001to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And Darcy, do we have any open forum items? Good. No open forum items. and I welcome our esteemed faculty with us this evening along with other guests. Uh public hearing is our next item number four public hearing regarding tax abatement. Is there a presentation of some kind on the item? >> Not yet. >> We'll speak to the action later. >> Okay. So, we're looking for public comments concerning the tax abatement. hearing. None. Then Paul, we would table this or help me. >> It's not an action item. >> Okay. Thank you very much. I'll entertain a motion for approval of our agenda for this evening. >> Chair
002Schindler or Vice Chair Schindler, I'd like to move the consent items to 10.8 on the agenda and move to accept the agenda with the amendment. Okay, there's been a motion made to move the consent items to 10.8 after the close session. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any questions, comments, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. We will take care of that. Thank you. Consider the agenda approved as amended. and Paul uh approval of donations. >> All right. Thank you, school board superintendent Hy. Um just continuing our practice of publicly acknowledging those to uh contribute or uh offer donations to Albertly Schools. Uh so the month of December, uh here's the list of donations uh for the district. Thank you, Darcy. Um so we uh
003received a donation uh two donations from the Freeborn County Ship Grant. Um, one for a swing. I believe that is uh um for Halverson Elementary. Is that uh correct, Miss Larson? Swing there. Okay. And another ship grant here for water bottle fillers of $5,450. Uh so two uh uh significant donations there from the ship grant um and continued support from that program. A $50 donation from Ascension Lutheran Church uh for snack scholarships. Uh the Quantis Noon Club, $125 to the Tiger's Den. uh Minnesota Corrugated Box, who's been a a great partner uh continuing these $500 donations. This one to the Albertly Dance Team. Uh donation from the Bay View Funeral Home, $1,000 to our community ed program. And then our Blackbod giving fund, $28 this month to our special ed early learning. So, a thank
004you to our donors and just ask for approval of those donations. Almost forgot. There we go. Um, so just starting uh with the report Minnesota paid leave update. Um, we've had a significant increase in applications. Um and um just so the board has an idea, this is taking within the business office and HR considerable amount of time. So um Ashley and I have been kind of tracking it the last few weeks. So this probably started about December 20th, Ashley. Yep. So about December 20th. Um when you go through HR um you go through payroll and benefits. So it's three of our employees. Um each probably leave application takes anywhere from four to five hours um to accommodate which includes meeting with the employee um working out what the what the pay or what the benefits
005or the the structure there. Um then uh what happens a lot of the time is once once they figure out all those pieces um the employee because you can go back and change it. So then a lot of the times they go back to deed adjust kind of their days or their hours or or what's going on then those three go back through everything readjust everything have another meeting. Um, I'd be willing to bet actually this is probably since the 20th, probably four hours of her day, half her day to up to twothirds of of every one of her days is has been uh working on Minnesota paid leave. So, it's eaten eaten into a lot of our time here at the district office. So, um, and we'll see either if if it keeps at
006this pace, it's it's going to be hard to keep up with it. um we anticipate um maybe it'll slow down a little bit, but again, for all the different reasons, there's there's a lot of different reasons people could use it. So, um for the MLK event at Riverland, uh the mayor and I both spoke at it. Um I did give an update on the um I called them the ICE procedures there. Um it's really outside agency procedures and you can you can see number four. Um I listed them there. Um the the really great thing is uh we had a number of siblings come that are in the choir. So the we had middle school and high school students in the choir, a lot of families. Um they sang a couple of songs. Very well
007done. Um and then we had three students receive scholarships there. So it's a great evening. Um and the the community is really excited about the talents of our students. So and they were really able to showcase there. uh the three scholarship winners uh gave a little um bit of their scholarship essay as a speech and uh very inspirational. So, you know, every time I go into classrooms, whether they're kindergarten, uh any of the high school classrooms, you get to see what awesome kids we have here. Um and then when they have a night like that where they can shine both um in their talents and um receiving a scholarship, it's a great night. So, a lot of fun. Um so um in that same manner um we're not seeing like a significant amount of students
008out for attendance um with ICE in the area. Um what we kind of see is if if word gets out that ICE is active or there's an anticipation the next day there's going to be a lot of agents in the area that we'll typically see a lot of attendance um non-attendance that following day. um or kids leaving school. Um and I get it. Families want to make sure that all their kids are safe. Um what we're doing on the other end is there are there are some families that are holding their kids and they're they're keeping them home. So we've started I met with principles today and I've said just maintain contact with the family and then work with the families to get the students what they need um to stay enrolled um and keep
009up with their work um as best as we can. So, and that's kind of uh some of the other schools in the area have started like um more online, more um it's just hard cuz for a student to come in and out and not be there like a whole semester um at the high school level that's hard to do and then really what online can you do K5 uh that would be significant learning when you look at our literacy curriculum with Whiten Wisdom letters. So, makes it really tough um on all of our teachers, too. So, um but thank you to the teachers because they're really working hard with the families and they care a lot about the kids. So, um that that really shows. Um with the outside agency, you can kind of see
010there. Um just as a summary, we we greet the we greet the agents professionally. If they were to come to the school, um we we request their identification, whatever papers they have. um they notify myself and the principal. We'll notify our attorney. We'll get our attorney working to make sure that any of the documents that they have, make sure they are legit, make sure they are legitimate agents. Um and then uh we'll take direction from the attorney as to the next steps that we do. Of course, for me, you'll get notified as a board that um agents are at a building. Uh the closest they've come um they did uh one of their cars did turn around in one of our parking lots. Um the staff that was at Halverson. Staff noticed. Staff took the
011kids inside. We went to um nobody outside. Uh we made sure all the doors were locked. Um we did all of our emergency procedures. So the staff has to be uh commended there. um did everything just like we would like to see with any outside agency or any outside um interruption. So um so that was followed to a tea. They again made I think they made two or three laps around the parking lot. Um we knew they were active in the area. Um I had just found out they were active in the area and then not more than a half an hour later um I got the information that they had done a U-turn in the parking lot or couple laps in the parking lot. So scary at the moment, but um but again, everything
012worked just like we would want those emergency procedures to work. So again, commend that staff at Halverson. So um and then lastly, um as we start to get into um we all know that we're going to have a budget revision. Um we know that we're facing uh budget cuts. I mean, I took the job knowing that we've had the district task force working. Um, so, um, I'm I'm proposing that as board members, we set up either as pairs or threes, um, that we start to set up either monthly or bimonthly meetings, and then we can start to go over some of the ideas, some of the directions that's going. Uh, we can have a little bit, uh, more conversation on the task force recommendations so that we can start to get a plan together. um
013that then we can present to the community um as to how we're going to cut um and what we're going to cut. So um but I think it's going to take a lot of conversation. You all have the historical um you know myself in my first year I don't have that historical knowledge. Um I'm building it but um it's easier if we have those conversations. So um so that as a board everybody's in the know um and we can move forward together. Dr. H, I'm just wondering concerning ICE, have there been any families asking for the option for online? >> Uh, we have not directly, at least to my knowledge. Sean, have you had anybody as two? Okay. So, two. >> All right. We'll have uh board member reports next day. >> Um, so I
014actually took some personal time the last month or so. I had some illness and death in the family. So, unfortunately, I had to miss a few board meetings and committee meetings. So, I don't have anything to report right now, but I do have some meetings coming up this week and next week that I'll happily report on next week. >> Mary Joe, >> uh I attended the Freeburn County Services Collaborative. Um and that is we get state grants into the county and so it's made up of boards of all the school districts, the county employees. And so this last meeting there no were no grant requests. Um and these grants are focused on just FYI on youth and mental health in the in the county. And so next month we're going to look at the past
015recipients and see how we outreach and make sure we're reaching the needs of the community with with those grant funds. Um attended the MSBA conference last week was very good. Um I attended one of the sessions was on the family and medical leave act uh put on by a law firm and as well as a few school districts shared some some of the uh how they're managing etc to be efficient with it. Um and then the attorney shared some issues that are arising and of course it's already going to run out of money. So the concern is the 0.88 88 is going to increase of what employers and employees will pay. So that is concerning. Um but this the conference itself was great. A lot of great sessions,formational things. Stillwater did aformational session on they
016have went K12 no cell phones. Um so that was a great one. Um, so a lot of great ideas out there and continue, you know, things we can work on. Um, I've been watching the task force uh, meetings and somebody asked me why aren't I there or why aren't more board members there? And so I explained that only three of us can be there, otherwise there'd be a schoolboard meeting. So just FYI for the public to know as board members, we selected three people to attend those, but they are recorded. So that's great. I did attend then one of theformational meetings that went was uh presented to the public and you know a lot of discussion at the round tables and my table I was majority of the people there were retired teachers and of
017course their comments were do not cut classrooms look at non-classroom positions we're declining enrollment and that means across the board so uh great discussions and I'm sure the feedback coming in is similar to that and then we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that this week is par educator week and thank you for the work of our paras. So that is my report. >> All right, thank you Angie. >> Sounds good. Not too much. Um no committee meetings. I did go to the MSBA conference and it was a great event. Um as always my favorite part is just getting to spend time with you guys, getting to know you a little bit better. Neil, thank you for driving. I enjoyed the conversation with you and Dr. Hy. Um, great speakers. I was hoping for a
018class on negotiations and they actually didn't have that. Um, but I did go to two that touched on Minnesota paid leave and the challenges with that. So, that was kind of the biggest takeaway that that I took from it. >> And thank you, Kimberly. >> Some people don't know me by that name. Thank you, though. Um I uh I attended one of the task force to information SE uh sessions and like Mary Joe said that we kind of divided and conquered and um I really enjoyed that session because I think um good representation of community members um and there were staff there um good data for them and I think that just goes along with you know that transparency of decision making and and why we do the things that we do. I enjoyed the
019small table conversation because getting views from all people from the community is very important and and um I too heard you know um class size and and also um just keep communicating that's the big part a lot of conversation around um uh quality education and and the that renewal of of of of thoughtfulness around that. So, um I enjoyed that very much and I thought the time went fast and I appreciate the opportunity to go to that. Um and that's all I have. No committee meetings. >> Mr. Score, >> thank you. Uh I also attended the MSBA conference. I'm I'm an excellent driver. It was a little bit disappointing that we didn't have a blizzard to drive through on the way home. So um the conference is uh like a lot of conferences there's a
020a there are general sessions there are keynote speakers that are really good at what they do and uh present some wonderful ideas and inspirational ideas on on uh a lot of things. Um and then there are workshops and uh at this particular conference the way the schedule is set up each one of the attendees have an opportunity to witness three workshops. That's frustrating because there's about 18 that you would like to go to on the cafeteria list. The good news is that if you if the board members download the 2026 conference app on your electronic device, you may obtain information about every one of those workshops, including handouts that were available at that workshop. So even though you weren't able to physically be there, you can still uh obtain a lot of the information that
021relates to that topic. Uh I too attended the uh Stillwater one on on uh electronic devices. The motto at Still Water is leave your devices at home. Sort of like don't take your guns to town. And uh that's probably good advice. uh the the a second conference that or workshop that I attended that was very uh meaningful for me was presented by Lake City uh school district and u the subject was a student grade book which translates into the a district grade book oftentimes because it is a a a device that marks how well the student is doing but also how well the district is doing in educating that student. And currently uh the methods or the means by which we engage in in that evaluation of how successful we are at educating our students
022uh is is a little bit sketchy. uh specifically the MCS tests which is not is not a a very good instrument uh in my opinion at measuring student success. Um, Lake City has uh a a lot of categories which they collect a lot of information data from several categories uh including things like involvement in community affairs, involvement in student activities, their grade point average, uh u a lot of things other than test results. They do include uh as one of their categories this the students results on ACT tests but that's a rather high uh stakes test that students take very seriously when they do take it. So the results of that are probably reliable. Well um roundt discussions on paid leave. uh Superintendent Hy did a pretty good job of of describing uh the challenges
023in connection with that and there are several challenges good idea but uh it's complicated um task force I'm I'm involved in uh in attending those task force meetings and it's I guess I'm an educator and and the educator gets educated at these committee at these task force meetings and um it's it's a process and uh gradually the the clouds are starting to clear cobwebs out of my brain and I'm starting to kind of get an idea of what our district and every other pretty much every other district in the state of Minnesota needs to do to figure out how to efficiently and effectively match our income with our expenses which is what it's basically about and our income is a function of how many students we have and that variable is decreasing which which diminishes
024our income. So so we need to deal with that. Um the uh last thing that I'm connected with on my report is the education foundations and uh uh Gary is the chair of the education foundation uh and he will have more on that in in his report. That's it. >> Well, thanks for teasing that uh thing. So, um, the activities I've been involved in the past month include, um, the creating entrepreneurial opportunities. We're ready for the next phase. And I think Sean, you're going to be with us tomorrow. We have a half day of training, uh, which will focus on selecting students and implementation of that. And financially, we've hit all the mile markers there. uh participated with Ashley and Paul in director and coordinator um negotiations and a very good professional thoughtful uh number
025of meetings. So I I was glad to be a part of that. So I hope that we can continue to have a role as board members in future negotiation teams. I have also been participating in the facilities task force and also the community roundt. Um Kim was at my table. So it's a very good open frank discussion in my mind. And one of the issues we talked about that has not really surfaced in the task force meetings themselves is that we have a net loss of I think it was 350 students a year through open enrollment. And I think we're going to be asking for a workshop again to explore that more. where are our students going and finding out perhaps why they might be leaving the district. Um, but that is a significant loss
026of uh students and see what we could do to perhaps remediate that. And the most important thing I want to do and I'm going to take the liberty at this time as vice chair to present to Dr. Ohio. >> Um the I chair the education foundation and one of our key events is the athletic hall of fame and that's also a fundraiser for us. I so that's a significant fundraiser for us. Um I also want to mention if you don't know already Tom Jones is the key player. He is the heart and soul of that athletic hall of fame. But Dr. palette I'd like to present to you tonight is a check from the Albert Foundation for $10,000 and it's meant to support waving fees for students that may have challenges to participate. So I'd
027like to present that to you. Thank you very much. All right. So, this weekend we hosted um this year's solo and ensemble for our region. Um we got a few best insights for Albert Lee. Um there was a walk out on what was it? Friday. Wednesday. I have my dates mixed up, but um there was a walk out on Wednesday protesting ICE, as you all may know. Um I had the pleasure of talking to the organizers of that. Um and they're all really um they all really do feel supported by our staff. Um especially um the ones that were out there with them. There there were two, one for each group. They had like a bus riding group, the ones that stayed at the school, and then the ones that could get a ride. Um,
028and there was a staff member with with each group. So, they did really feel supported by um the staff here. So, I want to thank you all for that. Um, other than that, um, uh, the seniors had a meeting about scholarships. Um, so that's pretty good. Um, other than that, I don't really have anything. Oh, there we go. Okay, so old but new news. So, we had celebrated our holidays in December. Um, we had overall 12 teams, which was 84 students participate in the dodgeball tournament, which was a big turnout for us. So the team that won was the erdas won by junior boys and even more importantly we got to fi pie five teachers in the face including Mr. Gaston and trust me there are great photos that are coming out in the Alahasa
029soon about that. So, um, yes, we had Solen Ensemble, three best in sights. Um, we have hockey weekend coming up this weekend. So, I would 100% come out and watch. If not, you'll also see me there cuz I work there. And we also have had Dorian Honor Choir. So, Dorian Luther is like this honor. It's a music festival that our students get to participate in. and six people from choir got the honor of participating this past weekend to go up there Sunday Monday and then came back and it's a really fun weekend I know overall and Minnesota band director association honor band was also this these past weekends and three of our students participated and that was they I heard from them and they said it was a lot of fun too so >> very
030good >> that's all from me as a footnote >> yes Sorry, I Carly mentioned magic words. She said scholarships and I am uh with the education foundation. I'm the secretary of treasury. So, it's my joy to keep track of all of that. And uh just want to report one, January is a busy month because I'm getting transcripts from 2025 uh recipients of scholarships. And so, I get to look at those transcripts and see if they qualify for a scholarship. And they graduated in 2025. And I noticed there are quite a number of them who have on their transcript a record for 2023. And that seems odd because they haven't graduated graduated yet. But their transcripts have records of courses that our students have taken in high school at Albert Senior High School for which they
031get college in the school credit. So, I have kids that have, you know, 20, 25, 24 credits by the time they enter college, which is really kind of pleasant to observe. So, I thought I'd add that. >> Thanks, Neil. Uh, next we have a principal report. Principal Johnson and Principal Gaston. All right. Thank you for having me. as Darcy pulls that up. Uh I'm here just to represent what we've been doing at Southwest this year as well. And so um just a disclosure, I do have some pictures of our Southwest students. It doesn't necessarily correlate with the actual slide, but I just wanted to throw some pictures in there, too, so you guys could kind of see some of the um um things that are happening. And I apologize to any Southwest teachers behind me
032because this will all be a review of what we've covered throughout the year as well. So um I have control. Uh Okay, one thing uh that we do at Southwest and again this is uh the great um things coming from our staff is uh at the beginning of the year um we have our Southwest core um value convention um where each advisory class comes up with what they feel like would be uh some good core values for our school. Um and then the next day, uh each advisory sends one representative to the library. Um and then we have them separated out by our teams. Um and then they talk with each other, talk about the core values. Um one person from that table moves on until finally we have one representative from each team. Um
033that decides our core values. So this year our core values at Southwest are represented right here as well. So um completely uh student driven um when it comes to our core values. All right. Uh, another thing, we do have uh, five building goals at Southwest as well. Uh, so this is something that uh, with staff input as well, we uh, have focused in on. Uh, so the first two are uh, belonging and seal or social emotional. Uh, and these are reflected in uh, spring surveys that we uh, give to our students as well. And so uh, I'm not going to read each one. You guys can look at that as well. So we the first two are very important because that that sense of belonging is crucial if they're if you want them to learn
034they have to feel like they belong as well. So um and then that attendance piece um that's something that we just um are always trying to improve on as well. Um and just to make it clear and we'll talk or touch on each one of these a little bit more in depth or kind of update you on where we're at with these right now. Um but that chronically absent is just defined as uh when students miss 10% of the school year or more. So that's roughly about 17 school days in a year, whether they're excused or unexcused. Uh and then our literacy and numeracy. Uh again, it would be nice to make goals from the start of the year until the spring. So like when we're using our fall screeners, um MDE when we're making
035our goals, uh does require from the previous year to this year. So that's why we set the goal from spring last year to spring this year. Uh first one uh big thing that we changed this year is our schedule. Uh and so um a minor tweak I guess uh is that we've added a flex now after our advisory. And so the easiest way to kind of define flex is a um essentially a study hall where students can pick where they go each day. Um and then on top of that because what we're trying to do is develop agency with our students. We want them to kind of take control of their learning and figure out where where they're going to need help. Um but we know that um students come with a little bit more
036background or uh a stronger sense of that than others. And so uh teachers do have kind of that trump or that uh that the ability to override students if they maybe need a little extra help in science that science teacher can have the student flex into their classroom for the day as well. So um that was one change with our schedule for the year. And then of course going from four lunches to three lunches. And that uh is another thing to Paul with uh we were able to get some uh new cafeteria furniture this year which allowed us to go from four to three which has been a nice nice addition uh at Southwest. All right. Uh and so again keeping our HRS framework in mind as well. So that HRS level one that safe,
037supportive and collaborative culture. So this is something that uh and then for each one of these again remember with our HRS schools uh they provide when I say they Marzano provides those leading indicators and then it's up to each school to provide the lagging indicators or evidence that they are um fulfilling each one of those. Uh and so each month we go over this with our staff as well. Um we try to push this out in our family newsletters as well because especially when we're talking about absenteeism um it is everybody has to play their part in this uh too. So what we're looking at here is uh first semester data. Um that middle column there is actually the opposite of chronically absent. So it's consistent attendance. And so what we do is we average
038this out. And so basically a student can miss on average two days a month and they they won't be chronically absent. And so what we do we use this kind of as a predictor to see all right if this continues what percent of our students will be um consistently attending by the end of the year. And so that does fluctuate throughout the year. Um and then that far right um column shows us the actual number of students who are already chronically absent. Uh and so as you can see after the month of December we have 18 students who have already missed 17 days of school or more. Um now some of these that could be excused or unexcused are a combination of both as well. Uh and so if a student does um unenroll from
039the uh district then they're dropped from those calculations as well. And if you have any questions, feel free to interrupt or anything to add. Uh, and so when we're looking at attendance, I know there's a lot of data here and if uh you don't know me, that's kind of my thing as well. So I'll uh try to make the most sense of this too. So um what you're looking at here uh is obviously when you're seeing the August 2025 or September 2025, those are the numbers from this year. Um the number or the the month above it is the last four years on average. So if we just take a look at August for example um the last four years on average we've had 75 students I don't think so and uh that had a
040total of 133 tardies in the month of August. If we go over there's been 83 students on average that had 556 unexcused absences. Now that's period absences. So there's about eight periods in a day. Um, and then you can kind of keep going over the far right two columns will probably give you a better idea of just kind of where we're at. So the percent absent for that month, um, 5.84% on average in August. And then underneath, so August 20, 2025 is the numbers for from this year. Uh, and then that far right column, this tells us the number of parties on average per student. Uh and so this data kind of gives us an idea of where we're at compared to previous years and then also kind of projecting um you know based on
041trends uh maybe increases in both attendance issues or incident issues as you'll see in the next one. So again I know a lot of data there but uh again if you have questions just let me know. 174 students were unexpced absent periods. Yes. So like on average from the last four years we've had 1,686. So definitely a big spike there. Um right at the end we did see a little bit spike in um some illnesses as well. But again um it's tough to explain without going into the data um you know why we're seeing that sharp increase there. So incidents uh same thing uh so is put together in the exact same manner. So the last four years on average compared to this year. Uh and then the number of students with their first violation.
042So if it was their first time having an incident, um that's what that column means. Uh that middle column, the number of ISS incidences is the inschool suspension incidences. Basically, how many times have a student been assigned an inschool suspension. Uh and then the total number of inschool suspension days followed by the number of out of school suspension incidences and then total out of school suspension days. Uh and a lot of the credit goes out to our staff and I will give our social workers a big um kudos to this as well. So, uh, this is our third year doing this now, uh, of our lunch circles. Uh, and so, um, when it comes to the secondary level as far as giving consequences to students, um, you have to get kind of creative. And so,
043in the past, what we would do for a minor, um, behavior would be to assign a lunch detention, which just meant the student ate their lunch in the office and then they go back to the class. Well, the goal is to try to change their behavior. And if they're eating in that little cubicle in the office, they're not really learning to change that behavior as well. And so what we do is um depending on the behavior or the incident uh Jackie, our Dina students or myself would assign a student a lunch circle. And what that means is they eat lunch with our social worker. Um so if they're in sixth grade, they eat with our sixth grade social worker or seventh grade, seventh grade social worker. And then they work on those skills that got
044them there in the first place as well. And so what we're looking at here um is the total number of lunch circles so far or really first semester. So, as you're looking at this, we've had 45 students in sixth grade uh or sorry, I misspoke there. We've had a total of 45 lunch circles in sixth grade first semester and then a total of 33 lunch circles in seventh grade. And then as you're moving down the list, what it's showing is how many students only had one lunch circle. And so in sixth grade there was 17. In seventh grade, there were 17 as well. Um, and then once we start getting down to four and five, that was an update in our student handbook policy as well, is that once students get to four and five,
045clearly the lunch circles are not having the impact that we want them to. And that's when we do move into some of those more traditional um disciplinary consequences. Uh, and when they get to that um fourth one, that would be a half day of inschool suspension. And then that fifth or more would be a full day of inschool suspension. Uh and so that third to the bottom one, the number of students who have received one lunch circle or or at least one lunch circle. Um sixth grade there's 26, seventh grade 24. And then kind of the total number of students when we calculated this out and then the percent of students who have received a lunch circle and so our counsel or sorry our social workers um will do a reflection sheet with those students
046as well. Um, so, uh, a lot of times then that will help, uh, repair relationships with maybe the student's teacher that got them sent out. Um, and we can follow up with that too because at the end of the day, um, the students will be back in those classrooms and we want to make sure those relationships are repaired and, um, can move forward. All right. And so I kind of combined our level two and level three in these next two slides from HRS uh the effective teaching in every classroom and our guaranteed and viable curriculum. So right now Southwest uh we are currently um going through the process of HRS level three um well sorry we don't have it open yet but we are working towards that. So last spring we um certified in level
047two. So just a quick update on our fast. So FAST again is that universal screener that we use across the district. Um I have two tables here. That first table, the top left table shows us the southwest students overall. The high risk, some risk, low risk, and advanced. And so what FAST says is that students in the low risk to advanced are generally on track or at grade level. The students that are at some risk or high risk are those students that are below grade level. So that bottom right table is basically just combining those and showing you like all right so 45% of our students that came in during the fall were below grade level in math. Uh and then 55% were at or above grade level. Now the nice thing about the fast
048screener is that it anticipates growth. So again like uh in a I don't want to say perfect world but if uh in the spring we measure 45% at some to high risk and 55% in that low risk to advance that just means that essentially the students kept up with the learning that fast anticipates that they will do in the course of the year. Um so with math uh in the winter time we traditionally see a little bit of a dip in the wintertime. Um why I guess that could be anybody's guess as well. um students I don't know but anyways um the spring will give us uh some good numbers then as well so then our reading same concept here now one thing uh we'll touch on here after this uh is that uh what
049the read act what that states is that basically anybody who is not reading at grade level needs to have some sort of reading intervention until they're reading at grade level um one thing that I I will say, uh, I went to a, uh, um, a literacy workshop last Thursday in Rochester with other schools in the southeast area. Um, and I very much got the vibe that we are, um, in a very good spot when it comes to our intervention process and what we have to support our students. Um, I was talking to one instructional coach from a southeastern school. Um and uh it just it's I mean we we have what's called the ADSIs program where we have teachers that are assigned to students to help them um with that support. Uh a lot of
050schools don't have that. Uh and so I came out of that um hoping to make connections to see what other schools were doing and steal from that. But I I came out of that really like other people were asking what we were doing. Um and so that was a a positive uh that came out of that meeting or that workshop. Uh so with that though um if you could just do simple math. So again if we had 50% of our students not reading at grade level if we have 444 students um just cut that in half that's 222 students that need some sort of reading intervention. Um that's we just don't have enough intervention teachers or spots to house all those students. Uh and so an additional thing that came along this year with the
051read act is the capy. So, the CAPY is a diagnostic tool that students in, I believe, grades four through 12, maybe younger, I can't remember now, um, take if they're not reading at grade level. And so, we had our students that were not reading at grade level in the winter do this CAPY diagnostic. Again, that's part of the readact. Uh, and what the CAPY does is it kind of breaks it down in a little bit more specific areas compared to FAST. And so, on the right side there, what you'll see is the students who took that from Southwest. So, what this is showing is that 45 of our students need phonics intervention. 150 students need multi-slabic word intervention. And as you go down, you can kind of see um the numbers. Uh this also includes
052our special ed education students as well. And so, of those 45 phonics students, um 67% of those um already have qualified for special education. All right. So, then the next step is all right, we got more data. What are you going to do with this now? So, um, the nice thing about the Cappy is, like I said, it breaks it down into these subtests. So, on the left side there, that would be like a student profile report. So, it gives you kind of an idea of where they're at for each one of those subtests. Now, what we know also with reading and just language in general is that it's very complicated and intertwined. And so, you'll see that Scarboro's reading rope quite a bit. Uh, and um, based on where the student needs help, so
053this is kind of a little bit of a highway. um is that for example, if a student needed help in um phonics, they would have to get off the road on that first one on the bottom there where it says ABC before they could get any other additional support. They need to have that phonics understanding before we can work on multilabic words um and so forth and so on. And so just based on that, we know that a majority of our students need that multilabic word intervention. And again, this is kind of statewide. This is not necessarily unique to Albert Lee or Southwest. Um, so the last two PD days, uh, we focused in on this with our staff. Uh, and, uh, what essentially what multi-selabic words are, it's a fancy word, but really just
054meaning more than one syllable in a word. And so, as you can see there, what it says that students in fifth grade and beyond, knowing how to decode multi-selabic words is essential because most of the words they will encounter in print are words of seven or more letters and two or more syllables. So very important um for our students to understand not only to read those words but to kind of break down the meaning. So the English language is complicated and complex but it also does have patterns and once people and our students can start to understand some of those patterns with apexes, rip words, base words um it will in theory help them understand those words more as well. So what we're doing as a staff um is really just explicit vocabulary instruction. And
055so we practice this and uh you know for most of us that went to school um especially in the secondary level we uh never were taught how to teach students to read. You know it was kind of already uh insinuated or imply that they would be coming to you knowing how to read. And so a lot of this is kind of going back and learning it ourselves. Uh and with this explicit vocabulary instruction we all teach vocabulary whether you're a math teacher, an English teacher, a science teacher. And so really it's teaching those students those skills on how to pronounce the word and then also kind of breaking up the word to figure that out. And so um what we've asked our staff to do is exactly what you're seeing here when it comes to
056our vocabulary instruction. And this would count as that tier one which just means that everybody is doing this as far as the intervention goes which does satisfy the MDE requirements. All right Mr. story. Uh you probably might have been in this picture even. Uh so uh what we have no after your time. Okay. Uh so what we have coming up here this spring is a a Southwest 50-year time capsule. And so uh this was buried in May 14th, 1976. Uh we have a variety of other pictures as well. Uh and so um we're planning on digging that up this spring and then uh possibly burying our own time capsule as well. Uh and so it's kind of interesting to see the well the ramps. I always hear about the ramps and so you can kind
057of see the ramps in the background there. Um but the style as well was uh interesting. The band was there as well. And so where that tree is buried is where we um have figured that's where that time capsule uh is buried. So um it should be a fun event. Our history teachers have taken on that role of talking to our students about a time capsule. Um Neil Chalmer's who's our seventh grade US history teacher uh is taking that on with a flex later on where he's going to have students who are interested in partaking in figuring out what contents we want to go into our time capsule as well. So then on the horizon here just some things going on at Southwest. Uh uh you guys can see that as well. The other piece
058too is that we're still doing our community expert talks once a month. Um and so this one just happened to be I believe that's Oie um Oie Olsen uh that came and talked to us during our Veterans Day program. So is there any questions that the board has or anything that you would like me to bring back? I will be back on the April 20. I'll have you know that uh that event is about 20 years after my entrance at Southwest uh class of 1964. I entered Southwest as a seventh grader in 1957 and the building was brand new. Gotcha. >> Any questions at all? Dr. on the board, thanks for the opportunity and thanks Tyler for giving me like flashbacks to 10th grade following Laura Conven and her colorcoded poster and I had my
059stick figure drawing. So off we go. Um just what our update from the high school. We were focused on three main things this year. really wanting to make sure that we uh built on those areas that we know are fundamental to student learning. One of our big goals was continuing to build up positive culture. We really started a big effort with that uh under the guidance of Jess Hatland and our social work team on our uh Tiger Pride program which thank you to the Ed Foundation. You guys have been um financial support in that effort. Um we're starting to definitely see dividends from that progress. We ended up surveying over the course of our monthly grade level meetings just under 700 of our students, 85% of which said the building is more positive this year
060than last year. So, we'll take it. Um especially when you think about all that's going on for our students. To have that come out as as feedback is is fantastic to hear. Um, another part of that survey that was at first a uh, you know, sad result, but actually we were very pleased as we got near the end was uh, by the end of semester 1 when surveying and primarily our younger kids, we got up to the point where 95.2% of students reported to us that, you know, when they see some of that disrespectful behavior by a student that there's a a loss of respect for that peer, which you would think, okay, 95% whatever. We were under 70% when we asked that question in September. And so we made over over a 20% jump
061in that area. Again, a lot of credit to our flex program and to uh that Tiger Pride leadership for just getting this program up and rolling. Another positive thing on the positive culture front. Our two best classes for attendance this year, 8th and 9th graders, which you know is a very interesting we the attendance we track very heavily. We focus on we call it positive attendance. We sort of dismiss out the illness side and we focus on the choices students make inside the building. Are you in class? Are you there on time? And our eighth and nth graders have in total class periods are in class and on time between 91 and 93% every month so far. So um you know a huge huge switch there. Um, obviously we continue to work with our we
062remind our upper classmen that they are role models and that they are, you know, setting the example and we'd love to see that jump. So, um, not not these two. I don't want I don't want that rumor going out there that they're doing that. So, uh, no. So, just just some great great progress on that front and and we continue to just find more ways. It it truly is the work of the staff. They've built that up. we're over up, you know, over 80% of our students are reporting they have that trusted adult. So, we're making great progress there. So, hopefully um you know, continue to see it. I I know I think the last time I was here, I mentioned my little daily check is how many kids say hi without being said hi
063two. Day one was three. Last week was 42. I had a day of 42. That was a really nice day. It was a good week to have that that positive boost. So, appreciated that. Our second goal was looking at um making sure we were very clear of our learning objectives. How does someone learn something if you're not clear with what you're trying to teach? Uh, one of our efforts there besides just being a focus of our walkthroughs is our staff has put in a ton of work on the creation of the proficiency scales. It's been six, seven years of working. Yes, I'm sorry I use 67. Um, but it's this year we set a very firm deadline December 1st over 75% of our staff had the scales working. The next step for us is obviously
064as educators, we always fall into that trap of we've got something there. We spent all of our time use in the classroom. That's where we focused when Mike Evans came for our academy day in the fall. Just how do you take these things that we spent all this time on and use it to help student learning? I thought our time with Mike was fantastic. And now our new goal is we're going to get those scales into students hands and we're going to try to make sure that we give a test somewhere between now and our next academy day and give feedback via those scales. Um from a walkthrough standpoint, our walkthrough questions now very simple. The kid I sit beside in class gets that lucky chance. Just lean over and say, "Have you seen a
065scale for this unit?" Yes or no. So we're just trying to get a little more feedback from kids. Uh and so we just know that the ability to clarify our learning pro process is going to pay dividends down the road. Our third area of focus was our curriculum side. We were trying to again work on that scale side to make it clear but also start to increase the rigor side in in real clear focus and Dr. Hyel and I have had many conversations about this. We wanted books in kids hands. We wanted them writing and we know that that is increased. I can tell you that both based upon being in classrooms but also the feedback from the ninth grader who's in my class. So, I know that there's more of that happening. Um, we've
066seen that rigor bump in other ways. We doubled the number of kids taking preac this year. So, last year was the first time we offered PARACT. We had 40 kids sign up around there. Last year, counselors told me that we had in total around low30s actually take it. We have 84 taking it this year. I don't can't have any reason in my mind why that won't help us overall now that we have a third of that graduating class or more who's now seen what an ACT question looks like and has taken that type of of test to be prepared for. Other great bonus from that is we're going to get some good data on how we can work with them between now and when they take that ACT uh for real next spring. I I
067have to I'd be remiss to say it hasn't had some bumps. We've seen a little bit of an implementation downswing when we've pushed books and hands when we've pushed more writing. We've seen some kids the number of Fs go up. The number of kids who have failed a class has increased. That being said, the number of classes failed per kid has gone down. And I believe that's a a heavy tribute to the support level our staff has had. They've set high expectations. They've not dropped them. They've kept them there. And now those kids that are realizing that they need a little more support are coming and getting that. And so I think we're going to see, you know, that pay off as we move down the road. Also implementing some new intervention efforts. Semester one,
068we were able to intervene with around 80 to 85 eighth graders on reading. We're going to add 9th graders into the reading intervention program spring semester. So we'll have about a total of 140 kids receiving reading intervention on a daily basis. And then uh Jackie Richtor is going to try a little pilot for us. She's grabbing a hold of eighth graders who failed algebra 8, ninth graders who failed intermediate algebra and is starting to work directly with them to get that skill gap filled. Um, we know that we have students that if they do not get those skills in eighth grade algebra or intermediate algebra, there is no chance in that advanced math. And so, we know we have amazing teachers in those upper levels, but if those gaps can't get filled, they're fighting a
069losing battle. So, we're working as as best we can there. And these are all ideas uh that have come from staff members. You know, lots of credit to to Jackie for taking that on. Christina Gerber, who's moved in to our admin team, has has come up with some math intervention ideas. Amy Steel, our new assistant principal, has done a great job with the ability to expand out those reading intervention programs. So, um I think probably the most exciting thing on many days is going around and running into one of our teachers and it's I'm going to try this. And that's just a great feeling to have to know that we're we're always taking steps to to get our students moving forward. So, um, other changes in our building, obviously, yes, we we lost Johanna Thomas
070to our retirement. We re welcomed Harrison Kates and Christina Gerber into Dean ROS in our building. They have had an adventureful two weeks. Uh, they've gotten to do a lot of different things. I know one of them straight up said, "Is it always this way?" And said, "No, no, it'll be good. You'll you'll enjoy it." So they're doing a great job. Appreciate the staff's flexibility on that side. Now the big push is registration. So counselor started today. We're really excited in terms of uh building out the CEO program that we're going to be offering. We're going to have uh Emily Hovind from Austin's going to be in along with some alumni to sort of pump that program up to our juniors and sophomores tomorrow. We're also increasing the internship work. Uh Max Jeffrey is got
071a whole bunch of community partnerships he's building out. We're getting kids out into the workforce, getting those experiences. We even have a kid, this is this was not something I we I think planned, Max, we have we have a kid learning to become a butcher. He is going to school to take a need that our community has. He's going to come take his required classes and he's going over to Conger and he's learning that trade. And so, it's a really cool opportunity for our kids. And we're trying to get that out to our students that you don't have to be a four-year, you don't even have to be a two-year. They have lots of opportunities for you. If you can do the school work on the on the graduation side, requirement side, we'll get you
072out into the community and get you the skills you need for your career. So, lots of exciting things at ALHS. >> Questions for Sean? >> All right, Sean. Thank you very much, sir. Appreciate it. All right, moving on to item nine under curriculum and instruction. Oh, yes. Thank you. Uh, an archaeology trip to Italy. Ken, >> how do I turn it? There you go. Well, thank you for this opportunity. How long do I have? >> I'm going to treat this as a sales uh pitch because um we have a great opportunity to go to Italy and you're welcome to come, too. Um, I'd never done this before and since I'm about ready to retire, this will be the last my only chance. Um, so I've done everything wrong on how to do a field trip.
073So I contacted an educational company that does tours that bugs teachers every year. And uh, I said, "Well, what would it what would be involved?" And they said, "Well, we'll take care of everything." Well, almost everything. So I had to ask, well, they asked me, "How many people do you think you go would want to go?" And I said, "Well, let's let's price this at 20." So right now I only have 10 people. So you're all welcome to come. I have six students um a former parah and what two parents so far. So the kids are almost outnumbered. So I'm not anticipating any problems at all. So what this is is a fantastic trip to Italy. Uh eight days of Italian food and um we're this is a an itinerary that I got to design.
074Okay. So I wasn't taking a pre-designed package. They said where do you want to go? I said, I don't want cathedrals. I don't want fountains. I want to see what's the most famous dead guy we have on this planet, his museums in northern Italy. Okay? And I also want to see Pompei and Herculanium, the the centers of modern archaeology and and the science that is being done at those at those basically those two places on the opposite ends of Italy. I said, I want to go there. And so they designed a they designed a travel package for us. Okay. So, we'll be flying out from Minneapolis on June 22nd. Save the date and you can come too. And we'll be coming back home on June 29th. Um, it sounds romantic, but my wife and I
075will be in Rome on our 40th anniversary, but it's because those are the dates that worked. Um, we'll start out our trip in northern Italy to see the uh Balsano. Balsano, Italy is the name of the town near Milan where the Winter Olympics are going to be here next month. So, picture that kind of scenery. Um, and this is we'll be spending an entire day at the uh B um sorry, the Northern T-roll Archaeology Museum, a $12 million museum built for one person, one dead body. Okay. He's like, why would they do that? Well, this is a gentleman about 45 years old, 5,300 years ago, who survived some horrible hand-to-hand combat, escaped those trying circumstances we're still trying to understand, made a run for up into the Alps to a pass about 10,500 ft, thought
076he was safe, cooked a meal, which means a fire, and he wasn't he had not gone away from all of his enemies because somebody shot him in the back. Okay, we know all this from archaeology we've learned since he was found in 1991. So, the mysteries that are being figured out and the mysteries that still remain around this poor guy, not only is he um an an experienced mountaineer, he was apparently one of the very first people on this planet to have a copper tool. So, he was the edges of the stone age leaving learning beginning the the copper age. And we know this u from the from the fantastic science has been done on his body. I basically think of Utie as a colleague of mine because he and I start out the same
077time. 1991 is when we found him and I've been able to teach about him and the discoveries they make every year new. He was just in the news last week with new DNA discoveries. He he's seemingly a man from nowhere because there's hardly anybody on this planet alive that has the his his uh there are hardly anybody there's hardly anybody who can say they're a descendant. Okay, we don't know how he ended up where he ended up. Okay, after we spend our time in northern Italy, we have to travel 500 miles and they they do sneak some culture in against my objections. So, we'll we'll uh be in uh uh central Italy having traveled there by a highspeed train down. We'll get to see like the Dwo in uh Venice and then we'll travel on
078to Naples to get to um Pompei for a day and Hercule for a day. Places that are absolutely the center of modern archaeology. Okay. It's fantastic getting to study two cities that were that were basically shut off mid mid breath there. There was no cleanup. There was nothing like that. The volcano just took them out. And uh I teach about volcanoes and so how how incredibly uh dangerous and fascinating they are. So we'll spend a day in uh Pompei and a day in Herculanium. Um, if you know anything about AI and research and the powers it has, we're being read able to read charged scrolls from Herculanium without even unrolling them thanks to AI. It's amazing. Okay, we will end our trips our trip by going to the Blue Grotto, which is a fantastic place.
079When I showed pictures of that, the students like were like, "Let's just go there." Uh it's um that'll be ending our trip and we'll end up uh going back through back to Rome to fly back home. We'll be tired, but we'll we'll be ex we'll be it's going to be fantastic. I hope to be able to take tons of pictures to save u information for our colleagues because this touches on biology, um the genetics class, um uh forensics, obviously history. So, it's going to be fantastic. >> So, Ken, is there a deadline date as far as additional signups? >> Mid-Marchch. >> Um, talking about doing everything wrong. When I when I spoke to colleagues who do field trips, you know, foreign foreign languages and in music, you know, fine arts, like they said, you're doing
080this in eight months. What's wrong with that? We usually do it in two years. So, um, I didn't have any of the hassles of fundraiser. It was like, "Can you go? Let's go." It's It's not, you know, if you price it out for compared to other vacations, it's quite reasonable. $5,000 for eight days in Italy for crying out loud. Everything included. >> Any questions for Ken? >> I have packets here if you want information. >> All right, Ken. Thanks. My son is my son is an archaeologist and has been to those places. So, uh, >> he's been to both. >> Yeah, it's been a great experience. >> Ken, I just have a quick question for you. So those if there's students at the high school that are interested and don't have those means, have has
081there been fundraising or opportunities for them to have be sponsored or >> No. >> Okay. >> However, >> they basically have a GoFundMe that they can help students. That hasn't been an issue. the people that signed up said we're going to find a way. >> Ken, thank you. >> All right, we will move on to uh 10 effective and efficient operations. Paul um a resolution that approving property tax abatement. >> All right, school board members, superintendent Hyel, thanks for having me back up here again this evening. So, um, in mid December, we received communication from the city of Albert Lee that they passed a, um, resolution to approve another, um, abatement here in the city of Albert Lee. And so when they go through this process, and I've included a packet in front of each
082of your stations here, so you can review the city um, this is a city policy that they follow. Um, and so I guess in in general, an abatement program is just an incentive uh for uh development of properties here in our community. Um, how it in my understanding, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert of tax abatement processes, but uh just for a general comment here this evening before you move to a motion here. Um, taxes paid by the individual of this property are paid per usual. Um, and then there's so truly no impacts on tax revenues. Um but the municipalities agree and as part of the process this evening to pay um that resident back for a time period established in our uh local municipalities. So um this abatement process I believe
083began back around 2020. Um and we've approved a number of them through the years. Um and as I reached back out to our city manager um and asked if they'd be willing to come speak about this um he mentioned that typically we do at the start of these uh and then anytime we have a change to the policy. So we do know this will expire I think at the end of 26. So we should plan to see somebody from the city if they continue or want to continue an abatement program in the future uh next year. Um so we would get more of a formal presentation at that time. However, this um resolution this evening is just a continuation of a former uh policy and u those board members that have been part of this
084have probably approved abatements in the past under the same procedures. So, um I guess I we have the resolution in front of you. Um if you have any questions, I can certainly discuss them. Um the specific parcel in the resolution will be 502 Milrose Circle. Um parcel number 34-404-0090. And thank you, Darcy, for getting that up on the screen. So, that's what we have for you this evening. >> Any questions before uh for Paul? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh resolution approving property tax abatement as presented. >> So move. >> All right, we have a mo a second. Any additional discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Thanks, Paul. Um Dr. Hile, update on our strategic plan. So, as kind of previous, uh, I
085said we'd bring it forward. So, in front of you, you kind of have the Tigers in action booklet. Um, and again, just reminding everybody, um, when we had talked about this, uh, our mission, our vision, uh, stayed the same. Um, our motto always learning. Um and we had worked through all the information that was done the last couple of years um with the priority areas. And so teaching, innovation, grit, empowerment, readiness, and systems would be the new additions. And then there's a page on each one with the teaching as it aligns to district commitments, innovation, grit, uh empowerment, readiness, um and systems. And then the the statements below. and and we had kind of gone through and and wrote those as a board um few months ago. We've tested it. We've talked with community members.
086Uh we've presented to the staff um uh directions and again it it all aligns with all the input that um uh the district took over the last couple of years. Um and then the daily desired experiences for students uh for staff, for families and community remain the same. Um and then the district and classroom theory of action. Um so tonight um what we're taking action on is adopting the the tigers that teaching innovation grid empowerment readiness and system um and allowing that to guide the district as we move forward um in the future. >> All right. Thank you Dr. Hy. Um we've seen this a number of times. So I'll entertain a motion uh prior to discussion to approve the strategic plan as presented. So, >> all right, Kim, a second. >> Second. >> All
087right, Mary Joe, I'll give you credit for that one. Any discussion or questions for Dr. Hy concerning the strategic plan? We appreciate the communication. We've I think we've all been very well informed and also been given an opportunity for input and we appreciate that. >> Good. Good. Now, we just got to make it liveable. Absolutely. >> That's the key, right? I'm looking forward to it. >> Uh all in favor of approval of the strategic plan, say I. >> Opposed. It's my distinct pleasure to hand over the meeting and the gamble as quickly as I can to chairman Clark. All right, we're look at some field trips um to replace policy on Ashley. I believe it's a second reading. >> That's right. So, good evening, Chair Clott, school board members, Dr. Hy. So, um tonight we
088bring forward for second reading uh district policy 610. This is um to replace local policy 10190. Um again, this is re brought forward um to the policy committee. This is an MSBA model policy. Um, and we would then bring forward in February for final reading. Is there any uh questions for Ashley though? All right. Uh, no. No action on that on that. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So, all right. So, 10.4 then is our uh close session pursuant to Minnesota State Statute uh section 13D3 labor negotiations. I look for a motion to go into close session. >> So, move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Seeing none, uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. the same thing. Association master. Is there a second? No, it
089um so that does allow um administration to start having those reduction um meetings and then bring those recommendations. >> Yep. That's just a an annual formality of directing us to start that work.