School Board Meeting - March 18, 2025

001e repeat that stud just idle curiosity where's thing where was it a hug place you're not waiting for me we need him M ready ready no this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday March 18th 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 pel a non-voting ex officio member participating remotely as he is out of state helping his son with knee surgery and our assistant school board clerk Miss Anne Kramer Miss Kramer will you please call the role here here here

002Marvin here naan here director here Vice chair Workman here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all item 2.1 is 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 at Rochester schools.org assembly there are no comments to the board this evening so our next item is 4.1 information and Outreach does any board member have updates from their committees since the last meeting

003or any other information they'd like to share director Martin two things um first one we continue to go to uh skip visits that's uh going to schools um elementary middle schools high schools um to uh see in action how they are carrying out their school continuous Improvement plans and uh uh this last time we went to Dakota and I I'm guessing other board members may want to talk about that but one thing that has impressed me so much about about every school we go to is that not only do our teaching staff have really good curriculum that they are really committed to but they also have the skills to bring whatever else students need to that lesson um it's not scripted uh if certain students aren't getting something one way they have tools that they

004use because they've learned these through experience that they can try a different approach and I am so impressed with our teaching staff it's a hard job but they are doing such a great a great job uh with our kids and it's really making a difference and then very briefly I know that we're also going to be talking about uh strategies today and um the district talks a lot about deeper learning it's thrilling to be invited into classrooms to witness firsthand how deeper learning is happening and I know there are other board members who are involved in this too but for instance a a c a Kellog teacher Diane pler has her students create toys that move and that have other action they work in teams they have to be really creative really inventive they have

005to work together and figure out how things work in order to make a toy that not only moves but also would be interesting to a child and then um I think Mr uh cook is doing this too at um John Marshall the economics teachers are having their students again working in teams work on a project to pitch a new business that they think should open in downtown Rochester and they're working with Architects and with entrepreneurs and with business owners with city planners to determine what kind of new businesses might be successful in Rochester what they're going to be named where they're going to be located what hours they're going to be open and they have have some really really interesting ideas I also attended the skip visit at Dakota and um agree with uh director

006Marvin in terms of what we were able to see in the classroom as to how the teachers were engaging not always easy to engage uh middle schoolers um in uh some literacy work and in some uh paired reading activities but I think the overall one of the Impressions that I left with overall was that role of relationships we saw the relationships in the classroom um where the classroom teachers were leading them through and orienting them to the activities that they were going to do we saw the relationships outside the classroom um our um the administrators and the staff greeting being present in the hallways when students are in the hallways greeting them by name even having special handshakes for each and every student I don't know how they keep track of them but also the

007relationships between the students um watching the middle school students sort of move through the hallways in small packs um and stopping when they saw us and said who are you and some of them actually knew who we were without asking and uh being um unafraid to tell us how they felt about certain topics such as the cell phone policy the back P policy and just engage in conversations for the moment to questions from board members um so just the whole atmosphere of positive relationships with Dakota I think um is contributing to the successes that they're seeing this year Dr Cook um I I I did want to just elaborate briefly on what was the highlight of my week personally last week on Friday um like Dr Marvin I had the opportunity to visit the pitch

008project competition at John Marshall where the economics students there were um engaged in entrepreneurship in its purest form they were charged with uh uh putting together a business plan um and uh to make it as real life as possible they had a particular space um that they were that is currently vacant and that they were uh able to um come up with a floor plan for they had uh business plans marketing branding um they did investigations of the competitive landscape to try to understand what other businesses um were in the area and how their offering was going to differentiate itself and then they had to put together a pitch for why a theoretical angel investor should invest in this business idea and folks that's as real as it gets I mean that that is whether

009you are um you have that entrepreneurial uh aspect in your own future and and you're going to try to build the business yourself or if you're at some company and you want to convert an idea into something that impacts The Real World um that is a skill that is absolutely essential and what my advice was repeatedly uh to the students that I met with was any investor cares about 20% about the about your idea and 80% about you as people and whether you are going to work hard and continue to solve problems and overcome adversity and all the rest that comes along with trying to put together some business and our future is in awfully good hands with these students they were very invested in these ideas they took it really seriously and um it

010was just great to be a part of it so that was wonderful direct Workman I'm good okay direct mman um I actually had the wonderful opportunity to attend the fifth ifar dinner on Sunday at Mayo High School it was exciting to see the great student presenters U I learned that John Marshall now has a Muslim student organization Association which is new so now all of our high schools have those which is great um what I was really surprised we also got to play trivia which was fun um I was not very good um but that was okay um we had others at the table that that helped um but the other really interesting thing is the speakers for the night were uh RPS graduates at least two of them I think a third one came

011in and I didn't really understand if he was a graduate or not but it was really fulfilling to see graduates come back and speak with these students about um they were actually invited to talk about the health benefits of fasting um two of them talked about that and then another one talked more about um the spiritual linkage between um fasting and spirituality and his um views as a young adult about um participating in the fasting for Ramadan um but it was really interesting and I'm so glad that we had adults coming back and sharing with students and sharing with the public about their experiences um I always love to see that thank you board members we'll move on to our consented agenda items 5.1 through 512 um would any board member like any item removed

012from the consent agenda for separate consideration move approval second it has been moved and seconded um all those in favor say I I I any opposed the consent agenda has been approved so now we're going to move on to our Focus topic 6.1 which is mindsets behaviors and experiences for Student Success and if um our EX executive director of equity and engagement uh we're off on the second our director of postsecondary Readiness Heather Hogan and our director of academics Heather Wilman would get themselves settled at the table um they're going to present tonight um board members about something that eventually they're uh the superintendent is going to be asking the board to um approve uh to endorse it's a framework and um we know uh that in research um the research about education tells us

013that in order for our students to be successful post High School there's clearly academic knowledge that they need to build but we also know that we've talked about it here at the table um that there's a set of skills that are just as important um for their success in life After High School and we have set an ambitious agenda for our academic agenda um we haven't quite set as much direction or initiative um with some of these other important skills but these people have been working very hard on setting that direction and giving us that framework so that's what they're going to share with us tonight and welcome CH Nathan thanks for that introduction and for having us here again tonight to present to you all um I want to start with why this was

014needed or where this came from in the beginning so if we think back to our planning for our strategic plan and we had listening sessions before then it was pretty clear um throughout the listening sessions that the community felt like we should have a plan for all of our students for Life After High School so that's when we started to get to work we wanted to make sure all of our students were ready were ready not only with their personal development but they had some type of plan no matter what that plan was if it was if it was College if it was a career if it was going into the service whatever that was they had an idea for what they were going to do upon receiving that diploma from RPS so our key

015initiative from the postsecondary and career pathway uh being a building block of our strategic plan as part of that as um will mentioned we want to make sure all of our students have a plan for Life After High School and the profile of a graduate key initiative was developed as a way to support students in preparing for Life After High School so the process so far um our working group we started in August and we met as a working group approximately twice a month um we reviewed um a number of Frameworks and settled on the Conley framework which had been shared with the board last spring uh the team had lengthy discussions uh made some revisions to the framework uh received internal feedback from a variety of roles in the district and also reviewed the

016as mindsets and behaviors which are from the American school counselor Association so this is a visual just to help you um remember the Conley framework and what we really liked about this was that it had a really well-rounded approach to postsecondary Readiness but what we found was there was really an overemphasis on College um there wasn't as much of an emphasis on military or service or industry certification and we kind of felt like it didn't have a the heart and the relational piece of it and so as we kind of wrestled with that um that realization we got feedback and the feedback was basically telling us the same thing that they felt like these were important skills but we were missing a component um so that kind of led us in a different direction and

017that led us to the RPS mindsets behaviors and experiences for students success so these are based on the ASA uh behaviors and mindsets and academic standards support content Knowledge and Skills and the mindsets and behaviors and experiences support our students social emotional academic and postsecondary Readiness development so before we jump jump into the framework we wanted to kind of ground you um in why we think this is really important work and so um we wanted you to think about a young person in your life that is really important to you so just take a second and as we thought about this of course these uh cute little young individuals came to our mind so uh the first picture is the Wilman kids and um we've got a couple in college and one that's an eighth

018grader you know really getting excited to be a Jam rocket and one of the things I hope for them is that they develop that ability to persist when things get hard because we know that the road isn't always straight or linear um and so you'll see that that skill comes through in in this framework and the picture in the center are the Hogan kids and actually one of them is not quite a kid anymore um but we have college and then we also um my daughter is in uh 10th grade at centry and one hope that I have is that they develop a belief in using their talents and abilities to their full potential to be successful in whatever path it is that they choose for themselves the young men on the right are the

019ruins um our four boys Trey Kobe um Manny and Eli and at home we often talk about how our parents first job is to protect them keep them safe in all all different um scenarios as best as we can and we also talk about in order to keep them safe either physically or psychologically they have to be prepared for different situations so what are the skills that they're going to need to have in order to be prepared in these various situations when thinking about that and matching that to the ASA standards that we were just talking about it all made sense and these are things that we believe all students in RPS should be able to do um during their experience here within RPS so let's look at those we think back to um when

020we first started that strategic plan remember there was an artist that was capturing um the essence of the meetings and those those meetings while we were you know discussing having the discussion live the artist was doing this live and something that stood out is right there in front of you like when the vision comes true it looks like this it sounds like this and it feels like this the things that stands out are uplifting laughing laughing happy joyful and kids smiling like these are things that we want to see our kids doing when they're at school and the the top right there it says students and teachers want to be in school so sometimes we focus so hard on the academic side we forget that other side and this is what Heather Wilman was talking

021about earlier well we need a human connection to um these mindsets and these behaviors and experiences what we're formerly calling um the grab profile so these are the mindsets that come to mind so these are are the six mindsets so still keep in mind that student that you were thinking about do we want them to have a sense of acceptance respect support and inclusion for your self and others in their school environment I think the answer is yes do we want them to have a positive attitude towards work and learning the answer is yes again we also want them to be self-confident in their abilities to succeed I think all parents can agree that the answer again is yes shifting over to our learning strategies do we want our students to have a creative approach

022to learning and any task that they have in front of them do we want them to have problem solving skills I think many parents would agree time management is also important they need to keep themselves organized and they need to have those study skills they also need to be self-motivated and have some type of Direction and ownership of their learning I like this one because it helps students figure out that they need to have long-term goals and also short-term goals in these various aspects so academic goals career goals life goals social emotional we need to plan for these things they don't just happen and we can practice this in the classroom so that they're better prepared for when they leave us we also want them to engage in challenging coursework because this is school we're

023in the business of school then number 10 is also important we want them to participate in some type of enrichment or extracurricular activity in partnering with the Department of research and assessment we learned that if a ninth grade student parti participates in any extracurricular activity no matter what it is they have a 139% increase in graduating just by participating in something so the next two slides are going to show the self-management skills for Student Success and these skills give our students the skills that they need to be successful not only while they're with us in the RPS system but also in life After High School so as you can see these are skills that not only teachers want but families want you self-discipline self-control that perseverance to achieve long-term and short-term goals we're also looking

024at um those effective coping skills balance of school home community activities and then the ability to manage Transitions and adapt to change especially important as we're talking about all of our students developing a plan for Life After High School that one of those biggest transitions that they will experience and then finally the last group are the social skills and this is what we hear from our employers they usually don't say I really want to make sure that they've mastered those academic standards although those are so important but they want that quality team member that person that can collaborate and as I heard you all talk about um the experiences that you saw in the classroom so much of it was about how am I contributing and how am I communicating with um the other people

025on my team so we see that in the social skills um also empathy you know that idea of do I understand where someone else is coming from and then finally um the leadership the teamwork um and we know that our students have had struggles um with that idea of collaboration and Teamwork because many of them had um years where they had covid and or where where they were home and weren't able to um have those experiences so we know we have to provide more opportunity and more scaffolding for them um but we need to continue to ask them um to do that and to collaborate um and we see that happening in our in our classrooms so how might we use this this um there's lots of things that we're thinking about um one of

026the things um is having our students self assess on where they are with these skills so Kathy had asked that um previously how will we monitor this and I think one of the probably the best things is for students to be able to see these skills and then say here's where I think I am and here's where I think I need to grow um we also can see that these could be really helpful as we have students uh GA evidence for portfolio um so they may be um deciding what are the artifacts that would show that I'm a good collaborator or a good communicator um and then we also can see our teachers um maybe even putting these uh skills and dispositions up and asking students what did we practice today and what might we

027need to grow in as we think about how we interacted in the classroom um we'll also be getting some feedback from them and I think that's our next next slide for you um before we get to the next steps we are going to talk briefly about the experiences for Student Success so while our students are advancing through their K12 experience we want them developing as good students with the academic standards good humans with our mindsets and behaviors for success but we also want to make sure that they have experiences that help them create a plan for Life After High School and that they have taken the steps to put that plan into place so to help every student have a plan and be ready to put it into action we have drafted the RPS experiences

028for Student Success and this is the final component of the RPS mindsets behaviors and experiences for students success and I'm not sure if you can click on to that um or not so people um can see it but I know that the board you all in your um documents have a copy of that and it is um each grade level starting in kindergarten because we believe students need to start thinking um at that youngest age about um being exposed uh to possibilities and what their future could be all the way up through the senior year with some of those very detailed steps students students need to take to be able to put their plan into action so as far as next steps we believe we need to work with our research and assessment Department as

029well as our Communications Department and to find a method on how we're going to gather feedback internal and external feedback we're going to Center those feedbacks around these three questions so what excites you the most about this proposal what concerns do you have with it then also what are the various ways that this proposal could be used either in the classroom or if you're a parent how can this be used at home to support their learning within the school we also want to create some type of visual that we can all rally rally behind um to support this as well then we'll take all that feedback and bring that back to you I believe it's May 6th chair Nathan that we'll be back um with an update so with that what questions do you have

030for us anyone start Dr Marvin well timed I mean not just the presentation that you got through quickly but this is so important you know I think as a nation we've been fixated on test scores and as you said Miss Wilman we need to continue to ensure that our kids are getting the academics that they need um but unless they have the self-confidence and the creativity and the um the ability to recover from failures and the belief in themselves those skills those facts aren't going to serve them well um and for years we've been having employers tell schools Nationwide that we don't need you to send us good test takers we need young people who can think who can create who can collaborate who can invent um who can make mistakes and recover from those

031mistakes and that's exactly what this is and I am so glad that you reiterated the possibility and I think the necessity that students can learn with joy because those things we learn with joy we don't forget and there should be laughter and there should be collaboration and there should be happiness um with kids wanting to come to school and we can do that we can do that better than we've done before oh and my question I guess is sorry um I love the idea of getting feedback about this plan and also about how we are going to assess whether students are developing these kind of skills and I think sometimes and you alluded to this just asking them what we just did today what skill was that it's sort of the name it to claim

032it thing without having to have checklists for each kids with a kid which is going to be impossible I think to to monitor but um asking him so how is this going to serve you and how is this going to help you to serve others as we go forward so they're aware of the kind of mindset the kind of um social emotional skills that they're building oh but that wasn't a question it's a good so how do you think you're going to do that huh another that's such a good answer okay I'm good dra mclin um great presentation really good information um wish I'd had this a few years ago honestly would have been I'd have less gray hair I think um but but I understand the struggles that are our parents are seeing throughout

033k through2 um can you talk about how this would um link with Zell and what that will what role that will play in this project yeah so the um the the zel platform the curriculum that is um provided as part of that is aligned with the ASA mindsets and behaviors and then the work that our counselors have um done last year they were continuing this year and then we'll continue into the summer is building on that and building out some of those um lessons and experiences for the students um the experiences that we have um broken down by grade level um that came from both where it aligns with our um curriculum um in zel but also um with work that the counselors did as far as placing when they think um it's most important

034for the students to do those in order to be prepared for transitioning to Life After High School within zel we also have the ability to um there's a portfolio platform there for students um so they will be able to keep artifacts there if we decide to go ahead with that um we have the way to way of um monitoring which students have decided on a plan which ones are still thinking about the plan um so that we'll be able to follow up with those students and see you know where they're at in the process so it um it aligns very nicely and it will support the work that we are doing awesome and I'm looking at the learning road map that when you're talking about the counselors were doing that's what they're putting that together

035and that I guess my other followup is that will the language be common so that parents and students particularly high school students are using these words when they're talking to each other all that will be Z and thisam yep y well we continue to to revise that it's not quite ready for publication yet because we want to make sure that it is um in that language that students are going to be familiar with and using but also accessible for parents wonderful families thank you and I cut you off I was just going to offer from a student perspective um you can see like in eighth grade they do something called the Matchmaker where they try and think about what are my skills and then what do the world need and what's the connection there um

036and then they it also helps them think about like are you a thinker are you somebody who likes to Tinker with things um so I feel like it helps students um become more aware of what they're good at and what their natural talents are and then maybe where they need to continue to grow so I see it all the way along the line helping students think a little bit more deliberately about that that's wonderful thank you Dr Cook um well so with my my own kids the last couple of years um it's been really fascinating to uh watch them experience some of the interest inventories and the um uh career suggestions or career categories um because even at um third and fourth grade um they see themselves sure as a a third grader a fourth

037grader and um Minecraft player and things like that but also as a future such and such and um doesn't stay the same but it's really neat you know and um to take it from a strengths-based approach I I think is really wonderful um of the items that that you highlighted here from the ASA framework the social skills around resiliency and I I know um director Marvin was also um highlighting that the ability to come back from a challenge um It just strikes me that that is an area and I I see this in the in in the the real world with new hires and stuff too I think for a while and maybe this has always been the case maybe it's been increasing I'm not really sure but for a while um as a society

038we've been producing a lot of um really fragile perfectionists who are not experienced with any sort of failure and the the first time they experience it which might be after their educational journey is complete um they don't know what to do they're lost and um if there I I don't know maybe the forces that are causing that to happen the really early emphasis on for at least a a segment of our students the really early emphasis on class ranking and on college applications and all of that maybe that's too much to overcome as a single District but if there are ways that we can push back on that and the thing that I think about and that you know we talked about sort of grounding this in young people that we care about and have

039a deep connection to um I talk about weightlifting and you got to max out to find out where your limits are and if you haven't ever found your limit then you haven't actually pushed yourself to the edge and I and I know that we there's a coherency to all this because it it ties into our our emphasis on schools being a safe and welcoming um place where we emphasize belonging because students have to feel safe enough to be vulnerable enough to experience a failure and um so these are the right I think in my judgment at least these are the right things to be focusing on but how do we lift that up how do we celebrate the idea of finding out where your max is so that you know you pushed yourself that hard

040and then what to do next I mean what what could we do any ideas oh I mean questions one idea that I have is I feel like sometimes we boil everything down to a test um but what if it was a Showcase of our skills and so students were able to share here's an experience that I had here's what I learned from it here's where I think I've grown like I feel like there are opportunities for us to do that not necessarily place of but alongside of um some of the other assessments and then just celebrate that progress and that self-reflection um and then what were my next steps um what happened and how did that work for me and then what did I what did I do and how did I grow or learn

041so I think that could be a part of the self assessment but I also think it could be a little more public um you know so maybe it's a midyear or an endof year kind of Capstone experience where we talk about here are the skills I think I've I've Acquired and then these are some of the the places that I was able to do that so that's one thought yeah and I think of I know many of you have attended the um showcase that the engineering design and development course does and that is a component of that is they talk about the the the process they went through and things that did not go well and what they learned from that and then how they changed their design as a part of that and I

042think that that's a a model to look for as far as students but another thing I think is that as adults we need to be able to model that for our students as well and they need to hear from us about those failures that we have had and what we learned from them and we have heard that from students as far as wanting to hear about um people's stories about how they got to where they are within that Career Development um um not just this is what I do but this is how I got here and it wasn't a straight line and these are experiences that I um you know didn't do well at and that helped me grow and come to where I am today um so that's another thing and you know creating

043that environment that where our adults feel just as safe to be able to take those risks and fail in front of their students because that's not an easy thing to do either um but I think if we support each other as adults people get more comfortable doing that and then just on the curriculum side um there are some pieces within our curriculum um that the the counselors have been working on that work on that all the way through including in the senior year as far as developing a plan B so plan a doesn't go well we need to make sure that we have a plan B ready to go for our plan for life After High School I'm glad you mentioned that um about failing in front of students that's what I was thinking that's

044something that's very important I think in our district also like you mentioned the the metaphor of weightlifting and maxing out but there's a lot of practice that goes into play before you take that max out test as adults we need to do that too before we can model with our students how to do this we need to get better at doing that as adults so can we create an inclusive environment where we're safe and vulnerable enough to take a chance with each other if we can do that then we can do that with our students and then we can help them do that better with each other but we can't help someone do something that we're not willing to do ourselves so it starts with us and that's where that together answer came from if

045we all can rally around this then we can get there but it will take all of us Dr bar uh two quick questions um one of our current um group of um counselors are all of them ASA certified or is there a percentage of them which are or aren't or is that a goal that is currently being worked on um so what um there we have a we have a group that's working on um going through a certific or a recognition process with Asa and it's a year process and we have um our first cohort who uh will be getting ready to apply for that in the fall but we we're not um we began um two years ago working on that ASA alignment with our counselors and our counseling department and it's going to

046take us a few more years to get to the point where we will have more who are ready to go forward with that process but yeah it's it's a it's a lot of work and we have a core group that they meet once a month um and they're working through that process and we expect to have some applications this fall so then as a followup to that um you wouldn't consider this to be a impossible lift then for our Uh current group of counselors no not at all um all of our counselors um work with the mindsets and behaviors um they're all familiar with them it's all a part of the work that they already do um the other piece of this is that they won't be doing it alone because this will be something

047that we will all be working on with our students definitely our counselors will be leaders in that um but all of the staff in um our district will be supporting that and then finally um I appreciate I would have never known whose kids those were uh but thanks for including your children but probably more importantly than just the um uh their their pictures was the sharing of the parental belief or expectation and uh how do you envision perhaps um spreading that to the parents of our 177,000 plus students if you will or is that part of the scope of uh mindsets behaviors and experiences or is that separate I know we have cape and other things that are going on family engagement uh but have you considered uh how to encourage parents to to to

048share the belief uh that you that came so natural uh for you to do I think parents naturally have a belief in their children for one like parents want their children to succeed um and then like someone mentioned earlier there's also a lot of struggles that parents have together so one thing that I've been reflective about this year with the cap program is it's it's nice as a curriculum one thing as I've been observing in some of these sessions is parents really want to talk to each other and I think if we can do that for our parents they can share their dreams with each other and they can also share some those struggles and then we can get to these things here and figure out how that can come out in in our students

049but if we don't um give them a space to voice that then I think we're missing out on a big opportunity um director white horn you always say what's the community's role in this how are we going to connect to the community and I really do believe that's a missing piece that we need to explore is how do we reach those people who are having the struggles and the successes and then marry the two together so that we can learn from each other and then also support each other as we do this thing called life because parenting is not easy um the cap program could be a really good successful piece for that but reaching the families no matter what that thing is if it's Cape or something else that has to be a piece

050of all of this and we have to start with discussions amongst the different family groups thank you Dr white horn as I've been brought into this conversation I I was thinking of staying quiet tonight um so I guess I I've read through it I like it but I don't like it too if I'm honest um I see a lot of things geared towards College a lot of things GE towards Armed Forces um but there are we I think we're missing a big subset of students we're missing the the Woodworkers we're missing the you know electricians we're missing the the the the 49ers we're missing the the laborers you know these are these are all good viable careers you know people make millions of dollars in construction people make millions of dollars as plumbers um my

051concern is that even though we are starting early with getting our students to start focusing on their future my concern is that you're going to start losing kids at the with the ninth grade you know uh agenda because if I'm a student that is like I just want to do hair and that's all I want to do I'm not attending any of this I'm not I'm I'm I'm cut off right here because I don't I don't I don't want to talk about college credits um that's not my so my concern is how are we going to keep keep students engaged who this is not their path and I know we've talked about you know helping kids identify their path um but I I will say we are a little shortsighted because as you read on

052it it starts going real college it starts going real AC postc and you're and my concern is we're losing um those vocational students we're losing those kids that you know want to just you know maybe they they they want to be a a CNA or something to that and they choose to grow um um what is our plan for engaging with those people and then as you said how are we being very intentional about getting the parent involvement side that's a big a big piece of that too right depending on where children are coming from depending on what their background is and if we're honest if we're talking about kids out of poverty their mindset is completely different um you know their parents are not attending financial aid PSO nights and those things because not

053just because they don't want their kids to to um go to college I don't think that's what parents are thinking but people know their kids my kid is you know my kid is is going to be a great welder right and that's a and that is a admirable job okay but I feel like we leave out all those kids we leave out all of the day-to-day workers and our country still needs day-to-day workers as we've said we're not getting kids out of high school that are employable right out of high school uh we still need people to work in all of these facets of jobs and all of them do not require a degree all of them do not require us to be at PSO all of us do not require us to have all

054these additional um college credits and there are I some of my most successful friends don't have any college degrees um and their their entrepreneurs making doing very very well uh for themselves so I I'm a little concerned with how the plan is is very streamlined towards some kind of continuing education um um you know because it's focus on Career Affairs and college tours and these things not that they're bad I think we do need those things but my concern is are we missing a whole subset of kids because if I'm a parent looking at this plan and i' you know the white Horn's got a lot of kids I got a couple kids that I'm like oh yeah this is great but I also got some kids and I'm like I'm not showing enough of

055that cuz I'm just G to be grateful if this child gets through high school okay um if he gets through high school I'm doing good so where is the planning for the kids who are not that way um and then how are we going to be implementing this in a way that it doesn't Remain the way it is because as I read through this a lot of stuff is already offered right um and we have our students who have that good connections and have those Community um relationships and they're doing a lot of this stuff already because these are not we're not creating brand new programs you know we already have a lot of these things but how are we um bringing this maybe to communities that don't even see College as an option um

056and how are we addressing the kids that you know have a vocational type of mindset you know they just want to go to hair school or they want to go to Barber College or which again all admirable careers you know if you you want to be a uh a heavy equipment operator you don't go to college you go to a training facility for about nine months and you get you know you train in and it's all you know on on the job type of training um those guys make make good pay so how are we encouraging those students as well you know because if you're looking at this road map it doesn't really make a space for for those children think first thank you for those comments we definitely take them um this is a

057draft and it's a proposal right so I think you just uncovered some of the holes within the proposal so then our job would be to go back and add plug those holes which is the point of getting the internal feedback and the external feedback like you just shared so um thank you for that for uncovering a flaw within the draft and we'll work harder to make sure all of our students are included the goal is for each student to have a plan it's not necessarily for college so if we feel like those experiences are shifted one way then we need to reset and figure out how we can make sure that all students see themselves in that plan so thank you for uncovering that again I think it's a great plan I'm I just want

058to say I think it's a very great plan I just I'm just I'm just weary of the fact that as get older and they're aware of the plan they may take themselves out of the plan the way it's currently looking and um the the one road map was specifically developed as a resource for families in planning for um either a two-year or four-year College because we heard from a number of students and families that they didn't know enough about or have a um a a long range picture of when things were supposed to be happening so they wanted that mapped out for them um we did add in a couple of things for students who are either going to go um to the workforce immediately or into a like a certification or an industry-based training

059program however because the steps for um College are um so lengthy that that that kind of overwhelms some of the other pieces on there so we are planning on doing other resources that are going to address some of those other ways and to help students know um those other opportunities that you mentioned for example our ctech welding program students can get that initial welding certification through that program um and then go on into the workforce or onto additional training but do all of our students know that that's an option we need to do a better job of um making sure that they do because what we want to make sure is that students have all of the information about the options available to them and then they're making the choice about what is the best

060path for them and not that they are going down a pathway because they think it might be the only option available to them we want them to have all the information and decide um but yes absolutely we have more work to do on developing some of those additional resources make sure that it is apparent that college is not the only option it's one of the options because we received that feedback from some of our internal um um people as well so we know that that's something we have to work on can I add kind of a side comment to that I I would caution to be careful though and perhaps you recognized this already but in terms of inclusive inclusivity I would be hesitant to have like a non- Col track and a college track

061that I think that that is is doing a disservice to the students who don't know which path to go down I want them to be able to explore both those paths before they make the final decision yes absolutely and I another side comment to that I I one of the things that I saw in this road map about the um the steps by grade is um that you ask them to begin to track at least one college application because I think it's a good life skill you may be applying for jobs with applications or other things with applications in the future to have to um and and even to develop a resume right to put yourself on one page and describe what your skills are and who you are even if it's not something you're

062eventually going to maybe that's not your first choice or the direction you think that you're going maybe later you might so we're giving them the opportunities and what I love about Zell is that you have said that they can take it sort of with them after graduation so they'll have the experiences and the documentation of it um should they be going in One Direction you know when they're 18 and then maybe when they're 22 you know they decide that they want to maybe get an additional certification or person some other opportunities so we're not leaving them out there without um anything um direct work yeah um I I share a lot of the concerns that um director white horn mentioned and I'm looking at this um experiences for Student Success and my concern is are

063students going to feel like they are getting locked into something um you know so for example okay I think it's great to identify careers what's out there what's available what I might do what I interested in I mean honestly what I'm interested in as a second grader might not be in what I'm interested in as a senior in high school but it it seems to be um I know it's always hard to get stuff off the page and into you know what you're how you're actually working with kids but it seems to be pretty um some of this seems to be pretty uh prescripted almost um I I'm not sure what eighth grade ERS are like well yeah I am um anymore but identify three preferred majors and identified three preferred schools I think it's

064good to be have them think about that like this is what I'm interested in how do I get from here to to to there but this seems to be really um really heavy on the yeah on the on the on the college piece of it and I'm all in favor of kids going to college and they need to know about college and if this is something they wanted to do I had a a friend um years ago whose kid took all of the science classes everything heavy duty all through high school because that kid was going to be a doctor and then they went to college and took as one of their electives a course in linguistics fast forward they were pursuing their pH D in linguistics so I think it's important for kids to

065be able to pursue this but not to feel like you know okay these are the courses I'm I'm registering for in eth grade I'm thinking about this have I now just locked in my whole four years of high school you know in I being am I tracked can I get out of this and into something else where can I make make those those switches because honestly I think most most people would say that to make a decision about your entire life by the end of eth grade is really not a good idea and the other piece of that too is kids need to be prepared for having a multitude of different careers in their lifetime you know so when we focus on those skills the relationship building working in teams thinking critically then this there

066if there's more emphasis on that then they will be prepared to make some of these decisions as they're going into High School while knowing at the same time they have the flexibility that they're not stuck with that for the rest of their life that wasn't a question just yeah an observation thank you and I think um uh that that piece with the eighth grade is is about the process and doing the thinking around it and each year we have you know they they do that initial plan for classes as an eighth grader as an exercise of making a a longterm plan but then each year they go back and they revisit that and is this still what I'm thinking have I had a change of heart am I thinking about something differently now have I

067taken a class now as a ninth grader that has sparked another interest for me so now I'm going to revise my plan so at each point there's opportunity for students to um revise their plan make different changes and one of the things with in um if we're looking um specifically at the zel platform is when students are Exploring Careers it will give them the one career that they're looking at but then it'll also suggest if you're interested in this you might also think about these and it'll have you know five or six others down below that they can then go and um discover um as well so there is a um messaging piece with that as well with our staff as far as making sure that students really understand that it is an exploration it

068is a discovery and we are not asking any eth graders to make a decision about what they're going to do when they graduate from high school um I don't think I would have wanted to have been locked into what I was thinking about when I was an eighth grader um and we wouldn't want to do that for our students either one of the things and and director mclin touched on this describing her her dinner experience on the weekend was that there were RPS graduates who came back and talked to kids and in my teaching experience I did I had a lot of students who came back their first and even their second year of college College to tell high school students what it was like and a lot of them said surprisingly you know my

069my high school classes were harder than some of my college classes are now I don't know if that's necessarily really true or if they had simply um you know matured Beyond where where they were in high school but I remember when I was in eth or nth grade I decided where I was going to go to college for uh for music and my guidance counselor my sophomore junior year said to me well what colleges are you applying to I said I'm applying to Indiana University and she said well what other colleges and I said I'm not applying anywhere else and she said if you don't go in and I said well I'm not going to go to college then I mean I was kind of a smart alec back then too but um you know

070so I was very focused on where I was going and what I wanted to do um but I also had the opportunity to to to to have some of these other career ideas of of exploring them but I I really think if we can get some of our high school graduates back to talk with kids in high school about what they've experiencing experienced and you know I thought that this math was going to turn out like this but I've taken a different turn just so students realize that they do have that flexibility and those options um to be who they are so that's I'll I'll end with my Sol Qui one of the things I appreciate in looking at um some of the experiences and and the postsecondary learning road map is um that you

071have started early um and it seems like like um from what I've seen with zel it's sort of a gradual um exploration gets more complex um and and I think that that creating that four-year academic plan in eth grade knowing what they know at that time is going to become increasingly important as our high school scheduling is going to get more complex if someone even is slightly interested in pursuing a pathway that might be offered through ctec or pte that is a decision they have they and their parents need to know about before starting high school because of those double blocks that are needed and the special scheduling um and it doesn't tie them to anything but it does not let them Miss sort of that entry point and and I wish we could I

072wish we could have more onramps and off-ramps um but with the limitations we have about space and classes we we don't always have that so I appreciate that if there might be an interest in uh an IT pathway or something like that we're giving them those opportunities to explore that career or related careers and telling them and their parents early um because I've heard it every year and experienced it personally and fortunately when you talk about having parents I had parents who had been through it before that Were Somehow in my Village that could help me to understand that you had to think a few years ahead especially if you had kids who had interests in specific classes that they want to take and I want every parent to know that and have that conversation

073with their students so they don't miss the free and high quality opportunities that we have for our our kids to experience before they graduate oh sorry but I and I'll just this will be my final comment but like I like has been married here a couple times I am excited about it um and to mirror uh what director mcclin said that if you know we do need to add some things but it shouldn't be an and or or you know uh because we don't want the kid that wants to be a garbage guy to feel like a failure because he they're not interested in all these other paths so I don't know how we incorporate that but we don't want this to become a have and a Have Nots right because this has the potential

074of of becoming that right of of okay I'm I'm College grounded I got all my colleges picked out and there's a kid that's not as motivated to do that but that doesn't mean that that kid is a failure you know it doesn't mean that just because they don't have an interest in these because you're going to have kids in these spaces that may feel less adequate because I'm not thinking about college and I I don't want to go to school and I don't like school you know um but I have these really great ideas and I Want To Be A Serial entrepreneur and I'm going to create something for myself so I just want to make sure that we're being mindful that we're not making this a space that you know sets this path that

075this is the only you know a path of lemur right we're all following the same path um we I just want to make sure that we're making room um for the kids that are not doing it the traditional way per se or have their own free thinking I I don't want to take that from a student that has a comp completely different as um director cook has said you know going into the entrepreneurial space with those kids some kids are going to be they're going to make an invention that's going to be amazing coming up right but we don't want to preset them that this is how school goes you know we don't I'm I'm concerned about creating the Lemur effect that everybody is like we got to do this and we got to do

076this step there there are kids that don't fit there and I don't I'm concerned about them being left out and I'm concerning about their peers viewing them as less than because they don't have this great elaborate plan oh I'm going here I'm going there some people are not going to have that but that doesn't make them or doesn't make those students less than because they don't fit into this elaborate model if that I just had a couple things to and I'm glad that I got to speak after director whern because that reminded me I'm going to channel Dr pcal here because he's not here I think it's important that we think back to other discussions we've had about when our students find their spark and tie that into this it might be at different times

077depending on the student um but I also really want to emphasize the involvement of parents particularly in that eighth grade discussions um my son went to a districtwide school I'm afraid that because of the small environment he missed some of that that he would have gotten at a bigger school so just to remind that we need to involve all of those students that either I wasn't paying attention or he wasn't telling me or I missed the boat you know one of my many probably opportunities to do that the other and and just when you talk about future things that you can develop I would encourage you to consider a document that parents can use about their involvement in this process you know where they can be involved I would include that eighth grade time but

078also um even things like um in in the nth grade you know picking classes and that kind of thing I think is really important but the other experience I'll share from my family is that I can't even figure out how this happened as I'm sitting here but I went to the college fair with my son at the Minneapolis Convention Center I don't know why I was there with him and why he didn't take a bus from high school or whatnot but I was there with him if I hadn't been there I don't think he would have gone I honestly think he sat in the back seat when we went I wasn't sure he was going to come out of the house and get in the car and we were going to go but that's how

079we did it but I remember him for the very first time um sorry I'm seeing himself as a college student there that sorry the first I think it was Nebraska the the recruiter was just really interactive with him and watching him do that um and having him come up come away from that that he could be a college student and not sure if I hadn't been there or hadn't pushed him to attend that if he'd be where he is today so thank you and thank you for doing this work look at him now there you go direct Marin but again not a linear path and that's what's important to know I think what Karen certainly is saying and thank you sorry good job um it seems to me that the the foundation of this whole

080thing is that it's for the individual kid what's your bliss and that from a very early age we all believe in you yes and you may not know what you want to do but man you can do great things so stay engaged and and and we can help that kid every kid have a whole lot of choices they may not pick the right one first but if that's a mistake there's going to be something else but it's that sense of hope that I think some kids lose during school and if we can keep them hopeful that they matter and that they can do and they can become and that nothing's going to stop them that's I think what this is about and part of it just detail so this is exciting and I don't want

081to leave this conversation since we focus so much on the the postsecondary I don't want anybody to leave this conversation thinking that when we look at these skills that you're describing the learning strategy and the social skills and the mindsets and the behaviors those are happening I my I know because I had two kids go through RPS and I I know many many talented teachers who made them happen in the context of learning academic knowledge so first of all this is not a uh two- Direction situation where you know we're teaching them knowledge and then we're teaching them these these soft skills they're they're all interrelated I love what um Heather you said about the standardized test because I think about the standardized test and how it doesn't create the The Taking of the standardized

082test doesn't create those opportunities that we're listing but certainly the pathway to gain the knowledge to get to that standardized test there's there's a million different moments um and I I know that there's teachers in this District who have excellent examples of how they're already implemented ing um what we're asking what I what the one piece of this that I like the most is that it won't just be those kids who are participating in the JM um Pitch project it won't just be someone who's doing a project lead the way engineering project it won't just be the engineering um design kids um it won't just be kids who have to build a model of the Titanic from just food which happened in my kitchen um but all of our students will have it and and

083we have zel and we have this Pathway to help them and I I like the other thing you said that it's going to be about knowing where the self- knowledge of the student knowing where they are and Gathering these skills as opposed to just another assessment of where you are on on a road map so um we look forward to the feedback that you're going to bring us back from the community and encourage the community to participate in providing that feedback any other questions before we let these people go awesome thank you so much thank you thank you thank you our next item is 7.1 a monitoring item and I will introduce our chief academic officer Mona Perkins and our director of multilingual learning Natalia Benjamin um part of our attendance option we designed design

084that the board approved in February was a two-phase change for the Spanish Immersion program in this school year the program moved to Riverside from Gage and in the 2526 year there's a plan to move the middle school program to Riverside um and tonight's agenda item is an update on the Middle School Spanish emerg Middle School Spanish emergent implementation and I'll let you introduce the rest of the team that you brought with too well I'm going to let them introduce themselves I'm actually not presenting these are the folks that are presenting I'm just going to hang out with them Natalia Benjamin uh director of multi learning Aaron Raymond principal at Riverside Katie Miller I'm the Spanish Immersion instructional coach Marsha Rigs and I have a fifth grader and a first grader in the Spanish Immersion program

085the slides there we go okay bues uh you have a lot of the details and the documents attached to the agenda so we will do a quick overview um to present our work and so we will cover the purpose and process that we took for this project our research and data collection as well as the results uh the program plans that we have for next year how we've communicated with stakeholders and then our next steps and budget um we want to model a strategy that we use in the classroom for students to recognize the languages that we use uh in the classroom you will see that uh content in English is labeled in Blue uh content in Spanish is labeled in red and any bilingual space would um be in green and so as you

086see the slides um that's sort of the color coding that is taking place all right so the purpose of the team was to research Spanish Immersion uh Middle School programming um as you remember last year with the change in transportation redesign then the board voted to make the Spanish imion a Ka program at Riverside and so that's what we did um over the past few months um and we pulled together a diverse group to create the to go through this process we in included parents staff members as well as community members and some of our district specialists in the areas of curriculum and instruction Advanced learning and um special education additionally um what you'll see on this slide is the eight layout for the eight meetings that we had um each of them was really

087focused and we were driven by the the process in order to continually move forward instead of kind of getting caught in the mck um um I would like to highlight on our seventh meeting we had Community input and also sent out an online um form and that was for all Spanish Immersion families to come and offer their input as it would be a K8 program we wanted even if they were in kindergarten they would come and offer that in those insights and once we had collected all of that information we put it together presented it to Dr pel Mona Perkins Jackie Peterson um additionally after that there were various departments that were consulted and then once we um got that approval we looked forward with how our communication would roll out to families and people

088within the schools so throughout um all those meetings that we had um with all of our stakeholders we really dug into a lot of research about dual language education um and we also explored the Spanish language um standards um Cali Califoria and Illinois have laid out a really good um group of standards that incorporate the Spanish language Parts include also including the English language arts pieces but understanding the nuances between Spanish and English it's included in those so we also looked at those and we also familiarized ourselves with the State academic and elective standards and what those uh requirements are so that we could include all those three things together in our programming um as Aaron said we also made sure we got input from our families um through that input meeting um and we

089sent out an electronic survey um the input was in regards to the transition to Riverside um how our content classes may be laid out and the electives and we took that information as we um continue to make our plan and revise it as needed we also made sure we talked to our students because this is obviously going to be a big um change for them so we specifically talk to our sixth and seventh grade students that are currently at Willow Creek um and ask them you know their thought and their um concerns or interest in the transition um an overwhelming overwhelmingly input from them was um that they felt like the current fifth graders that would be going into sixth grade should stay at Riverside and start the process and that they could as seventh

090and eighth graders finish their years at Willow Creek rather than transitioning themselves to um Riverside right away um on the slide it has some of their thoughts as well about you know some social impacts if they move now and also a really interesting perspective from them was the need for more authentic Spanish materials ensuring that it's not just a translation that they're getting but that really they're getting authentic materials um that represent many different parts of um Spanish speaking countries students and families and as a result of all this work um we are phasing in the move to um to move Riverside to Riverside I'm sorry from Willow Creek um and this will allow for students to who are currently attending Willow Creek to finish their middle school um experience there while we phase in

091the Middle School grades at Riverside um this will reduce transitions for students from one building to another in a short amount of time and in order to grow the program we plan to continue to share the benefits of bilingual education um share stories and information via social media and engage our community Through community events in the around the city so what are students going to be learning and so one of the changes and switches that we are suggesting is that our students do a Spanish language arts and Latin American studies hour and this would include those authentic um social studies culture literature art from Spanish speaking countries uh within the study and development of their Spanish language skills and then one thing that we're missing currently in our programming is that uh continued development of

092their English speaking English language skills and so having the English language arts and social studies as an hour so that we can meet those standards with required by Minnesota uh we are adding the math and physical science to with the goal to have it be a bilingual uh experience our students currently take math in Spanish K through five and then they were moving straight to an English in Sixth and eth grade and so by having this bilingual math it exposes it continues the development of their Spanish skills in a specific content area but it also allows them to bridge to English as they go to their High School uh so that it's more explicitly uh for the students to understand how to navigate that transition um we wouldn't have that necessarily for the seventh and

093eighth graders as they would take the science uh with the rest of the students as they are right now um one I I think two points that I think are exciting about this is that that this will allow to have the math acceleration for all of our students through this model and then that our students can also have the opportunity to include the the Spanish as a Spanish high school credits while they're in middle school and so we'll do that work to align it with our standards um so that they don't have to test later and try to prove that they actually do speak Spanish but it would be incorporated into the program um for electives uh one of the very strong um desires of our community is that our students have the opportunity to

094learn an instrument and so it was very important that whatever we decided for music education that the students would have that opportunity and so that is embedded into the programming uh we do have a smaller set of students right to work with and so they wouldn't necessarily have a complete band uh and a complete Orchestra but having an opportunity for them to learn whether it is and I'm going to get all this all the whole so a string where's my music teacher over there okay the string instruments the wind the brass and the percussion and so that they would have an opportunity to to access that learning and voice um within one setting rather than split into different settings and then the one one other change that we are recommending is to do the physical

095education with the health the requirements for health are uh 68 um and so we we're very confident that we can embed them like once in a cycle for example for the health component without the students losing significant um physical activity and then of course uh the visual arts and an advisory that would support our students social emotional learning but also an opportunity to Circle activities and such um one elective that we are suggesting that is part of this is what we're calling ignite and so that our students uh would have an opportunity to do some of the things that uh that are currently being developed right with the zelot lessons and those pieces but also have access to stem and having a Hands-On project that at Student Center where students have more choice to develop

096uh their passions and uh that would that would be part of their program uh and of course our students would also have access to their uh Services by that they would receive through special education multilingual learning or 504s so um once we received approval from Dr pel what we did was we met with the entire Riverside staff had a standup meeting and shared this shared the plan we also met with all of the families of our current fifth writers who would be most most impacted by this change um moving forward and additionally we sent out information with the the complete proposal to all Spanish imersion families so that they would have um not only the quick update but also um all of our background information so next steps um we're currently working on the Staffing

097for this transition as it's kind of working through the whole District right now um and then this spring and summer we're going to do some curriculum in um to reflect the shifts especially in the social studies and the ELA and SLA and that ignite um so we have a lot of work still to do but it's exciting work and just to wrap up uh so the general fund will cover the teaching Staffing for this programming and the esps are funded through the flexible funding that our buildings uh have allocated and once the the shift is fully at the K8 school then the program will be self- sustaining and in the meantime there's a the modest investment of FTE um as we have some duplicate classes while we're in two different sites um so with that

098Dr Barlo uh So currently what is the um student enrollment at Riverside and as you prepare to uh inform us of that what percentage of the students who attend Riverside uh participate in the Spanish emersion program right now we have um about 520 or 530 students at Riverside about 200 of those are part of the Spanish imersion program and the others are part of the neighborhood program and um as relates to the program plan electives um as a middle school are there things that um well were any of the requests or items that you've identified as electives are do any of them fall outside the current Middle School elective requirements as far as standards we're not necessarily and I think the work that we're trying to do with that ignite program is to kind of

099combine a lot of the opportunities that kids get at the middle school like the pltw and things like that but but doing in a way that um allows kidss to have a little bit more Project based learning and some more creativity within it since it is a smaller group of kids we can do things just slightly different and a little bit more open so they're still going to get all those um opportunities just in a little bit of different way than than in a quarter way and I would say when we had the input meeting with our families um they had so many wonderful ideas um that we don't have the resources to meet uh if we fully explore all of those ideas and so this night class uh combined a lot of those ideas

100in a feasible way that we could address those those reest and then finally uh class size for all grades or uh Spanish Immersion the different grade levels or the current fifth graders or what well I guess the question is uh are the class are the current are the SI class sizes consistent with the district average oh at the moment they are approximately consistent within Riverside numbers um moving forward will have um gosh so say in the last page I was say in the last page of the report you have the current numbers that each section has um but I think when we're looking at Staffing we follow the same model that we follow for all other classes as far as U numbers for each section thank you the Middle School numbers at 68 are a

101little lower in sixth grade currently but our so our fifth graders coming into sixth grade would be closer to to a regular SE director Marvin is the um will the opportunity be there I know you're talking about Staffing to provide uh Spanish Immersion kids the same middle school options that kids at a full service Middle School have I mean you're talking about advanced math and and that kind of thing and you talked about having music and art but will they have all the same opportunities to take all the courses offered at Kellog and John Adams yes I think the only change is the the quarter classes that are currently offered is what we are modifying to that ignite class for the elective and so it would have a lot of the same components uh we

102just wouldn't split it by quarter like it is currently um split but other than that um we have the same curricular options and then Staffing that I'm assuming is going to be challenging I mean just to get because you won't have a full-time no and so we're currently working through the Staffing and we we're working both with eron and Mr foger at Willow Creek um and through the Staffing process and the teachers so we've been talking to them um so that we can shift to right if if you're math licensed then can we shift you into the math and then working with those pieces yeah thank you director rman so what are the requirements for lure for somebody in a Content area who's teaching it in Spanish do they have to have I'm assuming they

103have to have the content area do they need a special kind of certification in Spanish as well and how difficult it is it to find those teachers yes um so the licensing requirement is the content area license uh the state of Minnesota does not have or has not given us a requirement for Spanish uh endorsement we do that through the interview process um to to make sure that they can um right that they have the Spanish language skills uh necessary so it can be tricky and difficult because as as you know there is a shortage of teachers to begin with in science and languages and others in other areas um and so it's sometimes it was at the last minute where we found teachers um and right now we're fully stuff so we we will

104continue to that work I mean I I think some of that would tie in with what you um mentioned earlier about we don't just want this to be a translation right butre to really understand science using learning it in Spanish right yes no for sure and I think that there is a lot of work that the state of Minnesota is putting towards uh licensing people who speak other languages and so um I'm also in discussions with uh pby and other pieces and so there are Pathways to support teachers who uh maybe have their content expertise but may not have the teaching license and so there are Pathways to to explore those options if needed thank you Dr rorn so the students are getting the same well it sounds like the curriculum is a little different

105obviously with the Spanish version um but how does that compare to like we do we've done this roll out of the wit and wisdom is that something that is also being rolled out in the bilingual um aspect because of the my word there sure yeah so I'm the Spanish mer instructional coach so I spend a lot of time in the world of curriculum um and wit and wisdom and does not have a Spanish version if you want to call it that um but we did purchase and we are implementing this year a curriculum called um adalante and that's from The Benchmark company and it is um very similar to wit and wisdom and it's also um a building knowledge curriculum it also has the phonics and fimic awareness um but it also it's has a

106lot of more of the authentic materials as well they've really worked hard to build that in which as you saw is important to the students but it's also very important to us the staff um so it's similar but it's different um but we tried to really choose one um we did that um work last spring um with the office of academics to create something that we could find that was similar but we also didn't want to use Whitten and wisdom and just translate it one it's a lot of work and two it wouldn't be authentic like we were talking about before so um so we're using this Benchmark um for our English language arts instead of Whitten and wisdom and is the testing module I know I know we all talk about testing isn't everything

107but unfortunately this is world we live in right that we got to have some way of measuring success in some ways right so what is what is the standardized testing looking like coming out of the Spanish emergent program are we seeing are we on with the with the traditional schools are are we finding any difficulty with the kids transitioning when they have to do any of the testing or are we doing something different well we we do follow the react so the react says um in terms of like the standardized assessments are students take the MCAS they also take the fast Bridge Assessments in English um we also take them in Spanish um with the assessments that are available to us in Spanish from fastbridge um and then we have our benchmark assessments that we

108use as more as of our formative um assessments um I don't have the exact data in front of me but our students are transitioning very well um it it tends to be the trends over the this is my fifth year possibly sixth I can't remember um and what I've noticed that you know specific to the mca's students um really close the gap with that MCA when they get into that fourth or fifth grade um because that's when we see that our English tends to trift a little bit higher into English in that third and fourth grade and that's when like the Gap does seem to close um you're a parent and so maybe you could speak to that a little bit as well the research would tell you that kids that that are in um

109dual language Pro programming tend to um it drops off initially yeah um because they're learning a new language and so you're testing them in English when they're not learning how to read necessarily in English so they drop off or not drop off like they're just behind a little bit and then they increase and then they end up actually exceeding so that's typic the trend but it does takes them a little bit longer I'm all for it I was just wondering if we were testing those kids appropriately because like you said if they're not learning in English and we're testing them in English is that really a fair assessment to their knowledge we do we do have to do both yes well the best way I would say is to do when you want the English

110because you want to see how they're doing um but the Spanish if you're teaching them in Spanish the Spanish assessment will will tell you if they're reading if they're learning what you're actually teaching them which is the better assessment which is why we spend you know time on our formative assessments as well a lot because then we really know are they learning um the day-to-day things that we're teaching them um and then we use that screening Windows to see as a whole how the kids are doing and then decide on interventions or things that we need to do from there I would only add at the state level this is something that all bilingual programs are are working through whether it's Spanish or other languages um and so the state of Minnesota we hope is

111um trying to find those gaps for us as well so that the students don't have to be doubly tested and everything and we try to avoid that to the most uh we can um and and the other piece I think that is important to to mention is that with this program we are better able to uh build those English language skills at the same time we're doing the Spanish language skills instead of just waiting and so we are starting at kindergarten to build some of those funex skills in English as well and so it's important to note what is transferal between languages um and what is unique to both languages and so we're we're making efforts to to be very explicit about those things so that we know exactly where the skills are being taught

112across um AR K and I've heard wonderful things I have I've transport some kids a bunch of kids that are in that program parents love it so thank Dr Cook I had U quick question about the uh differentiated math instruction um that is part of the plan and by the way the the detail in the um and the plan that you put together and the forecasts of number of classrooms needed and number of students projected it's all really helpful to see um that level of uh of detail but for the the number of students that we're expecting in sixth grade next year uh based on I fifth grade enrollments um and I I how how is that going to work for having three different math offerings for around 14 kids or so right I just

113how how does that work um I'll I'll start it anyway um so one of the things that we're looking at because of the accelerated math options is for the the the majority of the kids I would anticipate will be starting in pre-algebra which is typically kind of a single acceleration um we know from our current fifth graders that some of those May then qualify for a double acceleration so we want to make sure that we can offer that class those classes for them and one of the ways that we're looking at is if the for the typical more of a sixth grade option um sixth grade math would be to we also have some fourth graders will be fifth graders next year who may who will qualify possibly for some acceleration and we're looking um

114at working with uh the office of academic um Advanced Learners excuse me and um seeing if maybe we can kind of bolster some of the kids who would otherwise be doing like a a five plus but maybe looking at how do we meet those needs for the students and have it be a mixed age group that's what that's our hope that's our plan I think what this allows is that we can look at our fifth graders and have that acceleration starting in fifth grade so that's like a five six um class and so when they get to sixth grade and they can start with their prealgebra which is the seventh grade content and so it it allows us to to move um a little better when it comes to providing those opportunities for the kids

115okay that is that's helpful thank you any other comments or questions or kudos for all of this work thank you for um well letting me practice my Spanish by reading um and for the Dr Cook said the detail but also the intentionality of of working with the parents um and I'm glad you're here um we I am looking forward to seeing um as as part of your Outreach you know bringing the Spanish Immersion sort of more out into the community because I think I think our community be very interested to see our students at work and in action so thank you very much thank you thank you [Music] our next agenda item is a prep for Action it is the school board draft response to um our American Indian parent advisory committee um at our

116February 18th meeting we received a letter of non-c concurrence from the American Indian parent advisory committee and tonight we're going to review the first draft of the school board's response to the letter of non-c concurrence um as we've done in the past um I've read the letter and um then if board members have questions or comments or recommendations for modification we have our um staff here to answer those questions or provide any feedback or response to any feedback that we might have dear members of the American Indian parent advisory committee please know that your letter of non-c concurrence dated February 10th 2 was received and has been given our deepest consideration we are grateful for your unwavering dedication and the vital advisory role you play for our schools is outlined by the Minnesota Department of

117Education statutes section 124 d78 and the new United States Department of education's title 6 Indian education formula grant program we also want to sincerely acknowledge the tireless efforts of our American Indian education coordinator Amelia Cordell our part time liaison Tucker Teton our dedicated Allied teachers and all the District staff who are working to uplift American Indian education in Rochester for the benefit of our students we have listened to your concerns and recommendations and want to share with you our commitment to taking action supporting our indigenous students families and staff within Rochester Public Schools is a priority for us and we will continue to build on the work of past and present years to ensure lasting progress your message of support and solidarity for your Central and South American indigenous relatives and our lgbtq plus two

118spirit students resonated with us their well-being and safety are also of great concern to US during these times and we stand with you in our shared Humanity regarding your specific recommendations from your February 10th 2025 letter please know that we are committed to the following actions Recruitment and R retention of American Indian staff we understand the critical importance of having American Indian staff within our schools we will make absolutely sure that our HR dep Department continues its efforts to be present at American Indian hiring events actively connect with tribal colleges and universities offer educational degrees and build strong relationships with local tribal education departments Prairie Island Minneapolis St Paul and Shaka ma oh I knew I was going to do this Mana wakan to actively seek out and support American Indian staff furthermore we value

119the insights of our department our departing American Indian staff and we will Implement exit interviews to learn from their experiences and pro improve our retention practices we recently met with Johnny Johnson executive director of the Prairie Island Indian Community and we are optimistic about the future partnership not only in the area of recruiting staff but also in the areas of curriculum and professional development American Indian education program Staffing we recognize the immense dedication of our current American Indian education program staff the fact that our 1.5 FTE are serving over 150 students across 27 school buildings speaks volumes to their hard work although the roles are different it is also important to point out that all of our middle and high school teachers meet with up to 160 students students each day and our school counselors

120have case loads of hundreds of students each we need to keep those broader Staffing ratios in mind as we consider an additional investment in our valuable American Indian education program Staffing we will actively investigate that possibility as we develop the school district's budget for the 2025 2026 school year professional development on indigenous culture and history we deeply believe in the power of understanding we will continue to collaborate closely with our American Indian coordinator and liaison to enhance professional development opportunities for all staff on indigenous ways of learning and being additionally we are committed to fostering a stronger expectation among all faculty to deepen their understanding of indigenous culture the impact of historical traumas and the necessity of delivering accurate curriculum regarding indigenous history RPS is proud to announce the development of an indigenous language and

121culture course that will be available for students to take in the 2025 2026 school year this will be the first time a course dedicated to the language and culture of our local indigenous populations will be offered in RPS support for attending educational conferences we recognize the invaluable learning and networking opportunities provided Ed by conferences such as the Dakota and Anisha language Symposium the Minnesota Indian Education Association conference the national Indian Education Association conference and learning from place bote we will actively work to find ways to support and enable staff who work directly with our indigenous students Apec members and students to attend these enriching experiences in the future Elder and residence program we welcome this Innovative idea and will include funding to Pilot this position and initiative in the school district's 2025 26 budget we

122see this as a deeply meaningful way to connect our students and staff with the wisdom and traditions of our indigenous communities regular meetings with APAC we we value your voice and understand the importance of a strong partnership we are committed to establishing and maintaining positive relationships through regular meetings between Schoolboard members APAC to bring some structure to these meetings and if deemed helpful and appropriate RPS would be glad to ask our assistant school board clerk an Kramer to coordinate our involvement in your meetings going forward support for indigenous students in transition we recognize that transitioning into a new school can be challenging we will prioritize immediate and intentional planning to provide culturally specific support for indigenous students and their families entering our district ensuring that Liaisons are actively involved in this process transitional plans for

123sixth and nth grades we also understand the significance of key transition points in a students academic Journey our schools will work with a coordinator of academic Indian education and liaison to develop specific transitional plans to provide focused support for our indigenous students as they advance to sixth and nth grades your continued advocacy and profound commitment to ensuring an Equitable and culturally relevant education for All American Indian students within Rochester Public Schools is deeply appreciated we firmly believe that by focusing our efforts on supporting our American Indian students and staff we are ultimately enriching the educational experience for every student and staff member in our district we are truly committed to walking this path in cor collaboration with APAC addressing your concerns with sincerity and dedication and continuing to support the success of our indigenous students

124family and staff we eagerly anticipate our continued dialogue and partnership and thank you for being here tonight board members any questions or comments or feedback Dr B I have one question and I'm not sure it's if it's for Mr quone or for somebody else but um the idea we've talked about a lot having an elder in residence for our school which I think is brilliant and we need that do you have a sense about how that works how we find or have you found that person or what that would look like uh we have not found a person and that is one of the challenges um we've been reaching out uh especially to Prairie Island to let them know that that's a possibility of having someone come and work with us uh we see that

125sort of like uh somebody who would be on call who could come and assist us at certain times and not have a regular schedule somebody who could assist certainly with language culture history and those kinds of things but also somebody uh who enjoys working with students so it's a big job we're exploring options now um but it would really help to know um monetarily what we have to offer someone like that and also some sort of a flexible schedule thank you Dr Bary I just wanted to um acknowledge the um effort that the uh school board and uh superintendent uh demonstrates through this um uh letter to APAC and the uh progress also that I believe is evident here uh I'm excited to see um uh the fruition of of some of the things which

126have been identified in past letters of non- compliance the Elder and residents I think that's a definite positive move as well as the U uh course offering that will be made available uh next academic school year and and that's not to suggest we can uh toot one's Horn uh or beat one's drum uh but it is to celebrate uh where progress is occurring and I'm I'm thankful to see meaningful and I believe significant progress occurring and I look forward to continuing to um uh work with and work for um uh APAC the parents uh uh the students and the community so uh thank you for your diligence Dr mman um I think I spoke on this issue at one of our earlier meetings um I've always been in support of increasing the staff from 1.5

127to two because I think it is warranted I would point out in our um response that I understand the response but I also don't think that the comparison is actual you know it's a little bit apples to oranges when our American Indian staff are across 27 school buildings I don't think the the regular um Middle School and High School teachers with the same number of students or counselors with the same number of students have that additional hurdle um and I think that that is a significant hurdle given our community is growing um things are more complex there's more traffic and I could see that that would be a significant challenge so again I support increasing the the staff if we can manage to do that within our budget any other comments board members I um

128have always said that I think even though it's statutorily sort of developed um this structure of parent and Community feedback that APAC repres presents that impacts the uh content of um what we can offer for our American Indian um students and staff is a model for how we should um uh develop and guide our other academic and um skill offerings that we do um I appreciate these conversations back and forth every year because it's good to hear um from the APAC members how what we did last year worked or didn't work and to know as director Barlo said that you know there's still ongoing work always to be done um I appreciate the um efforts that APAC also makes to try to identify solutions to um issues that are are difficult to solve so such

129as the um Recruitment and Retention of American Indian staff I feel like every year we're always looking to continue what we've been successful for but keep trying to find um creative ways to address it because that is that is an ongoing challenge um and I look forward to finalizing this letter unless director white horn has something to say I just wanted to um uh just off of what she had mentioned about the Recruitment and Retention of the staff um would love to hear more about what is happening at those exit um interviews I think that can help us to figure out how to retain and recruit staff um I think that is very valuable information so I do hope that the exit interview is um a good in depth uh interview because I think that

130if we have even a few staff members that are in place some of the challenges that they have may be some things that we need to address um in order to get to that retention place so I do hope that um that is shared uh transparently with uh with the board I I would really like to know as well what some of the issues are that they are encountering inside of the school system um and I also want to say that I am very impressed that we are going to uh to the to your already existing Career Fairs instead of trying to always get people to come to us so I hope that there's some s some success that way but I do think that um something that we really need to highlight is those

131exit interviews you know as we do have people flowing through the system um if they're not staying why are they not staying um instead of just keep uh filtering people through so maybe we can adjust some of those things to get to that retention spot anything else par we have another we'll have another crack at this before we uh approve it at our next regular meeting so thank you again would you mind if I shared a couple of observations absolutely uh just kind of follow up on what director Barlo was saying about the progress we've made um I hope you're not feeling discouraged that this is another letter of non-c concurrence because I really think it's about the journey we're on and the progress we're making so whether it's concurrence or non-c concurrence we're still

132moving together and and we're moving forward you know to I think recognize the native students in our system and really to see indigenous education as good for all uh secondly it just feels that the board is very responsive and reactive to our native parents and Community but not very proactive and I think it would be very encouraging to our students and parents to see more proactive work on from the board in meeting the goal gos that the the district has for Native students and for all students uh helping them understand and learn more about Native history and culture so thank you thank you for what you do every day all right thanks thank you I want to get that last note down right our next agenda item is also a prep for Action it is

133the second briefing of the policy committee recommendations from our February meeting um this is the second briefing before the policies will be on the consent agenda on April 8th are there any additional questions or discussion on the policies hearing none we'll bring it back to uh the consent agenda on April 8th our first action item is the authorization and issuance and sale of $334,800 th000 General obligation facilities maintenance bonds Series 2025a this is an action item so I'll read the resolution and ask for motion in second and then we can get any additional information from um our panelists and uh discussion be it resolve that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the updated 10-year long-term facilities maintenance plan for the school year 2025 26 and be it further resolved that

134the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the resolution relating to $334,800 th000 General obligation facilities maintenance bonds series 2025a we have a motion so moved second okay we have a motion and a second do we have any thing to share yes we do actually thank you for um letting me be here tonight with Aaron bushberg our Municipal adviser from ERS um he should be a familiar face to most everyone except director white horn this is probably your first time through um issuance of debt and just as a reminder this is one of the multiple checkpoints we have along the way towards uh completing summer construction projects it starts with uh development of a long-term facility maintenance Revenue plan uh approval of that plan by you and then of the Department of

135Education eventually it turns into where we're at tonight in the first step of issuing debt um to pay for the projects so as just a quick highlight before I turn it over to Aaron these dollars are specifically going to be used for the summer projects at ALC Sentry John Adams John Marshall Kellogg Mayo uh mighty Oaks formerly known as Pinewood Northrup Sunset Terrace and the technology Support Services Center this summer uh we are doing a little bit different strategy instead of issuing uh enough money to cover two to three summers at a time we're going to do this annually for the next uh four or five years uh to save money on interest as we go so I'm going to turn it over to Aon now and he'll walk you quickly through uh the pre-sale

136report that we included in sbly to thank you John good evening uh School Board as John mentioned I'll brief cover uh our pre-sale report and the intention of the pre-sale report is just to give you a high level overview of the debt issuance process as well as a little bit of insight into the current market what we're currently seeing right now uh with the expectation that we'll then sell these bonds uh later in May um so I'll just point out a couple of of things in the pre-sale report um so again uh you have a resolution before you uh approving $ 34.8 million in facilities maintenance bonds our current estimate right now that you'll see in the report is about 33.2 million uh to fund all of the projects that John just mentioned again this

137is uh to fund uh the health and safety and deferred maintenance projects that John mentioned as part of your 10e ltfm plan the debt service will be paid primarily from property tax levy uh with a little bit of state aid from the ltfm program included as well the term of these bonds is uh planned to be just under 17 years which is pretty standard in what we did back in 2022 uh the most most recent uh issue that we had uh for your facilities maintenance program and we uh would also like to mention that there's a call date on these bonds of February 1 2033 if you think about refinancing your home mortgage you can refund bonds School building bonds facilities maintenance bonds as well however you can't do it until 90 days before or

138anytime after the call date you can do a tax exempt refunding so we just want to note uh that that feature uh is in this debt as well uh part of the resolution solution is you will be uh applying to the State Credit enhancement program and what that means is uh the state of Minnesota will guarantee uh the district's payments should you not be able to make a Debt Service payment we've never had that happen before uh but that is a a nice feature in the state of Minnesota that's in place uh along with that credit enhancement program um you will also get a a bond rating uh from a rating agency standard and po so we often liken that to your your personal credit score if you apply for a loan or a mortgage

139um and so part of that rating process so you will uh receive the state's credit enhancement rating so the state's currently rated a AAA which is the highest rating you can get so you'll have that as as part of your debt issuance uh and you also receive what's known as an underlying rating which is specific to Rochester Public Schools uh you currently have a double a rating which is the third highest rating that you can get and so it's a very strong rating uh especially when you compare that to uh your peers in the state of Minnesota uh so we will uh do a competitive process so similar to um doing competitive bids for any type of construction project we do the same thing uh we receive bids at a certain date and time from

140Underwriters um and award uh the sale of the bonds then to the lowest uh bidder in essence the the underwriter who comes with with the lowest true interest cost it's called Uh I will also mention that uh we talked about the call date and the potential refunding down the road um as part of our process uh and our service to you as we continually monitor potential refunding opportunities on your existing debt uh right now there aren't currently uh any opportunities which is just fine which means you're you're paying uh a very reasonable rate on your uh existing debt as well uh so the um so the schedule then so um the first step is tonight by uh having the board approve this intent resolution to authorize the bonds we'll work with uh John and his

141staff over the course of the next month or so get information out uh to the market uh so your potential Underwriters and biders know kind of some more information about Rochester and then we'll receive those bids at the morning of May 20th and then we'll uh be planning to attend your May 20th meeting um to award those uh the sale of those bonds and then you'll receive those funds on June 12th you should be often running them for for your next fiscal year work of projects the last few schedules in the pre-sale report uh just shows kind of an overview of of what we call our sources and uses where the funds are coming from where they're going that kind of ties out to to John's ltfm plan to show that we'll have funds uh

142to cover those project costs right now given the current market uh we have an estimated true interest cost of about 3.9% and so we're not selling until May 20th so I can guarantee you that's going to change um but we do have what we feel like is is a conservative estimate in there at that point at this point in time and then finally uh the last couple pages are the debt plan for the district so this is taking into consideration your capital and Debt Service levies and so again uh we're factoring in your overall tax base your existing debt and then the planed new debt as well and so um on the very last page you can see kind of the bar chart that summarizes that and again uh we're striving to achieve that that

143level tax rate going forward uh for your community and for your taxpayers and so as John mentioned in his board report we do this through a combination of of Levy as well as issuing bonds to try to maintain uh that level tax rate over time so so that concludes what I had to share um be more than happy to answer any questions you have Dr C um so I I'm sure that this has been thought through but just for for um for my edification here I guess and anybody else who was curious um the estimated payment date or closing date of these bonds is June 12th but a lot of the funds as I understand it are for the projects that we have scheduled this summer so can you just walk me through like the

144when the the bills are actually due for those projects because I imagine they're going to start before June 12th right actually actually no um most of the bills that we've accured so far that we've been paying through money that we already had are the architect fees and kind of Designing the projects the actual first bills for June work is probably coming in the July time frame so that's why we scheduled for June 12th date to receive the funds because we don't anticipate having bills due until July okay and then uh the only other thing I was wondering about is in the what what you what you noted about the um just sort of planning to issue this debt one year at a time roughly in order to not sort of hold it um makes a

145lot of sense in the current market and it's a hazardous thing to try to predict what anything's going to be like a few months from now but is is this a good time to be issuing bonds or a average time or is there any way to characterize that yeah that's a that's a great question um unfortunately we don't have the crystal ball right um but uh I think the the timing of the these issues are more about when you need the funds and the proceeds to to pay those bills so I think that's more kind of about what this timing is um I would say from a calendar year perspective there's not necessarily a better month or a better season to to try to issue this debt so really I think we're trying to push

146that up as close to we uh as close as we can to kind of that start of the new fiscal year then to get those you know those outflows uh kind of going right away so we're not issuing way before that and so we're not um occurring additional interest costs so we're trying to time that the best we can with your payments okay thanks Dr Barlo and then just a question regarding uh this coming Thursday's uh fed meeting um an increase or decrease will that affect the I think you mentioned 3.9 yes okay the short answer is yes yep yep and remember and and so on this schedule right um you have um each maturity has a separate interest rate right and so if you look at um kind of a one year a five

147year a 10 year a 20 year Benchmark they're all changing at different intervals right so um while we may see an improvement in the short-term rate that may mean an increase in the longer term rate so I guess that's a long answer but but yes it it will change for sure thank you and I I also wanted to note that um since you gave us the original estimation of the cost for the projects um you did a reestimation um that caused the total expected cost of these projects to be reduced by 7.85 million and I think that's an important thing to highlight for our community is that we are always looking for ways to do this at the most efficient and least cost um method um both in how we uh first estimate the costs

148and then as we're talking about tonight how we actually Finance it through debt so I appreciate that piece and I can only imagine that doing this annually will allow us to have better estimates of the costs each time we go out for the bonds as opposed to having to do that prediction absolutely Y and thanks for pointing that out so uh most of that is in the Mayo high school project and really getting closer to that starting and really firming up the numbers and the amount of work it's going to be done I don't want to use the t word but we are anticipating that there could be tariffs involved that could raise some prices um so we have a little bit of of of that included in there to um hedge against that so

149we are planning for the possibility of that all right well this is an action item we've had a motion in a second and hearing no further discussion all in favor of the resolution signify by saying I I I opposed the resolution's been approved and now we'll move on to our second action item which is the authorization of issuance and sale of 7, 35,000 full-term certificates of participation Series 2025b be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the resolution relating to 7 million 35,000 full-term certificates of participation series 2025b over approval second it has been moved and seconded any information yes thank you uh chair Nathan by my count this is our ninth issuance of full-term certificates of participation specifically dedicated to buying student use technology and devices so

150um as is consistent with past we come every third year um for the next three years ahead um and a plan as we've detailed in the uh assly item there showing how we intend to replace student iPads Chromebooks um audio visual equipment in our classrooms as well as upgrading our Network and wireless access points um as those things age out and need to be replaced so I'm going to turn this one as well over to Aon to give a quick explanation of the certificates and what we're doing here yeah just a few brief comments um so this is actually under a separate Authority uh than the facilities maintenance bonds and so that's why you'll see this treated as two separate issues uh similar to what we did back in 2022 and in previous years um

151again we're going to follow the same timeline as the facilities maintenance Bond so we'll sell on May 20th as well and again uh these uh bonds are eligible to be included in the State Credit enhancement program uh so you'll get that same uh credit enhanced rating as well on this issue as you will uh the 2025a questions and when if we um we receive the money on June 12th and what's the time frame for actually doing the purchasing yeah so I would expect that very soon we'll be doing a bid for uh kind of the first trunch of devices so be watching for that to be coming and we'll time that out so that those would hit very close to the June 12th so that we can start rolling those out as well okay hearing

152no other questions or comments there's been a motion in a second all in favor of the resolution say I I opposed the resolution is been approved thank you thank you item 10.1 is our updated ABCD um are there any agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting agenda hearing none our upcoming board meeting dates are March 25th at 5:30 p.m. a study session April 8 8 at 5:30 p.m. a regular meeting April 15th at 5:30 p.m. a study session and April 22nd at 5:30 p.m. a regular meeting and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 7:41 p.m. e