St. Louis Park Schools Schools School Board Study Session -4/14/2026

001Pull my chair. advis. >> Yes, >> uh >> put Tom, do I need like a thumbs up or anything? All right. Hi everybody. Good evening. Um, I'm going to convene the April 14th, 2026 um study session at uh whatever time it is, 6:31. Um, before we get started, we'll read the land acknowledgement. Taylor, have you read it yet? Oh, you did? >> I have not. Okay, Celia, we are gathered on the land of the Dakota and Ojiway peoples. I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota and Ojiway community, their elders, both past and present, as well as their future generations. St. Louis Park Schools also schools also acknowledges that it was founded upon erasers, exclusions and erasers of many indigenous people, including those whose land this school district is located. This acknowledgement demonstrates

002a commitment to dismantling the ongoing legacies of colono power and the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous communities to thrive in our schools. >> Thank you. We have um a fun agenda tonight. We have awesome uh discussion items. First, we're going to get a comm communications update on our referendum and then we have just a couple policy discussions and last we'll finish up our um reflection on our board retreat with um Dr. Barrage and talk about board goals. So, I think we're gonna start with director Suku and maybe Miss Anderson. Yes, that what we're doing. Awesome. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, school board. Superintendent Hines. Today, we are sharing a little bit of information about our referendum communication that is uh actively underway. We're going to try and move through this

003relatively quickly. I think the last time that I was with you in March, I shared a little bit about our communication process. So, we were in a research and planning stage. We're still in this initial research, but I'm going to share a highle overview of some additional research today. Um, and then we're going to get into some of the communication that will be starting this week and then what you might expect over the next few months as we move into the referendum campaign. And I know there were some questions about referendum campaign activities. So we have prepared information about that topic as well. So in part in relationship to research, we have some data that came from a Morris Leatherman survey. Um, this information was collected statewide. This is important because it's not specific to

004St. Louis Park. Um so when we go through some of the information, it is important to note that um especially when we consider some of the tax dollars and tax impacts within our community might be different than how people have responded to the survey because again we have not had um the same referendum increases um within St. Louis Park as some of our comparative districts um in surrounding areas which certainly could be impacting the way that people responded to that survey. Um so when we consider supporting monthly tax increases for a bond referendum and again related to we are in this context um when you compare 2025 to 26 again generally people are supportive we are asking at above a above kind of the uh the dollar amount. This is important for us to consider

005as we are promoting this campaign. Um but again it is important to note that our campaign is a little bit different than that of others. Um, so this is not reflective of St. Louis Park as a whole, but it could just be helpful for us to think about how we are um, sharing information related to a $30 ask, which is different than those around us. Uh, and pertaining to operating levies, similarly, we're seeing some of the same perceptions in year comparisons between 2025 and 26. Uh, generally people are feeling very positive about schools and trust school districts to do the right thing for their students. that is also helpful for us especially as we consider a technology levy but thinking about the implications of boiler on our students. Um generally people feel favorable about their

006tax dollars going to the school district thought that this was very helpful information for us as well and feelings about technology. So generally people feel like technology is very important um if not essential for schools schools and students within districts. We do note there are concerns about screen time and we are seeing that screen time concerns are increasing and again our technology levy is also focused on um cyber security as well. So it's not necessarily just for um curriculum and instructional purposes. >> Okay, great. I will take it on from here. Um I'm Liz Anderson, senior communication specialist. Uh so our tagline for the referendum campaign is our proud past and a prepared future. Uh we are focusing on sort of a retro inpired campaign. So you'll see that in our logo here um as

007well as the tagline there. We have a really strong foundation, what we've built and maintained over time. We want to acknowledge that. But we also want to think about what we're going to be doing next steps uh years down the road. It's not just about fixing things. It's about making sure that you know our students, our staff, our community knows what's next. So that's just some more key messaging that we'll be using in our upcoming communications acknowledging proud past focusing on some of the priorities like having safe reliable buildings technology and then what we're going to be doing with that in the future. So color palette, you'll see our primary colors on the left and then our secondary colors on the right. Um you know staying rooted in our identity and then also using some

008um fun secondary colors to liven it up a little bit. This is a fun pattern we create uh we came up with. It's like a broken or not sorry it's not broken but it's like a pipe pattern that we'll use as like a background on other imagery variations of that. This is the broken pipe pattern. So kind of goes with along with the boilers. So indicating there are issues and we just want to um exemplify that through an image. This our referendum logo that call to action vote August 11th. And then I put the question in here. It's a really long question. Uh but the two highlighted pieces is the building bond and then the revoke and replace. So it's one question and if you vote yes, then it is approved. And then like director

009Suku was saying, an average St. Louis Park home is about $400,000. The tax impact would be about $30 a month, $361 a year. Okay. So, we're actually going to be sending communication this week. Uh, and then we're also going to be sharing some staff information on what staff can or cannot do when it comes to referendum campaigning. Um, we have anformational web page that's being built currently. We're also launching our new website this week, which is very exciting. Uh, we're capturing photos for content. You'll see Jim Langean and Kyle there when our boiler system. And then we're filming some videos, building a social media campaign, and making sure our community is informed. We're going to be hosting seven in-person meetings throughout May and June. So, kind of some critical times to get information out there

010and one virtual information with a required mailing to all St. Louis Park residents in June. So, this is a example of a poster mockup that we'll be able to share. Again, taking in those uh priorities. question. >> Sure. >> Um, so on the poster, would it be advisable and possible if you put a QR code that could take people to the website? >> Yes. Th this is just a mockup of a poster as like what it will look like. It does not have our explicit content on it. As we start developing some more of like the frequently asked questions, that's what likely go on the poster, right? So, this is just our templated version of what that will be. Yeah. >> And like an example of like a postcard that we'd send out just we'd

011put it with our own content and again our logo director sugu. Okay. So, I'll briefly share some guidelines for staff um because I again I know some of the questions come up around referendum campaign activities and what I mean by that is campaigns either supporting e the referendum or against the referendum and what staff roles can be in a part of something like that. Um so as a district we are not going to participate in a vote yes vote no effort. Our role is solely to be informative. So, we are putting together information that is shared publicly. When you know it's something that's coming from the district, it will include the graphic and visual elements that we shared with you today. If it is not coming from the district, those campaigns that are created by

012citizens, it has to be an everyday citizen that's not associated um directly with the district. And again, there's some caveats there. I'll get into that uh as I continue. um that they cannot take our district branding and use it into their promotions. Um as a district, what we if a one campaign or the other would like information from us, we must share it with any or all referendum campaigns out there. Um so that's our obligation as a district when we are sharing information. We cannot fund um any referendum campaign activities outside of the district. Um we cannot urge a yes or no. You can't do that while you're um servicing in the board. So like the board cannot take an action to vote yes on something or vote no on something in support of the

013referendum. Um again explicitly being informative in practice. Now, how employees spend their time outside of their regularly contracted day is not dictated. So, should someone want to spend time outside of their regular workday, not on school grounds, to do any type of organizing, that is up to their own jurisdiction. So, that's just some of the things that um we can or can't do. So again, we won't be having vote yes, vote no. But if you put it on your car, for example, that's happening outside of your workday. It there are free speech parameters. So somebody could have a sticker while you're at work. You cannot wear a button during the school day, for example, or wear clothing that would demonstrate support that would be towing that line. So there are some things that you have

014to think about um in your official capacity. And this is just a couple more um pieces around that. And I think there was some information that was shared with you prior to today um about some of the board activities as provided by MSBA um as act as as activities or things that you could and couldn't do. >> Are there any questions? H >> how far does the branding restriction go? I I hadn't thought of that. Like, okay, so Citizens Political Action Committee wants to put out a vote yes campaign. They can't use orange and black or they can't use like this look. I get that. >> Yes. So, they can't use this look. Yep. So, and we would advise them to not use our official district branding. Um, that can happen. Um, but we couldn't

015fully tell somebody that they couldn't use it in that way, but they definitely cannot use any of the referendum designs. Um, as as you have seen today. Yep. So, no taglines, no of none of our key messaging. Those all have to be independently created. >> So, yeah, you just said something about tagline. So, um, you can't prohibit people from saying proud pass, but you don't want but it shouldn't be a repeated tagline is essentially what we're saying. It shouldn't be vote yes for our proud past and our, you know, practical priorities and and wait, >> but any of those >> we would be reaching out to those groups and recommending like we would be making an ask to them to not use it, >> right? Obviously, you can't prohibit somebody from what I was trying

016to get is you can't say people can't use the word priorities. You can use word priorities, but it shouldn't have the same sort of messaging and feel as we don't want to blur the community involved one shouldn't blur the line in terms of that. And really the communitydriven one should the message should really be vote yes, support our schools, right? Like that's really what we're trying to get most of the community to say and it's a district that's got the heavier. >> So I I would caution us even at this table to be saying something like that, right? like we wouldn't necessarily be saying if there was a vote yes, they however they take their messaging is up to their juris jurisdiction and likewise a vote no would do the same with however they want

017to frame their messaging. I think we all have to be careful about how we are positioning and framing ourselves because again as soon as you uh people will see you as a position of authority even in a non-organized way. So you want to be careful not to blur lines. >> Yeah. Um, thank you for this. I appreciate it. Um, a question about the tagline, um, which at the moment, uh, was I just have the prepared future written down. So I I feel like the word prepared does not evoke a lot of at least for me a lot of um I don't know like excitement. I mean I like to be prepared but what's the can you talk about the decision behind that? >> So sure uh again our uh as we are district affiliated >>

018Sure. It's not necessarily to be our job is not necessarily to be excitement, right? Our job is to be informative. So we have to be careful about how we even tow the line in our language and messaging. So why we picked proud past prepared future is because it's directly in alignment to the referendum goals itself. So when we consider what the outcomes of a boiler and a technology level levy for um building infrastructure and for improving our safety security pieces, that's what's preparing us for the future, right? So it might not be the most exciting campaign um but it's not intended to be the most exciting campaign. This is a very practical and realistic um campaign that fits the needs of our school community. >> Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Um, one other thing, and

019this is maybe minor, um, but I was looking at the, um, patterns on slide 14 versus 16. Uh, the 16 is the broken pipe pattern. Um, I think the the the use of the black background on the broken one sort of stood out to me as potentially problematic. So just sort of evoking like black imagery uh or using the color black to evoke like broken. So I just say that and put that out there if there's a different way to use that graphic for what it's worth. Thank you for that. I think the intention behind this graphic I I'll actually speak to this explicit use. You probably won't see the entire piping on this in the end. The only um purpose in which we have identified for this particular pattern has actually been social media

020use in which you'd have um a text overlay on it. So it' be like a white box. I'm trying to think of a >> and I want to say I don't I don't ascribe any intent to it. It's just like a >> Yep. So this this would be an example. So if it was a social media post, you might only see a piece of the broken pattern um with the >> information about the boiler. Yep. I think it was just like the back to back. >> Yes. Yes. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> So, is the intent to use all six patterns throughout the messaging? >> There will be patterns used for different things. So, even in comparison to the poster to the um the poster to the postcard, you might have noticed the

021postcard used both the black pattern, but it also used the more blue looking pattern um on it. So, it used the one that's in uh the center, but it also used the the bottom left. So, yes, there would be instances when we might use the different patterns depending on the message we're conveying. So whether that's a social media graphic, something for the website, um it just gives us the option to use it, but it's visually all the same concept, so it still ties together. >> I have a few questions um regarding the seven inerson information sessions. So you'll have one in each building in May and in June. Is that for specifically for staff? Is it for community members, families? Who's it for? >> Yes, it it will be for all community members. They're going

022to be at the school sites um with the exception of early learning, Lenox, and T plus will all be one. So that's how we have seven. So it's six school sites and then the seventh is that um more of our community education programs. They're community open, so like anybody could attend them, but targeting the specific school, anticipating that we'll have more of that school participate in that conversation. >> Will they be like formal presentations? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um in the evenings, I'm I'm going to guess >> likely in the evenings. Yep. We're working on the calendaring of that this week. >> Okay. Um, and then the virtual information um, session, will that be um, I guess what I'm asking is when does it go out to the community who may or may not have

023who don't have students in our buildings even though that's probably our sort of target audience. Um, so that the community is also informed. Is the virtual one is that what that's for? Yeah. So the the virtual session will be open, right? So anybody could participate. I do believe that the virtual will still happen before the postcard goes out because I think we're thinking we're playing with the timing here. Realistically, when we're com considering budget, an ideal context would be sending two mailers out. We're not sure that we could feasibly do two. Um which means we may want to time our mailer a little bit later, which means our sessions may have already happened. That's a challenge that we're looking at with our scheduling here. Um, what we will be doing with the virtual is we

024will be recording that one so that it's on the site so that the QR code on the postcard would still direct to it whether or not the the session itself has happened. If we feel like we want to do another virtual session later in that summer, which is very possible, we may open that option too. But at this moment, we're for sure planning on the one and then doing a recorded session. Um the promotion again for the whole campaign is heavily reliant on our internal school community and ideally our adult and senior programs um to be participants heavily in our campaigning. >> Um I'm just yes that makes a lot of sense to me. Uh the and I apologize if I had a brain fart and I you said this and I missed it. >>

025So for the ones in the building, they're open to anybody. So if it's happening at the high school, it doesn't mean that it's a high school family that attends. It could be anybody within the community that's curious and they can make it on that night. Okay, that's >> awesome. Were there any other questions? >> Have a question. Appreciation that we see sort of how this is happening. appreciation. I I've been through a few of these and I kind of know that the district parameters are to inform people and make sure that they're aware of what's happening and that they can say vote August 11th and then anything else outside of that needs to h happen out outside of that. So just having some sense of your general approach is always helpful for other people in

026the community to understand and just to see what you're doing. So I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much for the information. Thank you for giving it to us and open. So next um we have policy discussion. It's the second reading of policy 423. Sorry, I just realized that that was not on which is the employee student relations. I'm hoping that everyone had an opportunity to see the blue lined policy that was um updated on Monday in board book. So, I'm going to turn this over to Sarah. Thank you. Um so, the two policies that we have on today are 423, which is the employee student relationships, and then 439, use of social media. And folks might recall we had a robust discussion about these policies previously. Um, so what you see in

027the blue line, the everything that's in blue for the most part is um are the edits that I made more recently um to try to capture the discussion that we had. And so I'm just going to walk through it just in case folks haven't had a chance and also um just to sort of support dialogue. I really hope that this can be like not just me read like speaking this at you, but like I'm going to pause and maybe we can talk about each section. So, if you look at um this the top of it, I added a definitions section. There is a in 420 I'm sorry, I'm starting in 423, which is employee student relationships because that's the one we're on on the agenda. There wasn't a definition section in this policy, but there

028is in 439. And in 439 we have a def definition [snorts] of um employees. So I thought we should carry that definition to this policy because we also talk about employees. I will say as I was doing this um it dawned on me or it occurred to me that we may want to include volunteers or some types of volunteers in this policy. Now I didn't include that in here. I briefly did it and then I decided it was like too much and I wanted to talk to folks about it before I did it. But if you could keep that in mind as we kind of walk through the policy about whether you think that this should this policy should specifically apply to volunteers. I know we have background checks and other um ways that we

029engage with >> Yeah. I guess I was under I my question would be then what is the definition of agent? So I when I just I just figured anybody who is in the school. So unless agent has a particular connotation or >> an agent like in a legal context is somebody who's like doing something on behalf of I would not I would not personally read volunteer into this. >> Uh do we Oh do we have a volunteer policy already? We don't have any I thought we had one related to volunteers. >> I thought we have a volunteer like handbook or something like that but not a policy per se. I couldn't I didn't see one anyway. What do you think, Jason? >> Um I I don't know of a policy, but I can also say

030that uh volunteer is incorporated into a lot of the policies in the 400s. So when we talk about employee, we define that as anyone that is an independent contractor or employee or a um volunteer of the district. So um if you did add volunteer, that would bring that in alignment with a lot of the other policies in the 400s. Are we reading the word work very literally because >> yes or I was >> an other person engaging in work for St. Louis Park public schools in my mind that could incorporate also a volunteer but >> it could I guess I just want folks to think about that in the context as we go through this policy because this is about relationships right and so think about that as we go through this about whether you

031want every part of this to apply to volunteers. So then you get to section three which is general statement of policy. Didn't really make any changes in here. Um at least at the first part, but then when you get down to paragraph F. Um well maybe we should for the purposes of >> Can I can I ask a quick question before we get to F? >> Uh I I like this any recreational stimulus. I had a question about that last time. Um, but I couldn't find any reference to that specific phrase anywhere in Minnesota statutes. Uh, >> where are you? I'm sorry. >> Uh, E4 supplying alcohol, any recreational stimulus. I think at one point it was like >> I did not add that, but it was in there before and I didn't touch it.

032>> Yeah, you're right. We didn't have that specific Yeah, >> I think we saw it when we had our policy meeting and that's why >> Right. [clears throat] >> Are you saying you want to include that or you want to define it? >> I like I just had it. It was just a clarifying question because I at our policy meeting there was a out and it this wasn't here and it said like THC. It was like alcohol or any illegal substance is how it used to read. Um, so this this is different from last time we looked at it and I was just trying to figure out where this came from because >> I I I mean I like this to be clear. >> I just don't know where >> I think we did it

033in the policy committee meeting. >> Yeah. And I think it came out of the specificity of THC and and how it's different from CBD and it was like, okay, so how do you capture the diff the varying differences when they're all legal, but they have some age restrictions on them? So, it's any type of recreational stimulus is what it landed with. Yeah, I I like that because that was my problem with saying THC is like, well, what about >> But we could define that. If you feel like we need to define it, we could add a definition. >> I was looking around. I was wondering if it was recreational >> probably. >> That would be requesting Hold on. I'm just making a note here. You can open your Jason has a thought. I'm just going

034to make him say it out loud. >> I was just thinking when it says here illegal substance because they're the under the age of 21. Therefore, it would be illegal to them. So, wouldn't that be covered under this and we wouldn't have to necessarily spell it out? It just like tobacco. I don't know. Just thought. Okay. Well, we will flag that and do something with that language. I will work on that. I made a note to myself, but it should be stimulant, not stimulus either way. Um, okay. So if as we walk through this um general statement of policy, it just says applies to employees at all times whether on or off duty and on or off school district location. So again, keeping this in mind as we think about volunteers. Um maintain relationships with

035all students that reflect an employee student or teacher student basis. um prohibits sexual relationships with students. Um and then E prohibits dating, any interaction of a sexual nature, uh any committing any illegal acts applying alcohol or other illegal substances. So, um F is where so as you see in F there's these notes that they put in um MSBA puts these in as like suggestions. what you could include in your policy. And I thought the language was good, so I just took it out of a note and actually put it into the policy about what safeguards could look like. G um I added more detail to this section about what excessive informal and social involvement with students might mean. Um and this is a [clears throat] place where I would maybe flag like if we don't

036add more details, it might be um awkward to have it apply to volunteers who might be like family friends or something, but the I think the extra detail makes it very clear what we're talking about here, right? Which is um trying to exploit kids or for sexual activity, grooming, manipulation techniques. So, this language, any language that I added for the most part came from another district. I looked at a ton of other district policies to do this. So, do folks have any questions about G? >> Not real question, but I know that this one in the previous one you put may in there or could which seems like again we're not getting into a like providing strict like >> right. It's just to give people a sense of like what we're talking like what does

037it mean when you say excessive informal and social involvement with an individual student like >> Yeah. So, I like I like that it's sort of like not getting it feels that it could feel that way that we're kind of prescribing something that has to be in a manual, but instead it's more clarifying language. So, I appreciate that. >> Um, and then, oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Can you provide an example of a overly familiar nickname? Well, I guess this when I read it in the I didn't write that, but it came from another district policy, but like I could see that in the context of like grooming or something like that where it's more of like a flirtatious nickname or something. I think that's where it's headed. just like a special that the sense of

038um putting I think I think of I always think of kind of bullying in the situation like there's a power imbalance and the person with the power giving a pet name to somebody that's just specifically for that person and it creates more of a power imbalance and it creates more dependency. Um that's how I read this and based on like the readings that I did about grooving that's where I would go. I think it's different than like everybody calls >> right >> say everybody calls me Davis that's not true but like and then so now the teachers are calling me that like that's the same versus like >> Virginia is my teacher and she has a special nickname just for me right and like nobody else calls me that nickname like >> but it and

039it and it's um taking it to a level of intimacy I think that's creating that I think that's where they were headed with it >> but we could do overly intimate or something like that >> that would Yeah. I feel like um everybody wouldn't get the gist of overfamiliar nickname. >> If you had intimacy or even pet name like Virginia stated that would land harder. >> Yeah, if you would that would be clearer for folks. Um gotcha. Okay. And then so I is really where I tried to get into what we talked about previously, which is parental consent and authorization for communication with students um using [clears throat] like personal communication channels. And so this I'm hoping we can have some discussion about whether this captures in fact captures what we were trying to talk

040about. Again, this is language I pulled from a different district. Um, but we were trying to capture that line between, right? Like we want folks to be able to communicate and in a very like Yeah, we want them to be in a professional and above board way. And I I appreciate that you did this because I was the one that sort of pushed this I and just please recognize everyone that um director Yuold and the teachers union haven't had an opportunity to look at this just yet. Um and I so uh but I feel like it captured some of what I've experienced as a teacher and what I've experienced as a parent with um texting texting my students to babysit my child. that kind or um having my daughter's teachers text her to babysit their

041kids. I guess my my one question that I have for admitted anybody that might be in an administrative position is um I'm assuming that getting the authorization from the superintendent design would that be like a building principal and is that manageable or I mean is that a manageable thing for for principles? Yeah, this is what a different district did. So, this is what I'm hoping we can have a conversation about. >> Um, I would say transparently, if you think about the number of high school students we have, the number of staff employees that we have within the district, that would be a lot for the building administration to handle is to have that to to monitor the clearance of communication. Um, I would say that would be putting a lot on the principal, especially if

042there is a miss, >> right? That's what I Well, I just think about the dances. I for those of you who don't have high school kids, um, you know, if your high school uh, student wants to take a person from another district to the dance, they have to go through some permission process. And there's so many that I I don't think it actually I don't know closely the administration is able to read every single application for. So I I think man I that was my concern is that I don't know how to manage that. Um I could see on a field trip that would be manageable. That would be an easy thing but keeping track of all the coaches and all of the the babysitters would be challenging. Here's my other question. And Sarah, maybe

043maybe this is a question for you in a in a legal sense. Like if let's pretend for a moment, God forbid we had a situation. Would all of the previous ones particularly F and G. So those those feel like more important than the texting type. Do you know what I mean? So that would ne So doesn't do you kind of know what I'm saying here? >> Is that those are more important than I? So because we have F and G in place, I don't know if we need the I. I mean, we don't have to have I. I think the concern is like the >> risk for boundary violations. Susie, what what are you >> I was going to say I I think I is important. I I support having that in there, but I

044wonder if the employee could just um get the parents consent and then forward the email to the their supervisor or someone and then they don't have to respond or read to it, but just like then there's like proof that they did it and they've checked the box and then >> or some sort of record >> if something happens, right? then they're like, "Well, I I did have it and this is not just in my email. It's in someone else's email and then there's a record." Is that something that the principles could handle? Like they don't have to do anything with it. It's just there as a record. >> Well, I could also want I'm wondering like and this would be a question for Andy, but like could the coaches one go to the athletic director?

045Right. I mean, I don't know. I and I agree like I don't think there needs to necessarily be like a formal review of all the requests. U but if a parent has a concern and goes to a principal or the athletic director or something and says like I'm concerned about this then we have some documentation or not that there was permission given. So I I I have some wondering and I think that from a athletic lens or a student activity lens there may be some some parameters already in place. I think what this would probably cover is the individual teacher having the connection with the classroom student. That's where I think is would be where I would have the parent permission, but we again Andy hasn't had an opportunity to look through this. And that's

046that was the next step that we were going to do is to send it to Andy and to pat so that they can review it, provide some perspective to say yes, this makes sense. Um, but I wonder in I if we put the onus on the staff employee to inform the administrator that they have received parent permission as opposed to the administrator having to do the approval. So if the staff member is communicating to the administrator, say I have permission to communicate with Tom, his parents have um are on the email so that everybody knows that everybody's communicating and then it's on the staff members side to inform the administrator if that could be the language. Colin, >> maybe other people are seeing it a different way, but my brain is stuck on. It's like

047those first two examples that we were giving seem to be about like what's the intent here? What what's happening? Like they shouldn't be using a power dynamic. They shouldn't be doing something. This one's about a tactic or an activity like communicating. And I'm wondering if we're getting caught up in that because it's sort of like here's what you shouldn't be doing. You shouldn't be putting yourself in a compromising situation. you shouldn't be using a power dynamic. And this one is sort of like about like, oh, if you're going to communicate through this, which starts again to me to start to get into a a manual to uh uh um the the polic, not the policy, but the practices, whatever we call it. And so I'm just wondering if that's part of the challenge here, too,

048is it's getting really prescriptive about what you should do in a particular situation, which is communication. >> I I do think that's true. I think, you know, when we get into 439, that becomes a thing, too. I mean, I do think in this area, it becomes a little squishy in that. Um, but it's true we're talking about I think the problem is for for folks who have looked at like what grooming tactics look like is that it can start very just a lot of texting and things like that and then, you know, it sort of crosses that boundary. And so, you know, and so it's sort of like for me it could be, you know, we could have some of this information elsewhere, but like in this place it should be that, you know, I

049don't know. I was trying to think of something where it's not but it's like um saying that yes, communication and the way that you use communication can be a form of this, right? like just outlining that and calling it out that like texting without parent permission, texting without you know whatever can be an example of this kind of behavior. >> I'm curious to hear from our students if anyone wants to weigh in on the dynamic here and sort of thoughts about limitations on text communication. I know last time we heard some from students. >> What did you say like the last I didn't hear >> related to I know we heard from you all a little bit last time about what works for you in terms of communication with school staff. >> This section is

050very much about sort of not using school channels but using personal cell phones to text. Um, I think for me since I do like since I do a lot of after school activities, what we use is this thing called group me. And I think that's better to use those kind of stuff instead of like your personal phone numbers because it's like in a group chat and it's like more like distance instead of more like personal. And >> do you get what I'm saying? >> Yeah. like >> um using emails or anything would be more professional rather than like personal messages on their numbers is very um inappropriate I would say and unprofessional. So the group chat you use for your sports is that um what platform is that on? >> Me on group me. It's

051that app that a lot of like school like activities use. >> Okay. My impression of the email exchange that we had earlier this year with um director Uold is that most activities and sports use group me or um WhatsApp to communicate with their um with their teams. I think the issue that I brought up is that um because we're a small community and lots of people live in our community and they are friends and we have we live together, we're close together, we do things. So for I keep coming back to the babysitting example. my daughter babysits in the community, but also like when we go on field trips and you have to communicate and I and I understand that WhatsApp and things like that work on field trips, but they also they take digital

052um connection and so if you can't find I mean there's all sorts of like complicated reasons and so there's reasons why you might want to text a teacher and a student have that ability. >> Yeah, Taylor I think these two policies are attempting to do essentially try because I think in the previous discussions we talked about how that sometimes is the only option that we have especially when we're talking about field trips and what I'm hearing in the discussion is that Are we at risk of making this section too procedural? And I'm wondering if we could just essentially strip it down to uh like use of the personal phones or email accounts or text messaging or other digital communications require parental permission. And then from there whatever procedure comes up with >> I'm sorry >>

053couldn't hear what the last after Taylor spoke I don't know who spoke but I couldn't ask >> so I was saying along what Colin was saying a little bit earlier year. I guess my question is then are we like what is there any record or are we just believing people I I feel like in should something happen maybe like a record of the parental permission should be somewhere like it shouldn't just be like in passing oh hey like can your kid mow my lawn I'm going to get his email or something and the parent says yes like that's not going to protect us later if something happens so I feel like there needs to be some stipulation of a record somewhere >> I think Can you clarify your point? >> Were you saying that the

054the procedure that is a procedural thing and that would be either site based or program based? >> Yeah, I guess yeah, it would be up to the administration on how to handle that piece so that we don't get into the procedure. I was thinking aloud so I don't know exactly where I land on it, but that was just what I was >> I'm guessing that we want to have policy guide procedure though. So we should be somewhat um I don't want to say definitive but somewhat prescriptive. And so again I I I am thinking about the what Susie had offered earlier and what Dr. Hines said which is putting the onus on the employee to contact and say um I have permission. I mean, I think that that is that is doable. >> And as

055a mom, that is what I would expect if my daughter were, you know, is that they would reach out to me and say, you know, do I have permission to text your daughter? I mean, I think that's a pretty reasonable request. that would like >> I mean just you could just say you know um unless the employee and student are related district employees must gain parental consent and authorization district staff must create a procedure to ensure documentation of parental consent and authorization and that's like we could just make it that stripped down that let's we could say the superintendent or designate must determine you know what I mean so that there's um um that you all can just decide how you want to document it. Um but that it captures the will of the board

056that there be something documented. How do we feel about that compromise? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Well, um we can make those edits and also we still need Pat feedback and feedback from Andy on that. Okay. So then I also has a um sub bullet one which says employees are strongly discouraged from engaging in any social media interaction with students unless it is through a social media account set up solely to share educational or school related information. And then sites to policy 439 which is going to be new. Um, this is also language taken from a um another district. And so I would be interested to hear what folks think about think about this. I'm I'm thinking about a situation where an employee has a social media presence and uh you know students form sort

057of a a parasocial relationship with like a parasocial relationship like there's not necessarily intera an interaction. It's not a two-way interaction, right? other than the student is following the staff person or the teacher. Is that is that an interaction under I >> does that count as engaging like that the adult is engaging with the student? I guess I would say no, but I don't know. What do others think? >> In in the alternate like the idea would be and I'm just thinking out loud like and that that's a restriction on their freedom of speech, right? That like an employee would have to prevent followbacks or follow, you know what I mean? Like, but I also don't like the idea of that kind of because it can can become quite intimate like just just following someone

058on social media like even if there's no u the the employ is not even necessarily aware of it. It's like is really more of I'm thinking of a restriction on the the student. >> Um >> so I don't we can restrict the student in that way. I think that would be really difficult to enforce. But I also have to acknowledge I don't use a lot of social media. Um and particularly >> like I I don't follow I just don't and so if other people have more insights on this that would be great. I think we have a thought for right next >> um yeah like with um what was said I think that if the if the student like has an anonymous account or if like the the teacher doesn't interact with the student or

059doesn't know that the student goes to the school. So like how would that work if it like the teacher didn't know that the student was a student at the school? Yeah, I think that's an excellent point. And again, I would say like I don't know enough about social media, but like I don't know that we could expect staff to like actively block people um that they think might be students at the school, but certainly we this I think is intended like and it could be more clear maybe from like the sort of where they're engaging with the student. Sorry. Go ahead, Colin. >> Well, if you notice the word doesn't say prohibited, it says strongly discouraged. And I think again the intention is sort of to say you shouldn't be setting up an account and

060knowingly interacting with students through you know through that mechanism. So I think it's saying don't don't do this unless you are have a legitimate education purpose for doing it. you set up I'm this is not what I think is happening but you know I'm just thinking like when my son went to Japan and maybe you set up if you would set up a Facebook account for kids going to Japan and you might have something in there that might be a legitimate education reason to do something like that but but in but in general it's saying strongly discouraged. So, you're not supposed to be putting up, hey, I'm going to have this web page up there where my kids can interact with me and they can message me at all hours about things and it's just

061another opportunity to to communicate. That seems really wrong, but also then it opens you up to some sort of like, you know, likelihood that you could have some messaging happening and so you're really discouraged from doing anything outside of just if you have your own page and somebody follows you, that's that's up to them. But I that's this is how I'm interpreting it when I see those words in there at the beginning. >> You know, I was just going to reiterate about that once again if someone does have a social media page that people can just follow and you know, you may not know. So, just re reiterating what was said previously. >> Sarah, can I just say quickly? I I read this more as like teachers shouldn't follow students. Like that's how I'm reading

062it. Like I think your point is we teachers shouldn't or employees shouldn't engage in interactions with students like no one's like if students are following you okay but like don't you go follow them that's how I read it and I think that's the what we're trying to prohibit. I just wanted to add maybe should we also get students like follow whatever it is >> I you know I think it gets tricky because there are I there are a lot of student um for lack of a better word, but there's a lot of student groups who post on so for example, the senior class has um several different face um Instagram groups and so like it starts to get it starts to get a little bit tricky because about who's following like for instance I follow

063stoal on Instagram and I know that that's school related so I wouldn't be violating this policy but there are just it just starts to get a little bit weird. Um, I agree with Susie. The way that I'm reading this is more like personal connections and that again it's going into like the the way that grooming happens and the way that it manifests itself is through sometimes through social media messaging. Um, I get I get a little bit like concerned like if we put too many restrictions you can't follow students. Now, personally, I again, I need more teacher input than this because personally, I don't follow my students because I think that's weird and I think it, you know, um breaks some boundaries. Um but like I know that I so like if I'm the Do

064you have Interact at St. Louis Park? Do you know what Interact is? Interact is through the Rotary Club. Let's say there's the um Soore. So if Soar has a social media page and I as an employee want to follow Soore, is that a problem? Like I that's where I get a little bit concerned. I'm more concerned about the personal stuff. >> Yeah. So maybe I need to clarify. I was more speaking in terms of like a teacher telling their students to follow Instagram Facebook. Is that because I don't think this gets into that to Patrick's point, is that something >> as long as it's right, but I think that the important caveat there is the um account set up solely for to share educational and school related information. I set up an Instagram page for

065my middle schoolers so that I could do a book talk once a week and they could watch it. So, I mean, and they follow me. It's a public It's public. So, I mean, that's where, you know, but that's school related. That's ed that didn't we talk about that in the policy meeting that because that was educational related that was okay for kids to follow me. Does that make sense to everybody? I guess what I'm again struggling with is maybe like we're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist yet. like I don't know what the problem is here is what I is when I'm looking at this is I'm sort of trying to get at seems like we have diff different understandings of what the problem is here. So we're trying to create a policy

066around something around that we we're not clear on the problem. So if if we to me a policy should only be in place just to really guide when there's like vagueness or there's you know that you need something to be clearly defined and this seems so vague this seems unclear kind of what we're talking about here. So I'm just struggling to think about it. >> I mean I guess I would I would say I I would like maybe frame it slightly differently from my perspective. like there's um a concern um in all educational settings related to grooming. Um we know that that happens. Um and we're trying to proactively put boundaries in place and to be very clear about our expectations. And I think social media is it's not new, but it's like constantly evolving,

067right? Okay. And so it's really difficult to find the words that will set our expectations around what those boundaries should be. But I do think um I don't know. I don't have high school age kids. My kids don't have social media. So I don't know. But I'm trying to like put myself in that position. And I would think it was really strange if one of their teachers or an employee at the school was following their personal social media page. Like that's but I haven't had that. I don't have kids of that age. I'm just trying to put myself in that position. And I'm also hearing our students say like it feels really unprofessional and inappropriate for staff to engage in that way. >> And it's not just teachers, it's employees. >> Okay. And I'm I'm

068sorry to look like I've opened up a a thing here. And I was curious what the students had to say about that too because I it to me that's it seems much more likely that there would be and I'm not saying I'm definitely not saying I've ever seen this or that I know of this happening but I could totally see uh an employee maybe uh they get hired and they already have a large following because they're an influencer of some you know we don't know who they are because these people are only famous online >> and uh you know, it turns out a bunch of the high school students are following them. I I I think that there's already kind of a power thing there. I mean, that's I mean, look around. I mean, this

069has been a problem in our society. And I I I see if if we're going to if we're trying to prevent kind the kinds of things we're worried about here, I and I don't I'm just I'm still thinking a lot about how this regulates that. It would be more of a 439 actually. policy um regulating the use of social media from from the from the staff perspective. I think my concern and why um the concerns that I brought up at the policy committee as well as the concerns that I brought up here is that from the examples of grooming that I have seen it has it has been through started through social media bleeds into text messaging and um so that's initially why I had brought it up but I I think to I'm gonna

070say this. I'm a 50-year-old lady. I did not grow up with social media. So, for me, the boundary between me and my teacher was super clear. I think that if I look at my nieces who are all in their mid to late 20s, who grew up with social media, who haven't had the same conversations about really clear I I mean, I had a very clear physical boundary. I wasn't going to call up a teacher and be like, "Hey, let's hang out sometime." But I think boundaries are different with younger staff members. And I think that just to your point about influencers and who knows about, you know, I just we just hired two new social studies teachers at my middle school. Both of them are former students and they have huge followings. They're already a

071part of the community. And so I think that the boundaries are already kind of blurry. And so having a policy in place, I think, is just giving staff guidance about what are we, what can we do, what shouldn't we do, what should we be thinking about. That's where I'm coming from. And I'm super conservative when it comes to social media and that kind of thing. And that's why I am in favor of having some guidance for the boundaries that teachers need. Like I don't want to ever put a teacher in a position like, "Didn't you know better?" And then the union turning around and saying, "Well, Is it in policy? Is it do you have it there in place? Because you know, you can't say to a teacher, didn't you know better? That's not doesn't

072work. But to your point, maybe this is better placed in the the next policy 439. >> Well, we can talk about it in that context. Um, I really went back and forth about whether to include anything in here, but 439 is really not about relationships. like how folks are using social media and what. So anyway, we could talk about it there. I also think it will be valuable to get that feedback from Pat about what they think. Um but certainly we're not we're not ready to move this towards a vote yet, but I think it's a really important discussion and I know it's taking up a lot of time, but I think it matters. So I appreciate folks engaging in this. Yes, Celia. To Patrick and Taylor's point, um, can we just add language in?

073So, like employees are strongly discouraged from engaging in any social media interaction with students or encouraging the students to ga engage in like their personal page. >> I would want to run that through council because there's some first amendment implications to that. Um, because you're talking about like actual speech. um that's outside of that. So anyway, we c we can ask about it because I think we have other things we have to ask council about, but I'll make a note to ask about it. Um anything else? Oh, sorry. I should just note 423. The other change that you'll see is in section three. It previously cited to an MSBA model policy that we don't have here in place. And so I changed that because I don't think we should site to a policy that we

074don't have in place. Um we could talk about having that type of policy, but anyhow, if you have any concerns about that, let us know. Anything else on 423? Okay. Do you want to move to the next one, Virginia? I'm passing it over to you. So use social media again. So after we met as a policy committee, Sarah and this was also following our last board full board discussion about this. So I was really again trying to capture this is a new policy for us. Um we talked about some explicit concerns. So I spent a lot of time looking at other districts and what their language was. So one thing that we didn't talk about but um apparently like other places have included in their definition of social social media to be include virtual or

075augmented reality networks. And I have to be honest I don't know what that means. But um maybe somebody else does >> like a roadblocks, >> right? I don't have I don't know. I don't I have um children in my life who play that. I don't So that's great. Sorry. Go ahead. We have right I'm sorry. What? >> Awan. >> Um I think that means uh like it was she said like Roblox, Fortnite, like those kind of games that they play for. >> Thank you. Yeah. I also just have to acknowledge I've never um experienced one of those before, but it does seem like an appropriate thing to add. So, I'm sorry. It's just not my area. Um so when we get to the J general statement of policy um this was just um some changes

076that were reflected in um in other district policies. Um, especially putting this in here because, um, we talked about getting rid of the you can never talk about St. Louis Park schools ever in any post. So, I wanted to make sure that we were being really explicit about like what we expect from folks if you're going to be doing that. Um so then when you get down to four um section four is intended to be about workrelated use of social media but I will note there are some like personal use things sprinkled in here. This is not our this is not how we wrote it. This is just like the example that came in. So just flagging that. But you'll note um that 4B, the whole section about um the mere mention is prohibited. Um

077I took that out and I did add language to address that in section five, which is the personal use [snorts] section. And then um let's see here paragraph E of section 4 I because this even though this section is purported to only apply to workrelated use it actually as I said sprinkles in some personal use. So I added for both personal and professional social media use and then the big the other big changes were in section five which is related to personal use of social media. So, we had some conversation about paragraph A, which said employees should not use social media for personal use during work time. I think there was maybe a split about how folks felt about that. Like, are is that a reasonable thing to fully prohibit? Um, I don't know because

078I don't work in a school. It's not I would say it's that would not be something that would [clears throat] be followed in workplaces that I've been in. And so I looked for some language from other places that was really about making sure that it was like pretty limited to what we might expect in a professional space. Very open to feedback on all of these things. Um I don't know how how do folks feel about about that language and a or what are your thoughts like should we just prohibit it all together? >> I agree that's pretty unrealistic. Um, and I think what you wrote is great. >> Okay. >> I agree. >> I didn't I'm not going to take credit. I didn't actually write this. I found it in a different policy. Thank you.

079>> I I think finding it is probably pretty good. >> Finding it took some time. I did a lot of research. >> Yeah. And it's a lot of work. I think the the one thing that I don't know is it addressed in here um already or is it uh whatever it would seem like using school equipment for personal social media might be a challenge. >> Is that addressed? >> I don't think that's in here but I think that's we could add that for sure >> and I don't know what others think about it. Looks like Tom wanted to >> I think it is. >> Not sure if my mic is working but it I believe that's addressed in 42 acceptable use. Oh, of >> we all sign a thing that says that. But I could

080certainly reference it in here. Let me make a note. 4395A. If I don't write this down, y'all, I will not remember to put this in here. >> Yes, please go ahead. I don't know if this is like a bad thought to share, but um because we're such a small community and because people are friends with teachers on Facebook and other places, sometimes teachers political posts are um seen by people members of the community. And I think um I understand that we can't limit what people are posting on their social media, but we should at least acknowledge and recognize that sometimes people's posts might be a um lead to children not feeling comfortable in their classroom or feeling um uncomfortable with like a person's political views. So, I I understand we can't limit it, but I

081feel like we have to acknowledge that when we're talking about social media use. [clears throat] >> Um I I hear you on that. I guess the question I can I ask a clarifying question? I I know we have a question, but I just a really quick clarifying question. Are you talking about general political statements or political statements related to school? >> I'm talking about general. I I just know this. I I have had this experience with people I know like who have had this experience. And so um I and I think also in this like very divided political climate, it's very likely that this could happen. And we we just have to acknowledge that people might post things that students don't want to see their teachers posting. And we can't limit it, but it's the

082reality. >> Sure. Did you have a comment? >> Yeah, I was going to say um I think for me as a student, if I saw my teacher posting things that cuz I know like I'm a student, I'm not that educated, but if I saw things like them being biased to something that is against me or like my fellow students or something, I would kind of feel weird in their class if I saw something like that or if I saw them like not really like something opposing of my beliefs or like something like that. I just think like them posting something political like that's very firm and very strong. It's kind of just not like I I feel like it's weird especially as a student. If teach if students are so like chronically online they can

083go look up your page and just see that and then once they go into your class they can start like acting weird and do you guys get what I'm saying? >> Yeah, for sure. Um >> it'll be So there is a professional line there, right? So what I hear Susie saying and what I see hearing is that there's a prof Swan saying is that there's a professional line and there's a sense of professionalism when it um when it comes to to teachers. I would just and I acknowledge that and there's first and there's first amendment rights for teachers and they they can post those things and maybe what we should be encouraging teachers to do is not be friends with their >> students on Facebook. Well, so again, that again, this sort of points back

084to 423. And I also would just really quickly point folks to 3A in this policy, >> which says when engaging in social media, whether for professional or personal use, district employees are advised to be respectful and maintain the highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct. >> And they also have to acknowledge that they're speaking on Right. Didn't I read that in one of the books? If they're going to speak about something related to the district, they have to give the disclaimer on their own person. >> I also just want to make sure that we always remember that this is employees. So any employee of an agent and contractor etc of the district. So it's this isn't just about teachers, right? So this is about um anybody who is employed, whatever that might be defined as.

085um by the district. So, it's not just teachers, it's, you know, it's our custodian staff, it's our administrators, our business department, it's anybody. Um and so, it does seem like there's a professional line that we have to maintain and those are professional standards that we have to talk about. And I will just say this, I can speak for teachers that we have put professional standards and they're ao part of our licensing, but this is for all of our employees. So there are licensing for a teacher and for an administrator. There are some ethical standards that we have to abide by. So can I just want to point out a couple of other provisions in here that may help folks feel a little better. So I'd point to 5D which is again the personal use section

086but this is the last paragraph of that that says we the St. Los Park Schools may take appropriate action when it becomes aware of or reasonably suspects conduct or communication on social media that adversely affects the workplace, impedes the employees ability to do their job, or violates professional codes of ethics or other laws. And [snorts] then I'd point to six um a which is about accountability that while we don't affirmatively monitor employee use of social media, we may view and monitor uh the employees social media activity at any time and without prior consent. Right? And so these are, I think, reasonable things that are trying to sort of create this space where it's like certainly we're not trying to infringe on anybody's first amendment rights, but if you're posting something that's going to cause harm,

087as we just heard, right, like make students feel uncomfortable, we can if that if that's made if we're made aware of that as a district, we can we can take action based on that, right? and make sure that you're that it's not impeding your ability to do your job and um not creating a a hostile environment for others. >> And to speak to some of the situations that have occurred, we in human resources have worked with supervisors to encourage them. Okay, so something is brought to our attention. It makes students feel uncomfortable. We encourage administrators to do more walkthroughs of that classroom. Make sure that they're monitoring what the teachers are saying. make sure those views are not being reflected in their practices and if they are we're addressing it at that time. So we

088are trying to balance the first amendment rights of you know freedom of speech but also acknowledging that they are representing the district and if something they are doing is making our students feel uncomfortable we will take action and address it immediately. >> Thanks. That's really helpful. Um it's good to know. Thanks. So as we reach the end of this policy, I just want to point out so the the reason I chose to include the information in I1 in the last policy about social media relationships is because nothing in this is about relationships, right? And that whole other policy is about relationships. And so I chose to cross reference it but put it in the employee student relation policy. And I just wanted to circle back to that for folks. I that I'm not like wedded

089to this. This doesn't have to be the way. It's just how I drafted it because of the way the two policies read. >> I'm not nods and thumbs up on that choice. Okay. >> I mean, I think in general, are we in favor of keeping um the reference to 439 and 423? >> Okay. Okay. I have my notes on these. I will try and get some updates on these um in the next week over to Carla and team so that this can get over to the folks who need to review it internally and then we'll make a decision about whether it's coming back to a meeting like this or going on a on a business meeting agenda, but it certainly would not be on a consent agenda. >> Correct. Um, just for clarification, I know

090that there was some language request for 423. >> I'm going to do both >> 43 and >> 423 and 439 and then I will get back to you again >> and then we'll send it out. >> Correct. I will try and be timely. >> Is there uh any other discussion items for policy 423 or 439? Awesome. Then um we can move on to our follow-up uh with Dr. Barrage. But I am going to say let's take like a three minute break. So for people who need to use um the restroom or get some water, just stretch um or leave as the case may be for our cabinet. Thanks everyone. So we'll adjourn for three minutes. where you're starting at right now where you need to start. And so what I'm going to ask you to

091do about what would be your top three >> between the two of us >> between the two of you. So in your groups of two >> and you need to talk through why they have five minutes. >> Top three goals. Okay, I'll be quick to see Um yeah, I was thinking I think community engagement and trust building is [snorts] a huge uh priority for for uh both of us. Um I think some of the historical practices that we've had around uh transparency and and involving the community doesn't necessarily do us or the community any favors and thinking about ways how how we can improve those systems and strengthen uh feedback. And also one of the things that isn't on here, but I wanted to add is just um uh also looking at our partnership with

092the student board reps and making sure that that program is working the way we want it to and if we need to make any improvements to continue to hone in their feedback would be I think uh important to do. I don't know if you wanted to speak to >> Yeah. So for number five, I mean I think just fundamentally this is a a key responsibility of the board and so it feels like a really critical um board goal that we need to [clears throat] >> thank you. >> So we kind of we kind of tossed up over number three. Um we we didn't know if we want to land on number five or number six. We felt like both of those were important for and number two, but we did we did we did hone

093in on number three as our one. >> So yes, because we like um the previous folks decided that that was a part of like our goal, responsibility and role in the first place. >> Um but for me like the reason why number two is important is the staff investment in an organizational capacity because I also feel like that is board because we're so we're directing our goals [gasps] our goals help to direct the superintendent and I feel like a part of our fiduciary responsibility is the investment in our staff and the organizational capacity. So within that there's a there's an inherent um alignment with our budget and we're making sure that our our budget is aligned with our um values. So that's why I was leaning number two. Um but number five, I would agree

094with Sarah and Taylor that number five just feels like that is the definition of board responsibility is um financial stewardship. I would be curious to have a conversation about what it would mean to have shared understanding and like what does that look like and um because everything kind of bleeds over because that bleeds over into legislative agenda a little bit and it also bleeds over into number four, community engagement and trust building. So, Let's let's start where we did agree [laughter] >> because Colin and I No, no, no. Let's go. We feel it's important goal for the goal the the board to be able to understand the big picture advocacy and legislative alignment kind of Colin and I I mean we were at the capital yesterday. We kind of come from there. So that's a

095natural thing for us to agree on. >> That's your one >> I Yeah. Well, it was one that we agreed on. >> Okay. I don't think either of us thought it was number one. >> What did we agree was number one? >> I I don't know if we agreed on a number one. We I know that we said for me um governance number three seems important. We need to finish this work here that we're doing. I think that just would be nice to get her done. Um so I think we were in pretty strong agreement that we should keep that up. Um, and then I think where it gets a little murky, um, is what some other people have called out is sort of like, um, I think student achievement, instructional e excellence is really

096a key part of the work that we do. It's, I mean, to me, I just read the word student and it's student centered and I just want to focus on that. So, that's kind of where I I felt like that was important. And you were just having some more questions about the measurement kind of aspect. Yeah, I kind of agreed with what Taylor and Sarah were going with, which was that like, yeah, these things are hard for us to control. Um, even if we had strong goals around them, how do we actually achieve them? Like that's more of a >> right that's management, I feel. >> Um, yeah. And I just keep thinking like these are this is to help us guide our discussion and what's important. An example that I gave is like maybe

097the social media thing is important, but whoops, we never really even focused on where we were going with how our students are doing and maybe that was a better conversation to spend 45 minutes on versus social media policy. So that's how I'm kind of viewing this and so I think through that lens and then um I think you also were you you were thinking through number five there too. >> Yeah, I mean we >> we've already talked about that though. I And for me, I was and I was like, well, I've been through this for a while and I feel like number five I feel the best about of anything that we're doing here. So, >> here's what I have. >> Yeah. >> Number three is a >> Yeah. >> Yep. Yeah. >> I heard

098student achievement and instructional excellence agreement there. I'm watching the body language too. I see financial stewardship. >> No, it was advocacy and legislative alignment. That was a >> Yes. >> And then we both had one like we're we're in agreement so we're going to go fast. So we our number one is student achievement and instructional excellence because that is what a school district does or should do. Um number two we did governance and accountability for the school board. And in that we also wanted to include the feedback systems from number four where we talk about community engagement because we can our we can use feedback from the community to drive our policy. Um and that way people feel like there's a feedback loop. And then lastly, we thought advocacy and legislative alignment because we can't

099um really do much of the things we want to do if we don't get more money from the state and if we are constantly fighting with the legislature for policies that support what we care or don't support what we care about. >> Okay, this is great. Your number one goal will be excellence and accountability. The next one that you have now your third. So now you can only choose between one student achievement instructional excellence. Two staff investment and capacity at one person community engagement and trust building and financial stewardship and shared understand. So now you have three minutes and each group has to come up with their number one I still don't pick that >> one feel. Oh, we said four the communication >> four communication community engagement. That's the one. Yeah. >> Okay. >>

100We got one. >> One. >> I knew it was going to come down. >> The thing is that we agree with you that one is critical. We just think that it should be part of a governance excellence and accountability strategy. opposite. >> We think it's the opposite because if we have if we focus on student achievement, if we really believe that every student should be able to achieve, then that facilit like we need staff investment to facilitate that. And that's how we also engage the community and have trust in the community. If people feel like we're meeting the needs of every child in our community, >> okay, anyone else want to add because I have great news for you. You said, I'd like for you to have three can So that gives you your four

101goals for the Now let's get to work. [laughter] You get three. You get four. >> Yeah. >> Okay. You like to switch? >> [laughter] >> You'll take six and you will take this question. >> You get 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Thank you very much. 20 minutes. Well, I have I think I would It would be established. What else? Can you remind me? This is what I remember. It wasn't it wasn't weren't carried over. >> Are you Were you signed up for >> I just always go out and get >> you're not signific Is What else? I don't mind. Yeah, But I mean that's All right. Well, I mean, We have I feel like Let me Are you Those [laughter] Do we come You have eight minutes left. Well, That doesn't necessarily mean I think we

102get a lot of feedback but we don't always I don't know what I think we're supposed to be one more minute. start one student achievement and instructional excellence. Walk us through your I'm so hot. I'm sorry. um we talked about um the new world's best workforce data which is called ker um and so basically the idea would be it's college and career readiness and aligning standards for all students um so what we wanted to ensure is that our schools are aligning and that's what the goal mean in practice um and then in if we were doing it well we would have a rise in student achievement we would become a destination district again and our community would be happy Um I and Okay. Then is that all you want me to do or you want

103me to do the whole thing? The whole >> Okay. Then for governance, what was the board's role? The board's role would be to monitor implementation um and be able to like get an annual report. And then the superintendent and cabinet role would be to ensure ex execution and resources align including professional development and accountability. Um the board's role is always to support standards and policy to support the cabinet and the superintendent. um communication and community. We talk about this to build trust by this. We were talking about having an annual report like a state of the district um like you get a report from whatever boards you're on of like all the things that the they're doing in the community um and like literally overtly sharing our goal and where we are and on our

104way to achieving it. And essentially what we want to ensure that we're doing is meeting every child where they are. So whether a child is going to uh like four-year college or to a vocational school or a two-year college or whatever it is, we want to see every child and ensure that we are meeting their needs. And that's what we thought our message should be to the community for accountability. Um would be like monitoring the board could monitor student achievement in all ways, not just through testing, but like literally like having um Sylvie come with data and show all the different kinds of data um in a class um like papers and test scores and whatever like lots of different ways. And we would know that progress is made because we would have more achievement

105and we would have a happy community. Thank you. >> No. Advocacy and legislative alignment. We're both talking >> advocacy and legis. So what does this goal look like in practice that we have a formalized way of advocating for ourselves at the legislature particularly um a committee or a commission which are different ideas that Colin has thoughts on. Um what would it look like if we were doing this well as a board? Um we we would see we would see results, right? legislation getting passed, more funding. Um, so then we were talking about, yeah, the board's role versus the superintendent's role in this goal is we would have membership on this committee or commission. Um, a couple board members with interests or and a cabinet member, right? And, um, community members. uh the the cabinet and

106the superintendent are telling us, you know, here are the things that matter to us, right? Maybe maybe selecting things that are part of a larger legislative uh package that, you know, one of the other organizations is has put forward, AMC or MSBA. Um yeah, so those okay, those are those are the roles uh you're going to take over. No, I just was gonna comment and and I think we're and this is a little bit of for what we'd want to hear from the board, but then we think potentially the board's role could be like what are the top things here? Like we can't do everything that we want to always talk about, but what would we make the priority here out of these that could be the key things that we know we'll talk about

107and if if if other people want to talk about other issues as part of other organizations, MASA or they AMSD or whatever they wanted to, they were welcome to do that. But as when we go out and we say we are St. Louis Park right now, we you know, I'm saying that this is the thing that we are really pushing for. We really want to get that long-term facility maintenance through >> and everyone knows. >> Everyone knows. >> Yeah. And so for communication and community, we're we're um we can talk about it publicly like perhaps, you know, there's a report to the the the larger board. This is what the committee did. This is what we're deciding. Does the board want to approve this agenda? Do we publish this >> like at the website? These

108are our you know goals. Um >> where I can't read your writing. >> Yeah, that's why I was gonna say that's why I was offering to >> Thank you. [laughter] uh in terms of one clear message I think there we have one and because people are seeming to bend the rules here we have two but one is that we under >> we we understand the context of of what the situation is that we understand you know whatever that we're dealing with and my secondary message would be that uh we need their help that's the other thing that I think is important through this is that we don't want this to just feel like it's us at the table or the administration we need the community to be a part But they're part of this in

109particular. So, >> all right. >> Three minutes, kids. You had three minutes. I just Everybody had three minutes. I'm just saying it is getting late. >> I am determined to get us out of here at a reasonable hour. So, we had um communication and community engagement and trust building. Um so, number one, clarity check. what does the goal mean in practice not in theory so we're getting community feedback and I feel we felt that we do that in many ways listening sessions parent square community celebration events parent advisory groups PTO's coffee with principles conferences surveys board briefs etc um what would it look like if we were doing it well well less confusion from the community and so I think that um there's two types we sort of talked talked about two types of emails

110that we get. We get the emails that disagree with us, which are we're perfectly open to hear, but then we get a lot of emails that are just like confused about the decision that we made, the direction that we decided to go in, and so there would be less community confusion. Um, and I said that a board goal would be closing that communication loop. Whatever that there seems to be a disconnect in our loop. Like we're getting information out but people are either not getting it or we're not getting the information back. So to look um if we were doing it well, we would close that loop. As far as governance goes, um I think that our communication protocols are really going in the step in the right direction and then clearly posting those communication

111protocols on our website. So when they go when people land on our page on the super or excuse me on the schoolboard page, they will see this protocol and they will know how to communicate and they will know how um to get the answers that they need. Um, and then as far as the difference between the board's role and the superintendent, we sort of just talked about there are there's some distinct differences, but then there's some shared responsibility and establishing especially with listening sessions and showing up to particular events. And then where we kind of got the accountability well I think the communication protocol is also gives lends itself specifically to accountability measures but um one question that we had that is you know as far as like what decisions behaviors or actions must the

112board on their own to advance this goal that's where we sort of got a little bit hung up. So like what are we going to start to say like you have to attend one listening session a year you have to go to one community event and I the thing is like that's that might not be very flexible I am about to be an empty neester I will be able to go to more events than say somebody who still has young children at home so it's like we have to sort of come up with some way of establishing where is the board representation going to be and making sure that it's not a last minute like who's doing this again and having some way to clearly define but not being overly prescriptive because I don't think

113it's fair to say well you have to do this you have to do this because all of us have unique circumstances in their lives an aging parent that needs help a kid that's going to college and having a meltdown I didn't say that I did not say that it was my kid just saying that it could be somebody's kid [laughter] >> and the thinking behind that was just that for the community engagement and trust building. The community would want to get to know each one of us and how we um like our lens and how we feel about things or like even if it's we're speaking as a board, how do you show up? When do I get one-on-one time with you or two on two time? How many ever people are at the listening

114session? So, like um Virginia stated, we don't want to um mandate something where people are like forced to show up, but if we're trusting in one another that if you are available, you will try to show up at least one time a year. >> Maybe somehow getting some help establishing a more clear system. >> Yeah. >> Like I don't know what that looks like, but it, you know, I feel like that is something that we can figure out. Next group. >> Do you want me to do it since? Okay. I'll just note in advance that we have this typed out so we can send it to you if it's helpful. >> Um, >> okay. So, we did the governance ex excellence and accountability for our clarity check. Um that in practice it would look like

115we have metrics that align with our strategic plan and portrait of a learner that we can hold ourselves and the superintendent accountable to including metrics on student achievement, instructional excellence, staff investment, organizational capacity, review of policy impacts because we say that in our policies that we will review them and we don't often do that. And community engagement amongst others that we have established board communication norms and they are followed. that we have a board self- assessment policy and is being implemented and that we see improved student outcomes, staff capacity, community trust, communication and understanding of board expectations. On the governance lens, we think that this is almost entirely the purview of the board. However, there's some manage up responsibility for the superintendent and cabinet. Um, the board must own accountability for establishing and following board

116communication norms, implementing and actualizing a board self- assessment policy that holds us accountable to the metrics that I noted above and others. And then ensuring that the superintendent evaluation process accounts for the metrics that we've discussed and ensures that the superintendent feels supported in their accountabilities and can regularly ask for and receives the support they need from the board. as it relates to communication and community. Um, we said, uh, we would like to establish an accountability framework. Um, and that's how we would talk about this. That board members need to be accountable and transparent about what accountability, what that accountability is and what it looks like. The community needs clarity on what we're holding ourselves and the superintendent accountable to and how. and that we need to provide um [clears throat] clarity on how we're

117achieving our strategic plan and mission. And then the clear message for our community would be we are holding ourselves and the s superintendent accountable to our strategic plan with clarity on who is accountable for what. And finally, our accountability marker would be indicators. Um there's some indicators the board should monitor regularly, including is our evaluation process linked to our strategic plan and portrait of a learner? Are we using smart goals for ourselves and the superintendent? Meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. I know folks have opinions on that. It doesn't have to be that, but that general idea. And then how will we know by using our smart goals and metrics? >> Oh, we did it. >> So, here's where we are. And I know I just hit the hour mark. And so, what

118we will do, what I will do now. your documents back. You have four goals. And so now I'm going to put goals in place for you and then I will connect with this information and then start to align what your next steps will be and put it in a I'm trying to use the same model here. I want to give you a monitoring timeline so that you have everything in front of you that you are ready to get moving starting July and I will follow up with you as I've done before you have everything suduesday. so that you have everything. >> But you did well. >> Congratulations. >> You'll be ready. >> And those that would like to send it by email. do not want to type it nicer. >> We'll take them. >> Okay.

119Anyone that needs to type them [laughter] >> at least by Friday. Okay, thank you so very much. You are one hour. >> I love it. Thank you. Is there anything else for the >> seeing no other items to discuss, I'm going to adjourn this meeting at >> Somebody give me a time. >> 8:48. Okay, I sent you our email and Stephanie and Carla with our notes. >> Stephanie, Carla, Jasmine. Yes, I think I sent it to Jasmine. I hope I did. >> I know.