001Hello board colleagues. It is November 24th, 2025 still. Um and the time now is 4:10. Um welcome to this work session and a happy Thanksgiving coming up or fall break for those that um that are celebrating. Um, let's start with introductions. Starting to my right, Sheila Prior, >> Dan Janestra, >> Baris Bindi, >> Valentine, >> Sarah Johansson, >> Chase Anderson, >> and I am Heidi Kedar. We have three items on the agenda today. Um, we'll start with finance and operations report um with an auditor's report. I'll hand it over to Trevor Peterson. >> Yes. Thank you, acting chair Kedar, members of the board, Dr. Anderson. Tonight we have the privilege to uh welcome to the table I'll turn it over here to uh Jackie Hegel as well as our director of finance Jack Sterns to
002uh present the annual comprehensive uh financial report from the fiscal year ended June 30th 2025. Um so we also have a lot of the other finance department team here today. So um before we get into that I I want to make sure that we acknowledge the the great work that those individuals do each and every day. And um that will be um summarized I think in grand fashion with this presentation both in the procedures as well as the finances itself. So I just wanted to say kudos to um those members of the team. Um so with that I'll turn it over Jack and Jackie. Feel free to [snorts] go to the table and wow them. [laughter] >> Good afternoon school board. Dr. Anderson. Um before I hand it off to Jackie, I was just going
003to mention we will be coming back at the December regular meeting for the approval of the finances. Um today truly is just Jackie presenting the um results of the audit. Um so after this meeting, we will hand out all the uh finances and you'll have a few weeks to review them and ask questions. Um I'll be available anytime to answer questions and then in uh December, we'll come back for approval. So thank you. >> All right. Well, good evening and um my name is Jackie Heagle. I am the partner uh in charge of the audit from LB Carlson and here to present the audit results for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Um you'll see as we walk through it was all very positive audit results um for the current year. A little bit about
004my role as an auditor. As an auditor, I'm here to issue an opinion on the financial statements over that district audit, noting that they are fairly stated. Um, your district does receive more than 750,000 in federal funding. So, there's a separate single audit. It's called a separate audit of just the federal awards. As you are looking through the reports this year, you're going to see that those audit opinions are not currently included in that report. And that is because uh the federal compliance supplement has not been issued by the federal government yet. So, all the federal audits are delayed. So, it is outside of your control. There's no federal audits that can be issued at this time. Um, and the MDE has issued extensions through March because we're unsure of when this uh compliance supplement
005will be issued. Um, but at some point when that is issued, there will be a follow-up some uh additional audit opinions that note the uh the opinions over the federal audit as well as that schedule of expenditures of federal awards. So as part of our audit then we also review the internal controls and the compliance over that financial statement audit as well as with the Minnesota state laws and regulations. So each year the office of the state auditor releases what's known as that Minnesota legal compliance manual and as auditors retest the specific statutes that are noted in that manual each year [snorts] for the audit results over that district financial audit. um you're seeing an unmodified or clean opinion on that basic financial statement. That is the opinions you're looking for. If you're reading through
006that report, you are going to see there is a new Gazsby standard that was required to be implemented in the 2025 audit year. That was Gazsby statement number 101 for compensated absences. Um so this had provided new guidance on how local governments now account for compensated absences, which would be your vacation and your sick leave liabilities. Um, you're no longer reporting just the liability for anyone that would potentially retire from the district. You're now reporting an estimated liability of what your employees would use over their service life. So, over their active employment, you're booking an estimated liability. Um, you're going to see that this does have a significant impact on your financial statements. And I do have a slide later I'll talk through in more detail. Um, but this liability went up about 20 million
007based on these estimated valuations. Um, and that does get booked into your internal service fund in those early retirement benefit accounts as a change in accounting principle. And like I said, I have a slide later that'll show it in more detail. Uh, for the audit opinions over the internal control and compliance over that financial audit, I had no material weaknesses or instances of non-compliance to report. And for the audit results over that Minnesota legal compliance opinion, no findings to report there as well. So all clean audit opinions for the 2025 audit year. Moving on then to some of the financial position. This graph here shows a trend analysis of that general fund financial position showing the cash and investment balance as well as the unrestricted fund balance in the general fund for the past 5
008years. Uh the cash and investment balance at year end was about 86.3 million which was an increase of about 10 million from the prior year. The overall general fund fund balance ended the year at about 63.5 million which was an increase of about 10 million from the prior year and that was compared to a decrease that was projected in the budget of about 2.3 million. This next slide then breaks down those various components of fund balance in the general fund for the past five years. It shows it by those different buckets of fund balance, the non-spendable dollars, the dollars that are restricted for certain purposes, as well as dollars that are assigned and unassigned. Um, at year end, I said the total general fund fund balance was about that 63.5 million. Of that, about 2.4
009million is in non-spendable fund balance. So, those are items that you've prepaid at year end that are already non-spendable for the 2026 year. The restricted fund balance at year end was about 24.6 million. Some of the larger areas that are included in that restricted fund balance is some of your capital projects levy is set aside of about six million. You have some operating capital dollars of about 4.5 million and then about 11.9 million that is restricted for long-term facility maintenance projects. The assigned fund balance at year end is about just under 11.3 million. Um there's various areas uh that those dollars are assigned for. Uh some of the areas are dollars aside for some reemployment insurance. You have about four million set aside for some future postemployment obligations, some dollars set aside for uh future
010enrollment of the district, as well as about 3 million set aside for some future classroom and administration furniture and equipment. And then that leaves about 25.1 million in that unassigned fund balance at year end. Uh which is about 11.4% of the expenditures in the general fund. And that does meet the it's in line with the district fund balance policy for the 2025 year. So [snorts] graph summarizing the ADM and the pupil units served by the district for the past 10 years. Um for the 2025 year, you close out the year with with an estimated ADM as those aren't finalized with the Department of Education until about January or February. um that estimated ADM was about 12,909 which is an increase of about 409 students or about 3.3% from the prior year. Next couple of slides
011I have focused specifically on the general fund showing the general fund current year results compared to prior year as well as comparing it to your budget. Overall, the general fund revenues ended the year at about 228 million. That's an increase of about 13 million from the prior year. If you're looking at those variances current year to prior year, you're seeing your state sources go up. Most of that was due to the increased enrollment in the district as well as improvements in that general education and the special education funding formula allowances. You also saw your property taxes going up about 2.6 million most just as approved with the increase in the levy. And then your other local sources are up about a million. Most of that is in investment earnings as well as earn uh fees
012and donations that you're collecting throughout the year. When you're comparing current year to prior year, you're seeing your general fund revenues were about 7.5 million more than what was projected in the budget. Uh you saw that other revenue category over budget. Most of that again is an investment earnings and also just budgeting conservatively for the donations and fees which can be difficult to budget from year year to year with the unknown. Um, you also saw your state sources were about 3.2 million over budget. Most of that was in the general education and the special education areas. [clears throat] Similar graph here then just showing the general fund expenditures by the various categories. Um, overall your general fund expenditures went up about 16 million from the prior year. Most of that is in salaries and benefits
013with the contractual increases and the enrollment growth in the current year. Um, you also saw your transportation costs increasing some. That's in that purchase service category as well as supplies and materials were up just due to the enrollment growth in 2025. Overall expenditures in the general fund though came in about 3.5 million under the final budget and most of that is in purchase services with the timing of projects from one year to the next. This graph summarizes the other governmental funds of the district, specifically the food service special revenue funds as well as the community service special revenue funds. As you can see in the graph, both these funds had very positive operations in 2025. The food service [clears throat] fund ended the year with a fund balance of about 2.8 million, increase of about
014415,000 from the prior year. Um, overall you saw your revenues coming in over budget. Um, expenditures were also coming in over budget in that food service fund, but ended the year very positive with about 2.8 million in the fund balance. The community service fund ended the year with a fund balance of about 5.6 million. You saw an increase there of about 1.1 million from the prior year. Uh, your revenues came in over budget about 270,000. Most of that was just more participation than anticipated in that budget. And then the expenditures were under budget about 650,000 mainly within salaries and benefits and some purchase service costs. This next slide then summarizes the internal service funds of the district. Um, you have a few internal service funds that account for the district liabilities for those self-insured benefits,
015specifically the medical and the dental benefits as [clears throat] well as a internal service fund for the early retirement benefits. Um, so if you're looking at this graph here, this table, you're seeing that that year-end net position has a deficit of 22.3 million. Um, this is where I was commenting earlier with that significant change with the implementation of Gazsby 101 and having to book that full compensated absence liability, the new accounting for that. Um, which shows that change in accounting principle towards the bottom of the table at about 20.8 million. Um, if you do split this graph in your financials, you can see it in more detail. um your self-insured accounts, which are your self-insured medical and dental accounts, that does have a positive net position of 4 million. Um and then those early retirement
016accounts that now shows this compensated absence balance has that deficit of 26 million. Then the last graph I have here, the last table summarizes those district-wide statement of net position. So, as a local government, you report all your fund financial statements, and they all roll up into what's considered the district-wide financials. Um, it shows all the it's the full acrual financials, which shows all the capital asset activity of the district, as well as all the long-term liabilities, any bonds, pensions, OPED plans the district has, and gives a snapshot in that statement of net position. Um so at year end 2025 you can see that the change from the prior year you saw an increase in that net position of about 13.7 million. Um if you look in the top portion of that table shows the
017fund balances the governmental funds with those various adjustments to get to that bottom portion the components of those net position. >> [clears throat] >> Um, so at the bottom, if you're looking the net investment in capital assets, you're seeing an increase there. That's all directly related with the capital asset activity of the district. And as the district continues to pay down the debt that was used to construct those assets, you're going to continue to see that go up. If you look at the bottom line, that unrestricted um you saw go down about 4 million. Most of that is due to that implementation of the Gazsby 101, that compensated absence liability that's put on these books now. and then offset by the improved uh general fund financial position in the 2025 year. So with that I
018can open it up if there's any questions board colleagues let's start with one question each we'll go around the table >> um the internal service funds right that's that new regulation which show now we have to show the early retirement incentives etc. It doesn't change the overall balance sheet. Correct. It's just how you categorize the funds. Is that accurate or >> It would change the balance sheet and the internal service funds, but it wouldn't change how you your general fund. Correct. It's all booked in just that internal service fund showing that liability. >> Okay. All right. Thanks. And to add on to that, I would just say it doesn't like Jackie was mentioning, it doesn't mess with your the overall fund balance increase for that unassigned. Um the new regulation which we worked with our
019actuary HD on it's assuming that every employee last year and this year will take all of their personal time, all their vacation time, all their sick time throughout the year. So I don't want to use the word fictitious, but it's kind of a fictitious liability that needs to be on the books. So, you've got to book it as is, you know, the new rule with MDE. Um, the assumption is that I mean, there's not I think it's less than 1% chance that that, [laughter] you know, everyone would use all of their time during a year. So, it's really just affecting the balance sheet, which then goes on the revenue expense. So, yeah. Thanks. >> Any other go any other questions? Sheila, can we go back to the um slide where it showed the revenue um
020from property taxes? Um maybe I misheard you. I was you were talking about um the actual property taxes and that from the previous year like I it was my understanding that the technology levy didn't really increase taxes, it held them the same. So, is the increase we're seeing just from property values going up? Do you know the property tax here would include the overall levy, not just one portion of it. It would be the overall levy with the valuations combined. Okay. >> I think to add to that, what what Jackie is referring to is yes, the technology is a portion of that. That's about $12 million of this $73 million. And there's all the other categorical funding such as safe schools, LTFM. I mean, the list is lengthy and um we will dive into that
021a little bit on the the next meeting um when we present the truth and taxation too. So um but yeah, it's it's it's a factor of many things. One of them being property values, the another one being um the continued enrollment growth. um because a lot of those funding sources are based on a per pupil um calculation. So um it it I'd say for the most part it's a combination of those two things. >> Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify because >> my understanding was that we hadn't added any new taxes and so to yeah I just want to make sure that's absolutely clear because we are going to the voters soon to do that and I don't want them to be like you're always adding them. But this is this was from
022a a levy that we had already approved and we were just renewing it. >> Maybe hold that question for 14 days, three and a half hours and >> Okay, >> we'll go from there. >> Thanks. >> So, first of all, kudos to finance team. Um, again, not getting any major findings in the audit. Um that's really commendable and obviously we had leadership changes but again uh Trevor talked about how team has done really well behind the scenes. So again thank you finance team for doing such a great job. Um my question is to you uh in terms of for similar similar size school districts, how would you rate comment um on YZA based on the general fund unassigned balance um just the overall financial situation if you will. How would you compare you know neighboring
023states or the top districts of our size? Any comments on that? Well, I would say overall anytime you have an audit with no findings is very positive. Um, when you look at your general fund financial position, you know, you had an increase of about 10 million. Um, when you compare yourself to other districts, you are one of the first early districts being presented. We don't present many audits in November. So, it's hard to truly compare. There is, if you look in your management report, when you do get that, there is a couple um pages of statewide information. So, there is one page in there where you're going to see um where your district lands compared to the statewide unrestricted operating fund balance. But for 2025, that information is not available yet. The uh state won't
024have that until, you know, in the spring of 2026. >> Could you go back to the um slide that mentioned purchased services? Purchases. Yes. Um well, first off, I'm very grateful for these slides and how well they tell the story of our audit. Um they're very easy to understand and that's um greatly appreciated. Just as I'm looking at the differences between budget and actual, I noticed there was a you know a little um greater difference in purchase services, budget versus actual, I do just want to um touch base on that quickly. Yeah, when you're looking at this graph with the purchase services, um your long-term facility maintenance, a lot of that runs through your general fund and it's the timing of various projects. So, you're budgeting for projects and it's the timing at year end,
025you know, with June 30th being your year end. Um some of those can carry over into, you know, July and August over those summer months. >> Thank you so much, >> Sarah. Go ahead. Yeah, I just want to say thank you as we have our whole finance team here and Jackie, you're here. Um, when we look at this audit and we think about our year and and all of the things that happened in our year with staffing changes, um, as well as just the enrollment growth that we weren't really sure what it was going to look like or not. Um, it does tell a story of how our finance team works really well together to budget conservatively, which allows us to sit here today to receive good news. Um it also shows us that we
026have a system that that stays steady um even if there are um really smart people coming in but at the end or you know really smart people leaving and in the middle or things um and then the fact that we have no findings and and as a board I think we would anticipate that that's what we should have right and that's a no never mind but it's it's really important because you talked about a couple of the Gazsby statements that are really complex and you know no findings means a number of things and so as we look forward forward to the next year and we go to our voters. Um this really does underscore um the high level of confidence that we're asking our voters to give to us um as we as we look
027for that. So thank you Jackie for being our partner in this for yearover-year and seeing that and just again thank you to the finance team for all layers of involvement that you had in this because it does um this is an example of the excellence that is Visetta and so we appreciate that. Well, I don't think I could have said it any better. Thank you, Sarah. Um, thank you, Jack. Thank you, Jackie, for being with us this afternoon. And we'll be moving on to the next item. >> Before she leaves the table, I also want to say that Jackie continues to be a good partner as well. She doesn't show up on August and September. And just that's the only time we see her. Um, we truly know that there's a partnership that allows us
028to call her at any time during the year. Um, and also to call out that no findings is not a a finance victory. It's a school district victory because um, all of the staff, the teachers, administrators, they all need to follow these rules that we basically communicate out to them. Um, which is sometimes frustrating, sometimes annoying. There's a lot of red tape, but um, this is why we do it. um because there is a ripple effect to this that um I don't think people understand how important it is to um be a district without any audit findings that goes a long ways for a lot of different reasons. So um I it it probably doesn't get celebrated as much as it should. Um so I just wanted to say thank you to Jackie for that
029too because it's it certainly is a team effort. >> Thank you so much. Great news. >> Thank you. Moving to our next agenda item is a teaching and learning report. I'll hand it over to Dana Miller. [laughter] Well, thank you for joining us even though you have a piece of candy in your mouth that won't go away. [laughter] Thank you. We have Dana Miller and Stacy Lagner with us. Thank you for joining us this evening. Thank you, Director Kedar, members of the board, Superintendent Anderson. Thank you for having us. This is our second part of our um annual report. This is the student experience component of the CACR CACER report. Um, formerly known as World's Best Workforce tonight. Um, and we're just going to start kind of with a very similar kickoff that we did
030the first one is reminding ourselves that this really is the annual report of our realization or our attempt to realize our strategic direction. So, you set as a board um along with Dr. Anderson, those strategic directions for us and then one of our roles is to ensure that we have a plan in actualizing those directions. Again, this is one you saw the last time we were with you, but just restating that that we take those strategic directions and equity commitment and then working with Dr. Anderson, um, school leadership and all of our departments and teachers, we work to operationalize that. And so the report tonight is really the collective work that is in response to state legislation in areas like KCER, our literacy plan, ANI, Access, uh CIS. Do we have enough acronyms there to
031please don't ask me what each and every one of those mean? But um that is really where this report comes out of tonight and is part of then that district operational plan. We will also talk quite a few times tonight about building site growth plans, department plans, PLC goals, teacher goals. Those are all the things that work around that to make sure that we're realizing the strategic direction and the equity commitment. So, while we're not specifically reporting out on those, those feed in that's the work that feeds into the report that we're doing tonight for you. And so, with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Lackner and she will go into some more specifics. >> Great. Thanks, Dana. So as Dana mentioned last month we were here to report on strategic direction two
032which was student achievement and tonight we're going to report on strategic direction one around ensuring that a high quality daily daily experience for each and every one of our students. So, we are reporting in the areas of um kindergarten readiness, um all students being college and career ready, all students being prepared to be lifelong learners, decreasing disproportionality of enrollment by race and intervention and enrichment programs, and then also increasing staff self- assessment of how well they feel they're providing culturally responsive learning experiences in their classrooms. One thing. Okay, next slide. Oh, we're doing that. Okay, great. All right, so tonight I'm very excited to share with you data that is not test scores. Um, we are talking about student experience and we're so achievement outcomes tell us how our students are performing. So like I'd
033mentioned test scores, high school graduation rates and all of those pieces. Tonight we're going to talk about student experience. So the conditions, relationships, and the perceptions students have of their daily lives in our school. So course enrollment, participation in programs and staff and student surveys um specifically around student um experience of the strategic direction one. Sorry. So today we're looking beyond the test scores and listening to the voices and experiences of the students we serve. So the first piece is kindergarten readiness. As you know, Minnesota is moving away from students being ready for kindergarten to systems being ready for kindergarten in the successful learner equation. So, what we wanted to focus on in our smart goal around this area um because we know that according to um state statute in Minnesota, all students are ready
034for kindergarten when they're 5 years old by September 1st. We wanted to check to see are students coming to us in kindergarten when they're 5 years old or are they delaying a year um and coming to us when they're six-year-olds? That we wanted to take a look at how we are ready for for them in our programming in kindergarten. So this was something we were interested in tracking um to see how we're we're doing. So um our goal was to go from 9.3% last se September to 8.3% this September. So when we looked at our data this past year, we had 8.6% of our students delay kindergarten. So they were 6 years old before September 1st. The total count was 75. So we're not talking about a lot of students, but we are talking about
035um 75 students. When we look at our data disagregated by um groups by race, ethnicity, 62 out of the 75 students are white. In the data that I'm showing, I grouped all of the students from other um racial ethnic groups together because um individual groups had fewer than 20 students in the group. So, I wasn't able to share that publicly. But you can see that um the majority the the large majority of students who delayed kindergarten are white students. Looking at it by gender, 48 of the 75 students are male. And then when we look at the data by special education services, 10 out of the 75 students have an IEP. >> And so as we go through this data, one of my roles in this is to talk about how is our system responding
036to that or how are we thinking responsive to this one. And this one um is a little bit complicated. So if you'll bear with me a moment, I'm a parent of a child that had a May 26th birthday. And I think when I knew my due date, I decided that, oh, this would be a child that I would hold back because that's like a summer birthday. Um, and then as she grew into an actual human being with a personality and skill set, I realized that, oh, maybe that's not what I want to do. And it was a very difficult decision for me to make. So, we want to recognize that that decision certainly rests with our parents and they know their child best, right? And I don't know, my daughter and I would agree. Sometimes
037I wonder if we'd have hit different stages at life more smoothly had we given that extra year or maybe it was just going to be bumpy for her. Hopefully she won't watch this cuz she got a little too much of her mama in her and it was just going to be a little bit more bumpy for her and I. But that being said, wholeheartedly we believe is a system that is a parent's choice. What we're curious about is we talked about this today in our um seat team which is our student um experience achievement team. Um we talked about this data today and what we were wondering is do our parents have the information that they need to make an informed decision. One and two our system should never be telling a family that we're
038not ready for their child. Okay. So a family I might have decided for my daughter that we should wait and I might be making that on a host of reasons but we want to make sure our parents are informed not just naturally like I was going to do it's a summer birthday so you just hold right there's more to it than that and we should never ever have a child come into our system and us to say you know what we think it would be better if you wait if they are 5 years old by that date it is our obligation to be ready for those students and so that is the um data that we're going to continue to look at. That was the data that with um Jenny Nyas and Jenny Eert and
039Michelle Bador that we're having meetings on to decide making sure with our welcome center that we're working on making sure parents are making that informed decision. Okay. So the next area is college and career readiness. So looking at how are we preparing students for their college and career. So with that, this year we set a goal to increase the number of high school uh seniors who graduate having learn earned at least one credit in an advanced course any time during their high school career starting with the class of 2025 um as our baseline. So for advanced courses, we are are including advanced placement or AP classes, concurrent enrollment classes, other college credit bearing courses, and then advanced career and technical education courses. So our CTE courses. So those were the ones that we identified as
040advanced courses um toward college and career readiness. In our data, we find that found that 82% of our students in class of 2025 had earned a credit in one of those advanced courses. Looking at the data by race, ethnicity, we did find substantial racial ethnic gaps in the percent of students who earned a c a credit in one of those courses. And then when we look at special populations, um the percent of students earning a credit um by in those populations was 29 to 57%. And so our systems of response to that. First of all, I want to thank Tyler Shepard who helped us with this part of the presentation um in giving us information for this kind of last minute. So I'll do my best to represent that. Um but as you know, we
041usually bring the high school forward as well to talk about some of their work specifically at the high school around those areas. So going deeper in that um we would want to have um Mr. Gingler and and Tyler and his team here. So I'll do my best to represent that and some of the work that I know that they're working on. But it's really an interc interconnected work if we're talking about kids college and career ready. So some of the things that they're doing at the high school is obviously continuing to do that data review and identification. So looking at um both formal or MAP assessments if you will as well as classroom indicators to see are there any students in that that um we want to take a second look at or that we're
042seeing a potential who haven't self- selected and advanced course. Um student outreach um support team outreach is like achievement specialists, counselors, deans. who are some of those students that we might just want to tap on the shoulder because we're seeing that potential in them and we want to make sure um that we're we're trending pushing them if you will towards those types of courses. Also being aware of our gap. So this data that we're presenting is not something that the high school is unaware of. They're very well aware of that and are continuing to examine their patterns in their enrollment and to see what barriers might we have. Those student experience surveys are really important to them because at the end of each term they ask those and that helps them to determine are there
043some barriers that we need to get better at so that we have better um representation in those advanced courses. Also work a lot with teacher recommendation. Teachers are critical in identifying probably the most important factor in identifying our students who may not have self- selected or who had not otherwise experienced an advanced placement course. Um so they're really looking for those students who might be demonstrating curiosity or persistence um readiness and then giving them the support and guidance that they need and helping them plan for success in that area. The high school is working on targeted communication with students and families. So again reaching out to families and students to share information about AP. It may be a first generational or it may be something where parents are just completely unaware that these opportunities exist.
044And as we know sometimes um those can also relieve a financial burden when it comes to moving on to post-secary success. So um reaching out to to families and letting them know those supports are in place, thinking about their on-ramps to academic support. So um providing different pathways and supports such as preparatory courses. So, if you think about um algebra 2 um extended writing explore, career labs, those type of things are all areas where our students can get that extra on-ramp and academic support both during and as they're preparing for those classes. And then, um looking at their enrollment trends, uh a lot of the data that I'm going to show you here in a second is data that's collected at the high school level. So they're always constantly um if you know Tyler, you
045know he likes a good spreadsheet and he's got all kinds of places where they've tracked this data and um are always looking to monitor, reflect and adjust on that. Thank you. Um so specifically to look at their CTE related accomplishments that we're really proud of. As you know, CTE is going through a current review. Um and really this is an area that we continue to expand and grow on. And um I strongly believe as in teaching and learning that this is the direction that we want to continue to go to have kids most college and career ready. And so in 2425 we had 1,344 concurrent enrollment credits earned in a variety of courses in our high school. Um 77 students successfully passed the knowledge and skills testing um in our new uh certified nursing aid
046our nursing program there and many of those are already employed. And then 12 students completed the OSHA certification in advanced construction with 18 students certified in PC servicing and troubleshooting which is a computer repair. So those are um very exciting numbers for us. And if you remember last spring we had Tyler and the team here reporting on some of that CTE work. And then also this is the data that um the high school again high school data that they have collected on our a um on our AP participation. And so if you will notice what's kind of exciting I think about this is that you'll notice that our numbers have almost doubled in all of these areas. So looking at two 2017 um the number of students who participate in AP testing to last year
047and our enrollment while growing has not doubled. So our percentage of students who are participating in that is certainly um going up. And then it's also exciting to see that we are at the back at the precoid levels um of the percentage of students who are earning a three plus um at least on one AP exam during the year. So we're having great success in that area as well. And we stayed really consistent by the percent of students who earned that 3 plus from 2017 to 2025 with some just minor kind of hills and valleys. >> Okay. So now I'm sorry. Now we're going to talk about our data on um student experience. So preparing our students to be lifelong learners. Um as Dana had mentioned, the high school has a student experience survey that
048they use to listen to students and what they're um experiencing in their classroom and and listening to their voices on what's working and um how they're being supported. So around this smart goal, we're looking specifically at that student experience survey that the high school's been doing. All of their questions are related to the seven characteristics of the portrait of a Wise graduate. And so we're looking for students to how many students are responding strongly agree or somewhat agree to all of the questions on that survey. And just to remind you, the uh portrait of a wise graduate has seven characteristics, believes in their ability to succeed, communicates effectively, values diversity and inclusion, thinks critically and creatively, embraces collaboration, demonstrate learning agility and resistance, and focuses on personal growth. Each one of the questions in the
049survey is related to one of those characteristics. And then there also is one additional question about wind time and how um it's been helpful for the student. Every student in grades 9 through 12 takes that survey at the end of term two and term four. This is just a list of the questions for each one of the characteristics and you can see that they are all oriented to what the teacher is doing to support the students um development of that characteristics. So for example in the first one during this class I'm provided opportunities to take responsibility for my learning the results of my learning and the choices I make. Another question within that characteristic is my teacher supports me in learning from my mistakes and taking ownership of my work. And then the final one
050for that area is the amount of work in this class is fair and manageable. So the next few slides I just have listed all of the different areas or all of the different characteristics and um the questions related to them. This next slide shows the results of the 2425 survey and we found that of the students who all of the students who answered each question for each of the semesters about 87 to 94% of them reported that they strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement in that question. So, the high school has embraced the results from this survey in their um school growth plan this school year and they're going to be focusing on three different questions. One question within believes in their ability to succeed. Another one in demonstrates learning agility and resistance
051and then the final question about win time. >> Resilience. >> Did I say resilience? >> You said resistance. >> Oh my goodness. Sorry about that. No, not resistance. Resilience. we're supporting resilience. [laughter] Um so the the question about demonstrating learning agility and resilience um and then also win time. So thank you for correcting me. >> That's what I'm here for. >> Okay. [laughter] Yes. We're here to support each other. >> All right. So I think what >> I think what I um is super exciting about the portrait of Oetta graduate work and all hats to the um hats off to the high school for that work is there are a lot of places where I've seen that work. a portrait, a profile, whatever you call it, is is not necessarily unique to Weisetta, but I
052think is super powerful is it's not a poster on the wall, but it's actionable, right? And the high school is is deeply using that portrait to guide the student work. And even those questions that students are answering, they're answering those regularly in a classroom. They're being asked, teachers are teaching to that portrait. And that's really about building those skills that students take with them. So, I would tie this very much back to that college and career ready. So when you look at those questions, if I know how to get support for my learning, um I can do that whether I'm at school or when I'm on the job, I know how to ask for help. Those type of transferable skills. So um super powerful work going on there with the portrait as Stacy said. Then
053the um site growth plan is where the high school is really embracing this. And so these uh five areas are straight from the high school's uh growth plan in the work they're doing with their PLC and then the built process at the high school. So all their PLC's which is true across all of our district are now embracing a collaborative inquiry question which was related back to that survey. So it's the teacher action. So it's not what we ask the students to do but it's what what are we asking um our teachers to do? what am I as a teacher going to do to impact that student's answer? Um, and then they're looking at their current state of work and understanding the ideal state, which is CEL language. And then they're using that 5D rubric
054that we've adopted to get at that. So, you're starting to see the the convergence of all that work coming together with cell, the portrait, and then the 5D plus, which is also part of the cell work. um looking at how to better use that win time to address the critical PLC questions three or four which are what do we do if a student doesn't know it and what do we do if they already do know it. So as a teacher when I'm teaching how am I responding to those those students in that space. Um and then they're looking at how they will identify and implement supports for students who need greater supports and then how they consider using those cultural behaviors um protocols and embedding those into the curriculum. So that's just a natural piece
055of question three and four as well. And I had the opportunity last Thursday to sit in on the multilingual learner teachers work with us with uh Mary Williams and then um their peer coach. Peer coaches are highly embedded in this work to sit with them and help that team process their um collaborative inquiry question and they're consistently looking back on that data from the student survey and thinking about how they're going to impact it. So super powerful work there taking place at the high school around that. The next set of data that we're going to present has to do with enrichment and intervention enrollment. So we have a goal to dis decrease disproportionality in intervention and enrichment. specifically looking at our disproportionality by race, ethnicity. The goal is to have our proportion within each one
056of those programs to be within two percentage points of the proportion in our total district population. So for literacy support services, we're focusing on grades K through five for this data. We have the most robust and clearly defined program at the um elementary level. So we're reporting on that data tonight. total students served last year was 532. The middle column shows you the percentage um by race, ethnicity of students in the total population. And then in the right column, it's the percentage of um students within reading support. And so you can see that we're not quite at our goal of being within two percentage points for each one of those groups. The next set of data we're going to share is around enrichment services. So the data that we're h we have here is how
057this is reported to the state based on the state guidelines and what they call gifted and talented which we know in Noisetta we um we use the term enrichment services. So this is our data for grades 2 through five. Each one of the levels has a different um program structure um elementary, middle and high school. So in the elementary level students must meet our district program criteria to receive enrichment services and u we know last year that was um by by building. So in the middle column again is our total enrollment percentages um for grades two through five and on the right it's a percentage for students who received enrichment services last year. At the middle level students for the seminar class need to meet the program um requirements to be enrolled in that class.
058However, there is another part of the program where they can self- select. They self- select their enrollment in accelerated math and they can also choose to participate in our advanced academic club. So, all of those students who participate either through seminar or the self- select options are included in the table. We had,273 students participate in enrichment at at the middle school level. And again, you can see the proportions in the table. And there we're not quite at the 2% um discrepancy between the total enrollment. At the high school level, it is 100% self-enrollment. Um students can self- select into advanced courses and then also the advanced academic clubs. Um we had 2351 students participate at the high school level. And again, similar to the other grade levels, the um proportion, the disproportionality is not quite
059at our goal yet in terms of decrease. >> And so then how are we responding to that data? Um similar to what we were talking about when we talk about enrichment is we've already talked about is happening across all of our levels. So how do teachers identify students? How do we connect with families? How are we looking for strengths in our underrepresented populations and working to increase that? As you know, at the elementary level, enrichment well across the whole system, but right now focused on enrichment is in review at the elementary level and this is a piece that we are continuing to talk about and how can we address this and frankly how can we legally address it as well and there's been some shifts and what we're allowed to do. So, we're also having
060to navigate that work um in that space with that as well. Um but really this is the MTSS work, right? When we think about tier one, tier 2, and tier three, we need to make sure if we're going to get students into a tier three system, which is our intervention and enrichment support, we need to make sure that our tier one and tier 2 work is strong because that's how we move students into tier three or how it's it's not in place of, it's in addition to. And so that's really the continued work of MTSS. Um, continuing that OLA, which was the core training and OG training is huge when we talk about enrichment. Um, again, we've said this a lot, but uh, we've doubled down in Weisetta. So, not only are we doing the
061statemandated training, but we're also getting all of our K1 and now optional two trained in OG as well. And our teachers are telling what a great difference that is making. Um, so continue and all of our intervention in special ed has also had that training. So, we'll continue that work. Whoops. Um, and then that PLC question too is really where this work is centered around. So our teams have been at the PLC level. Last year we spent a lot of time identifying those essential standards so that we had alignment across the system on what it is we want our students to know and have that guaranteed and viable curriculum. And then um we've been working on creating that success criteria. Uh focus this year then will be continuing that success criteria and then developing assessments
062for that. So we have some common assessments across the area to again help us identify students. We're doing a lot with data literacy again and in that moving into that aubre implementation. So we had the folks um Courtney and Kayla here from um our Aubrey team and and talking about the work that but the more we can get that information quickly into into teachers' hands and building leaders hands the better we can help support students. So that will fit together and then I've already talked about enrichment being under review. >> Okay. So the last set of data we're presenting is on how we're providing culturally responsive learning experiences for our students in the classroom. So this goal centers around our annual staff survey around their assessment of how they're providing um experiences in in their
063classroom specifically using our innovation configuration map which has four different levels and I'll explain that on the next slide. There we go. So we have an annual survey that goes out to all staff. It's related to our peer coaching program and our Q comp system. In that survey, what they do is they assess themselves in three different areas. Um culturally responsive protocols and implementation with intention and automaticity. They're also rating themselves on how they're building community, addressing students basic needs and supporting them and also building interdependence among students. The third area is raising student voice, allowing students for self-reflection and also self-direction. In the innovation configuration map, teachers rate themselves on four different levels. Discovering, emerging, embracing, and living living, and ideal. I'll explain what those are on the next slide as well. So, just
064to give you an example of what this looks like for the first area, our goal is to get all staff to self assess under the embracing and living ideal um part of this rubric. And I'm just going to read through the living ideal so you know what that means that that we're striving toward. I regularly implement protocols based on deep understanding of who my students are. considering their basic needs and cultural behaviors. I select and implement protocols considering academic and social outcomes. I make real-time adjustments and switch between protocols in order to respond to the needs in the moment. I engage in ongoing reflection that ensures use of a wide variety of protocols. In the next uh area on community basic needs and interdependence, the living and the ideal description would be I teach and
065embed the basic needs into learning throughout the day which allows students to make decisions based on the needs of the community while having awareness of their own individual needs. I facilitate learning activities where there is both individual accountability and group interdependence. Students always have a way to learn more together. student learning and student social impact are interconnected throughout the day. And the final area, the ideal um would be that I have embedded routines that we can use at any time to have students reflect on their learning so they can choose the next best step for them in working toward our learning goals. I structure activities to allow students to transform transition through activities based on these reflections. I facilitate these structures so that students are able to support themselves and each other in their learning
066community. I plan instruction that maximizes the time when students are take talking to and learning from each other. I ask questions that allow students to elevate their own effectiveness toward the learning goals and social goals as a way to improve their skills working together as a learning community. So, thank you for bearing with me as I read all of those. I think it's just really important to know that what our teachers are striving for is is quite involved. And so I wanted to make sure that that was an awareness of everybody for this presentation. So looking at our data, um we're excited that more teachers took the survey in 2425 than they did the previous year. and looking at their self assessment of being in the embracing and living ideal. About 75% of our staff
067um self assess that they're in that level of the rubric. One of the things to note that as we're developing awareness and um building our peer coaching program around specifically supporting these three areas, the data did go down a little bit. But I think sometimes well actually often when we're self assessing and we're getting to know more about what we're working toward and and the ideal, we actually may be a little more critical of ourselves in the next few years as we're learning more. Um, so it's not unusual to see our data go down before it'll go up. >> Yeah. So then how do we make sure that teachers are continuing to get to that? And one thing about the configuration map um innovation configuration map to note is that was created here in Weisetta
068in collaboration with our teachers and collaboration with our leadership team um to get like what does this look like in the work we're doing here in Weisetta and then that's really um driving our professional learning and the work in the buildings as well. So we'll continue that PLC process as you saw like for example in the high school's questions there that's happening across the system and so we'll continue to deepen that work other professional learning that we're doing you've seen those con culturally responsive protocols coming here when um some of our schools have demonstrated for you so you've been engaged in some of those as well and it's just continuing to experience those and the deeper that teachers are using them the more that becomes automatic um rather than just really robotic in that stage.
069um and continuing the five needs work and then the 5D plus rubric really getting embedded this year has been very exciting um with our buildings [clears throat] as well. And then the peer coach collaboration between building leaders and other coaches in the building as well as our teachers has really been elevated. So, that ability to take um to to be able to ask questions specifically to what we're doing, not just I like my peer coach or I enjoy the peer coaching program, but specifically this is what I'm working on and where am I at and how did my peer coach help me get there. So, again, being in in that meeting last week with the peer coach, working with ML, it's what is she then going to do come in and track for our multilingual
070teachers to see that they're doing, giving them that data, and coming back and forth with that. So that um elevation of our peer coach program and collaboration has been huge. As you know um we engaged in our cell coaches academy last year. We're continuing that work again this year for new groups so that we have that across the system and balance that in with our principles leadership academy in cell as well as our um as they refer to it the central office. Um those coaching collaborations we're deepening our work with that. So folks who went through coaches academy last year are continuing to meet with us um in teaching and learning and equity in inclusion to continue to fine-tune what is it that a coach does in a building and how do we support them
071um along with our principal leadership and then of course the cell leading for teacher learning labs. That's a new layer this year and that's how we're getting into our build first group of that which was phenomenal. Um we paired buildings up and we went and looked at for example we were at Plymouth Creek. We looked at um Ashley Paul and that building's um goal site goal and then we did a walk and got into classrooms to calibrate that with our coaches. So what are we seeing in those um classrooms and what are some things that we could need to support great learning for us in teaching and learning because it helps guide then our professional learning to be responsive. So that's really how we're addressing those. Okay. So that ends our second portion of the
072student experience cell and we're here for questions. >> Board colleagues, I'll open it up for questions. She uh yeah, hi. Thank you. Um I got to see this presentation in teaching and learning and um we had some good discussion around it. Um I wanted to go back to the um kindergarten data around families who are choosing to, you know, maybe delay until their child is six. Um, and I know um, and I, you know, I I understand like our district, we are being ready for students. Um, and I think that's a good change of mindset where we're not expecting students to be kindergarten ready. We're expecting to be able to, you know, handle or to help all students regardless how they come to us. Um, so with that in mind, um, I'm wondering if we
073should be rethinking the question on delaying. Um, not that we're telling parents to do it, but are we providing opportunities to all students to be able to have similar benefits as our students who delay until they're six? Because it can have some, you know, beneficial for, like you said, students who maybe turn five right before kindergarten starts. Um, students who maybe didn't attend preschool or some kids who just develop at different rates. You know, we got to meet them where they're at. and not everybody can delay the start of kindergarten because of you know child care costs. Um so a wonderment I had and I I hope we can you know discuss it further at some point. Um, what would it look like to give parents an option to say like hold their student back
074if their student is not at grade level by the end of kindergarten to say, you know what, you can have another year of we recommend your student has another year of kindergarten. Would you like to do that? Because then it puts them at the same level in the same situation as a parent who delayed kindergarten. So they might be then six years old in kindergarten like the student who delayed. So it's not I don't know I wonder if some parents would have you know would appreciate that and in that if if would even offer that. So again just some food for thought um because I from personal experience have seen the benefits of delaying kindergarten and I think there's some data to support some students do benefit from from that. Yeah, I think there's um
075a lot of questions in there, a lot of thoughts. So, it'd be great to dig into it more at the committee of the board. I think um just initially one of the things is we do need to that was part of our talk at seat today was what would a different goal be? Um that would be more helpful to us. Um so, we've talked about do we do a survey with those parents who delayed to find out why, right? And so, do we need to improve our communication? Do we need to improve our outreach? what is the what is the why behind that piece of it. Um we do have the ability for parents to ask to um repeat a grade. Um, I would say that still would fall under the successful student equation that
076our system needs to be. Um, if we do have students that are maybe struggling with some of the kindergarten benchmarks, then what how are we responding to those needs to be our answer. Um, I think we're very hesitant usually to delay a student in a class or keep a student a hold back, if you will, because the research is just pretty strong there on how that is not successful long term for our students. And so, um, yeah, we do have some early entry programs. We do I would suggest you know if parents are wondering about that um to reach out early to our early learning folks Michelle Bador Jenny Eert and making sure we're getting into some high quality early learning programming which we have across the district not only within the district but outside
077of the district so that we're getting that more support in our early learning programming um would be the answer to if I'm worried about if my child's ready. And to your point, Sheila, um there are many reasons why parents delay and we need to respect that as as well. Um I certainly was, you know, struggled with that decision as well. So >> it seems kind of like a a opportunity gap to me of the families that are able to do it and those who are not. >> Yeah, we wondered that same thing when we looked at our datas. what what allows a parent to make that choice and what doesn't and how do we respond to that. So I think that will be the direction we need to go with this data. >> Yeah. Thanks.
078Any other questions board colleagues? >> I would like clarification about middle school. Um at middle school level at least I heard that they self select. >> So what does it mean? So self select is um the the po portion of that is the courses. So accelerated math is a self- select. Um students can enroll in the class if they would like to take it. Previously they had to meet um test criteria and now that's changed and so that's that's a self- selection. They also have opportunities to participate in academic clubs. So those are also included in our enrichment um offerings. So um I like what is it? Math math masters um there's continental math league. There are a lot of different ways that students can participate in advanced activities and that's all open enrollment student
079can can participate if they want to. The only piece that's really um really students have to meet the program criteria is that seminar class. So that's the only one that's not self- select. So students have to meet the criteria to participate in seminar at middle school similar to they have to meet the criteria at elementary school to participate in seminar. So I think that's that's what um that's what I'm talking about when I talk about self- selection. It's just into the accelerated math class and to those advanced academic clubs. >> And again that's to address those gaps. We no longer um put a barrier up to students who want to try advanced math. um if students, you know, want to try advanced math, we need to provide the support. So, the self- selection is only
080in the enrichment end, in the intervention end. Obviously, that's not that's something we're tapping students um for and using data to to move students into that program. But um similar to the high school um programming stu parent parents and students deciding where they want their child to go um as far as the pacing of math and so forth that's a student and parent choice making it self- selection. >> But you know what kind of position were put in a teacher? Um because in this case it feels like the room of a group of students comes um the level is all over the place. So it is harder to teach. >> I don't think we see students that because again we're guiding students. It's not so for college. No. Okay. Help me understand. >> Yeah. I
081think and again I'm speaking for the high school so we need to get them here. But um [clears throat] the percentage of students earning a three or above is what we're reporting on here. meaning that that they've done very well on the AP exam. Whether they get credit and where they get credit for that depends on the school that they select. Does that make sense? So that the data in here isn't reporting on whether or not they got credit. Um, and I would assume if they got a three plus on this, they got high school credit, but did they get credit on it at the college? This data doesn't report on that at all. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Yeah, each school just has a different way of of doing that. >>
082Okay. >> Yes, please. >> First of all, thanks for being here tonight to share. I just wanted to add an input that a week or 10 days ago, I had a chance to visit seven universities out west. And at five of those, I had a chance to meet with the admissions directors andor um Minnesota reps. And a couple things that came to mind as I was listening, they all spoke about the importance of these hands-on experiences. And you had referenced the CTE programming and um what we're currently doing and also um some visions that we have for the future in regard to expanding that and to giving students more practical applications. And really without prompting them much, they indicated and spoke about all of the uh relationships they have with the local uh businesses uh
083manufacturing organizations. And they specifically spoke, I think at least in two of the five where I met with admissions people about the relationship with students in their nursing program, with [snorts] local hospitals and or medical schools. And it made me think of our CNA program and the 150 kids that we had register for year 1. And um the importance of those types of programs and they also indicated a side benefit is that they're immediately employable when they become a college student because they can go work at the local hospitals, clinics or what wherever else they might be able to be employed. So, as we continue to move forward, I just hope that we always look for those practical applications to complement and supplement the uh AP courses and the broad range of opportunities that we
084provide to our students at the high school and to give some exploratory options at the middle schools and to really develop and build and pour that strong foundation for learning at the elementary and pre-K levels to the best we can. I just wanted to share that because it was recent and um seemed really relevant in those moments and that they're looking for students that bring not only a long list of AP testing which they said still is very valuable and can be valuable to the individual student in the form of reduced time at the university. um but also to be sure to complement that with these hands-on experiences like our CNA program and our construction uh programs and all the other uh curriculum areas that we offer. So, just wanted to share that with you.
085>> Thank you. Yeah, it's exciting to hear that that that is, you know, we're meeting the needs of what is out there for our students. It was also exciting when we moved um those uh high achievement courses to include CT the higher level CTE courses um because it really is the application of the learning and that takes it to a to a next level. So um super exciting stuff going on over there. >> Can I just can I just add too I also think that concurrent enrollment classes right like I think about the young people that I that I hang out with and how they talk about their schedules. the the latest was the freshman talking about the counselor meetings. that when we make our commitment to each and every um I think about the
086AP courses being one way to do academics and one way to do that and then the concurrent enrollment and the CTE courses really being another way um to do that and and the broad base of students um that we are able to to draw into um and the broad base of of aspirations for career and beyond that we draw into it really um that double thank you for that focus on doubling down on that because um it it really helps us to lead to our mission. So thanks >> thank you both for being here with us this afternoon and for um well this evening. It's dark out now but [laughter] um but for reporting on that second part part of the um CACR. Thanks so much. >> Well, we are moving right along. Um, and
087we're we're we're actually like gaining time. This is kind of amazing. So, the third item on our agenda is school board reports and I'll hand it over to Amy guys for the school board handbook. Thank you, acting chair. Um, so highly anticipated, fresh off the presses draft, newest draft, um, of the Weisetta public schools schoolboard handbook. Um the superintendent evaluation committee met back in August. This is one of the items that they tasked me with. We had a lot of great ideas. And this is where we're at. 40-page document. We are not going to go through it all tonight. Um I did leave some items highlighted be just sort of seeking the school board's opinion. Again, not tonight. Um but please just send me your thoughts on the whole document for sure but specifically um
088I left schoolboard self-evaluation was not broken down um evaluation of the superintendent further references I just don't know how robust you wanted your handbook um and parliamentary procedures we all know I'm wellversed on those and I'm not sure how in-depth you want me to go [laughter and gasps] but um please take a look at it I don't know if there's any immediate things that you all need to discuss. This is your document. I'm just assembling it on your behalf. So, I take n no input personally. Um but just trying to make it um what you all wanted. So, I'll turn it back over to you. >> Sounds great. Thank you. So, as chair of the superintendent evaluation and um board development committee, I will tell you the goal of this handbook is we have had
089a lot of these items that are included in the board handbook now available to board colleagues and and to the public really because they're posted on board book um but as separate items, but the hope was to include them all in one place to make it easy and accessible. Um, so if you go in and take a look, you'll see a lot of the documents we've been sharing for years and years, um, on the board. The goal with this is it is now in a draft form. Um, the hope is that board colleagues, you'll take a look at it really, you know, comb through it with a fine tooth comb. Send your questions to the superintendent evaluation committee, which is me, Valentina, and Melind. Copy Amy, please, and always Chase. Um and then what we'll
090do is we'll go through and we'll make updates to the the um to the document. Um we would like to present it at the board organizational work session that's happening hopefully on the 16th of December and that's when we can take a look at also the hope is that it'll be version one at that point. And then what would happen is we would have an annual review uh cycle just like we do with all of our SOPs and all of that so that we can take a look at all of our practices as a board at that organizational meeting. So if you have any questions again please send them along to the evaluation committee and we'll take it from there. Any other Valentina please? >> I need clarification. So do you think that on December
0917 16th we are going to take it as is the whole handbook or will we have a chance to take it by partially and um discuss it as we go how it's going to look like? >> Well we have what it the bones look like right now and there's most of it is there in place. There are a few items that need just some updates or some feedback from all of us as a board. We'll have that all by December 16th so that we are on version one on December 16th. It'll be presented to the board formally on that date and then we will have an annual review process. Does that help answer the question? Yes, that's why I clarified. But at the time as a committee, I was thinking we discussed that uh we
092need to give a chance to others to reflect. >> This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity of it as a draft. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um you think I I have a question for our board colleagues. You think that it's enough time. Is the question like if we had some major changes or input that we wanted to make, could we make that at our organizational meeting and then say like I don't know is the assumption that we probably won't have a lot of input for it or will there be an opportunity to like >> I would say the opportunity is between now and December 16th, right, which is >> to submit your feedback and >> Yeah. Yep. and have some back and forth on what that would look like. Um, and then just like
093everything else, sometimes you need to get the first version >> and live with it and breathe with it for some time and then have updates on what you see moving forward. >> So, any conversation will probably be through email between now and that meeting >> likely. Yep. >> I'm okay with that. Well, [snorts] I mean, just um you know, really a big thank you to um Amy for putting all these materials together. It's I think really special to have everything uh in one place, but it's a lot of information that's really really helpful. Um my recommendation would be just when you have, you know, seven or more individuals contributing to a document. There can be a lot of um thoughts, perspectives, and so I would just recommend, you know, assuring that we aortion a lot
094of time at the organizational meeting for um talking about this. I want to hear what everyone has to say. Um, and so yeah, just I think my recommendation will be we um, you know, see to it that we do our due diligence in handling this document. It will be accessible to the public. We want it to be our best work and representative of um, our organization, the work we do. So those are my thoughts. >> I appreciate that. And just a a clarification that all of these documents have been available to the public in the past. Do you recommend any guard rails or anything sort of more than dos let's say don't for instance >> I'm just making it up right there is uh I think I was browsing through it so the school visit
095is already in there right but again it took us some time to get to that stage so if there are any such topics which need further discussions maybe we have to table right so do you have any recommendation any thoughts around like what should be the guardrails um because again we're not going to have enough time between now and nove you know December 16th and definitely we don't want to be 5 hours meeting so I'm assuming any bigger topic we just want to table it discuss it you know offline and we can always update the document >> if you if you see and remember we can always update things throughout the year >> correct >> however um it's best to wait and just do it at the organizational meeting so that we have one spot
096that we're doing all of this in. Um if you have any I'm not sure do you is there anything on your mind in particular that >> it's not I think my request would be again as we respond to three of you >> um I think either the requesttor or three committee members if you see something which warrants more discussions and things like that maybe we take it off of our orc meeting and then go through whatever the right channels are either committee work session and so on not put everything in our meeting you know what I mean but again whoever the requesttor and then the committee four of us you can decide and we can take it forward but again I was just trying to make it a point like we will not be able
097to discuss every single thing if it is something that is manageable within the allocated time let's roll with it or we may have to table certain items and go through other channels before we can come back and update the document it's One more clarification when I looked through draft at the beginning it says that it's going to be reviewed annually so which means once a year. >> Mhm. So let's say that there is going to be something I mean other board member brings up uh how do you think I mean does it mean that we have to wait another 12 months to before uh changing anything since it's uh reviewed only I mean annually once a year how is it going to be how it will look like so we can decide that uh together
098at the organizational meeting um my personal recommendation is that we can update things all along, right? There's nothing stopping us from updating a a procedure or a process midy year. There's nothing that's stopping us. Um, but I think having a placeholder to say it's a minimum of once a year, once a year. So, at a minimum, we should be reviewing all of our board policies once a year and that should be happening at our organizational meeting. This is kind of putting a dot on it and saying we have to do this and take a look at our processes and procedures once a year. So it institutionalizes that and make sure that it gets done. >> Then I'm hoping that uh all board colleagues will look through and bring ideas. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yep. >>
099I just want to note that a lot of what's in here has policy references. So it's a real highle overview of the expectation but it references the policy the policy uh many of which are in the 200s and are up for next year's cycle those links would be updated as we update the policy. So there are those guardrails as you said um Paris that those you know policies as they change the document would be changed. This is not a policy. This is just a a hand dieting handbook for your kind of one-stop shop referencing. So, those will continuously be updated on your behalf if that's helpful. >> It is. >> Thank you. Well, seeing that there are no other comments or questions, I think this concludes our meeting. So, it is now 5:36 p.m. and
100our work session is now concluded. We will um be in the room next door for our training session which is also a work session. The time is now 5:36 and the meeting is adjourned.