001joining us this afternoon. >> Yes, thank you. No, thank you for having me here. I really greatly appreciate it. >> Yeah, appreciate your time and appreciate you making the trip. Um we have for you 12 questions today and I think you should have a list of those in front of you. >> Mhm. >> And so we're just kind of kind of do a round robin around the table and we'll ask those questions, but before we do that, um we're going to do some introductions. >> Okay. >> And I would also say about the 12 questions that you have in front of you, the the last one is an opportunity for you to ask questions of us so that you can be thinking about that in the back of your head as well as we're doing
002this. Um we've got Barb Dorn with us from MSBA. I think you know Barb. >> She'll be my timer over here. Yes, I got that. Okay. >> So give you the 30, the 15, and the five. >> Yes. >> And we'll um try to stay on track as much as we can. Sound good? All right, so we'll go ahead and get started with introductions and we'll start down here with Michelle. >> Um my name is Michelle Brekken and I have been on the board starting my fourth year. >> Okay, great. >> I'm uh DJ Donlinger. I've been on the board the same as Michelle, four years. This is our fourth year. >> Great. >> Sarah Speer, I've been on the board. I was appointed so I'm um between years, about five and a half years.
003>> Randy Hedman and I have been on the board also for four years. >> All right. >> Hi, I'm Stephanie Odman and I am starting my second year. >> Okay. >> John Ward and I've been on the board four years. >> All right, thank you for those introductions and thank you for your service. I know it's a lot of time and and effort to be part of a school board, so thank you for doing that. Appreciate it. >> And I get to start off the questions. So, tell us about yourself and why you are interested in becoming Brainerd Public School Superintendent. >> All right, thank you. So, I'm Dr. Mike Nubel. Um my career goes back quite a ways, but I started as a English teacher um at a small Catholic school and I was
004telling my kids, "Hey, you need to chase your dreams and and all that." And then I wasn't chasing one of mine. So, I actually left education, which was um a kind of great break for me, but I was chasing my dreams, and I became a went to umpire school and became a minor league umpire. I was in for 2 years. And then I left um I I left I retired from that that part of baseball and came back into education. I worked at Hill-Murray High School. I was working there in the off-season. They offered me a job as a English teacher and a dean of students, and that started my leadership career. And then from there I was at Columbia Heights as an AD. And then moved back to the other side of town in
005the cities to to um the North Saint Paul Maplewood Oakdale. I was a high school assistant principal. And then the middle school needed a younger male to help with those middle school boys and so forth like that. So, they moved me or asked me to move over in in the same district. It's a large, you know, North Saint Paul Maplewood Oakdale is a large district, first-ring suburb of Saint Paul, very diverse and and uh economically challenged and so forth. So, um I spent um the next 4 or 5 years there as the middle school assistant principal. Loved it there. And then moved out at my first principal job was in Shakopee. And I went out to Shakopee uh The big challenge there for me was I was a principal on special assignment to start the
006middle school program with the middle school philosophy with teaming and so forth in Shakopee because they're growing so much. I was supposed to take the fifth grade teachers or the sixth grade teachers out of five-six building, elementary building, and the seventh grade teachers out of the junior high and bring them together and make a middle school. My first day on the job, the the superintendent pulled me aside with my first principal job and said, "Hey, we need you also to be a elementary principal in that five-six building." And I'm like, "Okay." So, I was elementary principal as well as putting uh together that that program. So, I was able to do that in Shakopee for 4 years and then I went back to Waterville as a middle school principal and I was in Waterville for
00711 years. That's the area I grew up in and then from there I became the superintendent was chosen as superintendent of Byron Public Schools and I was a superintendent from 2021 to 2025. And then I left there and this year I am the interim superintendent at Jackson County Central Schools. Right on the Iowa border, right about an hour from Sioux Falls. It's a great little district and so I'm presently there. Why do I want to be here? Why won't I want to be here? When you look at your website and you look at all the opportunities that you have for for your students, for your community, when I look at your mission statement, just that those first words to educate and inspire each student and then also, you know, create lifelong experiences and when you
008look at your core values of belonging, of opportunity, of grit, you know, those sort of connection. When you look at my Clifton Strengths, if you've done the Clifton Strengths, two of my top five strengths are My first one is being a relator and so those are the key words that really go to my strengths is relating to people, relating to the community, trying to find those opportunities, trying to find success for kids and for staff and bringing people together. And then also, you know, having a safe inclusive environment. Over my career, I've been in small private schools, I've been in very high functioning academic schools, low functioning academic schools, some with very high economics or my shoulders were done by some of the parents, the doctors and so forth and I've also been in some
009that have been very challenging. So, again, I think I bring a lot of experience to Brainerd and I think that it's an opportunity where I can continue to grow as a leader Um, I've been now a superintendent for it will be 5 years and I'm ready to take that next step. >> Great. Thank you. >> I just uh just have a uh more of a comment than anything else. Uh minor league umpire. >> Yes. And then I spent the next 23 years after that even while I was being in education with the uh St. Paul Saints and doing that and all that. I did that league for the next till 2016. >> Yeah, I played with the Twins in the New York Penn League in Geneva, New York and I was with them for 1
010year 1970. Boy, I'm aging myself. Before they had TV. >> That was a little bit before they had TV. >> That was before me a little bit, but yeah. I I did not go to the New York Penn League. I was stay I was in the Pioneer League uh my rookie year and then in the Midwest League my second year. And then I then I retired, but um I did have a son who was drafted by the Marlins as well in 2015 and my youngest son just as a connection is uh played the last 4 years at Missouri and is pitching this year for the uh Indiana University. >> Fantastic. >> Yeah. So, I'm all about that whole sports related sort of baseball thing. >> Well, I I just had to make make a comment
011when you said you were uh minor league umpire cuz >> Yeah, don't hold that against me, by the way. >> No, no. It's hard finding umpires. If if you have high school >> Okay. All right. Sorry. >> DJ's turn. >> We can talk after. >> We know you retired cuz you got sick of of people asking if you're blind. >> GET SOME GLASSES UP. >> All right, you ready? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Describe a time when you identified a persistent challenge in the district and introduced a new approach that improved outcomes for students or staff. And how did you support the staff through the information implem- implementation? >> Yes. So, when I was in Byron, uh they had a great program when I came in called the profile of a graduate. It was kind of
012their strategic plan without having a full strategic plan, but it was their North Star, and they were in their third year of that implementation. And so, they were learning a a lot about the profile of graduate, but it really wasn't taking off at the level that it needed to happen. All the hands-on information that or the learning that we wanted them to do, the project-based from middle school through high school and so forth. And then the end of the year the profile that the seniors did as they walked out the door and got to meet with people and do their presentations. It wasn't taking off, and that was really an issue because then it kind of felt like it was sputtering a little bit. Um and and and the staff really weren't getting behind it
013as. So, we decided to then over my last couple years there to look at um you know, profile of graduate 2.0. How can we change it? What are the things that we need to do to really um make it more robust for kids? Um we added at the middle school they were doing projects that, for example, they would uh find out and uh get all these ideas from theirselves, and they would present them to the mayor, to the to me as superintendent, to community businesses and so forth. And then they would choose one of those, and they would make things during the school year to um collect money or make money and so forth out of their STEM classes. They would make that then at the end of the year, for example, one year what
014they did is they made a prototype of a cubby and and then they had a a digital at the top kind of a where you put in a code. So, a student who needed a student who had um you know, needed toothpaste or needed some other necessity but didn't want to go in and see someone or whatever, they could go on to an app that the students created, and they could put in that information. Here's what I need. I need toothpaste, I need deodorant, I need whatever. It would go to a teacher. That teacher then would go put it into that cubby, which they had a prototype and then made. And then at the top they would send that student, "Here's the code." It's in there the code. They go into this room. They go
015in and and hit the top, it would open up the door. They could grab the stuff and walk out without anybody else knowing what was happening. And so, that was the real-life situation that would they were helping their students. And they did that each year trying to find new things to help either in the in the city or whatever. Those are the things that we came up with to really bolster the profile of graduate. And that was in middle school. And then we but they had a food truck. They you know, they use a food truck um and a business class and FACS department ran that. And then at the end, again, they would have these huge um presentations where kids would set tables and we would invite all business people coming in. Again, the
016mayor, others to come in and sit down with our students and they'd say, "Here's what I learned when I'm here at Byron. Here's what my plans moving forward. Here are the areas of my core values that we talked about or learned about in Byron. And here's how I'm going to carry those forward." Again, it's about taking the things that we were trying to teach them and make them robust. But we had to get the teachers on board. We as administrators, we had to figure out what the plan was. How would we better and then how do you get those teachers on board cuz they're the ones who are going to have to if they're not excited about, they're not going to get the kids excited about cuz it's just a thing to do. But it
017wasn't. It was really something that took off and then we publicized it as much as we can to show all the great things our kids were doing. >> Good idea. >> I've got your next question. What does an effective superintendent school board partnership look like in practice, particularly when addressing complex or controversial issues? >> No surprises. Um it really is about no surprises. It's about me as the superintendent who is working closely with the administrators, with the teachers, with the community, to be able to come to you as a board and say, "Here's what's going on. Here's something that's out there. Here's something that happened in school today." or whatever, and drop you an email, because you will see people in the community, you'll see them at the grocery store, you will see them wherever,
018and or they'll email you and say, "What's going on with this?" Um I I I don't want you to be surprised. At the same time, if there's something that's on your mind, I would hope that you and I could have a conversation. Uh you know, I'm I'm all about meeting uh it could be weekly, it could be monthly with board members and sitting down with them. I meet weekly with our board chair to sit down and say, "What are the issues that you're hearing? How do we want to move forward with these topics? What can we do to to be better?" And it is really about communication. And when you're looking at the complex those complex situations, it's really trying to understand perspectives. I need to understand your perspective, so there will be times where
019I might reach out to you and say, "Can we meet?" or there's going to be times when you're going to call me. You have my cell phone, you would have my email, you can call me out even on weekends. Um I'm an empty nester, so I'm available usually. Or you can call me and say, "I have a question." and or this came up today and this is something I'm thinking about. Can you Can we talk about it?" And we just have a conversation. We are um kind of the We are the leaders of this of this organization, and we have to work together. We have to be People have to see us together. If we're going to build trust in our organization, they have to see us working together. They have to know that you
020have my back and I have yours and we have the teachers' back, and that we can understand where they're coming from, we trust in their expertise, and we want to be able to um support them. But we're going to run into a lot of difficult situations. You know, we have you know, 5, 6,000 students here and almost 1,000 staff members, you're it's you're not going to go without a year without some real issues or something coming up. That's where we have to work together. It's about developing systems and it's about developing relationships with each other as well as with the people who we serve. >> Thank you. >> I've got the next question. Dr. Newbeck. >> Yes. >> Give an example of how you have held an administrator accountable for behavior that conflicted with district
021values or ethical expectations. How did you approach the conversation and what did you learn from it? >> Um I can actually think of two. When I was in Byron, um you know, I worked with an administrator that um he he uh liked his programming. He liked what he's his building and that was his building and but didn't deal all the time with how best to deal with parents and how best to deal with uh the public and and so forth. And so, um when I would hear about that, I would I'd go sit down with him. I mean, I met monthly with our our principals anyway and I still do. Um and then I sit down with them and we talk about issues. But in that case, I wouldn't wait till the month meeting. I
022would go over and see him right away and I would talk to him, here's what I'm hearing, what are you feeling, what's going on, what was your perspective of it? And uh you know, and just and I understood that that's what he like he like to have he had very high standards and some people didn't quite understand that and the way that he approached things may not have been uh best but uh we had a uh a great relationship where if I asked him or told him, this is what I'm hearing, this is what I would see and this is how someone's feeling, then you know, he would he would come around. He would. And then um just recently I had an administrator that uh you know, tried uh take a cell phone away from
023a, a student, you know, and that angered parents and so forth like that and, uh, you know, we talked about what that meant. Um, I, I was, I'm fortunate enough that I've known him, even though I've only been in Jackson County Central for uh, 8 months or so, I've known him for 5 years. And so, him and I could sit down and I'm like, "Hey, that that didn't go so well. You didn't do it, you know." We kind of, I don't play it off as nothing, but I'm, I bring it up to him because I knew how he would react to it. I knew what would get to him. He cares a lot about kids and and he also cares a lot about holding kids accountable and he just, he realized at that point that
024what he did was not the right thing. As a matter of fact, um, not only did the kid come in to me, but he also came in and and let me know, "Hey, this happened today." And I'm like, "Well, go take care of business. We'll talk about it later." And we could have that conversation. But it's about building trust and it's about having me having high standards for our administrators. And then when they don't, um, do well, they have very stressful jobs. I was a middle school principal for 15-plus years. So, um, those middle school kids, they can drive you crazy, you know, but, um, that's also the beauty of them. But you can get frustrated. And you can handle things not well and you can say things that aren't well. That that really go
025against what you believe and what you're trying, what the culture you're trying to portray to your, your students and your community and there's going to be times I might do that, too. And I would hope they could sit down with me and hold me accountable. I need to be held accountable, too, if I'm not dealing with something right. Um, it's it's how you develop that culture of being the best is holding each other accountable. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> I have question seven. Um, financial constraints sometimes conflict with programmatic or instructional priorities. How do you balance fiscal responsibility with district's goals for its students? >> Yes. Um I'm going to just uh maybe take a little bit longer here cuz if you Google my name, you will see Byron Public Schools. And um what
026ended up I uh when I started in 2021, we had a finance director that also had been there for 3 years. I trusted him and and 3 years later, um there were some mistakes made uh when it came to our uh when we were doing negotiations and using that base salary. And then he left um and then during the process, we found out at that time and even though all the numbers to me and the board seemed like they were adding up and we would ask questions, it seemed like they were adding up, but they didn't. When he left, we were going to be $278,000 to the good at the end of the year, but when he left at when we had other people come in and take a look at cuz we started to
027have some questions cuz he left in December that by the time March came, we were found out we were $2 million in the hole. So, we had to make $1.6 million reductions in April and May that year. And then turn around and we didn't pass the referendum, understandably so, people had lots of questions and so forth and we had to cut another $1.6 million. So, you talk about $3.2 million um over 2 years with the $28 million budget, that's 10% of your uh uh and the first one, you know, you add that first time you cut, you've been adding things throughout the year, you've had SR funding, you've had these grants and then all of a sudden you hire people and then it goes away. Now, you still have these people and you still want
028to keep them, but at times, especially when you're in declining enrollment like uh Byron started to be and JCC is in declining enrollment um and you are as well, um you start seeing, you know, what what the impact. So, to get to your question, when I was in Byron that second $1.6 million was really hard because that you know, the first part is just kind of taking away some you know, the low-hanging fruit they call it. The second part was really getting down to what you know, that was hard. But we had community groups. We met with we had staff groups throughout the summer because we knew that if we the referendum didn't pass, this was going to have to things were going to have to be reduced. So we spent the summer at different
029three or four times meeting with each of those groups to find out their thoughts and and I think that was important. But one of the big things instructionally, especially with the profile of graduate with all that hands-on learning and all the mentoring that we had kids go out and do and internships and all those things, they really um thought that it needed a block schedule, which we probably know is probably a more expensive schedule. You know, when you look at having 16 options for kids, but they the the district really believed that as part of that profile of graduate, we needed to hang on to that as much as possible. So we did a lot of other things, sacrificed, made some tough decisions in order to keep that. Now if they they um passed their
030operating referendum last year, this past fall, so that's great. But we didn't we we were able to do things without doing that block schedule because they felt and we felt as administrators and teachers that that was the best instructional opportunity for our kids. And so we did everything we could to keep that. And in the end, it worked out. But if I know that if they weren't to pass that operating referendum, that would have been one of the first things that would have been cut this year and then you have those tough decisions. But again, what we looked at is what are our priorities? Um in JCC, we they worked on uh a strategic plan last year. Uh we did not pass an operating referendum this past fall. Um it wasn't expected to pass. We
031actually got you know, it was expected we were supposed to have 30 um percent approval, but we went out anyway to get our story out um because before the big election with with the governor and all the stories this year. We got the story out and we ended up with a 42% approval. You know, which was a big swing for a new person coming in, meeting people, getting our story out. I think then moving forward that district will have a much better opportunity to be able to pass that. But we use our strategic plan. We have to cut $450,000 in the next 4 weeks. So we're using our strategic plan, our priorities and you know, that's how we we decided how reductions will be made. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> John. >> I know
032I'm next. I'm just writing a few things down. I just want to please Dr. Newbeck, thank you for your patience with me. Um Next question, Dr. Newbeck, is what does a strong coherent academic program from pre-K through high school look like and what role should the superintendent or school board play in building and sustaining it? >> Yeah. You know, it's all probably a little bit easier in a smaller district to be able to make sure that coherent from one grade level to the next and when you only have one elementary and so forth and you have several and so it's really about working with your teaching and learning, working with Carrie Ross as the executive director and and really meeting teachers and understanding a curriculum and and having that curriculum for people to work through.
033Now I've also worked in districts where we haven't had a curriculum. Jackson County Central, we just purchased a um a new reading curriculum because we we waited until the science arena was done and all all of our staff was trained and now we're have a K-8 curriculum, but for many years they did not. And so it was really about looking at the benchmarks, looking at the essential questions, looking at the state standards, and then making sure that people understand at each grade level what needed to be moved forward moving to the next grade level. That was hard because some people have interests. They like to teach certain things more than they like to teach others. And now all of a sudden before then when they go off and you have your K4 schools and they're
034in four different buildings and then you move them to the middle school as fifth grade. Now there might be a few holes that you have to fill. So it is really um uh K12 is about finding those stepping stones for each grade level. What needs to be covered? How does it need to be covered? And then you work with your administrators, you work with your instructional coaches, and and um and you make sure that it the fidelity is being done. And you and you hope that you work with your professional learning communities for them to really be working with each other and making sure that when they go off to the next building there aren't aren't the holes. And then as fifth fifth through eighth grade, then they are also working and throughout their building
035and making sure that when they're ready for high school that there aren't any more holes. So you know, math and reading, you really want to make sure that you're covering the standards. You're making sure that you're covering what your your community expects to be covered. And you're talking at the next you're having those vertical alignments. We at in Monte Vista used to take a staff development day in the morning and just do vertical teams. So we had K through six for example English. It just wasn't first grade English meeting together or second grade. It was K through six and we split them up into a and started talking about what do they see as difficult at each grade level, what is the grade level head seen from the grade level below, what are the kids
036coming with, and you try to build that alignment as a superintendent and school board, our job is to give them the time and and the resources available to be able to do that. Our job is to be able to trust our professionals and that and give them the the information they need and but mostly the time as much as possible and and again trust their expertise and then come back and report to us and report to you as a board. Here's where we're at, here's the holes that we're seeing, here's how it's affecting our instruction and here's still our challenges. And then if they have creative ways and innovative ways to fix those challenges, then we have to do the best we can as as a board and superintendent to support them along the way
037and to understand where they're at and how we can help them be better educators for our kids. >> Dr. Newbeck, have you had any experience in pre-K or early education programming? >> Me personally, no. I'm a middle school high school guy actually been teaching but you know I've worked in our districts have worked in pre with I've we've always had pre-K kindergarten type we but I haven't been involved with their their really their curriculum moving forward. You know we've had the community ed and we've had a pre pre-school right now in JCC. Our our elementary principal was also our pre-K I hired her this year as a principal but she was our pre-K and early childhood director. So now it's that it's very seamless what she knows or was doing at the pre-K to bring
038into kindergarten to help get them prepared. But, am I am I hands-on with that? No, but that you know, I do know that we have one that leads into the other and that's my job is to make sure that we have those systems available to do that. >> And that's what I meant that you you have experience with um pre-K and early early ed in your district that you've been in superintendent-wise. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I'm asking the next question. So, describe a time when you led or supported the implementation of practices aimed at improving student safety and or mental health and what prompted the work and what changed as a result. >> I'm going to go back to when I was in North St. Paul Maplewood Oakdale working as an assistant
039principal. And you know, is it district-wide? No, but this is what I learned when it came to mental health and it came to student safety as we were pretty tough school. We had a pretty tough clientele and the discipline and so forth in our school was not very good. And so, what I did was sat down with a group of teachers and across our 6th, 7th, and 8th and said, "What can we do to improve this?" As an assistant principal, here's what I'm seeing. We're sending kids At the time we had a a timeout room. Ours by parents. They were and kids would be sent there at the last 15 minutes of the day. You know, a 45-minute class, they were tired after the last 15, 6, 7, 8 and they're like start messing around.
040Teachers say, "Go to the timeout room and finish your work over there instead of working with our kids." And that was to me that was a big problem. And so, we as many schools have done in PBIS is we instituted what we called Mustang cards. And I wanted our staff to recognize all the great things kids were doing because a lot times those kids were misbehaving because they didn't feel supported, they didn't feel heard, they didn't feel like the teacher cared about them. And so we had to find ways to do that. But at the same time and so we had drawings and we had, you know, buckets full of Mustang Cards and it the improve it improved our timeout referrals were almost none by the end of the year. We really um worked on
041that and uh just the culture was different. Um but I also invited kids to do Mustang Cards for their teachers. And that, you know, to be able to give kids the opportunity to recognize the great things our teachers are doing at the end of the year, um all the teachers asked for their stacks of cards, you know, because they wanted to go back and read all the things the kids said about them and and kind of bolstered them up. The other thing that I did for my doctorate, um was that you know, we had a homework help. That kids were sent to homework help either before school or after school, but it was with a different teacher. It was with somebody that maybe they didn't even know or different grade level. And um what we
042did was we had the benefit of team time where we carved out some team time and we took 20 kids um that were part of that team who were had D's or F's on three or four different teams and three or four different uh or three different uh middle schools in our district and I did a doc my doctoral study was pulling kids in one day a week to be able to work with our our staff. Their teachers. The fire teacher would come in during that team time. The math teacher, the English teacher. But maybe that student didn't understand math, so they'd call over the fire teacher say, "Can you sit down with me? I don't get this." Fire teacher say, "I I haven't done math in a while. Math teacher, come over and help
043us." And it was a it was 40 minutes of just we brought in popcorn and let them just work with their teachers. We also did something on self-esteem, so the mental health, and and also teacher perception. The teacher perception of kids changed entirely because they saw them in a small setting and not the big classroom setting. They saw there what their needs were. They looked at data. They did the things that we would expect people to do, but they did it in a small and very um concentrated level. And for the kids, their self-esteem went up. And at the end of that uh semester, we did that first semester, we had 20 kids D's or F's. At the end of the second semester, we only had two that had D's. And we were able to
044And it really showed that building those relationships and and those Mustang cards and the culture of that building totally switched. And and I would I'm very proud of that as part of my career and as part of my career. >> Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. >> What systems or structures are most important for sustaining continuous improvement across multiple schools and departments? >> Well, it first starts with um when you look at continuous improvement, it starts with your cabinet. It starts with um working with Carrie Ross and then also uh HR. It talks about mak- making sure that we have resources and the people that we need for uh for that. And it also starts with working with our principals and having them work with their building leadership team. Um uh I don't know how
045it is here um in Brainerd, but I can tell you that both in Byron and in JCC, the buildings have really strong leadership teams, building teams that we can go back to and say, "Here's where we need some improvement. Here's what we're looking at." Um and and give us an ideas or how how can we best move this forward? And and then you come back as the admin team and you talk about is it working? Is it not working? And you and you have conversations amongst your admin team about what are they seeing as those as those struggles as those challenges and then how do we solve those moving forward? I think it's really important also then that we put information out to the building leadership team then works within usually their people from each
046department. They go back to their PLCs and they start working on a problem. If you can have some sort of action research that they can work on and they can see that there's a reason why you're doing it and they understand the reason why you're doing it and they can see some effective change for kids, they're willing to buy they're willing to buy in. But if things are going to struggle, it's because they you don't have the buy-in and you've asked them to do something that they don't understand. So it's really about giving again tools to our to our staff, working through admin, working through the building leadership team to give tools to our staff to really reach out as what do we want to do to improve? Why do we want to improve? And
047and be as specific and as concentrated and I always tell staff let's be laser focused on this problem and how do we fix that problem. So that we don't get cuz there's a lot of things that happen in education that can be distracting and take you away from that focus. So we really have to work with your admin team about what our goals are and what we need to see as improvement and let's get laser focused and then bring that back to our buildings moving forward. >> Cool. >> I've got your next question. What does your research tell you about the use of Chromebooks and cell phones in the classroom. >> Well, uh one time I went to a tech conference I heard George Couros say, you know, Chromebooks and technology are great tools, but
048they are not a way to teach kids. They are not to be used as the educator. They are to be used as a tool. And, you know, our kids are on Chromebooks and and screen time and so forth. Um we at Jackson County Central just, you know, picked Savvas as our reading curriculum for K-8. And we are going back to We do have kids who have Chromebooks and iPads. But, we're going back to the workbooks and in the hands-on and doing some of those things because it's really important that they get that opportunity to do so. We're seeing a change in that. Um and we don't want to be the Chromebooks as and the iPads as the teachers. We want them to be able to pull out that information. And sometimes it's used for diagnostics.
049Sometimes it's used for practice. And so forth. And that's a great opportunity, but it's not, "Okay, well, here's your lesson for today. Go over here and do it." And and then send it to me when you're done and put on Google Classroom or whatever you use, right? I think there's it's a good way to communicate and send things in, but it's not the way to teach. And I think that that's really important. Cru- On cell phones, we all have them. Um and I know there's been a lot of um talk about it, a lot of direction. I think that's age appropriate. Elementary schools, we would not have cell phones available. They stay in their backpacks even in or even younger we ask people not to send them with their kids. Even the Apple watches and
050all those things. Middle school, when I was a middle school principal and and our districts in Byron and JCC, um they I come to school because at the same time a lot of our kids are in activities and they're after school and they need rides. And sometimes there isn't somebody in the office and they're going to need their cell phone. It's not that they can't have their cell phone, it's that at 8:00 when that bell rings until 3:00 when that bell rings, that cell phone is in the locker at the middle school and they're not being used. They don't bring them to lunch, they don't bring them in. We tell parents if you need to get a hold of a student, call the office, we'll get a hold of the student for you, we'll get
051that message to them. But we really want to stay away from that distraction, especially with the middle school brain and the middle school mentality that's feels like their lifeline. Now, when they get there with their friends and they're playing games in the morning before school, great. 8:00, boom, that that cell phone is gone for the day. And and you just it's the culture you build and you tell them why. And then you I think a lot a lot of our kids appreciate that. Then when you get to high school, they're a little bit um more free with between classes, sometimes they have jobs and they have to get a hold of somebody and and so forth. You allow them to have them at lunch, they're a little bit more responsible. Um but uh we have
052the caddies in our buildings at JCC where they come into a classroom and they have to put them in the caddy, um if they even have them. But if they're seen and they're um you know, and so forth with our teachers, then then we deal with that. But again, it's a progression as they get older, but it it's again, you you want to eliminate or at least minimize as much distraction as you can because uh we want all the kids' attentions um on our teachers and on our learning. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um what's your belief in the elementary of you you kind of alluded to it and I just wanted to give you a chance to expand it just a little bit on pencil and
053paper for elementary kids. Um I really like it. I will just tell you I I appreciate it. What we do is we have iPad We have iPad carts. We don't send home iPads unless we but we have enough iPads for each student that if we we know snow's coming and I-90 is going to be closed the next day, we might send them home and say and then we have uh kind of a some programs off of Seesaw that the kids can work with or try cuz a lot of times the parents don't have the paper at home, they don't have the uh you know, with some of our lower income, they don't have the tools at home. Um sometimes we have to send home a puck, you know, because they don't have internet at home.
054So, we have we we know our teachers know who those are, but we don't send home iPads with them. We keep them in the classroom with their iPad carts so that if we need them, they can use them. Again, it's it's a tool, but anytime a kid can take from thinking from here down to his fingers onto a pencil and write it and be able to see it, I I still I'm you call me old school or whatever it is, that that's kind of how I think um you know, people learn. How did I learn today? I sat and took notes and I wrote everything down. I didn't use a computer to do it. I just wrote it all down cuz it transfers right back into to my head. And again, uh they're tools. They're
055efficiency tools. You can go on and and help you know, uh for kids or actually for adults, emails and and you can develop lesson plans and so forth using technology. That helps with the efficiency, but they're they're not You still there's still a lot of issues with them and I really believe that the pencil and paper, especially for younger kids with the motor skills, that that's really important moving forward. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I guess it's my turn. All right. Uh Uh, see here once. With reading proficiency below 52% and math below 43% in Brainerd School District, what would be your plan in the first 2 to 3 years to raise academic performance? How would you measure the successes? And what evidence from previous leadership experience shows that you and your approach can produce
056measurable gains in both of those areas? >> Um Well, again, I've been in Mounds View when we were there. It's a much different clientele, but if we scored less than 80% on the MCAs proficiencies, the the walls were falling. You know, there was something wrong. And so, we you were able to learn how to push our kids in tier one instruction and be able to support those that couldn't handle the tier one. But, we also had I know you have the GATE program, which is great, and so forth. But, we had ways to push kids moving forward. But, what I would do it with 52 and 43, I'm glad to hear that people are not happy with those numbers. You know, I'm glad that people are always looking to to improve. What I would do
057is work with our teachers, work with our staff. Do we have You know, I'd ask them, would we have diagnostic tests? I know we I know you have FastBridge and so forth. But, how do we use that data? How do we How do we find the holes that is out there in general? But, you know, we're using now We're teaching our staff an Edge Climber so that each all the FastBridge MCAs, the attendance data, all those in JCC, all the teachers will be able to be able to pull that up, pull up a student, see all their data from their history, and and especially this year's data, and be able to see where they're at. What holes does that student have? And at what interventions do I have at my fingertips to be able to
058help that student? Again, you can look at system as a whole and what holes are you missing? But for that student, do we have um here in Brainerd the opportunity to be able to look at each student in real time and be able to see where they're at in interventions. And then, do you have the system set up for interventions to help kids to push those kids? Cuz if you're going to have a higher rigor in your tier one instruction, do we have the supports to to help them? And then when they do get there, you don't keep them in those supports. You You have them go and you support other kids as you go. And it's always monitoring where kids are at and so forth. And I'm um being part of of that this
059year, moving that forward. That's part of our strategic plan in JCC was really working on data-informed decisions for our staff. Um I'm seeing and we're seeing already this year when we're going through our FastBridge results that we're seeing uh great gains from from our kids. And so, again though, it's taking the expertise and the and making sure that our staff is trained, using staff development days to be again laser-focused on what needs to be done, what our strategic plan, what our next steps are for that, and be able to work with our admin and teachers and and set that forth. And again, it's going to be in if you're going to move the needle, you have to move the needle in staff development. You have to be able to give the teachers tools that get
060and make them and help them feel comfortable with it. And again, that comes from time and and just a laser focus on how do we improve. And if you are seeing uh improvements in your FastBridge results, you would hope that that would also correlate with MCAs. If not, um then what what else is happening here, right? And I know that uh I know there's been question about having MCAs on on you know, as goals and so forth, which is great. To me, um the tests can change every year, in a couple years we'll be having new math tests, and it changes and and so forth. So, a lot of times when changes, the math scores go down and so forth. How do How does Brainerd with with their clientele and what we're trying to push
061we should be moving away and away from higher, um, than the state average. The goal of for me is not that we're going to go from 60% to 65%. The goal is we're going to go from 6% above the state average to 10% above the state average because that that that that test can change. But, how do are we changing with it with our kids and how do we move away from the state average and be better that way? Um, because, again, um, you know, as they change tests, we then have to adapt to some of that as well. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Okay, um, Mike, I have the next question 13. Um, what are some of the things you would like you would do in each area to address? One, student achievement.
062Two, behavior discipline problems. And three, declining enrollment. >> First one, student achievement, I think I've talked about it is really about, uh, staff development. It's really about finding our holes and how do we fix that and be laser focused on doing that. I keep saying that, uh, laser focused, but it really is. And it's about, um, celebrating about it because you can have student achievement, but if you don't see those little steps and you don't celebrate those steps, people are thinking, "Ah, nobody really notices. Nobody really cares." I mean, we're focused on raising student achievement and when we see it, even if it's 2%, 3%, when we see it, we need to celebrate it and we need to show what's happening in our classrooms, all the great things that are happening in our classrooms, even
063if it's not test scores. If it's just we've created a new program, we've kids come in and, like I said, when I was in Byron, when they put that prototype together, we made sure the newspaper knew, we made sure that everybody knew, it was on our website, and we had we interviewed kids about what did they do? What was happening? So, that everybody knew that, you know, education is just not about test scores. It's about real life experiences and so forth. And that's student achievement to me as well. It's not just about test scores, it's about giving them real life experiences to move on. And finding those niches, finding those things that energize kids. And there were some kids that, you know, they were um especially the ones that wanted to do the programming of
064the app. In schools, they never really had a chance in the school, especially in middle school, to really do that. Now, they had a chance to really design that and and work with that and see the real results and they were helping students. They were helping middle school students and high school students out because we put two of those cubbies in each one of those schools and they they really saw the effort. So, that's what I would do. Behavior and discipline problems. Um high expectations. It's about working with our administrators, working with our um teachers. Uh what are our high expectations? It's also about um understanding. It's about to me, discipline and behavior is about because kids, I said it earlier, why do they misbehave? Because they don't think they're being heard. They don't think
065anyone cares. Working in middle schools for 15 years in a lot of different environments, that's what I've learned. I've I've never uh went probably without a meeting, without a student to say, "What's really going on? Why why did you act this way today? What's Are you okay?" Because sometimes I would know them and they acted way out of character. Sometimes it's because we're with a group of friends and it's that group mentality. You know, uh separately, they're great kids. You get them in with a certain group and they don't act so well. So, then you start talking about that. And then um you also try I'm about kind of love and logic. There's many times where I will I would send a kid out and say, "Okay, I want you to come back. It's first
066hour and you did this before school. You come back before the end of the day and let me know what you want for discipline, what you think." And then what does he do all day? He or she internalizes it, right? And they come back and I'll I'll take 5 days Um how about how about one one day detention and we figure this out and you don't do it again. Okay, but I knew that he was talking about all day. Or I would send him home and say, "Okay, here's my business card. Go home, talk to your parents about it. I'm not going to call them. You tell them." Oh, now they got to go home and talk to parents. I said, "But they have to call me by noon tomorrow. And if they don't call
067me by noon, I'm calling them. And if they give me a different story than what we know really went on, now we're going to have some issues. But if if you tell the story and you work it out with your parents, then I'm I'm good. That's your That's what I Then you fix the problem. How do you fix the problem? How do you say sorry to someone else? How do you make it better? And how do you learn from it? That's what To tell you truth, as a superintendent, I miss that. I'm and uh I miss being in the hallways. Right now my office at JCC happens to be in the high school. Instinctively, I hear the bell, I'm like, "I'm going to go" and I go stand in the hallways or I go and
068stand in the lunch room or whatever. It's because I miss that student interaction. But when you look at if if you have that culture, the the consistency part is holding kids accountable. Consistency part is you don't let it you don't see it and let it walk away and you don't deal with it. You deal with it and you deal with it in a respectful way and a teaching way. Are they going to get detentions? Yes. Are they Do you have to suspend kids sometimes? Possibly. Do Is there a way that you can work with parents to be able to do some things? Yes, and you build those that rapport with them and I've had kids who when I was a Dean of Students at at Hill Murray, I would have to I we would we
069I would send them the way they did it is they would I guess expel them for you know and say they can't come to Hill Murray anymore. We he came in and talked to me with his family over the summer. We let him back in. There was an issue going on in the building. He came into my office closed the door because he didn't want anybody to see him and said, you need to know that there's kids on your computer. They got into your computer. They're up in the and he took care of me. So you know it's those things that you know you build those relationships. They made a mistake. You had to do something very but then you build those relationships even after the fact and I think that's where discipline problems and
070that's but you hold them highly accountable. The last part is declining enrollment. Thank you Byron. The last part is declining enrollment. We're facing it. You're facing it. We're facing about 60 students at JCC in the next four years and when you have a thousand students only that's that's quite a bit when you're looking at 60 students in the next four years. We are facing it for the first time in Byron when we are doing it. So what do you do? You make sure that you're not losing any more kids and the way you do that is you take care of them. You feel like you make them feel like they they're special. Make them feel like they're getting what they need and you develop programs for that to happen. And you try to keep those
071programs. I know that you know I I drove around the district this morning. I I actually came up last night and I drove around the district. It's pretty vast and you have lots of competition around for kids to be able to go somewhere else especially if it's closer. What you what we need to to is have programs here and celebrate it and be able to show people this is where you want to be um to the point where maybe they go tell other people in other districts and they want to open enroll. In Mounds View, we had 30% of our students were open enrolled. Very high functioning because we had a program and compared to other places like Stillwater, White Bear Lake, bigger schools than that's what you're facing at the smaller schools since they
072come to us cuz we're smaller and so you have to be able to say here's what we have to offer because um Brainerd would have other things offered and other schools don't. So you have to promote that and you have to put it out as much as possible on your websites or whatever. What I started in Byron and in Jackson County Central was smaller district but on Sundays at 4:00 um all of our parents and our students and probably about 150 of our um community members who have signed up for it uh get the Husky Howl. And I sell when I went to JCC, I was told, "Hey, you know, we you know, we are an athletic school that offers academics." You know, our football team was 26 and 0 the last 2 years and
073won the state tournament the last 2 years and um you know, my first my first day in the job was working with with a softball issue. But you know, we're an act athletic school that offers academics. I'm like I want to turn that around because there's so many great things are happening in our cuz we don't want anybody leaving and we want more kids to come in. That's how we're going to combat this enrollment. So every Sunday, I send out information. We put it on our website so everyone can see that. I have my own article that I put on about something with our strategic plan, something that's happening in our buildings. Um we do things with reading but we also tell parents here's how you can help. You know, it's just a partnership. Here's
074how you can help. We want not only the students to feel like they're connected but the parents and families to feel like they're connected. And I and if I don't get it out at 4:00 on Sundays, um I'll have people "Hey, where's the Hall? You know, I I missed it. I didn't see it. Did you get it out?" You know, or whatever. So, it and it By the way, we also do talk about athletics, as well. But, we But, that's at the bottom cuz we really want to stress all the fabulous things that are happening in our in our school. And uh again, it's not only attracting people and families and making Brainerd the place to go. And we're um but, it's also making sure people don't leave. And I know that and to understand
075um why they're leaving when they do leave. How do we do that? Are they going home school? What's the reason why they're going to home school? Are they going to private school in the area? What's What's the reason? And what are they not getting from our school that maybe we need to look at. Um because if you're losing students like I've heard that you're you know, I've seen in in watching your boards uh board meetings that you're losing students, you know, how do we How do we stop that? Why? And what can we do to help some of it? When you're that far away from schools, maybe they feel comfortable going somewhere. But, we want to make Brainerd the best place where everyone wants to come. I guess that Monticello had 30% open enrolled. Byron
07622% open enrolled. 500 kids out of 2,300 were open enrolled in Byron because they had that profile of graduate. With Rochester right there, they were coming from Rochester cuz we had something that they didn't have. So, what does Brainerd have that nobody else has or that we do better? If we don't have something, well, then let's work on it. And let's let's try to get that done. That's a lot of work. And it's a lot of marketing, and I've learned marketing from my private school time at Hill-Murray, cuz that's how they bring in kids. And so, how do you market um all the great things that are happening? And then, how do you But, it's really about celebrating, celebrating our staff, celebrating our kids, and building that culture. So. >> I have one quick question.
077>> Yes. >> So, it's back to the discipline. So, if say you send a child home with a note and the parent didn't respond to you and you called them about the discipline and they would say, "No, it's not my student. They didn't do that." How do you Have you ever had that happen? >> No, parents don't ever say it wasn't their student, they didn't do that, you know? And I'm like, "Here, this is why I know it is and I need your help. You know, we want to to get If it really wasn't, if I was mistaken, I would listen to the parent. I listen. But at the same time, I'll say, "Well, this is why I know it's different and this is what I know and here's what Here's what your son and
078I or daughter and I talked about. Here's what your student and I talked about." So, that was the story that he admits to. And we solved the problem because I don't just say go. We've already solved the problem how to make it better than say me get cold calling a parent in the off at their at their work or at home and say, "Oh, yeah, this is Dr. Newkirk, the principal. I want that student to internalize it, but we've already solved the problem and I can say this is what we've talked about with your child." Now, if the child says, "I didn't do any of that." then I I have to do my homework to investigate to do make sure, but this is That's the end part to try to build that partnership with the
079parent and have that student internalize it. That a lot of times will help solve discipline problems. >> Thank you. Well, that brings us to the end of our our formal questions for you. We do have a few minutes left and you've got some questions for >> So, it's my turn. >> Yep. >> Awesome. So, um besides the budget and finance, which I know is going to be very difficult moving forward and so forth, what would what would be the next biggest challenge for me as a superintendent when I start on July 1? I don't want to come in stumbling and not being prepared. So, what I want to come in on July 1 and be ready to go. So, what would be the next biggest challenge besides budget and finance? >> That's a great question.
080I can I think student achievement is probably student achievement and declining enrollment. I think those are the two biggest issues in my mind. >> And those fix the other problems. >> Yeah. >> I would think that it'd be you getting around all these buildings and meeting all your administrators and I mean, it's not that you're going to do that, but I mean it's just like there's a lot of places to run around to. You'll be pretty busy first couple weeks, I would think. >> Uh first first 6 months cuz I I I plan on being in Right now I'm in um our buildings grander, there's a lot less, but I'm in there at least once a week. Even if I have to drive the 9 miles over the middle school and Pleasant View Elementary and
081I'm there at least once a week checking with kids, checking with with staff. Um that's just who I am. I'm also at 90% of our activities. Matter of fact, I'm missing a wrestling meet during the our matinee wrestling meet for Winter Fest. I'm missing that right now. But I usually I'm at 90% activities. It's a benefit of being a empty nester, right? And then but I get to meet a lot of people and hear from a lot of people and so I That's that's one of my strengths is to be able to do that, but >> And I think that's important because I think you know, building trust will be key to some of the the changes that we need to make and some of the you know, things that programs that you're going to
082want to implement and just building that trust not just within the district, but outside the district as well with our community. We've enjoyed some really good community support and I think keeping keeping that solid and keeping those lines of communication open will be important. >> And to me it's about um building partnerships with businesses and being part of um Rotary. I've been part of Rotary in Shakopee and so forth. I'm part of Kiwanis and the uh Chamber of Commerce in both uh uh Lakefield and cuz I have two communities that I work with now, Lakefield and and Jackson. So, I make those um meetings the education uh for me, the Jackson Economic Development Committee. I'm a part of that. So, I work with all the business people there and we build those It's again building
083those relationships so that they understand what's happening in our schools cuz the school really is the focus of many districts or many communities and I see Brainerd being the same way. Um if you don't mind, I have one more quick question. Um and then the it it kind of goes back to your question about our effective superintendent school board. You know, how would we work together? So, what do you need from me um to be a better board member? What would you need from me to help you be a better board member? And then also to help you be a better board in general? >> I'll take a shot at it. I think communication is ultimate. Uh very important and uh I think it's okay, but I think it it's a challenge and I think
084it can get better. Mhm. >> Um um I wouldn't say there are any surprises per se, but just some some some issues, you know, asking for information and you know, delayed uh understanding that staff is is busy as well, but uh to me, that's a a concern. >> I would agree. I think communication is really important and also I think just um you know, and I think you said it really well, feeling like we're all on the same team, feeling like we're all fighting for the same thing and you know, how you do that is celebrating together, um, looking for opportunities together, and I think utilizing your expertise and your conduit to the expertise that's within the district to bring confident recommendations and and rationale to. I think that's important to how we can function
085better as a board as well. >> Great. >> Well, I'll leave it at that, and I thank you for your time, and I'm sure that 2 days gets to be long, and now you have some more work to do. So, again, I appreciate you inviting me and being able to meet with you. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you have a pretty good picture of who Dr. Mike Newbeck is. So, >> Thanks, Mike. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate your time. >> Thank you. >> The board, you need to finish the form, and then we'll have a >> break while we tabulate everything, but I do have some information to give you that again I had started on the conversation. I want to hand out some proposed round two questions. So, during the break, if
086you want to go through and pick like 10 or 12 each, that'll be something that'll save time when we start talking about round two. So, if you're looking for something to do it during the break, I can >> Oh, I wasn't looking for I was going to go to the bathroom. Looking for something to do. >> You can do that, too. You can do that, too. If you're looking for something to keep you busy. >> Oh, I don't need anything. Let me tell you. Sounds like my old >> Mhm.