001and for the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all it's a tough seat there all right 3.0 is to approve the meeting agenda oh motion to do that I'll second hey any discussion all those in favor I I those oppos agenda is approved all right 4.0 is our acknowledgements and recognitions um we don't have any specifically this evening um so 5.0 um acknowledge what a beautiful day out it is it is we're above zero we're above zero let's acknowledge that thank you sunny day um 5.0 is our recognition of visitors and Community comment um welcome to all our visitors thanks for joining us here tonight for our February 2025 business
002meeting and welcome to all of you online on the zoom call um if you are on the zoom call if you could just keep yourself muted um during the meeting that would be great and then uh we won't hear you um but you'll still hear us um so our community comments section is an opportunity for the public to address the school board on an item included in the agenda in accordance with the guidelines PR at the end of the agenda uh we have a couple of community comments this evening so we will go ahead and Jump Right In um the first one is Jason Irvin um Jason uh welcome you can come and have a seat at this empty seat right here um if you wouldn't mind just introduce yourself briefly and then um we
003have a three minute three minute time timer copies for you guys before I started and I'm asking that which is uh put into the minutes at all possible or and viewable for the public in any way shap of form because it was so difficult to get nonprotected public information which hindered my ability and my wife's ability to make informed decisions for our children and or to participate in this community and the children that go to this school and help the children that go to this school these facts are why I'm here today just following orders is no excuse but after being informed what you are about to do is unlawful being told the statute number also definitely makes it cognitive and willful the then finding out later he was the designated responsible Authority that was
004required by Statute by the exact statute that I told him even when this data was readily available and I gave him a written request he did not do what was required as a responsible Authority he passed it on to a different government en this is after multiple times making it very clear I wanted copies the lot States I can get copies he even told me he understood that I wanted copies this doesn't even mention the troubles that led me to speaking with to the superintendent that happened at the front office to be fair I don't think the Department of Education created a good situation over over this because of their suggestions but just following orders is no excuse especially when you know the law government data is public data unless protect Ed by law or
005statute at this time I'm not asking for the penalties under this provided statute under the provided statutes I'm asking all to help the ability of parents to make cognitive choices for the kids through transparency instead of making it harder for them to understand why things are happening or feel like you're hindering us and hiding things from us as a resolve I am asking for training for all the staff to handle public data requests according to chapter 13 of the United States of of State Statute and Title Five us code 552 of the federal code also known as Minnesota Government data Practices Act and Freedom of Information Act also admit failure to comply with Minnesota statute 121.65 okay uh next we have uh Becky isbel I'd like to say I support Jason and transparency for parents
006um I have grandchildren in the school um and so I can't speak for as a parent but I do have a question regarding in November we voted on three portions of the school referendum wanting you guys wanting money number one passed two and three did not pass now I have heard through the gra Vine no November of 2025 are you going to have another referendum to vote two and three in and if so we've already voted we do not want more money spent and I'm sorry to say when my kids went to school here before it was all remodeled we did just find now it's all remodeled and added on and now you want to add on and spend another 25 th million um I just want to know are you going to go for
007another referendum in November 25 for more money which is going on our taxes and if you're a tax or a property owner it's going on yours as well um it's driving senior citizens out of this County and the school is a big part of that amount on our taxes so are you able to answer or were you not answer but it's something that should be uh publicly known if you're going to run what we've already voted no to um so we don't as a a rule respond to community comments but what I will say in in regards to the question is it's something that we're exploring but haven't made a decision on yet and it would be made public for sure well I hope the public stands again and says enough is enough and for
008one thing a lot of this money is going to extracurricular what's going to education the kids are here for an education um like I said to th earlier my kid my grandkids my kids were all in sports did they make a living at sports no but more money is spent in sports than on the education and the education is where the kids are sent to school for so that's my comment thank you for listening all right so 6.0 our reports uh 6.1 is the principal's report Mr bangi welcome good evening everybody all right so uh in the month of February we've got a lot going on in satth Mountain Elementary um as we always kind of update you on we've recognized now over 125 satu students for demonstrating Junior Vikings values we're excited that next
009week we have an opera coming to the school the lon Opera um which is going to come for sat tooth Mountain Elementary Tuesday morning and put on a production um of the original The Little Mermaid story um so it's a uh Opera that will be presented with third graders singing the songs being able to um participate in some of the acting we're going to have it in statu Mella Ministry gymnasium uh third grade parents are invited to come and watch it as well and so that'll be really fun and then the actors the performers throughout the day will be able to visit the class classrooms and kind of talk about Opera the Arts and that type of stuff so Miss Johnson's been working on the songs with the kiddos in music class for the past
010few weeks um so we're excited to see that next week um also happening next week in Sawtooth on Thursday we're having our outdoor winter activity day so at the end of the year we always have like a a spring field day outside doing that in the winter um they try to do it last winter but last winter was last winter and it didn't facilitate a lot of winter activities outside so um Thursday morning um all the elementary will be participating different games we're going to have a bonfire um the first week of March third graders are heading to North house um to do their programming which in the past has been the paddle to the Sea programming um where they read the story and um made little canoes um but this year they're changing it
011up and they're actually going to make fish decoys um which is um historically um a practice here for a long time and even currently today fish decoys for spearing um ice fishing and that type of stuff so um they get to learn about that and make fish decoys um fourth graders are going to be having their youth Frontiers Retreat on that first week of March and then our fifth graders are taking their annual trip to Wolf fridge um Actually March 5th through the 7th that's a typo there so they get to spend two nights out there um so yeah a lot of stuff happening in Sawtooth and in our middle and high school our sixth graders are going to be driving snowmobiles around on campus next week Tuesday getting their snowmobile safety permits um so
012that's going to be fun to see um and then middle school students have their own winter exploratory day where they're going to do some ice fishing some steaming and snowboarding that's coming up in a couple weeks and our Juniors and seniors um are getting dialed in for testing act and sat testing is coming up um in March and April and we're also the big thing happening right now in the secondary is getting registered for courses next year uh so I think Juniors did you guys finish up today you got told tomorrow I don't we didn't do it today okay there the juniors are finishing up and then um sophomores will have their opportunity to um take pick their classes and then it kind of just rotates through all the different grades um and then we
013also have courage and respect Retreats coming up in March for our 7th 9th and 12th graders and then the big announcement for Community is that we've got conferences coming up in a few weeks um we'll be up in Grand Portage on March 10th and then at school here on the 13th and the 18th a lot going on the first week of March it's busy nice to have winter huh it's nice to have winter it is great to have winter all right thank you thank you all right 6.2 is our student School Board member report and we've got Miss Greta young doll here this evening hello Greta welcome hi how you doing I'm good how you doing doing great thanks for being here yeah of course um I hope everyone has been enjoying their February so
014far um with the beginning of the semester and the end of winter sports students have been very busy this month uh luckily we just got back from our mid-winter break so students have had time to catch up and relax um for sports our Alpine ski team finished off their season recently um their section race went super well our boys varsity took first place and our girls got second um gooshi dimitrov and gram over Holter got first and second individually which qualified both of them for the boys National Championship um and then they went to State and at the state race the boys got second place which is also super exciting um it was an incredible season for our Alpine team and as for Nordic skiing and M crook made it to State and four of
015their VAR athletes lettered um they also had a wonderful close to a very successful season and for our boys basketball team they won a hardfought game against Chisum on Tuesday and their last home game is this Friday which is also their senior night and our girls had a tough game on Tuesday they ended up losing with a score of I think 3849 and the girls also have a home game this Friday so if anyone needs something to do come support our basketballs our Bry knowledgeable traveled to MIB today for a competition I'm not sure how it went and then our UniFi Club is hosting an event this weekend full Choice theater company is coming to the playhouse to put on Sundown on the Jasper County Jewel um so yeah that's the Saturday if anyone wants
016that NHS volunteered at every's Pantry last Tuesday packaged lots of chips and candy and chicken and in the elementary students enjoyed passing out Valentine's last week they all brought something to share with their classmates and this month the fifth graders took a field trip to North house Folk School where they learned about felting and they made bags and name Tes and then there's a few more additional things taking place this month Driver's Ed just started up for students and the YMCA Dance Program began and everyone's loving it and also our volleyball team is fundraising for next season um with our annual butter braid sale and if any of you want to buy from me want to donate let me know and that about sums up student life is f so if anyone has any questions
017um how you to answer then what what is the what is a butter braid exactly it's like this like frozen thing it's like a pastry and you like bake it they're really good there's a lot of different flavors and if you're interested I'll send you one okay they're like send all of us I'll send you I'll email you all the link tonight no pressure but are you fundraising for anything in particular with that um I think she for like new equipment and stuff like um we need a new volleyball net and I don't know if we're getting jerseys this next year but like if we were that would be for that and also like like traveling for tournaments yeah like things like that yeah and like camps and things like that sure cool yeah awesome
018any other questions for GR plugging the Butter Braids they go in your freezer so they're ready anytime you have a GU last quite a while they're real convenient nice a testimonial for butter yes apparently it's a cook kind tradition because my wife is always oh butter braids going on great all right well thank you Greta yes thank you guys thank you yeah okay 6.3 is the superintendent report Mr lolk Mr chair um few things for tonight um just for everyone's uh knowledge next Thursday the 27th we will have people from IC and dsgw here all day um meeting in hourong sessions with user groups and we've organized that into six different groups based upon kind of the area of the project so one group will talk about elementary bathroom remodel and playground and um the
019elementary special ed room that'll be a group and then another group will talk about the um secondary um math rooms and how that plays into the the current um weight room that'll become a new classroom and you know how all that shakes out and high school special ed uh teacher placement and kind of where all that stuff is going to go that'll be a user group um Etc so there'll be six different groups focused on six different areas um on that day and then also on that day Mike lavador is going to spend a bit of time in Michael zman's OJ 1 and ojibway 2 class um dialing in with those students on the future at you jway room and some of those details so we're excited about that and then on March 13th the
020school board we will all be up in Grand Portage for our uh annual March meeting up there and dsgw will be there and facilitate an input process around the whole design of the of the remodeling and the Act and the jway room and all of that so we're really excited about those two input opportunities coming up in the design work in my written report on page two I um included a uh a Gant chart or a project timeline uh that I've given to the board already and that's pertaining to the design work uh which is taking place now uh and we'll be going through late winter early spring and then by as we roll into summer construction documents will be um put together in hopes of having everything buttoned up and ready to go out
021for public bid in the fall September October is and at that time um we're pushing into figuring out who the contractors are and that kind of stuff so that's in the board report also in my board report I put some legislative priorities if you want to see what those are uh we've got several bills in the works um house file uh 1035 has a now it does actually have a senate file to go with it that uh is a sales tax exemption exemption Bill specifically for Cook County schools and that that project uh in hopes of that passing and then we would save half a million or more in sales tax on uh the supplies and materials that go into the project so it's been sponsored already somebody house child and scraba have already jacketed
022it and it's on its way out and uh the Coston group has been really helpful in helping uh grease some of that stuff so really happy about that um and then there's some other ones listed in my report please take a look at those as you communicate with legislators it's important that we all pen do FF 1197 the Jessie vur return in that or is that something different it's it's it it it takes care of the same thing but it's something different it's a different approach so um the the owner of a seasonal wck property wouldn't change classifications nothing would change but the money that was to St Paul would come back to the school district our Levy doesn't go up the total dollar amount um but because seasonal wreck monies would come into that
023it would lower the the percentage of the cost on the homeowners here in Co for our homeowners and our commercial businesses Cent aile 1197 would be a very good deal and house child is championing that on on our behalf two-thirds of the properties in Cook County seasonal R yeah so that would really make a huge int impact on for our local it's only yeah yeah and it's a new approach to it so I'm mildly optimistic it my it might go through Milly well the all the previous attempts have never gone through um but this when was there one last year he he put this bill on the floor quite late in the session oh okay um but in previous years there's been um attempts to change the classification yeah right and that's basically right and
024that's been hit with a hard note uh because it's really only about 90 to 95 districts out of the 335 wherea stand on this do we know uh he supports it because it helps a lot of the people in his yeah territory oh yeah um you should all know that a survey went out to family staff and families um regarding uh questions two and three of the bond referendum and now that it RB has said they'll um provide $7 million in matching funds if that changes the tune so if you haven't filled out that survey please do that I will push it out again on Monday um so that families get it again and a and a reminder but as of this afternoon they had 143 responses uh which was not bad for uh two
025days that it's been out there so will it go then to a wider audience after that that's what they they wanted to do is first test you know the parents and the staff and then we the ward will talk about that look at that and make that decision okay as a next decision in the in the process so that's in March we'll talk about those probably regular meeting probably I mean anybody could fill it out right now it's not like block down not blocked it was just sent to those people but you know like I I clicked through the survey the other day you can identify yourself as just a Community member you know it's one of the options and then last but not least uh in the agenda tonight uh is a recommendation for
026the school calendars for next year and the year after the process for that was um you know drafted an A and A B and pushed them out to stat St overwhelmingly staff um I was surprised how overwhelming but overwhelmingly staff um liked the B option for both years and so we cleaned it all up and that's what's in your agenda for later when we get to action items that's all I have great any other questions okay thank you all right uh 6.4 is a report on our work study program yeah so I will introduce and ask liil to come on up and join us and uh offer this report I have asked Lil to share this with the board because um I think it's an outstanding project and uh program and uh she's championed it
027and made it happen I just got to make sure I get my screen share here going will here here okay there we go so for those of you that don't know liil Lil is a um special teacher here uh working with our secondary students and has been here for how long have you been here it's my fifth year fifth year awesome and um about two years ago I think you took your took it upon yourself to go get credentialed to earn the work-based learning license um the historian in me likes to share that probably 20 years ago 25 years ago work-based learning was actually quite common in Minnesota uh when students with under the guidance of a licensed work-based learning teacher would go do an intern ship or work on a job and come back
028and demonstrate Mastery of learning in a structured way it kind of died in the '90s and into the 2000 it just fizzled out and in fact only one school in Minnesota is it still one school or is there more that offer that license did you go to Beth for that uh there there must be two because I did not go you did not okay a few years ago it was only bethl that offered that license that's how far it had fallen off uh the planet and lots of debates Statewide about it and now it's of coming back and um I'll let Lil take it from there and she got credentialed and has slowly well last year a couple kids and this year you got a whole bunch of kids going so you can take it
029from there on I'll flip slides when you tell me okay um yeah so I'm just gonna talk a little bit about work based learning so right now 18% of our high school students are participating in the programs that's you know almost one in five that 30 something kids uh yeah like 32 um uh so it goes up a little up and down a tiny bit or it went up yeah it moves a little bit but it's been pretty consistently over 30 um so you can go to the next one uh this is just what the Department of Education says work based learning is I don't need to read it um this is just like FYI if you want to so maybe like 30 seconds I think the big takeaway here is that formalized word not
030like work release R just go work it's got a much more formal structure to it and and the very very last side of this whole thing has a thing about work but I'm not g i don't need to go into that too much so just like every other class is a syllabus what's required for work based learning is a workplace syllabus and a classroom syllabus and so I just took a just a snapshot of the first part of the workplace one so as you can see there's like there are standards like over here there are standards and then performance indicators just like any other class um and we're required to have a separate one for uh workplace and classroom and if you want to click on one of those if can if you want to
031see the whole thing I don't need to like read through the thing but you can I think I made them all public yeah and so um like on the left are the topics that are included and then on the right would be performance indicators um and so you know like the goal would be that we're addressing all of these uh in reality it might not be happening yet but that's what the goal would be in um uh we just stands for work experience so yeah so and it includes like how they get a grade and just like any other syllabus um I just took a couple snapshots here of the training agreement so every student's required to have a training agreement and this I think is important because people don't always know like you can
032be involved in work-based learning for any like for under any of these categories so it could be doesn't just have to be a paid position um it could be an apprenticeship or service learning or an internship or just any of that really anything that qualifies that's over 40 hours um 40 hours in in the school year school year okay and so um I took like the formatting from the Department of Education but then I added some stuff like this accommodation part I added um but a lot of this is required information to have uh so every student fills this out with me and then someone at home signs it the employer signs it I sign it and it includes just some information about PID we just have to make sure they're aren't getting paid under
033minimum wage if they're getting paid um and anyway there if you clicked on those links you don't have to but it has the whole training agreement which is about nine pages or something sure so it's linked in your uh board packets yeah okay uh we have a Google Classroom just like every other thing classroom I just took a couple snapshots of like how I'm organizing it right now and so there's a workplace visit sign up so I go and visit them at students at work and check in and with their employers um there's the paperwork there's you have monthly in-person requirements and so we have assignments associated with that um every week well every other week they do this journal entry and then the opposite weeks they do their proof of work which is just
034like their official schedule or like just like a little thing on their pay stu um and so part of that is because um the credit can fluctuate with the amount of credit someone can get and so we kind of like keep track of the hours right of how much people are working and also just making sure people are working but I mean I haven't really had much of an issue with that um so yeah so that's just kind of just we have a Google Classroom this is how I'm structuring it right now this is it looks kind of boring like this but that's just for a visual I guess uh one of the assignments we did this year so all the student students filled out this um like a self evaluation and one thing that
035all students scored themselves low on was just knowing like employment laws and stuff like that and so one thing we did was students made I had a list of topics and they could pick their own if they didn't if they're um they didn't like any of topics like um and what they did was they made these like one pages about them um and so as you can see someone picked wage theft law and this is the this is blurry but it's the the fair labor standards act and this is nursing mothers child labor standards Minnesota employee rights and this is about someone pick School conferences and activity leave so what they did was they made these um and then uh The Next Step was each student in the class like picked other students to review
036other documents so that they would get um exposed to more information so they completed these worksheets on o on uh one page or the other students had made and so that's just a sample of one thing that um we did during an in-person class session um and that's just like a rubric on how it was graded so like they get a regular grade just like every other class um this is a survey that I this is just a snapshot of the survey that I send to um the employers and so what the employers do is they just kind of rate their students over here like kind of grade them right like how with time management and punctuality how are they with verbal communication in the workplace and stuff like that and these are all from
037standards that are being um talked about during the class and so four is like they exceed and then they you know anyway they rate them on the scale and then um they also indicate if they would recommend the student for further work faed learning opportunities and then um what I haven't done yet but the next step is I'm going to follow up with the student about what their employer said and we're just going to like have a discussion about it and mo there were a lot of mostly like there weren't really any big concerns but um you know I think it would be good for the just a conversation starter and then I just put a couple of General quotes that some people put because there's like a a box they can just write um
038some information and so yeah that's what that is I sent this home um I got uh out of like 33 there were 24 respondents before I closed it so I thought that was pretty good this is to the parent right yeah this is to whoever's at home like a grandparent or Aunt or guardian or parent um and I just kept those ones really short um you know just like are they excited about their work learning experience are they learning skills that are going to help them in the future do they have improved School attendance which there were a lot a lot of people said um that they did um are they you know have they do they have improved career awareness um or awareness about future possibilities and how has their confidence improved um and
039then just they want them to list any accommodations that were provided the student and then if the parent and guardian was satisfied um every respondent said yes one said somewhat but didn't um provide suggestions for improvement so I'm not sure uh what but I might follow up with that to ask you know what could be better um there's a link to the website that um I'm trying to continuously update uh so we can just look at it quick it's just a Google site for now the thing that I like about how I'm kind of like designing it is um that's an old picture uh but I'm trying to update it but um so it's you know if you're a staff member maybe you'd look there if you're a student or family you'd look there but
040the thing that I like is yeah you can click on on whatever um and I'll just Pi I put these buttons here so like if someone wants to get more involved they just click there and then they just fill out the survey and I I don't know if I made the survey links public so you might not be able to see them yet but like if you're a student of family maybe you would click here um yeah or you can click there so if you want to click either there or there oops Yeah so it would give them some information and then if they were interested like they would fill that out and it would go directly to this um document or whatever that I have and they just would say I'm interested and like
041so then i' know and I could follow up with them about it um so I'm kind of always trying to work on that um then there's just a couple of quotes from current students so I'm just going to read those quick um High School this was a current student in the program high schoolers should have work-based learning so they have the opportunity to learn and practice skills it takes to live in the real world and make a living in a real job this helps students be more outgoing and meet new people that can help them with real life skills and real problems and then um another one was work based learning has helped me to get out of my comfort zone and talk to people who I wouldn't normally talk to so I thought um
042um I know that kind of feedback is pretty good to hear um so yeah and then this is the time for questions everything that comes after is just FYI I'm not going to go over any of that but you can look at it if you feel like it it's just kind of boring stuff but it's important um so if does anyone have any questions yeah so I I I have a lot of questions um yes I'm wondering uh the businesses that you recruit how do you well um so like word of mouth right has been a little bit um a little bit of it i' I've known like a student would be working somewhere and then they would sign up for the work-based program already having a job and then from there I'd be able
043to talk to the employer and just kind of like talk about the program and then ask if they had any other ideas around the community um so that is something that I wish I had a little bit more time to do I um and I'm to add any ideas uh I did talk to I went to the career and job fair last year and talked to local businesses that were there um and so that's something that I'm hoping to do more of one of the barriers I think to the program is um not having transportation all the way up the trail all the way to Grand Portage all the way to talk and connecting with like those three spots you know um one of that's been a barrier for me um so far so that
044would be nice if I eventually could expand right so next question is so in you know are you coordinating with some of the things like we had the culinary arts to to have some of those students get some practical experience maybe and some of the restaurants or some are uh so I've I haven't had to do that because there have been students like there are some students working Fisherman's daughter or like some of the local restaurants already but Tom and I have been talking about how we can kind of combine our efforts we did talk about combining our efforts with like an advisory Council that we um should should have so we talked about how we can like kind of combine our efforts we just haven't made a lot of comments on so connecting fact
045to that point um this program and the culinary arts program are both CTE programs that qualify for CTE Revenue um thus the comment about a combined advisory Council because that's a component of CTE programming so kudos to you for thinking of that um and that that brings us some Revenue so kudos to liil for having that credential uh and for both liil and Tom for going through the Hoops to get a CTE Revenue generating program it would be nice uh to see and I know we're not there yet but something with our industrial Arts also kind of that direction as well for sure yeah I did one of the family comments from the survey said like the suggestion was like work with local contractors and um I've run into you know I I was talking
046to the highway department about a possible internship and they were very interested and because of like liabilities and stuff they need an 18-year-old you know and so so I've run into some barriers I guess with that kind of stuff too but so how much um how much class time versus work time is there like what's the ratio so they do that's a good question the actual inperson when we're in class has been a class an entire length of a class once a month um but it's all set up on Google Classroom so every week they have something to do in there you know and so the inperson with all of us together is just just one class period a month um and I think when I intended it to be more at first and I
047I think our uh it's been kind of complicated here with the not just with like our schedule being every other day but just uh some kids got to drive like 45 minutes to get to work you know or whatever so um I we talked about that with as a group and I said okay like let's cut back on the class time that I'm wanting to have as long as you do the stuff I'm just you know and they've been pretty good about it so yeah is this like is it through an entire year what's the time frame so yeah it can be the whole year it can be per semester um another that brings me to another little tiny issue is you know we do have some businesses that close for like a month right
048and then the kids in work based learning and so in that instance I wouldn't say you can't be in the program I'll say like for that month like let's figure out what we're going to do to get through that month so you can stay in the program you know um so yeah it's a semester semester long we've had some kids do it by quarter which is okay I guess if they have it has been okay and has they to study but I wouldn't take them like out of a class if they so yeah so does this count I'm assuming it's an elective it's an elective credit yeah so do they work like are they going to work every time that that like class period would be or whatever or is it just different schule yeah
049so whatever is on their schedule where it says work experience is the actual time that they would be going to work um and most of the time kids are going to work at that time um and then sometimes they'll be they'll say I'm not scheduled to work today so they might stay in the library and just like do some of their work but um on their schedule it'll say work experience and that's when they go to work is there a way to like fix this Transportation issue or would it just be too unyielded trying to go out to do you orage well just so you know to hire Ed with the um l k actually is interested in trying to figure out if there's a way we can get funds for some sort of Transportation
050um that's as far as I've gone with that but that yeah that's one thing that um they were really interested um in trying to assist with it I wonder if our trial Transit uh director could help out with that as far as getting the kids to Portage because I've had people uh you know National Monument came to me and was like we want that Transportation issue just kind of yeah and we flatten the whole thing yeah we have a few kids from um Grand Porter who are in the program but they have their driver's license oh gota you know like so yeah thank you lil um you know my Hope was that this would be enlightening for you like you're learning something about something that we haven't talked about ever at the board table it's
051because it's relatively new what LS put together and um on that last slide um the term Work Release is not a term I like um really we don't we don't you know it's for prisons right you get work release from I don't think it belongs in public school well actually reminds me more of like my mom's generation like the 60s like they didn't want you in school so go ahead take senior year off and truthfully most districts don't allow part-time students like we don't do part-time students we do full-time students um so uh trying to eliminate the whole Work Release concept and do a work-based learning concept where students are indeed um showing evidence of learning to earn high school credit elective credit for what they're doing and make it meaningful really work-based training uh
052skills and uh thanks to Li for building something from nothing like this was this was nothing two years ago two and a half years ago um she is also a special ed teacher and I would say a fair number of your students some of your students are also on in special ed and this is really helpful to them learning work-based skills um so kudos to you um all of our kiddos so Yay good job liil thank you you thank you so much thanks for giving us time on your Thursday night yeah yeah appreciate it thank you so much for coming and being here to cheer on Chad way to go yep thank you um all right move on to 7.0 which is our consent agenda I have a procedural question okay are we allowed to
053vote nay on certain parts of the consent agenda um you are able to ask for something to be pulled off for further discussion and it will become its own individual item oh I don't know if I want to go that far so that's that's the process H but otherwise it's I don't want to vote for this Title Nine thing and that's no knock on you I know you followed the recommended procedure but I just personally don't believe in that so procedurally you can't talk about it as long as it's under consent yeah so you vote as a slave yeah so you can you can abstain from the whole vote on the consent agenda or to have it be but I feel passionately that the electronic fund should be approved all right so here are your
054options if you want to request something to be pulled off for further discussion let me know right now otherwise we're not talking about anymore that guy you can be that guy if you want all right I'm going to be that guy I want to pull 75 and 76 for further discussion okay so democracy there we go that's great so what we'll do is we will put [Music] those on we'll just make those 8.6 and 8.7 okay so we'll move those to the end of the the other part of the agenda okay all right anything else otherwise we just need a motion I'll make a motion I'll second it okay all those in favor I those oppos consent to agenda is approved all right um 8.0 our discussion and action items 8.1 is to accept the
055January 2025 expenditure and revenue report uh which is in our packet and uh Miss oberg I'll jump here but I really got nothing to say pretty boring as we like it yeah it's like middle nothing stands out to me unless you have a question um revenues tracking faster than expenditures that's a good thing great we're always good at that and this is it's the halfway point of the fiscal year right January or close to it one month Beyond right because yeah June through July through January yeah oh so we're June yeah great good job yeah I'll make a motion to accept it second any further discussion all those in favor I I I those opposed motion carries thank you Miss oberg 8.2 is to accept uh donations uh donation slate for February 2025 which is
056in the packet here resolution to accept donations we have a few in here yeah I'll make motion to accept February 2025 donations a second forther discussion just like to thank the people that volunteered at first and second to uh put their toward our programs um those this person asked that the this start an angel fund that helps fund um needs that students have uh that they don't maybe they don't have a coat or boots or um supplies um so it was such a generous donation uh for a great purpose yes thank you so much okay all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries all right 8.3 is to approve the uh modified 2526 calendar uh the recommendation is to accept option b draft B what was the big difference oh sorry is that
057be a motion first or um well let's let Chris if you want to introduce this one first and then we'll go from there um sure uh so as you know with the um two year and a half of construction coming up um there was some needs to make changes to the way we've typically done our school year like with our Mid Winter break and a two- week winter break and a full week offer spring break there's a need to shorten up um some of those in order to get out by you can see both calendars school gets out by the Thursday with faculty um in the last Thursday in May uh the contractors want to be able to use that Friday to cover floors and just hit the ground on the Monday first Monday in
058June um so in order to make that work uh I put together a couple of drafts biggest difference really being um the Grand Portage conferences day oh draft B in both years that is changing that day from a full day off of professional development conferences to um students at school through probably somewhere around 1:30 or two early dismissal for all students and then then teachers pack up and go do conferences three to five in Grand Portage um and then come back and be back here that's the version we got is the correct yeah we didn't see a draft day at any point yeah right well you did in board notes but it was a preliminary wait you know like three week I mean this is the one you that got recommended is to do the
059half day or three quarter day whatever y an early release day and then that way you can count that day for instruction rather than lose it uh and then there was some changes to um little things like the length of the midwinter break break you'll see in the second year midwinter break doesn't even happen we we can't do it in order to make it by that deadline but start and end days are the same between A and B right correct Yeah we actually got lucky um if you pay attention to calendars like superintendents do Labor Day moves all the time and it affects it has a domino effect in the calendar all the time uh and we got so lucky that in our first year of major construction so spring 2026 Labor day is as
060ear early as it can possibly be so it's moral there so that makes it September 1st and then in the second year of construction it goes till the latest it can possibly be so we just got lucky uh a lot of districts when they do construction their first year have to say get permission from the state to start early like the week before Labor dat um because of where it landed we we got lucky and we didn't have to do that so um yeah that's basically it they both have a winter break they both have a un comfortable two days right before um Christmas Eve and it's uncom it's but if we want to have those two days off we have to give up something else and then you've also got to pay attention to
061the balance of quarter one and Quarter Two and we always try to use Jan January what is that is that Martin Luther King day we try to use that as the semester break so that that weighs in on where you can you know place your winter break days and trying to get a relative balance between quarter 1 two three and four and I I like to have a few more days in quarter four just because of testing and field trips and some of the um interruptions that we have so and this isn't changing the number of like student days or that we have had let me just double check because one draft did no this is 169 student days both years and 182 teacher days both years do note however a new thing would be
062in both them on the teacher days that where that you see 182 teacher days you see I put in floating PD days two of them in 26 27 and one of them in the first year 25 26 we've not done that here before um that would be basically like a schedule with your own group to do some professional development it's flexible it's not a day on the calendar so Josh will work with building leadership team and we'll figure out how they'll do it it's kind of like how we've made up snow days in the past we've so we've got some precedent doing it just not preemptively but uh that allows us to get the 182 in there and not be in the building in June can you remind how many required student contact days do
063we have 169 169 exactly so we're at the minimum no that's the state minimum is 165 yeah that was my question so we've got the four snow day built in okay right yeah we made that change last year two years we a couple of years ago yeah we because we were at 165 and we uped it at 169 I mean I yeah suppose you could have reduced those numbers but that one of my drafts was I had it down to 168 because I just couldn't make it all work I'm glad you didn't yeah for sure I have mixed feelings about that like because the not having a full week of spring break is something different for us sure I think there'll be some Growing Pains I think there'll be a lot of kids that take
064the week off anyways you're probably right it's temporary yeah but I don't know I mean from a parent standpoint I'd rather have a shorter spring break than a an extra week in June which is isn't here which we can't do because construction yeah but you could in theory take away two buffer snow days not really I mean they're not really buffer snow days but that's where the conversation started at we had less days total corre we had the one year with tons and tons of snow and we had to add extra days to the year essentially that year and then we decided partially just why would we be at the bare minimum of days anyways we want our students to have but we significantly exceed the required hours every w't right we were like less
065but not less so is it advantageous to like sorry is it advantageous to like but you say 165 is bare minimum we're at 169 go to 167 with the idea that you'd extend two days into the day after the week after Memorial day and still have that what you were talking about where you end on Thursday and have a day well you know I'm trying to say like you'd have you could have like a full if you took the two those two days and add them on like March 22nd 23rd I was trying to add the end of the year I I was say then people would get full like there is a way that people can get their full spring break that they've been accustomed to but it's taking educational days away right but
066see like and we could have the caveat where we say these are potential makeup snow days or something we've done that but it's harder to do that though at Spring break than it is at the end of the year end of the year you know there ain't gonna be nothing else there ain't gonna be a snow day in the second week of May I was to say in April part of part of the conversation wasn't really just about snow days the reason we got cut cut back to 165 to begin with was for a budget cut before all on the board because they you know they could cut Transportation costs or whatever and I think this board felt like you know given covid and all the other things that had happened that we wanted to
067make sure there were more educational days and that we wanted we wanted to move start moving the ball back in that direction because we didn't have those same Financial things because of this spard has really done a good job managing that so I I think well four days is a good safe bet in this country you know might make more might need it's true the other conversation that had gone on going like historically is there had been a conversation many years ago and at the time of budget cuts of working towards a 4day week we've had it continues to come up over the years of Schoolboard members um moving towards a 4-day weekend at one point they had done sort of a hybrid 4 day week sneaky thing where it was like some Mondays and
068some Fridays off it was really it was Sarah I recall thinking that was it would have been when Sarah was a student yeah um I recall thinking it was kind of an odd like we're not having four day weeks but we're showing some energy or movement towards that model and there was a lot of community conversation and strong opinions at the time yeah that's one I don't want to take up yeah I'm GNA I'm gonna I'm gonna re us back in from from that topic I'll make a motion it works for me okay I'll second um further discussion that would be on 8.3 this is on we do a package deal I'll make a motion for three and four one at a time but you can be ready for that so this is on 8.3
069um yeah any further discussion on that second did that I did Reena and this I mean we you got as our procedure um calls for you know feedback from staff yeah and this is this is kind of like this is this is the one yeah they overwhelmingly wanted B there's only like two people that wanted a um and there was comments but um people generally understood that the rational behind it but yes it was very clearly articulated the why behind it and um most 99% of people get it yeah can you remind us what were the major differences between A and B that were presented with that the approach of grand porage conferences whether that counts as an instructional day or not that was the biggest significant change um and then seems very minor it
070is it was other than then you know you're playing around with um I can't remember I think I had a PD day in October for draft a but that meant it it shortened a different element so there they aren't that different because there's not very many variables that you can actually play with um knowing that the end date had to be the same and the mid break had to be the same then you're only left with adjusting two or three variables there was a day I was cranky about I remember you there was like a I think it was fall break because there was a two-day week and then there was a non- student day that next Monday I don't know why I was cranky about it but could be anything but but then you
071start like you say you start playing with that stuff then what do you do to the spring semester if you something to Falls right and you have to keep your contractual 182 contract days as well so if we were say to go down to 167 then we have two more PD days that are not on the calendar that we have to figure out how to deal with so that seems like a good solution y okay all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries all right 8.4 is to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar modification as dra B is presented here I'll take a motion to approve that I'll second any further discussion just a point out that we have made modifications to calendars later before when something came up that we didn't see
072coming or we had a mistake I think one year we we screwed up and didn't have a holiday in there or something like that so just know that there we have it's not like these are concrete they New Year's day that was the one where you said hey I messed up we got to revote on the calendar new New Year's Day the year The observed day yeah what it was well it's within the board's perview to update these calendars it's a because New Year's fell on a weekend that year it no one yeah a bunch of superintendent were like oh crap of us saw that I mean it's a courtesy and uh just the right thing to do to be doing this this far out you know we're pretty far out so everybody can kind
073of so so can plan for his next trip to some exotic place all right all those in favor I I Bill's opposed motion carries all right 8.5 um is to approve the resolution uh let me see here I'm just make sure I say this right um resolution authorizing Co County Schools I 166 to make an application to and accept funds from the RB um so Chris if you wouldn't mind walking us through what this is this this is a procedural requirement that I have to upload into the IT RB portal to apply for the matching Grant $7 million Grant so um there's a bunch of things I got to do a narrative I gotta do a budget I gotta do have this um letters of support all of that and then of course it's all
074contingent on everything moving forward in fall but this is just one of their buckets to check so this is not us committing to anything necessarily but it's just it's authorizing me to move forward with an application sure um and the we are committing our our super to to sometime to do yes exactly yep for sure it's the time part yeah with the help of ics for sure no okay can you just because I think we've been transparency continues to be questioned questioned and whatnot can you just walk through you went through the process to potentially get funds from ITB right that's what yeah yeah so UMB has a certain amount of money every year that they reinvest into regions of the arrowhead that are tied to mining uh a huge chunk of money went out
075to school districts and municipalities in the last legislative cycle Cook County Schools was not one of them uh we didn't ask and I didn't know about what was going on in the legislature that kind of hit us blind in the last minute uh and I let our Senator know that I was not happy that we weren't in the know on that and we didn't have an opportunity to ask um so as the board has talked about um when the when the referendum did not pass for questions two and three the question was are there other funding sources can we can we do that and so I reached out to um Senator a house Tri and then um uh some contacts and ultimately um was joined by Dan and our track coach and we went to
076the it RB staff and asked to be considered for the funding and laid out all of what was in two and three and what it would have cost our taxpayers had it passed back in November uh and they encouraged us to ask for $7 million as a match to going to after you know another referendum in the fall so if a referendum passes then then they will throw in 7 million cutting the cost to our our taxpayers down to about a third of what it what it was last time around so um that's where we're at they've committed verbally uh that they're behind this and $7 million is a fair ask and now there's just Hoops I have to jump through I have to enter in all of this stuff they make their final decision
077in May and ultimately nothing happens if referendum doesn't pass in November if we decide or you decide not to do it then it's nothing happens but the potential money is a huge part of what has continued to have this part of the discussion minus minus knowing 7 million was coming our way was it wasn't really a discussion right so it's not exactly the same no question exact same money I'm G to make a motion because I would like to make a comment okay except this please make a motion second okay discussion yes um I you know I'm not like a big jock myself because one what a start one can see that I uh can trip on my own stairs and cause a lot of damage to myself but um I know that uh Sports
078and also what's in this is also uh updates to our theater um which I think are also very important for our kids I know that there was a meeting this last week uh an bratus uh talked about AI to a community group and um I don't know if you were there Rebecca but about the the harm that that potentially can do to kids and how do we as a community support kids so that they're not so caught up in you know in all of this technology and Ai and the danger of that and I think one of the ways that we do that as a community is especially a small community where there's not a lot of options for kids to do things outside of their families um is to provide them with sports with
079theater opportunities with the things the community ed things that we have for young kids and soccer classes and whatever we you know these facilities allow us to do a better job of that of engaging kids and and do that and these facilities are not just used by the school they they're going to be used by the community they've talked about running tracks you know the certainly the theater so I kind of support it for all of those reasons because I think it's really important to do these kinds of things to give our kids the opportunities that kids get in a in a bigger community and you know that that they don't necessarily get here and um so that's why I think it's important I think like kudos to Chris for going out and saying how
080do I get half of this money from somewhere else so this this becomes more feasible so I I wanted to say that largely for you Rebecca because we know each other but I think I think it's a different ask than it was last year and I think there are other things to consider than this is just sports stuff and so I wanted you to understand why I support this um can I make no you actually can't you can later I'll tell you but but I but I did I do feel like it's important that that messaging gets out to the community that this is something bigger than just a bigger football stadium MH it really is and it and it has an impact on kids that are getting pressure from a lot of different places
081so that's what I want to say thank you maybe add just for the sake of you calling it a football stadium that the reason the football stadium was even ever brought to the to the table was not for football but because we mostly track and um complying with Title 9 for women's sop or girl stop off and that last year we had between 80 and 90 kids in a track program so a lot of interest right lots of parents lots of student involvement and we don't have a track they running TR they're running in the streets which doesn't feel as safe right so for sure and as a sort of a tangential benefit that is something that in particular peaked the interest of the I RB and our state delegation is that by adding another
082facility to the region it allows greater participation for all kids that participate in in track in this area because if you only have a couple of facilities that can host a track meet then everybody goes to those track meets and then you only have enough time or only a few kids from each school to participate in the events if you add another facility in and then therefore another opportunity for more events it spreads it out and it gives more kids the opportunity to participate so it's not even just a benefit to the Cook County Community it's a a you know a regional benefit and that's something that so there'll be more track meets basically right instead of two it at uh because I guess when I thought about this I thought oh instead of having
083two or three at Two Harbors they're going to have two or one or two at Two Harbors and one up here but you're saying there's going to be more y in the exactly there will be more sites to host them and so some you know might be on the same weekend as an existing one but instead of 13 schools being there you know it might be six there and six here or something like that so you know that's something that also spoke to those folks in in wanting to support this because it just kind of helps everybody that region it's it's just another consideration because they're a regional entity and right for from for them that was a big deal for sure so any other comments on this no okay all those in favor I
084iose resolution is adopted all right uh 8.6 is to resend the 2024 version of policy 522 which was the title 9 final rule that was supposed to go in effect in 2024 which did and it was adopted in July of 2024 okay um we are being asked to resin this because that um was basically halted in the federal courts so that that rule has been disallowed by the federal courts in all jurisdictions so it is no longer the law of the land so in order to comply with the federal ruling we need to resend it from our policy and adopt the previous iteration which is what the law of the land is now so that's that's why we're doing it if I may I'll add one more thing and that is um in Minnesota uh
085the way we do business uh is run by the Minnesota H humans right Human Rights Act and in the human Minnesota Human Rights Act um it doesn't change how the high school league or how we in Minnesota will interpret practices as a matter of fact at about 455 right before the bo 450 right before the board meeting we I received an email uh with clarification and a um guidance from Keith Ellison Minnesota's attorney general that made very clear that executive orders do not supersede state law federal laws can and often does supersede state law but an executive order does not have the weight of law therefore Minnesota's Minnesota Human Rights Act picks precedent uh and and uh dictates how we operate and therefore that's how the high school league will continue to move forward so
086this resending of Title 9 and reinstating the 2020 version of 2020 um it basically changes some operational procedures if a real title n investigation goes forward and and how it happens that's about all it does in terms of um implications for school districts in Minnesota in Minnesota obviously different in other states is it possible as this continues to play out in the courts and goes back and forth between states and and executive orders that will be changing it back again we've Chang it every four years for the last 12 so yes and I don't I don't believe that the the this specific situation with this law is not as a result of a executive order it was a court Challenge and a federal in Kentucky or something and it was challenged in Kentucky in federal
087court and the federal judge there said yep we're halting the implementation of the 2024 final rule in all jurisdictions now there are executive orders that are talking about these types of issues as well that that's kind of a separate issue right dialing into the high school league yes yes right um which like Chris said the Minnesota human rights act kind of steps in and says well no that's that's not how we do things here so um so that's sort of tangentially related but not exactly the issue with with how this is playing out so gosh it definitely has a huge impact in other states for sure so do I have a motion to resend to this is so we're doing 8.6 8.6 which was previously 7.5 so to resend the 2024 version so move I'll
088second further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed nope I ain't letting somebody in Kentucky tell me what to do with Minnesota all right motion carries um 8.7 is to approve the 2020 version of uh policy 522 which is the 2020 title N Final role I'll make a motion and accept the new version one second further discussion all those in favor I I another big go oppos okay motion carries all right uh we just need a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion for that okay we're adjourned at 6:15 thank you very much thank you Eric I all right s first time