al do a little bit better in my class. Those kinds of conversations and the conversation that in the partnership with the parents, there's a bit more communication happening there. The points of pride, hey, sending out the notes to the family, those sorts of things makes a difference in the success
084of our students. So that program is working really well, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Another point of pride is our connection with our community. This year, I'm working with the West St. Paul City Council. There is McKinley-Cherrier, who now has been selected as the first student city council member, similar to Larray and Samantha, which is again an opportunity. A high operational strategy for student success is allowing more student voice. A protective factor, which means it's something that you can do to help students be successful beyond school, is creating more pro-social opportunities for them. And this is it. The more opportunities we can find like this for our students to highlight who they are, have a voice, and make a difference in the communities that they live, the more success and leaders
085that we're going to continue to build. And so these are our babies. Again, over the last several months, it's been fun to see our students. How they've been honored coming here. All the successes that they have brought and I think we're just at the tip of the iceberg. We are just starting to hear our stride at Two Rivers. So what's coming? I'm going to ask Ms. Ann Henry to come up and share with you a little bit about what she's got going. Thank you very much for having me here today. I'm very honored to be here. I have been in the district for 29 years. This is my 29th year. I've student taught under Barb Singh a long, long time ago and have been here ever since as a language arts teacher, an avid teacher,
086a counselor, a coach, and a CAPS teacher most recently. And now I'm moving into this new opportunity that the district has. funded and provided and I'm really excited about it. When Dr. Johnson asked me to come tonight and speak, I haven't done that before in all those years I've been here, but he said, we're just looking for you to show your passion. And I see how passionate he is and I'm not gonna give it. It's been great to work in this district that has allowed so many different innovations. I know Dr. Faber talked of that too, but Way back when when I first started teaching I worked in the sale program and that was a very long time ago I think before maybe anybody was here But it was Sibley alternative innovative learning and it
087was an alternative school within a school and I worked with Tony Scallon who started an OJT program or on-the-job training along with Alternative students who were taking the sale classes within the school You know, throughout my career, through counseling and then most recently through CAPS, I also teach language arts. So I teach in the Career Exploration or Career Pathway CAPS program, and I team teach with Doug Sisk. I teach the language arts part. He taught. I did that for five years. And Dr. Johnson, when this new work-based learning reboot came to be, he asked me to be a part of it, and I was honored, and I thought, I don't think there's anybody else that would do it justice like I potentially could. So I'm honored to be a part of it. They really, I
088wanted maybe to do both CAPS and work-based learning, but Dr. Johnson, you know, his vision certainly was this is going to be a big program that we want to see go places. you can't do both and do it justice and do it well. So I'm really looking forward to this spring. You know, this summer I spent time writing the curriculum. We worked with different districts. I traveled around to neighboring districts to see how they run their work-based learning program. And I'm excited to, I've also worked with Miles extensively with the potential of some online curriculum. So kids can do it. Students can do it. remotely as well. So just looking forward to this spring having a seminar class where students learn the safety rights and responsibilities, learn the soft skills on applying for jobs, retaining
089jobs, and getting out in the community. I think that's what I'm most excited about is the collaboration. The collaboration between families, students, the employers and the school to really wrap our arms around the students and make sure that they're safe and growing and and exploring careers and being supported on all four of those levels so i am very passionate about it and and i'm glad for the opportunity and and very very hopeful for the support of the district and and where we can go in the future so thank you for having me Where I will start to wrap it up here is you may have heard me say this before, but you would think the hardest job of an educator is how do you manage 479th graders at one time? Yeah, that has its challenges,
090but I would offer one of the hardest things that an educator has to address is knowing that on any day... Any child can walk in our building with a barrier to their learning. And the challenge for us is how do we uncover, how do we understand what that challenge is, what's getting in their way, and create systems around them, resources around them, to help them work through it and hopefully at some point realize the resilience of overcoming it. And I am so honored, or pleased and blessed to have the partnership with ACP, who provides our therapy for our students, and the new addition of a Spanish-speaking therapist at Two Rivers. That is phenomenal. We're really trying to meet the needs of all of our students that are in the space that say, hey, I am
091struggling somewhere. In addition to that... We're a leadership team. We talked about this last year. And we have high-performing students that are student athletes. They are academics. And functioning at that level all the time brings along a level of stress. We now are in contract with Premier Performance Advisors, who's also Premier Sports Psychology, to come and work with our students. They're going to work with our team. They're going to work with our coaches. They're going to put on seminars. They're also going to make space to do one-on-one meetings with our students. How phenomenal is that? That's how we get to working and supporting the whole child academically, socially, emotionally, and we want to feed them too. Right. And so that's what we've been up to at Two Rivers. Again, just super proud of the space
092of my students. And I appreciate all the support I received from board members and from cabinet. And thank you. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. I don't know where to start. Who has questions or comments for Dr. Johnson? Go ahead, Tim. First my compliments to the students in the cooking club the icing to cake ratio is right in my sweet spot Let's get this meeting over Thank you for coming tonight great presentation I Like taught the beginning where you said I own this I've been fortunate enough to observe you in a lot of different situations if I hadn't When somebody says I own this sometimes you have a vision of somebody who might be a little bit of a control freak and That's not it at all. There is something and I can say this for other
093principals. I've had the pleasure of My children be in their building. I think that's a real asset of this district that they do own the building but that in owning it you Propagate a culture that is both These are the expectations, these are the opportunities, it's a wonderful balance. I was there at that homecoming game, I've been at a lot of events. You go there and it's this wonderful mix of positivity, but here's how you're supposed to behave, it's just everything a parent could want, and I think it's everything the students want. And for anybody who's ever been at a Parent Connect meeting, and this is probably the most important, you are... in control or you're owning it, but boy, do you listen. And every circumstance I've been there where a parent is expressing something,
094it's being heard. It may not be able to be addressed, but you generally respond in a way where that parent is told, here is the path. And if that path is not clear after this meeting, I will help you find it. So thank you very much. Thank you. That's a good opportunity to mention that there's a Parent Connect meeting tomorrow. There's two meetings tomorrow, Parent Connect tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. And then again at 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. And those things that I can't take care of, we've got a little spot, it's called Peter's Parking Lot. And we send that right up to the superintendent. He usually looks at me when he mentions Peter's Parking Lot. All right, other questions or comments for Dr. Johnson? Dr. Johnson, I just want to say
095thank you so much. I think being in a one high school community, it is so important to have that high school be a shining light to that community. Two Rivers is that. And when I came and toured with you in the fall and got to learn about all the programs that we have, I was blown away about the opportunities my kids will have in just a few short years when they get there. It feels way too soon. And I am thrilled to hear about the additional social-emotional supports coming. So just thanks for all the work that you're doing and all the work that your staff is doing. I just hear incredible things throughout the community about you and the teachers and the support staff in the building and just so grateful for all of your
096work. Go ahead, Lori. Hi, Dr. J. I just would like to say thank you so much for everything that you do. I think not only are you a principal, but, like, you are such, like, a role model for kids all the time. I will go to, like, a swim meet, and you're there. You've come to multiple volleyball games, hockey games. Like, you show up. And not only do you show up, but you bring your wife, you bring your family. I just think it just shows how involved and how, like, you just love the school, you love the community, you love the staff, and I just would like to say thank you, because I am very proud to be a Warrior, and I think that has many compliments to you as your leadership that you build
097and the culture that you surround True Rivers with, so thank you. Thank you. Other comments or questions for Dr. Johnson? I just I wanted to add that when I hear you say and I've been hearing you say it since you started that you really want every kid to have a person in the building like that's how I described some of the staff at the school when I talk about my own kids like They're like, oh does your student have that teacher? It's like no, that's their person like You you've you've been so authentically following through on that commitment and I can I can see the fruits of your labor, and also the rigorous classes. I talked to many eighth grade families this year that are totally overwhelmed with all the options. So it's a great
098problem, excellent problem. So thank you, Dr. Johnson. Anything else? Oh, go ahead. I just want to, there are a couple of things that have come out that I've read recently or have come through the district newsletter that I think tie in directly with a lot of what you've been talking about. And I just want to pay tremendous compliments to like the story and narrative, I think that, the district and you as a school leader are sharing about the school experiences is really incredible and it makes it um Right? It makes me proud to be a part of this group of people. And it's due to the work that you're doing, that your staff are doing. Number one, I love that the district recently sent around some information about chronic absenteeism, but it was with a
099positive message about how to engage families. And that's something I work on professionally and to sort of see the district take a very proactive approach. And it ties in directly with all the experiences that you provide. to your students, right? Like if they want to be at school, they're going to show up. And that speaks to what you said for the first day of attendance. Lastly, and then I'll stop talking, I also read there was a report that came out from a foundation or institute in D.C. and it described the bar program as an evidence based practice for countering chronic absenteeism. So once again, it's like it's so nice to sort of. hear and see the the pieces that the district is are putting together and it's not just pieces it's it's good hard work
100and so thank you but it's just nice to see all those storylines coming together go ahead marcus very quickly not as eloquent as that but thank you for being here not here tonight but here in our district every time you speak you sincerely make me want to go back to high school. How many grown-ups say, I don't want to go back to high school. I'd love to come back to Two Rivers. I honestly would. Every time you speak, every time I see you. Things that are happening. I'm encouraged for my son who will be there next year my daughter in a few years He's excited to be there. He wants to skip what's left of eighth grade. I mean come on forward right to high school Come on talks about it more than he talks
101about what he's doing in eighth grade. We have to get him refocused But thank you for being here. We are extremely fortunate to have you here in our district. Thank you know that we can Dr. Johnson, would you like to invite somebody to join your presentation? Oh Being that I'm a trusting soul and I'm very good at interrupting, yes. That'd be just fine. Go ahead. When your kids start off with Tom Benson as a principal, you feel like you're never going to have a principal like that again. For the microphone. Oh, geez. So I just want to say that just listening to this report, I think when your kids start with a principal like Tom Benson, you'll never have another principal like that again. And it's actually kind of a saddened moment when they move
102on from that kind of environment. Because even to this day, I can run into Tom Benson at the grocery store at Costco, and he'll stop me and ask me how my kids are doing. So to close with the principal. like dr johnson is really very exciting it is a very different school than when my kids started high school when he started and that i think is a full testament to the things that he's trying to do to make the school a very holistic school i was on pan for a little bit the reputation of two rivers was a little bit different in the very beginning but i see the tide changing quite significantly and i attribute that a lot to his dedication to the students which trickles into the teachers and staff as well. You
103did an activity right before winter break that my kids talked about all night because you involved the teachers and the students in an activity. And I think that goes a long way to the environment you're building and I appreciate it. Thank you. And just so I also say this publicly is Tom Benson, yes, you can for sure do more push-ups than I can. On the record. Do you have any questions for Reese? Who has questions for Reese? Go ahead, Morgan. I didn't have questions. I just had a comment. I know that it's daunting to stand up and speak in front of people, and I just wanted to say great job with that. And I hope that you'll keep doing it because you did a great job. Thank you. Yeah. Go ahead, Tim. I caught your
104distinction how when you were at that event, some people were talking about the dynamic in their school. I would encourage you to, if you have the opportunity to, maybe if somebody's being a little bit whiny, it's under your purview and now you have credibility to tell them. No place is perfect, but two rivers is a very special place. I had somebody described the school as having a special sauce. They couldn't define it. They just knew it existed. And I think that dynamic, though, is the one that makes two rivers a place where some of the things that are happening other places, much less likely to happen there. And it's because of talented student leaders like you. So keep it up. Thank you. I don't think you, what year are you? I'm in 10th grade. 10th
105grade. We have two more years of her on leadership. Very nice. All right, I guess I do have a question. Was it the Minnesota State High School League conference? Do you want to go back to it in the future? I do. It was very interesting to see and very nice to see other schools. I mean, like, it was very interesting. Like, some schools drove, like, two hours. And it was very educational, like, especially a 10th grader. You want to get as much education about as you can. And it was information about college and things you can go and their resources. And there were, like, things that you really... wish you could have as a student for like learning about that stuff and like wanting to experience those things with other people other than people at
106your own school even though it's like scary thank you all right thank you reese thank you dr johnson thank you all right our next item is a focus area update from dr peter mau on equity and i see you have a guest Chair Larson, directors of the board, Superintendent Olson-Skoog, thank you for having us to come and give you some updates related to focus area of equity. And I did bring with me tonight Kevin Sheridan, who is our educational equity coordinator. So we'll be switching off a little bit in this presentation. This year, we're doing things a little bit differently with these presentations. Each of the three focus areas are presenting twice over the course of the school year, and this is our first opportunity to be here with you. It feels like somebody else
107is clicking things. No? All right. We're good. All right. We're back. At any rate, before we move into the updates on our equity implementation targets, I just wanted to highlight the special role of equity advisory in the school district. We are going to give a more thorough update to the school board in May on equity advisory. As you might know, all of our advisory committees, we give updates to the board each year. That's not coming until May, but I still wanted to just mention the special role of equity advisory because they do give input on the front end of a number of these things and then also feedback along the way. And just so you all know, it's a very representative group of our school district. We have students, family members, staff from a variety
108of positions. Most of our buildings are represented. We're diverse racially, religiously, gender identity and in other ways as well. But one of the important things that Equity Advisory worked on last year at your behest was supporting the development of a new equity policy that the school board adopted in June of last year. And in fact, as a result of that policy, that reframed how we're approaching our equity implementation targets. And I'll just start with one of the things that the school board laid out in that policy is that we are all responsible for equity in this school district. So I have the great honor and pleasure of having a leadership role over this focus area, but I am not the one who ensures alone that we have an equitable school district. It's all of our
109work. And so our implementation targets are aligned to the seven commitments that the school board adopted as part of the policy. And that includes having diverse classrooms and schools around staff quality and diversity, resource allocation, curriculum instruction and assessment, schools and classrooms, student leadership and voice. And finally, family and community partnerships. So in your packet for tonight, you did get a little progress chart on each and every one of the targets. It was a little red, yellow, green chart for each one of these. But we're going to highlight one or two from each of these seven commitments as we present this evening. So the first area is diverse classrooms in schools. And really this is about promoting equity in our educational programs as well as extracurricular activities. We want to have representation in our classrooms
110and in our programs. And we believe that that should reflect the diversity of our schools and our school district. And you can see some of the objectives there. But tonight we're going to highlight. Our objective around identifying barriers to participation in extracurricular activities among underrepresented groups and to develop a plan to reduce disparities in participation for the 24-25 school year at the high school level. So you can see here a picture of some of the students that just presented. This is the Warrior Leadership Team that Dr. Johnson runs. There they are at the Minnesota State High School League Conference. But as part of that group's work, Dr. Johnson has said, you know what, we need some student voice in the work that we do around identifying those barriers. Who better to get at that than
111our very own students? So that's been part of the ongoing work of that team this year. They set up some tables at lunchtime initially and just invited people to come up and start talking about what activities they were in and maybe some of the things that prevented them from doing so. since they have now developed a survey and that's going to get out to students to help them collect even more information to know how to respond. And then finally, we have some additional questions going out to all secondary students as part of the student survey in later this spring. And so again, we highlight this as part of diverse classrooms in schools, but it also relates to some of the other commitments that we've made as a school district as well. I'm gonna go ahead
112and actually turn it over to Kevin now for the next few commitment areas. All right, thank you, Peter. Good evening, everyone, and welcome again, new members. So teacher and leader quality and diversity is the next. area, commitment area we'd like to talk a little bit about tonight. So within this commitment, we're setting our sights on recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse workforce that reflects the demographics of our student population. It also includes ongoing professional development focused on equity, racial consciousness, and cultural responsiveness. You see several of the objectives listed here that are part of that commitment area. The two in particular that we would like to, oops. highlight for a moment tonight, relate to our ongoing support of LGBTQIA plus students and staff. So the first objective here is around the required training that happens
113at all sites every two years. The initial version of that training that was developed two years ago was fairly basic in terms of getting folks aware of the acronymic itself, what gender identity means, gender expression, those different kinds of words and phrases. Now we wanted to move further in terms of really laying out what some of the district expectations are when it comes to supporting students who identify LGBTQIA. So we did some updating on that training and then delivered it at all sites during the first few weeks of the school year. I'd like to recognize the work of Nicholas Hager, who is a part-time or a point two equity specialist for the district. He also serves as a choir teacher at Heritage. And a lot of his work within equity supports our LGBTQIA plus initiatives.
114Nicholas was instrumental in the updating of this required training that helps ensure that all of our licensed staff. understand our district's expectations for things like using names and pronouns that students ask to be called, while also providing our teachers and staff opportunities to interact with scenarios that help them prepare to interrupt bullying and harassing comments when they see or hear them. Nicholas also played a key role in helping to co-lead the training at several of our sites this fall. The model that we used was having Nicholas or I join the site leader at each of our sites to co-facilitate the session. We thought that was a good framing in terms of some district leadership as well as the building leader leading these training sessions. Following these sessions, as Nicholas and I connected with each other,
115we found that there were kind of two common themes that emerged from staff following those interactions. One was often a queer staff or a staff member that has somebody in the queer community within their family who identifies as LGBTQIA+. Just coming up and sharing that they're so proud to be working in a district where we're creating spaces where all students can feel connected and affirmed. A second theme was staff members sharing that they just appreciated the fact that We as a district are making it clear where we stand when it comes to supporting our LGBTQIA plus students and staff. The second objective listed here is all about allyship training, going above and beyond kind of basic expectations of how we're going to support our queer students and staff. In here, we piloted an allyship training
116last spring in afternoon sessions after school. We found a barrier was participation that folks can't always make after school activities or PD kind of work for them. So we sought out with our secondary principals and one of our solutions to that was to offer during choice PD during the school year, the opportunity for people to opt in to this allyship training. We've had two already this year. We've got one more being offered later this month. And we're looking at additional ways to offer the training to elementary staff as well. The next area is equitable resource allocation. This commitment area focuses on the prioritization of an allocation of resources, including but not limited to curriculum, facilities, staffing, support services, technology, transportation, and activities in a manner that ensures all students, especially historically marginalized students, have the
117access and opportunity necessary to succeed. We don't have a specific highlight from this commitment area for you tonight. We will for sure by the end of the year, but again, there's information on this area within your board packet. The next commitment area is equitable curriculum instruction and assessment. And with this commitment, we are emphasizing prioritizing culturally relevant curriculum, equitable rubrics for decision-making, inclusive instructional practices, and fair assessment and grading to reflect student learning accurately. Of the objectives there, one we wanted to highlight tonight relates to our ongoing implementation of the AmazeWorks supplemental curriculum that's grounded in the tenets of anti-bias education. We're in our second year of that three-year Implementation we've had a cohort that started a year ago this past summer that got trained and started using the curriculum in their classrooms last last
118fall We've had a second cohort begin that work this past summer who is now in their first year and in with objective to listed here We were able to create an opportunity for folks that were in that first cohort to do some continued work Beyond the amaze works curriculum to now look at their own literacy instruction and find the ways to integrate these tenants of anti-bias education that they learned about through the AmazeWorks training. What we're hearing from teachers is that they feel like it's made their students more aware of respecting each other and respecting differences, that they love the conversations that they have had that are centered around the characters in the books and the connections students are able to make to their own lives and their classmates' lives. They're finding that they're being
119more mindful about a variety of different differences that we have in terms of ability and neurodiversity and how that's being discussed in classrooms. I think one teacher summed it up best simply by saying, I've had amazing conversations with my students and it has helped create a great community in my classroom. The next commitment area, equitable school and classroom environments. Here we are committing to culturally affirming, inclusive and responsive community building and behavior management. Things like fostering diverse physical spaces, rituals and routines, while nurturing strong, supportive student relationships and holding them to high expectations. In addition to that, we're prioritizing behavior support and discipline practices that reduce disparities and suspensions and focus on restoring relationships when harm occurs. So of the Objectives there, we wanted to just take a moment to highlight the implementation of our
120administrative team learning walks that are aligned to the Ready for Rigor framework for culturally responsive teaching. We know that from statewide Minnesota principal survey results that principals across the state report their lowest confidence when it comes to instructional leadership. And they report further that they need more professional development in culturally responsive school leadership. So we are in year three of some ongoing work with our district leaders. There was a two-year book study around culturally responsive teaching. And now we are out in classrooms having conversations as professional colleagues and developing a walkthrough tool for things to be mindful of as they're in an ongoing way working with their teachers to ensure that culturally responsive teaching is happening in their classrooms. We are anticipating a full rollout throughout the district over the next couple of years with
121culturally responsive teaching. The READ Act is challenging that current timeline. So we'll keep you up to date in terms of what that all means moving forward. Also want to make, I think it's important to note that a lot of this work that we've been doing this year has been developed in collaboration with Sarah Lean and incorporates a lot of their SEL practices. Just a few quick things from our site leaders from their experiences this year doing these walkthroughs One is that appreciate appreciation for the time that they've spent in classrooms with their with their site leader colleagues to further their understanding of the current practices and we've noticed a commitment to the work as they return to their sites by planning to bring these strategies up as they talk with the probationary and high-cycle teachers
122and also engaging in more classroom visits with colleagues at their own sites after these district-wide experiences. Turn it back to Peter. Thanks, Kevin. The next area is equitable student leadership and voice. I think you've seen a lot of that already here tonight. But really, that's about gathering and understanding student perspectives in decision making processes, in making sure that we're creating spaces for things like student affinity groups, and also providing leadership opportunities. And again, you've seen a lot of that tonight. And I'll just... highlight Dr. Johnson started his presentation and talked about the many ways that he's created a unified community at Two Rivers and he's done an outstanding job at that. And on the other side of that coin, he allows students to be individuals and create spaces for them to explore their individuality. In
123his time, as we had recently implemented this strategic framework, I know he's added a black student union. I know he's added a Jewish student group, an Asian student group. So not only are all of our students united as one, as warriors, but they also get that support and opportunity to be individuals. At any rate, you see a number of objectives here listed, but again, we want to highlight a couple of students. And I'm thinking I didn't get the update that I had into the presentation. My apologies for that. I had a short little video from two of our students. I'll be sure and send that out after the fact here. But one of our objectives was increasing student members on equity advisory to 12. When we first started, we just had four student members. And
124at the end of that first year, we spent a whole meeting debriefing. It was our first year. What went well? What do we need to change? From the adult members of Equity Advisory, it was overwhelming. We need more students because of the value that those student voices and perspectives brought to all the work that we did. So we moved up to eight students in year two. Again, the most overwhelming feedback that we got was how valuable those perspectives are. And so this year we shot for 12 members. We got about 30 people all together. Not everybody shows up to every meeting. student voice is very strong. And last year for the first year, we added middle school. So we started with just high school. Now we have both high school and middle school folks. And
125Raul and Noel in their video spoke to how important they believe those additional voices are in terms of getting a more holistic view of the school. Because for students, have a limited perspective. It's an important perspective, but a limited perspective. And as we've increased those numbers, we've seen great benefits on equity advisory. And the final area then is equitable family and community. partnerships and this area is really about building those linguistic and cultural bridges between the school district and our schools and the diverse communities that we see that we serve seeking representation of on committees like equity advisory and others and making sure that our families have the resources they need whether that's affinity spaces connections through cultural liaisons family education and those kinds of things and again a number of objectives, but I wanted
126to bring your attention to a couple of specific objectives that we've been working on. One is adding an equity page to the school district 197 website to make sure that we're telling the story of equity in our school district. And the second is beginning to tell our equity story more intentionally in school district communications beyond the website. If you haven't had a chance to check out the equity website, I highly encourage you to do so. Sarah Blair and our communications team has just done an outstanding job. There's a number of things on there, but I'll just highlight it. It communicates what does equity look like at home, in our classrooms, at our schools, in programs, and in the district office. There's also a number of resources, both national and local resources for families. And then
127there's an opportunity to read some of the stories that Sarah and that team put out last year. A couple of them are highlighted here in this slide. But then also just to let you know, there's a few more stories planned for this spring. One is around the school district's efforts to increase student voice. So things like the student advisory committee. the superintendent's student advisory committee, our student school board reps, and more. A second story is planned on the role of our cultural liaisons in building bridges and making family connections. And then also a story on the various student groups at both middle and high school that help create that sense of community, and I've already named a number of those. That concludes our presentation. All right. Thank you, Dr. Mehl. Thank you, Kevin. Any questions
128or comments for these two? Well, that was easy. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for the presentation. Thanks for having us. Yeah. All right. My pen just broke. Okay. The last item. I'll be okay. The last item is approval of the proposed 2024-2025 school board meeting dates. Apparently I'm in charge. Or are you in charge? That'd be good. Madam Chair, our school board meetings, proposed school board meetings for the upcoming school year follow the guidelines that they have in the past. Actually, this year there's even fewer exceptions than there was this year to the first and third meeting of the month. But they are all detailed in the packet that the board received ahead of time. So I would stand for any questions regarding the recommended dates. All right, thank you. We do have
129a... This is a resolution. We have to vote, so I would accept a motion. Anyone? Byron? Motion to approve the calendar. Second. And a second for Morgan. Thank you. All right. Any questions for Peter or discussion of the date? Fabulous. I'll call the question and ask for a vote. So all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? That motion passes. All right, now we have completed all the items on our agenda. Oh, I have a job. See, Mary points at it, and then I'll read it. All right, upcoming dates. I appreciate this really giant screen because I can read the words on it. All right, so today is January 8th. Is that correct? All right, so Wednesday, January 10th, is the LGBTQIA plus parent guardian night. Does anyone know where that
130is? It's Heritage. Heritage, thank you. On the 15th, there's no school for MLK Day, but the Key Club is offering that morning of service event, which is 9 to noon. 9 to noon. 9 to noon with the fabulous Marcus Hill as guest speaker. January 16th is the Spelling Bee, which is at Two Rivers in the auditorium, which ought to be a nerve-wracking night for parents like me. January 18th is the American Indian Education Winter Storytelling Event at Heritage. 25th and 26th, there's no school. It's the end of quarter. Good luck to finals. Good luck to the students on finals, especially those two. And January 30th is special ed parents group at the district office. Anything else? Otherwise, I would accept a motion to adjourn. And Byron, thank you. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Thank
131you, Byron. And welcome our new members. Thank you. I second the motion. Second by Marcus. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. those opposed all right we are adjourned thank you everyone