School Board Meeting - December 2, 2025

001Check. Check. Just like Oh my god. She's super Huh? >> Are you okay? Yes. [snorts] >> Okay. recognition or our values statement. We have parent involvement and special education. I was going to say I was number six. Fantastic. I encourage you to I don't like this shirt. You'll never see it again. the rest of the recognition or value to it. >> What's the value? >> I'll do this one. >> But I also need to find my access. Yes. Oh, look at that. These lights are very bright. >> I didn't know if you did. >> I don't have >> Well, somewhere it is. of school board is called to order at 5:31 p.m. on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pquel,

002a non- voting exeicio member, and assistant school board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, will you please call the role? >> 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. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our next agenda item is the Rochester Public Schools mission, vision, and values. During this agenda item, at every regular meeting, a board member will read one our mission, our vision, or one of our six values to emphasize their importance

003in our work as a district and our decisions as a board. Director Mccclaclin, >> tonight we focus on our first value. Providing exceptional opportunities to succeed. We offer an extraordinary level of opportunities, classes, and experiences. Our standard of excellence ensures more than one path to success. Next item is 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 been approved. The agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at rochester schools.org/asssembly. Our next item are comments to the board. It is important for the school board to hear from stakeholders regarding issues that impact our students, staff, families, and schools. We welcome communication via email,

004phone call at our community engagement listening sessions and hear during comments to the board. The purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within our authority. The board and superintendent do not respond directly to the speaker's comments during the meeting, but may follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate. Persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online form by 5:00 pm on the Monday before the school board meeting and this is available on the RPS website and our assembly main page. Speakers, when your name is called, please come to the table. If you have written materials for the board, please provide them to the assistant school board clerk and she will

005distribute them to board members. Choose a microphone to speak into and be seated. Direct your remarks to the school board and you will have three minutes to speak. You can see your time on the timer in front of me. Please begin your remarks by stating your name. Our speaker tonight is Joanne Barkmire. Our next item is information and outreach. Our first recognition is for National Special Education Day. Director Marvin. >> National Special Education Day is today. Um the day commemorates the anniversary of the federal individuals with disabil Education Act, IDA, signed by President Ford on December 2nd, 1975. IDEA established the right of students with disabilities to a free and appropriate public education, FAPE. It also encouraged the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classes and the use of individual education plans, IEPs. Most

006importantly, this day gives us the opportunity to thank all of our RPS staff to provide our students with what is needed to meet their individual special education needs. And that list is long. teachers, education support professionals, instructional coaches, technology consultants, aiologists and speech language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, psychologist and are directors and assistant directors of special education services and chief academic officer in the office of academics. RPS special education programs provide services for qualified qualifying children and students from birth to age 21. We are committed to a free and appropriate education designed to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities and providing the support and related services necessary to implement the special education programs and ensure that students and parents rights are followed in this process. If you are interested in learning more

007about special education services and providing input to RPS programs, consider joining our special education advisory council, SEAC. Parents and guardians are especially invited. You can get more information on SEAC on the get involved page on the district website. And can we invite any people involved with special education as students, parents, or staff to stand? Our [applause] next recognition is National Parent Involvement Day. Director Whitehorn. >> All right. November 20th was National Parent Involvement Day. This is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of family involvement and engagement in education and the positive impact that it can have on our students achievement. Throughout the years, we have all seen firsthand the difference that engaged and involved parents, grandparents, and caregivers can make in a child's education. Whether it is helping with homework, attending parent

008teacher conferences, volunteering at school events, or advocating for a student's needs, every parent and caregiver has a unique and valuable role to play in their child's education. We also recognize the work of our RPS staff, which should be all of them, and family engagement, especially our coordinator of family engagement and our school family engagement liaison. We are grateful for the partnerships and shared commitment to student success that the district has with the parents and the caregivers of our students. And we look forward to providing continuing support of those partnerships through our Kate program, which is caregiver and parent engagement program and implementing the dual capacity building framework for family school partnerships across all of our schools. And since we have a foil house here tonight, if the parents and the caregivers of our students would

009please stand, we would like to recognize you as well. [applause] Our next recognition is a Ramon Campos, the winner of the Music Matters Challenge and the Music Educator Grant. Ramon, would you come up if you're here? Come join us at the table up here. Director Workman. [applause] >> Yeah, that's good. Mayo High School student Ramon Campos was selected as an individual winner of Let Music Fill My World's 2025 Music Matters Challenge. Ramon received a $10,000 prize that he donated to the Mayo High School Cross Country's team's doughnut dash race and helped select the Rochester Area Learning Center to receive a $300,000 grant to fund a full-time music teacher next year. He leads a mentorship program offering free violin lessons and participated in Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra this summer. Ramon's submission to the contest featured

010him teaching neighbors how to play Let Music Fill My World on the Automatone. Did I get it right? That quirky little instrument with a quirky name. Showing how music teachers can spark joy, connection, and confidence in any communication, any community. Congratulations, [applause] So Ramon, it's great to see you again. We want to try and show the video and then we'd like to hear a little bit more about this amazing accomplishment and contribution that you've made to um music and our community and our students. So let's try and I let my hand like just rest like this. If you try and do what you're doing, >> you have to do that stretching thing. If it's already [music] there like most of all like rhythm >> important thing is to sustain through that line like >> so

011>> yeah like when you get to That's going to be it. That's going to be the That's going to be the problem. have to fix that. [laughter] >> So, tell us about how this opportunity came to be and what uh you did to get this extraordinary award and um a little bit about uh how the funds you've helped secure are going to um help a lot of our students get some exposure to music they never would have gotten. >> Sure. So, I guess how I first found out >> Good. >> Okay. Uh, how I first found out about it was I was looking for like how can like a high schooler get money to support like the programs that they're making. So that was like with like the doughnut dash fundraiser and I just went

012across like Safari and I saw like articles about how this organization um I think it's funded by like the Tolman family office and uh how they provide the that prime surprise money um but also the grant money which was very interesting to me. Um like first of all who like hands out like $10,000 to high school like it's pretty pretty cool. Um and then also um giving them the chance to kind of advocate for a school. Um looking into the organization. It's about kind of just um supporting music teachers or music education across the world that I like follow their Instagram and they're always making posts about like how uh how how music matters. Like that that's their organization name. So for the video uh uh what I did was I you can hear in

013the beginning uh they weren't too good at playing the automatone. It uh I yeah if you guys did not know that before that it was not supposed to sound like that. Um and then eventually I I taught them gave them a lesson and they learned a little better. So it sounds better now. kind of my inspiration for doing that is because I was introduced to playing violin through Rochester public schools um like through like middle school program. So I started violin in sixth grade and I couldn't afford violin lessons um until like sophomore year and even then I was getting free lessons by like my teacher it's like James Buhan and eventually I could start affording them and I do give some paid lessons in order to pay for my own violin education. Um but

014that's kind of my inspiration for it. Um like how important um having a teacher is. Um I think yeah and then for how it's going to affect people the we had like our donut dash fundraiser and right now it's going towards the the Rochester Boys and Girls Club. Um so specifically their arts programs there and then so that's where the 10,000 um kind of went towards um and then for the grant money uh I've been working with some people Levi Lundak and a few others but I I've been mostly in contact with Levi Lundac and we worked on like that grant application and so yeah it eventually went to the ALC program. I'm really excited about that. >> For those madam chair not following, thanks to Ramon's work, we will have a full-time music teacher

015for three years at our uh high school alternative learning center. We would not have had that otherwise. And I want to thank you and thank Mr. Lundac. [applause] You know, Ramon, we we uh we're going to give a report later in this meeting about some of the accomplishments of our strategic plan and we're kind of proud that we've raised $21 million in grants uh over the last three years. You raised more than $300,000 as a high school student and so you are starting very strong and we are so grateful to you and you are awesome. >> I really appreciate that. Thank you. >> Director Marlo >> and Ramon, I just had one question. Uh first of all, congratulations. What an example you are. What are your plans for the future? Uh so my plans right

016now in order to go to a four-year college hopefully studying like cognitive science, maybe philosophy. Uh my life is just writing college essays all the time. Um as for music though, uh I don't want to study like violin seriously. Um, I think what I've learned through like all my violin stuff is I got more interested in like um like education in itself and like why it's important and teaching philosophy and what's effective. Um, so that's kind of why I'm drawn to what I want to study. For violin though, when I practice it's like I can feel myself getting burned out just from like 10 minutes. Sometimes I'm like [laughter] really I don't know if I want to do this all the time like 247 in college. So that's kind of my plan right now. >>

017Thank you >> board members. Anything else? >> Rormone, thank you. Thank you for inspiring us and for for bringing this opportunity to Rochester public schools and keep us posted on your successful future. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. [applause] Our next recognition is of the educational support professional of the year, Monica Edgar. Would you come up to the table? [applause] So, here's where we get to embarrass you. >> Thanks. [laughter] >> Monica Edgurt was awarded the 2025 2026 Education Support Professional of the Year by Education Minnesota at a ceremony on Saturday, November 1st. Monica is a 13-year RPS professional and currently works at the Alternative Learning Center as a special education pair professional. Some things to know about Monica. One of the many notable things about Monica is that she greets every student by name each

018morning. A tradition she's kept for the 10 years she's worked at RALC. The key to me is that each of these students has a story to tell. And I don't yet know that story, she says. But I want to know each and every one of their names. I want them to know that they are somebody, that they matter, that I see them. another uh uh part of her recommendation. Monica Monica genuinely loves our building and the people within it. Her relationships with staff are impressive and her reputation for excellence precedes her. Teachers frequently request her in their rooms because they know she is reliable, skilled, and a true team player. We should mention that Ro RPS is also proud to have had not one but two educational support professionals from our district nominated as finalists.

019Jennifer Mayer, an ESP at Century High School, was also one of the five finalists nominated from across Minnesota this year. Congratulations to both of you and thank you for the support and the experiences that you give to our students every day. [applause] Not so fast. We have to give you a We have to give you your [laughter] We got to come back. >> She booked it. She got back. >> Here comes the quiz. [laughter] I was so excited for this. [applause] >> If I might briefly, Madam Chair, I just want to say as we thank recognize Monica, we want to recognize all of our education support professionals. The role that they play is indispensable. And so this is recognition of an extraordinary educator among them, but our ESPs uh are the glue that makes so

020much work in our schools. So thanks to everyone and thank you Monica uh for representing them so well and also to Jennifer. [applause] >> Our next item are board member updates. Does any board member have updates from committees or any uh other information to share? Director Marvin, >> uh we were able to visit um Hoover Early Learning Center um last week and uh they have the the youngest kids there and the opportunities that they provide. I was totally ignorant of uh so much of the really good work they do for our youngest learners and the kind of uh creativity that they are able to inspire, the joy in uh learning that birds everything that they do in that building. It was just wonderful and I am so proud that this district offers the kind of

021opportunities in that building and elsewhere that it does. Anything else? Okay. So, I would like to um recognize that uh today I think kicks off the big December fundraising events at all three of our high schools. And um if you have a student in high school, you'll know how excited they are about all the fun and the opportunities that are happening. I'm kind of jealous of everybody who gets to play Paranoia. Um but community members should know that there are opportunities to support uh what's happening at the high schools. Um on December 8th, Teroko is having a $5k and the school that has the most participants is eligible to win a bonus and get more money. So bring your friends and your families who are runners or walkers. um 5:30m over at Terillo and the

022RPS is having a drumline showcase on December 10th at John Marshall where they'll be collecting uh money for all three of the fundraising programs and you can check out the school websites for individual fundraisers like at local restaurants um for each individual school. Last year the high schools together raised over $121,000. So let's see if we can help them beat that number this year. Next item on our agenda is our consent agenda, items 5.1 through 5.9. Would any board member like any item removed for separate consideration? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. And with that, we'll move on to our focus topic, the 2022 2025 strategic plan and review part one. Superintendent Pel.

023Thank you, Chair Nathan. I'd like to invite the colleagues that are going to be joining me to talk about uh engaging parents and caregivers, deeper learning, recruitment and retention, redesigning transportation routes, uplifting youth voice and leadership, and establishing strategic partnerships. To come on up here to the table and take a seat in whatever order you want to take it. And then can we bring up the slide? deck. Oh, just need to move it forward. Okay, there we go. Um, uh, Chair Nathan, board members, as you know, we are in the midst of developing a new strategic plan for Rochester public schools. The working title is RPS 2030 as it will shape our work um through the end of this decade. As part of that process, we're taking stock on the strategic plan that has guided

024our work from 2022 to 2025. And so tonight we are going to be looking at half of what we have called the building blocks. I want to thank Chair Nathan for the Lego uh art that has been in my office for the whole strategic plan. Um we're looking at seven of those building blocks tonight and we'll be looking at eight of them in the next schoolboard meeting and there is a detailed reflection paper that these leaders have prepared on the work that they have led that's available in our uh school board website. The uh same will be true of the eight building blocks we'll look at next time. And this is I hope going to be a a unique opportunity for board members to dialogue with these uh educators and leaders who have led this

025work. Um but I want to begin by framing some of the big picture that we have uh been thinking a lot about as we're reviewing the results of our strategic plan that is now concluding as we are on the path to a new strategic plan. So there's the graphic which of course used to be on the back uh of the room there and has uh represented the work that came out of a year-long strategic planning process that was facilitated in the 2021 2022 school year by Wilder Research. We uh boiled a very complex plan down into those 15 building blocks that we'll be focusing on tonight and in our next board meeting. I was thinking how can I in a hopefully pretty quick um and um ideally somewhat interesting way capture some highlights of what

026has happened uh through each of those 15 building blocks. And so I figured we would try and actually come up with a single number that captures some element of the complex work that is outlined in the reflection documents that are available for each of these initiatives. And so I'm going to move quickly because I want to get to the discussion between board members and the colleagues that are here. But of course, we want to start out with uh our academic outcomes. And I decided to pick two grade levels, three and eight, uh and two subjects, reading and math, to again uh capture a brief snapshot of some of the results of our work. Third grade math proficiency over the course of the plan. We saw increase by three percentage points. We had a.1 percentage point

027increase in third grade reading proficiency. I would note um that we also adopted two new reading curricula during that time frame and put uh staff engaged staff in a sweeping redesign of professional development. And so holding steady while that much change is going on I consider to be um an acceptable outcome in the interim but we all want to see significant improvement in our literacy rates going forward. I also picked eighth grade and there we saw an 8.3% increase in our math proficiency uh at that critical point as our students are heading off to high school and a 4.2 percentage point increase uh in our eighth grade reading proficiency. When we take a look at some other indicators of how our students are doing, we saw an 11.4% increase in our students who are attending

028school consistently 90% or more of the time. We saw a 2.2% in increase in on-time graduation rates. Now, you may notice the results there are 21 to 24. It's because uh the graduation rate data comes out with a one-year lag. Um and it's not just that our strategic plan was a three-year strategic plan. As we talked about in the last meeting when we looked at the state requirement to report year-to-year change on the world's best workforce, our comprehensive achievement and uh civic readiness report, we really want to always look at at least three years of data. three years of data begins to paint a picture of a trend whereas you can see fluctuation in uh one year or another. And so all of these data are being presented uh over three years. But moving beyond

029those student outcomes, that's a time uh that uh it it it took us quite a few years as board members are well aware, but that is where our elementary schools now start school, replacing a 9:35 start time that squandered learning time for little kids and didn't work very well for a lot of working parents who needed to be at work by that point. Next number is 660. That's the number of teachers and staff who engaged in research-based professional development on the science of reading as part of our implementation of that new reading curriculum. Next number is 192,610. That's the number of times students logged into our Zello platform uh which is the virtual place that they explore pathways to college careers future success supported by in particular our school counselors who have created lessons and

030curriculum to go along with that website. Next number is 260. That's the number of our teachers who participated um on deeper learning teams where they created um educational experiences that combine mastery, identity, and creativity. The next 2,885, that's the number of students who took a validated mental health assessment that enables our staff and also our external partners to provide support and uh where necessary therapy through those external partnerships. 66 is our next number. So that's the number of participate participants who are actively engaged in what we call grow your own programs. For instance, to help education support professionals of the kind we just recognized um earn their licenses and become classroom teachers. Uh we also have done the same with social workers and other areas. 20,888,771 is the uh source of uh funding that we've

031secured from competitive grants and one transformative $10 million donation from Mayo Clinic after the narrow failure of our referendum um a number of years ago. 15% as we'll hear later in this meeting from our director of finance Andy Crogstead is the baseline for the flexible funds that schools have to uh meet the unique needs of uh their students and school communities. 16 uh are the number of strategic partnerships that we have um either created or in more often strengthened with critical leading organizations here in Rochester that influence uh the lives of our students. 87% uh are the uh is the share of our student schoolboard members who reported on a survey that participating in the student school board gives them a meaningful way to influence change in their schools and across Rochester public schools. And

032I will just share [laughter] uh Dr. Marvin and Sir Louise Henry and I uh had a great session in this room today with our student school board providing feedback on the next strategic plan. So they're already helping to shape the direction we're headed in the future. 6,987,318 um are the number of ex messages that were exchanged uh between uh parents and caregivers and our staff using the talking points app which as board members know has the potential to translate that message directly into the language of origin for the parent or caregiver. 160 um are the number of parents and caregivers who have participated in or completed our CAPE parent empowerment uh program that helps parents and caregivers help their students succeed in school. 44 are the number of schoolboard policies that this board led by

033the policy committee uh made significant revisions to to improve the support for students, families, and staff from historically marginalized communities. 53 is the number of school leaders who participated in the Minnesota Principal Academy professional development program. 40 are the number of teachers and other educators who participated in the aspiring administrators program as uh they uh earn the credential needed to become a school leader in Rochester public schools or somewhere else. Um and finally seven are the number [laughter] of performance measures that you have approved to guide the development of our next strategic plan and the school improvement process that we are implementing this year. So that's a quick tour through some of those numbers that capture some highlights from each of those building blocks. I want to take a moment and I'm not going to

034read the text on the slides to board members because you had uh the PowerPoint um in your preparation materials, but I want to give a few of my personal big picture observations on the strategic plan that we are finishing at this point. Um I think the first one I have to say and I think the numbers that I just ran through illustrate this. We did a lot. We should feel really good about the fact that we secured support from our community for the referendum. We changed start times. We implemented a new reading curriculum and lots of other things. And so that's the positive side and I think that has set the groundwork for um a lot of uh further improvement in RPS. The rest of the points I'm going to share are more self-critical, the

035things that I think could have been better about the strategic plan. Um not taking a glass half empty perspective, but wanting to say as we go into the finalization of our next strategic plan, these are things that are going to be prominent in my mind and that I would suggest uh might make sense for board members to be aware of uh as well. As I think back on our last strategic plan, one of the biggest things we lacked were structures at the school level through which we could effectively implement the systemwide changes in the plan. We did not have multi-tered systems of support. We did not have a school improvement process. We had gaps in curriculum. And so some of the systemwide goals in the plan really struggled to find implementation at the building level

036because our people, teachers, administrators, everyone are incredibly busy serving kids. And so when we don't have those structures and processes for improvement in place, we have a lot of uh struggle going beyond getting the language right and not making it into practice in schools. And so the work that we've done to create MTSS structures in schools and a new school improvement process beginning to invest in our professional learning communities I think gives us those structures at the school level which is where the real action happens to implement the changes that you might approve at the system level. Um another big picture point in retrospect um our plan from 2022 to 2025 was I think too ambitious in the number of outcomes we were aiming for as board members will recall what uh Dr. Peter Ruck

037and I have called the grid. There were 33 separate outcomes that were in our dashboard and some of those outcomes really were um leading indicators not summitive outcomes we would seek to advance through a strategic plan. The best example of that is our fast bridge reading screener. That's a prominent measure of our current strategic plan. In retrospect, the tool you use to identify kids needing additional support is not the tool you use to measure your system performance. It wasn't intended for that. And I think we learned that we're seeing uh improvement uh on those fastbridge scores, but those are really scores that are intended for to help teachers know how to intervene with kids at the classroom level. So I think the next strategic plan needs to have fewer clearer outcomes and those seven indicators

038that I just put on the screen are really going to be our north star in the next strategic plan. Number four, um the strategic plan itself did not address budget and resources the last time around. Candidly, had we tried to do it at that point before we've done all the work we've done on finance over the last four years, I don't know that we could have done it. But the next time around when we bring you a proposal to um review and hopefully approve in May, we need to have at least the broad strategies in terms of dollars and human resources in the plan. And the main reason for that is so that our aspirations don't get ahead of our resources and our capacity. That doesn't mean the plan needs to include a detailed budget

039for four years for every initiative. that couldn't happen because as we know state funding changes, federal funding changes, enrollment changes, but the plan itself this time around needs to think hard about capacity um so that when you approve it, you can have confidence that we have the dollars and the people to move those initiatives forward. Number five, the strategic plan itself set these 15 priorities which I do believe were the right priorities. It did not include a timeline for imple implementation of those priorities. Now, subsequently to that, and I particularly worked with the chair and vice chair of the board on this every year, we timelined those priorities out. And so certain things didn't begin until year three of the plan. I think in the next plan, you should have a phased strategy to know

040what would be happening when because, as we all know, our our schools are very constrained in their capacity to implement these ambitious uh uh improvement initiatives. and we got to timeline it out so that we're not asking everyone to do everything all at once. Number six, um uh I think that the change that we've laid the groundwork for, uh has been significant, but changing classroom practice, changing how a teacher works directly with kids or a counselor or a social worker or a principal um is not something that happens quickly or overnight. And we're seeing signs of this. But I think the biggest mistake we could make would be to point the ship in a completely different direction just as our educators and staff are beginning to implement these uh these new uh resources and strategies

041into their practice. Um and that might sound like a no-brainer, but school districts frankly do it all the time. Um and so we got to give staff time to maintain uh the the momentum with practice. This next slide is far too small for anyone looking at the screen uh to look at, but I it's a pretty important one and I'm not going to read it all. But what it what it points out in the text is that most every one of these building blocks will be integrated into our ongoing practices through our ongoing work. They're not going to go away and we're moving on to the next thing. And so we are going to be taking the work we've done on human resource issues, the work we've done on leadership, the work we've done on

042youth voice and practice, the work we've done on community partnerships, much of which we're going to talk about now, and very intentionally integrating them into our ongoing work. There are some issues though that clearly from the first strategic plan or the 2022 to 2025 strategic plan have some clear followon points for the next strategic plan. So for the last three years, we've invested in multi-tered systems of support in literacy. Very clearly math needs to be next and positive student behavior needs to be next along with it. So moving building on what we've done in MTSS in reading and moving it into into it with math and also using that with uh that structure of MTSS with positive behavior. That's one example of how the 2022 to 2025 strategic plan uh will have some logical uh

043uh next steps in the next strategic plan. Another example is out of our current strategic plan grew the RPS mindsets, behaviors, and steps for success. Implementing uh that framework will be a major priority for the next strategic plan. So the big picture of this is that we're not just dropping any of this stuff. we're going to integrate it into our ongoing work if that's appropriate or we'll consider investments through the next strategic plan if that's what's appropriate. So, I wanted to end this with something that I think organizations often overlook and that's the fact that all of these things about um resources and budgets and timelines and curricula are really important but there's a famous saying culture eats strategy for breakfast. It's often attributed to Peter Ducker who is kind of a management guru. I

044checked and nobody can confirm he ever said it. But the basic idea is that you can have the bestlaid plans and if culture is not right, um your aspirations are not going where you hope they will go. And I think the best working definition of culture is the way we do things here. And I was very hesitant to include the quote that I'm going to include because it's a email, personal email that Director Cook sent me after my evaluation this past year. Um but I'm including it because I think even though he was talking about my role. I I'm not just saying this. I honestly believe he beautifully captured the change in culture, but I don't think that my role was causal. I think it was this board. It was all staff. And I'm not

045just saying that. Um so I that's my disclaimer of saying I'm not trying to end this presentation with something uh positive about me. But if you take a look there when um Director Cook talked about creating a culture of professionalism, excellence, and accountability, I just think that phrase captures a cultural shift that um I feel when I'm in our schools and offices every day. And then um the last quote that he ended that email to me with, I think also um is something that um everyone in this system deserves credit for. If it were possible to hold up 2020 RP RPS side by side with 2025 RPS, the contrast in culture would be blinding. That like the difference between someone stuck in a defensive crouch and someone jogging with a steady confident gate. A steady

046confident gate doesn't mean you've gotten where you're trying to go at all. Um and we know we're not where we want to go. But I do see that uh that change in culture. That's subjective. There may be some uh folks who don't yet see that um shift in culture. But I know that when Director Cook shared that with me besides being, you know, personally meaningful because he was sharing it with me after my evaluation, it resonated with me and it came to my mind as I was putting this presentation together because I do think culture matters and I do think some of those changes in culture um lay the groundwork for the next phase of the work. And so, Madam Chair, that is my um overview, and I'll turn it back to you and encourage

047board members and colleagues to just uh engage in a discussion of some of the work that has happened in about half of our building blocks. And we'll do the same at our next meeting with the rest of them. >> Board members, we could go topic by topic or we could just build on each other's questions. I like topic. All right. So, should we start with family engagement? Who has any questions or comments for director workman? Um I was really impressed with um how well talking points worked and your cape initiative the caregiver and parent empowerment initiative was and and those seem to be really successful. If I'm not sounding good it's because this thing fell off. um that I hope you'll really put a lot of effort I know you'll put a lot of effort

048into continuing those um these next few years. But I did have one question about the expansion of title one family engagement to 21 public and nine non-public sites. Could you briefly touch on what it looked like for those nine non-public sites? >> Oh, sure. That's that's interesting [laughter] interesting question. Thank you, Director Workman. So uh so first [clears throat] of all your comments about talking points and cape are much appreciated. I think that those are very exciting uh ex very exciting initiatives that are really uh gaining traction and momentum and we're excited to see those continue to expand and grow. And regarding title one family engagement that is actually a significant portion of of my work is working with our 21 our now 21 uh sites within the district. There are nine non-public sites that

049qualify based on the student population uh whether or not they would be in attendance at one of our title one schools. And so we work with those non-public sites uh throughout the year in a variety of ways. And regarding family engagement, a component of that is that I consult with those principles and their teams. They have a a a small amount of funds that are dedicated to family engagement and we work on planning something that will be effective given their student student needs and their situation. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Barley. >> I too had a comment regarding uh Cape. Um I did view the uh Cape at Gauge video. Thank you for including that in the packet. Uh And so I'd like to direct my comments uh to that uh those participants, graduates of

050the program. Um what a blessing to hear them say, not so much for uh you as a coordinator or will as a cabinet lead. uh but for the parents and even the students to comment as to how Kate was making such a difference in their lives, the things that they didn't realize they didn't understand or the uh power that they actually didn't recognize they possessed. Uh I thought was so valuable this became what I think uh you initially uh envision uh it could be if if if the district were to adopt it. Thank you for the foresight in presenting it and I look forward to uh what the future will hold regarding uh the the continued expansion. I think there were I don't want to start drawing from recall and the numbers but I do

051appreciate the impact and and just want to encourage you to keep up the good work. >> Thank you Dr. Marvin. >> Nine pages. This was impressive. And just first, thank you for when you used an acronym like keep peak or K or skip almost without exception. You spelled it out or explained it afterwards. Um I don't know if the public is going to spend hours pouring over this. Um and that this is mostly for staff and and people in the working for the district, but you've made it also very uh reader friendly and I appreciate that. Question I have. um you have fa family engagement leaons that are full-time staff and so they're doing this um in addition to the work that they're doing full-time in the district which I think is is smart to

052have people who are working with kids in the schools all the time anyway is it working all right >> uh thank you Director Marvin a couple of um a couple of things that we can talk about with that the family engagement liaison team uh consists of staff members at each of our skip sites who are contracted licensed staff members who are participating as liaison as in addition to the work that they're doing. So they receive a very modest stipend and then they um they work outside of their contract hours and I think that um and we have um someone here in our in our group who is uh representing our family engagement liaison in our audience and I think that our family engagement uh liazison. Um the structure works really effectively because that staff member

053at the site is really connected with the families. Those staff members know their community. They are able to interface with families on a daily basis. They're also very familiar with their staff. And so the family engagement liaison has been the key to facilitating professional development. They have provided the logistical support for CAPE. They help in all kinds of incidental ways uh with talking points uh with uh some of our um some of our um kind of unusual circumstances that come up as well. And I think that that family engagement liaison team also support one another with ideas with uh creativity with working with our community partners. So I think it's a very effective way for us to be able to uh work from, you know, central ideas and then implement them in personal ways in

054each community. >> Dr. Wford. >> Okay. So kind of in in tune with uh what you said, Superintendent, we are going to be and correct me if I'm wrong, we're going to be changing to using the five essentials, right? That'll be more of our monitoring um for the engagement and that's not what we were previously using. So, how will we bridge that gap so that we have that continuity, you know, we're continuing to measure um so we don't have this start and stop uh type of measurement, right? Because we've made some gains and now we're going to be shifting um how we are going to be measuring family engagement. So, what is the plan for that kind of seamless um recordeping that we are still able appropriate. >> Yeah. Thank you, Chair Nathan. Let me

055let me correct that and Jennifer can add something. It's a point that not only applies, Dr. Whitehorn to our family engagement work, it also applies to things like belonging and others because we had the panorama survey which we're also discontinuing. We had the family engagement survey and panor in some cases we will not be able to track everything because they're different measurement. But there's a lot in the family engagement survey we've been using that is also in 5e. Now 5e is a much more scientifically developed instrument. It's going to give us much better data and there's a lot of continuity. There's also some things that weren't in our homegrown family engagement survey. Not homegrown like without thoughtfulness. It was it was a good tool. But um we will need to uh take a look at

056places where the data that we've had for the last several years it can be um correlated with 5e and there's some good aspects of that. And then we'll need to be transparent with the board and the community about places where the data doesn't sink. Um I still think it's the right decision to move because what the 5e does is it integrates family engagement with ambitious instruction, supportive environments, collaborative teachers and great leaders. So family engagement is not this outlier separate survey which is what we've had till now. it'll be right there and we'll be able to look at schools data with family engagement tied to what kids are saying and parents are saying and staff are saying about instruction and the environment. So I think that broadly speaking it's the next step on our journey

057to try and bring uh data to something engagement that often doesn't have much data behind it. Um, but we'll keep your uh point in mind as we start to navigate that um transition. And I'll make sure that as we begin to share 5 data with the board and the community where we are able to, we'll go back to the previous family engagement measures and uh try and track places of better progress or change. >> I appreciate that. Well, I have to uh I've I've done this before, share my our shared love of uh the CAPE program and the opportunities for parents to really get [clears throat] information that will help them to support their students, but we also know that it's a manpower intensive um uh effort to take it districtwide. And I know that

058in one of the things that you mentioned maybe um reaching out to the community partners to perhaps help support it. And I know that this also came from the PK um original model. In any of the other models that uh PK has grown out of, have they trained other parents or graduates of the program to become the workshop leaders? And is that something that you thought of? >> Thank you, Madam Chair, for that question. And the um the Kate program I know is something that is uh is really uh developing with that uh empowerment model and as you mentioned PK definitely aspires to have parent graduates uh become future facilitators and we are excited to be moving into that stage of development. So initially we needed to kind of get our feet under us and

059and get u you know get a little bit of momentum and now we're at a stage where we are uh going to have our first graduate of Cape uh be a facilitator starting in February. So we're excited to see that that uh that generational kind of change is is happening where we'll be able to see those parents step up and take those leadership opportunities. We've also seen parents do other things such as become involved in their PTAs, um engage in uh come to schoolboard meeting, um doing some other kinds of advocacy uh advocacy things that they might not have otherwise engaged in. So we are excited to see that that is hopefully going to be the next phase of things and also that that could make it more sustainable as well. And this may have

060been answered at some point um but do we have any data or will we be collecting any data on the K parents? So they're you know their impact. So as we want to grow the program um have we already collected data or is that to come you know the actual impact of the I think it's wonderful program um but I know that numbers and data get get funded right so um how are we reporting that or what are we tracking um to show the effectiveness of the program? I mean I'm glad that we're seeing engagement but how are we tracking the effectiveness of the program? Yes, thank you, Director Whitehorn. We have as part of our our agreement with PK, we have ongoing data uh that they uh provide for us. So we have parent

061surveys that are completed with each cohort of parents and then uh PK provides a data report for us each quarter and those uh data reports show uh site data and a lot of that is showing um uh growth in uh parent perception uh about how they feel they're capable of supporting their students academics wellness a whole variety of areas. So yes, we do have ongoing data and we can compare uh that uh before and after a parent experience. Uh so we do have that data and it will continue to uh continue to evolve. One exciting thing that we're working on now with our data department is using edge climber to be able to identify the students of parents who have graduated from cape so that years down the road we'll be able to look at

062that data. Maybe we look at you know uh graduation rates and see well how many of our our graduates had parents involved in cape uh or other kinds of measures. So, we're looking at how we use educing attendance or grades, anything like that. >> Any other questions on family engagement? >> Aren't you glad you got to go first? Thank you. It was lovely. All right, let's move on to deeper learning. Dr. Workman. Um, couple things on this that really really struck me. Um, the first one that the work is sustainable if embedded in the curriculum processes and prioritized by leadership, which I can't imagine that it wouldn't be. I think this is one of the strengths um of of this particular uh building block. But the other one was focusing on the why. And I

063think both my experience as a teacher and also as a parent is you really have to have a good answer to why. And when you're focusing on that and just to say just because I said so really doesn't cut it. So the importance of that is I think is really critical in that when the person asking why understands why then it works really really well. And one of the things I really appreciate about our superintendent is that he's got those answers to the wise, >> most of them. >> Yeah. >> I don't want to put too much of >> I wonder if Ben might ask Mark to um comment on how the deeper learning framework is influencing the new work that you're working on on curriculum. um because that's an great example of how what

064was a new change initiative in the current strategic plan is becoming everyday practice uh in RPS. >> Uh yeah, absolutely. Um so, you know, for a little bit of background for those that that may not have read all the pages, you know, we had, you know, teams that were uh kind of our pilot teams within every building that were working on this within their context. And now, um as have shifted into what does this look like within our curriculum articulation process where what we discovered during those pilot teams that teams that uh teachers that had exemplar units to look for felt most confident in how to enable deeper learning within their classrooms. And so starting from the very beginning of the kind of curricular opportunities that every teacher has access to. So, as an example,

065uh we're currently looking at our math curriculum. Um and so the math curriculums at the elementary level that we are piloting have all kind of gone through a um we looked at it through a deeper learning lens to ensure that what we are hopefully going to be rolling out after this piloting phase is already aligned with that mastery and creativity framework. So that way as teachers start to um utilize that in their classroom, they have those they have it built into their curriculum which then will allow them that that additional confidence that we saw through those pilot teams and through the surveys that we had with those pilot teams. Um we are also looking at um currently um we're evaluating the teacher development and evaluation process that we're looking at um so the instructional side

066of it as well um that I am involved in. Um so looking at that through a deeper learning lens of um what kind of opportunities um you know our teachers are providing and and how how are we professionally developing them to move towards that deeper learning that we would like to see. >> Dr. Marlin >> uh I was most impressed by the existence or creation of the shared repository. Okay. And um not to ask if collaboration existed prior to uh collaboration across schools. I'm sure within schools it probably did and it may have even uh across schools, but can you speak briefly as to um how well that worked? I I do recognize that it was probably a providing of things that were working and perhaps things that weren't. provided an opportunity to uh place

067those items in a shared location. How ultimately u was it up to the individual teachers then to take from it what they would or will or chose to or was there any directed response regarding that? >> Thank you, Dr. Barlo. Director Barlo. Um, so I I was actually particularly proud of the the unit repository um because it did allow that cross uh site collaboration um which was really really essential. And so we we kind of have that in pockets sometimes when we have our our opportunities to meet with professional development like maybe we do it by grade level or subject. And so we have those like you know opportunities and then we kind of go off into our sites. And what having that unit repository allowed us to do is kind of help keep the

068silo walls down um which was really really essential because the sharing of the work um even if it was just a work in progress was really really important. Not only because um it kind of helped everyone to kind of calibrate and understand thinking and gain a shared understanding but also sharing that work in progress was is really about the adults experiencing that deeper learning as well of really kind of seeing how people are creating those experiences and and really engaging with each other through through deeper learning as adults. Um in terms of what what is really nice about the repository is that um it still exists. Um what a challenge that we identified and haven't yet figured out is how to effectively leverage it as we move forward into the whole into the curriculum articulation

069process. That being said, um just to go uh just to not repeat but restate what uh I said before, it's those exemplar units that we now have that teachers have said were most effective in their confidence in producing deeper learning within their own classrooms. So while while every teacher has access to this repository now, um I think another thing that I said in the report is it's not just the tools, it's also how you use the tools. And so it's really about um do we still have teams engaging in the work and utilizing those units like unfortunately the deeper learning teams as we knew it you know had to be sunset due to the grant funding um you know ending um but but I do know that there are teams that are still I do

070know that at least there's one school off the top of my head that is still utilizing the deeper learning team structure. Um, but it really comes down to at this point it's down to whether or not the site has decided to utilize that tool as an aspect of how are they doing deeper learning at their school. >> Thank you. Appreciate that, >> Dr. Marvin. And I'm so excited about this because I think and I'm I'm biased that this is maybe um when as we are doing this better and better, it may be the best answer we have in terms of how we get kids excited about school, how we get them to want to come to school, how we get them to feel good about themselves, believe in themselves, use their understand that they are

071creative, that they make a difference, that they Because what we're telling them is, hey, you got this. You can problem solve. You can think, you can create, not just you can do well on this test, but you know, stuff and the questions you ask are important. And there's more than one way of getting from here to there. And it makes I I think it makes teaching more exciting. It gives teachers more autonomy. stick with the curriculum, but you can present it a bunch of different ways depending on who shows up in your class. So, I just I'm really excited about this one and I'm so glad it's one of our priorities. So, keep doing the good work you're doing or else. [laughter] >> Uh thank you, Dr. Mar. I just wanted to say and that

072really is that really captures it's not just the why of why do you want to learn math and why do you want to learn you know why why do you want to do well in this unit it's it's also for the adult in you know why are you in the classroom why are you teaching math why like what excites you about this and how do you capture that again um if you lost it or how do you re-energize yourself so I absolutely agree with you so thank you for sharing that >> director way I want to say the Uh the deeper learning I I get kind of excited about it. I I think it's a really neat initiative, right? Um for me though, it's like, you know, the baking YouTube videos though, so you know,

073you feel like you gonna be able to bake that cake because you saw somebody else do it. Um and I'm saying that because when I looked even through the challenges that you all picked out, um it's not a matter of whether or not it's a good system. It's a matter of how are we going to implement the system, right? Without making it another check. Right? And how do we shift this to not being a checkbox but being the lens through which we view education which moves this into for me a different category. It moves this more into a culture shift in taking from the folks attention a little bit tonight. Um but it becomes more of a culture shift right because we're the way I'm understanding this we want this to become the lens through

074which we're viewing education so that this is implemented into all of the and all of the teaching. It's not something where it's an additional thing. So with that, my concern is that we do have a lot of new systems coming out as um superintendent has stated, which I think are all great, right? I'm not I'm not saying this is not all great, but you know, it becomes like the save videos in your in your YouTube folder, right? You got a bunch of save videos, you're going to do them all. How do we prevent that? And what kind of support are we able to offer to kind of keep that momentum going? because a lot of the challenges that you even address on your own directly negate from what it is that we want to do,

075right? Because we don't want our teachers to burn out. We don't want our teachers to feel like we're throwing more things on their plate or more things for them to be measured by. Um, I guess I'm just looking at how do we uh continue the how do we how do we assist in a culture shift? because that's really what we're asking our teachers to do is to relook at how they're teaching or why they're teaching, which I think are all great questions. Um, and for new teachers coming in, it may be a lot easier than a teacher who is an amazing teacher but has been doing it a certain way for 25 years. So, how are we Am I getting to a question here, y'all? How how are we able to to support effectively because

076this seems like one of those bigger initiatives. This is a year or two years. It may be 10 years before we fully see a a system that it's, you know, it's fully integrated into or or maybe I'm wrong. >> Uh yes. No. [laughter] Uh thank you for that question. Um that that is a challenge. um you know some of the challenges that I called out you know in in my review a lot of that also stemmed from the structure that we did deeper learning over the past couple years which was rightly so it was teacherdriven you know grassroots like from the ground up and but that put the burden all on the teacher to come up with everything to find the time to do things you know like all of that was on the teacher

077and yes there was there was structured support but at the end of of the day it was it was them creating things or changing their or changing what they were teaching or changing their teaching practices um not always on their own so you know with their deeper learning team but like it those teams were three teachers to 10 teachers depending on the site you know so um and I think that's I think what we saw there is why we identified the shift that we needed to do of kind of building it into the curriculum that we as the district work with our teachers to develop with them or as the district we um you know find a great curriculum and purchase it and do the professional development with them to kind of build it in

078instead of having them try to figure out how to tack it on or build it in themselves so they don't so it's not fully on them. And I and I think that that is one of the strategies that we're doing to kind of move that work forward. But that is a big that is a big question and initiative fatigue is incredibly real no matter what level you're at and so um I do think that that's something that we haven't figured out completely yet um but that we're hopefully working towards. >> Um thank you for that question director Roy Horn because it's it's your question is essential to achieving the promise that Dr. Marvin just talked about is where does it fit? One thing just briefly, I think the deeper learning work so far illustrates the

079power of a good framework. A framework is not a program. It's not a curriculum. It's a set of ideas. And so I like this one because first of all, I think it's good stuff, but it's also just three things. Mastery, identity, creativity. So today when um Sir Louise and Dr. Marvin and I um were facilitating sessions with our student school board, we were running ideas that have come out of our strategic planning process by then. And one of them was more opportunities to um meet people from the community who are working in fields uh that are in the economy and society but that especially are of interest to them. And in my view we and that was just one of the ideas we presented all these ideas. The kids lit up with that. All of

080them. They're like we want more of that. We want more of that. And I'm sitting there and I was a little surprised because the other stuff is we're going to create career pathways and we're going to have different advisories. This was all structure stuff and they're like we want more adults from the community in our schools and I said well tell me about that why it was identity and I had the framework from deeper learning. I'm like these kids are asking for I I see myself as a welder. I see myself as an artist. I see and they I said well so you one person comes into your class and I be gotta be honest. I asked the kids it was all four of our high schools um uh today. Um and I said how

081often does that happen in your class? And answer for most of them was not much at all. Then we had some students who had done PEK and CEK and they said all the time. Um and you could see every kid turned to those students who were getting that and and I was like well there in lies that those programs have that baked in that bringing the community you know in. And so, but the point was the framework of deeper learning gave me a way to connect identity to mastery to creativity because I had that framework and I didn't just hear, oh, the kids want more classroom speakers like no, they want identity connected to uh what they're learning in the fullest sense. So, I think we have to keep it a framework, not a program.

082Um, as we do it, >> um, since we're kind of reflecting on on on these initiatives, I I just wanted to share that I I am really glad that this this initiative to deploy um, you know, the framework of mastery, creativity, and and identity. um and to try to create spaces where where you get that intersection of those three things um wasn't limited to our advanced classes at the high school level. It wasn't limited to um you know students in the um advanced learning options or or something like that which could have been the case. It was a choice to make this something that was going to be universal in every single learning space that we offer. Um and and I I think that is absolutely the right choice and it is something that uh

083was very important to me as this as this work was um being developed and when we have done our skip visits and we've gone and and seen and I've talked with my kids about what's going on in their classrooms. Um it is so clear that these opportunities to learn geometry through fashion or to I mean there's there's so many examples that have been developed already. Um, it was really important, I think, to do this in a in a way that was accessible to every single part of our uh, school community. Um, I think that's a something that we should celebrate and be continuing. Um, so anyway, thank thanks for this work. I just wanted to emphasize that that part of this initiative was I think very well done. >> Um, I just wanted to comment

084on something that Dr. said in um I think it fits in here. Um I happened to notice something on social media the other day asking I think it was related to John Marshall somehow asking for people to volunteer to speak in classrooms. So I it kind of speaks to this too that we need the structure around that so that that's happening all over and not peacemail like that. Um, it seemed like it was specific asks for certain topics, but I could see that that could fit within this as something broader than just that, you know, little social media post that I just happened to go through on my feet. >> Thank you, Director. And as part of the reorganization we put in place this summer to get ready for the next strategic plan, it it

085it's not sufficient, but as a start, half of Josh Alerson's time is now bringing back our volunteer strategy at the central level, which had been non-existent um through many things like that. And so that is exactly the kind of thing we want to be facilitating. We didn't have, you know, if if nobody wakes up and thinks about something, it's nobody's job. It just doesn't get done. And so while that amount of time uh is not adequate for a system of our side size, it's a beginning. Um and and so I I absolutely want to we want to have a throughine to have those kinds of opportunities that we can facilitate centrally, but of course what really matters is that we're getting the people into John Marshall, right? Um, and I had a second, um, I

086guess that's a question about, um, the deeper learning work, the adaptations needed. It strikes me as something we could talk about here because the board is involved with district policy. You talk about codifying deeper learning expectations in district policy and strategic strategic guidance. You tie that to the alignment with teacher and leader evaluation, development. Is that the only place that policy would play a role or are there other places that we could be of assistance just to put it on our radar that we should be looking at things at a policy level since I'm not the policy expert that is sitting next to >> I was going to give him extra credit for saying that in his reflection. [laughter] >> Um thank you for the question. um my ex experience and you know just from

087my position really the the teacher development and evaluation piece of it really spoke to me because I know that through conversations I had with with teachers um it was you know this is a thing that I have the capacity to to think about and worry about right now because this is like you know how I'm going to be evaluated and I totally understand you know at any point in time you know why that um might make sense. Um and so to me uh as a tossa that that really kind of spoke to me. But in terms of what it what I think um I was trying to say uh with that reflection is that you know creating those expectations that are for principles and teachers um is really really important. We can't just say oh

088yeah we do deeper learning and then not have anything say that oh yeah we do deeper learning. Um it kind of goes back to what Dr. was saying of culture is this is, you know, this is what we do. This is this is how we do business. And so looking at how do we how do we really kind of call out and make very explicit those expectations that deeper learning is an expectation um I think is really really important. Um because if we don't if we're not explicit about it then um I think it runs the risk of um either invisible or or kind of being put at the bottom of the list of priorities. >> Sure. I Dr. Bloff and I think it's a it's a super interesting point. Um I have not thought

089about looking at RPS policy through the lens of deeper learning. But this board three years ago said through our strategic plan that's ending, we wanted to look at our policy through the lens of equity. And they we said that as a structured initiative in the plan. And then as we put up there on the slide, we significantly revised 44 policies to advance equity. And so if were we to say something similar, we want to look at policy through the lens of deeper learning, we might find opportunities. Certainly the effort that Mark mentioned, which is uh very much about our vision of uh great teaching and support for teachers collaboration, and we're doing that in collaboration with the Rochester Education Association. That's a very immediate opportunity because we're working on that right now. I bet there

090are many others. And that's back to that idea, the power of a framework. If we look at policy through the lens of mastery, identity, and creativity, we might find some things that the board could take ownership of at the policy level that could enable this work at the classroom level. >> Well, we're looking at my notes because I was thinking exactly the same thing. When I read about the work of deeper li deeper learning, I think it it's like the gift that keeps on giving because it wasn't just about the the units that you generated in the repository. I loved reading about um that they saw it moving from silos to systems and what you've said about the sharing reinforces the accountability, the the the process that you created and are now integrating into the

091curriculum articulation piece that you you're bringing processes and tools that are going to have a lasting uh experience even if the grant you know ran out the deeper learning teams. >> Um and I I feel like one of the things that I've always said is it's important for us that our programs and our policies reflect what Rochester needs. That we're not just, you know, borrowing uh state standards, other curriculums. Um, when you look at our curricular policies, the policies that cover curriculum, they're very much from MSBA model policy and statute and best practices about the things that you look at when you choose a curriculum or um, you know, the the items that you include in in your instruction. But this deeper learning, what we've learned, I think, gives us a real opportunity to customize

092some of those pieces in our policies when we say when we look at a new curriculum. I I see figuring out how to put mastery, identity, and creativity language um or you know some summary of deeper learning language in those policies so you so that it becomes it's reflected as a culture in you know the board um authorizing approving in our policies that that's a foundation of who we are as RPS even if it's a line that isn't in MSBA model policy that all the other districts don't have because it's work that we did here that we feel is necessary for our students. So I I like the that idea of looking at it the lens. Anything else on deeper learning? Thank you. We will move on to recruitment and retention. Anybody have any questions?

093Director Marvin, it's an incredible plant question. Do you know Anybody in the district know about how many students are graduating from like Midwest uh colleges with a teaching degree? I mean, is it way down? >> I was trying to predict what kind of questions might be asked tonight and I did research that a little bit. There was a a study that was done in um 2015 time and during that during a four-year span the number of uh graduates with a teaching degree dropped by 19%. And that's the last research I could find on it going back to 2015 and it was right four years within there. But they when if you do a search on is there a teaching shortage in Minnesota that'll get that is one of the reasons is that the the training

094the number of people coming out of the training programs has decreased but I could not tell you the exact number. No, but that's I I think that's you know the word on the street and I I you know clearly part of this is how do we encourage kids in high school. I mean without brainwashing them that maybe they want to consider teaching as a future and then make it and then really support them as they go into that. Thank you. I you know I wonder uh the community when they looked at our building blocks and um there might be some people who think everything should focus on the students. Students should be in everything but um this building block was a long time coming because I think our staff um needs to have what they

095need. They need to feel supported. And I what I appreciated about this initiative is that it was comprehensive from even before they're part of RPS. It's in our it's in our recruitment process. It's in how easy we make it for them to apply. You know, we I think um in developing the initiatives, I know that you you listened to a lot of people. You heard what staff has been saying um about what needed to be improved. And I think in all of the components, you're really reflecting another culture change um of making sure our staff knows that we're here to help them um feel part of this team so that they can, you know, be asked to give above and beyond like we've been doing with with all the other components of the strategic plan.

096So, as I look at all of the initiatives, I really appreciate it, especially as we're competing for scarcer resources, I would like RPS to be seen as a place where we, you know, we take care of you. We want, you know, we've got, we want you here and we want to keep you and we want to make sure that you have um [clears throat] not just the curriculum or the facilities, but that you feel that if you have a need, we have the right team to support you. So, I appreciate that and seeing that initiatives. Dr. Brown, >> uh, just one question, Carl. Um, the grow your own program, um, I know. Well, I shouldn't say I know. Uh, is our funding still strong or will there be changes that we will experience? >> Thank

097[clears throat] you for the question, Director Barlo. But again, doing some research trying to predict what you would ask. we had uh $600,000 in grow your own scholarships that was available to spend over five years. Um we still have money available and what we're finding um unfortunately is even when there is money to go back to college with people who are working and probably have families and now they're taking courses in the evenings or on the weekends, we are seeing some people drop out because of that workload. So we we are not spending the money as fast as as we had hoped. So there's opportunity for over the next couple of years to continue to give a high number of scholarships if people are interested. As a followup, Madam Chair, um at um CEK, I

098believe um aren't we offering or have we offered a pathway for um student teachers and are is HR in any way trying to well can you tell me any interface interaction between HR and that pathway >> there is now Lindsay was not able to join us tonight but she's been very involved in that and working with can't remember the teacher's name over there but um she's been engaged with them and and uh that that is where some of our grow your own candidates student candidates come from. >> Thank you. Oh, director. Um, I always appreciate when we get opportunities to talk about things like stay interviews. I noticed your idea about the pilot for that. I would strongly encourage consideration of that. I think that um I guess I I kind of tie it into

099my own personal work experience of maybe working in some environments that weren't great and that that would have been really helpful to I think flesh out the reasons why um or to motivate people to stay. But I think also when we were talking earlier about culture. I think that might give us some indications if there are some gaps in culture around the district that might be helpful to shore up some of the things to keep people there. U so I think that that would be good data if we're looking at looking at culture ways to get some even anecdotal data about things that might be on people's minds that haven't been shared in other opportunities. So I would be much in favor of doing that if I know that your staff is short and resources

100are short, but if there's a way to pilot that, I think it might be very interesting. um information for all of us to hear. >> Dr. White, >> um and just in the the light of retention and recruitment and I may have mentioned this before, but how much work did we do looking at like exit um interviews, right? So, people have left the district or uh as we see, we're not getting the numbers we would like, but we have we've had little bursts, you know, where we've had um you know, better numbers with equity or more hiring or what have you. Have we looked into the exits? So, do we have any kind of um plan or strategy to maybe instead of just guessing, maybe start saying, okay, this is becoming a glaring reason why

101people are leaving the district or you know any any trends of that sort to help streamline what we need to focus on for recruitment and retention. >> Yes, thank you for that question. We we've had a couple of versions of an exit interview we did last year as part of this initiative. We met with a group of teachers and other district staff to get their input on what should be the new aspects and questions that we're asking. We implemented that in the spring. We didn't have a high number um by the time we we talked about over the summer doing a kind of a summary of that. We want to get more numbers. So, I have not checked it in the last week or so, but immediately upon someone um as part of the new

102process, immediately upon someone resigning, retiring, um exiting in any way, they are sent a link to either fill out the the exit interview digitally or they can request a phone interview or an in-person interview with a number of different district representatives, including myself. Um but we are we are planning on looking at those numbers more as we get more more responses because the smaller number was probably 50 um when we entered the summer from from updating that exit interview. But yes, we plan on um doing a deep dive into the data on that. Quick follow and not to be repetitive but if there is a way you know for people that have left before we implemented you know the better exit strategy that may also be an option just for collecting data to see where

103people felt we need to improve as a district >> director Bman yeah um I I sort of had the same question that that director horn um had but then um what should be in the next strategic plan. I notice that there will be an effort to catch them before they exit so that when they exit, if they're saying, "Well, if this and this and this and this had been different, maybe I wouldn't be leaving." Um sort of like what we do with um testing students along the way to see what have they learned, what have we missed, where do we need to go and and fix things. And to do that, I think there needs to be a real strong climate of trust, which I'm really seeing being being developed here. Um, especially um in

104the deeper learning plan um where teachers feel safe in sharing all their information with each other, whereas it used to be this is my stuff and I did it and I'm not going to share with you. So, um I'm really encouraged by your emphasis on that. I don't know how you would implement it and I'm glad it's not my problem. Um, but I think it's it's moving in the right direction. Board members. Wonderful. Thank you. And we will move on to youth voice and leadership. Anybody want to kick this one off? Okay, I can start. Um, what about elementary students? I know you worked a lot with middle and high school, but is there anything in other districts experience or research that says that there's a benefit to to doing something or bringing youth voice

105into their experience? >> Absolutely. And we believe that all of our students should have the same opportunities to to share their perspectives, what's working, what we could improve on, um, and just share their experience with us as well as gain leadership. Right now, it's more of a capacity piece. So, we are still trying to work with the elementary students. Um, I do leadership groups. Sometimes it looks like that. So bringing some of the um leadership components like collaboration, community, communication um to the elementary still is on a very small scale right now because we are concentrating efforts on secondary education. But one of the things that we've seen from both high school to middle school and middle school to elementary is the desire that students have to impact their peers. So, as we're talking about

106identity and how our older students are able to see themselves as people in the community, our high schoolers are that for our middle schoolers. Our high school and middle schoolers are that for our elementary students. So, as we're talking about that mentorship component and maybe having the older students lean into the elementary schools more, it's something that we are developing. And can I follow up on the five essentials? Are uh elementary students take that survey as well? >> Upper elementary, >> fifth and six. >> Okay. >> Maybe fourth probably. >> Dr. Mvin, >> there was a lot in here about student school board. And I should just say that Sarah Louise Henry is the reason that all good things happen. Well, not everything that happens in the student school board is good, but she's the

107reason for the good stuff that does happen. Um, but we've also discovered that um both our middle school and high school students um have created for themselves amazing experiences whether they're in student school board or not um to be leaders and they are doing culture days and they are doing fundraisers and they have student governments or student councils at each school. they have peer tutoring at some of the high schools. Um, so I I think that there are some significant models that have been created by the district um that have been created by the schools so that kids almost anywhere they are are able to see other kids doing important work and being leaders. And I think it's we've got good role models everywhere. Um, but I really appreciate the the work that that Miss

108Henry and um Mr. Ruffen are doing with our student school board and Dr. because these kids love the ability to advise the superintendent and they do. >> And if I may, just one recent observation I had opportunity to um participate in and that was at the um Rosa Parks walk at uh Hoover >> Ruby Bridges. >> Thank you. No problem. Thank you. And that was so important because there were high school students who came down and shared information. And for me that really resonated. It speaks to uh one of the things my I recall my mother saying uh she grew up in the segregated South and uh her classroom was a one room uh classroom multi multi-grade and how students learn from each other and uh the expectation was there, the opportunities were there and

109the outcomes were there. Uh I can tell you the depth of educational knowledge my my mother had and and she certainly um conveyed that to uh each of my siblings and myself. But just wanted to encourage uh you to keep up the good work. um don't have to have a lot of people. Small but mighty effective. So please keep up the good work. And uh I think uh I have uh 11 grandkids that are involved in RPS and I have inquired after their in involvement. Some of them are uh involved in in student government. I don't know if they attend the student school board or not, but uh uh so your work is having an impact and uh your voice matters as well. So, thank you, Dr. >> I always have questions. Um so, first,

110yes, I I think that it's amazing. I like all you know, extracurricular ideas, whether it's school board, music. Um I think that these things just inspire kids to want to learn, right? gives more reason to want to be in a school. But I am curious about what you think the reason is besides the fact that they are just of the male gender that we are, you know, having a decrease in participation with the boys, you mentioned six to 16 and what are we doing to engage them in, you know, or let them know that it's an offering. Um because I I had a house full of sons and I would ask them things and they didn't even know what was happening. in the building. So, how what what I mean what are we doing? I

111mean, I'm I'm speaking from a parent perspective, right? Because it's hard to encourage your kids to be a part of things that they're not even aware that they can be um a part of. So, what kind of outreach are we doing to kind of shift that a little bit? >> Thank you. I'm glad that you asked because one of the things that I'm most proud of our student school board members for is the fact that they continue to ask and be aware of who is not in the room. Right? So, they are the ones saying, "We understand that we don't represent everybody's experience within our schools and what can we do to to get more um perspective from everybody. And so, one of the things we've done is when we do recruit, we open it

112up to admin and staff to um refer students. And a lot of it into sites and talking to students very organically, but our students do a very good job of saying, "Okay, we are not seeing a lot of boys in here." Um, another year it was we're not seeing a lot of um underassmen and so really talking with that with the students and they do a lot of that outreach as well. I do some too, but I really don't want to take the credit away from the fact that they are really leaning into students and not just students who are thriving academically, not just students who are already connected to clubs and things like that, but where are the students who we need to hear from the schools maybe not working um working for traditionally?

113And so some of the first part of that is being aware of it and the second part is finding out why access is a big thing. So, making sure that we are we're not seeing as many boys. Maybe we should be just tapping boys on the shoulder. Where are the boys in the school? You know, what are some of the reasons? A lot of the times students are connected um to other opportunities in school such as sports, um such as student government where they can't come to student school board specifically. And so, we are aware of that. The numbers that are represented for the boys as well for student school board are counting the boys who were come to the Edison building. We do have um students that meet at their sites primarily the underassman.

114So starting ninth grade um and then the students who we take 10 from each site so the students who aren't in that 10 also are there. So the number is representative of a very small group of kids, but we do still want to be intentional about making sure we're pulling in as many diverse voices as we can. And just a suggestion uh specifically to this program, but since the student school board um does give feedback to superintendent, maybe there'd be a way to have some kind of formal feedback loop because I think that that would also for the parents that view and who are involved, you know, that can also be a conversation starter for parents who may may not know, you know, there may be kids that are not asked by their teacher who

115may be very interested. Um, but for parents and caregivers who are involved, if you're not aware of certain programs, you don't know, you know, to ask your student so that they can ask someone to. So if we had a capability of showing that their impact was um that we actually consider their impact at our board meetings even even if it was once a month. Um, I think that that could also help with diversifying that group because then it will show the impact that those students have and maybe give um parents, caregivers, and community members more reasons to encourage their children to >> one of the beautiful pieces about student school board is we you have this group of kids who are having this amazing experience. They get to talk about policy. They get to talk

116with students from other um schools. They get to learn about the wise and what we're doing and things that impact the district as a whole. But we want to also have other kids like that should be the experience for every kid in our district to be able to learn about their environment, their school community, their community in Rochester and to contribute in a way that feels authentic and valuable. So, while we definitely want to make sure we're pulling in those students for a student school board, that experience for everybody is also important to us. Thank you. >> I think that the work that you've done to uh solidify this resource is really important. You know, the Minnesota School Board Association has a program and training for school boards to consider having a student representative advisory

117or in some cases vote to sit on the school board. And I think that what you've done with school student school board is harder because you I don't think one voice could represent all of the student voice to us if they were if they were at this table with us. And what you've done is you're bringing so many voices in so many different ways. And I know that the superintendent um is intentional about what kind of topics you bring to the student school board that influence the recommendations that he makes on certain things to the board. And I I would say let's do more. I mean, what what haven't we asked them, you know, to give their opinion on before we make a decision? Because I think we're starting we're we're far down the road

118of of solidifying this as um an ongoing resource that's just going to keep propagating itself from year to year. And um we should not waste that opportunity at all. Um, you know, I was with my um my children who are RPS graduates and we talked a little bit about um the situations where they did and did not have a chance to talk um about things that impacted them in terms of decisions that were being made and they remember that five or even more years down the road. So, I'm hoping that these students are remembering the opportunities that they're having to really impact um their education. >> Dr. Cook, >> uh yeah, I I just uh I you know, the opportunities for the district to improve and to learn from from students I I think is

119great and we should always center student voices whenever possible. But with this initiative in particular, the part about it that I was always the most excited about is expanding the opportunities for students to discover their own agency as leaders. Um, and there are plenty of opportunities to do that. We heard from a leader earlier today, um, Mr. Campos, and you know, we've heard from leaders in other capacities, e either through RPS activities or other community opportunities that they have. But I think what has been really great about this initiative in terms of, you know, giving something to the students and helping them discover something about themselves is the way that you've been intentional about including those voices that uh weren't necessarily connected to an opportunity where they were already in a position to consider themselves

120a leader. So, um I I think that's been great. it comes through in the sort of the summary that you prepared, but do you have any reflections on how effective that has been or if that is um I I don't know any any reaction to that, but um >> yes, I it's one of the and thank you for your reflection. It's one of the things that I think shows the growth and where it could really go. So we have students who are learning to do so much research how to present in front of people. We did a workshop on that. Um when we the a beautiful part of what you're saying is student voice is in a lot of these initiatives that is that are on the table right we have students who have given

121feedback on attendance and deeper learning. When we talk about registration cell phone policies. So their voices coming up in all of this talked [clears throat] earlier about the mindsets, behaviors and systems and how that's coming forward. So the voice will be incorporated in that. And I think that the opportunities for them to be leaders in our district and community are endless. You know, it can look like going to an elementary school and presenting. It can look like being uh partners with uh behavior So if you have um student leadership groups, for example, K kids at the elementary level, you know, they serve at their community events. So that's another way to connect family engagement. You come in and you're at a family engagement event and you see your elementary kids students who are helping do

122the leadership. So I just want to agree with what you're saying. There's so many opportunities to grow the student leadership and connect to students in our district. Director. >> Um, I just want to comment on something you said. You mentioned the cell phone policy that um, it just so happened to today I was um, Dr. Director Workman and I are going to the delegate assembly this week and are going to learn about different initiatives around the state. And one of the things we're being presented with, I know that there's been a piece of legislation pushed through and it hasn't been approved, but it's been proposed and we're looking at a resolution at the delegate assembly about completely banning cell phone use statewide as a state statute. And I feel confident based on the student voice

123that you give us that we're going to oppose that and that there's reasons to oppose that and make it a local decision that we've done here. And I think that we wouldn't have had that without the student voice from the schoolboard. And I really appreciate having that information so that we can be confident about the decisions that we're making here as a as adults for those students because it directly impacts them, not us. I just want to make a quick comment um in support uh and directly to what you said director Cook. So I am an RPS graduate and I actually was a part of the student government program that was once run by Miss Means and Miss Jackie Troder and I am sitting here today. So I will say that there is a great

124impact um as a student being exposed to internal policies and even though we did more watching at that time and just more explaining of what was happening at the tables and we came to schoolboard meetings and city council meetings, it was very impactful. So I think that you know I just thought I'd throw that in there that it does make a difference um and it does help some students you know find their belonging even though many years, >> but I'm here today. >> We ready to move on to the next subject, Madam Chair? So, board members, I just wanted to share that in for two of the um individuals who are going to be um uh interacting with you next. Uh Dustin Marorrow and Josh Halverson, they are relatively new to their jobs and we're

125not um directly on this journey. Of course, Jeff Kappers was in the transportation uh job and Lita Casper was doing the community engagement work. So, but I wanted the board to meet the people who are doing the work going forward. And so, um, going too far back into the dust bin of history about some of those things may not be quite as, uh, fair to Dustin and Josh, though I think I know they they're very well verssed in those things. They consulted with other colleagues in putting these reflection papers together, but I wanted to acknowledge the fact that they're here um, talking about work that they were not as directly involved in uh, over the course of that time. Um, but they will be critical to the work going forward. So wanted to explain that

126unlike for instance when you talk to the folks we've heard from who directly did the work over three years there's a bit of a pivot that we're making here that I just wanted to be sure board members are aware of. >> Great well then we'll start with transportation >> wants to start on the bus director work um I really appreciate all the progress that we've made in transportation um during my long tenure first as a being on the school board. I know how it's a complex problem. It gets a lot of public reaction and I really appreciate your team continuing um and building on what's already been done. Um it's a herculean effort and thank you >> director strong team. So, >> I wanted to ask a question about um >> it was stated about

127the transportation costs um that are allowed in the general formula. So, is the amount we're allowed to spend on transportation limited or is it affected by enrollment or >> I'll invite Dustin uh jump in. we receive an allocation, we could choose to divert more general fund dollars that are intended more traditionally for teaching and learning to transportation. So that's not there's not a cap. Um every time we do that, of course, we're not spending it on the classroom. So no, there's not a limit, but we also um are given our transportation uh revenue by formula, and so it has to do with how many kids that we're actually serving. >> Hopefully that answers Y um I also know that um stakeholder feedback on issues of transportations and boundaries is some is sometimes fraught. Um and

128I'm wondering if there's anything that we've learned from the type of feedback we've either asked for or have gotten. I'm sure I I know the transportation department phone probably rings maybe more than [laughter] most of the phones in Edison because it's something that you know happens every day. What have we learned about stakeholder feedback and the changes we've made both the transportation and start times that will help us in some of the challenging decisions you you talked about that we may need to make going forward? and how and sorry our secondary how do you use the sort of the feedback you get on a daily basis of how the system's working to maybe guide some of those bigger questions that we ask as we're making bigger changes >> thank you for that question madam chair

129[clears throat] u we are looking at routes and every single day so I think every time we get get a phone call there's there's changes I mean we're looking at every every every time we get feedback back. So, >> um, from the transportation perspective, not the education perspective, how well are our current start times working because it was a monumental effort to get to them for you, as I mentioned a moment ago, being fairly new, having not necessarily got all those scars of getting there, but you're going to get your scars going forward. I promise. Um uh how well are our start times working from from a transportation perspective in terms of like you know pickup delivery on time? >> Yeah, I think moving elementary first has is definitely helpful. I think parents like it.

130I mean there were there are some struggles I think but overall everything is going very smoothly >> and pickups at the end of the day it seems to be I mean obviously I would my sense is it's going pretty well but I'm you know asking you at the mic. Um >> I think my former boss said I I we didn't have much to talk about at our last meeting. So that's a good thing. >> Yeah. >> So you know we fly under the radar as best as possible. We try to take care of the families in RPS. I think we try to you know efficiency is talked about but effectiveness is also like trying to get the kids to school on time. This what everybody's talking about today is the reason why. I just wanted

131to offer an observation. I don't know what the software is called, but uh I watch my grant my daughters use it often to tell the kids, "Well, the bus is around the corner. You need to get out there." Uh so, thanks for introducing that. And uh how well do you think that uh what value do you think it brings to the district and to the uh transportation uh uh system as a whole? Thank you for that question, director. And I think that I mean, it's it's huge. I think for parents to be able to see exactly where the bus is, especially in times like right now when it started to get extremely cold is it's amazing. I mean, as long as the GPS's are working, I think we've had a few snafoos with that and

132a few parent calls on that, but overall, I think it's I mean, and it's just getting better. So, we're continuing to explore different options that are going to get that information in parents hands and students hands because it's not just parents that can see it. All the high school students, they can download the app right on their phone and see exactly where their bus is in real time. >> So, occasionally we get um some feedback from the community or we see conversations that are happening about um the number of parents who are picking up their kids themselves and not riding the bus. Um, and I know that we tell parents that are that their kids are eligible for busing at the beginning of the year. Are we finding that there are a lot of people

133who are saying, "Oh, of course I want busing." But then their kids are not using the bus. And is that is that a factor that we consider changing our policies or procedures around transportation? Is it >> So, right now it's an optin. So, and we're looking at doing opt out. So, right now we're working on a different procedure to get parents to opt out if they're not using their transportation so we can allow more students to that are will be using the bus to actually have that option. >> So, we are trying to figure out a way to track that use. >> Uh, it's one of a number of system changes that we'll be considering going forward. Um, if you have a any resource that you think there's no um scarcity of, it's a human

134nature not to worry about it. So, I'm glad my kid has the slot on the bus. I don't think it's my job as a parent to worry about the fact that that leaves an empty bus seat on the bus uh when my kid's not there, but that does matter to us actually quite a lot because um as we've said a couple times tonight, every dollar we spend on transportation is not in the classroom. And so, this is something we're going to be looking at very tightly. I mean, there are a number of things that would be a quantum leap. Leaving aside putting microchips in our students, which we're not proposing, a quantum leap would be a swipe technology that allows us actually, not just on transportation, but in other ways to actually monitor um uh

135exactly who's where uh both within our buildings and on our buses. That's not something that is in the offing right now, but it would be transformative in terms of our ability to have maximum efficiency uh in terms of the routes. the the change that Dustin alluded to is something that we would need to do very carefully, but it would essentially be saying to our parents um there's a cost for um reserving a space on this bus and not having your student ride this bus. We don't mean once in a while when they have a project and you're driving them to school so they can take the you know the board in. But the regular decision to uh apply for transportation service but not use it is definitely an issue that we need to figure out.

136That said, we are both uh pleased and responsible for providing transportation service. So, we got to be careful how we unpack this one. >> Um, and I guess so my question is just about the districtwide options. I know we don't offer transportation, but since you have been in the role, um, has that been an often conversation that you're having with parents? Do you still have parents calling that want to send their kids to districtwide options even though there's not um transportation? Do we have alternative options for them if they do if that is going to be a concern and they want to send their child to >> Yeah, thank you for that question, director. We do any any parent that calls, we always should try to provide solutions. So, I think that's the most important

137part. And right now, we don't really have that much of that going on, but at the beginning of the year, we definitely did. Parents wondering how they can get their students to school safely. And it it's died off quite a bit at this time, but I think that was definitely a real thing at the beginning of the year. >> Sure. Um, Dr. Ward, I am almost certain that I will be bringing you some recommendations on this issue as part of the next strategic plan. Um, we now only have one of our districtwide option schools that has a waiting list. That's a gigantic change from historic norms. And it's in some ways predictable. If you don't have transportation from anywhere in a 218 square mile school district, families are going to have to make some different

138choices. Um, we've also seen far greater use of what we call self-transport after the board approved it for middle and elementary school than we anticipated. And not just to the district-wide option schools. we see families transporting from neighborhood school to neighborhood school in a way that we absolutely will be taking a look at and bringing some recommendations in the next um strategic plan. There also is an educational component that we have a task force facilitated by our consultants looking at the educational programming in those districtwide option schools as well. So, um, we I don't have recommendations for you yet on this one, but I think it's very hard to see us having a situation where we don't make some shifts to our system uh over the next four years in this area. >> Well, I

139know that you've had a lot of work and um you can't just uh do strategic planning. you have that everyday operations of getting the kids to school and given the recommended next steps and the number that uh as the superintendent just mentioned of big topics I think we'll be seeing a lot more of you in the future. Thank you for your work. >> Looking forward to it. Thank you. >> And then we'll move on to partnerships. You want to start? >> Director Cook, >> one of the one of the reflections in the um in the packet here is about how it it's important to balance the um capacity of the steward with the I guess I'll say alignment of the community partner with the um strategic priorities of the district. um and sort of the

140suggestion that maybe maybe uh maybe less could be more. Um could could you um if you have any sort of um further reflections on how to strike that balance in a way that's most effective for the capacity of the school district and um sort of making best use of our community relationships. Um, I I I just I wasn't quite sure how to think about that other than what I just >> Yeah, thank you. And I'll preface this by saying we're taking a page out of Minneapolis public schools playbook and calling our stewards relationship managers just to be a little bit more directly reflective of what they're doing. Um, and acknowledging that we have to explain their role to a lot of different people inside and outside of RPS. And I think there's just like a

141a numbers game. And I would I would call these strategically selected partners in a way. We're selecting a certain number of partners who we think have some sort of mutual benefit. And we know we want to have some sort of extra attention to them. And I think when we started this, we said there's going to be 16 of these groups and then 16 RPS staff and they all kind of do the same thing. They're obligated to do the same number of meetings and they're supposed to have like the same maybe tracking of projects, but we know that our partners are very different in size and the number of projects that we do. So I think one consideration could be um maybe having a partner like Mayo Clinic that is very complicated in our relationship invest

142a lot of effort. Amy does an amazing job in that role with them. And then maybe with partners who don't have as complicated of a relationship, maybe that's something that I can be their point person who they know and love or we can find someone else who doesn't have to have the same commitment to it. But it it is really challenging >> and I'll just note I I know for sure that you are using complicated in the the most endearing uh possible way um because we are very glad to have that particular partner. But yeah, no that that that helps a lot. Thank you. Um I think that the codification of the components of our partnership um the flow especially the considerations for a new partnership flowchart and um the uh toolkit for how to

143partner. I I think it might initially seem like, oh, we're giving people more hurdles, but I hope that um groups or organizations in the community see these as road mapaps for how to be a the best partner to because I know there's a lot of people in in the community who think we have something to offer. We we we have something for kids. We really think we can do something great. Um but we also have capacities right. So of the structural piece um what do you think was the most effective in sort of defining or or being the most encouraging to uh new partners as they may consider partnering with RPS. >> Yeah. When I was talking with a colleague outside the district about how to explain um why we have hurdles and how they're

144helpful, she said that all things are possible within the guard rails. So, we're trying to be creative and then acknowledging that there's some things like safety reliability that we're just not going to compromise for any of our partnerships. Um the most used tools were related to data sharing and then types of agreements. So, um there's like a a list of different um different types of agreements that we could have with different organizations and what they're for and what's typically within them. And then we produced a like a legal template for a data sharing agreement. So if there's some partner and they want to obtain student information in some way, um our staff don't have to, you know, rewrite that every time someone who has some leg legal experience has kind of written that for us.

145I think I might just uh briefly, Madam Chair, I know that the the hour is long and we have a other things on the agenda, but um as I mentioned uh Josh who's doing a great job wasn't in this role at the origin. And so if I had to boil down why we have a community partnership strategy in our current strategic plan, what we heard in the year we did the outreach in the 2021 2022 school year was really two core things. One, I don't know who to call when I need something in RPS. I cannot figure out how to get something done. And more importantly, this is from the community partners, the organizations. I should be clear, not necessarily parents or or citizens, but organizations. Um it it felt like always, what have you

146done for me lately? It was always what are you going to do for RPS? And it is true that we have students who have tremendous needs and that we have got um an ambitious agenda. But uh we heard pretty candidly it usually feels like um what are you going to do for our students and that remains but we wanted to say what are your priorities? What are the things that a matter chamber of commerce um cert um United Way Mayo Clinicstead County um and so that those were the two issues I think we've made a good start. This is work that a lot of school districts don't even make explicit. Like it's not someone's job to think about community partnerships. Um uh we focused on those initial 16 because frankly when we did a lot

147of the outreach and last strategic plan they were among those who said we really care what's happening in RPS and we don't feel like we have that. I think um as the work moves forward thinking about partnerships with smaller organizations less formally organized organizations is kind of a next phase of the work. Um, I will just say had we not launched this effort and had a strong academic agenda, I I don't believe Mayo Clinic would have stepped up at a moment of critical need for the district with a 10 million $10 million contribution. Um, and so I I think we see some payoffs around work that can seem kind of nebulous and even fluffy like you know what what is this partnership work? But um, when you get to that moment of truth where you

148are ready to launch the project or write the grant or navigate the crisis, the work that gets laid by that kind of ongoing partnership. You can't call at the moment of crisis and expect an organization to like prioritize you effectively. So, I think this has been a good beginning and and some of the early discussions I've had with Josh and Amy who leads this work um are I think pointing to some some exciting next phases, but we need to sharpen it so that we can really define how we're going to move it forward. and I can't let you leave without saying how excited I am about your work in volunteers and education and that that is coming back. We've heard that from a lot of people. So keep that in mind. Community members, we would

149like volunteers in our schools. >> Anything else board members? Any closing? Thank you to all of you. >> Yeah, thank you so much for the work. I know the length of the discussion is indicative of the amount of progress All right, board members, we'll move on to our monitoring topic, the achievement and integration progress report 2024 2025. Superintendent. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. You can see Will Ruffen the second, our executive director of family engagement and youth empowerment who is coming to steal the magic um not steal to Take the magic wand. Yes. Thank you. >> Um and we have got um the three leaders who are um affectionately increasingly called the Heathers. Um Heather Hogan, Heather Cleather, and Heather Heather Wilman. Our director of academic support, director of elementary education, and director of secondary

150education. Board members are aware that every year we are required by the state of Minnesota to prepare an update on our achievement and integration plan, which will uh leads. And so this is a required report to the school board that will subsequently be expressed in a written report to MDE. As we've been trying to do with all of our work, we're going to report on the numbers and give a brief snapshot of the work we're doing to improve those numbers or to continue our progress. And so much of this will be familiar to board members. Um but um we are required to complete this by I believe December 1. And so thanks to Will and the team for putting this briefing together. All right, thanks for having us here again tonight. So, this report is

151an annual um compliance report that we have to do every year. And I just want to say that this is year two of the three-year plan. So, we're focusing the numbers that you're going to see tonight focus on last school year. Goal number one um focuses around significantly increasing their percentage of students who identify as black or African-American Hispanic and or those who qualify for free and reduced price lunch. Um before I get into the numbers, I just want to say one thing that we learned from MDE was when we have multiple subgroups in a single goal, if one of those subgroups do not meet, then we don't meet for the goal itself at all. So, one suggestion going forward is to just focus on one subgroup per goal so that we can accurately track

152if we're meeting or not meeting that goal. Um, so with that, you can see our black and African-American students did have a 1.8 increase. Um, but our target was a 3% increase, so they still did not make the goal in that category. our Hispanic students actually doubled the target um with the 6.3 increase which is really good. And then you can see there on the screen also our free and reduced price lunch students um even though they did have an increase of 1.4% % they still did not meet the target of >> some of the strategies that we're working on. Um you've probably heard about many of them before, but we wanted to share um uh an intentional focus on selecting diverse texts and materials that reflect our students and help students to learn about

153uh ways of life that are different from their own. as well. Um, as spoken about tonight, the deeper learning pieces are definitely integrated into the selection of our curricular materials. Um, so that of course students can see themselves in the materials as well. Uh, we also really have a big focus on tier one instruction, making sure all students have the opportunity to participate in that. We've worked with scheduling and instructional minutes to make sure it's prioritized and really work on that engaging relevant instruction for every student, especially in literacy. And then um high quality literacy interventions. You've heard about the MTSS work that we've been doing to really make sure that we're able to identify the gaps that students have and target our instruction to support them. So those are some of the strategies that

154we are using to target that goal. Switching gears to goal number two, which is about um recruitment and retention. We had some of that conversation earlier in the previous presentation, but this goal is around increasing the number of black or indigenous people of color um from 5% to 9% over the three-year span. And you can see there from 2024 to 2025, there was just about a 1% increase. Uh we have one additional staff member. As you can see, we moved from 84 to 85. But I think something that's important to note is the retention rate is really high. So the teachers of color that we do have, we are keeping them and they're not um leaving the field. One thing that's new this year that I did not do last year, uh for context, I

155decided to include the overall staff of color and administrators of color just so we can see for comparison sake. and overall staff of color. Um, we have about 329 out of the 2,800 people. Um, but that's that's a lot, right? As far as when you look at the percentage from 5% jumping up to 11%. When you look at all the various roles across the district, that's pretty good. Even though the goal itself only focuses on teaching. We jump to administrators of color. You can see nine out of our 84 administrators are of color. So, we still have definitely have some work to do there. Um, but one reason that I wanted to to add this slide is because we talked about identity quite a bit tonight. And that only doesn't reflect on the teachers. That

156reflects on all the positions within the schools, including our leaders. And we have quite a lot of work to do. So, we're thinking about why our students aren't going into education. the people around them don't look like them all of all of the time. So, this is definitely an area that we need to focus on in the future. Not only teachers because it's a goal, but all of the various positions that work with our students here. I want to talk about a little bit um about the grow your own program because that also did come up, but we have three people who graduated the program last year um which is good. 15 people who are currently um seeking that degree. Um for the student pathway, we have three students who are going into music, academic

157and behavioral specialist or special ed. And we have one person going into secondary social studies. So those students are receiving the some of the scholarship funds that Carl mentioned earlier. And then I also added the schools that you can see there. So they're they're staying pretty local. So we're known to stay in Mano. One thing that we also want to seek is how can we tap into that larger number that 300 number of um various roles that that I just mentioned. How do we get them to move from maybe like an ESP position to a teacher position because we don't see the numbers coming in at the teacher realm, but we do see them in in other roles. So, how can we work on advancing them into the teaching space as we move into our

158goal that focuses on increasing the percentage of students um who are receiving a post-secary credit and or some type of indust industry certification. You can see there um moving from American Indian or Alaskan Native students, they actually are on track and it's a very small um population. So any increase in that number is going to is going to um have them be on track just percentage wise. But that was increase of two students and we'll take that. Asian students were not on track even though again they also had a couple of students increasing and then a black and black and African-American students. We also have six students um increasing in this space but none of the Asian or black students were on track because they didn't meet the percentage threshold that we were looking for

159which was an increase of 4.5%. Continuing on, you can see that our Hispanic population actually took a dip. We have five less students um last year compared to the previous year taking those type of courses and or receiving a certification. Um white students did increase by 10 and those who are on free and or reduced price lunch actually took a big dip with 15 less students in that space. And just looking at it overall, so when you look at the total picture, we did have more students participating in post-secary education and or receiving that certification um by an increase of 19 students overall. It's just not as high of a number that we want to see. This here just shows a breakdown of what the students look like racially who are taking post-secary options. And

160this one here focuses on CEK. This is part of the integration piece. So some of our students in Dover, Yoda, um, Pine Island take some of these courses. Byron has a few. Um, so these are our top 10. As you can see, with us being in the backyard of Mayo Clinic, health and science career is the number one choice, which I think makes a lot of sense. Followed by welding, nursing, robotics, and we have a lot of people who like to cook in our district. Um, at the bottom there you can see just in case there's anyone interested, I did include the numbers for firefighters. We do have 16 students in that space and then 10 taking the second course of firefighter. Actually, I want to pause here and just point out that that intro

161to teaching. Someone did mention that earlier. So, we do have 24 students in that space and that's the area where Carl was talking about. Lindsay has been reaching out to those students to try to get them into the teaching field. >> Right. So, I get to talk a little bit about the strategies um in this area. So, we've been working really hard on family communication. We know that our our families tell us that they don't know enough about the opportunities. So, we've had some college conversations events. Um we just had one last week. we had 85 uh families log on and we've had lots of people requesting the recording as well. Um so we've also shared that information with family engagement um because we know that's a really good way to get that information out.

162Um we're also supporting more teachers to be concurrent enrollment teachers. Um that's part of the contract and that means that the students could actually take the course at our high school, not have to drive anywhere. so we don't have to worry about that barrier of transportation. Um so we're hoping to add more concurrent enrollment teachers. And then finally um just additional opportunities for our students to um actually meet a graduation requirement and also get a credit. So, as we think about building this out, being more strategic, just thinking about how can we make sure we have both um meeting a graduation requirement and earning college credit. And some additional strategies we're working on um first of all, using our Zello data um for strategic advising uh to connect student interest with course offerings that we

163have. Um this is uh work essential um to our counselor work in um our second year working with uh Zello and our students. Um also continuing work on developing pathways that earn high school credit, college credit, and also potentially industry certification all at the same time. Um an example of this is our phabbotomy program. This year we're in our second year um of that where we have 15 students who are receiving uh instruction at Mayo Clinic. At the end of the year they then get their phabbotomy certification. They get college credit, high school credit. Um and then many of them are now working at Mayo Clinic as phabotamists. We have 15 students this year in the cohort. Um, and then implementing the RPS mindsets, behaviors, and steps to student success will be a big way

164to build identity in students early on to prepare them for rigorous coursework as they enter high school. >> We're open for questions, >> please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And um, I neglected to say um, we will be developing a new achievement in integration plan this winter and spring. because we're at the end of this three-year cycle and it's uh the discussion that Will and I have had is that we want to make sure it's tightly aligned with our new strategic plan and so the lessons we've learned about the indicators that really can inform our work uh are very relevant to this effort as well to the point like that director was making about how we measure family engagement, how we measure these things. So, um it's our strong intention that this annual report will

165basically be a report on our new strategic plan. Um it's not divorced from our current strategic plan, but as you know, it's not tightly aligned and we want to make sure that it is going forward. >> Dr. on the the first goal um where you're talking about the um reading skills on or scores on FastBridge and the scores aren't real far apart, but do you have any idea what worked for the Hispanic kids that they increased scores by 6% the other two groups didn't? I mean, I see the strategies there, but is there any way of knowing how that happened? >> I don't you know, it's hard to which thing has made the most difference. I would say one thing we've worked really hard on at secondary is more text that actually reflect our students.

166Um and so uh we even have done some some reading and letting the students give us some feedback before we make a selection for a class text. Um so I think that's part of it is just being more open to um lit circles. maybe the whole class isn't reading the same text because we know that sometimes that can be a challenge to meet everyone's needs. So, I think that's one thing um that might be changing the level of engagement that we're working hard on and I would say the elementary level um just how much we're leaning into those evidence-based practices and our teachers um taking the classes about structured literacy and how to implement um all the different practices uh that students need you know to grow as readers. I would say all of that

167work which has been immense um through that read act probably is having an impact as well. It could also be um in addition to those things are there might be overlap between students students and so as they increase in their proficiency um and the co-eing that's happening and all the addition supports are put >> director I'm I'm really curious um how How did you determine the goal status of increase? Like some places it was like 3% or 2% or you know 10,000%. No, that wasn't I mean I can see you want to have a goal but and I think there's only one exception where some kind of increase wasn't reflected. you know, the fact that maybe you didn't meet the target goal in my mind is certainly not a failure because it's moving in the

168right direction. But how did you arrive at those end goal percentage numbers? >> Well, those were given to us by um our research department as far as what would be significantly or statistically significant, which is where that number of 3% comes from. And I agree that 1.8 is still an increase and it's nothing that we should um hang our head about, but we just didn't meet the number that was given to us for significance um statistically. >> Go ahead. >> Um so then when this report is sent to the state, do they consider at all what the um what those goal increases might have been or the target goals were? I mean, you could make your your thing look really really good by saying we want, you know, a quarter of a % increase and

169then you make the goal and woohoo of versus something that's perhaps a little bit more um reaching. >> Sure. I think that would be a question for MDE on how they access that. Um but we just still want to make sure that we're pushing ourselves and holding ourselves true to our data and our students and our practices. So 3% was a reach and you can see um we didn't we didn't meet that. We don't want to just have a number there. that weekend, we actually want to dig in and do the work for our students because they deserve that. >> So, these were percentages that our district came up with. They weren't imposed from us on us by the state of Minnesota or >> Thank you. That helps. >> Um, this is an example of

170knowing what we now know, I would not have included fast bridge as a measure in this goal. As I said before, it's a screening tool. In fact, I believe it actually was an appropriate system measure, but we we adopted it three years ago because we were making major investment in BSbridge and it's very useful for improvement purposes. Um, we also set a very ambitious uh improvement measure as we did and everything which was as Will said statistical significance and the problem with this is this is a year-to-year goal to have statistically significant change in one year is very unusual. So, um, that would happen usually over three to five years. And so, but we were setting statistically significant improvement year to year. Like, that's a that's a rare thing. And so, we've really learned a

171lot. We are engaged right now deeply in thinking about how do we think about improvement goals for the next strategic plan. Um, and it is not an exact science uh to figure this out. I know we're going to do better than we did uh in this current strategic plan. We've learned so much including by the the mistakes that um I was certainly very involved with that not just our research department and I think we've learned a lot of lessons. >> Dr. >> So I I I got a question going back to your intro um when you started this information. So I got I got a couple questions in here. I'm going try to make it real quick. One, you said that we should do subgroups. Maybe focus on those subgroups. Um am I leading into

172my question and not specific to because I know you said that's not the best measurement of data, but there's got to be some overlap, right? Because statistically our black and brown students uh get more of the free and reduced lunch, right? So, some of this is a little bit of a double possibly measurement, right? Um which was also uh to director Marvin asking about the specifically about the Hispanic increase, right? Because my assumption my assumption is that some of those kids are also free and reduced lunch. So for it to go so far up in just that one category um to what Miss Mona said here um I guess my question is what subcategories would make this data more digestible and what I mean by that is um if we have uh Hispanic students who

173English is their second language right that will drastically change what that data looks like if we're talking about homegrown, you know, students that have spoken English. Um same thing with um black descendant of slaves versus um immigrant students, right, who may speak another language at home. So my question to you is what subgroups do you think would give us the most accurate data so that when we are looking at this, we're not looking at data that has been processed twice. So my assumption is that you didn't take the black and Hispanic students out of the free and reduced lunch number. So some of this is over process. How do we get down to those specific subcategories where we can see if there's actual sustainable growth or change in these subcategories that is actually making a

174difference? You know what I mean? I mean, if we group everybody together big enough, it's always going to look like a change. actually making movement in these subgroups or are we just without being mean are we just throwing numbers up there because oh there was some change but do we really know if these subgroups were impacted? >> I think that's a very good point for us to take and explore further. I think part of our limitation is this is how our students are defined by the state. So, if we were to break that subgroup down, we would have to do that work because that's not how we report to the state. But I think that's a fair point that you make. How do we know if it's our black students who are making the the

175increase versus our um immigrant students like you said? And then that will help us pinpoint where we need to put more resources and things like that. Um same thing with the Hispanic. We don't necessarily know that they're ML students and we can't just assume just because they're Hispanic that they're an ML student, but we don't know that for sure either. So, we would have to break that down. But that's something that we would have to do on our end. And I I really take that point. Um it's just not how we report the numbers to the state. >> And uh so what subgroups would you think because you did mention that earlier. >> Uh what I was referring to is we would only have to have one subgroup in the goal itself. So if it's

176black only then it wouldn't include Hispanic. It wouldn't include but what I would do if I were to pick the goal was to look at where our data is currently and look at whatever group that is that needs to improve the most and then that that's where I will focus my time and resources as far as Dr. >> um Miss Wellman I'm curious about your u talking about the goal related the strategy sorry about the concurrent enrollment because it's something that interests me but also again delegate assembly we're talking about that quite at length this year it's been a topic that seems to have come up at a it its time has come for state potentially intervention in the PC PSO process and what we're doing with schools I'm curious to know um you mentioned

177something about a contract are you talking about the teacher contract >> is that that is part of the teacher contract then it is >> can you talk a little I don't want to put you on the spot but it's something you Um Carl maybe can make sure that I'm correct, but I think there are a number of teachers that are going to be able to continue their education um to be able to get a masters in their content area. I think it's three maybe they don't say maybe there's not a number >> um but I contract says up to five >> there will be some are they selected are they do they self- select? How does that happen? We through the partnership with the Rochester Education Association have jointly agreed we want to help more

178of our RPS teachers get the credential that they need to offer a college course that is a full college class from an accredited postsecary institution but taught in our high school. The University of Minnesota in particular I think has fantastic offerings and so you have to meet the higher ed institutions criteria for being able to offer that course. It's often been a master's degree in your content area. Like we have a teacher at Mayo High School, Eric Dirks, who just got a master's in computer science. So, he can certainly teach uh college and schools. There are some places where you don't need the masters. It's it's a certain number of credits. And so, what we jointly have agreed with REA is that we are going to be subsidizing their um uh completion of those post-secary

179credits or that master's degree um to the tune of several. We envision it'll probably be about we hope three a year. Um but it, you know, we'll have to look at teacher demand >> and then um we want to offer those courses in our high schools because then the student does not need to leave. They're often really wonderful, um course content, but it's taught by an RPS teacher in our high school. And so I think it's educationally beneficial and the dollars do not flow to our friends at RCTC. >> Not that I don't want them to have students, but >> is that new to the contract? Yeah, >> new this year though. >> It is and I really I mean uh I was the the REA negotiating team uh was was uh enthused about that

180from the beginning. It's it's a recognition not only what our kids need, but it's a recognition of our teachers wanting to um uh grow professionally. Um it's a little known uh reality that many studies have shown that a general master's degree in education of which I have one has no association with improvements in student achievement at all despite the fact that in this district and most you can get a $10,000 increase. >> But there's a strong association for a teacher who has a master's degree in their content area in English in computer science. I'm not suggesting we would not continue to want to support our teachers getting a masters in education, but um the data is actually pretty clear that that is not associated with an student achievement. So this was a recognition I think

181that we want to support our teachers in continued study in mathematics in art in uh science in their field um and then offer that programming to our students. And Misswoman, I appreciate your comments earlier about the equity piece of that that I do think that's important and that's one of the things that's I've always been fascinated by that if we can do this at the school building and keep that funding, why aren't we doing that? Um, I would be interested if we can share maybe just a composite of how many of our teachers have that content area masters versus not. Um and then kind of my related question is how are we doing amongst our peers in that category of having teachers with that content masters um you know our our same size peers. Are

182we at same as our peers or is that something we're lacking that we need to improve? >> Uh and Heather and Heather deal with this all the time too. I will say compared to the districts that I think RPS should benchmark against, we offer far fewer college in the schools courses than I think we should. I think we can and should greatly grow. Um, we've had a lot of our kids who've done PSO, which is great, but I really think that there are there are we have fantastic teachers in this district and the student then doesn't have to leave, you know, the um school. And so I that's why I was very excited that um we were able to make this a partnership with REA. Absolutely. We we have um English 1117 and 1118 right

183now. And the great thing about that is it's at all three of our comprehensive high schools. Um but we also offer political science 1615 only at Century because we only have a teacher who has a master's in content um at that one high school. So looking to have more of those courses where again they meet a graduation requirement and all of our students could benefit. I think that's what we're really trying to think about. Um, be more strategic about how to build that pathway. >> I appreciate having this conversation. It was something that was not on my radar. So, it's helpful for our discussion this weekend as well. >> I think we've talked for a long time and and um, Mr. Ruffin, I think you reinforced it about having teachers that look like them is

184an important factor for our students and we've been talking about our teachers of color goal. Um, but if I did the math In order to meet that goal, we'd have to have 50 more teachers of colors. How many open spots are there for teachers every year? >> Okay. So that we'd have to we'd have to get half of them essentially, right? So, I mean, I I I don't want these numbers not I don't want these numbers to reflect the lack of effort because I I think we have heard time and time again. We just saw it in the reflection of the intentionality that we're doing. But I kind of wanted to put that number out there so people understood the the the goal in terms of actual people, especially with declining work uh people going

185in the teacher workforce that this may be our one of our more challenging things to meet but not by not by lack of effort or intention. >> One small variable also is teachers looking into administration or other um roles within the district as well. So they They're staying in the district, but they just maybe are progressing. >> Dr. W. >> And we've talked a lot about the pathways for the students into education, but something that you mentioned that I did found interesting that we didn't get the numbers on was that we do have a lot of staff of color that are coming in, but they are not licensed teachers. Have we or is there anything in the works or any thought process that you currently have as to how we can move those adult learners

186maybe into the teacher pathway because they obviously are planning to be a part of RPS so they you know want to work with with with children. Um and I asked that because we have I haven't seen those numbers as to what that looks like. So if we look at the hall monitors ESPs, are we seeing a higher number of staff of color in those areas? And then have we really looked into what are the what are the uh barriers to them not taking advantage of the grow your own? Is there an incentive that RPS could offer so that we can move staff that is applying that are staff of color in that BIPO community into that career pathway. I know we talked about the pathway for the kids, but have we ever considered creating a

187pathway um for the adult learners that are that are coming in as a retention, you know, product to keep them, you know, with RPS as well? >> And the answer is yes. So, that's part of that grow your own mentioned that earlier. We do have an adult pathway. We're trying to tap into some of those people. Um, and I know that Lindsay specifically has been reaching out to people in those roles. I think what's what's important too for us is to explore is that teacher apprenticeship program where we already have an ESP in that space, but how can we start to train them on the job already um so that they don't have to go and take another course at night? how do we provide time within their contract for them to do that coursework

188during the day? So, those are some of the ideas that we're exploring currently. Um, but those thoughts are they're definitely all ideas are on the table right now >> and it it would be nice to see those numbers too at some point to see what the difference is with just that across the board just not teachers >> board members. Any other questions? >> Thank you. Can we take a break? All right, board members, we have a request for recess. We will reconvene at 8:25 p.m. >> Means it's not 7 o'clock, is it? You won't let me do a dramatic Board is back in session at 8:23 p.m. Our next item is a prep for action where we are scheduled to take action on December 16th and it's the balanced budget model enhancements. Superintendent. >> Thank

189you, Chair Nathan and board members. You can see our director of finance, Andy Croxton, here to give you an overview of some enhancements in our balanced budget model that I am proposing we make. As board members know well, last year was year one of the balanced budget model. We learned some things. We've done extensive outreach to our school principles and central office administrators. And so I'm bringing uh before you uh a set of recommendations that Andy will outline here. We also have done some deep work on our central office budgets um that Andy will as well which is [clears throat] the other half um actually slightly more than half about 60% of our budget is in those central budgets and 40 is in the sites including special ed and ML in the central budgets so

190Andy thank you for your leadership um look forward to the discussion >> thank you for having me once again I I want to just take a few minutes there was a lot of detail in the memo and I'm not I'm not going to touch on obviously all of that detail but there are a few highlights we wanted to make sure we point it out to Um first of all I just wanted to level set where we are. Um year one really focused on those resources in the schools. So if you remember the five categories of the balanced budget model that the board approved in January. Um actually the board approved a four category model. We added the fifth by by making some adjustments when we came back in May as we realized we needed to

191kind of separate district-wide services and central office into a couple of different categories. But we generally refer to district-wide services and central office as cost center budgets. The others are what we would refer to as our learning sites. And so most of what I'm going to bring up tonight is is really those enhancements and and and adjustments we u want to make to the learning site budget learning site portion of the balanced budget model. Most of it actually is going to be in the flexible funding category. Number one is just an adjustment in terms of the discretionary budget allocations. Currently, we do distribute funds for uh uh sites to use for their uh supplies, printing and copying needs. That's a per pupilbased allocation. We do that outside of the balance budget model. Um and so

192the proposal is that we bring that into the balance budget model thereby allowing principles an opportunity to actually enhance their offerings using some of their flex balance budget dollars along with uh the allocation that we would have uh otherwise made to them. There's no discussion about changing that allocation. The principles could keep it as it is um or enhance it if they so choose. So that's uh that's item number one. Finance would continue to preload though copying and printing budget because those are those are an area where we really feel like we need to keep some fairly um uh tighter controls. I don't want to say stringent but tighter controls because um there is um there is an opportunity to exceed those those budgets. Uh printing is is something that we do spend a fair

193amount of dollars on in the district. Number two, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about compensatory aid. What we did last year, if you recall, or actually what we did for this year, but we made the decision last year, was that we would allocate 100% of a site's earned compensatory revenue to that site as flexible funding. What we're proposing is that we would remove 20% of that as we are permitted to do by state law and we would allocate much of that 20% to some of our sites that have limited compensatory dollars and have no title funding. And so let me just get into that detail a little bit and I think this will really um highlight some of the challenges. So these are actual real numbers and so we have

194a large school which means it's enrollment over 350. This is what they receive for compensatory uh money and no title no title funding. We have a smaller school which actually obviously would be less than 350 and you can see the difference in the what they receive for compensatory and title giving them a a huge advantage to flexible funding um resources within their staffing models. I'm not here to tell you right which one's right or wrong in terms of the way the state is um determining their compensatory revenue. But what I'm what I want to just point out is the disparity we have between two different buildings within the same district in terms of compensatory revenue. So what we're proposing is that a portion of essentially every building's compensatory revenue would be reduced by 20%. Again,

195state law allows us to do that. And then that 20% would be reallocated out to these other sites that have some of those low compensatory revenue numbers. that would allow them obviously to provide the supports which is really what our flexible funding uh dollars are intended to do is to provide those support positions. Um but it also at the elementary level for example can be used for ESPs. It can be used to uh perhaps um add a first or second grade class in lower class sizes. So that's some of the flexibility the compensatory dollars allow buildings to make some of those decisions they can make. policy uh funding enhancement number well this is really number three it should be actually number three I got it number wrong this is actually a an add-on to the

196the the previous slide and this is really how we use our compensatory revenue compensatory revenue by state statute has a very limited set of allowable uses there's actually nine very defined uses What our principles have done prior to uh the legislature changing the allowable uses is they were using compensatory dollars to help uh fund assistant principles and clerical staff. Not exclusively, but some of those positions they were using, those positions cannot be funded with compensatory dollars moving forward. But what we what we ended up doing last year was was some accounting work on the back end to make sure principles could still have those resources in their buildings with some other funding and some of that. Um what we are proposing though is with the change in compensatory aid that portion of that 20% that

197we would um use for other sites for compensatory purposes some of that will be returned to all sites as general fund dollars. So when we give sites back general fund dollars, they have a a wide assortment of options. It's the most flexible funding source they have. So they're not going to get additional funding, but they would get different funding, meaning they have the ability to use it in different ways. Compensatory um just does not allow that flexibility. So we're going to we're going to use some of those compensatory dollars in some of those small sites. As I mentioned previously, um, achievement and integration aid, I know this was a topic of discussion earlier this evening. We allocated, um, a portion of achievement and integration aid out to sites last year as uh, flexible funding. But

198based on the formula and the amount of funding that we have available to give to sites, you can see that the ranges were very small to, you know, even, you know, really a small dollar amount overall. Not enough to actually uh fund a 1.0 teacher in any one of these buildings uh even for that building that received $70,000 because our 1.0 FTE teacher is about $110,000 this year. So what's being proposed is that [clears throat] ultimately the same dollar amount and the same formula would be used to determine how much a site would have received in achievement and integration aid. We instead give them that same money in a general fund aid. What we would do then is we would the accounting team would find those positions that would meet the uh goals that would

199be included in the new achievement integration plan. We on the back side would then find those positions and allocate the actual reserved achievement in integration a to allows the sites more flexibility in their decision-m but we're confident we would still have the appropriate positions to meet the inte achievement integration plan that's being developed. So, it's really I I don't want to call it an an accounting shift or a gimmick, but it's really what we're doing is we're just shifting some of the resources from a reserved status at the site to a reserved status at the district instead. And we would make those changes. Number five then uh is our our school counselors. Um school counselors at all levels were included in the fixed allocation this past year. It's been decided that um like these other

200positions, social workers, resiliency specialists, others that are very similar in nature to the work that they do within the buildings, they were funded with flexible dollars. And so the intent is to take those counselors and shift them again into the flexible funding along with all of these other support positions. and it allows the principles to then select from any one of those uh support positions um out of their flexible funding. And so we believe that this it level sets these same positions that provide similar services. Uh we at the same time have made a commitment in our referendum funding to um to ensure that we have school counselors and so we know that principles will select school counselors. We would then the back again kind of do the same thing. We make sure that those

201dollars are associated with those particular positions. And so again, there's a lot more detail in the memo. This is really high overview of the particular um bullet points um that we we would uh look for implementation next year as we begin the budget process. And timing is somewhat um important because our intent is to get the budget documents out to our principles. Our goal is by December 12th. I hope we can make it. We certainly will make it before Christmas break, but our self-imposed goal is next Friday, and I really hope we can make it. The last thing I want to just mention quickly is uh as Dr. Pel also alluded to was our central office and districtwide service call centers. As I mentioned, this was an area that we sort of put on hold

202last year as we focused on the learning sites and instead we're bringing this work now into um into focus this year. This will be really starting in full force after um we get the learning sites um process moving and ultimately I'm blinking here. I said I wouldn't need 10 minutes. I'm sorry. Um but ultimately these are the learning site or excuse me the cost centers that have been developed to date. Cost centers are sort of living and breathing. As we determine the need for another cost center we may add it or if we look to to divide one we may do that as well. Um these aren't set in stone, but this is what we're working with as of um today. Go >> ahead. Um thank you, Madam Chair, board members. Thank you, Andy. Um

203I just want to state what may be obvious to everyone, but that this is a level of detail in the structure of the budget and finance system that most school boards uh never get to. We are putting this before you because we want to have this system be entirely transparent and that ultimately when you approve the budget, you're approving uh the structure that uh the budget will be used to develop for next year and I would hope many years uh subsequently that we're building a system that is durable. Several of the changes Andy uh walked through I think it's not unfair to describe as essentially accounting changes. They are not I believe material to your role as policy governance. The two that I think are is the shift from 100% of compensatory to 80% and

204movement of school counselors to the flex. Those are the big two. Now, you could choose to get into any of the others, but I I have um uh spent a lot of time with Andy and team and I'm confident that those other shifts are both uh going to continue to have our seventh year in a row of a clean audit and their prudent uh adjustments. They they they for instance avoid Andy and the team having to find another place to charge an assistant principal that a that a school really wants to keep but they can't spend it on compensatory. As for the two that I'm suggesting are the most material the uh state for reasons and I think you all know I know you all know that I'm on the state task force to come

205up with a new formula and strategy for compensatory education revenue. So I'm thinking about it. The reason they give sites the authority that I'm recommending you approve to uh direct 80% to the school level is because we have low-income kids that are in our schools that are not as highly concentrated with low-income kids. In RPS, especially as we expanded the title one dollars to more than 20 schools, which I think was the right decision, we have a real concentration of dollars in schools that serve very high percentages of low-income students. I'm convinced that they have the resources that are adequate to meet their needs. We have schools that have fewer students who live in poverty, but they definitely have students who live in poverty, and we are not resourcing those schools to serve those students.

206So, this would be a modest but targeted increase in the ability of our schools that have lower concentrations of low-income kids to provide additional supports to those students um in a in a way that not only does state allow, but that state law allow, but that's prudent. So, that's the big change. the school counselors piece. Um, uh, the reason counselors were not in the flexible funding category last year was that we made a commitment in the referendum to to spend a dollar amount on school counselors, slightly more than $5 million. I am confident with the incredible value that our um, system places on school counselors and with the increase that school counselors uh, and all staff are receiving in salary and benefits that we will unquestionably be able to meet that threshold. Um, and so

207I I wasn't positive about that last year. And so we didn't I didn't recommend putting school counselors in that flexible funding category. I'm confident that we will meet the uh five plus million dollar threshold that we committed to in the referendum even if some schools make different decisions about school counselors visa v those other job categories. So um thank you Madam Chair for letting me kind of highlight that. Um I know there's a lot of detail in this memo and in the information here. Those would be the big two issues that I think would be most important for you as board members to be aware of from the policy level. >> Director White. >> Um, so I'll start off. So I guess my first question is how many schools are getting title one or not

208getting title one compensatory funding because my understanding is we only have like maybe two schools that don't currently get that funding. And u my followup to that is in order to make an informed decision um because and again excuse my ignorance or things that I don't know but coming in we were doing the balance um budget model and one of the selling points on having the flexible funding was that we were going to give the schools their entire 100% and that's where those flexible dollars were going to kind of come from because the selling point was that so many of the schools are now getting the compensatory funing. we only had a very marginal small amount of schools that were not getting um the title one compensatory funding where historically in Rochester uh we had

209a much higher number of schools that were not getting the title one compensatory funding. Um which to me makes a little bit of a difference if we're only talking about one or two schools that are not getting those additional dollars one. Um so I guess my questions are how many schools are not getting that funding? Secondly, how did we come up with going back to the 80% and how will that impact the flexible dollars which in the previous balance budget model is how we were able to give the schools more flexible dollars to my understanding. Um, is there an option to decrease that percentage if there are only one or two schools that are not getting that? Do we still see uh positive results at only taking uh 10% of the compensatory dollars? because my

210part of my understanding would be that those schools are funded with those dollars based on the needs that that school has. So somewhere down someone's mathematical line, they determined that this school needs this much money to function well um and be effective. So I guess I'm sorry I know I ask a bunch of questions, but how many schools get it? Is there an option to decrease that down if we only have one or two schools that are not getting it? And then I know you said there was a list of nine and you may have listed that somewhere um but what um you said that has changed as to how those dollars can be used. So how does that impact um that flexible dollar realm that I was under the understanding that that's why we

211went from the 80 back to the 100 and now it looks like we want to go back to the 80. I'm sorry question. >> Uh thank you director. All schools get compensatory and they always have. It depends on the number of students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch. The formula that the state of Minnesota implements though has what's called a concentration factor. Whereas if your school has um 80% um uh free and reduced price students, your per student allocation is going to be significantly higher than if you had 20%. And the logic of that is that schools that have very high concentrations of kids living in poverty have greater needs than schools even though the student in the lower poverty school may have the exact same family income as the student in the

212higher poverty school. Um we did significantly expand title. Rochester was quite unique in concentrating all of its title in a very small number of schools and now we're at 21 >> 21. And so it's the combination of the fact that title money goes with lowincome kids and compensatory which is from the state of Minnesota that after one year of the balanced budget model um led me to conclude that our schools with the highest concentrations of lowincome kids I mean there's never enough money. I always want more money but um when you combine those two sources um they are sufficiently resourced to serve those students. Whereas we have other schools that have lower total percentage of kids who live in poverty who still have those students and they are receiving um an inadequate amount to serve

213those students. And so it's a it's a shift down to the 80% um because that gives us enough resources to do something meaningful in those schools that have low-income kids but at lower percentages. Um were we to make this shift and discover that in fact um we were undermining the ability of our schools with the highest poverty uh the large percentages of kids who live in poverty to lower class size provide additional supports like social workers the things you're allowed to um I would absolutely come back to the board in a subsequent year to shift that again but I think that the 80% is a prudent adjustment to allow us to serve low income kids that are in schools with uh lower concentrations of kids. Do you want to add or amplify that? >> No,

214I I think you covered it. I I would just say the the intent isn't that 100% of that 20% goes to those schools there. There again, similar to achievement and integration, what we want to do is retain some of that 20% set aside as we call it. A portion of that will go to the schools that have that we've mentioned previously that don't have title and have low compensatory bring their flexible funding up to a level that allows them some more flexibility. Also, some of that 20% because that 20% accounts for about $2.3 million. some of that money bill will be returned to those sites that gave up 20% but in the form of general fund dollars meaning they have more flexibility over how those funds are used. So again, it's another kind of a

215trade where we're going to give them general fund dollars, allow them to use for clerical and principles, for example, assistant principles. We at the district level would do the same work then finding those positions that would qualify for compensatory and making sure that we are utilizing all of the compensatory resources that we've that we've pulled in the set aside. But ultimately the portion that any site would lose is just that amount that we give to those those smaller schools without the formula. The formula is kind of complex. So but the intent isn't the intent is that schools would give up 20% of comp but get some of that back in the form of general fund dollars. >> Can I just have a follow? Sure. >> So do we have any evidence? So since last year

216we gave them 100%. Did these schools have like leftover dollars? Is that's how we're able to comfortably say that they're well funded and were there requests coming from this other space? I just want to know why did we, you know, how did we come to this? Was there just buckets of money sitting somewhere that we said, okay, we we have this, which I mean I'm assuming we don't, but how do we determine that that school doesn't need that 20%? I you know I understand what you're saying. Some of it goes back but how do how do we >> uh I want to be a little cautious director Whitehorn because I don't want to start to name individual schools off the top of my head but we had some schools where the concentration of those dollars

217title plus commenatory was resulting in class sizes of of 10 12. a wonderful thing. But then when you have schools that are also serving low-income students who have nothing close to the resources to serve the low-income kids in their schools, that's where I came to the judgment that a modest shift in those dollars uh could could happen while still um uh serving the students in those schools. And that's why state law does allow you to go to the 80%. Your your comment about the 100% and the initial first version of the balanced budget model is very well taken because For me, that was also a very positive um aspect of the model in year one. I was very committed to the 100%. When I saw that we have some of those schools who have equally

218uh students who have just as much need for additional support that we're not getting um uh the dollars to do that, that was where I concluded after we got a lot of feedback, including from staff in those schools, that a modest adjustment that would be for next year. But I absolutely take the point and I'm glad you're watching out for those schools that serve our highest concentrations. Had we not expanded title funding to many more schools, I would never recommend this. It's the fact that we expanded title and we were giving 100% to a subset of schools where we have others that have those same students um but don't get those dollars because of the demographics of those. >> I'm sorry, I'm not trying to the concern is Not that they most of the schools

219are receiving title one and compensatory. Is that what you're saying? >> All schools get and the title schools get the concentration of compensatory. So they they they get title because of they serve a lot of low-inccome kids and they get a high concentration of compensatory because they serve low income. Um Minnesota's unique in the country for the most progressive state funding stream tied to poverty. Um, when we get ranked by national organizations, Minnesota gets a C in terms of the amount of funding we spend on education in general, which surprises a lot of us. We get an A in the amount of funding we spend for low-inccome kids. We have a very generous allocation tied to poverty. And then when you combine that with the federal money, which is title dollars, we've been seeing a

220real concentration of dollars in a set of schools that have both of those. Um, whereas we, as I've said a number of times, do see students that needed that additional support in schools that have lower somewhat lower concentrations. They're not like affluent um that that don't have those resources um to add ESPs, lower class size, provide social work. Um and so this would be a modest investment in their ability to serve those kids in those schools. Point that Andy made about title uh compensatory being very targeted to certain uses though is very important. This is not about taking those dollars for low income kids putting them into a with a lower percentage of low-inccome kids and using them for all kids. It's targeted on lowincome kids in those somewhat more affluent schools. And if it

221wasn't, I would not recommend this for sure. It's not like robbing computer to pay Paul at all. It would be serving low-income kids in schools with lower concentrations. >> Thank you for your patience, board. I was just trying to get >> it's a it's a I'm grateful for you raising it. It's a very fun and I think this board should should grapple with it and this helps think about some of the um information we can bring you at the next board meeting to illustrate this I think with a little more precision. >> I just want to build on the last thing that you said about the compensatory funds have very specific uses. So there is not a concern that um the reallocation of the money isn't going to go to the needs of those um

222lowincome students because the uses are tied to those things that are important to support low-inccome students. >> Yeah. Yes, Madam Chair, that we've gotten through the implementation of the balance budget model much much tighter in the use of both compensatory and title dollars to serve those kids. Um it became kind of a running joke between me and um John Carlson who we all know uh was leading this work for a long time. John, who of course I have the greatest respect for would talk about conventtory as dollars to buy back a position. And they said, "I'm going to start to dock your You say that it's not to buy back a position. Meaning I had to cut something based on the general fund. I'll pay for with compens. Those dollars are not to buy back

223something you had to cut. They're to serve kids who live in poverty or who have additional needs. And so like it no more buyback. You have to code those positions to one of the nine purposes that Andy was talking about such that they're serving. You know, poverty is the measure we're using of additional need. Like that's That's how they do it. And on the state task force, we're having a deep discussion about how we measure poverty in the era of universal breakfast and lunch because we have a real problem with how we measure poverty when the free reduced price lunch point doesn't have the same meaning to families. So that's a discussion that we're going through at the state level. But I really thank you for for raising this one. It's the right thing for

224board members to be to be seizing on. >> Director, >> actually, Director Cook was >> Oh, director Cook. >> Well, I I was uh responding to Director Whitehorn's comments and and just kind of when the community budget advisory uh committee grappled with these recommendations and the updates to the balanced budget model, one of the features that I it seemed like a lot of folks in the uh community budget advisory committee thought was attractive is what you were just talking about, Andy, where additional funds in the form of general fund dollars would um would partially replace some of the uh compensatory the 20% uh set aside that would um come out of some of those schools because the the the feedback that the committee had received was that at a lot of these schools that received

225high concentrations of the compensatory funding and the title dollars. Um they would prefer the principles I mean to have had more general fund dollars to spend on a broader set of uses rather than um so much of the limited use funds that were available. And so I that feature in particular I think was attractive to many people on the committee and it it makes sense to me as well. the decision makers are wishing they had that additional flexibility and there are needs elsewhere where there would be appropriate uses of those dollars at other schools. Um so in case that's helpful to uh what you're considering it >> well now two things based on what said uh and I'll begin with uh so [clears throat] help me to understand um probably in the fall um we

226had a wonderful presentation uh from a principal uh who superintendent pel you specifically uh recommended he um come and present uh it's a title school open hills I'm not going to you know hide around the fact uh and we recently had a skip visit there uh and yeah they have smaller cla uh student population there but they're doing some great things there and and so I simply wonder now how will those great things be impacted uh when they will not receive or have the same level of funding 20% well who knows how much they're going to get back in the general fund but they're not going to have the same level of funding. So how will principles then be left to continue this great work uh they have done presented before the board uh we've

227celebrated in the success uh from my point of view is this a step moving forward or which direction are we going in for that particular school but I think that is simply one other schools uh that may find themselves in a similar situation. Not [clears throat] trying to pit one against the other, but I'm just kind of curious trying to process uh the value. I hear the rationale but uh I'm I'm trying to uh understand the the value though as a uh board is our responsibility to tell you how to the nuts and bolts of it. You're giving us opportunity ultimately as you suggested earlier when we uh approve the budget we in essence are approving the methodology that you'll be utilizing. So, we're on the front end as you said, most boards don't get

228to this level of discussion. Uh, I appreciate the fact that you've included us, but um, having done so, it it leaves me wondering about the impact. Uh I can see on the other side those schools that have students who may qualify as free and free free and reduced how their current uh services or needs may not be met at the same level. Uh but um will that significantly change? Uh though the school will get something some amount I mean we're not talking about each school will get a fixed amount. Who knows what percentage will it be an adequate uh sufficient percentage to make a difference? And and and for me, I guess that's the bottom line. I can see an impact occurring, but then a difference what what the real measurable difference might be on

229both ends. the Elton Hills the impact the difference and other schools where uh we're currently acknowledging they have students who qualify but aren't really receiving the full monetary benefit and and this 20% is designed to well a percentage will be dispersed for those schools but and there's no way to perhaps know in advance uh how the principles will choose to address the needs of those students. I'm just talking out loud wondering. >> Superintendent. >> Um I I appreciate that. Director Barl, since you named a school, which I think is totally legitimate, I I'll do the same. Bamber Valley. Um, Vmber Valley is a school that doesn't generate because of its demographics the same um, uh, amount of funding through compensatory and doesn't have that access to title, but does serve students who need those additional

230needs. I would not recommend this change if I thought this would undermine the amazing work that's happening at Elton Hills or any of our schools that serve high concentrations of poverty. I believe that the the compounding effect of the title dollars. Of course, the general fund dollars which are larger than either of those two that story will still enable them to continue that work. Um, uh, it's important to remember that before the year one of the balance budget model, we withheld more than we withheld compensatory dollars at the central level and so for one year we did 100%. We would be returning to a somewhat reduced amount in order to meet some of those other needs. At the height of the pandemic, the state you to send 40 pull 40% off. I would never recommend

231that. That potentially is diversion of dollars from our highest need schools. Um but that's the logic um of that and I think that the um potential impact of that on individual school budgets once we've gone through the staffing and the enrollment projections process would be very visible to you when you vote on the budget. So, we're now essentially asking you to approve the rules of the road for developing the budget, but you would, as you have the opportunity to do every year, ultimately be able to look at Elton Hills and say, "I think that the impact of this on Elton Hills uh is not in the interest of our system, and you could choose to ultimately not vote for the budget because when you see the actual impact on Elton Hills, which we don't know

232of right now because we don't know uh what their enrollment's going to be, what their um number of free and reduced students who generate free and reduced price lunch is going to be, but that we will know by June. So, you ultimately could uh endorse this shift in the model. What really matters is how you vote on the budget ultimately. Anything you'd add to that? I was just going to suggest that the formulas that we're working on currently um that is doing the math behind the scenes for all of this um is not locked yet. And so I don't want to um certainly provide a lot of details. It's still moving. But just Elton Hills for example, when it's all said and done, the model that I'm looking at right now that we're preparing would

233be about in the end it would be a net loss right now about $15,000 out of 300. Right now, this is based on our our all of these are projections, so be very careful with that. Right now, they're estimated to get uh about $359,000 in compensatory aid based on the current state formula and their current demographics. When it's when we pull off the 20% and then give them back some general fund dollars, that drops to 345,000. So 14 or $15,000. So that's the that's the minimal effect that a school would have. But when we take those dollars from more schools and now we can we allocate them back out to fewer schools that impact on those on those receiving more compensatory is greater than the effect losing you know 15 to$20,000. And that's that's the

234that's the rationale and the ratios that we're trying to develop that is still is still fair and equitable. And we're finding um we're trying to find what is the best mathematics to be consistent then and when it comes to those particular sites that don't have ti that don't have title those would be the sites that would be focusing on additional compensatory based on a per pupil allocation again. So there it's fair and equitable AC across those. But that's just an example of where we're not seeing significant reductions in any one particular site. >> Sure. >> And Madam Chair, I said I had two questions. The next one deals with um uh counselors. [clears throat] >> Can I ask can we stay on this? Make sure we've covered all the compensatory questions before we go to

235another topic. Is that okay? >> You're the chair. Certainly. >> Did you have Okay. Go ahead. >> So I'm just a little bit um because we said the compensatory dollars can only be used for nine specific things and then when director Cook was explaining about the committee um they said that some of the traction was that they would get this money back in general funds how does that work so and and and if it's too complex or it gets too numbery you know then act like I didn't answer but you what my I'm I'm just I'm a visual learner so what I'm hearing is I'm at the laundry mat I get $20 worth of coins that only work at the laundry mat. I'm going to trade them in and you gonna give me $20 cash

236that I can go spend any kind of way that that's not really a a fair exchange, right? Because if the compensatory dollars can only be used here and we're taking 20 of those dollars um that can only be used these nine ways, but now I'm giving you $20 to use however you want to. Where is that money coming from? Because my understanding is it can't come from the compensatory dollars. So that leads me to ask if there's an I mean what we can only use that money for these things so it just sits until we need I mean I don't maybe maybe I'm getting too far in the weeds but I just didn't understand I felt like it was explained two different ways >> very good questions and and perhaps we need to maybe put

237this in a formula so you can see it a little bit more but what because I think that might help but what we have we have other expenses at the district level that qualify that we could use compensatory funding on and those positions or those expenses today are being funded with general fund dollars. So, we're essentially just swapping some general fund money at the district level for some compensatory money at the district level. We have we have expenses and we will use the compensatory dollars appropriately and in the way that they're intended but but at a at a district level as opposed to at that at every site level by doing some of that swapping like we're doing with the achievement and integration aid for the fact that principles need more flexibility um in those

238position choices. So another way to look at it is the kind of cash. >> Yeah. >> And it's an accounting shift again. >> Let me let me commit director to I think I don't know if we need a formula though. I think we need a graphic. The reason these two things are being mentioned together is because it does ultimately influence that amount up or down that a school's budget would receive. But actually they're two separate changes. is to go from 100 to 80% to give us some other dollars for compensatory to use um uh in those schools like I mentioned Bamber Valley that have some lower rates of low income kids. The second is saying there are legitimate expenses that we have central people whose jobs entirely are focused on supporting low-income kids and families

239that could be charged to commence but are now being funded by general fund. So at a fairly minimal level we would pick up those central costs and that allows us to provide the general fund dollars to the sites and the main reason for that is that you can't use compensatory for assistant principles and clerical. So we're talking about a very targeted strategic reason because those are incredibly valuable positions and sites can't use the compensatory dollars. So we would use um the compensatory dollars at the central level. authorized resources. That frees up a limited amount of money to allow our sites to have the general fund dollars they need. Last year, what had to happen was sites said, "I can't live without my assistant principal. I want to pay for them with compensatory." We said, "You

240can't pay for him with Defense Story." And so, what Andy and the team did, which was totally legal, they charged that assistant principal to the general fund um at the central level. But we want a system that has rules and process and you to say, "Well, how do I pay for my assistant principal?" They'll do a backend charge in the finance office. We want to have a system where the site can pay for that assistant principal and clerical using general fund is authorized. So, I apologize. I think um the two are linked only in so far as it comes down to $15,000 up or down at Elton Hills, but it actually would be for two different reasons. You could say as a board, I like the uh go from 100% to 80% compensatory, but I

241don't like you uh using commenatory to pay for central office positions. Like we could do one without the other. They're not and they're linked only in so far as in the end it it's all about the dollars the site has to work. >> I'm just getting clarification on how the dollars were changing, but it sounds like they couldn't change. >> No, it's very astute. We cannot like I I see how the langage maybe I Andy might have suggested you're using compensatory for general fund purposes that you're absolutely right. We can't do that. We won't do that. Would be a huge step back. >> And is it true since we don't have the final enrollment, we don't have the final numbers of of low-income kids that the title one and compensatory allocations to schools would change

242even without making these changes because that it's driven by that data. So we could have schools that right now are serving a high number of low-income students and they're sort of above that title one compensatory threshold that could drop but still stay above that threshold and have other schools whose lowincome students are growing but they're still not at that title one. So we have we have schools who get money and that their needs are going down and we have schools that aren't getting money and their needs could go up. That's absolutely right. And and our latest um data does does um show that every school that's a title one school this year will requify as a title one school next year based on the 35% threshold that we've put in place. So um the amount

243of dollars that those schools get though the title one allocation could be different but the schools same schools will qualify. >> Dr. Wum Are we ready to move on? >> Are we ready to move on from the compensatory? >> Well, from from the top, >> if we do, I'm going to let Director Barlo go first because he was >> I just have one followup question just because I'm thinking if if we're going to get some sort of graphic, it might also be helpful, at least from my perspective, to get examples of things that the compensatory dollars are paying for at that lower income schools. or could could pay for, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Like like a menu of things they could like. >> Sure. >> And did he say the number of schools that

244are not title one? >> Uh well 21 are and so that means we have six that are not. [clears throat] So, as I look at uh the um information you sent, um item five, school counselors and fixed staffing allocations. Um school counselors are allocated as fixed school staffing at all levels under the current budget model. I'm not going to read through the recommended enhancement, but I Where actually is the enhancement? Now I understand the term recommended enhancement is used to suggest that the there's a perceived benefit. So where's the benefit of taking the counselors out of fixed rolling them over into uh this other category? I know when when I kind of recall in my own mind, well, why weren't and I think we had at the board table that, well, why weren't uh school

245social workers included as a fixed asset, you know, when counselors were and maybe it could easily be said, well, we thought about that and that's why we're going to put them all in the same category. Now, um I guess I'm just trying to understand the rationale. Let me let me try. >> Um the core logic of the balance budget model was that the core educational program is fixed learning supports are flexible and so that was social workers resiliency specialists. Um and last year because of the referendum commitment which I think was very helpful in securing our community support for the referendum uh I didn't feel confident that we could counselors in the flexible and meet the the dollar threshold that we committed to this year because of the increase in salary and benefits and because

246I am confident that our schools value school counselors as they value social workers that were schools to make a different decision about the number of counselors that they have um we would still be able to meet that referendum commitment. The enhancement director Barlo to your question um is that I had social work social worker last year say, "Okay, we don't like being in the flexible, but at least we get your get we get your theory. The classroom pieces fixed. The learning sports are flexible. Why are school counselors not in the flex?" And they had a point that there really was not a it suggested a devaluing of the work our social workers are doing. Never intention. It was literally the math of the referendum that caused me to say we need to make sure that

247they're in the fixed so we can meet that referendum commitment. The enhancement then is to say to our school principles, as you make difficult decisions with constrained resources, the counseling positions are one that you have flexibility around. Um I will tell you as we got feedback from principles on these um recommended improvements the feedback I got was counselors should be in the flexible if social workers and resiliency specialists and others are they didn't see the difference in those positions it was an artificial difference that didn't make uh sense and as complex as the system is we're trying to make it make sense So it is to address that that dichotomy. Um and as I said again and again uh you know and assistant principles are in the flexible and they made clear that they being

248in the flexible funding doesn't mean the valuing of the role at all. It means that with limited resources and the need to tailor programs to the individual needs of certain schools, we got to give our schools some level of flexibility. And so the the the place we landed and the board approved was that the flexibility is in the supports for learning where the educational program is fixed. So that was the the logic of it. It's a just like uh director Whitehorn's comments about the 100 to 80. This is a very substantive shift. I think you're very right to be asking questions about it. I gave it a lot of um thought and got a lot of um feedback on it and I see both sides of the issue. Ultimately, I'm confident in the recommendation, but

249I absolutely understand um how it could be seen a different way. >> Dr. Workman, >> so I had a similar concern, but what I don't understand it previously social workers were excluded from the fixed staffing which created gaps in student support. So, they're going to they're going to stay in the not fixed or the flexible category. Correct. But if if we have gaps in because they're not um fixed, it doesn't make sense to me why then we are taking school counselors and also making them not fixed. So I guess I'd be looking at it the other way around. Should the school social workers also be in a fixed category school counselors since gaps were being missed? I'm not sure exactly which gaps you're >> well I'm just reading right previously social workers were excluded from

250the fixed staffing uh school staffing category which created gaps in student support and then so to address this now we are going to put both counselors and social workers as flexible but the social workers were still having gaps as part of that flexibility I I I I I don't want to parse retrospectively the language in that memo. I'm not sure what gaps that's referring to right now. Um the the fact is if we want our schools to innovate and adapt to meet the unique needs of their students, having an entirely centralized staffing structure, which is where Rochester Public Schools was, if you remember that graph, when our national drafted us, we were way on the end of all the decisions were being made in this building. >> Um it became clear to me that this

251board was um comfortable with uh having the educational program itself be flexible and so that was fixed and then if you're going to give our sites any dollars and flexibility to work with has to come. >> No, I I I don't I don't disagree. I'm just trying to understand the logic of well the social workers were not fixed and there were there were gaps in student support. So to solve that problem then we're going to move the counselors to that category as well. I gaps in student support. >> Okay. Well, I'm just reading I'm just reading >> that could have probably could have perhaps been poor choice of words. But I think I think what we did see now when when the social workers became flexible is that was a decision point for principles now

252to have to decide, you know, because they they do have they do have a counselor and they knew they were going to get a counselor. What does that mean to my social worker now? Do I because you're going to give me a counselor. Do I need that social worker component now? They're going to be making that decision in in a in a different perspective like they they have to make the choice about either or both. >> Well, I guess >> I guess part of it too is you know what is the role of a social worker and what is the role of a counselor and how do those overlap? So there are certain things that social workers do I'm assuming that counselors don't do just in terms of their their professional lensure and and everything

253else. Do you anticipate principles saying we don't want school counsel or can they be allocated like well we have a one we have a 1.0 uh counselor now um we're going to reduce it to we don't need a whole one we're going to have a 6. Can the FTE be split and moved around like that >> 1.0 No, potentially school principles could make decisions to have fewer or more school counselors. I have no concern that uh any of schools will decide fundamentally to back off of school counseling. I will say school counseling at the secondary level is is different in important ways from the elementary level and so decisions that elementary school principles might make on this score might be different from their secondary colleagues. Um there certainly are fundamental in the work that social

254workers and we have great staff on both sides of that divide and educating our principles to be sure that they are really aware of the valuable work that both sides do and that they know how to integrate them into their school programming um is obviously critical but that ultimately these are the people we're expecting and empowering and help running our schools our school principles and so I believe it's thatilityvious Obviously, we need to make sure they're making good decisions. We have approval authority uh at the administrative level of every budget staffing proposal that comes in and ultimately you as the board have the final. So, we're I observing principles making recommendations for staffing that were going to undermine um our ability to meet students needs. We wouldn't approve that. >> Okay. >> Um and and

255then just one further followup question. Do principles have any control in changing how they're using their flexible dollars during the course of the school year or is it once it's set it's set for the entire year supposing they they realized oh my gosh we need a whole lot more um allocation for social re social workers than we have right now but we're kind of stuck. Is there any flexibility from central office to um flex >> they they we have a very tight process whereby they can make requests for additional FTE. Um we have not yet this is only year one. We have not yet had someone saying they want to cut midyear >> right people say that yes and we do that all the time. Um, at this point, frankly, so that um, we do

256not return to the days when Rochester public schools added staff wildly ahead of student enrollment, I am still approving personally every FTE addition in this district. I actually don't believe that's what the superintendent should be doing, but I approve every single FTE because I don't want to return to that graph that we looked at many times where our 31% growth in staff uh, did not match a 7% growth in middle. I agree. Sort of building on director work's question. Is there um data that our principles are looking at in terms of the characteristics of their student body that would drive their decision as to whether to have a social worker or a counselor or a portion of each? Is that is that something that's clear in the data that we have available to them to

257make the decisions? I don't know what data that would be. >> Well, is it mental health needs of the students? Is it their their learning needs? >> I think they would be looking at academic outcomes. They would certainly be looking at uh the services required in individualized education plans which we also monitor centrally because we have to make sure that social work minutes in an IEP are met. We would make sure that um our school principles are fully aware that that um they would be getting feedback from you know staffamilies parents I don't think there would be some kind of a quantitative measure that would in and of itself um tell a principal what to make in that difficult decision we would be trusting them with the professional judgment which again their skip teams are

258giving it are giving they're required to solicit input on the budget and staff plan from their skip teams it has to pass review at the central office and ultimately I won't recommend it to you if I don't think it's interesting. >> So it's tied to their goals more than actual data. >> Well, our goal is tied to the data, but in the end in the end, every school has to make the decision about what's best for um its students at a given moment. So sometimes you're making the decision based on position. Let's be honest. Sometimes you're making the decision based on individual. You're saying this person is an indispensable force or force of nature in our school. We have to serve this person. They're in this role and I have to make hard decisions. I

259have to prioritize this position. So ultimately might not be one job category versus another job. >> Dr. So similar to what director Workman was saying was what I understood the gap situation was is that we have a fixed student support number. Um so or uh it's not it's not fixed since we we remove the uh the counselors and we don't have social services. We're not saying every school has to have you know these things. I think maybe that was that's why that's why I interpreted the gap they were speaking of. But my question is a little bit more creative than that. My thought is that as we look at the different schools, be it elementary to middle to high school, um there are needs that are drastically different, right? For instance, um and I don't

260have any specifics, but you know, school counselors do a lot more, I would assume, at the high school level than they may do with kindergarten, first, second graders. Is there any way to be creative with the way this is written? Can it be that it is fixed in the high schools that you have to have a school counselor and maybe it's flexible in the elementary school that you know I mean is there a way to be creative with this or is this a all or nothing either in every grade level at every school this is your guaranteed fix. Is there any way to say because the needs of a elementary school building versus a high school, they're very there's a lot of similar needs, but there are also needs that change coming with the complexities

261of dealing with older students versus younger students. Um, and I guess I'm thinking of at this as a sustainable um model, right? So, as that outgrows us, right? So, right now we know that you're looking at each one and you're making sure that you know everything is still level but as we look at a system that grows we also want a system that I don't want to say self-sufficient but that starts to run a little bit more like a welloiled machine is there a way to be more specific in this fixed versus flexible category based on secondary or elementary or is that just not an option or is this a all or nothing model right >> uh Dr. I I considered that option and got feedback from secondary administrators that they believe counselors should also

262be in the the flexible. Um I considered the the elementary piece. Um and uh there was a persuasive argument that if the model says learning supports are flexible, there's not a a logical reason why counselors would not also that model. I think it's important it's really important to note that If you want to talk about an issue of almost existential importance in our schools, it's class size. Class size. Talk to any teacher in this district. It's huge. I know and I was one of those teachers that people think all the people who are sucking up all the money are down here at the central office. In fact, the growth in staff has been staff in school buildings outside the classroom. So were you to wall off and pro protect all the positions that are in

263schools but not in the classroom, you are mandating the high class sizes that uh may have the flexibility to lower class sizes is in the building level. And that is the core logic of this model. And I hesitate to say that because the last thing I want to do is pit classroom teachers against their colleagues in schools that are providing critical support outside the classrooms. They know that they're invaluable, but we can't have our cake and eat it, too. We can't hear the concerns. And we have a a a new labor management committee on class size with Rochester Education Association that I'm very hopeful can bring us some creative solutions. But when we hear about this deep issue of class size and we want to give our building leaders some ways to strategically address it,

264the positions are in the buildings and they have to make those difficult decisions. And so I don't want to have this discussion social worker versus counselor. It's positions outside the classroom and in the classroom that is the most fundamental divide that we're facing here. And yes, we do have to be very efficient and where cuts have to be made, they also have to be made central. So I'm not saying we're sitting pretty here. We we're a part of we we're a part of the the whole. But that is the really fundamental intention that's at the at the heart of this. >> Can you approve every plan? >> Yes, absolutely. And I you know absolutely a plan to do away with adequate social work support or adequate counseling support. We would have a very very rigorous

265discussion as to why they think that's in the interest of kids in their school. >> Yes. >> I would just like to add if I could that the more the more we put into fix the less flexible money there's going to obviously be and when one of the one of the priorities is to try to give some flexibility to to the buildings. um that that becomes more difficult um because what we end up doing ultimately is staffing our fixed allocation first based on our very um strict formulas. How much money does that cost? How much money do we have available? That what's left then becomes the the flexible funding as it relates to the general fund dollars primarily. So it it's a matter of we still have the same number of dollars to spend. It's

266whether we're going to allocate them all and tell the sites or whether we're going to give them some flexibility. That's that's always the the given give and take. >> My followup question is might be a little off in the weeds, but that's okay, too. Do you ever give a recommendation for a budget? So, I don't know, you have a new principal coming in um and they're new to the building. Do we provide them with a recommendation whether it's fixed or flexible? As you know, this is This this is what you know the district thinks would have your school running the smoothest. >> Um it's it's a it's a it's a very perceptive question. Up until in my first four years in RPS until last year in the balance budget model those discussions with principles about

267their budgets and staffing plans were entirely finance and HR. There was not an educational review of that plan. Last year, Jackie and Eric Johnson and the school support team started to sit in on those meetings by design. This year, we want to enhance the role of our office of academic services in that review process. Um, so candidly, prior to last year, the question in those meetings was, do the numbers add up? which they did as we've seen by all these great audits in a row. Last year for the first time we started to say and does the educational strategy make sense. Now the quantum leap is the discussion is not going to be as we move into the skip 2.0 process just are you doing what we think you should be doing. to some extent

268to the question maybe I wasn't fully appreciating Jan asking the discussion is going to be are you using your dollars to achieve your skip goals and that is going to be the the critical discussion we're seeing this in your achievement data where are your investments tied to the addressing that so we're adding that to the budget and staffing discussion um in a way that again it may have existed before I got to Rochester was The first few years that I was here, it really was can we make can we abide by our labor contracts and can we uh keep balance the books and there wasn't that discussion of is the strategy going to produce the educational outcomes that we're seeing kids need and that are in your skip plan which the district did not impose

269which you did deep work to develop a needs assessment and you said yep this is what we really have to improve on okay our resources flowing I think that's good. I think the biggest thing for the community is that things are trackable and they can see how dollars are being spent counselors. Anybody have any questions or any other pieces? >> Um I have a note here. Um the supply allocation. What's the difference between supplies and I mean printing and copying or self-explanatory but what else is in supplies? >> Um we we we actually refer to it now as discretionary which makes up those three categories supplies materials can be contracted services could be um software subscriptions that a site it's site site specific software um those are the kinds of things that would come out

270of that particular budget. Um So we're just generally referring to them as discretionary dollars. Now >> do we have any I I mean how much money is this? >> It is it is not significant. Um for example I think at the elementary schools it's about tell you to give me a moment but it's >> why don't we commit to come back? >> Yeah I think we should but it's not uh in total it's not significant. We allow sites to area those dollars over. If they don't use them, they're allowed to then carry them over and use them the following year. And many sites don't use their full allocation each year. >> So they could use the dollars that are allocated to supplies for not supplies if it's in the flexible funding. >> They they would

271could use it for again contract services things. supplies is probably not the correct term any longer because we have allowed them to use them for anything that's not personnel related. >> Okay. >> So, anything that's not personnel related at the site, it's their discretion. >> That's what they use. >> Okay. >> But they couldn't use it to buy another teacher. >> That's not the intent of the discretionary dollars. Correct. >> Okay. But what we're what we're reason why we're moving that into the the balanced budget model is they could enhance that discretionary funding with some other flexible dollars for example and they don't have that visibility and that ability to do that today. Um it's not linked at all with the actual staffing balance budget development phase that we do in in February and March

272>> and it's based on a per pupil >> per pupil funding. >> Okay. There's a different formula at elementary versus secondary. >> I just like to tag on to that just by saying um you're going to be reviewing all of these these plans and um I have every confidence in nor making really really good decisions and staying on top of it so that if a school wanted to take their supply dollars and buy another teacher that's just not going to happen. else. All right, we got one more week to talk about this. I think you have some enhancements to the information that came up tonight. >> I don't I want to be clear, I don't think there's any information you haven't presented here. I think we may be able to help do some explanatory >>

273clarify some things that maybe in retrospect is clear but I don't think there's missing >> I'm not hearing it yeah I'm not hearing any changes any specific changes the board members are requesting that something highart maybe >> yeah okay all right next item is the policy committee recommendations for November 14th and uh as we are getting to a late hour of board members I am going to recommend that since you do have the summary of the recommendations in your packet and this is only the first briefing and we have two more. I'm going to forego us reading the individual items. Um if you have any questions that were burning that you were going to bring up tonight feel free to do so. Otherwise you have the uh inter the intervening time between the meetings and

274then you could al always bring it up the next meeting. That's okay. Yes. And then our last is the legislative pri priorities which we are scheduled to vote on at the December 16th meeting. Director work. Um just to review very quickly the following uh we sent three resolutions to MSBA for inclusion at the delegate assembly. uh transition from the MCAS to the ACT, establish a study group to review and recommend updates to state statutes for PSO and redesign components of the comprehensive the MCA's uh I'm sorry, comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report uh known as formerly as the world's best workforce. Um so transition from MCAs to ACT were already part of the MSBA's ongoing um list of things to bring up to the legislature and it was approved last year. Um, and looking at

275these um these three resolutions originally written for the delegate assembly, we're recommending that we use these same resolutions as um our legislative priorities for this district that we spent a lot of time writing them. These were things that were really particularly concerning to Rochester and they should they're still concerning. So that would be the recommendation. >> Board members, any questions? >> Just point of clarification resolutions two and three. >> Yes, one, two, and three. >> Okay. >> That that still is a focus. But my point was is that resolutions two and three will actually be discussed at the delegate assembly on on Saturday. Resolution one will not be discussed and voted on again since it was voted on and accepted last year. >> So we don't know if two and three are going to be

276adopted as part of MSBA's. We could be going off on our own. Okay. >> Any other questions board members? >> Well, I I uh while this is in the prep for action category, I would move this to the to action in view of the upcoming delegate assembly this weekend. >> Okay, we have a motion to move it to action and second. Any discussion? I can read the resol. Oh, director. >> Um, as someone attending the delegate assembly, I'm preparing for that as I've indicated already. Um, the one thing to keep in mind about the um number two of the PSO is that there are three resolutions on that same topic. It's a very hot topic for the delegate assembly this year. So even if our specific language is not something the delegate assembly supports, I

277think that there's a lot of advocacy that we can do around the issue of PSO regardless of what the actual words say. I think that topic itself is something that our legislators are probably going to want to discuss with us. So I think that whether that adds to the discussion or not. Any other questions before I read the resolution? Be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve and adopt the above resolutions as its legislative priorities for 2026. >> Second. >> Has been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion has been approved. Thank you. Board members, >> did we have to vote to date? >> Yeah, we did forget to vote to I'm sorry. Should we do it again? >> You can

278do it again. We have a motion. We have a motion to move it to action in a second. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed. >> Thank you. >> Nothing changes. All right. Um other business. Uh the ABCD is available in the agenda item. The upcoming agenda items on December 16th. A note that our start time for the meeting is at six o'clock p.m. It's a special session on truth and taxation and that will be immediately followed by a regular meeting where our focus topic will be the strategic plan and review part two, the policy committee recommendations from November 14th and action on the approval of school district property taxes payable 2026, the balance budget model enhancements and the sale of the skyline building. January 6, we begin at 5:30. Um,

279we'll have a number of agenda items that aren't listed here that are the reorganization of the school board that we have at our first meeting in January every year. But in addition, we have our focus topic of our RPS 2030 strategic plan stakeholder feedback summary. Monitoring item is our skip team membership and process update, a prep for action on our budget reduction target revision, and action on our schoolboard handbook and schoolboard budget and member compensation. Um, I mentioned our upcoming school board meeting dates and hearing no other business. This meeting is adjourned at 9:39 p.m.