001I need a newbody thinks that as soon as you're done. No she said she would be here. I'm glad to hear that. All right. Ben here. Connie here. Jillian I'm here. Sarah here. Mr. Collins here. Miss Hall and Mr. All right. get approval of the agenda. I'll second motion by Jillian. Second. All in favor? I I the recognition. Yeah. Special thank you to our prom committee and our prom advisor Mackenzie Burns for their time, effort, and dedication making such a memorable experience. And uh definitely whenever you take that over for first time, it's a a lot of work. So thank thanks take that over. Thank you to our very own Doug Sergeant who's here along with uh not Doug's here but Duke Art and Doug Sergeant for all the work they put into removing the
002playground equipment. I'll be the first to admit that was a lot more than even what I anticipated. So, thank you. one thing though on the last Saturday came up with him and his two boys took one. One quick question. I know you told us that three, but did anybody were they complaining because I didn't hear one complain. They all came in the other way. We had people coming in this way too. So, we just wanted to we see you shouldn't have even admitted that. But it was uh as Duke could attest, it was way more than way to participate. So, thank you for the time. Congratulations to Dalton Lton, Neil Learn, Mackenzie Leos for earning their state FFA degrees. Again, congratulations to Mackenzie Leos for her first place in the agriculture sales proficiency. all FFA
003members as they earned National Superior Chapter Award and to the families of the alumni of Steve Tang, Brian Leer, Brad Ller as they were all inducted to the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association Dave Bart Bartalma Hall of Fame on Saturday, just recently, May 17th. Delicious. All right, we received $1,170 from the St. American Legion for the FFA chapter. We received $11,925.64 from the SAR PTO and that was for the Gaga ball kit, kindergarten field, elementary scholastic news, classroom supplies, books, prizes, AR parties, flute, and clarinet. We received $100 from Neo Township for community programs, and we received five library books from Mrs. with $32 value. So, thank you for all of those. I'll just piggy back on the pro thing and I'm glad it wasn't so much better. Awesome. So, she ran out of coffee. That's
004a good thing. Awesome. All right. Uh, with that, we'll move on to new business. I have a motion. I'll second. Thank you. Motion by second by Sarah. All in favor say I next we'll have math presentation. Um, so I've been at St. for quite a long time here. Um, and the last 18 or 19 years I've been teaching sixth grade math. Um, nine, Mrs. Holland thought it would be good for you to hear something that I've been doing that's a little different the last couple of years and it's something an idea called building classrooms and I go to a man conference up in every spring. Um, and when there were a whole bunch of sessions about this idea and so I went to them and got super energized about it, tried a couple of ideas.
005It was you know the last one of the school tried ideas there and just kind of I read the book over the summer jumped in and now for the last two years I've been using this method for a number of lessons. I don't do it every single day but two or three days a week most of the school year. Um so what It's a a way of getting students up out of their seats and thinking they're going to be collaborating with classmates. Most of the students really do enjoy doing it. The novelty of it, working with others. Nobody knows who they're going to be with each from time to time because it's random groupings. I don't even know. I have a program called classroom screen and the free version gives me three classes that I
006can set up which is what I have. So I go with that and it just roll a dieice randomly hit the board that many times they all put into groups. So from day to day to day they might be working with some of their best friends or some of their not best friends. But over the course of the year everyone gets to work with everyone numerous times. And I think that in itself is nice for kids to get to know each other better. especially in sixth grade, we get a lot of new students from surrounding areas and it's really a nice way to get kids to start learning who each other are and also some of the strengths that each other have. Um, instead of just having your high flyers answer want to tell all
007the actors everything and everyone else kind of sit back and let them do it. Um, this gets everyone up and and together and talking math. So, um, the way it works, like I said, we start with random groups of two or three. If you would like, I can get you guys to go get up and try it. But I've got random boards. I know they're right. I in my classroom, I have eight boards, but this year I only needed seven of them. So, they're kind of set up around the room. Groups of three is how I've got it set up. Sometimes There might be two in a group or we might have to do an extra shuffle, but two or three kids in a group, they'll go, everyone gets a different color marker. They write
008their name in the small box that has the number in there. And then that's their color pen for the problems that we do. I use the other part of the top for the banner for writing the problems in. When I write a problem on one board, it's up to the other people at the boards to see where the problem is, write it down, and then they work together. about how to solve it. One person writes what the other two are telling them not to write. Um explaining as they go. So you got somebody in your group that maybe doesn't understand. They are hearing how things are being explained by kids so kids can understand it. And everyone gets a chance to be a writer. Everyone gets a chance to be an explainer. And by the
009time we're done, everyone ideally would have an understanding of how to do that lesson of the day. The The rest of the board is the workspace where they where they work. And we just keep all the problems on the board. I usually uh try to have about six problems at a shot so everyone's going to get to write two or three times depending how many kids are in their group. I try to thin and slice the problem. We start off with low floor, something everyone can do, and then we just gradually make them a little more challenging. And by the time we're done, um, some groups will finish earlier than others. Great. They check each other's board and see if they are coming up with the same answers. Great. If not, talk about it. How
010did you do it? How did you do it? Discuss. And so kids are talking to each other and looking at each other's words like, "Oh, you guys wrote the problem down." Or, "Oh, you made a math mistake right here." and helping really just look at the map. Um I can give extensions too. So if a group finishes or like well how would you do that in a different way or you know that kind of thing. Um an advantage of it like I said everyone's talking the disadvantages it's definitely louder in the classroom but uh and there's always going to be some offcast behavior. you got kids markers up or you know roaming around a little bit but we try to really work hard on stay in your area put your pen down if you're not
011the writer cap the pen so they stay juicy they think that's hilarious anyway juicy um anyway but then eventually we can talk about it I'll go around with my marker and maybe mark down like circle something and say okay this is a common misconception that I've seen or this group But I want to ask that group, I'll say, "How did this group come up with this answer or um so everyone else has to explain that group's work?" So really starting to look more carefully at each other's work, too. Um and and yeah, anyway, just kind of consolidating at the end, making sure everyone's hit the high notes instead of doing it's kind of taking a lesson and going backwards from what we've been doing for a lot of years, which is I do, we do,
012you do. Now, it's more like you do, we do, and then I might demonstrate a couple of other things. So, it just gets kids to think more. So is it more like an outcomes based instead of check box A B C D doesn't matter how you get to the answer you got the right answer one way they got an answer the other way right and then we'll talk about that well how did this group do it if you want I can have you do so here I have a lovely little I'm not smarter than a sixth grade I say I don't even understand sixth grade well anyway so um well I had one that because um so a division problem where you've got a leftover. So if one group doesn't maybe they get a decimal
013answer, but it might then ask them how would you do it and get a fraction for a fractional leftover and um and go the other way with a different group who decided to do it as a fraction for example. Um or also show writing the three different ways to show a division problem. Um just And we would talk about that at the end too. Just making sure everyone Well, why did I write that like a fraction? Well, because every fraction is a different problem. Um, just just making sure that everyone does hit some of the main points or that'll be all after the fact and talk about what they've been going through. They're usually better at listening to it because they've just gone through it instead of trying to remember all this information that doesn't
014have any point of connection yet. So, It's It's been fun. I I really have enjoyed it. Um some days are a lot and so I I don't do it every day because I know there are some kids who really don't want to do that close work with with a lot of other kids um or or that. So I I don't do it every single day, but I do try and do it several days a week because I think for most kids it's great. Even the ones that have a hard maybe getting along with other kids. Um, they get better at it and then partway through the years like it's not really a problem with what group they're in. And you can say, well, yeah, you're with them today, but probably probably with with another group
015and if they are with that same person again, what are the probabilities of that? Oh, that's another math conversation. So, anyway, do you have any questions for me? Have you seen an improvement in like the math scores themselves by doing this? Um yes. And so what I do after consolidation then is check your understanding which practice and this is not a curriculum. It's something you use with a curriculum. You can so you can still give a worksheet or a workbook or an ISL problem or something like that. I the next day will come back with a couple of problems just on a little quarter sheet of paper that they glue into their math notebook just to review making sure everyone caught the main ideas from the day before and it's legible because not everyone has
016a very legible math notebook. Um so they've got that in there too. But yeah, I I do feel like more kids do better. They certainly have more math conversations than they used to. So there can be more talking going on in the classroom, but a lot of times it really is talked about math, which is what we want. Um, and it's not just those highers. You've got all the kids are picking more up um and able to talk about it because they've had a chance to do it in a small setting instead of in front of the whole class. So, when I do ask them in class in front of the group, they're they're more comfortable about it. Yeah. Things like this are great. Getting the social aspect with the math aspect and allowing our
017student population more family, I guess, for lack of a better term. Yeah. Getting to know everybody instead of just right and bringing everyone else along for the ride. Um, yeah, it's like I said, It is social. Kids are very social these days and we may as well try and work with it. Um, our sixth grade classes are an hour and 10 minutes each, which as a teacher we're thinking, yeah, there's so much I can put in there. But for a kid, maybe that's a long time. So, especially if you're just having them sit and listen and practice at their desk quietly, that just is so hard to maintain. So, let's get them up on their feet. And the other nice thing with boards being vertical is I can be walking around the room and see
018like, "Oh, this group's ready for a problem." And I can go over here. I can see where they are. They don't have to look down on the desk. Everyone can see where they are. So if someone's really stuck, they can look around and go, "Oh, I see a check out, too." And then then they can get on. Have any of the other Have you talked like about this with any of the other math teachers like say in fifth grade and stuff like that like is it something that can be started? Yeah, there's u there's a a math group through what is that SCSC in Mano and um Andrea is coming out to work with third grade on it. Okay, cool. And so Laura's been some background on it. I've talked to her a little bit
019too and some people have seen me when they've been here teaching seen me do some things. That's cool. Yeah. And I was, you know, a little nervous about it. Sure. Explain it all at first. Try to figure out how it's going to work with my program. Um, but I'm feeling pretty good about where it's at now. Yeah. But yeah, and come and watch me a couple of times. Oh, fun. Good. That's awesome. I think you said this in the beginning. How many years you teaching? This I I went to the spring. It's in the spring and it was three years ago. So just the end of that year and then this year and last year. So it's still pretty new. Um there's a Facebook page for it. There's other splinter groups off there. So I'm
020on general page, but also one for sixth grade or middle school. So and there's a second book that's come out that full of tasks that are rich tasks and you can come, you know, look online for a lot of great ideas or adapt. Once you start getting the hang of it, it gets a little easier to figure out also how your own kids think. Having worked with six graders long enough kind of know the types of ways that they're going to fall off the track and how to get them back on. Thank you for going to the conference and for reading the book over the summer and also just for pushing forward to improve. Yeah. And just try something different. You know, anything you do for a long time, right? Make it fun for me,
021too. Yeah. That's cool. Thank you, Pro. Just Oh, you can stand by there. He wants a picture. I want I want to show this to my daughter who teaches. Yeah, you got to be in the picture. We'll put a mask problem. Okay. Yep. Let's make it real. Hop up and do it. All right. I was gonna say two seconds. Right. So then we'd have the names all. Thank you. Yeah. Put a couple more names. So then when I work, I would be working with the red pen for this. I would be using blue to you black, which also is nice for me. Some saw a teacher call that rainbow writing, but whatever. It's just nice. I kind of know then who's doing the writing, who's doing the telling on a problem, too. So, so that
022helps when the problem is actually written out there. I did totally get a Vanna White one, but I'll do one more. Nice. Thank you. Thank you. So, moving on to the next agenda item of appointments. So, we have Katie Nelson uh has been recommended to fill the high school English teacher position and Tammy Sel for the choir and music teacher position. Any discussion on this? No. Troy and um Naen, they interviewed for the choir position. We're very happy to get Tammy and then Troy and several of our English teachers interviewed for the English position. Excited to have Katie on board as well. So, we're recommending both. Their resumes are pretty impressive as well. They look like good additions. All right. Do I have a motion to approve these appointments? Yes. The motion. Second by Jillian.
023All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? Below is a list of summer 2025 employees for the district. Any discussion on these? No, just as you can see, we're getting ready for summer already with T-ball and little league and everything else and then summer cleaning and reinvesting. So, we're recommending the crew. I see you have the two open positions and the targeted services. Do we have a plan to get those filled or what's the situation? No, part of that is um It's just difficult right now with unemployment and it's also difficult to change the rules as far as who we can like if we work with special needs, are they certified or not? So, we're still working on that. I'll make a motion to approve the summer, please. Julian's made
024a motion. Do I? I'll second it. Second by Connie. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? All right. Next, we have the summer wage schedule which is including your supporting documentation. Do I have any discussion on this or a motion to move forward? Nick will make a motion. Do I have a second? Second by Karen. All in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? Next, we have a resolution to now teacher. Do I have any resolution? Connie has introduced the resolution. Do I have a motion to resolution? Julian has made a motion. Second or is that uh so make a motion and make a second roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Ben, yes. Yes. Yes. Julian, yes. I just want to share um this has nothing to do with job
025performance at all. Um this is not just not having a license in the fight. We've done this the previous year as well. So again, just for anybody watching, uh definitely it's not job performance, just something that we have to do as a board and reopen it to get somebody license. So I want to clarify that. So next we have the level three grievance that has been filed against the district by employee. I think everybody's had a chance to review the summary document that I provided following Tim and I's hearing with this individual. I am strongly recommending that we deny this grievance. I can that motion. Yes, I'll second. A motion by myself and a second by Nick. Roll call, please. Karen, yes. Yes. Ben, yes. Yes. All in favor? Motion carries. So, next we have
026a uh motion for Custom Alarms out of Rochester to do the door access project for just under $151,000. Do I have a motion to approve or any discussion on this before we move? Again, just want to share publicly as a board um we've talked about this several times. This has been one of our our issues now for over a year. Um, again, a project this big to start getting going on over the summer. Um, definitely as we've added on over the years, um, it's also created some inefficiencies, uh, or issues within within the network. This is part of our bond dollars that we're now choosing to spend on the project. Um Mike has put a lot of time in as you know met with vendors and they'll start this summer and they'll do it in
027zone so that we can add on to it someday and um both Mike and I are recommending it to you and I know you've heard from Mike as well. All right. So with that, do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Kate motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Jillian. All in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? Next, we have the annual required uh resolution for membership of the MSHL. Member to introduce the resolution. Mick will introduce it. Second. Second by Karen. All in favor say I. Sorry. Roll call vote on this one. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. All right, motion carries. All in favor? So, next we have the board participation graduation. So, graduation is coming up on Sunday, June 1st at 2 p.m. Uh, we
028need two board members to participate in that. I'll do it. It's the dream team. Karen, [Laughter] you two are not giving speeches. Watch this. I'll tell you that right now. We already have it ready, but they probably be able to hear you. Okay. All right. So, do I have a motion for board members Karen and Joey to participate high school graduation? I've got a motion by Connie. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor. Next, we need to set the date for the summer retreat. Oh, boy. It's going to be tough now because two of the people I would like to to have here uh N and we want a table this time. So, we need them there as well.
029Yeah. So, that'll be table for the next meeting. We can maybe work on getting started. Yeah. I'll have Katie throw out a few dates to everybody, but sounds good. Table number 15. Uh, number 16 is the reading of the the first reading of policies 519 807, the interviews of students by outside agencies and health and safety policy. Next, we would have an elementary principal report. She actually emailed me. Fantastic. Tim's going to provide the elementary. Um, hot and the press late this afternoon. Um 17 fifth graders per participated in the math masters competition at Bethany Lutheran College on Friday, April 25th. Jaden Quatch, qac, brought home a ribbon for placing in the time facts portion of the competition. Thank you to Mrs. Hurting for preparing these students for the event. Congratulations. So that's the elementary.
030You want to take the high school principal report? Did he send it to you? Um, prom was a great success this year. Both the grand march and the dance were well attended. The dinner and dance were held at the venue in Mano, Minnesota, which provides students with uh enjoyable spaces. And I think I'm not going to re read it word for word, but basically Troy said that uh just his opinion, his wife's opinion, and he's been at proms before and you all just a lot of respect, and it's always I think as a school board, very nice to hear when the venue says, "Wow, um your kids were were well behaved." Because that that's what we want. And you can't always get that from um every event that you go to. So it was just
031nice to um hear that and again he gave kudos for those who organized it Mrs. Burns as we gave earlier. So definitely nice to hear that. Then just this past Sunday with senior recognition had a very nice turnout uh for that as well. Um thank you to the senior class for all that they've contributed to our school community. uh extend appreciation to the senior class officers, the scholarship committee, senior class advisors, Mike Offford, and our custoorial staff for the support. Uh Sher Pearson for the many hours of organization, prep time, etc. that goes into this. Um and again, a special thank you to our prom comm advisor for their time. That might have been for the other one, but uh anyway, again, just two positive events as we're starting to wrap up the year. uh
032and very nice to see that they're well attended and um done with class and respect. Then uh final weeks of school senior's last day is Thursday. Of course, it also goes with a little carrot, but if they don't behave, they'll be coming in the following week as well. But I'm sure with this report, they're going to be very respectful. It'll be a great finish to their career here at St. Clair. Awesome. superintendence report. Um, I just wanted to state out out loud that whenever we have somebody leave a position, we have a resignation or we have a retire, have an opening, I always look to downsize if possible. Um, one of the reasons that I'm not looking to downsize in the counseling position is that right now there's potential legislation for student personnel aid and
033therefore not bringing forward that recommendation at this time. want to let you know that Katie has been putting in just a ton of work in the last uh couple of weeks on our website. Uh we are going to be moving to a different website, a different program. And Kelly and I both know how much work goes into that. It is just to give you an example, you have to go through everything that's on there and ask yourself why did that ever get put on there five years ago and seven years and is it required by law? Is an obligation as we try to make it more user friendly um if possible. So um we're moving that direction. There's a little bit of an up cost to it, but I think board members would all agree
034that it's it's worth it in the year 2025. And again, uh huge kudos to to Katie and a lot of the work that will continue to to go on into it as we move to get that rolling this summer. Um am I losing my spot here? Uh facility updates. Again, you've already made approvals on some of them as we've been looking at the door access uh the the theater building, the Solomon booth. We should be getting that back from the architect uh this week. Um we're getting a quote for the the pillars on our entrances. The cement is going to be taking place this summer as well. There we have new windows that are coming in the first week of June. And the kindergarten elementary wing. The elementary hallway will start moving on the first
035or second week of June as well. Uh so again, we we have a lot of projects that are it just doesn't seem like it ends, which is a good thing. Um we continue to use our bond dollars and the investments through them have continued to us very well. Uh safety updates, uh as as you know as well, we're putting some cameras um out onto the playground and on the back stop. I never knew that putting that the big back stop behind the basketball was going to actually be a positive for us because now we're also able to put cameras, but we're going to put some uh speakers out there, too. When we did our lock down drill the other day, uh some of the students out there said that they couldn't hear and so we
036said, "Well, as long as we're doing the wiring out there, let's put the speakers out there as well." And then there's a few other speakers on the corners of the building that have all worn their time as well. So that'll be part of our our safety uh improvement as well. Again, I I really like how we continue to keep changing what we're doing in our lockdowns and our fire drills. And um this Katie wasn't here, so somebody else had to do the announcement. So we're going to keep changing and rotating it. I didn't I didn't let staff know when we're going to do our lockown. So um some I do because you have some special needs students. Sometimes I do because when you have special needs students and when you have kindergarten students for the
037first time for the first time, you want to make sure that they're ready for that. But I think throughout we just keep adapting. Part of that is Jeff Wyberg. Um he really keeps us on top of our game. He's calling for a committee of area superintendent in August for us to get together and find out what we're doing in our schools and and Jeff really helps us keep on top of the latest as well. Uh, and then my last one, well, it's May 19th and the legislators, I don't think they're finished today, but as far as education goes, I don't see a lot of things a lot of things changing. I still see the predictions being zero money two years from now and a reduction three years from now. And we'll see how it all
038plays out. There's not been much change and we'll know that within about three weeks. So, that's my my update. Reports. Uh, city council. Um, let's see. Uh, the WW Blacktop got the bid for the railroad street project. Um, they we're doing a public hearing for the USDA on the 28th, which was all done. Um they are getting some did some bids on uh the light poles looking at reusing the ones that are out there getting new ones and working with uh Excel to see what would be the better way to go that they were going to do some more exploring on that before they made a decision. Um they had their audit on the fifth and sixth and that was done. It went good I guess. Um the DAB wanted to know if it was
039okay to put a used clothes bin up on the city council and they approved that. So, that's a a very good decision. I thought it'll save me driving my stuff into Mano all the time. So, that was good. Then they had a request uh for the use of the city property for some archery things and they were going to check with the lawyer, but as far as they could tell that uh that type of use was not allowed uh on the city property according to their ordinance, but they were going to do some double checking and Sarah was going to be working with them on that. So, that was pretty much it for the city council. So they uh open the bids. We don't know who we got yet. Commission next week. They decide. That's
040what we're talking about doing is it's a flex deal. Say the contractor comes in this fall. They do so much. They got to have everything all put back together by the first when they come back in next spring because right now there's some uh parts they need right off the bat and then push cost a lot more money. So they're thinking if they can do it this way with contractor give some flex time you know we can that's what we're thinking about depending on what they want contract like I said the county commission should be next week we'll find out for sure what's going to happen so that's all concrete there so here's the thing is they come in get this summer in the late fall, early fall and they do say from main street
041post office they have to put down one layer of asphalt this year it has to be put down no gravel or nothing it's kind of the contractors see what they want to do so because they'll come in say the project it's all done next year they put in one layer they'll let it sit through the winter come next year or two years and do the final. So, um I was talking with staff about the set signs and why don't you guys find what you want to get and then we'll split the cost with you. Does that make sense? It does make sense because just last week we had another person out there. So you guys kind too many within a calendar year. It's like you guys kind of know what's out there, what you kind
042of want to do. Long as you get it in by get in before school starts next year, you know, I mean, we're all for it, I guess. So effectively, me personally, the pay should we look to put So I know we talked about school crossing signs. Should we in addition to that or instead of that to put an actual crosswalk with the light up signs? Would that help? I guess it all depends if there's power towards that strictly solar and battery operated. I think if you do a crosswalk then you have to go they don't but they do I think I agree but they do well and it's agency street I mean where you turn isn't that where that person right at the corner Agency Street. The one that they closed off. The one that
043comes was in the school parking lot. That's agency right by one. Oh, okay. I don't know where the first with a child. I mean, you guys find out what you want. Yeah, we'll we'll start searching. I mean, we searched before, but then, you know, sure what direction supposed to meet sometimes the state guidelines or the county guidelines, but we'll find it. Right. Thanks. Thanks, I call on Casey Story to do my board reports. Yes. I'll start with PTO. Uh our night was a huge huge success this year. We had about 300 people attend. Um we did a free will donation meal. We had a DJ face painting with mass chaos for a good three hours, but everybody loved it. Um, we just wrapped up our cash for kids high receipts fundraiser. Um, and it's looking
044like we will have about $1,200 check cut to us. We get a dollar for every $150 spent. So, we had a lot of receipts. Um, we recently made a teachers closet of extra supplies. We did one for the elementary. which is in Mrs. Idis's room and then um there's one in the high school for the high school staff um just for when they run out of supplies to help them get through the school year. Um I think we did about $1,000 worth of supplies in each. Um all the staff um appreciation falls in the beginning of May. So we did hanging plants for administration and nurse. Um we did chair massages for the paras. We did hanging ferns for the lunch ladies, quick trip car wash cards for the custodians. And we did beach bags
045and towels and snacks and a $50 gift card for all the teachers. And then we also had the coffee truck last week which we were not expecting so many students so they were not prepared. Um and so I did reach out and the staff that did not get their free drink, they were able to put in an order and I'll deliver them at the end of this week. Um, I think that's it for the PTO for community ed. We just talked about um things that went well and didn't go well. Um, our tree was a really big hit, so they're going to do that again in the fall and spring. Um, and then We've been compiling a list of summer um events and things around the community, open libraries, pools, things, and that'll get rattled
046up that sent out via link, I believe. Um and then we talked about doing a community event in the beginning of August. Um something like popsicles in the park just to bring all the kids back and kind of just hang out. Adults and um just kind of able thanks for that. Thanks for all that the PTO does such a great PTO. So thank you guys. All right. So, with that, uh, any open forum items? All right. With that, the next regular regular board meeting will be held here June 23rd at 6 p.m. Can I get a motion to motion? Second by Mick. All in favor say trying to get my photo. Okay. All