School Board Meeting - October 7, 2025

001I have a client whose daughter's I He learned so much from them over the years. He used to know the pledge drive number. Are you good? >> I'm average. >> You're above average. Again, >> this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 in room 137 of the Edison building. 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. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pquel, a non- voting exeicio member, and assistant school board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, will you please call the role? here. >> Here >> at this time, we offer

002the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance. >> Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Item 2.1 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 rochesterchools.org/asssembly. Item three is comments to the board. It is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our students, staff, families, and schools. We welcome communication via email, phone call, at our community engagement listening sessions, and here during comments to the board. The purpose of

003comments 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 p.m. on the Monday before the school board meeting to sign up for a time slot. The form is available on the RPS website and on the assembly main page. Speakers, when your name is called, please come to the table. If you have written materials for the board, provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks and she'll distribute them to board members. Choose a microphone

004to speak into and be seated. Please direct your remarks to the school board. You will have three minutes to speak and a timer will be displayed in front. Please begin your remarks by stating your name. Speaker one tonight is Amelia Barkmeer. Next item on our agenda is a public hearing on our language access plan. Under Minnesota statute 123B32, subdivision 1, the school board must conduct a public hearing prior to adopting a language access plan. Prior to taking any public comments, there is information to be presented. Superintendent Vel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan and board members. I'd like to ask my colleagues uh Miguel Benjamin and Natalyia Benjamin, Mamsu Kudson, Jennifer Spindler Craig and Amy Ike to come on up and uh join us so we can uh be positioned for this hearing. Uh Madam Chair

005and board members, as uh Chair Nathan just noted, there is a state law that requires school districts to undertake the development of a plan to serve the uh students and families whose first language is not English. This was work, fortunately, that we had begun in Rochester prior to the uh enactment of that mandate. Um but it's work that has accelerated as a result of that requirement. And so this is going to be a required hearing at the outset of our board meeting. And I know Madam Chair, you'll guide the board through this opportunity to ask some questions on these folks who provided the leadership. And then later on in the meeting, we'll revisit this issue in the prep for action category as we do ultimately ask for your vote on this plan at your next

006meeting. And so with that and uh your approval, I'll turn it over to the team for an overview of the plan. The detailed written plan is posted on our schoolboard website um with a lot of background information that we won't have time to get into in this brief presentation. >> All right. >> Thank you, Superintendent, board members. Good evening. Uh it's my pleasure to greet you to uh invite this esteemed set of my colleagues to introduce themselves as we go through. Uh and to start us off just to give a little background on the language access plan itself. This is a new document for us. So, it was a new process for us to go through. We did use some investigative tools provided with MBE to go through and test uh the different systems that

007we have in place. Personally, I'm pleased to reflect on some of the things that we do have in place. I feel like that gave us the chance to acknowledge and be thankful for what is place and then also to identify the areas for improvement which you see toward the end of the plan. Um a couple of statements for you there that just summarize and this is also in the plan itself uh where we're coming from that this is both legally required and something we all believe in. And this is our agenda for is going to start us off with a brief activity. Natalia is going to talk about legal requirements and language. I'll go back to Miguel for the translation services. Usu will talk about the technology tools we have available in the district and

008Jennifer about our family outreach plan and then I'll wrap us up with next steps. >> All right. Hello everybody. My name is Miguel. Uh, I want to shift your perspective a little bit when it comes to interpreters and translators. A lot of the times we don't often think about the cognitive load or the uh pressure that is placed on our interpreters and our multilingual families who rely on these interpreters. So, we're going to do an activity called the empathy activity or I like to call it the whispered message. I took a quote from an interpreted meeting from our school district and I'm gonna pass it over to um >> Director Whitehorn. Um this these are the rules. So she is going to read this quote. Um she can only say it once. She can't repeat

009it to the person to her right. And then you will then whisper it to the next person and the next person and the next person till it gets over here. So, for the purpose of this simulation, she's our RPS staff. We got our interpreters and then our family who needs language services. Um, and this this exercise is to simulate how fragile a message can be and how unintentionally uh communication can be lost or altered um especially when it comes to interpretation. So, she will she's going to read that message, whisper it, and then we'll see what we come up with at the end. places. >> Are we allowed to take notes? >> No notes. No notes. Whispered messages. You can only repeat it. You can Yeah, you can. You can read it to her. You

010got to whisper it and then after that hear it correct. >> Just cover your ears cuz y >> just hang I can't hear you. Anybody have a hearing? We'll cover our ear. >> Can we go in the corner? >> I cannot whisper. >> I can't hear. >> Back up. Just back up. Back up. >> Go back there. That's fine. Should put us in a soundproof boo. I heard some All right, Director Whorn, do you want to read to us the original message >> or so the family understood in this simulation um that we have determined we're going to schedule a meeting on October 26th and also determined that we will be scheduling a meeting about something else. >> All right. What What was the original message? So close. >> We were so close. >> We

011have determined that we will schedule the re-evaluation meeting for all classified students on October 25th, but we will need to confirm the required documentation with the special education department by the end of next week. This is not even a real sentence. And I I don't think that that this counts. >> And surprisingly, these are actually real sentences that are interpreted in like in our school district and things that our interpreters have to communicate to our families. And even though we don't have a language barrier here, we can see how fast and easily details can get lost. And that's why this language access plan is going to make sure that we have standardized protocols to ensure that our language services are implemented and administered at a high level. >> I apologize to the very intelligent individual

012that wrote that I thought was not a real sentence. I'm sorry. Get that on camera. I think this is my um so we just wanted to share that there is a long um history of legal requirements when it comes to meeting the needs of our families starting with py versus Ferguson in 1896 and really what this does is that it ensures that our students rights are upheld that the right to access both the content but also the information for the parent is in Minnesota also has some legal requirements which include um the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the LEAPS act, uh the statute for the language access plan and also statutes on English education programs. And so what we're talking about has implications in what we do in a day-to-day uh in schools. Um that being

013said, our parents have the right to fully access the information regarding the students education that there cannot be barriers to accessing the educational services information or activities and that our institutions must make efforts to reduce the barriers to access that information and programming. Um and so as our team will share the language access plan. So um the Identification of language needs begins when our students register into our schools. It is done through the home language survey and this is something that the state of Minnesota requires every family to fill out. This identifies if there is a language other than English spoken at the home. It identifies if um the students speak a language other than English and whether the families and or students both need uh support to accessing both educational um activities but also

014information to our parents. There's also a note that has identification for our students that have limited or um our students who have limited or informal education um to provide same supports There are different ways that our uh staff can find the information on their language needs. All of this is stored in Skyward and then this is the information from Skywork is pulled to elevation which house our uh information on e services and talking points as a platform to communicate with. So those are the different ways that families can access the information whether families need. So, uh, interpretation and translation services. A lot of times, uh, we have different terms for the different abilities that our staff can do. We have interpreters, translators, and then bilingual staff. Um, I like to share this with RPS staff

015so that they know who to use and when. Our interpreters are people who orally convert messages from one language to another. Our translators uh, translate written text from one language to another. And then our bilingual staff are huge assets at our district that can speak more than one language, but they don't have that formal training of interpreting. So our interpreters, they wear a lot of hats. They interpret, but they are also cultural liaison. They are connecting our community members to the resources they need within the district. and they follow uh standards of practice and a code of ethics that hold them to a higher standard to be able to facilitate and um get those communications across to our families. This is our team right now. We have right now an Arabic, Bosnian, Kumai, Chinese, Lao,

016Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese for in district interpreting. um we came up with a new process to request uh language services so that we can better track data. So we can say at Century first semester we had 500 hours of Spanish interpretation and since we opened up this new uh request process we've had 484 total requests 50 translations and about 440 interpretation requests. Um we've implemented or we available this new technology um using headsets. This is for simultaneous interpreting. We actually tried it out for the first time at our graduations. So the idea is that an interpreter uh has a headset on and they're interpreting the message that the presenter is uh saying at the exact same time. The family then has a headset on and is hearing that message in real time. So, our interpreter

017would be in the back of the room um interpreting to families in big audiences or where distractions could um cause an issue. >> Yeah. So, we could have multiple languages going on at the same time for multiple families. And this is really to eliminate that distraction because it's hard for an interpreter to interpret to a group of 20 off to the side. Um it's just not um feasible. or any uh languages that we don't offer in district. We have um a partnership with global interpretation services. Um this is to get um we have people who speak Dinka. We have speak people who speak languages that we don't offer. So this is used um within our district. >> Yep. And then as far as tools for translation, so within my department, um, Miguel's team now sits

018under my department. Um, and that's been a great partnership because we're able to work closely also in figuring out what families need. Uh, we have various avenues that we use. APTOG is our website. Uh, if you ever receive an email from the district, text messages, newsletters, that platform allows parents to choose. Um, it pulls from Skyward that if they chose to receive messages in Spanish, they receive that message in Spanish. um for all all the messages that we send out. We also have Canva which is more of an AI translation so that we do cross check with Miguel's team obviously uh popular and available to everyone is Google Translate. Um the other cool tool that we use that falls under Jennifer's um purview is talking points and this is more so used at the school

019levels where teachers can text uh families in English. They receive it in their their preferred language. They text back in their preferred langage and then the teachers receive it back in English. So, it's a way to be in contact. Um, my kids teachers use it. It's fantastic. Um, and it's an easy way for schools to communicate with families in that way. And then we also have access to pre-transated forms um by MDE. Um, and for bigger items or projects that we need that we don't have easy access to, we work with vendors for human translation. and some are local and some are Twin Cities based, but those are all transitions for families. >> And this graphic probably looks familiar. It's what we call the dual capacity building framework for family school partnerships. And it's really

020the compass for all the family engagement work that we're doing in the district. And the language access plan is aligned with this framework. Really ensuring that our multilingual families will receive information their preferred languages. Yet, there's a a deeper family engagement strategy as well because we know that improving two-way communication is going to lead to more meaningful partnerships between home and school, which ultimately is going to lead to student success and school improvement. So, it's all embedded in this uh in this deeper. Once approved, uh we'll reach out to families uh information about the language access plan and and communicate with them about what it means for them. Uh when we think about the uh the language access plan, we want to use accessible formats and accessible platforms such as talking points and apty and

021uh we'll be communicating at events so that it's really integrated in the broader family engagement strategies that we have at sites and across the district. And the community partnerships. We will be collaborating with our culturally uh sustaining community partners. We want to uh make sure that we're meeting families where they are feeling uh comfortable in environments that they prefer and uh and communicate with them in ways that they feel are building trusting relationships between Rochester public schools and their communities. All right. It's my chance to wrap us up. As I said, we used a an MDE tool to examine the processes we do have in place and then identified where we have gaps and uh pages 18 to 20 of the plan really go through those next steps. And so this work will not uh

022cease at this point. This is our first plan and we will continue the work. Um Miguel mentioned the data collection process that's already underway but we'll be examining that data as time goes on. We'll be providing professional development that too has begun. Um but it's twofold. It's both how the interpretation and translation uh services work but also how to prepare documents and messages to be translated well or interpreted well. uh we'll be analyzing costs related to this. They fall into multiple areas, multiple budgets. So, uh need to do some work to pull that together. Uh the next step after approval will be to uh look at the set of vital documents that were identified as part of the plan and begin those translations as quickly as possible. Uh continue exploring technology tools. We're in that

023really fast moving time of AI and those tools, so we those will continue to help and then strengthening those feedback loops to help families help us understand where those uh barriers still exist. So, um we'll now have the hearing on the language access plan. If there are any members of the public who would wish to make a public comment on the language access plan, please raise your hand to be recognized and we'll make space for you at one of the seats at the table. And you'll have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed in front of me. And please begin remarks by stating your name and your relationship to Rochester public schools. So would anyone like to make comments on the language access plan? Would anyone like to make comments on the

024language access plan? and a third call. Would anyone like to make comments on the language access plan? Seeing no more requests for comment, we will conclude the hearing on the language access plan. And board members, if you have any questions for our team here, this would be a time to offer them or ask for clarification. Dr. White, >> um, I love it. I'm glad that that we are addressing this. Um I guess my big question is literacy and language. So I know that is a a barrier though even though we are offering translations in writing um I have often heard that not not just because someone speaks a language doesn't mean they read it right just like we can speak English that doesn't mean that you are able to read right or maybe read at

025the level of comprehension um that some of these messages will be in. Do we have any thoughts of or ideas for how we will be addressing the literacy issue? Because having the programs are great, but if we are having a continual barrier in certain communities where the parents have their own literacy issues in their language, how how will how will we not continue to have that barrier? >> Do you want to speak to that from interpretation? Yeah, specifically like uh I just had something come up um the other week where we needed um some sped documents translated. It was like a 20page part B document and they wanted it in the language of anok which is a African language and our interpreter said there's no point in translating this because the most of our community

026doesn't read Anuak. It's a spoken language. So we had to figure out the best way for this bed teacher to communicate something that is legally required for this family to get that they can't read. So they talked to um our interpreter and they were able to coordinate a time to get that message relayed. But I know talking points is also an app that we use in our district that has voice to text and text to voice um ability so that people who don't read in their native language can still speak into their phone and communicate with their teachers and then have that message um audioed back. >> Please >> um something Amy mentioned that we'll be working at looking at the processes and the messages that we put out. Something that my department works on

027is putting everything in plain language, which means you're putting it at a fifth grade reading level or below. So the messages that we send out, we have to be thinking about it from the lens of, okay, this is great for English, but when we're translating into languages that multiply in words or meaning becomes more complicated, how can we simplify that so families get the same? So that's different. >> I would also add that. >> Yes, please. I would also add that some of our um teachers work on making the videos accessible and so we use the um no I'm gonna forget testify um who has the ability to translate those pieces into those other languages and so sometimes is having a QR code that also has either the audio or the video option uh as

028far as an accessibility point uh for our students sometimes it's also being able to use those accessibility tools of technology so that it the audio or it reads the text so that you get the audio um when the text maybe is not the most accessible way to >> I have a follow. >> Hang on. Superintendent, did you have something? >> Uh it's deserving of a full update and of course Amy Ike leads this work, but um it's a great point. Dr. Whitehorn, we also provide an extraordinary suite of language services to our adult learners um whose first language is not English um that uh many of whom are our uh parents um and so we are helping them also learn English in addition um to that work and it's something that we haven't updated the

029board on recently but as I think about it I think that would be a great um update to have. So in addition to meeting them where they are in their language, we're also helping them gain English language skills, hundreds of them literally. >> And I guess my followup would be the big question is what about the technology gap, right? Because I know we're slowly moving out of that, but we still have older parents or grandparents who are caring for kids who um and not an insult to anyone. I mean I some stuff I still don't get right. how I know a lot of this stuff is technology based or app based or pressing buttons and if anybody has elders in their life like mine who you just got to come and even turn on their

030TV how are we helping you know how how are we assisting in that barrier because it's great to I just want to make sure that we are creating a real access that we're not creating an additional you know barrier for some families because that could be also very frustrating right if you if we're providing something and you still can't even figure out how to use it are we training parents on how to use it or we just assume >> um another component that or a lot of work that our interpreters do falls under the bridge of like advocacy. So these aren't like interpreted meetings where they have a RPS staff present. they're doing um a lot of extra work to connect them to those resources and almost a lot of times that's the first face

031that they see when they walk into Edison and then they're more or less guiding them through the enrollment process through the free and reduced lunch forms. They're I call it advocacy because they're not interpreting. They're um doing a lot of extra things that they wouldn't know how to do because these systems are new to them and might be different. So having our interpreters also work in that role or put that hat on as I as I like to say um helps them with like those technology pieces and like the forms that these schools want them to fill out. Um >> and I think oftentimes they build relationships with the interpreters that they are the first people they call to assist. >> Dr. Dr. McLaclin, >> I'm curious about the use of the headsets at the

032graduation ceremonies that was sound like that was sort of a pilot to do that. Um, was that how was that communicated if you know what's the data about how many people used it and was there feedback about it and whether whether people liked using it? >> Yeah. So, we um Moms Sue helped me with this, communications department helped me send out uh I believe a district-wide email notifying families that we were going to have these headsets available for multilingual families in specific languages. We made sure that we weren't going to say like, oh, every we have every language available. Um and then we told them the location that we'd be set up at um when they came in. And then I would have to look at back at the data, but I think around some

033schools used them more than others. I I just from the top of my head, I think at Mayo High School, we had like 20 25 families um pick them up between the languages of just Spanish and um Arabic. And from the quick feedback that I got when they returned the headsets because they were trying to get out and take pictures, you know, so they just said like, "Oh, thank you so much. It worked well." Um, I think probably next time I would have admitted like maybe given out a follow-up survey. But yeah, just from the brief interaction I had from the families that use it, they seemed very appreciative. They seemed surprised when they saw that this was even available. Um, I saw one family was like a grandpa, grandma, uncle, aunt, and like some

034other relatives. Like the look on their face, they were shocked when they saw that this was available and they like all picked them up and went in. >> Thanks. >> So, I've um seen our interpreters in action at family engagement events. Um, they were present at some STEM plus family events that we've done in the past. it was really beneficial to have them there. But I do know that um there might still be families who don't come to our events because they just don't know that that's going to be so they just assume it's not going to be a welcoming place. So how are we are we setting a baseline for some of those um events so that we can say confidently to parents, you know, come you're you're going to be provided or is

035it sort of targeted? we know this family needs this kind of interpreter. The interpreter will be in touch with the family to let them know that if they go like how are we opening that up so families have that knowledge >> please. >> So we're testing this out with the kickoff to kindergarten events that we're going to start in the fall with the tours at each elementary school. Um we're working with schools to say you're going to host your kind kindergarten night on this night. We know that there like from the data that we have um from your neighborhood we might need a Spanish interpreter. So we can Spanish interpreters available from 6:00 to 7:30 if you need it. Um the other thing is that our interpreters are closely tied in with those communities. So

036they're able to say, "Hey, we're having this family engagement event. I will be there. Come if you want to." So it's it's both and. But we're trying to refine those processes and work together. That's why Miguel um started this new form to say you can request a specific interpreter for a specific language, but because we are limited resources in a big district, they still working with schedules and making sure that they don't book kindergarten four kindergarten nights for three Spanish interpreters on the same night. Yeah, I just want to add too um we also gave out a how to work with an interpreter training to new hirees, office managers, DLG. Um and something that I really wanted to um relay is it's really easy to think about I need an interpreter for an IEP meeting

037or parent teacher conference or a phone call. So, we were telling our staff like think outside the box. what kind of activities um can you think about that you are having at your sites where language access is still important and we can still provide those services. So I think I and I could see their um you know their brains thinking and they were like oh yeah like at like a end of the year sports banquet something like that or like some of these other things where there's huge audiences and big um gettogethers where I think our staff kind of over they might not think that language access could be administered in there um but we definitely can. Um, Mom Sue helped us design some t-shirts, some RPS interpreter t-shirts, so that when we're at these

038events, our families can like pick us out and they know, okay, that's a familiar face. I know who they are. They're an interpreter of mine. I've worked with them in the past. So, I think we're trying to implement little things to have language access at some of these bigger family engagement activities. I also know with some of the families um that I've worked with um over at Head Start, Skyward is a frustration for them. Um does Skyward have translation capabilities? No, >> not that I'm aware of. >> Okay. And are we doing any sort of Skyward training for parents and could the language access plan fit into that? >> We do have Skyward tutorial videos available. Um, those are, I believe, only in English. For families who are multilingual who need help enrolling, they usually

039come down to Edison and that's where Miguel's team then sits out at the computers literally with them walking through with each item they need because Yeah. Skyward is cumbersome, >> but we could offer that as >> Yes. And just speaking to the Skyward piece. Uh we have school sites that are at different developmental stages with offering these kinds of things, but we do have several sites that offer maybe like a Skyward workshop, a talking points workshop as part of a family engagement event. It's just that it's not to scale and not consistent. So we would hope that that would be part of part of the process is making that more formalized. director. >> Um, just a suggestion on that. I don't know if it makes sense to record those and use them in other schools

040if people can't be there. That another way to do it. >> Um, so I guess my last question here would be this. It sounds great, but that we don't have that many interpreters, right? So I'm not a mathematician, but how do we scale that up? You know, we we unfortunately at the number of schools we have, we have several events that happen on the same night. Um and I do agree that we should be looking at some of the larger events and and having interpretation there. Um but but what is the what is the plan you know for that and then my other concern personally as an advocate is that's a lot on the interpreters to be the the advocate to be the person doing the interpreting to be at the meetings like what I

041guess I would like to hear more about how we're going to undergard this program so that we don't end out with with burnout either right because in some of these languages we have one or two people only you know supporting the entire district. Um, which I I'm glad that they're willing to do, but how are we going to ensure their health and time, you know, that this work can can continue because that that can be a lot to be the point person and the for for the community and for the district. >> I'll add to that. So one thing that we um actually started to do is how to identify the multilingual gifts that we have in our district because we know that our interpreters are not the only people right that can do it.

042So when Miguel show talked about the interpreters, the translators and our bilingual staff who are bilingual staff who actually are carrying some of the work already. And so we added a um a question on our Skyward system for updates when staff was updating. And that was one of the questions was uh what languages do you speak and and to what degree? And so we have we have a starting point as to other languages which was kind of fun because we uh we found some staff speak Turkish and or do and all of these languages that maybe we didn't know uh our staff already have within our system. And so part of that is identifying who those staff are. The second part is how do we train those staff if they're willing to do and help

043us out with some of those pieces. And then third would be how do we compensate them for their time and their skills to do those pieces. So so those are questions that we still have to to work through but we started with at least identifying our staff members. I think the other um community- based uh wealth that we have are young people. We have a lot of our high schoolers who actually do that for their families. And so we started brainstorming about how do we um train them as well and and hire them for a little bit on these events that are um write family events or those pieces where they can be there and so that we can um not just use some of their skills but also provide them with career opportunities or

044a way for them to show that also in the resumes to show that these are skills that I already have. And so uh we've been thinking about those pieces. Um, but it's it will take some work to get there. >> And then just adding that adding to that, the previously there has never been like any data tracking or numbers. So, we're really hoping with the new Google request form, we can like specifically say at sites how many requests were done. Um, and that'll give us a a better idea of where to allocate or get rid of certain languages if we need to add more for get rid of this or that. So that will give us a better idea of kind of what needs specific sites have and at the district level too. >> President

045>> Yeah. Um thank you Dire Director Whitehorn for that question. I I was going to jump in and make the point that Miguel just made but this is a charge that I've given to Moms Sue and Miguel and in in aligning that department. In my experience actually we have a it could always be more. We actually have a a solid number of interpreters for a district our size. But if you read the excellent work this team has done in the language access plan, uh there's a pretty big drop off from our languages that are spoken by large numbers of our families to ones that are spoken by much smaller numbers. Now, we want to serve those families, but I've said we need to think about um efficiency in a sense, in a humane way. And

046so that's what I've asked them to do. We probably saw 7.13% are Spanish, 3.61 Somali, 2.39 Arabic. Then we get down to 1.61 Camar, 1.05% Chinese. So then we're talking about families who certainly need language support, but that we need to be thinking about how to your question, we can uh provide that in the most effective way possible. And so I think um I'm pleased to say I think our broad footprint is right. I don't want to make it smaller, but I think there's a question of the mix of support. And I don't say that ominously because this is work we want to do very carefully. And as Miguel just said, the language, the data that we're bringing in needs to be the flashlight as we decide what um how to invest these precious resources

047and leveraging technology um as well. >> Board members, any more questions? >> Final question. >> Dr. Whitehorn, >> uh the Google form, how long has that been up and running? Because you did get quite a few. What was the date on >> it? opened. It opened I believe when I started administering the trainings on the 19th and the 20th of August. So this year we open it up the 19th or 20th of August. And from that to today we have almost 500 total requests. >> Um like I said 50 translation and then the rest are interpretation uh requests. Phone call all phone calls all in person. all virtual, all parent teacher conferences, family engagement activities. So we're we're getting data not just broadly but like specifically in terms of how long are these going for?

048What kind are they? Which interpreter is getting assigned? >> Does that include the global interpretation services? Just us. >> That just in that's just in in district in-house interpreters. The global interpretation services does have its own Google form. So that's getting tracked, but I don't know how long they're on the phone for or anything. We just >> wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I can also say that the chair gave me the license to say this, uh, should some of you not want to spend the full evening here, uh, you don't need to stay for the prep for action item, uh, later in the board meeting. I think board members have gotten their questions answered. Thank you. Our next item is information and outreach, our recognitions. Um we're tonight we're

049recognizing um that October is National Principles Month, which is a time to celebrate and honor the incredible work our principles do every day. Principles are integral to the growth and education of our students and support of our staff. RPS principles are leading the improvement of instruction in our schools and are the cornerstone of community building with our staff, students, and families. We're asking our RPS principles to take on a large responsibility for development and implementation of their school continuous improvement plans and the balanced budget model and they are showing us that they are up to the challenge. We are so thankful for all of our principles and the commitment they demonstrate every day. September 14th to 20th was um the recognition week for our community school site facilitators. Our community school facilitators are integral to

050building the pathways to success that our RPS community schools provide for students. They are the leaders who work collaboratively to marshall, align, and unite the assets, resources, and capacities that support students and families. Community school facilitators are essential to creating, strengthening, and maintaining partnerships between community schools and our community partners. They are reliable and trusted presence for every student or family member who needs a listening ear who has a problem that needs solving or needs to find a school or community resource. We thank our community school site facilitators and to Sarcon at Franklin, Lisa Becker at Riverside, Julie McLaren at Gage, Swedel at Rochester ALC and Aaron Vasquez at John Marshall for all the work they do. And we encourage all Rochester public schools students, parents, staff, and community members to share in the celebration

051of Community School Facilitators Week. And finally, on October 2nd, um we recognize National Custodian Day here in Rochester Public Schools. The work of our custodial staff is vital to ensuring that staff and students have safe, clean, and healthy spaces to learn and work. Our buildings represent a significant investment on the part of the public that must be kept clean and in good repair. Custodians are responsible for the daily care and safe operation of all facilities and buildings on a yearround basis. And anyone who has visited our district buildings knows that custodial staff are a big part of creating a positive atmosphere in each and every one of them. Our custodians care about our staff and our students. They're always there to reach out with a helping hand and are often the go-to person for members

052of our Rochester community who use our buildings before or after school hours. The next time you're in an RPS building and you see a member of our custodial staff, make sure you stop to thank them as we do tonight for all that they do. >> Please. >> Um uh thank you, Madam Chair. Board members, I'm not sure we have um uh ever u shared this with you, but after our chair reads these recognitions. The next morning, it is sent to the employees via email from the group. And I want to um thank Kathy for uh personally writing and researching each of these um because it's not often the schoolboard chair that does that. So for those of you out there who get one of these messages tomorrow, our custodians, our community school site facilitators, and

053our principles, this was directly written by the chair of our board. >> It's well worth it. Our next item are board member updates. Does any board member have updates from their committee since the last meeting or any other items to share? Director Marvin, >> it's been a busy month and I know that there are um other board members who who've attended and the superintendent attended many. I just want to call out a couple. Um Pinewood had a rock and roll to school day where they encouraged students to not take a bus or get dropped off, but to either walk or ride their bikes to school. And I got to stand on a corner that had almost no traffic um because I was going to be a crossing guard. But mainly I got to watch the

054real crossing guard, Mike, who uh was there on a busy street, not the one I was on. And every kid who came across the street knew him. And he said hello to all of them. And I it just continues to occur to me that our bus drivers and our crossing guards, they may be the first face that those kids see in connection with school when they get there in the morning and the last face they see when they're going home. and they keep them safe. So, I'm guessing Mike isn't listening, but um he was great and we have so many crossing guards who are uh Longfellow had a an ice bucket challenge to raise money for Alzheimer's um awareness and research and their students and staff were out there. students were dumping ice cold buckets

055of water on the staff and the staff were loving it. And I loved the way that community came together to raise funds for the research for the disease that one of their former teachers is now um dealing with. And then um finally, John Marshall, their um economics class has a unit where students design and market a business that they think Rochester needs. and they've invited community members to come in over a period of weeks and listen to the kids, pitch their ideas, ask them about uh where they've gotten their research, uh what the market is going to be, what audience are they going to attract. Um, but I think it's an example of deeper learning at its finest because these kids aren't just learning about economy. They're learning that it's complicated to keep track of

056of staff and uh figure out what's going to make money and uh how they need to be safe and uh who's going to show up. So, it's been great working with the kids. >> Dr. Mcofflin, >> um I actually have two. Um, some of us were able to attend the ribbon cutting at the Mighty Oaks grand opening. Um, it was really exciting to see our youngest learners celebrated that way with such excited staff with such a beautiful facility. And I was so impressed by the playground there that if you haven't been there, there's little bikes and a little play area to do the bikes. Um, so it's really exciting to see that um, opportunity for our youngest learners and I'm hoping that it grows as planned. Um, second item is sort of related to the

057legislative committee and the delegate assembly. There is a ballot that you should have received about how to vote for delegate assembly representatives. I also sent out a video because I think something changed and there's the ballot's a little bit different than before. I don't have all the details because I thought director Workman would know. So, we'll have to wait on that. But um um ballots are due October 15th and hopefully we can get some more information about why there's two categories and what the difference is and how to how to complete your ballot effectively. >> Anything about was there a skip visit last? >> Oh. Oh, I was on the Yeah. Um I can uh Yeah. So also also at uh at Pinewood, Principal How uh guided several of us um to see the progress

058that that school is making on its skip plans. Um, and uh, you know, there were there were lots of great things to see at that school, but to me, um, I was so energized by the urgency of Principal How and by the intentionality of every single minute. Um, really making sure that students were focused on their studies. And, you know, we'd go from one third grade classroom to the next one because it just wasn't the ideal moment to pop into that classroom. and stepping across the hall, it was almost like they were synchronized at the exact same point in the lesson. I mean, things were just really humming along in a very um intentional, deliberate, but uh with a lot of urgency. Um and I I just I liked that energy quite a bit. So,

059um yeah, it was nice to see it like always. >> All right, we will move on to our consent agenda. Item 6.1 through 6.6. Would any board member like any item removed from the consent consent agenda for separate consideration? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. Our next item is a monitoring item, the enrollment update. This is an information item. Superintendent Pel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. Um, and board members. You can see our chief administrative officer, John Carlson, coming up. This is a standing update that the board always gets after October 1st of the year when we um take stock of how many students we are privileged to

060serve. And as I know board members are aware, um we got some good news this year. So, John, take it away. >> Thank you, Superintendent Pel, Chair Nathan, and school board members. I'm here to give you an enrollment update, and it's a very positive one of that. Uh just a reminder of this disclaimer on how we talk uh different numbers here, but uh October 1st is a point in time and we simply use that as a comparison. It's not the payment date. In some states, I think there is an enrollment date uh tied to their payments uh around October 1st, but in Minnesota, it's a date that commonly is used to uh trend data and look at what the headcount is on that date. Um funding is actually paid to us based on enrollments and

061enrollment is not intendance. Um students who miss 15 days or more in a row are dropped from the enrollment and so that's when um they stop earning credit towards uh payments. So when we talk about numbers we have headcount or that the enrollment number. So in this example, 17,323 could be a number on a report and that would be a snapshot in time of the number of students enroll at that time. Average daily memberships is a way of converting all of the enrollments in fractional terms because if you're there for uh 95% of the year, then you're a 0.95 average daily memberships. We sum all that up and it's usually a number that's lower than our headcount or our enrollment number. And then at the end of the year, all of our average daily memberships

062are weighted and our older students in grades 7 through 12 are multiplied or increased by 20%. And so we get an adjusted pupil number. So in this example, um 18,561. And so just trying to tie that there's three different ways of measuring student counts. And so we would just usually want to be clear on which one we're talking about. Today we're talking about the enrollment or the first number. So, uh, here is a a quick table of what's been happening over the last few years. You can see, uh, when we came back, uh, from the, uh, COVID pandemic in October of 2020, we were at 17,635. That was 661 students less than the October 1st, uh, the year before. Uh, and was a 3.6% change. Fast forward, uh, we had a gain. The next year

063after that, then we had three years of decline and we had projected that this would be the fourth year of decline and we actually are uh reporting to you that we have 17,441 students. So we're an increase of 118 from October 1st of uh last year. And I just emphasize to that this is prek all the way through age 21. So it's all students in the system. Now I'm going to talk a little bit uh more specific about uh just the kindergarten through 12th grade enrollments. So we had done a projection last year with Dr. Hazel Reinhardt, our former state demographer, and she had projected that we'd have 16,234 uh kindergarten through 12th grade students. This year we when we put together our budget and used some other modeling, we looked at 16,265 and that

064was the number we used for uh budget purposes. Our actual enrollment of c uh back on October 1st last week was 16,728 which is 494 students more than Dr. uh Reinhardt projected and 463 students more than we had budgeted for. I wanted to highlight just some of the differences where we were greater than 30 different than what we budgeted versus what um actually was counted last week. So at Bamber Valley, for example, we are 44 students higher than what the budget was put together for Bamber Valley back in the spring. Gage is an anomaly where there are 69 students less than what we had budgeted. Gibbs, Jefferson, Overland, Sunset Terrace are all up um anywhere from 33 to 47 students. in our middle schools. Uh, continuing with the trend of plus or minus 30. Dakota

065was up 31. John Adams was down 35 from budget. Will Creek was right on at 30. I I didn't put Kellogg on here, but they were down just like two or three. It was a very minimal difference. In our high school, the differences uh really only Sentry stands out as being 41 different. Mayo is just a hair below what we budgeted and John Marshall's just a little bit above where we budgeted. The surprise to us on the staff was the high school ALC and where we had put together a budget or a plan on um back in the spring of 198 at that time and uh to see 397. Now 397 is more typical of the number of students that we have in our high school ALC. Uh but at the time when we were

066um preparing the budget and looking at the numbers, there were 198 that were officially committed are on the ALC roster. So we need to do a little more examination to make sure that we understand are those 199 additional students are those our own students coming from Century JM Mayo that may have been retained and did not graduate on time and so now they're at the ALC earning extra credit or getting enough credits to graduate or are they uh students that were in the ALC looked like they were going to graduate because they were 12th graders but then did not so they've been um retained for a little while longer. I wanted to look at just the differences in grades to see whether there are any trends in any grades that are significantly different than where

067we were. So sticking with the plus or minus 30, there were five grade levels that stood out to us. So in our kindergarten were 110 uh more than what we budgeted. And then all the other grades kind of first through 8th were within 30 either way of our projection. But in the high schools where we noticed that again grade 9 10 11 um also being up 45 34 and 42 and kind of talked about grade 12 there's probably an anomaly there of some students from last year carrying over this year. >> So in summary we do believe this is going to have a positive financial impact for this year's budget the 2526 school year that we should have about $3.4 million more in revenue uh than we had built into the original budget. So, we're

068going to be making a budget revision and bringing that forward to you at some point on the next couple meetings. And then, um, how have we dealt with the additional students? I figured that'd be a question on your mind. So, in the summer, we watch this on a weekly basis, my colleagues and I, and andy Krogstead, our finance director. We look to see, are we above our schoolboard targets in any grades at any schools? And we were adding extra elementary teachers as we were crossing those thresholds. So those had been dealt with pretty much prior to school actually starting. Now in our secondary schools, middle school and high school, we've gone through that and we've also looked for overload assignments or or classes or teachers are serving more than 160 students on their case load

069and then they're being offered overload compensation or moving students around to get them to 160 or less. So that's also been done. We did um calculate uh an amount of flexible funding that we are going to propose rolling out to our elementary schools uh to deal with some of the other um supporting needs at each school. But um that's going to be a number that's definitely below the 3.4 million. So we still expect a positive um financial result. >> That's the end of my prepared remarks. >> Dr. McLolin. Um, I was curious in reading this ahead of time about the ALC. Was that something you could tell from the summer or was that just dropped when school started? >> When the increases were happening, right? >> Um, it probably happened shortly after the school year.

070And so there were probably some um changing in where students were going to be as we call it the rollover when we actually move from one school year to the next. So, I think we need to go back in our records like like I said and and truly understand where did those students come from. >> And a couple of related questions. Um, is it possible that some of those students are students who have dropped out from our regular high schools and then gone to ALC? >> I think after a break. >> I think that's definitely possible. Yes, >> that would be helpful to know if that because I know that that's kind of an emphasis of getting kids back into the system. It would be helpful to know the data on that if we can

071get access to that. And then finally, um, when you talk about adding teachers to the elementary classrooms, that kind of thing, did you need to do that at ALC or how did you accommodate such a large increase with staffing? >> My understanding is that this ALC has been pretty stable um, ship for a lot of years now and and basically operating at capacity. And so I don't I think there are minor tweaks. I don't think there were major cuts or adbacks or anything really that needed to be majorly adjusted as we started this year. >> That's good to hear. Thank you, Dr. Marvin, >> I it's good news. I mean, that we have more kids who want to attend Rochester uh schools. >> Do you have a sense about when during the summer or fall

072these kids who hadn't enrolled before enrolled? I mean, is it just before school started? And do you know where they're coming from, especially the kids in high school? >> Um, I both questions. So, no, I don't know exactly where they're coming from, but as far as the timing of the enrollments, um, having worked in this building a number of years, it's pretty steady throughout the summer. There's not a major spike. It get it does spike up a little bit as we're getting closer and people are realizing, oh, school's upon us. Um, so yeah, I I think it's pretty measured with a with a bump at the end, but we were adding some of these teachers back shortly after even the budget was initially approved in June. So like we were noticing the trends early in

073the summer too. >> Okay. Thank you >> Dr. Cook. Um so yeah, appreciate the update and the um all the the tables and additional information. It's just I helpful to sort of be keeping in mind the the trends and I I had a a couple questions. Um well I I guess the first observation really is that uh even though the kindergarten enrollment was significantly higher than the um demographers's projection and what we had budgeted for the the overall trend in K through five still holds right that there's there's less students in the younger grades um which is you know presumably more than anything a reflection of um less babies being born as sort of time goes on which we've talked about extensively and I'm wondering in the especially in the high school years and maybe

074maybe the middle school years as well um if there's another factor as well of students who had maybe attended a non-public school you know K through 8 then enroll in a one of our high schools um and maybe there's some of that either from home school or another uh school option um and are do we have I don't know do you have any information about that and to what extent do we sort of assume that or is that built into our models? >> Yeah. So yes and yes. So we know a couple things happen. We know that a couple of our private schools end at 8th grade and so there is a natural they're either going to have to find a different private school or they're going to enroll in the public school and maybe

075that was the parents intention all along. Anecdotally, we also hear of stories of yes, they want to come to our well- reggarded high schools where they know they can have advanced classes and um college in the school credits and things like that. Um there's one more part to that. Uh shoot it just left my brain. There was there was a last part of the question there. Uh >> well, so just to to look at it like from 8th grade to 9th grade and sorry we're just sort of conversing here. uh chair. Um but you'll you'll interrupt us if we're out of order, I'm sure. Um from 8th grade to 9th grade, it jumps by about 130 students, which is a big stair step. And do we think a lot of that is students enrolling from

076other >> Yes, that's what I was going to say. So, our modeling and our we call it the survival ratio um is usually less than a 1.0 or less than 100% in all of our grades except when you get to high school. there. We count on our eighth grade class going up to 9th grade is usually going to be 101% or 102% of what it was because we know that there are other students joining us from other options at the start of high school. >> Superintendent. >> So yes, that's kind of planned for I think is the answer. >> Thanks. I I I think uh Dr. Cook the single most important question in addition to getting under the hood with the ALC and I have my hypothesis about that one but it's where we've always

077seen the ALC leaving aside where the projection was last year the single biggest projection is that kindergarten B um is that a random cohort effect um or is it a reversal of the trend that not only our own methodology predicted but Dr. Dr. Reinhardt's methodology predicted. One possible factor there could be that um Dr. Reinhardt's projection and many K12 projections predict relatively few people living in apartments with young kids that they that the families with young kids live in single family homes, but those are in very short supply in Rochester. And so are we seeing people coming to this community for economic opportunity or other reasons who are living with young children in apartments because that's potentially if that's happening at significant scale and a lot of the new housing has been apartments that could

078explain a hundred kids and so the question would be is that a number that's going to be really dependent on how the housing stock going up and if people are willing to live in apartments to live in Rochester it could be a significant shift in our elementary enrollment projections um if that gain in last year's kindergarten is sustained um in the years ahead and it's also the single hardest thing for us to predict because we don't have connection to those families directly unlike what we do with those you know students that we are privileged to currently serve. So that was a super hopeful sign but it's not impossible that we would get to next year and see that it was a particular cohort effect that didn't wasn't sustained. And I'm obviously hoping that's not the

079case, but that's that's just sort of the canary in the coal mine for us, I think, right now. >> Dr. Reinhardt, >> that was interesting. I never thought of thought thought of that uh perspective, but I guess a lot of recent studies show now too that parents don't people don't buy homes as much. People are more transient. So maybe we need to reook at what data we are looking at because that in short is a little outdated information, right? That's not at the top of people's list as it was maybe 30 years ago. people don't associate home ownership with success the way it was traditionally meant but any was my question um my question was um have we correlated any of this information with like the intransition teams right because they would be the people

080that would be getting seeing if these are new enrollments right that would probably be a good starting point or these kids that just moved around the district or came in or out um type of thing I'd be curious to see what the in transition um that department what their data looks like and does it mirror um these same numbers. So do so when we see this increase do we have 30 40 110 whatever kids that are also part of those intransition students because that would also I think be a space to maybe find out why those numbers are um a screw them and I don't know if you've already looked at that data. We haven't looked at that grouping of students. Um, we did some polls of data to figure out, you know, some of

081the churn like where some of our students went. I think this was a question that was asked ahead of time about, you know, stu if students left this building, where did they go? And and from what I can tell, like thinking about just our DWOS, our districtwide option schools in particular, about half of those students just picked another option in the community. So, now we don't know all the reasons why they did that. was very good to see that they were staying within the Rochester public school system. They weren't abandoning. Whereas the um almost the other half, it looks like based on the information they gave us, they've moved away from the area. They haven't just open enrolled or gone to a private school, but they've actually left the area so for maybe economic opportunities

082elsewhere or you know those types of things. They've, you know, exited the area. But that means we've also attracted another group of people either from other options in Rochester or other people have moved to Rochester uh as new families as well. So it's very interesting as you start kind of digging under the hood there and looking at the the churn and and where kids are coming from and where they're going to. And and I will also add so my thought when I saw the data with ALC in the 12th grade my instant thought was that they were doing the uh just lost the name of the program the online >> sync online. No, no, no, >> no. The uh >> credit recovery. >> The credit recovery. Cuz if their number increased so much and so

083did the 12th grade, my automatic thought was that people just enrolled their kids and to get their credit recovery so they could graduate, which it would explain why there wasn't any big staffing anything because that's all done online. So, and the kids kind of can do it at their own pace. just just those were my initial thoughts when I saw those two numbers go up so high together was credit recovery programming maybe >> that definitely could be true and that's something I think we want again we want to dig in into and understand with our ALC leaders uh where is the the change happening >> Dr. Mlin, did you have another? >> I did that. Okay. Um, I know a few years ago when we made the big decisions to build some new schools, it

084was because all of our schools were at most of our schools are at high capacity and sometimes a school looks at this numbers and says, "Wow, this is a section or section plus." So, how are we doing on capacity? >> Yes. Um, I did not throw these into, but just as we were heading into, we're definitely watching a couple of our schools that are probably at that 50% marker, but many of our schools are, you know, in that range where you would expect them to be in that 75 to 80% where we kind of figure is the ideal um capacity. there's still room to maneuver and make change and and attract um incoming families um but not beyond to the point where we're talking about we have to redo attendance lines and building more schools

085and all that. >> So still room to grow. >> Great board members. Any other comments? >> Thank you. Our next item is also a information item. Our newcomers programming update. Superintendent Pel, >> school board members, I um I I see a number of folks that are are going to be presenting. You guys can definitely come on up. Um so, uh the presentation is going to involve Mona Perkins, um our chief academic officer, and Natalyia Benjamin, our director of multilingual learning, Josh Irwin, uh Karen Culinson, uh newcomers teachers, and Michelle Sheay, a second grade teacher. Um, board members, I wanted to add this update tonight when you were reviewing the language access plan so that we didn't have an update only on the the work we're doing to engage families uh in providing language support beyond

086the school. And so to some extent, this presentation is a little bit cruel and unusual punishment in so far as it is a concise snapshot of incredibly complex important work. And so I would look forward to coming back for a deeper update, but I didn't want to have an evening in which we only talked about the great work that you heard about earlier without giving a sense of the good work that's happening within the classrooms. And so thank you to the team uh for this and look forward to the conversation. I have to say I I have to say I loved the uh exercise Miguel had us do. Um, and there have been few uh examples I've encountered, at least in a setting like this, as illustrative of the importance of language development and good

087translation as the fact that my translation for director Cook was, and we're going to schedule a meeting about something else. Complete breakdown in communication uh there. So, let's talk about how we're trying to help our kids develop those skills while retaining their home languages. >> All right, you guys ready? I'm gonna turn it over to my colleagues here. >> Thanks for having us today. We'll just do a quick introduction so you get to know who's inside the room. >> Hi, I'm Karen Cobinson. I work at Gage Elementary and I am a multilingual learner and newcomer teacher. I'm Michelle Sheay. I also work at Gage Elementary. I'm a general ed second grade teacher. Um, and I co-e newcomers. >> And I'm Josh Irwin. I teach at Century High School. I'm an ML and teacher. I thought

088that the people that work directly with our newcomers students and families would be the most appropriate to share what we're doing. So we'll talk about the programming and then some of the supports that we have in place. Um so there are several definitions of the term term newcomers in Rochester public schools. Newcomers are students who are new to the country and who have been in the US school system for less than one school year. Um, students who qualify for newcomers have scored at a 1.9 or below on the WEDA screener. The WEDA screener is the assessment that the state has identified to determine whether a student qualifies for ML services. Um, students who qualify at a level one on the WEDA screener are beginning English language learners and they usually benefit from visuals, gestures for

089understanding everyday words or phrases. Students may be able to answer questions that contain a few words or simple questions such as naming familiar objects, people, or pictures. Students at this level may also understand written texts that contain a few words or phrases, including graphs, charts, or other visual information. For writing, students can be expected to express ideas that contain few words in English, and also use text and illustration to express personal experiences, opinions, or steps and processes. It's important to note that some students may begin their English language development for the first time as they enter our school system school system, but some do come with previous English experience. These flowcharts include the entrance criteria for newcomer programming and also the exit criteria. As previously mentioned, students who are new to the country are identified

090in the registration process and referred to the coordinator of interpretation services for assessment. If the screeners score qualifies them to attend our newcomer services, families then have the option um to attend the programming for newcomers or go to their neighborhood school. The coordinator of interpretation services sends the information to site administrators, ML teachers, transportation, and other support staff who need this information. A student qualifies to exit newcomers after they have been in that setting for one year or they have scored two or above on the WEDA model, the assessment to determine the students English language development level. In the past couple years, we have expanded the program to four elementary buildings uh compared to one site two years ago. Uh we have two middle school buildings compared to one two years ago. And now we

091have the programming at all three high schools. And so we're going to just briefly share um what that looks like at each level. So at the elementary school, newcomer students spend the majority of their day in a general education classroom. There is additional ML staffing that supports the general ed teacher through co-eing at each grade level. Newcomer students also receive pullout services to work on their English language skills. And at the middle school, they receive shelter classes in English language development as well as uh science and social studies. And there is an opportunity to co-e in math and English language arts depending on staffing and how that um is established. And then they usually join their peers during uh physical education and music classes. >> At the high schools, uh students attend sheltered classes in

092English language development. They also attend co-taught languages to receive their English language arts credits as well as their social studies credits. Uh newcomer students attend a math class that's appropriate for their skills and also receive additional support through a math literacy class. students do join their peers during elective classes such as art, ceramics, physical education. >> I will also add that about two years ago, we worked on a graduation pathway for our newcomer students. And so when sites are able to implement that with fidelity, then we prevent students from being placed in classes without language supports. So some things that have been working well as far as supports is the co-eing model, its respective instructional supports and the consistency in keeping these professional relationships to support our students. Co-eing has been proven to be an

093effective way to support teachers and has created solid partnerships as we integrate our newcomers into our general education settings. At buildings that have adopted the mindset that all kids are our kids, there has been a buyin from the entire staff to step up and support each other to meet the needs of our newcomers and their families. At high schools where a single counselor manages the intake and communication with our newcomer families, this has simplified the process to support students, staff, and families. While we have made a lot of progress at supporting staff, students, and families, there are still challenges in the implementation of newcomers programming. Scheduling can prove to be difficult sometimes. At the elementary level, planning for growth can be tricky, especially when we don't know the extent of the needs of students who

094will arrive throughout the year. At the secondary level, having consistency across sites to implement programming can be a challenge depending on enrollment and the way buildings assign staffing. Another challenge is for teachers to find the time to adapt curriculum materials. This can be particularly difficult when navigating less commonly taught languages. Because of the variety of language communities that we serve, it can be challenging to find instructional resources in these languages, creating a gap of resources our students can accept can access. Because our students are working on developing English language skills, it can be difficult to determine at what point interventions are needed. Overall, there is an increased need for understanding language acquisition as well as strategies that can be used to build language supports within the tier one instruction. So, last year we began with

095uh studying the new commit toolkit which has the chapters that are listed here. And so, we're going to just take you through what um the information that we gave. So, basically what this allowed us to do is to identify the things that we already had in place and the gaps um to things that we still need to implement. Uh, one of the things we're working on this year is, uh, welcoming newcomers. Uh, we've discovered welcoming newcomers is a team effort that involves steps from when our families register to attend our schools, uh, through their experiences at our individual sites. At the central office, the ML department leadership has partnered with the coordinator of interpretation services and communications to ensure a smooth transition from registration to students beginning their first day of school. We continue to

096revise this process as we receive feedback from families and staff. Uh last year teachers asked for a family welcome packet and with the help of Aaron Vasquez, community schools facilitator at John Marshall, a welcome packet was put together so that our families would have a one-pager explaining some of our procedures and practices, how to communicate with the school and other requirements. We're in the process of finalizing this packet. It's been translated into our five mostused languages. And now we need to finalize the elementary version, the secondary version, and personalize it for each of the newcomer sites. We hope that eventually this is something that can be available at every site. In addition to this, we created a welcoming newcomer families template that newcomer sites can use to organize staff members to support our newcomer families.

097This includes intake such as tours of the schools to understanding how to communicate with families and also monitoring their progress and well-being throughout the school year. In addition to this, one important part to welcoming our newcomers is supporting them at the high school level through transcript validation and graduation planning. As a team, ML leadership has met with Alex Hagano, school counselor lead, Miguel Benjamin, coordinator of interpretation services, and Mamsu Kudson, director of communications, who oversees the enrollment process to ensure that we have guidelines and processes in place to communicate with families and provide accurate accurate graduation plans for our students. >> As you'll notice, supporting our families requires collaboration with multiple departments. And so in order to support the newcomers social emotional learning, we are embedding um some of these learning through our co-eing and

098uh um at the same time we are partnering with Sarah Clark who's our coordinator of mental health to make sure that we implement some things. We are going to implement the uh mental health screening for our newcomer students so that we can be more proactive in meeting their needs rather than waiting for um our students to face a crisis. Our newcomer ML teachers had an opportunity to study the chapter in the newcomer toolkit on highquality instruction and provided some feedback on things that can be implemented. Some of these have been implemented through our co-eing training and our trans languaging training. These two opportunities provide our staff time to collaborate with an ML teacher and also to learn more about an assetbased approach to teaching newcomer students. Rochester public schools has also partnered with Project Momentum

099to support a cohort of teachers in obtaining their K12 ESL lure. This equips general education teachers with the knowledge they need to address the needs of newcomer students. In addition to this, the professional learning opportunities that are provided support the evidence-based practices to support English language development suggested by the Minnesota Department of Education. >> I know we're almost out of time. We have two more slides. You can keep going. >> Yeah, >> perfect. >> Uh, establishing family partnerships is a crucial part of supporting our multilingual students who are new to the country. This involves working closely with the team of interpreters and making efforts to have a two-way relationship with our families. To that goal, we partner with the Office of Family Engagement and youth empowerment to provide professional development regarding these family partnerships. With

100the help of Jennifer Spindler Craig, we've coordinated professional development on culturally sustaining family partnerships with Project Momentum and also a home visits training through parent teacher home visits which gave our staff members a foundation to be ready to do home visits as a way to build relationships with our multilingual families and more specifically our newcomer families. So in closing, we still have a lot of work to do to support our staff so that they can meet the needs of our multilingual families. And that includes uh working on finding the curricular resources they need as well as fine-tuning our scope and sequence for our level one classes. Um we also are working on providing training to administrators on trans languaging and other evidence practices as well as seeking feedback for our families uh from our families

101and so that we can communicate with them. Um I would also add that um there's other things that that are also in play like peer mentors. I know that we heard from a young person earlier today uh which I think speaks to the need of um being very intentional as to how do we partner those students and I know that Josh has implemented that in his classroom. Um and not only looking at the peer mentors that have the appropriate language skills for communication but also on how we train those students to be partners with us as well. Um, so in in that we are ready for questions that you may have for us. >> Wonderful. >> Dr. Martin, >> this is such important work and I I love your attitude that everyone everyone needs this

102opportunity. What do you do when a student shows up who speaks a language that nobody on staff speaks? I mean, does that the co-eing thing that kid is in a co-taught class and neither the EL teacher or the content teacher speaks that language? How does that work? >> Have you had that experience? >> I have had that experience last year. We had a boy who came in and his sister, they spoke Dari or Farsy or Persian. So, you would think we would be able to find a language. Uh, we could get it on Google Translate, but Google translate will not speak it and I cannot read it. So we had no way to communicate with that child. Um we were able to send talking points to his parents but they are not literate in that

103language also. And so we had we struggled. Um but I had students supporting him and they don't seem to care if they speak the same language or not. So they have their own language. We used a lot of visuals, a lot of gestures. Um I added uh pictures to my slides. Um, and we just kept involving him and by the end of the year he could he was bossing around other kids and telling you know our our newest newcomers he was helping them out. So I mean that second grade they learn incredibly fast. >> Thank you. >> Superintendent. >> Well um Natalya just mentioned it but I can't resist. I've been in Josh's class when he has the students who are native or highly advanced uh translating for the students who are brand new very

104much like what you experienced. Um and I I was there for an instructional part, but this is kind of the conversational part. I will have to say that was such a highlight. Um, I'll just be honest. I was getting so choked up at the experience um of seeing these high school students translating for their peers and feeling so valued and empowered uh in what they're doing. It was just an extraordinary uh thing. So, thank you for that that glimpse. Um and and I did talk to the kids too in English and stuff, but that was such a highlight as we had time. Um and so they're in Arabic and um multiple languages and you could just see the sense of contribution on the part of those students and it just elevated language skill. I mean

105it's why we say multil- language learning. We we want everybody to we want those kids to retain that language and we want kids to speak good English. Um so it's definitely a highlight of last year for me. >> Thank you so much for coming. It was a highlight highlight for the entire group. Uh we look we look forward to it. We always look forward to seeing you. Dr. Mcman, >> um I'm kind of curious about the expansion from in the limited school buildings to the broader buildings in the district. Have you been able to see the impact on that? Is it positive? Are there things we've learned from that? What does that look like? >> Great question. There has lots of learning that has happened. Um I would I'll start and then you guys can

106jump in as you as you wish. Um at the elementary level, I think it's it's what we saw most of that piece. Um, Riverside had been the newcomer site for for a lot of years. And so when we went to two other sites that probably had not experienced that, I think it was a lot of shock to our system and a lot of adjustments that we had to do. Uh, we worked diligently to try to meet regularly with the ML team, but also to hear from our teachers and try to address their needs. I will say that it's hard. It's not an easy task to do. We have learned a lot from that. Um, I think a compliment to Gage, I will share because I don't know if you know the story, but we had

107uh some newcomer students that had chosen to go to a different site that doesn't have the newcomer program and and and that was a little bit of a struggle and then they got to go to summer school at Gage and one of the staff members from that building came to Gage and she was like, "Oh, this is just what we do over here." And so I want to speak of the growth that happened at those buildings on how do we um provide the the supports that our families and our students need because that growth was visible in a staff member that was at a different building when she went there. I don't know what you guys want to add to that. >> Yeah, last year at Gage it was a learning curve for us. You

108know, we think of newcomers as being under multilingual instruction, which it is, but it's also a whole different level than, you know, higher level English speakers. So, yeah, it was a definite learning curve. Natalia was very patient with us and uh we've just been working. She's really good at like us working with us to build on what we are doing. So, I really appreciate that. And I just wanted to share a quick thing about last year for me. Um they were talking about how the kids don't care about the language barriers. Um I co-taught fifth grade last year and we had different we had a kumai speaker and we also had Spanish speakers. They we taught the entire class how to use Google Translate and they spoke to each other through it. And I caught

109I was behind one of my students. I saw her write on her Google Translate, "Will you be my friend?" >> And she showed it to a student who spoke a completely different language. The kids don't care. We like we think of it as such a big deal as adults. They learn to navigate and they're just amazing. They're so amazing. So, >> Dr. Right. Horn. >> So, I see it's not in all of the middle schools and I see it's not in all of the elementary schools. And does expansion look like making that available in every school or does it look like we just need to keep newcomers, you know, what does that what does that expansion look like? I'm glad to see it's expanding, but does this look like something where it should be offered

110in in every school so that parents don't have those other barriers? Um, I mean, I'm excited that we have something, right, for people that are coming in. Um, but then we have, you know, issues of stability and transportation and, um, tons of other barriers, which I could probably speak all night on. Um, how does that look? How does that expansion How does that look? >> May I take this? Sure, >> please. >> Um, so there's a couple of things with expansion. So, um, expansion to me is is very important. I think, um, having been a newcomer, I know the, um, connection my parents made with the building and how important that was, and then you don't want to leave. So, it's hard for families to come and be there for a year and then go

111back to their homesite. Um, I know culturally for for us that you like schools are put up on a pedestal, teachers are put up on a pedestal, they put a lot of trust in them. Um, and so those relationships were really really critical. I think what gets to be tricky that when we have to figure out as we expand is multiple things. We have to train the teachers because you want to make sure that the kids are receiving the services that they need and have a right to. Um, but you also have to be careful to not like one of the the pros of having a newcomer site is you get to really um build up the staff. Like you have a lot of staff. You can your resources can be allocated better. So right

112now when they're able to co-e like three in order to really co-e well at the elementary you need three FTE at that elementary. So if you start spreading it out too much, if you don't have the numbers, it can be harder to really um service the kids the way they should be serviced. Um so we are constantly looking at that because ideally and parents can always choose to go to their home school and then we have an obligation to service the kids still like we're but we want to make it a good experience for everybody. Okay. So, we're we're trying to be careful with how that how the expansion goes. Um, and when you're co-eing numerically, you have to be careful. It's not it's not co-eing if you have too many kids in the classroom

113um that that are newcomers. And so, you have to you have to balance the numbers out. And it is a it's a part of it sometimes a guessing game because you're not really sure where they where people are going to move into what neighborhoods and um but in an ideal world all kids would go to their home school. That would be my ideal to give you an idea right we have some buildings where we only have 0.5 FTE some buildings where we only have 1.0 O FTE and really to do co-eing at every grade level. I think the minimum is is three staff members. And so um I'm not sure that if I sent Andy, three staff members per building, he would be very happy with what what that means financially. >> So why don't

114we have it at all middle schools? I guess understanding elementary schools. um we don't have the numbers to have newcomers at every site and that is almost one full FTE that tends the needs of that of those students. So it would be an additional FTE per per so it sounds like this is a program that the students thrive at and I heard you say after a year what is the period of time that we expect students to be in the newcomer program? That's a great question. Um the the reason why there is a year is because you don't want to place students in an environment that is um that excludes them from a lot of the activities. At the Liam elementary school, they're already embedded with their their regular programming and their peers. So that

115wouldn't be too hard to do. at the secondary um they are not with their peers all day long because the the language demands of the content areas increase with the grade level and the age. And so it's almost like that gradual release of responsibility where the first year there's a lot of supports, the second year there's a little less supports and then by the third and fourth year they only have one or two hours of supports. And so if if we waited for them to fully develop all the language skills before we move them out, we would be placing them in a very strict excluded environment. Um and that's just not good for anybody. Anything else? Well, thank you for all your work, what you're doing for all the kids. >> Thank you. Our final

116monitoring item is the superintendent evaluation for 2024 2025 outcomes component report. On September 23rd, 2025, the school board of Rochester public schools met in a close session with Dr. Kent Pal to discuss the outcomes component of the superintendent's 2024 2025 evaluation. Superintendent Pel's outcome goal for 2024-25 was as follows. At least one-third of the schools in RPS make statistically significant gains in the number of students who score proficient in reading at at least one grade level on the 2025 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments when compared to the scores achieved on the 2024 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments. After carefully scrutinizing the recent MCA data, Dr. Pel concluded he had narrowly missed that goal with seven schools rather than the requisite eight demonstrating statistically significant gains. The school's grade levels that showed statistically significant gains in reading between 2024 and

1172025 on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments were Elton Hills Elementary Grade 5, Gibbs Elementary Grade 5, Hoover Elementary Grade 4, Riverside Elementary Grade 5, Washington Elementary Grade 3, Kellogg Middle School Grade 8, and Willow Creek Middle School Grade 8. Dr. Dr. Pel discussed with the board the plans and approaches that are already in place to improve the success rate in both reading and math on the MCA assessment going forward. The board reinforced its deep commitment to continue working with the superintendent in their shared pursuit of excellence for RPS and expressed their confidence in Dr. Pel's exemplary leadership. Our next item is Prep for action, the language access plan. Board members, this would be an opportunity to pose any more questions that we would like to either see information on or considered before it comes back for

118action on the uh on October 21st. Director Mark, I had one. I guess it's sort of technical. This looks really good. Does and I know it's um law that the district needs to come up with with a plan. It seems to me that this does not include uh recruiting or training community members to serve as volunteer interpreters in for their communities because they wouldn't be or maybe they would be paid. Um is that anywhere in the plan, do you know? Or is the do the requirements for this not involve that idea? >> Um thank you Dr. Marvin. It is not directly in the plan but we are just relaunching uh our volunteer strategy this year. We've added back a 0.5 position and I think that potentially over time that could be an additional this will

119be a work in progress and so I think potentially engaging volunteers could be a great additional resource. I'll certainly uh take that to the team some of whom are here. Um right now it's very focused on sort of the core documents and staff within RPS. Um we are very much and I uh this is on the list of things to bring put on the board agenda for 2026. We are um restarting the volunteer processes that largely stopped in this school district and many others during the pandemic. And so of course there are background check and access issues. The big issue of course is making sure it's a rewarding experience for the volunteer and it adds value to the student learning. Um, so we frankly have started with some things that are a bit more accessible

120for a lot of our folks who want to volunteer like reading to kids, you know, in English, but I think it's a fascinating idea and I'll be glad to make sure we um share that with the team. >> Anything else? Oh, Dr. White. >> Um, and I don't I could have overlooked it. Um, I don't know if it's in the plan for how are we getting like the family feedback. I see we have like the Google uh forms um for requests for interpretations and those things for language active. Um are we getting any data back as we're building this program? What is the process for getting data back? Because just because we're creating it, you know, we don't want to create something and then two years later as families, they're like, "Yeah, I really don't,

121you know, I use the process because it's there." You know what I mean? But I think we want to just be cognitive of making sure that just because in theory it looks really good and we get some good data that on the flip side I just hope we have a way to get back um you know feedback or reviews from from the families that are actually using this um technology. Um, so maybe if there are glitches or spaces that we can't recognize because we're not in that position that I hope we're getting some we have some kind of formula with this creation to get their input on what what's really working. >> Um, yes. Uh, thank you Director White Horn. I know it's something that the team has talked about and so as we bring

122this plan back for action, I'll ask them to help me uh give you share some information with you about how we're thinking about that. I think your point is super well taken. We should be building that into every area of our work. Um and so I'll think about um what we can say when you vote next week. Um but certainly beyond that, we can continue to um uh make that a priority. >> Ambassador has something and the and the plan comes back to for review by the board every two years and I I not knowing what the requirements are in statute I don't know if there's any requirement like before you bring the report back does there have to be any you know sort of program evaluation evaluation of >> I don't recall that it's

123required but I think it certainly is the kind of commitment that we've tried to take to most areas of our work um to be collect the data and be self-reflective of how it's going. So, thank you. >> Anything else, board members? This comes back for action on October 21st, so we'll have one more chance. >> All right. Our next item is an action item, the approval of the mission, vision, and values. Uh, we discussed this at the September 23rd meeting, but I believe there is a small update. Superintendent. >> Thank you, Miss Kramer. >> Power of the clicker. >> Um, thank you, Chair Nathan. I am going to give a very fast recap of the um mission, vision, and values that you are um being asked to uh approve tonight. And it also does include

124a logo and a tagline. As you notice from the board agenda item, we're asking for board approval of the big parts of the strategy. I understand that um among some in our community, there have been some folks who've raised the question of, you know, why why spend time why spend any money um on this? And I pulled actually I found a fourth too. You know, people often in the course of my 35 plus year career in education say schools should run more like a business. Um, well, we are, as uh John Carlson outlined for us earlier, in a free market for educational services in Rochester. And so pulled a couple quotes. Jeff Bezos from Amazon, your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room. Or Richard Branson from Virgin

125um airlines and records. Branding demands commitment. Commitment to continual reinvention. striking chords with people to stir their emotions and commitment to imagination. Howard Schultz from Starbucks. If people believe they share values with a company, they'll stay loyal to the brand. And finally, the fourth one I added right before the board meeting, Steve Jobs from Apple. To me, marketing is about values. It's a very complicated and noisy world, and we're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. And so we have to be really clear what we want them to know about us. So our effort to position Rochester public schools for the future which will be integrated into our strategic plan and in many ways some of which we can't imagine now has four core components. A set of

126value statements, a mission statement, a vision statement and then that logo and tagline and a broader visual identity. So the value statements that we landed on are the five you saw last time plus one other that we've added based upon the conversations that started at the previous board meeting. The first providing exceptional opportunities to succeed. That a strength of Rochester public schools is the diversity of programming from career and technical opportunities to the newcomer programming we heard about tonight to um advanced academic opportunities. All of which um do have and increasingly will have a common standard of excellence. But we aren't just about academic success. We're about the social skills. We are about the emotional well-being of our students. And so supporting that whole student is our second value. Third, we're digging deeper, going beyond

127curriculum that's mile wide and an inch deep, recalling facts on a standardized test for learning that applies to the real world. Whether a student wants to go on and repair hearts or fix cars or write poetry or um uh do other things uh careers that haven't even been invented yet. Learning that truly applies to the real world. building belonging and connection which is not about um uh group therapy for um random purposes in our schools. It is about academic success. It is about every student feeling that people like them whoever that is belong in our schools and can succeed in our schools. The fifth and the added one that has come since your last review was ensuring excellence through evidence. that um actually as director Whitehorn's question just a moment ago illustrated we have tried

128to make evaluation and data a hallmark of what we do and I think in a community like Rochester that's what's expected of us but um in retrospect it was an omission from our previous set of values that we value research and data and evidence which I think uh it's fair to say are under siege in some quarters today and then finally investing in our community's future we see all of Rochester's future as uh uh centrally linked to the work of Rochester public schools, the well-being of our community is a mission of our school district in a way that I don't think understandably is the mission of any individual private school or charter school or um a school district across the borders from Rochester where families might choose to send their student. We are in it

129for Rochester as a community. So board member, those are the six value statements we ended up with. A mission statement focuses on equipping every student with the knowledge, independence, and resilience to fulfill a pursue a fulfilling path. That mission statement first of all has the student pursuing their own path as the end result. What we're aiming for and fulfilling path is intentionally uh broad. Uh whatever that path is that our students choose to make their life about, they have three things. They have the knowledge, the academic knowledge and skills. They have the independence. They have the ability to self-start. They have the ability to chart their own course. And then resilience when stuff gets tough. Uh when life happens, they have the ability to persevere, to reach out for help, uh to to keep on

130that fulfilling path. And then our vision statement, which we really wanted to have a single sentence, our vision is every student thrives in school and in life. Um, and the the backstory here is that we don't want all of our work just to be about that fulfilling path that leads beyond our schools. We want our kids to be thriving in school today. Um, life is not just preparation for the future. It's about the moments that any of us have at this time. And so, we want kids to be thriving while they're on their journey. And then we want them to thrive as young adults and beyond. And then of course uh a symbol that uh we think will become quite familiar across the community, our new uh logo um which some have referred to as

131building blocks based. Um the Mamsu Kudson and her team have done great work in thinking about graphics and color schemes. Um, and then there's that tagline which tries to capture that duality of challenged to strive, supported to thrive, that we push kids. We push them beyond their comfort zones. Um, we push them where many times they want to go themselves, but we provide that support um along the way. So, that uh board members is a fast tour through the um work that we've done thus far. Um, as is noted in the board agenda item, we're asking for your formal approval of the mission, vision, and value statements. Um, guided by the assumption that the logo and the tagline are maybe not policy issues like uh the board would normally approve. And I've worked with the

132chair and vice chair to um to develop this proposal that's before you. So, thanks for the opportunity to do a a quick recap. >> Great. Director Mccclac. >> Um I really like really like the add of the new value statement ensuring excellence through evidence. I think it highlights the work that Dr. Ruck does for the district both for the board and our decisions but also how we can be confident that that evidence is being used on a dayto-day basis to help our students succeed. I think that brings that all together and it's important. So thank you. >> Yeah, Dr. Marvin. Um, and I know there have been some who questioned why why go to all the work to do this because we have all these things already. It it seems to me the last time

133we got that mission statement and did the whole kind of vision mission for the school district was 10 years ago at least. the amount of outreach during this process, the number of different voices that have been brought in, um I think really reflect who Rochester is now and what we as a community want for our kids. And I think it's time and money well spent to make sure that we're getting it right. And I think I think we got it right. I mean, with so many voices and so many perspectives, I think we got it right. Any other comments, board members, before I read the resolution? Be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the vision, mission, and value statements to guide and represent the critical work of

134the district. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any further questions or discussion on the resolution? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. opposed. The resolution has been approved. Welcome to our new logo. And I understand there will be a transformation of this boardroom in the next week that will reflect our new visuals. Our next action item is the authorization to close and sell for Dell. This is an action item. The board discussed this item at the September 23rd meeting. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby approve the closure of FDAL at the end of the 2026 2027 school year. And be it further resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby authorize the administration to list

135Fidel for sale. And be it further resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby authorize the superintendent or the chief administrative officer to negotiate and sign a purchase agreement with any potential buyer subject to schoolboard approval before the purchase agreement becomes binding and effective. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? I I had uh yes, one thing I I was wondering if either superintendent or perhaps Mr. Carlson if you could just explain to the board uh what the proceeds of these this sale would be applied to. I I know that this is specified in statute, but I think just for clarity of the board and anybody who might be listening, my my basic understanding is that it's applied to the debt services fund,

136but if there's Thank you, Director Cook, for the question. There's a couple different paths and it depends on which building specifically, but it depends if there's debt against the building. Fidel and Skyline have no debt against them. In other words, we haven't borrowed money recently um to make improvements there. Uh so that money would go into the operating capital account and can be used towards other building projects in the future within the district. Um when we get to the old Mighty Oaks location, that building um recently there or 10 years ago there was debt taken out to do some updates to it. So that the proceeds from that sale of that building are going to need to go into the debt service fund. and and the types of capital improvements would be the types of

137things that we see on the LTFM uh facilities plan. Right. >> Correct. It would be for those types of things where maybe we need to remodel, maybe we need to add, maybe we need to put um other improvements into a building that we don't know where the funding source would be. That would be a perfect opportunity for those. >> So, is it fair to say that selling these buildings and the the proceeds that are generated from the sale will result in reduced taxes? >> Correct. the money that goes in the debt service fund would be a direct um decrease in the levy uh probably a year or two down the road. Um and then obviously if we don't have to borrow other money to make improvements um yes we do not have to go and

138ask for funding elsewhere. >> Excellent. Thank you Dr. Wford. >> Uh just two questions some things that I've heard around the sales for clarification as well. Um do we one do we already have potential buyers for the properties? Do we have interest? And Secondly, um I am aware that it's going up for sale, but there are people would like clarification on whether or not it's sale only or is it for sale and possible lease or or how is real estate doing that because you can have a property that's up for sale that's up for sale or lease or so are are we just do we have Sorry, I have four questions there. >> Yeah, thank you for the questions. Um, so tomorrow we have an appointment with our district realtor who's represented us in other

139transactions. And so we're going to talk that through and make sure that we have um appropriate listing agreements. Um, I would say we are setting them up to sell them, but in the world of real estate, all kinds of interesting offers can come your way. And so I think we would examine and uh look at any option that is uh viable and presented to us and bring it to you. >> Superintendent. Um, and thank you, Director Ryan, for that. The the the one caveat I'd give is that the um indoor air quality upgrades that are imminently needed at Fredell uh would make me very nervous about keeping it on a lease space because uh we're kind of in a race of time to get out of there before we have to put that $14 million

140in there. So the that for that building among the three, it would be hard to see the logic of the lease option given that our folks are saying they're having to go to Georgia to get part replacements and things like that. So it but certainly for um the other two facilities, you know, we could look at uh different options. >> And the other and thank you for that point, Superintendent Pel. The other part of your question there about are there interested buyers? There have been some people who have contacted superintendent myself for the last couple weeks and so we're passing those uh names on to the realtor so they can um enter into or give them more information or talk to them about potential offers but at this point there are no offers on the

141table. There are no buyers standing by but we do anticipate there will be some interest coming forward. >> Dr. All right, last question. And are we giving any preference um and this may be on the real estate side to um like community investors? You know, sometimes when things go up for sale, there's uh an investment of it needing to uh maybe I'm not using the correct word verbage, but for it to remain in the in the community, right? that um you can sell certain properties within the community with the interest that it remains in the community that it's not brought by not I'm not and again not brought by some farm out in Utah you know or something like that that it remains in you know within the community or so it could be repurposed

142for you know the growth of the community. Do we have any clauses of that or have we done that in the past or is that just not a concern at all? I know um we have the one property that we need to sell quickly, but >> so I have a couple thoughts on that. So from our past experience, we tried to put deed restrictions or put in the listing agreement that we would not accept certain things. Uh the listing agreements that we've looked at so far that have been presented to me for first reading didn't have any sort of restrictions. Um so we're going to that tends to help it move faster when there are no restrictions. I think if I if I put on my fiduciary hat and think about the taxpayers and representing

143the public with that hat on, I have to say we have to get the most value for the buildings. So whether it's somebody from out of state or or in town, we need to look at what's the highest value. If I put on my community hat, yes, I would love to see it stay in the community and have it repurposed and and our buildings reused for people that we know and people who are taxpayers already. Um, but we're going to have to balance that out with what's the the highest and best value for the bill. >> I was just asking for clarity for people that are interested. >> Dr. McCloud, >> um, I have a question that kind of relates to all three of the resolutions we're looking at. Is that okay for me to

144ask? Um, kind of tagging on to what, um, Director Whitehorn was asking about the it seems like the one restriction about Fredell is that it's after next academic year. Does that I guess number one cause concern that it might not attract or would we con is there any scenario where we would cons consider changing that if the right offer came into us? >> That's a question that the superintendent and I need to talk about a little bit more in detail about what are the options for the programs in there. And so we're running a a strategic initiative this year on making those plans. And so I'm hesitant to say that we'll have them ready to execute in time for the start of next school year. That's why we we wrote it for the end of

145the 2627 school year. But given the right price and the right timing, you know, things can happen on a faster. But then then we risk maybe not getting that input, that feedback and and running the the process the the way we would desire it to be. >> Superintendent. >> Um uh thank you, Director Mclofflin. I would agree. I have had extensive conversations with city and county leaders and there's that would be a very unexpected circumstance to have somebody want to invest in the Fidel property at a significant increase one year early. That everyone agrees it's valuable location, it's valuable land, but that it's probably a slow build um in terms of interest. So, I think it's important to take enough time to really do a good job with the the school communities of the two

146programs that are there to be sure. We we definitely have ideas for how we can um find great places for those school communities. And um as we all remember when the levy failed in 2023 and we had to act very quickly in a crisis until Mayo Clinic gave us $10 million. Um you can miss important stuff when you have to make those decisions really really fast. And so it's my hope to make it on this timeline. So we that's not that far away. So uh it's a point well taken, but at least the city and county leaders I've talked to have been puzzled as to why some other land in that vicinity has not gone more immediately, but you never know. Like there might be something. So never say never. >> Yeah, I was going

147to say commercial deals too are do take a longer time to put together than a residential standard, you know, house. So, you know, I think that's an appropriate amount of time and that there's still going to be interest, but it helps other people who are interested also get all their ducks in a row and financing and everything they go to. >> Um, Director Whitehorn led me to think of this. I don't know, I didn't think about it before, but when a district sells a school building, um, do they put restrictions on the sale to someone who might open a program that would be in competition with our district? >> Those are the restrictions I was talking about that we put on um, other listing agreements in the past and um, you know, none of those

148resulted in sales to any competing interests. But yes, that would be a concern that we would want to uh, the pros and cons with >> and we could make that decision based on >> yeah my recommendation would be not to put it in as as in the listing that it cannot be >> a certain entity that buys it so that we have the opportunity to discuss it further and really be thoughtful about that before we commit to one way or the other on that >> anything else >> thank you for the proposal I think it's the right thing for the community >> so hearing No further discussion. All in favor of the resolution say I. >> I. Opposed. The resolution has been approved. Now we will move on to the authorization to close and sell

149Mighty Oaks. Be it resolved that the School Board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the closure of Mighty Oaks. And be it further resolved that the School Board of Independent School District 535 does hereby authorize the administration to list Mighty Oaks for sale. And be it further resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby authorize the superintendent or the chief administrative officer to negotiate and sign a purchase agreement with any potential buyer subject to schoolboard approval before the purchase agreement becomes binding and effective. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any further discussions or discussions? >> Hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution say I. >> I. opposed. The resolution has been approved. And our next action item is the authorization to

150close and sell Skyline. Be it resolved that the School Board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the closure of Skyline. And be it further resolved that the School Board of Independent School District 535 does hereby authorize the administration to list Skyline for sale. And be it further resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby authorize the superintendent or the chief administrative officer to negotiate and sign a purchase agreement with any potential buyer subject to schoolboard approval before the purchase agreement becomes binding and effective. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any further discussion or questions? Hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution say I. >> I opposed. The resolution has been approved. Thank you board members. Our next item is other business. Our updated ABCD.

151The current version is available in this agenda item for reference and upcoming agenda items are being displayed on the slide with our new colors. for the study session on October 14th. Um we're have a monitoring item on religious holidays and 2027 2028 RPS calendar design, a prep for action item on our world languages plan. And then the upcoming meetings for the October 21st meeting. We begin with a special session field trip fees hearing immediately followed by a regular meeting. Uh focus topic attendance data and initiatives update philanthropy strategy and a prep for action item co registration guide. Already thinking about next year action item language access plan and world languages plan. Are there any other items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting agenda? hearing none. our upcoming board dates.

152um all at 5:30 p.m. a study session on October 14th. A special session followed by the regular meeting on October 21st. A special session at 5:30 p.m. on November 18th with the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report, then followed by a regular meeting. And on December 2nd, uh a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. And hearing no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 7:38 p.m. Biscuit.