001All right, we'll call this meeting to order and this is a board work session. So, we've got a bit of an agenda in front of us and I think we'll start with um some of the strategic plan items. Number one, goal number one, student achievement and we've got a couple items there. One of them I think is an update from Director Lundgren. Yes, so um in your in your packet there's a a one-page document that just does an overview of the progress towards each of the um action items, uh some of them goals that were identified in the strategic plan around uh the student achievement goal. Um the three priorities were increasing student achievement in reading, increasing student achievement in math, and then that 100% of high school students will experience authentic learning experiences aligned
002to their career and or passion. So, in the document um on the left-hand side, those are the the items that were identified. I did um in a couple of the buckets, so for example, under priority one, uh line four identified guaranteed and viable curriculum expectations at all levels. I used that as a topic and then pulled a couple of the other identified action items underneath that because they're all related to that um to that process of curriculum expectations. So, just so you know, that's how I set up that uh far left column. And then in the middle, um we've either been making progress, so um if you have a color copy, blue is that it was is that item. Uh gray is that it uh is not that item. So, uh yes and in progress
003were the two items. There weren't any of the items that we were no on. >> [clears throat] >> We have started all of the items and they're in progress. And then in column three, those were just a couple of notes of items that we've done up to this point. So, I'll just take questions um if you have any questions on any of those buckets or any of those >> [clears throat] >> items. Randy? Yeah, I Thank you for this. Uh I'm just [clears throat] looking at the document itself, the uh strategic plan. So, um I take it that uh all the professional development phase one has been done uh which was I guess our goal was to have it done by July of 2025. Correct. Yep. So, >> So, we got 1 2 3 We
004got a I don't know, a bunch from there. And then we have professional development phase two. That's in That's in progress, right? >> Yep. So, phase one um if you remember, that was our um pre-K through grade six uh teachers, our classroom teachers, special education teachers K-12, and then all of our um district and building level admin were participants in phase one. We do have uh new staff this year um also completing the training, so that would be our phase one. So, when we're onboarding new staff, they're completing that OLA training. And then the phase two uh that is for uh classroom teachers that are in grade 7 through 12 that teach uh reading or an English language arts course. And so, that training um does begin next fall. So, that group that cohort will
005be starting their learning in the OLA secondary course um starting in August. Okay. So, they are registered. [clears throat] Um the uh MDE is uh facilitating the registration uh with uh Core OLA. Um so, our our staff are registered, and then that course starts in the fall. What I'd add to that we did a um beta test with OLA last year for phase two because phase two teachers need something a little bit different than the phase one teachers need. So we're excited about what OLA has to offer >> [clears throat] >> um in their new phase two program. And it might be important to note too that MDE changed the timeline for when we do phase one and phase two, which is why we're at this juncture with phase two. Okay, and then as far
006as uh our MTSS structures uh tier two, tier three teams, universal screener portfolio, FastBridge screener tier one tier two teams functioning in all schools, special ed progress monitoring, how are we doing in that area? So universal screening, um that that has been implemented. Okay. Um and we're that's the data that's being shared fall, winter, and spring the screening data. Uh the tier two, tier three teams, those are I would say in progress. Uh key four more fully developed um at this point in time for their tier two in particular. Uh the middle school is um I would say in a year one >> Yeah. of their tier two, so the time to thrive [clears throat] block during their um in their schedule that they implemented this year, the intent of that was to address tier
007two um needs across the spectrum, so that is uh really in the beginning stages. Um and I think they're still working on processes for identifying students. We're working on uh what um resources and learning um will be utilized during that that time, so that is definitely a work in progress. 9-12, I would say they're They're focused >> dipping their toes. Yeah, and the focus has been ninth grade. Yeah. And [clears throat] we have some things that we are currently working on with SOES funding to add some time for reading and math intervention at the high school, which we don't currently have. So, that would be aligning with tier two. Okay. And I would say DLC is really doing a nice job too with their MTSS framework. It's a little bit different in pre-K. Um they
008don't call it MTSS, they call it the pyramid model. Um and they're in the phase where they're coaching staff on that model. Well, the staff seems to be on track. According to our >> progress. Yeah. In progress, okay. How about the kids? How are they doing? They're amazing. How are they How are they uh They're making progress. How are they Are we on Are we on target? In terms of >> meeting our goals? The the cycles >> the cycles or the the Let's see here once. There is a report card that if if you look at um at the the uh handouts there's a report card there for the high school. Um and and the indications there are pretty solid that they're doing well. Um I am concerned that 26% of the of our students
009completed a pathway. Uh and and pathways are becoming more and more instrumental in um our educational process. Um community pathway. Um So, if I can just interject also, who who determined that either um we we are we are completed it yes or or or we're in in progress? How is that the How is that determined? Um at this >> strategic plan. On the strategic plan I'm talking about now. I at this point um Carrie Carrie and I just did a brief overview of the work that we've been doing. Um just where where we're at. So some of the items in particular were action items that were easy to identify that it is a yes that was completed. Um I'll be honest you know when I take a look at um the you know when I
010look at the priority one and two for example, um they're very broad buckets and it didn't really articulate a specific goal um to define that that goal is met and I would say those items in general, um that is really the the work that that we do um is around curriculum, instruction, um evaluating our progress, making adjustments. Um that's part of that continuous improvement plan. So to me these were these will be uh in progress um unless we you know articulate a specific goal um or an outcome that we're measuring against. Um but you can speak more to that. Uh I would agree uh with everything that Christina just said. It this is our ongoing work. It probably will always be in progress. If there are specific targets and specific uh tasks that are identified,
011um we can be more specific about if that's been done. I would say on the priority three, um the first three items, those were specific action steps. So it was um those items were completed um which is why that was identified as as a yes. Um again the the bottom three, you know, expanding options and so on and so forth, grow and identifying those industry recognized credentials, those three are always most likely going to be in in progress and evolving as the as the needs um are identified for students, especially with those those pathways. That seems like it's a fluid based on interest level of students and what our community um needs are in terms of uh uh workforce needs. Um so those will be fluid. When I look at the strategic plan, uh the
012two specific uh goals that were identified for priority one and two were around MCA scores. So it identified a 3% increase um each successive year that was articulated in the strategic plan. Um so that [snorts] we Um I think I I'll actually I'll bring that I've had that in our staff development plan. I don't know what those numbers are, but know that the reading um MCA, that will be moving to the MCA 4 this spring. Um so we'll be starting with a new baseline because I'll be norming those scores. Because of so much because [clears throat] of the literacy. Yeah. Kind of like they did with science. Because of the new standards. So students will [clears throat] be taking their first assessments on the new standards. Um I might have the idea of pointing out
013too we won't have reading data for MCAs until later in the fall, not our normal timeline. Do we have interim Do you guys have interim goals? In other words, and this is where I I am going to put a stake on a hill. >> [clears throat] >> Uh because if we don't if we don't have smart goals, if we don't know where we're going, how are we going to get there? And an interim goal to me is okay. Uh you want to be 3% growth a year, okay? Well, halfway through the year, I mean, are we on target? I mean, are we are we are we going to get there? Well, those would be our winter uh FastBridge scores. And our schools in our [clears throat] in K8, the school the sites meet um quarterly
014or maybe more than quarterly um to review the progress on their goals and make amendments and changes to instruction as they need to. Um I've been to several of those meetings and they're very productive. They are very specific about what they are looking for, who's making progress, if people are if kids are making progress, what has contributed to that progress, if students are not making progress, then what do we need to do differently in order for them to reach that goal. Um I've been very impressed with the data review um those interim goal meetings that staff have been doing this year. So, they do have interim goals. Well, they don't necessarily have interim goals. They have the yearly goals, but they mark progress intermittently. They don't change the goal. They don't have a winter goal.
015They have a spring goal, but they monitor it ongoing to see if they're on track to meet that goal. Okay, that's what an interim goal is. Okay, so we might be saying the same thing, I don't know. Yeah, sounds like we are. >> the the thing is that, you know, we can't just sit back and wait till the end of the year and say, "Oh, well." I mean, we need to find out what's going on. I think you guys are doing that. I'm going to keep pushing. I'm going to keep pushing. Uh I'm going to do it in a very very nice way because I think it's important. >> Okay. Um because that's what we're here for. That is what we're here for. We're here to educate kids. Yep. Absolutely. >> And and um having
016and I think they have to be smart goals. I mean, um you know, and we'll we'll talk more about it, but thank you, though. This is uh this is good stuff. John, you said something about a report card. Yeah, so on the Yeah, on the on the third on another attachment that was sent out this morning, there's a report card there and I I see that 53% of the seniors responded to that. How How did How did How did we reach the seniors and um and why did we only get 53 53% response on there? Yeah, so um what John's referring to for the people that are in person um on under priority three, uh the third goal, it says develop a district report card, communicate progress towards the redefining ready college and career readiness
017indicators. So, um on the on the digital version that is linked, um I did share that data at the fall um curriculum uh committee meeting. Um so, there's different components of around um uh grade, um their activities that they're in, uh career experiences, completing a pathway, so on and so forth. Uh but, John was referring to uh we did a a survey of our seniors. Um we had questions related to the uh portrait of a graduate. So, um whether they feel their um their high school experience or their educational experience had prepared them to be uh collaborator, resilient, so on and so forth. So, um yes, we had 53% of the seniors respond. Um the communication went out um in senior classes in their senior check and connect which is like a home room time.
018It was posted in their digital communication platform in their hub. I think the challenge was students that were PSEO. We didn't get a lot of return from from that group. And then you know it does I think some students chose not to complete the survey. We That was last year was the first year we gave that survey. We did it again this spring and we're about the same rate of response in the mid mid 50%. But that that's all those different communication channels were attempted to gain that feedback from our senior students. Okay. So the report card is just on priority three. Correct. Correct. Yeah. That has nothing to do with priority one or two. Correct. Yeah. That was specific [clears throat] to those career pathways and the redefining ready indicators for life, college, and
019career readiness. Thank you Director Lundgren. In the interest of time I'm going to keep us moving here. I do see I don't know if you had a quick update on the Minnesota student survey. Yeah. So this is Randy just had asked for results. These were the only results that were provided under the two categories of enrichment activities and quality of youth activities at this point in time. So this was the a snapshot I would say. It's not the complete data analysis of the Minnesota student survey that students had the opportunity to participate in last spring. Brainerd uh grade 11 students were the only cohort that participated. So, this is a summary of that data that was provided by MDE. Um the complete uh data set typically is what was it? Like 2 years? The last
020one it was 2 years after-ish um when we did that survey. So, we do not have that at this time. Does this mean that 153 students took the survey? Yes, yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that update. All right. Um next we'll take on goal three, which is our financial position. We've got a number of things under here. Maybe we'll start with legislative action. And I don't know Peter if you had any >> [clears throat] >> You can Yeah. Um um I our request of House File 4306 uh is not going to go anywhere. Okay. Um I don't think it's in the Senate at all. I don't know John if you got any other information. Um Yep. I talked with Representative Heintzeman. Um he didn't think that there would be any appetite in the legislative
021session this year for additional money for public schools. I'm not quite sure what that means totally. But um he was pretty confident that um special um opportunities like the one we presented in South St. Paul, West St. Paul, uh neither of those two would go through. Well, are you done, Peter? Yep. For that. Um I've got some information on that. Um um it's disappointing to me. There's three bills that could have helped our our uh financial crisis. And I've sent all of you guys that information. I've asked everybody, I put a letter in the paper with the information. I've gotten some feedback back on that and then some people have followed through. But the disappointing thing is a single legislator decides that it's going to go or not. That is that's very, very disappointing. And
022it's very really disappointing since it's a our our local representative um uh and I have followed through as you know, Peter. A lot of with Representative Heisman, with Senator Heisman, with the with the committee chairs, the finance education finance committee chairs, with the tax chairs. Um and a bill is never dead until you hear the word sine die. I don't care what the what people say about the deadlines. The a bill is never dead. You can add in your bill as an amendment in an omnibus bill as the session progresses to uh to the end of the session. Um it's really disappointing that the seasonal rep seasonal rep bill has a huge amount of support in the Senate. Uh it has support in the house and you know, some of our local legislators aren't even
023on that bill. It would really help us when we talk about the operating levy. Um the transfer of funds the transfer of funds would would as you guys know, as Marci you know, could help help us significantly with our budget crisis. So, it's really disappointing to me as elected official for the school board that one person decides it's not going to go anywhere. As a legislator, as a former legislator, I would have never done that. I would have tried to do everything in my power when somebody from the local district makes an attempt to to asking an asking request of a legislation. I'd I do my research, I do my homework, I do all of that and I would I would do whatever I could to support it um no matter no matter what the
024what what I felt. Um So Peter, you know, you're you're you're you're you're trying that transfer of funds and Marcy was a very good suggestion. Uh the seasonal rec bill has been on the docket for a while, but the the employee educ- actually it's called the EGI educational group insurance program right now is still moving. I you know, it's just disappointing that um one person says, "Here's what's going to happen." Um and I'm hoping that all of my colleagues I'm hoping that all my school board members, um you know, reach out to the legislate reach out and administration and the educators and the community, reach out to uh our legislators and and and ask them again to uh support our request. So um I'd be glad to give the house files and all that stuff,
025but I think I've done that enough. Um So I wanted to I wanted to say that. I wanted to I'm not going to I'm not done advocating and I hope none of you are because this is really important for our finances as Marcy um as Marcy knows as well. So So John, I contacted six legislators, [clears throat] three in the Senate, three in the House outside of Excuse me, outside [clears throat] of Representative Heitzman. Um none of them responded. Yeah. I emailed them and called their assistants in their offices and um the it was like crickets. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that Peter because as I indicated to you I think then Marcy maybe I did hear back from I even heard back from Representative David who's a co-chair of the tax committee. Um, good
026guy. I served them. I I've heard back from about four or five of the legislators and obviously ones that I had a relationship are going to get back to me or whatever. So, um, I'm sorry to hear that that you weren't uh, didn't get any feedback. Um, but that's not uncommon and that's why we can't give up. John, what are you hearing about the uh, that education tax credit uh, bill that they're uh, they're talking about, but it sounds like uh, there's a group of people that don't want it. I'm not familiar with that one, Randy. Um, is that you mean for uh, a private schools, you mean? Well, it's something to do with you get, you know, you can you can uh, fund money and put it into uh, a different accounts. It doesn't
027cost the state a dime. It's from the feds and the state has to opt in or opt out. Yeah, and we're we're we're opting out right now. Right. Why? >> [laughter] >> Good question. It doesn't cost the state any money. >> Yeah, I I It doesn't cost a dime. >> Yeah, but on that note, Randy, you know, it isn't just it isn't just a state a state legislature problem. It's a It's a It's a political party problem all over the place, including the promise made in 1975 uh, for special education, which has caused every school district in the nation a lot of money in their general fund with a cross subsidy. So, there's all kinds of, you know, we let our federal legislators off, too, with not following through with the promise made in 19
028uh, 19 um, 75. So, I hear you, Randy, agree with you and um, that's why we can't give up. We got to keep fighting for public education. All right, thanks. >> Madam Chair, also you got you guys are you guys going off an agenda? I I don't I never got an agenda or anything. You said topic one or something and now we're going to topic three or what what what are you guys I I only got the attachments this morning that were sent out. What are you what are you following? I'm I'm not following what you guys have. John, it's attached to the invite in your invite for the meeting. It should be And Kelly will share it with you again. Thanks for speaking up on that though. It's hard to follow when you don't
029have an agenda. >> [laughter] >> Well, I I went back to my invite and I don't my invite is from uh February 25th. Um I don't have anything attached to that. So, oh wait a minute, I'm sorry. I see one attachment. Yep. It might be a new addition. It's got to be the weather, John. Too nice. Too nice. All right, um the next thing we had under that goal was John, you had requested a conversation about Wesby as well in relation to budget. Yeah, so uh again we've had a lot of discussion about budget. Um well, I we've had discussion about budgets and cuts and all that kind of stuff. Um I I was hoping to talk about real simply what would a 10% reduction in Wesby and Peter Peter uh I shared this with
030Peter already. Um what what what kind of dollar amount are we talking with a 10% reduction at Wesby? Um you know, we we've talked about class sizes, we've talked about staff cutting, we've talked about you know, whatever. Um class sizes, everything like that. What we we don't talk a lot about Westby, quite frankly, and Westby has been on a Westby cuts I know that Marcy has put it on on her spreadsheets, but and my my thought is and how I answered Peter when Peter asked me what what that meant, what 10% meant, is I I I'm just proposing a 10% cut at Westby and what does that mean in dollar figures, but I'm not that should be up to the departments. Marcy in charge of finance, Christina in charge of teaching and learning. You you
031those directors should be the ones that are looking at if we come up if we as a board say we would like a 10% cut or we'd like to see what a 10% cut looks like, it's up to them I would rather have them do it than than any board or whatever. So, that's what that is all about, Sarah. Okay. Thanks for clarifying on that. Any Do you want responses from? Sure. So, to clarify that, John, you know, we have a number of different staff that are different funds in Westby. So, are you are you specifically talking about general fund or are you wanting that from all funds? Cuz we have food service at Westby, we have community ed at Westby. Um So, we have an and we have we have staff that are coded
032to grants that are at Westby that if we cut 10% of them, you know, it doesn't save us anything. It would just be So, are you are you just to make sure we're on the same page, are you specifically talking about people who are coded to the general fund? Or things or Yeah, I just want clarification. >> I'm just talking about I'm I'm talking about Westby in general. I don't care what funds it comes from. I want to know what a 10% and I think my colleagues have addressed that as well. Um, that's that's my perception. I Does that help you? And I I agree, Marcy, that that's not a win if we're we're cutting back on something that's grant funded and um we lose that grant funding for that position. That's not a win
033for us or for kids. So, I would argue that it's a general fund, something that impacts general fund. Just my take on it. John >> I agree with you, Sarah. And that's why I say you the director should do it. The the Westby folks should do it. Not not us. Stephanie is right and Sarah's right and you know, um that's why it should come from you guys, but I I would like to see what that means. I'm sorry, Randy. I cut you off. No, you're fine. Um I'm not a I'm not opposed to having a discussion about that, but I've never been in favor of an across-the-board 10% or 5% or 15% because >> [clears throat] >> there might be some areas that uh we can we can eliminate, we can reduce without affecting the
034classroom. So, to me to go straight across the board 10% out of general revenue, uh I'm not really in favor I'm I'm in favor of an end goal, um but I I think my difference with what you're proposing is how we get there. That's all, John. Yep. I I'd like to see more targeted >> [clears throat] >> So, just something that Jeff brought to me this morning. Um you know, back in December we made a decision on reducing trying to reduce our cost for utilities. So I asked Jeff if he could give me some data. So I don't know if this fits in Westby or how you want to count it, but Jeff showed me that in 4 months we've saved $114,000 in electricity costs and $57,000 plus in natural gas. So >> Oh, that's
035good. You know, there's I don't know where you want to count that though. But anyway, so you know, we're at you know, that's $170,000 that we've managed to reduce in 7 months or 4 months. >> the prediction that we would >> We were hoping for $100,000. >> That's what I thought. So Cool. A little bit of effort we've we've achieved that and we got the rest of the year to go. I think it'd be really nice for staff to get that information. >> be [snorts] going out. Okay, [laughter] good. Good. Cuz I know the biggest >> Cuz they've been working hard to make sure that The biggest complaint has been the chilliness of the rooms and so forth. Um And now we >> we vacillated between should we say anything or should we just reduce
036it and not say anything and see if there anybody makes it notices a difference. That probably wouldn't have been a smart thing to do, huh? But you know, even the little things that we asked them to other than turning down the heat, you know, refrigerators and coffee makers and all this stuff. And um so you know, it made a difference. Mhm. And um I don't know if that's something we want to hang on to for you know, perpetuity, but um some of the classrooms were chilly. I'll admit that. You know, it's interesting you go down a hallway in this building and it might be 70° and you go in somebody's office and it's 67. >> [laughter] >> So this building's really difficult to heat I think and monitor, but anyway, there's a positive step, so
037um we are making progress in the reducing our expenditures that we really have some control over but we can't control the cost of natural gas. We can't control the cost of electricity but we can try to control the consumption of it. To try and help with our budgeting so. I also think you know I I've heard this from a handful of people uh you know why why do schools and I'm I'm I'm not picking on Brainard I'm just schools and public schools in [clears throat] general you know why do they always why do they always cut at the classroom level but a lot of times there's no cut at the administrative level and I think I think it's a perception but the reality is you know that's the reality and uh Well it starts really
038Randy it's you know that's a fair question. >> [clears throat] >> Um right now most of the districts that are doing going through budget reductions like we are they also have reducing population of kids. So it goes hand in hand so you got less kids you're going to need less people or you should. And then the other side of it is that even though there might be less students the services we're providing don't really shrink. >> [snorts] >> You know you if you look at staff development um we get allocated so much money from the state um if we don't continue to train our staff what do we expect then? So it's a it's a fair question though. Are we uh um administrative top-heavy? Depends on what you're considering what's an administrator. Um I don't
039know Marcy Marcy got a piece of data that I thought was interesting. Well and you >> [clears throat] >> you all should have gotten this cuz this was with your tax statements. Um it's Crowley County it's just an informational sheet and on there it says you know where the money goes and administrative services is 14%. And I just I I wanted to share that because we're at 3 and 1/2. So, it I don't I I know that they're not a district. I I acknowledge that, but 14% versus 3 and 1/2% is a big big difference. And and even to put >> Well, here's another I'm sorry. Here's another difference, Marcy. Is they don't have to go to their voters to raise money. Right. Um school districts are the only one that has to go to
040their voters to raise money. And um the county um whatever. Just let me make that statement as well. All I'm asking for is and and Randy has addressed it I think all all my colleagues have addressed it is let's look at some let's look if there's some possible cuts at Wesby. I That's all I wanted. That's That was the whole point of the discussion and that's what I told Peter as well. I've been working on that, John. Okay, thank you. And just to to to kind of piggyback on Marcy's comments and a finer point on our data here, you know, and we pulled that for Stephanie, but you know, 20 24 of our positions that are coded to to Wesby are fully funded out of general fund. And so, last year we had 1,635 W-2s
041that we sent out for employees that we employed at one time or another during the during that uh calendar year. So, you know, and and seven of those 24 FTE are here in this room. So, just I mean, I think we we got to Is it What's the old saying? We know the cost of everything and the value of nothing? Um I mean, there there's a reality here that it does take a certain amount of bodies to run an organization the size Um and I I totally understand that the the dynamics and and the the perceptions out there and and we're just trying to work on gathering data that help tell the story better. Thank you, Alex. Anything further on that topic? Otherwise I'm going to actually I might have a split half these and
042might be better for us to have the budget update before we talk about the operating levy. Yeah, that's fine. And it's not going to be very long. So, since our last update, the only change it I shouldn't say only. Um Carrie continues to work on it. Carrie and Jason continue to work on staffing with principals and directors. It's ever-changing. Um we did have a meeting with the co-op yesterday where we got projections for speech and sped and there will be additions, unfortunately. Um there will be no reductions in that area based on our our um populations for next year. So, just know that now we are at a projected 3 million for the deficit. 3 million 4 26 27? Correct. And I'll continue to give you guys updates as this number is available. Yeah, and
043that's with a freeze still. What is our savings account at? 13 mil? It So, the when we ended the year last year, we'll be at about 14 million. 14 mil is our savings account? Thank you. And on the side What percent is that, Mercy? Uh it's about 12 percent. So, that's that's a reserve fund. That's a undesignated reserve fund, right? Got it. And you guys will get the audit report on Monday and they'll go they'll go through that in more detail. Thank you, Marcy. All right, moving on to operating levy discussion. Um we haven't had this conversation in a while and we know this is going to be a decision we're going to have to make here coming up shortly. So just wanted to open the table to discussion. Well, that um I'll start then
044um I guess. Um I I still I understand, appreciate, and respect what we as a board have done in the discussion about operating levy. Um you know, the discussion of you know, if if we have if we can eliminate here a little bit, you know, cuts versus revenue. Um but I think what our discussion so far um in this work session uh has indicated is that there is a need for more revenue for this school district. Um No and um sooner than later in my opinion because the the longer we wait um and if it's successful great. If it's not, great. Then we need to go back to the drawing board again or whatever. But at least we have to try. I In my opinion, at least we have to try to um to to
045move it forward. If we're going to try to move it forward, it has to be sooner than later. I don't know is Superintendent elect or future or whatever ranking in there or not. Yes, he's here. So, I mean, he he's been pretty vocal, in my opinion, about, um, looking at, um, a possibility of a referendum because of our financial crisis. So, I again, I just think we need to move on it. All right. You hear me if I come to this chair? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'll direct to Ward. This is This is just my thoughts on it, okay? Cuz I've watched you for the last year, all your online meetings, and I do think that, uh, May 5th, we do have a board retreat scheduled. And I think that, uh, the work that Jason and
046Carrie and Marcia are doing and Peter, no matter what happens with any referendum, you're not going to see revenues for 2 years. All right. So, you even if you go to this fall and it gets selected, you know, passed, they'll they'll start the next spring collecting taxes, but you really won't see the impact that's going to be changing for, I would say, 2 years. Two fiscal years. You can start saying you can start looking at it. If you If we pass it in November, we could have it for the following school year. Right. But you're going to almost have to, like, live with what you got for the next two budgets. So, my My opinion, Director Ward, is it's just my opinion. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Because, I mean, I
047mean, you could tell me cuz I've seen your enrollment reports. We're graduating how many seniors and how many kindergartners? What's the difference? I think it's almost like 90 kids. Like, if that's a million dollars, so you know, you're going to have to find a way to navigate this. And, you know, my personal feeling is on May 5th, a decision needs to be made. I mean, it's not an action item cuz we are having a board retreat, but listen, I My goal for picking early May with Kelly is that's kind of drawing a line in sand. You can't have me coming in July 1st, come to the board meeting on July, probably the 20th, because that's what July 13th and say, "Hey, we're going to do this." And then turn around and file. I mean, you
048got a deadline of Is it 78 days before the election? I think it's something like that or 79 days. So, that would make it like early August. But my thing My My thoughts are this. Just my own personal opinion, going through all your finances, visiting with Marcy, visiting with Peter. And then that's why this this morning I'm going to meet with three board members at 10:00. And I'm going to meet another three board members on Monday. My goal is on May 5th you have to have a decision. My recommendation is you're going to need to go out this fall. My I My My current school district we have a local operating referendum. At the lowest level it brings $368 with an inflationary index. That just gets you the maximum. So, it's like a 70/30 deal.
049If you can get 30% passed locally, the state's going to fund 70% of it. Because of lo- you know, equalized aid. Somewhere in there, right? If I'm wrong, just like something around there, correct? >> Well, and that was the question I wanted to ask is if we are going to talk about this at the next work session or retreat, do you guys want Matthew to come back? Because if you remember last spring, he came from Ehlers and did a presentation about referendums and kind of gave you guys the Yeah, so I met with Matt last week because it's There's a Minnewaska thing we're doing, but he also gave me all your numbers on a file 5.2 million dollar under levy because Peter would need to all that All of this has My point for coming
050forward is we could spend 3 hours talking about this particular topic. I would encourage you know, the chair and the whole board that on May 5th you have to say yes or no. Because if it's a yes, we need to get staff and a vote yes committee like immediately before teachers leave for the the the the the summer. But most importantly, whatever cuts you're going to make, it's going to get a little bit worse before it gets better. And so, and my personal thing is you went out for a referendum, there's three things I'd focus on. What I've heard you all say, none of it will come to Westby, it will all be about reading, math, and every kid in the high school getting a career an authentic career opportunity. Reinvest in the things that
051are very successful here. But if, you know, I've heard many many times between you and DJ, and I'm I reiterate this, but you want to see reading scores improve. Reading scores are not going to improve with class sizes of 32 kids. Math scores are not going to increase with class sizes at Forest View of 34, 35 kids. Especially when you have kids that need this tier two, tier three intervention, correct? And so, you can write all the fancy strategic road map, but there's about 35% of kids are going to need to get a double dipping, extra math, extra reading get them to grade level. And the read act that every teacher is going through right now is great work, but it's going to take two to three five years before you're going to see the
052fruits, and that's if you can maximize class size, and probably getting support, and I'm talking mainly K through five, really getting class sizes down and getting kids the support they need. So, it'd be if you went out, it'd be very three, and I really rely on you, Peter, and Carrie, cuz you lived this for the last three years, but if you went down, it'd be a very narrow thing. Reducing class sizes, focusing on primary grades K through five, reading and math. And then in the high school, or post-secondary or 7-12, every kid getting an authentic opportunity to to get a real world experience, because I have a senior next year. Um, I'm leaving right now. I have a son who's at SDSU, he graduates here in six weeks. He's going to be a pharmacist like
053his mother. He's never been a pharmacist in his life. That you'll have $180,000 invested on him. I sure hope he made a good choice, but why not give an opportunity and also to attract some of the talent here in the Brainerd Lakes area before they all head to the Fargo-Moorhead, you know, the Twin Cities area. So, I'd be very no at three on those things and I think that we need to have a discussion. We need to get Matt back. And I would invite him to the May 5th retreat because I think that's going to have to be the center of your work. The other thing is if this is what's going to happen, it will be 98% of your focus for the about 100 days will be on this. And let everybody else run
054the district, you know, and I will too. But, you know, I have asked you and my, you know, Michelle and Randy, at least they, you know, you gave me people we'd want to go talk to. We'd want to get those people on the calendar in June, July and make sure we're very intentional. But, I will tell you just full transparency, you need to go out. I visited state legislature 3 weeks ago. The reality is the best funding years from for [snorts] public schools was the last two bonding year, you know, the last two bienniums. They're they're looking to cut 300 million. So, I think I asked Marcy, compensatory, your your funding, how much out of access? For a million. So, I guarantee you that that's the first thing they'll look at is not continuing those
055because everybody has access. In the old days it was 15%. So, there's a million dollars that you're already doing that you may not have funding. So, if you want to keep doing some of those things, you're going to have to come through. But, and then for the three people that, you know, wanted to have efficiencies cuz I think that's what you really wanted. You want to make sure we're running as efficient as possible. And I think that's where we have to come back and that's really what you're discussing right now. Is that fair? Mhm. So, John, I'd be very supportive. And on May 5th we have to make decisions and I think between now and May 5th, I'd ask Peter and the whole team to say, "Okay, what I what is the 2-year outlook?" Basically,
056what you're doing right now cuz I'm understanding maybe 18 positions. I think that's public knowledge you're looking at reducing. What's that going to do to class sizes? You're going to do the same thing next spring. Cuz you have to build a budget on what you want. And then John, you know from doing this in the past, and Peter, you definitely know this. Schools don't fare well in general elections, so don't assume it's going to pass. And so Like I said, what I start with I'll finish. It's probably going to get a little worse before it gets better. So, any questions to me? Is that fair? But I'm John, I'm 100% supportive. It's And And you know what? Honestly, you're just allowing the public to have to weigh in on this. Because you're going to be
057cutting no matter what. Even with this, you're not At my current school district, we have a local operating referendum, and we have a capital project levy. We have a $2 million advantage, you know, so just by funding at my current school district compared to Brainerd Public Schools, we have over $650 per kid more than Brainerd has. We have the best test scores in our region. I do believe there is a correlation. So, you can't ask for the highest test scores and the highest achievement on the lowest budget. That's just That's aspirational best. Would that be fair, Peter? Mhm. So, that's kind of where I'd be. Lucky I've already signed a contract, so you can't fire me. So >> [laughter] >> Cuz I I do think it's important that you understand I don't think you really
058understand like even the difference between uh Burnsville and Brainerd. Just take those two schools. Matt Hammer's calling me right now. Um They are honestly at a $3,200 per kid advantage than Brainerd Public Schools. You can't punish kids by where you live. And that's why John, I do agree the seasonal wreck thing. You know, you know how this works this year in the legislature. They're all jockeying for this fall. Wondering who's going to get control. That's why there's not an appetite to really do a lot. So Thanks. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you. Thank you. All right, anything else on operating levy? It sounds like that'll be coming back to us next month, so prepared for that conversation. We'll move on to goal four, student and staff environment and support. We have a couple things under this, staff
059recruitment and retention. Is that a link for something? It Yeah, it is. >> Okay. Yeah, I just put some facts and figures together. Cuz I don't have the the digital copy. I just have the hard copy. Yes. Oh, was that that? Okay, got it. Sorry. Yep. Okay, thank you. I think anyone with a link that has the link should be able to open it. Um but yeah, I mean, just wanted to give you some I'll let you I'll let you know in a minute. All righty. [laughter] Yep. So, I just put some data out there in terms of the school district as an employer, as I mentioned before, in 2025 we issued 1,635 W-2s for employees, you know, people who worked and it might even been they got hired and then three days later decided
060they wanted to quit or whatever. They got some wages and they're out the door. We made 274 hires in overall in 2025, so that's about 16.7% of our W-2s. We have 12 work locations. In our in our March payroll we paid 903 individuals. I always tell people it's, you know, 1,000, 1,200 because we've got, you know, the fall and spring sports, we've got event workers, we got subs that come in and out, so that that's kind of our our core number, but it definitely, you know, varies over time. And as as we can see on that overall data with 1,600 W-2s, there is a lot of, you know, differentials that way. So, then just kind of a breakdown by employee group there just to give you a sense of of the bodies, the numbers. And
061then just try to provide some information about recruitment. There's myself and and two HR professionals, Travis Strawman and Alexa Elitha Roxburg, excuse me. So, on 900 staff, that's about a 300 to 1 staffing ratio when it comes to that recruiting and hiring and that HR function. I included a link to my professional association, some benchmarking where, you know, they they say, "Oh, 50 to 1 is should be a ratio." And and in my last organization, the private sector, it was it was 70 to 1. We had 200 employees and three FTE. Here we've got you know, 1,000 and and and four. We've got about a $25,000 a year budget that we use for recruitment. 20,000 of that is Title 1 funded. We I Marce we discovered that or I discovered that a couple months ago.
062So, that was like, "Wow, that's awesome." So, we're we're starting to make use of that. We post all of our positions on our district website, which is hooked in with Frontline software. That feeds to a website called K12JobSpot. That's like a Frontline product. We also use the official website for all school districts, minnesotaschooljobs.org. That's required. We also there's a St. Cloud State has an EdPost link that used to be the official one. Now, it's still there and people look at it, so we use that. And then just, you know, put a blast out on our Facebook or our LinkedIn posts. Indeed, we'll use Indeed as applicable. That tends to be more for, you know, non classroom positions, whether you know, accountant or you know, secretary or things like that. And then we will use professional
063associations where it makes sense for like a principal position, the school school administrators or secondary school principals, that sort of thing. I learned that there's a Minnesota Association of Pupil Transportation, so we you know, put our director of transportation out there as well. Um job fairs are still in place for through our my state association, the school personnel administrators. There's four virtual ones. One has already taken place. That that in that in that process, there were 42 individuals who expressed an interest in working in Central Minnesota. There was was not a special ed candidate to be found in that group. We had an in-person job fair March 31st down in Eden Prairie. There were about 500 applicants registered and we Travis and I were were betting how many would swing by, you know, and and
064thankfully it was more than we guessed. We were guessing like, ah, maybe 10. We had we had 24 people stop by. Part of that I think was because we we shared with one of the professors there that we we anticipated a social schools social studies opening and she let all her people know, so we saw like 12 social studies candidates in that in that morning. A couple special ed folks, that's really our hard to hard to fill area. Special education, as you know, and those itinerant positions, school psych, speech language pathologist, probably the hardest to fill just cuz of the the the education and certification requirements. School psych is a close second. OTPT, special ed in general, and you even they get into math and science. Um, you know, those are harder to fill positions
065as well. I mean, just overall, right? We're seeing this. It's been a decades in coming. The applicant pools are shrinking. Used to be, you know, you could get two or 300 applicants for an elementary position. Now you'll get 20. You know, which is still, you know, it only takes one to make a hire, right? Um, but but that's just kind of our our reality. Um, some of the things on the recruitment side that we're doing to try and improve things. We're trying to speed up the process so that when we have vacancies, we're getting out into the marketplace sooner. Um, we uh, as part of that Frontline package, there's some digital workflow that we've set up so that a principal can request a position, you know, to be reposted. It goes to us, it gets
066approved. And then once we, you know, make an We now have a digital job offer letter that they can click on and start doing more of that work online to speed up the onboarding. And and also candidly given our FTE resources so that we're trying to use more technology in lieu of of FTE. We just We just don't have the bodies to, you know, physically have a sit-down, here fill out the forms for 270 people a year. We've got to do that digitally. So that's been a focus for us. Um, with that Title One money uh, that we we'd learned about, we're We've signed We're signing up for a six-month pilot with LinkedIn as part of their recruiter package. That's normally a $20,000 seat um, that a company would buy. Um, we're doing a six-month
067pilot for five grand. And so that'll take us from now through September. We're excited about that. The The really cool thing about this um, this functionality or this this access is it gives us access to the whole LinkedIn database. And now they've incorporated some AI smart hiring, so you can type in and say, "Looking for a a special ed level three teacher for Brainerd, Minnesota." And then within seconds it starts listing out, "Here are the people who are interested in working in that area." So, that's kind of a head-hunting recruiting tool that we've never had before that we're going to try and, you know, make some hay with that. Um you know, in terms of being able to do that long-term, I don't know if we're willing to commit, you know, 80% of our recruiting
068budget to that, but we'll have to see if we what what kind of traction we get. Um and then the other thing we're doing that really doesn't cost us any money except our staff time is trying to to build out our district recruitment page, do a little bit better job of of kind of selling the sizzle. Um more links to community resources and things that are going on. Uh more contact information for us, so people want to know exactly about this, that, and the other thing. Putting information about our salary schedules, our employ you know, our employee benefits. I think I think that's a that's a selling point in the district right now. We need we haven't done I don't think a good enough job of selling that. So, those are some of the things
069we're trying to do from a recruitment perspective. Um I'll I'll stop for a minute just to see if there's any questions on that. And I'm just going to correct title two. Title two? Title two, not title one. >> don't Good catch. >> We don't get in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. For the record. This thing on? Monitoring. Monitoring. And and then uh just briefly on on teacher retention. Uh as we all know, every organization saw a spike in turnover um during COVID and the the years that followed. And um I put a link in there to a study by the RAND uh RAND Corporation. They're pretty well known. I think they were cited by NEA in some of their turnover data. So, I mean, this is a pretty well-known study. Uh the teacher turnover is decreased since
070COVID and it was sitting at about 7% in [clears throat] 24-25 and then that's actually where we were at in 24-25. We had 13 resignations and 21 retirements. So, that on a FTE of 484, you know, FTE, which is full-time equivalent, the head count may be more, right? So, it's not a true apples-to-apples turnover. You could have part-time people turning over and they're included within that head count of full-time, but it it gets us close. And then year-to-date so far, we're sitting at about 5.7%. So, you know, it's very it's very common to have turnover, people giving notice of their intent to retire between now, you know, and and the end of the school year, June 30th. So, that number will likely will likely go higher. Um, you know, there's been some state things. There's
071a bill, I don't know where that one's at. I It didn't look like it was moving anywhere, but a couple million dollars to [snorts] study teacher retention. And and there's a Sourcewell special education pipeline grant that's that's already in place and then they're looking to re-up that in fiscal year 27. So, we have some paras educators who are in that pipeline to become special ed teachers. Then I just listed some of the things that we do in terms of our retention efforts with, you know, new teacher orientation and training, you know, some peer coaching, professional learning committees, things like that. And then a new thing that'll be on the board agenda for Monday is a MOU with our with EMB regarding speech-language pathologist hiring for the next next year. They they identified some funds in
072their A comp budget, some fund balance, and so we're actually able to do a hiring bonus for SLPs that are get hired. And we're structuring it so it's a $6,000. It'll be $3,000 to be paid at the end of next school year, and then another $3,000 at the end of the following year. So kind of building it in as a you know, you got to stay here. It's not just a signing bonus. It's a hire and then stay for a bit. So that's a quick thumbnail sketch. I'd be happy to answer any questions that people have. I have some questions, Madam Chair. Yep, go ahead, John. Thank you. Um you've done a great job, Jason, of telling us about recruitment. Um and I appreciate all that uh the HR people are doing for recruitment as
073well as everybody in the district. I think we all recruit in the district. Um I know that uh if I know somebody that I think would be great for this district, I I reach out to them, and I I know that a lot of people do that. My biggest concern is not with recruitment, it's with retention. Retention. And I'm just going to I'm going to tell you this. I would still be in Proctor, Minnesota, had had I um had the district worked with me on um a situation that I was getting burnt out and I and and and was not allowed to uh um get a job that I had applied for. And so uh that's why I'm in Brainerd, and I think I did a pretty good job in Brainerd. Humbly I say that.
074Um retention is critical. I'm looking at a list that I have developed of 27 people, 27 people in the last number of years that have left um due to um Well, not even including retirees. Not including retirees that um you know, I I I are getting incentives for leaving um or have an incentive for leaving um that would maybe like to stay. Uh there's there's a number of people on this list of 27 that uh including speech therapists, including we just lost three psych sites. And sites are absolutely terrible to school sites to find. Um Jason, I'm glad you mentioned the uh uh special ed people from the Sourcewell because you and I and Peter and others have had a discussion about that. We need to address retention. Um I could go on I You
075talked about another 3-hour discussion. I could go on a 3-hour discussion about retention because we've got a lot of great staff that have left here or are considering leaving because um they're disgruntled. They don't feel appreciated. They don't feel acknowledged. They don't feel And I get the fact that just like John Ward did, all right, if if you don't appreciate me, I'm leaving. I'm going somewhere else. I think in my opinion, and I'll cut right to the chase, I think we need to have a committee um Madam Chair and my colleagues um to to address retention and reach out to uh folks that uh have been impacted by that. Uh it's not not all about recruitment. It's a lot more about retention because when you're when you're recruiting, you are usually getting uh newer um
076educators or sites or speech or special ed or whatever. Retention is about losing experience. Retention is about losing um knowledge in the classroom. Retention is about um knowing how to handle discipline problems in the classroom, um although that's a whole 'nother discussion that we need to have at some point in time. So, retention to me is critical. And when we start losing numbers of 27, 30, 35, um it's about time, and it is a nationwide problem. Um, we the the board members were uh sent out. Um, I think Kelly sent something out to us, which I appreciate, Kelly. Thank you for that. And um and uh I think Amy sent out something from Pellsbury about retention. Retention is a topic that is nationwide discussion right now. I think we need to get on top of
077it in Brainerd and form a committee to uh to look at and it and it and also also needs to be addressed about staff morale. I know that when you sent the Madam Chair, when you sent out the uh um proposed agenda that I was going off of until I saw the new one this morning. Uh you you had down there staff and student well-being. Well, I think it's uh and and and morale. I think it's I think we need to at least have a discussion about forming some kind of an ad hoc committee, um looking at people in the community to help us address retention of staff. Um, I'm going to leave it at that for now. Um, thank [clears throat] you for allowing me to uh to uh discuss this. Thank you, Jean.
078Um, I'm wondering Chase. Yeah, go ahead. Jean, I'm just I'm going to uh just ask a question or two here. Um What you what you've just talked about falls on the management side of a school district. And at least for me um we could have we could have 15 committees, okay? But if this is the job of the superintendent and the principals >> [clears throat and cough] >> I don't think we need a committee. I don't think the board needs to be involved with another committee. Uh I think Peter and and um superintendent uh elect Ranken, that's their responsibility. Uh in my This is just my opinion. Uh so, I'm just going to push back just a little bit there and just ask that question that don't you think that that is a more of
079a management decision than a board decision? I'm glad you're bringing it up. I'm glad you're bringing it up. But don't you think that is a management decision? Randy, let me just say I I've learned to value your and respect your opinion, for sure. And I do believe that um yes, the administration needs to absolutely needs to be in charge in part or whatever of that um of that kind of discussion. I agree with you. Okay. Thank you. Yep. I meant to I'll go ahead. >> I just want to say, Kelly, could you send um this packet electronically? Cuz there's so many links that I'd like to take a look at. Thanks. I think to that point, and I think you make a good point, Randy. Um our job probably as a board is to set
080an expectation for what we love morale to look like and and maybe how we might measure that and um leave that to the administration then to figure out how to how to meet that expectation. But I I I agree that that should be on our radar and it should be and I think it is part of our strategic plan. Um when we talk about student and staff well-being, that should fit squarely in there and it should be part of our focus. And Madam Chair, thank you for that. Also, I work sessions, we I like work sessions because it gives us an opportunity to freely and and and bring up things that um you know, that don't need to be necessarily be brought up in a in a in a regular board meeting. So, um that's
081why I bring up a number of these issues uh at a work session. Um I agree with everything that Randy and and you and you, Madam Chair, have said um also, so um I but I I do want to emphasize there's a difference between recruitment and retention. And retention, in my opinion, uh is much more valuable because of what you lose, not of what you gain. And um John, I'd like to continue on that. I do agree um a lot of majority of the teachers that I talked to that have retired or took an early retirement, their big thing is the discipline. They That is one of the biggest things that that they can't handle it anymore. And I don't know what to do about it. That something has to be done on that. Totally
082agree, Stephanie. That's a great point. Um and I've actually sent out, I think, to Peter, you know, um that is another discussion we need to have, absolutely, Stephanie. And I mean, there's some things that, you know, I I worked uh in the emotional behavior disordered uh 22 years of my 34-year career, and um a a lot of times it was necessarily getting parent engagement involved to uh try to and that's not going to always be true, but um we need to have discussion on that, Stephanie. You're absolutely right. Yes. All right, so next steps on that, maybe we um need to revisit what's in our strategic plan as it relates to the goals around staff retention and um come up with some expectations so that you guys can do your job in in making that
083happen. Sound good? So, Madam Chair, I just want to be clear. Are we okay to bring up things like this in work sessions and discuss them? Yeah, absolutely. I think this is the spot for it. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. Thanks for asking, though. Appreciate that. Um the next thing we had under this discussion was Chromebooks, and I know a couple of folks had brought this forward, so I don't know where we want to dive in on the discussion. I was the one who brought it up. >> Okay. I just I just think we need to start looking do a little forward thinking here and uh um I'm sure we're going to get some numbers here today as far as how many Chromebooks we have, who has them, what they're used for,
084uh what what do we have as far as curriculum that's loaded onto them, etc. etc. etc. But I I would like us to start looking at reducing the number of Chromebooks we have, who has them, uh I mean, I've heard from so many teachers uh um I guess more so at at at Forestview that than other places uh kids come into the classroom, their Chromebook battery's dead, they broke it, they go down to Monica at the media center. They're out of class for 15 minutes, they come back um I just I mean from what I've read, which isn't a lot, but it just seems like the digital age, especially for the younger kids, is going to be a thing of the past. Uh lot of school districts, lot of countries, they're just they're just not
085using them anymore. They're going back to the old I remember I brought this up at a board meeting. There are some college professors who are not accepting type written theses anymore. Handwriting, you know? And I was encouraged Christina when with the emerge, these kids are going to be writing and they're going to be, you know, it it's we need to you know, we we flipped the page and I think what's happening now is the page is somewhat being flipped back. Uh >> [snorts] >> You mean a professor is expecting a student to write a 100-page thesis handwritten? Some of them are, yeah. That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Well, well. Um Term papers, things like that. Maybe not thesis, but term papers, things like this. I mean, even they're starting to,
086you know, so all I'm doing is just raising the issue that let's look at because we can't just flip the switch. >> Yeah. We can't just flip the switch and get rid of them because we've got curriculum loaded on them and stuff like this. So, it might be a 2-year, it might be a 3-year plan. >> Well, and I think we need to start planning. It might be good just to level set on how they're actually being used right now and how often and at what grade levels Yeah, that's right. >> rather than I don't want to make assumptions that these kids are on devices all day and as our starting spot. We can how about we start with a plan that we already had in place before all of this discussion came up. It's
087it's K1 devices this year. We're going to pull back about 50% of them. Um so, we'll have one cart for every two teachers to three teachers depending on how many of that's they have in the the room. So, that's our plan for right now. And probably next year, again, pull back. Three and four with MCA testing and stuff like that, that's a little >> [clears throat] >> kind of may have to stay one-to-one there because depending on how I'm building schedule it, we might put them in a bind if we pull back too many for those grade levels cuz if they want to do MCAs as an entire building on one day, we'd have to make sure we have enough devices for that. But we're already pulling back so to speak to to go right
088with what we're doing. But think you can speak to assessments and curriculum. >> Yeah, I wasn't sure what the the scope of this conversation was going to be. So I I focus uh mostly on elementary. Um so the document that um you have a copy for. Um and and I would say before I I just walked through this document, um I appreciate your comment Randy. I think this has been said on several different topics at uh at board meetings of going one way this way and one way this way. And I think finding that middle middle ground because with all things that we do, it's not all or nothing. It's there's a nice middle middle balance and and finding that a balance in what's appropriate to support all the students as as learners in 2026
089um and and beyond and the things that they're going to need to develop skills in to be successful in our community. Um but uh elementary so so what I did um I just did three buckets. Um the first is the minutes of instruction and then the the curriculum resource that that we're using. So this is our our current minutes of instruction. Um the items that have the the asterisks, so math, literacy block, technology, and science, those would be the areas that there would be a potential for a technology or device use for that. >> [clears throat] >> Um so math math expressions, um students do have a physical workbook that they use and that's the primary uh resource for student practice and engagement with the math concepts, but there is a a digital platform for
090some of those formative assessment pieces that they might use periodically. For the literacy block, I [clears throat] I just listed our current minutes of instruction and then our current resources that benchmark literacy, but as Renny pointed out next year we're moving to emerge. And so the literacy block, the time of instruction will be for K1 120 minutes and then K2 and then 34 it's 90 minutes. And the majority of that again is that explicit instruction and student engagement in the physical workbook for for writing the boards and things of that nature. The technology component again with that is primarily for assessments. So some of those checkpoints over the course of the learning a student might read something into the device so it records her fluency, how they're decoding words, things of that nature. And then
091the shift with literacy block >> [clears throat] >> in terms of devices up until this year there was a 60-minute for small group rotations. And so when students were not at the small group table with their teacher, they were doing station rotations and one of those stations was a digital rotation. We have shifted away from that. So this year we're down to a 30-minute small group and then when we shift to emerge it's a 20-minute small group. So it is very targeted with specific skills where students might have gaps or extensions beyond that. So in that 20-minute block there is a option for an independent time which is made up of both uh options for physical materials and digital. So, they have some uh missions are called missions where students can do extensions. That's in
092that digital platform. But again, it's pretty limited. So, the majority of that time students would not be on a device during the literacy block. Uh technology, um students have a technology block one one period a week. Um and those are technology standards. So, those international standards for technology education focusing on digital literacy, creation, collaboration in a digital space. And then uh some of those uh computer science like uh computational skills and things of that nature. So, in that space they are on devices uh for that 25-minute block or uh doing something on a device with a connected device. So, coding a robot, for example. An algorithm for a robot. And then in our science, social studies, art block, um science they use the Foss kits. Those are physical spaces. Uh social studies they do units
093of study. I did do an asterisk with that um because some of the um units that they have students may do a a research project and do that creation of a document or a slide deck for a presentation. And um moving to number three kind of as a connected piece. Um as the state has done updates to standards and benchmarks, we don't have specific computer science standards at this time. So, they are embedding uh those uh learning outcomes in the different content areas. So, for example, in ELA, um in all grade levels, uh there's uh for example, um creating an individual or shared multimedia work for a specific purpose. And then it's scaffolded as you go from K1 you're using a teacher-directed space or app. Then you have a list to to from maybe in
094grades two through four. And then as they move into fifth grade and beyond, I am selecting that as the individual learner. So, there's some of that creation component, um but again, limited. So, at the elementary level, in terms of uh daily instruction, students are not on devices for the majority of the day. Um most of their time is in a physical space. Um and then number two, uh that was just a note that uh Ryan did mention uh some of the different standardized assessments and screening that we do, those are completed on a on a device. So, for FastBridge, uh students in grades two through four, uh there's a um independent uh digital space for that. MCAs, um CAP T, which is uh another uh reading assessment that we are uh starting to use this
095year, and then the CogAT, those are all digital assessments. So, that's for that elementary space. But, I have I didn't do anything with five four. Think about that. Thank you. I mean, that was a lot more in-depth than what I thought we'd be, but that um that's good. Uh I guess my main purpose for bringing it up is um you know, forward we're thinking here and and what we're going to be doing with Chromebooks in the future, cuz you just can't turn it off. I understand that, but uh Director Heideman, >> These kids know how to run a computer more than they probably know better than most of us adults. >> [laughter] >> No question. And they know how to get around stuff. >> [laughter] >> Do you need us to follow up with what
096a similar format for four through six? Say that again? Do you need us to follow up with a similar format for five eight? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, this is th- this is good. I I I just wanted to, you know, raise the issue of where we're at and what's going on and uh Okay. I I will tell you, Randy, with the middle school, and Ryan and I have talked about this a couple times. They are horrendous on treating the Chromebooks. Um, I would say you can correct me. I would say 80% of the damage is Intentional? A ton. >> [clears throat and cough] >> What's the What are we doing for behavior on that and consequences? Wait, we have a protocol in place. There's a administrative um Ryan's going to be able to
097speak more to this than I am, but we have an administrative process where uh 80% of the what Peter's talking about 80% is done by maybe five or six students uh in the building that have um repeats over and over again. And so, after one breakage, there's a consequence. After two uh breakages, there's a consequence. And I think the third breakage, they're off the Chromebook. Yeah. Um we give them alternate pathways to their curriculum. And or they can only use a device in the classroom. They don't get to take it home. So, it depends on the situation, but we It's kind of fluid with the building admins. They They have to make those decisions. We've been more intentional this year. But thank you for saying it's five to six kids have 80% >> Yeah, it's
098a very small percent. >> breakage, not 80% of the kids. Okay. There's There's a lot of breakage. Yeah. And our insurance provider is concerned. What? Our insurance provider is concerned. I just wanted Yeah. Um sorry, I I cut you off about the carts going to Forest Glen. Well, do we know for sure that that's planned? Yeah. Wait, I think so. Yes, that's the plan. Okay, so the carts that we take back from the elementaries, we can start establishing at Forest Lake to maybe help with some of these issues. That's the tentative plan right now, I believe. But they do a checkout format for some of those classrooms. >> Yeah. Mhm. Makes sense. Good. And I do appreciate that you said this is kind of a on the continuum, we want to be in the sweet
099spot because we do want our kids to have access to to this. They're going to need it in the real world and um there is there is a I mean that's a happy medium to that. And not all kids have access to it at home and so then you create um an equity where there shouldn't be. All right, I know we are running short on time here with about 4 minutes left. Um the next item on the agenda was the APAC Committee. So I want to make sure we've got a couple minutes to chat. >> I Well, I didn't know this was going to be on here at all. I mean, am I supposed to give a report? I [laughter] thought I gave a report. No, we only got 4 minutes, John. Well, let me
100>> [laughter] >> I'm sorry, buddy. Oh, it's all right. No, I think um it landed on the agenda just to kind of describe where we're at with John brought it up for the PAIP so that Well, let me let me just give you a Okay. >> you three comments, right? Let me give you three comments that will take less than 4 minutes, right? Okay, perfect. >> Three comments that uh that I picked up on in the APAC meeting. Um For uh the First of all, it's a Minnesota state statute 124D.78 that we have APAC, okay? Period. Um also, the response is supposed to be from the board. Um the response on the non-occurrence is supposed to be from the board and not the administration. Um when we're supposed to sign off on that or whatever,
101um they the APAC people were very disappointed that uh it seemed the response came from uh the administration and not the board. And then um the and and they're trying to gather data from you know, for for different things, for attendance, for discipline, for grades, for all this, because when they apply for a grant, they need that data for it for their applications for the grant. So, that's why they're um so firm on um getting the data and trying to work together to get get that data. Um and I there's a lot more involved in the in the meeting, but that's my less than 4 minutes right there. Nice job, John. Um any next steps come out of that discussion for us to think about as a board? I'd like to give a the same
102report at the at the board meeting to a possible. Okay. >> Committee report. Sounds good. Thank you. Anything else on APAC? Anybody in the last I just think it would be really good if we had a representative on that committee from the board. I think we do. There's two. We do. There's two people. John's on it and uh Stephanie's on it. Oh, mhm. Yep. Right. I was on Right. Didn't okay. Yeah, I was on it for a while. One or two meetings. Yeah, I agree we have not necessarily been very consistent as a board um in how we've approached that committee. I think it's ebbed and flowed and we we have responded as a board um on some of the past report outs, we've responded in conjunction with administrative help in some instances. So, I
103think it has been all over the board. It would probably be better for that group and for us if we could be more consistent. Yeah, and I just think >> Yeah. you get a pass. >> Yeah. Yes, I agree. To make it a priority to develop more connections Mhm. um with the district and with that committee. They're doing some great work. They have really in the last couple years um good reporting and yeah, they are doing some great And and thanks to district support, they have um really their programming has has been expanded. I think there's a there's some relationship issues there, so be good to focus on that. Yeah, I agree. Um in the last 10 seconds we have >> [laughter] >> We also had board officers and there were a couple items uh
104that didn't make it to the agenda that I just wanted to mention out loud. The calendars, which are in your packet for 27-28 and 28-29 and Cali Kelly also included if some of you maybe got this if you are in the district um uh the survey about when when break should happen, how they should happen and so you've got that information as well for feedback as you look at those calendars. We will bring this to the the agenda on Monday to um talk >> Is there a link on that? Um I think they're included in your email. I yeah. Double check on that, gentlemen. Let us know if you don't >> See you. Okay. Um and the other thing was policy 602. Was that the other thing? Yes. Okay. Um >> And there's um a
105blurb I sent out the board memo. There's a blurb in there. About policy 602? Yep, and just understanding that reach out before the meeting if you're not comfortable with it on consent. Thanks, Kelly. Madam Chair, I'd like What was that again? Remind me what 602 is again? E-learning. The e-learning one that we brought up last time. We wanted to send it back for a language change. So, if you've got questions about Well, Carrie, go ahead. I'm sorry. Um my 10-second um clarification on that is we changed the language and um it's intended to indicate that e-learnings are an option, not necessarily that they will be used. Um [snorts] but given our uh weather patterns in the last few years and having to add additional days at the end of the school year to meet contractual
106obligations, we're asking for that flexibility. And the And if um And if it is approved, then we can start planning for giving time to teachers to prepare for a potential e-learning day and collaborate with their colleagues so we can have that ready if if needed. Okay. So, if you've got questions about that prior to the meeting, um bomb them in and let's make sure they get answered. Cuz right now it's on the consent agenda. I don't think it is. It doesn't need to be if we want to have more discussion, but um just bring forward whatever concerns you've got about that. Pull it off. Well, let's pull Can Can we pull it right now? >> Yeah. And have it as a separate agenda. Yeah, what if we're not interested in e-learning? Then that's a good
107discussion for us to have. Yes, it is. Yep, absolutely. >> Yep. I know we were pretty unanimous in our decision not to do it for inclement weather. Now, for when the pipes broke at the high school, we didn't have a choice. Correct. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Um I am going to say >> anything on the board officers, Madam Chair? is there anything that we're discussing or finalizing on the board officers or are we going to do that at the school board meeting? >> [clears throat] >> I I think that's a school board meeting discussion. Uh DJ's not here, so I don't want to I think it's an unfair advantage to talk about it when he's not in the room. Okay. All right. Um there are some next meetings on there. We do have
108a meeting at 11:00 today and some of us are meeting with Chip Freitag in this