School Board Meeting - March 3, 2026

001two weeks. Who's counting? >> We'll talk. >> Good. We're going to be This regular meeting of the Independent School District 5:35 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pel, a non- voting exeicio member, and assistant school board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, would you please call the role? [clears throat] >> Here >> the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples. At this time, we offer the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

002it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Our next item are the Rochester Public Schools mission, vision, and values. During this agenda item, at every regular meeting, a board member will read our mission, our vision, or one of our six values to emphasize their importance in our work as a district and our decisions as a board. Director Workman. Tonight, we focus on our sixth value. Investing in our community's future. As the heart of a community focused on lifelong learning, we prepare the next generation of thinkers and doers. >> The next item is the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The agenda has

003been approved. The agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at rochesterchools.org/asssembly. Our next item are comments to the board and there are no comments to the board this evening. So, we'll move on to information and outreach. National School Social Worker Week. National School Social Worker Week is being celebrated March 1st through the 7th to celebrate the work of school social workers. Our RPS social workers affect the lives of our students in impactful ways every day as they promote student academic success by reducing social, emotional, economic, and environmental barriers to learning. RPS social workers work with students one-on-one, in small groups, or in the classroom to develop problemolving, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills. They help students deal with difficult or crisis situations and improve interpersonal relationships with their peers. They help address barriers to

004school attendance and learning and are key to identification and early intervention for students who need mental health care. RPS social workers provide a link between school, home, and the community, connecting students and families to school and community based resources for health, mental health, housing, food, and nutrition. Social workers uplift, defend, and transform the lives of students while bringing hope, healing, and justice to the communities they serve, especially in times of profound change and challenges. We would like to express our thanks on behalf of the district to our Rochester Public School social workers. Our next item is board member updates. Superintendent Pal, you'd like to start? >> Yeah, thank you, Chair Nathan. Usually I leave these updates to uh board members, but um today I just want to share um that earlier today I was uh

005at the funeral mass for a colleague who we recently lost. Um Hannah Hope who was a school psychologist at Bishop. Um there was a large contingent of bishop uh staff there. There were some other colleagues and it really was just an extraordinary um celebration of life. Um she was passionate about school psychology, about kids. Um and that was evident from every moment of the time together. It made me of course wish that I had known her um uh greatly. I'm thinking of her husband John and their dog Archie. We heard a lot about uh Archie during the the during the mass. Interestingly, um her father was a father in another sense. He's a priest and he and his wife moved here to Rochester to be with Hannah as she was going through her treatment um

006at Mayo Clinic. And he gave just an extraordinary uh homaly where he talked about her passion for kids and for her work and how when she first discovered the field of school psychology, she wanted to be uh you know a pioneer in it and how throughout her four-year battle um and she was diagnosed at stage four. So this was an extraordinary battle. she uh prioritized work and going and being there at Bishop, you know, right up uh until the very end. Um and it struck me that um it is true and I hear often that um the work we're all doing is difficult right now and that times are heavy. Um it was very clear today during that um almost two-hour mass that Hannah desperately wishes she was here doing this work, you know, and

007that for the we all have here doing this work. It as hard as it is right now, it's a privilege and it's one that we shouldn't take for granted and that we are indebted to her for the years of service in RPS and we will be thinking of her whole family during this time of transition. >> You board members, any other updates from committees or any other announcements to make? Um, Director Barlo and I had the opportunity to do a skip visit um at PEK um last week and um got to sit down um and see some students in action but also hear about the the progress that they're making. Um it really is such a complex program that required so many moving parts to and so many partners uh to be um uh working

008with and put all the pieces together. And I I think the one of the most impressive pieces of it is to reinforce the understanding about how committed they are to preparing the students to be ready to take those college level courses and um that it isn't always easy. Um, but it's another reflection of I think the whole approach we're taking at this district. Um, no matter what the learning type is, uh, to identify what students need, where their barriers are, where their gaps are, and then trying to, uh, fill them so that they can rise to the next level of achievement. Um, so I'm awfully glad that this is a program that we we started and that we are continuing to support it. And um as always, our skipped visits are um insightful and um

009we're we're we're grateful that they welcome us into the buildings and the program so that we can see exactly what's happening. >> Sure. >> Um uh thank you, Madam Chair. As you know, as the board knows, we've been considering a series of facilities changes. Uh some of which we're moving forward with further in consideration of and some of which we're not. One of them was potentially moving the PEK program off the Rochester Community Technical College campus, which we are not going to move forward with. So, I met with along with um Jackie Peterson and some other colleagues, I met with um PEK staff and they had great points. It was very compelling. I met with PEK parents. But when I met with the PEK students, first of all, they were really mad at me for

010even suggesting it. And so they they were ready with their arguments, but I was so proud of them as they were in a very, you know, respectful but strong way advocating to keep that program on the campus because for many of them, they will be the first in their families to go to college. Um, and they were talking about how being in that environment with our RPS teachers as the first two years home base and then moving on, it's still their home base on the campus. So, even though they were kind of beating me up, well, more than kind of, uh, I was I was um I was very proud of them, was kind of in the back of my head, you know, cheering them on a little bit. >> And that is one thing

011that we saw while we were visiting about how tight their their space actually is, the the way that they have to literally just move one block of students so that another block of students can come in. And sometimes the where they're meeting changes. They have to have a whiteboard to to say where where they're meeting to accommodate, you know, some of the changes in schedules. Um, and that To some people that might not seem like an ideal situation, right? Because they have to keep making these adjust adjustments, but like you said, even in that space that to others might not look ideal, it's ideal for them because of the experience that they're having. So, >> Dr. Whitehorn, >> um, and I had the, uh, opportunity to attend the Ebony night event this past weekend. It

012was a wonderful event. Um, it is put on by um, and the Black Student Union. And it was just really good to see some of the great partnerships that they are looking to design with even some of the high school students and different things that they have in mind. Um, and it's really nice to see a nice alignment of things. Um, uh, NAACP now has a scholarship as well for uh, youth that want to go into education um, to partner with some programs we have here. So, it was just really nice to see the emphasis on education. Um, see some of the graduates of Rochester public schools that have gone on to the uh campus and are having a wonderful experience. So, it was really good to see that we have a thriving um excellence

013um education uh continuing beyond RPS and that our students from RPS are participating that. >> Any other announcements board members? Great. We will move on to the consent agenda. Um items 5.1 through 5.5. Would any board member like any item removed for separate consideration? >> Move approval. >> Second. It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. Next item on our agenda is our focus topic, the RPS 2030 strategic plan, elementary school options. Superintendent Pau. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. I see Miss Kramer is working to pull up our technology as Denise Moody, our director of policy and innovation comes up. As you know, Denise is guiding our strategic plan. Um board members I believe are aware

014that we are in the process of putting together a modest technical upgrade to our audiovisisual uh facilities in this room. It's not going to look anything like what the city council and the county commissioners have. I'm sorry to say but um for the time being we are uh really using very down home technology here. And so I think we have Joe Anderson who's our consultant with Education First coming in from Colorado. It worked. >> So this is good. We've had a little bit and I want to thank Mike Johnson of the tech department. This is definitely um I guess below his pay grade, but he has personally been here helping us and Lori Sam and an have helped us do this. Um board members, as you know, um Joe and Spencer Sherman uh abley facilitated

015three working groups that met and did uh important work o over the last number of months. Those groups have now finished their work and we have got a summary of it before you hear. I want you and the rest of the community to know there's much more information and analysis that came out of the work education first did on this project that um we'll be incorporating as our strategic planning process goes forward. But we want to pause at this point and hear um what each of these working groups concluded. We decided to ask Joe because he facilitated the early childhood and elementary working group uh to give an overview and then Spencer will join us for the middle and high school working group summaries at your subsequent two meetings. I will be taking these recommendations

016along with the other uh analysis and feedback that we've collected on the strategic plan and working toward presenting you with a high level set of priorities by the end of this school year and a detailed plan by next fall. Um and I want to thank all of the members of these uh design teams that put in many hours to give us um this really good uh next step in that process. We will be sharing the recommendations from the design teams uh with staff, students, and parents via a written feedback form in the next couple weeks where they will be able to uh provide additional insight on the ideas that these three teams came up with so that we really have a very robust set of stakeholder input as we go into the home stretch of

017developing our strategic plan. So, I think uh my charge is to turn it over to Joe here and um thanks for the great work you did. Um it was good to meet you one time in Rochester and we hope we get to keep uh working with you again and but we're glad we can make this work virtually tonight. >> I am as well. Thank you. So, let's do a quick check. I'm I'm sharing my screen and you should see the title slide. So, you give me confirmation out loud that you can all see that. >> We can see it for you. >> Okay. Excellent. Um well, thank you for having me join you this evening uh present um for and for both me and my colleague Spencer like like Ken just said the opportunity to

018work with staff at the district um at schools and members of the community overall to explore and design these recommendations for the district's next strategic plan. Um, since this is the first of the three presentations, I'll spend a few extra minutes kind of describing the process we use in a little bit more detail um, to get to where we are now with these recommendations. And then I'll get I'll move into the elementary and early childhood committee's priorities and recommendations specifically. Um, and then we'll have some time to invite your feedback, initial feedback, questions, um, and share some of like what you're hoping uh, in terms of next steps or what you're excited about um, after I present. [clears throat] So, as you're obviously aware, um we're not the district is not like starting starting from

019scratch with with this RPS 2030 strategic plan, right? There's a lot of positives on which to build. Um just a couple of them, you know, call out here on this slide. So on the at the elementary side, right, there's you're two years into new high quality instructional materials implementation for literacy. Um and we'll be adopting new math curriculum soon, right? So the um solid foundation in which to build um things like the earlier school start times um have been working that were part of the current strategic plan. So where students younger students are more developed money ready to learn um at those earlier times and as with any good strategic plan like we aim to propose changes that build on what's already underway and what's already working or what's promising um and offer some new

020recommendations for either changes or new strategies to pursue. Um, so would just just remind you to to keep that in to keep that in mind um as you're as you've reading through and as you're looking through and listening to the proposed uh strategies that I'll get to in a few minutes. [clears throat] So, as kind of mentioned and I think as you saw before, we facilitated uh three committees overall. Um the members and I'll I'll show you the list of the names and they're in the report too. I think they all um from school district spaces or from the community. Um overall brought invaluable personal and professional experience and expertise and it was just a real pleasure uh to work with everyone. Um we also incorporated input from earlier strategic engagement activities that we and

021other district staff used um last fall up to this point. So that include um a number of interviews with district leadership um and with community members uh focus groups with caregivers and a public survey. Um and then in our role as facilitators on the education first side, Spencer and myself, you know, we we of course identified and incorporated relevant research and best practices from around the state and the country um into the committee's work uh together to get to the recommendations. Uh the committees also received support from smaller working groups that were staffed by district and school leaders. Uh each committee met four times uh for the past roughly four months um to kind of take examine best practices in school programs and structures. Um and ultimately like our our charges overall were to you

022know identify strategies that would produce strong educational achievement and improvement uh promote student engagement and learning and appeal to families and strengthen enrollment in district schools. Like I said it was a pleasure to work on the elementary and early childhood side um with these 16 committee members, a mix of district schoolbased staff, parents and other community members. um very clear from the moment I got to meet them in person back um in October and then work with them virtually that they were all dedicated to help helping Rochester students um and school communities thrive. Um along the way all the committee members, you know, they provided ideas, they provided relevant personal experiences as educators and parents and and citizens. Um they challenged assumptions that were put before them in the committee. they ask great questions. Um,

023and it's really because of of this group of people and as well as the middle school and high school committee members that these recommendations are where they are today. Um, and just acknowledging that they they all had to work within some ambiguity, right? We never have we don't have perfect information, perfect data. Um, and so I think these recommendations are are built upon good solid research and information. Um, and there's a lot more that I think as Ken mentioned, looking forward to with engaging additional stakeholders um, along the rest of this process in the coming months. So, I'll just show you this is the list of elementary and early childhood design committee members. Um you'll see this again when Spencer is with you in a in a couple weeks, but um just want to make

024sure we include middle both the middle school committee members uh as well as the high school design committee members. Couple more reminders about stakeholder engagement and process and then I'll get to the actual recommendations parts. But um we conducted interviews with 46 district staff and community and business representatives. So again their focus was kind of gathering insights on the current state of the district and its schools um current state of the current strategic plan challenges that they wanted to lift up to address and then ideas and opportunities to consider to address those challenges. Um the district also received 319 responses to its public survey across the different grade levels. >> [snorts] >> Um so that again that was all incorporated that feedback and other ideas were incorporated into the committee's um work as it considered

025the problems and to address and the solutions. Um and you can see I think you you've already heard from Denise and Ken and others uh about the from of the summary of all the stakeholder engagement that's been done to date. Um and it's also referenced and linked uh in the full report that you have available. Um, and I just just to add here, I get a little personally. Um, you know, my colleague Spencer is lucky enough to live in Broadchester. So, he's he's there. He's part of the communities. Um, was able to engage personally um in a lot of ways. Um, and when I when I got to visit and visit schools and talk with principles and staff and teachers and meet with the committee members, um, you know, it I felt like I got

026a little bit of a sense of the people in the community there through this work. So, again, appreciation um to you all. um for the opportunity to do that. So again, just want to make sure I'm including recognition for all the folks that were able to interview. You can see um every school principal, uh counselors at the middle and high school levels, registars, um some other district leadership and staff, and then a set of community business representatives as well. All right. So, I'm going to move on to the recommendations. I think which is the focus of our time here this evening. Um, I'll first explain how we organize them just to orient you a little bit and then I'll spend a few minutes on each of the four priority areas within the recommendations. Um so

027the recommendations are organized by grade levels and then priorities and strategies. The document that you have the full report u that you have has much more detail than we'll present tonight. Um and as a quick orientation you know the recommendation section for each grade level elementary or middle or high are summarized in the executive summary which are those those top two arrows the orange and the blue top arrows. Um and then those same recommendations so using the same like name of the strategy and then the highle summary are included in more and added more detail in each of the um grade level specific sections that follow the executive summary background. Um those are also colorcoded which you'll see in a sec too by the four priority areas. Okay. So um as we started with these

028three committees um we took our charges from superintendent and board started to identify and get a little bit deeper into like what what are the problems we're trying to solve uh for the districts within each of those three grade levels. Um we found that the the problems and then the solutions that were or at least ideas that were emerging were generally generally falling into four priority areas which you see here on the screen in the colored boxes. Um it also helps with you know organization of the recommendations to be clear um which can get quite detailed in some of the places later in the in the detail section of the of the recommendations document. Um, so this is on this slide and in the executive summary of the of the report, it's meant to show

029kind of AC districtwide, so not specific to grade levels, what each of these four priorities means. Um, so academic rigor and relevance means ensuring every student consistently receives rigorous and relevant instruction with clear high expectations. Navigation supports means coherent student centered navigation and counseling systems across all grade levels. that smooth key transitions between schools that helps every student connect learning to their long-term interests and sense of purpose. Engaging offerings means expanding equitable access to high-quality programs close to home, reducing barriers that limits families ability to choose best fit options, and creating more flexible interest driven pathways and relationships and belonging means every ensuring that every student and every school consistently experiences a strong sense of belonging and feels known, included, safe, and supported. [clears throat] So, as I move into the elementary and early childhood

030specific recommendations and recommended strategies, like again, each of those each of these is tied to one of those four priorities that are crosscutting for all all grade levels. Um, so here's where I'm going to spend a little a few minutes on each of these slides. And I know talking a lot and sharing a lot of information. Um that's because we want to make sure that you're you know I am sharing like the high the high level um strategies for change and want to make sure that we have time for you know your reactions and initial questions and um and feedback as well. Um so as you know I mentioned just a moment ago there's you know rise public schools has a a solid foundation um and that includes from this very first uh priority and

031this very first strategy that you see on the screen here um from which to strengthen multi-tered systems of support in math and literacy. Right? So current implementation of tier one um high quality literacy curriculum that's happening that's been happening last couple years and then the coming adoption of high quality curricula um curriculum across elementary schools for math based on the current pilots. I think again solid foundation um and I think there are you know opportunities to I think in the committee would recommend opportunities to ensure that implementation continues to be solid um and strengthened along the way. Um, so there are, you know, some [clears throat] some things, some district guidance and supports like the the master schedule, elementary master schedule that have been effective. Um, and there are schoolbased structures and processes that I

032think could be um that that we think could be strengthened um in and across elementary schools. So like the use of regular screeners um and other assessments and data within professional learning community structures uh to ensure that student intervention individual student interventions and enrichment are identified and um and and provided. Um the recommendations include opportunities to expand MTSS structures to math with especially with given the new the upcoming adoption next year. um standardize some additional processes, things like minim like a minimum frequency of progress monitoring for students um and looking at some opportunities to uh increase professional development time um for teachers. So things like shorter bursts of PD uh for teachers that fit within uh calendars and don't take away uh time for for student instruction. um kind of moving down the list here.

033Um I think there's also opportunities to map out and and better understand all of the assessments that students take. So not just the standardized assessments that are state required or locally required, but also formative assessments and screeners and and things like that. um just to ensure that that every assessment has a clear purpose and and it's time well spent u both for the student and for and for the the educators in the school. Um there's a recommendation to continue the district's implementation of a balanced budget model. That's where this fourth one about um adequate staffing fits in. Um while also studying how schools are using their flexible funding um and ensuring that there's alignment between additional any additional staffing that a school might be be using its funding for um and the campus skip goals

034and plan um to ensure that schools and classrooms are staffed to meet students needs as diverse as they are. Um and then finally for this priority and you'll see the same or a similar strategy uh for the for the fifth one here in the middle and high school committee recommendations um to more widely distribute and create an implementation plan um including things like coaching for staff for the district's mindsets behaviors and steps for success which is an excellent resource that already exists um and there's an opportunity to do more with its implementation. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Um, luckily that was the one with the longest list of of strategies and uh with five of them and there's there's a few fewer in these. Um, with the second priority, navigation supports in, just be

035clear, in elementary and early childhood, we're specifically talking about transitions from early childhood education programs to kindergarten in elementary schools and supporting students, families, and staff in those early elementary K1 years. Um, this one I would say like this one overall, this priority is probably the most different across the grade levels as you might assume with like it's the theme is still about navigation and transitions um between grades and schools, but you'll when Spencer presents, you'll hear a little a lot more in middle school and high school about um supporting students through their transitions um and advising and things like that. Um again, I think There's excellent work happening at the district to increase early childhood and kindergarten enrollment in programs and schools and transition supports for families and students. Um I think there's also

036a connection here with the strategy that you'll see later in the relationships and belonging priority to improve family communications and marketing um through for example centralized um multilingual hubs for for school profiles and enrollment information. So there there are we want to just note there are a number of connection points between and across um these various uh strategies. Um there's also recommendations here to systematize what and how information is shared about the educational and development developmental needs of students who attended early childhood programs and now are moving transitioning into kindergarten. Um again I think what came up through the committee's work and through stakeholder engagement is um just an opportunity to improve that that information transfer to ensure that um kinder first grade teachers and staff and elementary schools have you know the best information

037possible about the students they're working with and how they can how they can meet their needs based on um their experiences in early childhood programs. Um, we also recommend, and again, this kind of ties in with the uh the first priority a little bit, but recommend building on the district's evidence-based literacy curriculum. Um, and continuing to refine pacing and instructional routines for for K1 specifically. Um, and both like feedback and research on best practices like really puts an emphasis on expanding play-based developmentally appropriate learning experiences that are that's strengthening engagement and self-regulation and foundational skills for for those youngest students um in in our elementary schools and providing staff professional development on child development in addition to found foundational math and literacy skills. Um and then finally on this slide um and it's similar to

038the to the strategy for studying the school's use of funds within the balance budget model um is to study and look for opportunities to differentiate staffing within these early elementary uh classrooms. Um that you know we're talking teachers but also ESPs um based on students needs within those classrooms. uh this third priority here. Um while the list of you know one strategy for change overall is short say like this this priority generated a lot of discussion within the committee and the working group. Um the original charge to the elementary committee was to redefine the district-wide option schools and empower neighborhood schools. Um now so we dug in as a committee and it was very clear from the start that the committee was aligned in their belief that students and families should have high quality school

039options and rigorous instruction regardless of which school they attend in the district and that families should have equitable access to elementary schools and programs that are are a good fit for their kids um and are attractive to them. Um, so that was that was very clear. I think you can see the recommendation that's here about studying the interest in and feasibility and potential outcomes of expanding K8 options um and school specializations. I think that's where we landed. Um, and I think beyond that, what we didn't what the committee didn't and we didn't resolve was the clear like how to do this like we recommend that the district should pursue, you know, x um choice school models for example. Um we did look we spent time with stakeholder input. Uh we looked at current and projected

040enrollment trends in the district and at schools. Um we looked at various models for providing choice and access to schools across the district. Um such as regional choice models with the menu of schools in each region. And again, where the committee settled for this recommendation is that expanding K8 school options, meaning like the number of K8 schools and seats, um, is of interest and that the districts to study it more in regards to feasibility and and getting more stakeholder input about family interest in that op in those options. Um, I will say like indications from the stakeholder engagement to to this point as well as research from other districts who have expanded KA ad options are that f family interest is is generally high. Um, that families see the value in in a consistent K

041through 8th grade experience for their kids. There's also [clears throat] trade-offs, too, and that a lot of those trade-offs or considerations are are detailed in the um in the report further. Um, and I think there's also potential to study Kate expansion within the district alongside specialized uh school models for each KA. So things uh models and programs that do currently exist like language immersion um and things that might be like global studies incorporated into global studies or STEM or arts and humanities. Those those that's what I mean when I'm talking about school specialization. Um and I think there's and you'll see this in the report too. I think there's potential for the district to consider like need-based components in its in enrollment and or transportation policies. Um if the goal is is to be like

042more equitable access uh for for students and families in the district. Um so things like you know priorities or weights for based on on family socioeconomic status um for enrollment or transportation policies. The last thing I'll say on this um particular part for now is that and it's something we didn't discuss really too much at all within the committee um but I would you know I would personally advocate that to ensure that any potential changes to school models um or enrollment polic enrollment policies that they're taking into account both families interests and the district's ability to support financially and with staff and and res other resources um those models K models, specialized school models and there are you know some potential criteria that the district can use um to validate any like new choice schools

043or specialized schools against. So things like, you know, their ability to appeal to enough families to sustain their operation costs including transportation. Um an academic program that can be implemented a high level of quality. Um you know like we know that research shows that you know a consistent and a consistently consistent across school and consistently implemented high quality instructional materials get the best results. Um, so ensuring if if there's a deviation from those materials such as your, you know, your tier one math and literacy curricula that there is evidence that they can be implemented well and get the results that you want. Um, and that there's, you know, that there's evidence that the choice school can meet needs for for students and families that um its neighbor neighborhood schools uh can't meet. So again, more

044is in happy to talk more. There's more in the report itself, but I think there's some good um considerations and criteria to think about um when continuing to explore some of these choice uh school models. [clears throat] And then the last um priority here I'll talk through uh is focus on ensuring that every student and family feels like they're known, they're welcome, they're connected to their school community. Uh just to note there there are many of these same or similar strategies that you see here for elementary and early childhood school schools that also show up in middle and high school the middle and high school recommendations um which makes a lot of sense right. Um so again some of these are already in the works such as improved communications and marketing um to for to

045enable the districts and individual schools to to better tell their stories about what they're offering and how are attractive to families. Um, and I think there's some additional improvements um that can be recommended as well, such as a more, you know, more robust school profiles. There's some really good examples out there that are also included in the report. Um, school profiles on a centralized hub um to include programs and curricula and, you know, special areas and extracurriculars and before and afterare and partner organizations that that partner with the school. um what the school culture is like, stories about the school. So um again, some exciting things already happening and I think some areas for some opportunities for for continued improvement there. Um this kind of touches on that the last strategy here on the on

046the slide, which is um you know compiling a list of enrichment activities, clubs, etc. that are available at each school. Um and the district maintaining a central list partner organization and enrichment offerings so that all you know families know what options are available. not necessarily that every school, elementary school, has the same exact um enrichment opportunities, but ensuring that there are opportunities for students um and families and that families are aware of what they are. Um because I know there's already a lot happening at campuses um and so part of it is the communications um and part of it is just in ensuring that there's access um to those enrichment opportunities. Um and I think I'll I'll just close kind of this presentation part by um just again sharing like just a quick uh personal

047anecdote which is again when I got a chance to visit Rochester and schools and talk to principles and staff you know it was it was immediately evident that the there's great care and a welcoming nature within each school and how they what they show towards the families in their larger community. um you know without without prompting every single principal when I sat down with them like started with that they started with you know our school community is a community um and it's community because of the of the families um and students who are there uh and our you know there's there's strength in that um and we need to not only value and acknowledge that but you know just build on that strength that that our families are their families were bringing to them. Um,

048and I think the stakeholder input, you know, while, you know, interviews and focus groups and even the survey, I think that shows that, too. So, again, a lot of a lot of strengths to build upon. Um, and things like, you know, you know, more opportunities to share what family partnership events and ideas that are working across elementary schools. principles and their and their staff are doing a heck of a job, you know, with outreach to families and bringing inviting families in and bringing them. There's a lot of great stuff happening out there. I think just um you know, a better way or a little bit easier way for them to um share what's working uh duplicate uh what may work at different schools. Um, and I think you're going to hear, you know, and and

049and kind of tie that into some of the school transition, um, activities, both the early childhood to, uh, elementary and what you'll hear later with middle school and high school, um, transitions as well. Um, and considering ways for students to appropriately showcase their academic and social and emotional growth. um to provide uh development and training opportunities for school leaders and staff and family engagement. Um I think so I think there again there's some other opportunities there um to continue like the excellent work that individual schools and the district as a whole is doing. Okay, that was a lot. I know that and it's very different for me being uh virt joining you virtually than being there being able to interact in person as well. Uh so I appreciate uh you listening and I appreciate hopefully

050you've got some ideas and some questions to share back. Um and again just thank you to the the full all the committees and the working groups and everyone who provided input um to get this like fairly comprehensive set of recommendations where it is right now. Um so I'll pause there. I think I don't Ken I don't know if I turn it back to you to help facilitate um as we get into some of these questions and feedback here or uh yeah maybe I'll turn it back to you. >> Well, thank you Joe. I think I'll turn it over to the chair who can um uh take the points and board members. I think that I just um kind of kick this off. Whenever you attempt to take a lot of complex feedback and boil it

051down into uh something digestible, you you run the risk of a lot of the nuance. And I just want to assure the board that the the really detailed rich work that this committee and the other two committees did is not going to fall by the wayside. Um just to give one example of something that came out of this process that I was absolutely unaware of is that we have a data sharing problem from early childhood into into elementary. That was not on my radar screen at all. that we have kids in our preschool programming and we are not doing a good enough job getting that information to our kindergarten teachers, coaches, and others. That's a solvable problem. Of course, we want to get more kids into that early childhood programming, which thankfully is happening at

052our new Mighty Oaks facility, and we're going to grow that. That increases the importance of having that. So, there's a very specific idea that came out of this process that um is uh going to take we're going to need a student new student information system to really implement that, which is coming. you've already selected. But that just gives um how some of these very high level priorities, some folks might look at that say, well, of course you want belonging. Well, what's the big news about that? There's a lot of very specific levers that I think we can push in this working group and the others like strengthening data sharing from early childhood to early elementary that are very tangible and that we can put in place over the next four years. that madam chair I'll

053I'll turn it over and I'm sure I will be jumping in on uh some of these things I want to encourage I know it's difficult for Joe to do that from a remote location but uh Denise as well certainly any cabinet members do >> absolutely um well board members um Joe was [cough] kind enough to give us uh three questions that we could uh frame our discussion around what questions do you have about the recommendations what is one recommendation that you're personally excited to explore further and what issues do you think our s leadership should consider as they review the recommendations and develop the strategic plan. So, we can start wherever someone would like to start. >> Director Cook. >> Um, yeah, I I have a a few a few questions. I I think for

054the most part um I I'm just happy to digest the the corpus of information that's been prepared and um and we'll we'll look forward to the uh further recommendations that come with the the the full set of analysis that supports all of this. But um just to help me contextualize where some of this is coming from, I'm wondering to what extent the committee wrestled with the uh financial reality of some of these uh strategies. Is that was that part of their charge or was that sort of out of the scope of I I'm I'm sure we were trying to identify things that were realistic, but um just wondering how that came in. >> Why don't I Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you for that. I'll I'll start and then should supplement. Um I would

055say uh at a very basic broad level, yes, but beyond that, no. Um so when we examined when the committee and the working group examined some of the emerging ideas and solutions through like the feasibility lens, it was um it was mostly through like like is this you know, without knowing all the details of the district's uh financial situation, but what's only what's out there publicly um and without looking at like specific uh school changes or consolidation scenarios or anything like that. We did not do that. Um they kind of judge like feasibility like is this something that would be wildly expensive? So, for example, opening opening a brand new school building. Um, no, of course, of course not at this time. Um, and internally what Spencer and I did with uh Denise and and

056Kent and others, district leadership, we did work with finance to actually, you know, again, not at a incredibly detailed level or incredibly detailed level analysis, but we did look at um some ranges of costs of what these uh all of these strategies and recommendations would would include. again. So like cost for staffing if we're talking about differentiated staffing or costs for um uh expanding enrichment programs at elementary, middle or high or things like that. So we had a ballpark but we did not do like a full financial analysis. >> Uh I think Dr. Cook the you have hit on the primary reason why I recommended and our chair and vice chair approved changing our timeline for your approval of the detailed strategic plan. We need the suburb to do precisely that. That is the primary.

057You're still going to be asked to approve the high level priorities uh for the plan in May. And then that gives us three months to do the hard thinking around uh uh human capital, key services like transportation and then of course most fundamentally budget, you know, at a time of tight resources. So um I do think uh Joe is correct. They didn't do pie in the sky utopian uh like far out dreaming that is way beyond scope and I have been a part of multiple efforts in my career that did that and then those things are dead on arrival because you don't have so I think all of these things that are here are broadly within scope but that's what we're going to take the summer to really do and we're going to ask you

058to bound it for us so that we actually are really very focused on bringing you resource uh options in the fall that reflect the high level priorities that I'm hoping you'll vote to set in May. >> Thanks. That's helpful. >> So, I will say um a lot of information but I think that's a good thing. Um I will say what what was interesting to me uh was how aligned I know we're just looking at early childhood tonight, but how aligned all three schools were. Um allows me to figure that these are some solvable things. Um I'm also happy that we started with early childhood um because my my brain says that if we can solve it early on it will lessen the concerns as we go up, right? So I thought it was very um

059interesting that there were so many commonalities between the three different um groups. Um, and that what it shows me is that some of this stuff may be systemic as far as, you know, it's a it's a system structure uh that we can possibly put into place uh that can alleviate the concern. That makes sense where I'm going with that. Um, so I I'm really excited about the information. I'm really excited to delve a little deeper into uh you know, some of the more specifics of it. Um, and to uh director Cook, I was thinking the same thing. I said, "Well, was where where were the parameters?" Because some of this stuff sounds really great and I wrote a couple of times, how can we implement this, right? Because it's a it's a really great um

060theory, but you know, how implementable is it? So, it'll be interesting to see as this process unfolds um uh moving forward the the creativity or the ideas of of what some of these um thought process would look like implemented. I'm sorry, it's not really question. Dr. McLolin. >> Um, I kind of want to start off before my questions or a question. I really like the structure of this. I think starting with the common priorities across all grade levels and particularly stating these as problem statements, I think is a really good way to approach what we're about to do here. I also really appreciate having things divided in the longer document between the district actions and the school actions. I think that's really um something that I hadn't seen in any um information for the board

061before and I think that that gives a lot of accountability as to who's doing what and where and when. Um so I found that helpful. I also was like um director workhorn said um the resources here are amazing that I printed a bunch of articles um to read in my spare time. Um and then I also really like the concept of the navigation supports. I don't think that that's something we have ever really put into words before and I think that that is a big piece of potentially what we might be missing in the district not only from transition from one like elementary to middle school to high school but even the navigation of supports of the resources that are available for families that I really like that terminology and um I think that's really

062going to add to the work of the district. Um, one of the questions I had is related to I don't know how to describe these two documents, the longer one. Um, page 11. Um, it talks I I got a little bit lost and perhaps I should know this from board policy and I don't, but the discussion of the average class sizes and targets and then the um, sorry, the district-wide averages, not the individual sections, and then the class size targets. Um, I'm curious to know if we can explain that a little bit more in detail so that um, if someone's looking at this document, it might be more understandable to the more average reader. >> Yeah, you want I again I could take a shot at that. I'll I'll do my best. Um, I'm actually

063gonna All right, I'll keep sharing. Um, and I also don't want to I don't want to uh misspeak too much, so we could we could follow up and check check on this, but um I believe what it says in that part of the document, I mean the the state of Minnesota has um has has rule has policy for uh those ratios, student teacher ratios. Um and there's also guidance for uh lo local education agencies including districts to have their own um policies related to that as well. Um the the I think the key to understand or what maybe what a common misconception is because I know I've had this before is that that ratio that's there um the target and the overall ratio is not a class by class. Um, and so we're not saying

064like every single first grade class, for example, needs to have a maximum of 20 students or a like 20 student to one adult um ratio. Um, it's an average across the district and all the classrooms, first grade classroom for example, in the district. Um, so I think what that means is there it's it's both, you know, it's both kind of a rule and an opportunity. The opportunity being and that's where the kind of the differentiation of of staffing. Some of those strategies come fit in where there's an opportunity to still meet those requirements or student and teacher ratios across the district while enabling differentiation based on student needs within individual classrooms. um whether that's you know the the the reg the regular teacher of record maybe an ESP who's supporting all or or some students

065directly um would be another uh staff member or teacher who's also shared between classes. So, I know that there are some creative [clears throat] solutions um that schools and districts use, but I think that's I don't know if I answered your question well enough, but >> I think that's the that's the key. Go ahead. >> Can I add more if you'd like? >> Sure. >> Do you want to first? >> No, go ahead. >> Um yeah, thanks Joe. I think um what I took this point of the committee recommendation to be saying is class size really matters and get it as low as you can with the highest need kids to a significant extent the board has already done that in setting our class size targets that we work with now. But would we like

066them to be lower uh especially for our most challenging students? Uh probably yes. Um this is I would say the number one thing that elementary schools are using their flexible funding to do is precisely this >> in certain key areas. Um a challenge uh directorlin uh that we are going to have going forward is of course first of all funding as director was just pointing out we're living in tight times. Another important one is that in our contract with the Rochester Education Association there is a limit that secondary teachers can only see 160 students a day. And the fact that that is in the contract and is the starting point for the design of all of our staffing patterns has huge implications. And I hear from elementary teachers and secondary teachers. I was a high

067school teacher and I had like 49 kids once in a class. That was malpractice. But so I get it that I get it that um thank you Bloomington public schools. But um I get it that this really matters. We have a labor management committee going on with REA right now looking at class size. It's been a very productive discussion. This is a wickedly complex issue. But were we to be able to do what the committee here is uh asking us to do. One of two things would have to happen. We would have to get a new uh significant increase in funding to target class size and early grades, which we would welcome, or we're gonna have to reallocate existing resources from other purposes, either class sizes elsewhere or funding that's not in the classroom, positions

068that are either in schools or at the central office level. So, um, this labor management committee that that's working on it is is I think um, very prudently before they're getting to, at least last time I talked with chief academic officer Perkins about this, and I've also talked with uh, Vince Wagner, a union president, before they're getting to ideas for change, they're just mapping the current state >> because especially if you're a teacher, your your reality is your class size. And there are times where uh, teachers don't necessarily even know what the class sizes are elsewhere in their but certainly not elsewhere in the district. They know what the the district targets are, but that is not exactly it. So, this just matters um tremendously. There was a period where some research was out there

069that found that if you lower class size by two, the test scores didn't suddenly leap up. And so, kind of the buzzword in the policy world for a while was class size doesn't matter. Like, don't do it. Well, it matters. It matters to kids. It matters to teachers. It matters to parents. Um and so, we know it matters. So, I'm glad this is this is in the plan. Um I take this as the working group uh telling us push this further like don't just accept the current state especially for those kids with the largest challenges. Final point we all have learned the hard way too just lowering class size doesn't in and of itself raise student achievement. You've got to use that lower class size to target kids who are misunderstanding key concepts build those

070closer relationships um and do all the stuff that a smaller class size can enable. if it's the same old same old with a smaller class size that's not a good um investment. Um just to kind of summarize then what I'm taking away from this is that the recommendation is for particularly for the K1 ratios and reducing them from like the 17 to1 to the 15 to1. And I really appreciate you know not only focusing on student needs but on specific classroom needs. Um I think that's a big ad to what we've been discussing prior to this. >> And and again when you're at the point of targets and this is one reason why I'm so glad our labor management committee is really mapping the current state. We have a lot of classrooms that are below

07115, not the average. So, it's where you you really have to get granular here about specifically where is it um where is it really low and is that the right place to be investing and why is it low? You know, sometimes has to do a school enrollment as opposed to a policy decision. >> Director Martin, >> thank you. Two things. Um, one idea that I'm personally excited to explore further, and by that I mean for the district to um, explore further is under uh, navigation supports expanding play-based developmentally um, appropriate learning experiences, especially for the younger kids. Um, we're doing a lot. I mean, the district has been incredible, I think, in terms of really looking at academic rigor and programs like Wit and Wisdom. Um, and um, I think especially for little kids that

072they can learn so much through play. And I think it's not we need one thing, we need both. So I'm excited about that. And then my question is um when we talk about the mindsets, behaviors and steps for success which I think is going to affect every one of these priorities and it may be that the how do we do that is still in development. Uh but my question moving forward maybe is uh we have a a really good really um ambitious list of skills and mindsets that kids should have that's going to help them be academically and socially emotionally successful. But who how is that going to get delivered? We sort of know by grade what we're expecting now. And who is going to oversee that? And I'm I'm guessing we don't have that

073answer yet. So they are working right now. They have a team that's working on that will bring forward a recommendation to the superintendent and that would be one of those priorities that we would be thinking about. So it's in process and both other Thank you. Excellent. >> So um I think [clears throat] it was director Whitehorn that said this is a lot of information but this is my kind of a lot of information. Um, I I think one of the things that I saw across um or or I tried to read into as I looked at the recommendations was um where you use the word continue um reflecting um work that had already been started and that fit in with the vision of um the next few years and then you know the the develop

074and the explore and and and the research. Um, so I appreciated that within each recommendation there was a a piece that we're already doing and a piece that we're that we're building on or we're we're creating new. Um, so I I hope that as we look at middle school and high school and we look at the recommendations that that everybody can see the through line um in our work. I think one of the frustrations that some of us that have seen a process like this happen before is that we threw out the work that had been had been done before and felt like we were starting from scratch. And this this feels, you know, like an entirely different experience. So I I appreciate what was needed to um tie uh what we're doing now to

075what we could do in the future because that takes a whole other um kind of information. Um, I guess I will look at one of the personally excited recommendation questions. Um, the exploring more equitable, meaningful access to elementary school options. [clears throat] I am really excited to see that the K8 um exploring the K8 options was what that uh work group came from. Um, I think it's um One of the things I was worried about in this process was the I think somebody used pie in the sky for utopian and I I I was worried that that we we would have so many ideas that we that we couldn't do and it would it would be frustrating. But this is innovative and this pushes um the uh the conversation to address a number of issues

076that we've been frustrated with the past years. whether it's how to handle the the district-wide options and access to them, how to give uh parents and families what they're looking for, how to implement or or maintain or support some of these more innovative educational options that we are either already have or we see other districts having and we think that we should, you know, why don't we have them in Rochester? um this open this conversation opens the door and I'm glad you didn't come up with a solution and say let's do this because I think it it's something that is going to require a lot more conversation but hearing that that is what our community is telling us and it's not something that has sort of been on my checklist for years um is also

077very validating but very exciting to see that it's it's a direction that we could go um one of the things in the oh I also appreciated [clears throat] the research um the resources pieces. Um, and I think one of the other thoughts I had when I looked at this was there's some places in Rochester that are doing some of these things already very well even in the areas of of exploring and developing and creating. So, and maybe this is something that either you can speak to that was talked to in the workg group or maybe the superintendent can talk to it about an implementation piece. How are we going to find those exemplars in our district for the things that we might be uh developing fresh or improving our current um approaches and making that

078part of the best practices as we develop either the recommendations or the implementation? >> Please. I I think in broad brush terms uh chair Nathan the best answer to that is that at the broadest level this strategic plan is going to have basically two components. One will be a set of system and structure changes such as potentially something around K8 schools or to director McGluffin's point something about class size or something. Those are changes that will involve uh shifts in um uh systems and structures that almost invariably take multiple years to get right as we all experienced with the start times change in our current strategic plan or the balanced budget model. The other component will be what we're calling model practices and structures and that is naming what works what works in Rochester and

079what works beyond Rochester. And we have a lot of examples as you say chair Nathan of that um but we don't have it codified and we don't have um ways to for instance devote a professional learning community's time to that specific model practice. So a model practice could be for instance a a particular way of questioning students that takes them uh up higher order levels of thinking in the content. Um obviously something I think every everybody goes to get a teaching degree you kind of study that in theory but have we actually codified that and named it. So that would be what we mean by a practice. By a structure we would mean do you have small group time for students to be working kids at a similar point in reading in a way that

080not only exposes them to the literacy content they needs to learn but gets them talking to each other in an interactive way about the content. That's a structure. You know, you can go into a school and say, do they have tier 2 small groupoup time in reading? The practice is how you actually, you know, utilize that. So obviously in a strategic plan we can't name voluminous practices and structures but we will have in the plan the high leverage structures that we really want to build out not just academically but also in terms of relationships and belonging as well. D. Oh, wait. Sorry. Go back to Director White. >> We all buzzed our um I just want to say that the other thing that I noticed um and when I was reading through this was that

081there is a lot of community support. So, a lot of the suggestions that were given um I was really excited at the fact that a lot of a lot of people gave suggestions that involved uh processes outside of RPS. And what I mean by that is, you know, involving community, involving other, you know, smaller organizations and other things. And I feel that was really promising because I think sometimes as we're looking at this, we're looking in this bubble of just what can RPS do. But I think it was really nice to hear that the community wants to be a part of this. They they realize that this is a bigger some of these things they want is a is bigger than just what RPS can shoulder and that they they want to express that they

082feel that there is supports out there. So I I thought that was very promising. And then um a question that came to mind um when director Mclofflin was speaking was we talked to him about declining birth weights and how would that impact some of these ratios because I know that has been uh quite a bit of discussion uh earlier on uh this year about how uh that will be impacting our budget and impacting other things that we are looking especially since we're looking at a plan that this is not immediately implementable um with that uh potentially coming through the pipeline just based off birth rates, nothing more. Uh knowing that that is happening, uh some of these numbers will change, right? So even uh classroom size will change. It'll just be less uh students. Um

083and not to say this with any ignorance, but when I got to that section, I kind of went a little faster over it because I said, well, if some of this is going to self fix, right, because there will be less kids, so they'll, you know, classroom sizes will naturally decrease. Not there won't be new issues. But um and I just don't know if that was something that the focus groups uh spoke on at all. um because some of the some of the decisions in this will be directly impacted um if we have less less >> um chair Nathan my sense Joe Joe or Denise can either correctly or add in my sense uh director white is they talked a lot about enrollment not necessarily declining birth rates which is the chief driver of declining

084enrollment so enrollment was yes it was very present on uh the their their minds I don't think kind of back to director Cook's point, we didn't charge them with being so pragmatic they couldn't dream. Like, no, you can't spend a dime. Um, but they were very aware. I know that, um, I'll just be honest. Um, as Joe said, the charge to this elementary group was uh really come up with a a new vision for our district-wide option schools, which no longer have district-wide transportation. the committee didn't find a consensus to quite go there other than saying every school should be a very high quality option which is not a small thing to say. I think there was a tradition in Rochester that if you really wanted really academically rigorous and innovative education you go to

085a choice school or districtwide option school and we've been working very hard to change that perception and I think this committee emphatically endorsed it. But they did say um you do need to go and think about the vision for those schools. they didn't get um far enough to recommend that. But that's something I'm thinking about all the time. The primary factor we're going to have to think about in grappling with that is enrollment because I love K8 schools as well. My kids went to a K8 school in Twin Cities. It's a great option. We do not have the resources to just keep every school the same and start new K8 schools. So, there's a there's a trade-off piece that's there. uh if we do go down the path to K8 schools of of which we

086now have two one we've started Spanish immersion since I got here and one a longstanding Lincoln um which we've had. So we're going to have to grapple with that in the context of that. I will say again the fact that our enrollment was significantly up last fall against all projections um uh is a constant uh question in my mind. Um, are we headed for the downward trajectory that the study we did last spring predicted or is the dynamism of Rochester's economy and things starting to shift that uh equation? It's probably there's no unknown that is more high stakes for everything we're doing in the district than that question of what's going to happen with enrollment. >> Director Wickman. So I was looking at the four common priorities for all the grade levels and I think

087it's really important that those priorities are through line from prek through grade 12. So my question is this just one of curiosity I suppose is was there any cross talk prek through 12 to come up with these priorities or did these priorities um just develop organically from each of those different areas? Oh, you're probably best. Uh, and then and then >> I can Yeah. [clears throat] >> Uh, great question. Um, I would say, so it's a little bit of both. Um, there was definitely cross talk. So, my colleague Spencer, who you'll hear, you I think you've met previously and you'll hear from again in a couple weeks. Um, along with a couple of folks on the on the district who are district staff on the working groups. Um and then working consistently with Denise and

088and Kent every week as well. So that there was that cross talk to ensure like are there are there through lines um both for like a communications purpose right? So we want a strategic plan should be something that you know almost anyone can say like these are the three four five things that the district is focused on. That's very that's really important to do that in a concise way but also like substantively we wanted to ensure that where those connections and through lines exist that they were explicit [clears throat] and those four priorities across all grade levels did emerge like we didn't we didn't come up we didn't start with those and say here are the four things we want to focus on let's organize our community activities committee activities around those they emerged from

089the committee's work um and how they how we asked them to identify the problems based on the data, their own experiences that they had. So, it it it was both and I think because of that, like they are I agree. I think they're really important and I think they're really clear and strong, too. >> That's encouraging. >> Dr. um I just had one comment going back to the concept of the K8 schools. um with full disclosure that um my family went through that process as well and very much benefited from it. But one of the things that crossed my mind as I was thinking about that and again like um Chair Nathan, I've thought deeply about the pros and cons of the KE concept um and very much value some of the benefits. I the

090piece that I would add that I didn't see in any of the materials though was the consideration of the size of the student population that my experience with the K8 is that was one of the big draws of that concept even there were some pros and cons and there were some things that we learned along the way as a family that there were some things that the um Lincoln middle the we call them the uppers the middle school students um didn't benefit from that the more traditional middle schools did. Um things like um being connected to the sports programs at the high school level to um participate in the seventh and eighth grade. The timings were off and getting kids there was different. Um but there were some things like that. But I think that

091the real value that I saw as a parent was the smaller size of a K8 population. And I kind of make that same connection to the former Fidel program as another district-wide choice school option that knowing that that population was so much smaller and recognizing that if we're going to replicate that, I don't think replicating in a really big environment would bring those same benefits. Um, so I wanted to point that out. Um, I also want to take the opportunity to answer the question about um, what am I personally excited about? This was extremely hard. It was like choosing your favorite child. Um, I went back and forth, but what I finally ended up on is something we haven't really talked about yet is the um in the relationships and belonging the multi-tered systems of

092support for the positive behavior. Um I really thought about this a lot and it seems like it really pulls in a lot of the ideas from some of the other recommendations as well, but I think it really has a lot of potential here. and thinking about my time on the board and the progress that we've had over that time over I was elected in 2020. We were talking about the discipline data and keeping that separate from the SRO data and the lack of consistent reporting between the schools and reporting to the board. It seemed like the data changed every time and I think that this concept is really an opportunity to improve that for our students. And I looked at it in the the descriptions of the recommendations of it's not just so I I

093I think it is layered on the idea that we've already we're already doing MTSS and literacy that I think if we didn't have that structure, you know, described and formulated already, this wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. But I think it does make sense here in the sense that it's not only support um for student and staff, but it also talks about um plans for the data collection and analysis and monitoring for equity um and um also the potential for what I saw as a significant impact on the day-to-day experiences um both in the classroom rooms and for the I I translated also to the education outcomes that if we can get students on on board with not it's not just like a curriculum for um positive behavior but it's those supports that I

094think it's going to really add value >> one oh Dr. Um I I had uh one more question um Joe and it's kind of a a riff on the the prompt you provided there about uh which of these excites me and I um I actually wanted to turn that around if you don't mind because uh of all of these different strategies across the three different tiers we have 43 strategies for change that are identified and um I'm I'm sure as it develops we're going to narrow the the aperture a little bit. Um, and I I was just wondering if you because you've been involved in a lot of strategic plans and so forth and were closely following the work of this committee. Um, if you could highlight the three that you think have the potential

095to be the most impactful to students in our district. Um, I I'd just be interested in that perspective recognizing that you'll be forced to choose between your favorite children here, but [laughter] Um, personally, I only have two children, so if you're asking to choose three, I get to I get to read them all. Um, I would say, let me I'm actually just going to flip back to one so that folks there and watching um can actually see those. I'd say the very first one under the very first priority and these I think these are not necessarily like listed by priority. Um but that strengthening MTSS and math and literacy and I would lump in that um what the other board member just just mentioned about uh the positive behavior MTSS for positive behavior. I think

096like and we know research shows like that is such a critical thing to have common and consistent and implemented with fidelity um high quality instructional materials um in core areas like literacy and math but in other areas too. Oh, like second step for social emotional learning as a tier one curriculum in our in RPS that it it just sets such a a strong foundation and since you're at such an amazing time to like have that adoption under underway for math or coming up soon for math and literacy um a couple years in, I think you're in such a good place and I'm I'm that's number one like easily um excitement for that. Um I would [clears throat] I think uh another board member mentioned this earlier like being the ability to start with the the

097youngest kids in the community and in the schools and that early childhood to kinder transition. So again the number one on this slide here that would be my second choice. Um, like I mentioned and you all know like a lot of great work already underway and a lot of those structures and model practices that Ken pointed to in this area in particular um that can continue to be codified and implemented uh more more systematically across the district. So I would because it's just sets up it sets students and their families and then the staff at elementary schools up um for success. uh and it it's I think it done well. It's like very much like asset focused for what students and families are bringing um from their prior education experiences at home or an early

098childhood program. So that that would be number two. Um and I'm gonna for my third one I'm just going to throw in one that just because I'm a little bit of an assessment and measurement geek too. Um, we didn't talk a ton about this, but um, just there's a lot of stuff that we ask teachers and students to do, a lot of like tests for them to take and assessments for them to take. Um, and honestly, and this is I'm not speaking specifically about RPS in this case, but districts around the country, there's a lot of clutter there, too. um meaning like you know things that aren't necessarily required by the state that are taking up students time and instructional time and I think there's a real opportunity to just you know get an understanding

099or do an audit of of um all those assessments and screeners and and diagnostics um that are happening every day and every week and um assess whether they're they're purposeful and if uh is there another is there a better use of that time? So that would be my third choice. >> Uh that was very helpful for me. Thank you for sharing that. And I I um I I think every organization when undergoing strategic planning like this, there's a tendency to chase the the bright new shiny thing. And uh um and part of the risk of that or the trade-off with that is that it becomes difficult to maintain focus on um doing the things that you do well with high fidelity. Um and uh two of the things that you underscored are things that are

100very much in progress. So that that's it's just really helpful context for for me and I hope other board members um as we're thinking about where we should be directing our focus and um and I'm sure that all of my four students will be really glad to hear that you called out the uh um audit of assessments. Um so but >> [clears throat] >> uh yeah, thank you very much for your work and thanks for those insights. >> Director, I just want to add one last thing uh in this conversation tonight. What I did find interesting was the conversation around K8. Um, it was another thing that I kind of glanced over and I'm gonna be honest. I guess when I thought of specialized school, I thought more of the uh monastery programs, things like

101that. I had not honestly ever considered K through8 to be specialized. Um, and I am thinking this could be regional. Um, because I'm not from the Midwest and I see that very often in the Midwest. Um, and I'm from New Jersey. Uh, and a lot more schools are smaller. So, and what I mean by that is I went to one school for K through three, a different school for, well, I'm sorry, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, another school, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. Um, and then the reason why this came to mind is because she uh, director Mclofflin said, "What would that look like on a larger scale, K through eight?" Um, now my husband grew up in Chicago where they do K through eight, and a lot of those schools look like campuses.

102like uh in the few schools that I've ever seen that were K through eight, they were literally campuses. Like they're multiple buildings. So, the kids are still divided. Um it was unique when I came here to see so many kids with so many grade levels under one roof. Um and I'll be honest, in moving here, I did not choose to enroll my kids in [clears throat] that. And just full disclosures because my first thought was safety. I did not automatically link that to being a safe environment to having real little kids with much older kids. Uh just because I was accustomed to the the the children being so divided by age grade. Um and also uh when you if you've ever been in a school that's only kindergarten, first grade, second grade, everything is made

103for people this big. Um which gives a different learning um environment because the whole school is structured just through that my smaller um age group. So I would say this was very in informative for me um because it was not something that I had uh thought of and in my uh within my bubble of life of something that would be as um interesting and and and getting as much feedback. So, I just like to say I appreciate these conversations and you know I it's it's good to learn new things and to hear uh new perspectives because in spaces where some of us might have read through and said ah that's that's nice but it was nice to hear that there were some spaces that I didn't consider as um impactful that were impactful to others.

104So I enjoy these conversations >> and I want to build on something director said earlier and it was an observation I made in the um belonging about ensuring enrichment opportunities for all students. Um, and something that Joe said, and I think the superintendent had said this earlier about the feedback and the I don't know the intensity of the participation of our community members on our workg groups. Um, that there are a number of people in this community that want to see our school system succeed. They want to see our students succeed. they're invested in it and they've invested their time already by participating or giving us feedback. Um, but I'm wondering as you think about the recommendations, um, and we've already said we're under financial constraints to be able to do this all ourselves. Um,

105if there's a way to highlight such as was highlighted in this in, uh, enrichment opportunities for all students, making it very clear to the community where they can invest in supporting the recommendations that you bring to us. Some of them may be 100% inhouse and it's it's all our people and our money that's doing it. But maybe we need to be far clearer to the community that if if if we want if you want us to do the things that you're asking us to do, there are places in which we're really going to need you to step up and provide more support and and and it's up to us to help tell them because we want it to be right with where our students need, where our staffs need, where our buildings need. But this

106is a great opportunity to be able to say that really explicitly. And um We're not, you know, wondering who should um that old Spider-Man comic where all three Spider-Mans are pointing at each other is what I'm thinking about right now. But this is I think this is a great opportunity to do that. Anything else for Thank you, Joe. Thank you, technology, Denise. >> Yes, thank you technology for helping us work. Uh, I wish I could be there in person, but I really appreciate the invitation to to present um and to meet with you all this evening. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Do a little switch >> and we will move on to the next agenda item which is a prep for action item, our achievement and integration plan. And we're scheduled

107to take action on this item at the March 17th meeting. Superintendent Thank you, Chair Nathan. Um, actually to the point that, um, you just made about the strategic plan and the community, um, the focus of the, uh, draft achievement and integration plan that I'm going to walk you through right now, I think is an extraordinary opportunity for community partnership and support. As you will see, it focuses on preparing our high school students for success in post-secary education and employment, whether that means the trades or into medical school or whatever it might be. Um, that's something that we are only going to succeed at if we work with our businesses, our unions, our postsecondary institutions, um, our parents, um, to to make it happen. So, um, it's it's great to have a chance to share this

108with you. Um, uh, the, uh, plan that you are getting as I know board members have had communicated to you um is not in the format yet that I uh strive to provide the board with. Um that is because the deadline for this [clears throat] plan we found out very recently was significantly ahead of when I had been uh assuming that deadline was. Um we're still going to have a great plan for you to approve at the next board meeting on March 17th, but there are some data points that need to be filled in and will be filled in. Um that said, I think you can get a good sense of the broad thrust of the proposal that I am uh going to recommend you approve. Um and I'm sure will benefit from the feedback

109and the thoughts that you're going to share. Want to thank a team of folks that really have worked intensively with me to um bring this proposal together. It's always perilous to name them. Uh Will Ruffen, Denise Moody, uh Peter Ruck, Mona Perkins, um uh Carlbach, and a whole array of other folks. And I know I uh upset some uh weekend plans uh as we realized we needed to move this forward. So with that as background very briefly um what is the achievement and integration program? This is a statewide program that once upon a time when I was first starting out in Minnesota education was just integration funding and it has evolved over time to be not only about racial uh and uh economic integration but also about raising student achievement. And so you can see

110the goals that the state sets for the districts that receive funds to pursue the objectives of this program are racial and economic integration, increasing student achievement, equitable educational opportunities, and reducing academic disparities between student groups. Later in this meeting, you are going to take a vote on the improvement targets that we discussed at the last meeting. And as I shared at that time, those targets did not yet include gap closing goals. And that is because we knew that the gap closing goals were going to need to be a part of our achievement and integration plan. And so the goals that you're going to hear about tonight will bring a uh an energy and a focus to the improvement targets that you're going to vote on, but with an eye toward closing disparities between student groups.

111Uh there's one more piece of the puzzle for Minnesota school districts that you will need to approve, which is called our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report that you review every fall. formerly world's best workforce that also will have a gap closing requirement to it. So all of this will find expression our in our strategic plan. Uh but I very much intentionally this brings that aspect of the work to our school improvement process and our strategic plan. So there are two basic designations that make up the uh achievement and integration plan structure. You can be a racially isolated district, which Rochester public schools is by the state definition. If your enrollment of protected class students, students of color or indigenous students uh district-wide is more than 20% higher than the number of protected class students

112in one of your adjoining school districts. Um that earns us the designation of uh racially isolated simply by the demographics. And then within the district, the same basic logic applies. you are racially isolated as a school if your school is 20% uh students of color higher than your district-wide average. So, two important and this year we do have one school, Gage Elementary, that has received that uh racially identifiable school um criteria. The achievement and integration plan requires three types of goals for both the district as a whole and the school level. The first is about uh reducing disparities in academic achievement. You have to have a gap closing goal. The second is about increasing access to effective and diverse teachers. And the third um is actually promoting um racial and economic integration among students. And

113so all three of those are required. So, the focus of the proposal that I'm going to uh walk you through now is really very well aligned with what uh has come out of our high school working group that you're going to hear about in two meetings from now. And that's a focus on what we call rigorous course taking and a focus on planning for success in post-secary education and a career. I've chosen to recommend that we focus our um achievement integration plan on one body of our work this time because frankly the amount of funding that we receive which is about $3 million a year while invaluable to our work is not that uh much money and so uh if you focus it on too many priorities you're spending the dollars out uh way too

114thin. In our achievement and integration plan that is ending now we focused it on MTSS and literacy. We focused it on all of our post-secary preparation work and we focused it on all of our uh efforts to diversify our staff. We spread those dollars very very thinly across all of those priorities. And so learning from that experience, I'm recommending we focus this ANI plan on uh that one aspect of what I'm confident will be our next strategic plan. Really importantly, one of the other things that was a goal for me as we come now to developing a new ANI plan, um a new comprehensive achieve achievement and civic readiness set of goals and then most importantly our new school improvement process and our new strategic plan is that the pieces fit together that every year

115when you need to approve a review of the ANI plan, it doesn't seem like a separate exercise in compliance, it is central to our work. So, we've worked hard to talk about how this aligns with what I'm quite confident will be in our strategic plan, which is an emphasis on preparing kids for post-secary education and career. Building on the work we've already done, the skip 2.0 process um and the data elements that drive that, the balanced budget model that um to the question director Mclofflin asked a moment ago, schools are already using to invest in some of these priorities. the improvement targets that you will improve later, I hope uh uh improve approve later in this meeting and then uh to director Whitehorn's point a moment ago, partnerships with community organizations to bring these things

116to bear. Um even though uh putting together this draft of the plan has taken place uh rapidly and very recently, it builds on a lot of analysis and feedback that we've done for the strategic plan and the skip 2.0 process. Every one of our schools has been digging deep into needs assessments on all of the performance measures of the skip process and then um we have had robust uh strategic and uh stakeholder feedback from focus group surveys and design teams and then the three committees we heard about tonight. So um the ANI plan I think is truly reflective more so than the last one we did when I first got to Rochester of a lot of analysis and a lot of feedback. So what would be the goals? you have the detailed draft of the

117plan that you received earlier today. It's on the schoolboard uh platform assembly. So, I put on the screen just the goal that I'm proposing and then I'll tell you briefly um uh what the plan uh would uh call on us to do to achieve that goal. So, our achievement and integration goal one, if you adopt my recommendation, would be that we'll reduce the difference between the four-year graduation rate of Hispanic and Latino students and the four-year graduation rate of all other students by 5.25 25 percentage points by June 2029. Why Hispanic and Latino students compared to the rate for all students? Because that is the largest gap. Um we decided to focus on the gap that uh is the biggest because if we're closing that gap, there's every reason to believe we're making progress with

118the other gaps. Um the state really requires us to identify a gap. And so um I we actually explored uh combining for instance all students of color in one demographic group. Um and it just becomes very difficult to identify exactly which uh students then we're targeting for the purposes of A and I because remember this is just $3 million. So this is not our whole budget. Um uh but it would be very much an all students initiative but we would be emphasizing uh our Hispanic Latino students. Um the initiatives that we would be uh funding through the plan and uh working on would start with our freshman on track work which the board received an update um uh on several meetings ago. Uh and that's because we know 9th grade is absolutely critical that uh

119determines uh so much of students progress through high school. Um as is outlined in the materials the board has available to review in detail. um in 2024, which is the most recent um graduation rate data that we have, um our Latino and Hispanic students uh were graduating at a rate of 71% at a four-year um timeline. And the other students in the district, so all other students minus the Latino and Hispanic students graduated at 88%. Um so that's a 17 percentage point gap. And our goal in the plan would be to reduce it to an 11.7 11.75% gap by 2029. And we came up with those goals based on exactly the same methodology we described to you last meeting for the improvement targets. It's ambitious, but it's achievable, statistically achievable, uh, thanks to Dr. Ruck's

120analysis. So, that's goal one, graduation gap um, Latino students uh, compared to all students, all other students. Goal two, RPS will reduce the disparity in post-secary enrollment within 16 months of graduation between students from low-income families and students who are not from low-income families by 6.3%. Um, we decided to focus this on income because of course income is a tremendous barrier to success in post-secary education. If you are a low-income family, getting into college and paying for college or any kind of post-secary education is a tremendous hurdle. And so, in this instance, we'd be focusing on socioeconomic status. um we would be largely implementing this work through the mindsets, behaviors and steps work that we were talking about a moment ago and through our new work on planning and advising. This is exactly what the

121strategic planning working group called those navigation supports. And so that would be our strategy in this space. um some of the measures that we would be using to measure the progress of this plan. How many of our students are completing the critical milestones that we've identified in the steps to success for grades nine and 10 um which they record in our Zello platform so we can measure it and then how many of them are completing them in grades 11 and 12. Um nine and 10 really focuses a lot on planning for my high school experience. 11 and 12 focuses on planning for life after high school. Um, another measure would be how many of our seniors are completing the federal financial aid form, the FAFSA. Um, we've been partnering with uh community organizations, uh, cradle

122the career among them to have community- based opportunities to help parents and kids complete the FAFSA. That would be another measure. In terms of where we're starting with this goal for the class of 2023, which is our most recent data, 54.2% 2% of low-income students enrolled in college within a year, a little more than a year, 16 months after high school graduation. For all other students, it was 72.6%. So, that's a gap of 18.4 percentage points. And our goal would be to reduce that to 12.2 percentage points by 20 29. Again, um significant improvement um but realistic improvement. Our goal three would be to reduce the disparity in rigorous course taking between students of color and indigenous students and students who are not students of color or indigenous students by four percentage points by June

1232029. I should add added at the outset June 2029 is the date that the state tells us this plan needs to end. So even though our strategic plan will go through 2030, we've used June 2029 for these goals because it's a three-year plan. Really importantly, the term rigorous course taking often brings to mind only things like advanced placement and it does include that, but it also would emphatically include career and technical education. And so the the categories for what we would consider rigorous course taking are advanced placement, dual credit classes that offer both high school and college credit like college in the schools, career and technical education like what we have at the CEK uh classes and PSO taking a class whether it's um at RCTC or from an online provider. So that's the definition

124of rigorous course taking. The strategies we would use for this uh priority of the plan again focus on that work with the mindsets, [clears throat] behaviors and steps enhancing advising. We have some uh very important heavy lifting to do to redesign our course registration process. It's very complex. It's uh not user kid-friendly and it really doesn't engage parents unless the parent stomps their foot and insists that they're going to participate in choosing courses. Um and making sure every has a plan for life after high school. Um some of our uh uh performance measures for this uh work would be how many of our ninth graders during nth grade develop a plan for the classes they will take in 10th, 11th and 12th grade that includes one of these rigorous courses. There's a typo in the

125version of uh the plan that was insembly earlier today that said it was this was going to be an eighth grade measure. It would be in ninth grade. So, how many ninth graders develop a plan to take one of these classes in grades 10, 11, and 12? Um, at present, uh, our benchmark for the 2425 school year. Last year, we've analyzed synthesized this data. Uh, students of color taking one of these rigorous courses are 38.2% at present. For all of our other students, it's 48.2%. So, we have a 10 percentage point gap, and we would want to um narrow that to six percentage points by 2029. at at least six percentage points by 2029. Then we get into our achievement goal number four, which would focus on equitable student access to that rigorous coursework by

126increasing the percentages of teachers who teach AP dual credit concurrent enrollment and CTE career and technical who really meet uh two criteria. One, they're fully licensed and two, they are people of color or indigenous. um this is a goal that meets the requirement to have a teacher goal in the plan. We also know that students willingness to go into an AP class or a CTE class can be greatly benefited if the teacher is from a background that is similar to them. And so uh these are our high school teachers and we'd be working uh very hard to um achieve that objective. The strategies that are outlined in the plan would be the new work we've done over the last two years on our recruitment uh initiative which is focused on partnerships with higher education institutions,

127job fairs and a lot of online outreach that we weren't doing before. Um our grow your own programs uh a new teacher apprenticeship um initiative that we're uh building off and continued support for the employees of color resource group. I would during my first two years, we were able to provide um support for the employees of color resource group using federal co dollars. I'm hoping we can allocate some of these achievement integration dollars to support that group because for the last uh year or two they haven't had uh additional funding to support their work. I'd like to do that uh through this budget. Um our our current baseline, we're doing very well on the lensure piece. 90% of our teachers teaching these courses are licensed. Many of them have a a license in another area,

128but then they're out of field that that 10% because they're teaching um a fax family and consumer science class for instance, but they're licensed perhaps as a math teacher. I actually saw one of those. So those are what's called out of field lensure. So we would be working to reduce that. Um uh in terms of uh people of color or indigenous teachers teaching these classes, we have a lot of progress to make. uh we have less than 2% of our teachers right now who teach these classes identify as people of color indigenous and so we uh would be working very hard to increase that um in our schools. We have not yet set an improvement goal for that yet but we will have that for you by by the next uh board meeting. Um goal

129five would be the um goal that would focus on collaboration with districts around Rochester. As I told you at the outset of this presentation, we're identified as racially isolated as a school district because of the difference in our demographics compared to districts that are adjacent to us. And so we are required to work with them um uh to receive the funding and they need to work with us. And so this is something that we have some instances of. We have some kids from Byron or Pine Island that go to a CEK class. Um we've had a lot of interest in our PEK program, but candidly we have not done in a very robust and coordinated way. And so um Will and I had a meeting with representatives from those districts um last week and um

130we proposed this focus. Uh we didn't ask people to take a vote, but we today shared a draft of this plan. Um, I think there's a lot of potentially points of synergy because if every one of these districts is trying to stand up um, you know, health career health path pathways programming or high-end welding or um, college in the schools classes, um, it's not necessarily the most efficient strategy for us to do that regionally, but we really need to get very hard-headed and serious about this. And Rochester has a unique role to play as the racially isolated district. So, we have proposed and will and I with the the the staff person from MDE this morning who largely gave us an informal thumbs up to do a planning year where we would take next year

131to really get to know the course priorities for our surrounding districts and ours because if I simply said to the registars at our high schools or at CEK uh open a bunch of slots for students from outside Rochester for next year for programming that is already very high demand for our students. it would just not be realistic. And so we would take a planning year to work with those districts and we might have some Rochester kids going out to uh their districts as well. Um we've identified uh frankly to my surprise, I've learned this over the last week, there is a state funding stream we can tap to cover the cost of transportation when it is for racial integration purposes that we're not tapping. Um and so I was like that's very uh promising. Um

132and then in years two and three we would be in the implementation strategy where we're working together with those courses. Um so the second piece of this strategy would be building on something that we are doing which is having students from outside Rochester um attend the events that we have the the very robust college fairs that we now have in each of our comprehensive high schools the um the the steam summit and the STEM fair. Um that's happening now. Uh we might be accessing some of that transportation funing to help it at much greater scale. Um we now have whole grade levels going out. I was at the um STEM summit uh last week and things. Um we could be bringing more of those surrounding districts in and that is an approved use of achievement

133and integration funding for those kinds of um events that bring kids together across district lines. Now we turn to Gagege Elementary which I want to um emphasize. Uh the fact that the math has uh put them in this category is not indicative of Gage not being a wonderful school. Um it's a school where the percentage of students from what we call protected class is more than 20% higher than uh in the district as a whole. So they were identified. Um the state did have to take a look at the fact that we moved the Spanish immersion program out of Gage which was the same school number. was technically a part of gauge but the students were entirely separate educationally. That in and of itself was not the cause of their designation. However, it had to

134do with um the uh composition of the students and families who are choosing Gage. Um right now at Gage um in the 2425 school year, 77.4% of the kids were students of color or Native American. In the average of all other schools was 47.3%. Now we have other schools that are are more like Gage, but you have to compare to the comparing to the average. So it's a 30 percentage point gap, significantly above the 20 percentage point um difference. Um we are still developing the improvement metrics for that goal. How much do we want to reduce that gap? But we will have that for you by the next uh by by the March 17th board meeting. Um, with the gauge uh initiative, we also are proposing to MD or I'm recommending to you and if

135you approve it, we'd re request from MDE a planning year. Um, uh, because we really need to think hard about how we support um, gauge. Um, uh, it's a school that, um, in terms of the size of the facility is slightly less than half full in terms of the spaces. I've uh, told you I am looking with the team at moving the middle school ALC into that building. it would remain an entirely separate school. So that doesn't impact Gage in and of itself. But um we would spend a year really deeply supporting the Gage community in understanding a number of things. One, there are a sufficient number of families who live in the Gage attendance area who are not choosing to send their students to Gage to change Gage's racial isolation designation. We do not

136need to redraw district attendance boundaries to uh move them out of that status. there are enough students in the attendance area. We need to understand the decision that those families are making and what might be done to encourage uh some of them or new families that move in to look at the really wonderful school that gauges. Second thing we would do, and we're doing this with all of our schools through the enrollment initiative that Erica Schumacher and Mamsu Kudson are leading to help them get really clear about their selling points as a school, their best their best strengths and become quite proactive in uh marketing uh that those opportunities. We would also dig deep into our five essentials uh survey data which we are just about to start receiving to look at what areas can

137we work with the gauge community uh to further um strengthen. Um I think it would also be beneficial to take this planning year because next year we'll also be grappling with the issues that we were just talking about with the strategic plan around K8s and uh uh appealing program offerings. And so, um, rather than looking at Gage in isolation, because it is a quote unquote racially isolated school, we would see it as a school that needs special support as part of a larger district-wide initiative next year to make sure we're offering what families want, which is one of those four priorities that merged out of the strategic plan. And then another uh goal for Gage, again, you remember there's three required goals that we have to have for both the district and any racially identified

138schools. work with um the uh gauge community to comprehensively um uh work to increase the diversity of its student body such that it would not be racially identified. And then we would be working to with Gage also to uh further strengthen the diversity of its teaching force. It's uh nice to note that Gage is doing better already than the district as a whole. 9.8 uh% of the staff there identify as uh people of color, indigenous. We would want to take that to at least 12% um over that Um it's such a wonderful community in terms of their embracing all of the diversity that exists there and to help them really um move that as a as a as a selling point um for potential families that might uh select that school. Um we are in

139the midst of getting feedback on this plan from three required um entities. One is that multi-dist collaboration council. I mentioned that we had an initial uh meeting with uh some of those folks and we're exchanging some emails today. Um there needs to be a community collaborative council and um Will and Chris Davidson, principal at Gage are working to leverage um uh some of the stakeholders that exist uh already in the gauge network um to meet that purpose and then an American Indian parent advisory council that would be there. Um one priority that didn't make it into the slides here, but it's outlined in the written plan is uh also further supporting Gage's work on multi-tered systems of support and literacy. That that that would be our achievement uh objective for the gauge component. So, um

140board members, I know that's a lot. You didn't have time to review the plan uh much before this board meeting, but you'll have the opportunity to um do so between now and uh your next meeting. And I'll be glad to um take any questions. uh or comments you might have now. Um but would look forward to providing you with a revised version of the plan um by our usual deadline in advance of the March 17th meeting uh so you could review it before we ask you to take a vote. >> Director, >> um so I see so just to your first um your first goal, uh you said the Hispanic and Latino community had the largest gap >> in graduation rates. >> Graduation rates. Um I just want to for the for the for the

141black um for the gap there. Has it been div has it ever been divided between uh oftent times we we group all of the kids of color together, but there are some differences that a lot of districts have found when they divide out the descendants of slaves versus, you know, those of of other descents. Um are we have we divided that or is that just the number as a whole? >> That's Thank you, Director Whitehorn. It's the number as a whole. I'm aware of that difference as well. For us in RPS right now, um that would be very labor intensive to do. I'm hoping as we build a true data warehouse in our new student system, we could have that kind of differentiation. Right now, when we report to the state of Minnesota, it's all

142black or African-American. And so, it's not um we would have to come up with a separate way locally to differentiate those two. Um and it's it's tricky to ask a kid black or African-American they want to identify as. But I'm very familiar with the dynamic you're referring to. I think it's something we we absolutely could be attentive to as we move into better data systems to identify those students. >> And I and I also bring that up uh just because there are different struggles with the with the communities, right? Um just uh whether there are many communities of color. Um but the I know we often get all grouped together, but sometimes hard to help the communities because we all get grouped together. the we have very similar um concerns but there are very there

143are concerns that are unique to each and every you know demographic right whether they are immigrants that are here or whether they are descendants of slaves or from other countries there there are different concerns that they have in education in different places and I appreciate that point I think it's as you make this point I think it is it's probably on all of our minds anyway so maybe I don't need to say it But the fact that the state of Minnesota continues to have the Minnesota Human Rights Act and programs like Achievement and Integration is increasingly unique in the United States. And the fact that we are not only allowed by our state, but we are expected to intervene along lines of race uh is something that I think is appropriate because we know it

144influences educational outcomes and there are needs. But there are many states in the country where we could not be having this discussion right now. Um and so uh it's uh something I think not to not to take for granted in Minnesota at this time. >> And even though the measurement and the goal is tied around the Hispanic Latino students, the dollars for achievement and integration are going to the broader freshman on track program. And it's not that those dollars will only be used for Hispanic and Latino students. It'll it'll spread across all students. >> Absolutely. >> So, you think it'll have a general positive impact on graduation rates, period, because that's the goal of that program? >> Absolutely. And if, you know, it's a three-year plan, and if we get into the plan and we're

145finding it's not having the impact, then we need to take a hard look at the strategy and potentially do some course corrections. >> Anything else, board members? Director White, go ahead. So, and I'm just curious as to why you didn't use dropout rates because I think we had a slide here where we did the dropout rates and I think they were all male and they were all um with the exception of like three students, right? It was some some crazy number, right? That it was all young men of color at a certain age. Why don't we use that statistic as I feel that that's just >> the on time it's a wonderful question. Uh Dr. The on-time graduation rate is the flip side of the dropout rate and it emphasizes the positive. I'm getting over

146the line as opposed to I dropped out. But the converse of it, not all of them are dropout because some of them continue for a fifth year and a sixth year. So, we need to be really mindful of that. Um, when we look at that four-year rate, we do have the pleasure of educating um most of those kids who don't walk across the stage at four years. But yes, we do and we can identify that dropout uh rate and we could certainly provide that to the board. But it's essentially it's taking the glass half full perspective in in a certain sense when we're talking about you know kids we're emphasizing that you know getting across but if they're not getting across they're not either getting graduating on time which decreases their chance of getting into

147postsecary education or good paying job or they're dropping out. >> And I think the statistic I was thinking about specifically was where we had the kids had either um admitted that they had dropped out or we had completely lost track of them >> and I believe in that and it was it was a it was a number can't remember I want to say 116 but they were all they all identified as males um and they were the majority of them were all young men of color so I just was asking since this has to be so specific why we didn't >> yeah I think one thing we uh as the chair reminds me periodically we have not um populated the schoolboard calendar beyond the end of this calendar year. Um, and one thing I've thought

148about as a good board update for you would be the work on what we're calling the re-entry project that Willie Tipton in particular is working on, which is exactly those students who are approaching or have gone over the 15-day drop. Um, and so I'll keep that um in mind as a candidate for a schoolboard update either over the summer or in the fall. Um, it's it's heavy work, but working. It's the students want to be re-engaged. Um and uh it's work that we need to figure out ways to to scale. >> Anything else tonight? Oh, Dr. Cook, >> I I um I was I I'm trying to decide what to think, if anything, about the the goals around increasing the number of students taking um rigorous coursework. Um and I I I think it's a

149a sensible thing to be encouraging that and I'm and I expect that there's coherency between that and the other um goals and outcomes that we've aligned on. But um I I was and I I know you were attentive and you explained that you were trying to find opportunities to align the achievement and integration plan with the other uh broader initiatives of the district. Um, but were there other things that we could have focused on besides the number of students taking rigorous coursework that would have satisfied the I I'm I'm thinking in particular of the the outcome measures that the board has identified as key indicators of the the health of the district, the graduation rate, the um five essential survey, the MCA scores and so forth. And so where we align with those that just

150seems like some natural coherency there. But I was just wondering if there were >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a great point. The logic of doing that is that if we are able to increase the kids in those classes, they are a powerful vehicle for for racially and so socially economically uh integrative environments, diverse environments. So it's an identifiable set of classes and we already know about 38% of our kids are taking color ticking one. And so it's a it's a very tangible way to meet the integration component of this. It would be harder to know exactly how we pursue grad rates enrollment with an integration. That's an academic achievement goal. It's a life planning goal, but it doesn't necessarily inherently have a racial integration, social economic integration element to it. Um uh we did and then

151there's good research behind the fact that if a student especially background that is under reppresented in higher education takes one rigorous course to use the term it has a positive effect on their graduation rates and their postsecary enrollment rates um the theory being oh I can see myself you know going on to be in this [clears throat] career field to be going into college that if we do it right it's it's horizon broadening that's one reason why we need to make sure that we are pointing toward the right kinds of those classes because as we've discussed on a number of occasions, the single biggest type of post-secary enrollment options class Rochester kids are taking now at RCTC is totally online asynchronous. So they never set foot on the campus and they never interact directly with

152a faculty member. Um and so are they having that experience that chair Nathan and I saw with the PEK kids who are on the campus experiencing it? There's a question and President Boyd and I from RCTC have have had a very honest conversation about this for a while and it's it's definitely uh expanding uh the discussion in other uh districts in the state in particular rural ones. It's not only the most common type now it's by far growing the fastest. So I think we need to take a look at that because I don't know that you're getting racial integration if I'm clicking through screens there and I'm not going or am I getting the college knowledge kind of experience. There can be very good online asynchronous courses. So don't hear me say it's an inherently

153bad model, but it's also a much less expensive model for the post-secondary institutions to run than paying a faculty member to be, you know, sitting there. So >> okay, highlighting the integration helps me understand. Yeah, thank you. Mlin. >> Um, [clears throat] I appreciate these goals and I value the deadlines of the June 2029, but I also think back to our earlier presentation about the strategic plan. And when I first looked at the strategic plan presentation, things about the mindset and about the um where I look at that is it's almost like a generational issue and 2029 might be too soon, but looking at the elementary students and getting them with the mindsets that they can complete high school, I think is critical. But also, like you said, uh I think that the course um

154the modifications that we plan to make in our course offerings is going to help them as well. You know, that we want that they're engaged in and then we won't have statistics like this, but I think it's going to take a while. Board members, right, we'll revisit this at the next meeting. We have two action items coming up and I will ask board members if you would like to take a break or if you would like to plow forward. I hear plow forward. Let's go. Our first action item is support of repealing the special law establishing the alley system for schoolboard elections in ISD 535. This is an action item that we discussed on February 17th. Just to review that if we approve this resolution, we would be asking the state legislature to pass a

155law to allow us to move from our current alley system to an alternative system of election for school board members. And as a board, we cannot make that decision on our own. For those watching, only the state legislature can change the election structure for our school board positions. So, the resolution is currently written for any change approved by the legislature to take place uh to take effect for the 2026 election. as long as they take action before our election notice deadlines. Since we took action at our last meeting to not have a primary election this year, the Minnesota legislature would have until the end of the 2026 legislative session to take action as the deadlines for official notices and board action to call a general election do not have to be completed until June 30th

156or later. So board members, any comments, questions, discussions, modification? Director Workman. >> Okay, you looked at her. >> Sorry, >> Director. So, I' I've been thinking about this and trying to balance it with how the city council and the county commission handle their elections and they you could call it an alley system in terms of they have wards and districts, but if you're in a ward, you can only vote for somebody who is representing your ward. Um, so they're only because of the nature of how that's set up, they only have one choice of one person who actually re represents just uh constituents constituents in a particular geographic area. Um, but we have the same system for a school board where we have defined seats or positions and yet at the same time everybody gets

157to vote for one of those in each of those categories. So, I've been thinking thinking about this a lot. And one of the things that I heard was that moving to, you know, a completely open election where everybody is on one list somehow makes it easier for the incumbents. Makes no sense because I think our our current situation actually makes it easier for an incumbent to become reelected because they're only competing with whoever has filed for that seat as opposed to, you know, incumbents would all be um competing against each other in a longer list. Um I think it also gives people more of an opportunity if there are two people who have applied for one seat or registered for one seat um and they say, "Boy, I would I really would like to be

158able to v vote for both of those candidates." But they can't because they have to make a choice between the two >> Under the current system. So if you have a completely um open election without the characterizations of positions then um I think it ends up being actually a more democratic process. I understand that there's some there was some concern um from board members the last meeting that um it made us somehow I don't know look bad or like we were trying to give ourselves an advantage by changing the system but I see it just the opposite. I see I see it would be more advantageous for us to keep our current system the way it is structured than much larger field of candidates who would all have to compete with each other which I

159think is probably for me it seems to be a little bit more democratic way to to approach it. >> Director Murph at our last meeting as we were talking about um eliminating the primary as we sort of wandered into this discussion about the alley system and director Cook assured us that um there wasn't anybody in Rochester who thought it was a good idea. And as it turns out, Director Cook, you're right. Um, over the last two weeks, I don't know if any of us have been contacted by anyone who said that they are really enamored with the alley system, which does not make sense, which is difficult to um explain. And I didn't realize there were two districts in Minnesota that use it. I thought it was just Rochester. Regardless, I think that it is

160to eliminate it. I will absolutely vote to ask the legislature to overturn their decision. And I think the only thing that is hopefully that will make this confusing is the deadline. Uh whether they get to it this session um if and when they vote on it. And then I think our decision is going to be I think we have an obligation to people who are considering running for the school board to let them know when they will know absolutely whether they have to file for a particular seat because we're still going to have the alley system or when they can simply u throw their name in and run at large. But I absolutely support uh requesting uh the legislature to undo this legislation. And thank you, Mr. Cook. >> Director. Yeah. Um I I had

161a a group of um retired educators that we get to together for breakfast every Tuesday morning. So they were asking me about the primary and trying to separate that from the alley system. And so these are educators and they've been around a while and granted they're, you know, not spring chickens anymore, but they understand kind of how the system works except for the fact that this is still confusing to them like, oh, so are we voting for geographical area or are we voting for, you know, and I I think I must have spent about 10 minutes explaining this to until they finally understood that might have been my fault as a poor communicator, But um at the same time I was thinking about um and I did your name come up Mr. um that you

162said that you would much rather be talking [clears throat] about literacy than about the alley system and how it works and how to vote. So, if we can get the focus off of people really worried about the process of how to vote and actually engage them on the things that matter to our district like the strategic plan and everything that's going into it and the work that we have been doing and that the work we are going to be doing, which is the work of the school board, not trying to explain to people, yeah, you vote for four, but you have to vote for them in specific spots or three depending on the election. >> Director Marvin, I can answer your question about the the ultimate deadline. >> Um the filing for candidates opens July

16314th. >> So that is that is uh we have a we have a responsibility to post information about the filing on June 30th. >> Okay. So June, so I would say that we would have to know by June 30th what the legislature had decided and then we're required to start doing all of the public notices. The first one we have to do is June 30th. So so candidates would know I think we could commit to saying you would know by June 30th whether it was a seat structure or an atlarge um structure. and the first uh early voting opens September 18th. So you can look at that window for candidate knowledge. Thank you Dr. Um reading through this um agenda topic again. It led me to think about my own curiosity about the legislative history

164that got us here and why this was implemented in the first place that I don't think we have the answer to. But I will overlook that and plan to vote in favor of this. >> Director, >> I looked too. I I couldn't find anything. >> I didn't even try to look. >> I did I did try to look because I'm curious. Um but what I will also say uh to director work vice chair Workman's uh point is >> vice chair. >> Okay. um that I I was curious as well about the seats and the only way that it made sense was if it was a ward or geographical but yet even when I ran I also didn't have good explanation. So the only way to me that it makes sense to keep it is if

165it becomes a district uh you know district seat but I I don't see how that would be implemented >> director >> and and I've thought about that as well the whole and I I know the geographical thing is a totally different issue from what is before us tonight but when it's geographical then that is also restricting people because We have all of the students in Rochester. So if we have five board members who live within six blocks of each other, only one of them is going to be able to to compete and to win. Whereas if it's at large geographically and no alleys, then I think it's once again I think it's I think it's more democratic to do it that way. But >> and in answer to your question, Mlin, the very first time

166we talked about this on a um study session maybe two years ago, we had some information from um Representative Leeling that said that we we be we basically became ISD 535 in 1967 and then two years later was when the legislature decided to allow us to have this alley by seat system and there's no information as to Right. >> I'm sorry I said that wrong. In 1969, we had election districts. So, we had districts like uh geographic. In um 1974, the legislature permitted Rochester to use the alley system seat that we had today. And um according to the Post Bulletin article, residents complained that the traditional ATL large system prevented them from targeting particular board members. So that would that was the reason apparently let the help the legislature make its decision. Thank you. Post

167bulletin archives. Dr. Cook. >> Well, if this resolution passes, I'll be pleased to assist the legislative committee in advocating to the legislature that uh they repeal the 1974 special law that requires Rochester to maintain this uh alley system form of election. And honestly, I'm I'm jealous of the the legislators for this opportunity because it is the rare opportunity to take an action that benefits everyone, costs nothing um and avoids partisan ranker. It's it's uh it's all upside. There are no downsides here. So, um I'll be pleased to point that out to them. >> Is it time for me to read the resolution? >> Yes. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 that the board formally requests that the Minnesota State Legislature repeal its special laws establishing the numbered alley system

168specifically for ISD 535 and be it further resolved that upon repeal by the Minnesota State Legislature, the board expresses its intent to conduct future elections under the general laws of the state of Minnesota using an atlarge [clears throat] standard system And be it further resolved that the board supports that the Minnesota State Legislature set an effective date for this repeal of June 1st, 2026 to allow the district sufficient time to meet deadlines for the 2026 general election cycle. And be it further resolved that if the Minnesota state legislature takes action to repeal the alley system during this legislative session, but after the effective date requested, the district will implement the change in the election system beginning in elections held in 2027 or later. And be it further resolved that if the Minnesota state legislature does

169not take action in the 2026 legislative session to repeal the laws to abolish the alley system for ISD 535 elections, the board will work with legislators to reintroduce the legislation in the 2027 legislative session. And be it further resolved that the board authorizes and charges its leg legislative committee to communicate the board's support for repeal of the alley system as reflected in this resolution to Rochester's legislative delegation and to provide any testimony necessary to facilitate repeal of the alley system. >> Is there a motion to approve? >> Move approval. >> Have a motion and a second. Any other discussion with director >> question? The way this is written, we're asking for an effective date of June 1st, 2026. >> Yes. >> Which would give us enough time to let the community dome by June 30th

170>> 30th. >> Yes. >> So if they didn't get to it until June 15th, >> well, the legislative session ends May 17th unless there's a special session. >> Okay. So we want to leave this the way it is. It's either by June 1st or Okay. Thank you. >> I have the same question. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Oh, >> go ahead. >> I I was just going to um in response to your question, Director Marvin, the the reason that the resolution is calling for a specific effective date is because the default effective date for special laws wouldn't be until November. Um but the the legislature can specify a different effective date. So June 1st was chosen to give us the district I mean enough of a buffer time to be able to post the required

171notices by June 30th. >> Thank you. That's helpful. >> All those in favor of the resolution say I. >> I. Opposed. The resolution has been approved. All right. One more action item. This is the RPS improvement targets proposal and we discussed this as a prep for action at the February 17th meeting. Before I read the resolution, Superintendent Pel, did you have anything? >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank Director Whitehorn who pointed out um a point that led us to make the only change in this framework since you saw it last. Um, Dr. Dr. pointed out, we have a lot of opportunity in Rochester for students to go directly into uh apprenticeships and the trades that are not necessarily uh affiliated with a post-secary institution. So, in recognition of that, we

172have changed the goal for postsecary enrollment after high school 75% to 70%. Um, as we looked at it, 5% of our kids going directly into an apprenticeship or something like that um seemed like a good adjustment. So, thank you for that um change. I think it Right size is our postsecondary goal in >> board members. Before I read another long resolution, does anybody have any questions or comments? >> All right. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby adopt the following district-wide performance goals for 2030 as follows. Grades 3 to five math. 2030 district-wide goal, 57.5% proficient. Current status, I'm just going to read the district-wide goals. How's that? All right. Grade 3 to five math, 2030 district-wide goal, 57.5% proficient. Grades 3 to five reading, 2030 district-wide goal,

17351.9% proficient. Grades 6 through eight, math, 2030 district-wide goal, 38.4% proficient. Grades six through eight reading 48.6% proficient. ACT reading 60% at benchmark which is defined as oh which are defined separately for each subject and composite score and ACT math 50% at benchmark percent consistently attending school 87% elementary 75% middle and 65% high school suspensions 3% of students or fewer five essentials Three plus of the five essentials are green. Graduation rates 93% and postsecary enrollment within 16 months of graduation 70%. Each school is then assigned annual improvement targets that are expected to enable the district as a whole to achieve the 2030 goal specified above. Motion to approve. >> Move approval. It has been moved and seconded. Any other questions or comments? Well, oh, Director Cook, >> I did have a comment. I um I

174as I expressed at the last meeting, I think that this exercise of identifying specific goals is is healthy for any organization um and certainly makes a lot of sense to me because it creates a a record that keeps us accountable to ourselves and ultimately to the children um that we are serving. The um the sobering part of these goals is that in 2030, while these are realistic and ambitious um and we think achievable, um we're not going to be happy when we get there. Uh because uh 51.9% proficient for grades three through five in reading or 48.6% 6% proficient for grades six through eight in reading is not a destination that any of us will be happy with. Um, but at the same time, I'm excited to uh vote in uh to approve this resolution

175um as this board's endorsement of these targets um because I recognize that for the professional educators throughout our district and certainly for the district leadership and certainly for members of this board, we are grounded in what these numbers mean for one student at a time and uh and that is the way that our classroom teachers approach this. They want to see every single student succeed just as all of us do. Um but we recognize that um we need to build some momentum. We need to make some progress and do it in a measurable sustainable way. Um and uh while I I won't be happy with achieving these targets, I'll certainly be um pleased with the progress and uh recognize that it's going to take a lot of hard work to get there. So, um, thank

176you. >> And I appreciate you bringing that up, Director Cook, because I think, uh, we have also have to see this as interdependent with a number of other initiatives in the district and recognize that those proficiency numbers are about one test on one day for our students. And because I think we're moving toward being a more data driven um district and we're we're building the tools that will allow us to be more nimble with our data. I think that over these next uh years we'll also be seeing where are the students who are just below proficiency and working toward proficiency and what their growth is. So, while these are our targets, I'm confident that we will continue to ask for, get, and share with the community information where all of our students are at and

177how we're progressing them towards those proficiency and other goals. Director, >> I have a a question probably more for the superintendent to answer, and that is, can these goals be adjusted as we go along from one year to the next? So for example, if grades three through five should achieve proficiency at 57.5% in a year, which I know is not happen that you could then raise that to a different number then >> that would certainly be the only way I'd like to adjust them. >> So I I think we all want some stable >> go post. I remember Dr. Garcia saying that when she was on the board and so Um I think I would also say and you know I really try and take it glass half empty a glass half full perspective um

178we have reversed a almost decade long decline in every outcome it's not a pleasant reality and so while it is not we are not in the upward trajectory we are basically flat with some slight gains we have reversed that this system is designed to begin an upwardression that could lead uh to more progress. One of the things that I think you know it's whether it's the snowball rolling down the hill or things organizations systems do get to a point where they are organized to begin to get there and it's an obscure reference but do it do it quick madam chair in the 1950s the theory of developing what they then called third world countries was you had to do everything at the same time have what they called balanced development. So you had to educate

179the kids build the uh start the businesses, do the roads, all the way. Then there were some smart researchers who came along said no actually you just need to find the lever that gets the rest of the stuff. You build the roads and then people start businesses and then people want education. What we're looking for here are the levers in RPS that get the positive momentum moving. And that's where um I think we've we've uh selected a good set of these strategies and part of it is faith like saying if we put these things out there then we've identified this and we're going to see improvements in other areas that are not necessarily in this quantifiable bucket because our schools are just getting better at getting better. >> Dr. just a request superintendent which is

180shallow but I just in to make sure that everybody's clear in the audience and who reads about this when we're talking about um five essentials and three or more should be green can you just briefly explain what that is so people know this is not about the ecosystem or the environment or >> um uh thank you Dr. Marvin, the five essential survey um has five components all based on schools that are organized to improve. And there's a color that is coded with each level of uh performance as the parents, teachers, and kids are assessing their school. And green is the highest level. And so we're hoping to have three of the five in in any of our schools that are green. >> And we're not against the environment. Certainly, >> we're not against the environment

181at all. There's no environment statement. Now that I Now that I think about this, we we will need to explain that better because it really won't make any sense to somebody who doesn't know about. Anything else? Board members hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution say I. >> I. All those opposed. >> The resolution has been approved. Right. Moving on to other business. Our ABCD is available in this agenda item um for our upcoming meetings for March 17th. We have a focus topic, the RPS 2030 strategic plan, middle school options, a prep for action on our schoolboard draft response to APAC, and action on the achievement and integration plan. On April 7th, we have a focus topic of the RPS 2030 strategic plan, high school options, and action on the school board response

182to APAC. Are there any other items board members would like to add to a future agenda? hearing none. Um, our meetings are all regular meetings at 5:30 p.m. on March 17th, April 7th, April 21st, and May 5th. And hearing no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 8:03 p.m. >> [clears throat]