April 14th, 2025 School Board Meeting

001clock. We'll call this meeting to order. We'll start with roll call, please. Michelle Dre here. J DJ Duner here. Stephanie Edman here. Randy Hidman here. Sarah Spear here. John Ward here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. This is a meeting of the Briner Public School Board and it's being conducted in accordance with Minnesota statutes 13D.02. This meeting is being recorded. Access to the recording is available on the school's district YouTube channel. We will um move to approve the agenda. And this is an amended agenda. We pulled an item off um related to a union grievance that we'll take on at a

002later date here. I'd like to talk about that. I'd like to make a motion that we put the the agenda back in the newspaper. I didn't think this would be a big deal, but I spent a lot hours on this agenda and now you've completely changed it around. I thought this was our agenda. I don't know who's making these changes, but I don't appreciate it. I don't think it's very professional. I've been on lots of boards. I've never seen anything quite like this before. So, I'd like I'm looking for a second to make a motion that we quit putting it in the newspaper, right, Kelly? Because we're saving money, correct? Well, it's not doesn't seem to be working. This is the third agenda I've seen in the last four days, and I'm tired of it,

003and it's embarrassing, and it's not the way we should be doing business. Good. So, I don't know, chairman, chairperson, if you want to have more discussion on it, but I'd be ready to vote on it right now. Would you like to add that to the agenda? I'd just like to make a motion. I've got a second. We need to discuss it. I don't know what uh Director Ward thinks or any of you guys, but I don't know why this agenda is changing around. I was on this agenda at 2 o'clock yesterday. I knew exactly what we were doing today and today. This doesn't Would you like to add it to the agenda? I guess I'm confused. Why do I have to add it to the agenda? Because if we take action on it, we have

004to take action. It's not part of the agenda right now, but it doesn't have to be an agenda because I made a motion and I have a second. It's a qualified motion. So, we can have discussion on it. We can vote on it. No need to add it to your agenda. Can you restate your motion, please? I'd like to make a motion that our agenda is published in the Brainer Daily Dispatch like it's been for the last 20 years. I think right now the notice is the only one, Kelly. Right. So, you'd like to make a motion to add that agenda item to the action items so that we can act on it? That's what you're saying. I don't think you're correct. I think that with a motion and a second, we can have discussion

005and everyone gets their opportunity and then we can vote on it. Is the intent to put it in the dispatch to um to not change it then? Yes. I'd like to feel comfortable if I have time to go through it on Friday or Saturday or Sunday. I can walk into this meeting. I never looked at this thing today. I didn't know it was going to be different. Why would I need to? I was prepared. I went through all the policies. I did everything this weekend and I'm ready to come to a meeting and then I get here and I get the agenda and it's like, well, what is the what's the deal? Why is it different? I don't think it's professional. I think it's tacky and I don't understand why it's happening. But I guess

006maybe if we had to post it, it wouldn't be as easy to make the changes. We got a motion um to add an agenda item to the new business for action to add an item that says we put the agenda in the newspaper. And there is a second to add that to the agenda. Thank you, Stephanie. Any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I oppose the same. All right, we will add that to the agenda. Anything else to add to the agenda? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as it sits. I'll approve uh I'll move to approve the amended agenda. Thank you. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Director Ward and a second by Director Breen. Any discussion? All right. If not,

007all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I oppose the same. Motion carries. The very first thing we have on our agenda tonight is a huge celebration. And I would like to invite up a couple of students and some folks to celebrate them. Uh we have with us tonight Lucy Marshall and Cab Story. I'd like to invite you to come on up. You [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] know, you know, you two as as a school board, a lot of times we get to sit here and and make decisions about budget and teachers and stuff that comes to your classroom, but we don't actually get to see what happens when you're out in the real world. And we always hope and we know and we hear stories of our students um persevering and taking

008on big challenges and you guys have done just that. You're everything we would want warriors to be in that moment. So thank you. And um just to give a little bit of background story to this group, I think it was on um let's see, March 26th. 26th. Thank you, DJ. On March 26, we had an incident with a a bus driver had um a medical emergency and the quick thinking of these brave, intuitive, attentive students um got everyone to safety and they did such a great job. We're just super proud of you. Thank you for being here tonight. And we've got some folks here from Riker Bus. Um and we've got our principal from Riverside who's done a great job implementing programs to leadership programs. So these students have those opportunities. Okay. So Lucy, you

009wanted to meet back. She's the one on the other side of the Oh, how great is that? [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Sheriff Clang, I don't want to put you on the spot, but if if you wanted to say a few words that Well, I I had a opportunity to uh to view that bus video, and I tell you, it's uh it was pretty uh um heartwarming to see you guys uh step up to the play right away and I took control. I understand uh Caleb, you're you're kind of a a little shyer sometimes now and then and you went right right into action and that is just like incredible and uh hats off to you guys. I can't tell you how much how proud we are that you guys are warriors. So appreciate you guys

010very much. Yeah. Well done. Thanks you guys. And thanks for being here tonight so that we could celebrate you. We absolutely won't make you stay for the whole meeting, but we love that you're here. Lucy wants to be a kindergarten teacher, so she might be interested. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we'll take it. All right. Oh, great. Um, let's see. We've got some other celebrations here tonight, too. Um, I'm glad to read through them, unless there are any objections. You guys want to take some on? Um, a special thanks to the Brainard High School robotics team for their support at Harrison's STEM night on March 27th. The students were great ambassadors for science and technology by engaging students and families in their demonstrations and community service. Congratulations to Ari Picar, Eastston Dirks, Ty Faber, and Shane

011Carlson for qualifying for the Minnesota State High School League wrestling tournament. Congratulations to the Warrior Girls Basketball Team for winning the section 84A Championship and finishing in sixth place in sixth place at the Minnesota State High School League class 4A tournament. Congratulations to the Warrior speech team on a great season. National qualifiers include Brady Davidson who double qualified in humorous and program oral interpretation and Abigail Smith and Haley Petri for qualifying in duo. Brady Davidson also qualified for the MSHSL state tournament in humorous interpretation. Congratulations to the Warrior Robotics team for placing third in the Granite City Regional. Congratulations to the Warrior Super Mileage team for taking fourth place out of all high schools in the battery electric division at the Shell Ecomarathon Nationals held in Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Congratulations to Ally Clow for being

012named the Class 3A assistant dance coach of the year and to Cindy Plow for earning class 3A head coach of the year. Congratulations to the recently inducted legendary women of Brainard Public Schools. The 2025 inductees were Carla Anderson Benjamin, Deborah Goble, Ericson, Lee Gunsbury Cyp, Dr. Megan Thurlo, and Lorie Pot Venwig. And it was an awesome ceremony. And one more, congratulations to the Brainard Warrior adapted floor hockey team for winning the state championship game in the P1 PI division of the MSHSL adapted floor hockey state tournament on Saturday, March 8th. The team finished the season 12 and 0. Pretty awesome. All right, next on the agenda, we've got public input. A member of the public can address the board during this time. Comments will be limited to three minutes. Complaints or allegations against students or

013employees may not be discussed due to privata privacy. Complaints or allegations must be submitted in writing to superintendent grant. The board of education superintendent will not converse with guests to address the topics discussed at the time and no visual props will be allowed. All right. First up tonight we have Rick Felt. Please, Rick Felt, Brainer, Minnesota. Under the Constitution, we just pledged allegiance to the Constitutional Republic that we have. And I'm a little bit concerned about the direction of the Minnesota State doing these surveys. and they're asking for information that nowhere in the Minnesota Constitution or the US Constitution gives them authority to ask some of the sexual questions of the students that they're raising. I don't think our founding fathers ever wanted the government to pry into sexual uh identities and everything of the

014students and I'm just concerned about the direction that we're going and I and I thank Director Edman when she campaigned that she was going to do exit interviews on the mass exodus of students and and the reason why the parents have been pulling out the students out of this and and as I've done interviews with people that have pulled their students out they've always said I turn over my children to the guardianship of the school but they are thinking that they are now the parents and they're teaching my kids stuff that only parents should be teaching and and that is one of the biggest reasons that I see that we've had this large exodus it's approaching almost a thousand students now and and you cannot argue that and then we hire you guys to solve

015problems not create problems and and because of you're leaning to the left and everything and teaching and and shoving things down parents' throats. That is one of the biggest reasons that we're seeing now that they're pulling their children out of the schools. And I think DJ Doninger, he he tried to express almost two years ago an olive branch and and and he was shunned and and and looked down on and everything. So, if you guys I would I would highly encourage you to watch what Maine does because Maine is doing the exact same thing that Minnesota is doing. Minnesota is saying, "We're going to go ahead and and let the Trump campaign sue us for taking DEI out of the schools." Well, I'll tell you what. Trump has has has held his ground and he

016did take away the funding for the main school system and now it's going through the court system and everything. And I would highly encourage you guys to take a good look at this because if you are going to gamble almost $7 million of federal funding on this DEI protocol, I guarantee you if you lose that $7 million, I will come back with resignation letters for the people that voted for that. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Next up, we have Tony Bower, please. Good evening. I also urge you not to participate in the survey that's being presented for your approval. I believe a survey like this plays into the hands of the radicals who wrote it that want to instead of educating children manipulate some of them into believing that they are trans or gay or

017whatever so that they might then demand more money, more political power and more influence to represent what they will characterize as a marginalized, underrepresented or ignored group which they themselves created. Please stay in your lane of educating kids. Stay out of social engineering domains. It's not right. It's dangerous and you're out of your league. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. Next up, we have Dan Higgstead, please. Thank you, Madame Chair and members of the board. I'm Dan Hegstead. I am here to speak in uh support of our teachers, administration, and uh support staff. Our kids graduated from uh Brainer High School over the years, and they are all doing really well, which is great, which means we can really enjoy retirement. Uh they're all very different and had very different needs, but they were all met

018by our school district. That was a big job. I'm concerned that you're being flooded with talk of DEI, CRT, band books, litter boxes, furries, bathrooms, and other nonsense. And yes, you should hear and respond to people's concerns, but these are mostly red herrings meant to distract you from the important work of managing the education of our children. What I listen to, when I listen to what I politely call noise, I get a sense that some think that our teachers are just over paid daycare providers. And yet teachers at the same time seem to be super powerful propagandists who want to indoctrinate our children into some cult. There is a quote I ran across from a teacher not here who said, "If teaching if teachers could brainwash your children, they'd probably get them to shower and

019wear deodorant." Even though we won't be here for every meeting, I want to uh assure you that we have your back and I thank you for remaining strong and focused. Thank you, Dan. Next up, we have Ed Shaw, please. Thank you, Madam Chair, and directors for everything you do for all of our children. I am the father of uh two forest few students, fifth graders. My daughter is with me tonight. And you know, when we pledge allegiance, we pledge allegiance to a republic, not a dictatorship, not a king. and our this this board is accountable to the citizens in this community, not the president. Whoever the president may be. Some love the current president, some hate him. The same will be true for the next president. But we we decide here locally. We don't respond

020to threats from Washington or anywhere else. And I'm glad that the board is doing that. And I certainly hope and expect the board to continue doing that. This is again, this is a republic. It's not a monarchy. That's very clear. It's right in the pledge. And as far as, you know, you hear all kinds of conspiracies, theories out there. The internet's a wonderful thing. Problem is, a lot of what's on there is garbage. There were litter boxes in the schools two years ago. So, we were told, of course, they didn't exist, but hey, people at debates and meetings talked about them. You know, there's DEI coming to get us, CRT, this that or the other thing. You know, don't pay attention to the noise. Most of us parents, we support what you're doing. We appreciate

021that we're you're staying focused on reality and not getting tied up in conspiracy theories. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. Next up, we have Michael Ericson, please. Thank you. Um, my name is Michael Ericson. Professionally, I was a school psychologist uh for 42 years. I want to uh give a quote here from James Coat's book, The Crossing and the Lynching Tree. I want to give one of those public disclaimers that some of this may be um um upsetting to some people. This recounts a case of a white mob in 1918 in Valda, Georgia that lynched an innocent black man named Hayden Turner. Turner's wife Mary who was pregnant wanted justice for her husband's death and she went to the sheriff. He responded by arresting her, and then turning her over to the mob, which included women

022and children. According to one source, Mary was stripped, hung upside down by the ankles, soaked with gasoline and roasted to death. In the midst of this torment, a white man opened her swollen belly with a hunting knife, and her infant fell to the ground and was stomped to death. White supremacy ruled. These nice people thought they were in the right. They thought they were entitled just like the Germans at Ashwas. This is why schools and the general public need diversity, equity, inclusion. I say those three words and not just DEI. So, we learn from the horrors of the past. What I hear from many anti-dei folks is it'll make white kids feel bad if they have to hear or learn all this stuff. My response is that hopefully they'll never know what it's like being

023teased, harassed, isolated, beaten, raped, bullied, etc. for some reason that is virtually beyond their control. My hope is that they'll act like an ally to our diverse community because that's what they've learned. Currently, the president's administration is anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion and the anti- Department of Education. In 1979, President Carter felt states were not funding poor schools, wouldn't protect kids with deal disabilities, wouldn't follow civil rights laws, especially in the South. Currently, there's a teacher in Idaho that has a sign in her classroom that says, "Everyone is welcome." There's hands with hearts in the palms and arms with different complexions. Her school says that's not acceptable to be in her classroom. I say that's a bunch of bull. The Department of Defense because of the current president's policy has removed Ira Hayes uh from the

024Evil Gima segment of the raising the flag because that's a DEI issue. the Navajo code takers talkers has been removed from their primary area that they were held before because that's a DEI issue. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Michael. Next up, we have Pat Dixon, please. Good evening and thank you. In the 410 resolution for ISD 181 school board response to the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee's vote of non-concurrence. Recommendation three includes these words. It's important for students to see themselves in texts and instructional materials throughout the year. Our goal is to provide an educational experience that supports all students along with ongoing support for curriculum development throughout the school year. The Minnesota Student Survey is one of the longestr running youth surveys in the nation. It's a trienal survey. It's administered to

025grades 5, 8, 9, and 11. It's anonymous and it's statewide and it's conducted to gain insights into the world of students and their experiences. An inter agency team approach allows for a single instrument and only one administration instead of each agency doing its own data collection. The inter agency team is the Minnesota departments of corrections, education, health, human services, and public safety. The survey is a valuable tool for understanding the experiences and well-being of students in Minnesota. The data collected helps schools, committees, communities, and state and local agencies make better decisions about youth programs and services. Knowing our students greatly enhances our ability to support all students by providing opportunities for them to see themselves in the textbooks and other educational materials. The version of the agenda that I saw said that was being considered

026to exclude fifth and eighth graders. And so this responses to that fifth graders and eighth graders also need to be known and their participation provides longitudinal data that would be lost if they were not included. Thank you. Thank you Pat. Next up we have Kevin Boils. Please, I think we can safely say that everybody in this room is glad I'm limited to three minutes. Good evening, esteemed board members. Mr. Grant, nice to see you all. I also would like to talk briefly with you about 2 minutes and 58 seconds worth on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As you can imagine, I have a little bit different take on this than maybe some of the other folks do. I think DEI is a thing. I think it's out there. I think I've lived in corporate America. I've

027seen it taken to illogical extremes. I've seen it used in ways that I don't really appreciate as a citizen or as a business person. But I think people are trying to carry that into the school district and in in a sense trying to bring what's out in the ocean into an aquarium where something doesn't necessarily have to exist because by themselves the words are pretty harmless. Diversity, who doesn't like that? Equity. Talk about that some more in a minute. That's the rest of my speech. Inclusion. Pretty cool thing. But somehow when we put those three words together, it's like a 55gallon drum of Coca-Cola and 200 packs of Mentos. Who know? You know, like so equity. Um, in four years sitting where you all sit, I've heard some pretty asinine and inane things. I've heard

028some deeply insightful things. One of the most asinine things I've ever heard was equity is not the goal. equality is the goal and equity is not equality and equality is should be the goal and this idea that equity is taking something from this student to give it to this student and I reject that notion profoundly. Equity is a container. It's a shopping cart in which you put the tools to build the ramps to equality. It's wheelchair ramps. It's the Lincoln Education Center. It's adapted playground equipment. It's special keyboards for kids that can't write properly. Those are all forms of equity. It's not taking something away from somebody. Now, it may be outside of the school district, but inside the school district, it is what you say it is. You're a decision-making body that says equity

029is not taking something away from this kid to make this kid stronger or taller. Not lowering the bar so that everybody can meet it. say the bar is here, but some kids don't have the resources available to get to the bar on their own. Might as well close down the LEC if you don't believe in that notion. So, I I ask you to separate your thinking around the concept of equity from what's happening in the political arena because that's a real fight. I think there are is an ide ideological battle there that is worth having a discussion of. I just don't think it has a place inside of the school district. And in four years of having these conversations with community members when I was on this board, uh I found that when I had

030rational discussions with people across the political spectrum, the vast majority of people understood that idea that, you know, we're not the idea is if we want better test scores, why would we water an orchid and a cactus the same amount? That's equality in its purest form. You put the resources where the resources need to be. If you don't, well, your test scores certainly aren't going to come up. Thank you for your time. Have a great evening. Good to see everybody. Thank you, Kevin. Good to see you, too. All right. Um, that's what we have for public input tonight. Next on the agenda, we have the approval of minutes from our last regular board meeting and our special board meeting. So, move motion. Is there a second? Second. We've got a motion from Director Heman and

031a second from Director Dond Deinger on the March 3rd minutes. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same. Motion carries. Um approval of minutes for the special board meeting on March 10th. So move. I'll second. Got a motion from director Heidman, a second from director Breen. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. Oppose the same. Motion carries. Moving on to the consent calendar. We've got um a number of things on the consent calendar tonight, including a couple of field trips. There are some policies on there that have some um minor changes and um some reports and the payment of bills. I make a motion we approve the consent calendar. I second. We have a motion from director director Breen and a second from director

032Ward. Any discussion on the consent calendar? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose the same. Motion carries. Next up, we have approval of resolution for non-renewal of non-tenure teachers. And I believe we've got Mr. Ali Jean coming up to present for us. Welcome, Director Jean. Good evening. I'm going to read the resolution of non-renewal of non-tenure teachers. Whereas Minnesota statute section 122A.40 4 subdivision 5 states that the first three consecutive years of a teacher's teaching experience in a single district is deemed to be a probationary period of employment and that the probationary probationary period in each district in which the teacher is thereafter employed is one year and whereas Minnesota statute section 1228.4 Four, subdivision five further states that any annual contract with a probationary teacher may or may not

033be renewed as the school be school board shall see fit provided that the board gives a teacher written notice of non-renewal before July 1st 2025. Now therefore be it resolved by the school board of independent school district one number 181 as follows. One, pursuant to Minnesota statute section 122A.4 subdivision 5, the school board hereby declines to renew the annual teaching contract of two probationary teachers effective at the end of the school year. Two, as a result of this resolution, the district's employment relationship with the two probationary teachers listed in the consent agenda will terminate effective at the end of the concurrent at the end of the current contract or June 9, 2025. Three, the school board has review and hereby approves a written notice of non-renewal for each effective teacher. Each teacher has a right

034to request the written reason for non-renewal. The reasons for non-renewal are classified as private personnel data under the Minnesota government data practice act unless the non-renewal represents the final disposition of disciplinary action. Four, the superintendent or a design is directed to serve the effective teachers with a copy of this resolution and the approved written notice for that for that teacher before July 1, 2025. If possible, the notice shall be handd delivered. Copies of the resolution and a written notice to each of the probationary teacher will be provided for the clerk this evening. At this time, I'm seeking approval of resolution of non-renewal of non-tenure teachers. We'll look for a motion. Make a motion. Thank you. We've got a motion from Director Donolinger and a second from Director Heidman. Any discussion? If not, do we need

035to do roll call on a resolution? Yes. Um, we'll do roll call. Dunlinger. Yes. Stephanie Edman. Yes. Randy Hidman. Yes. Sarah Spear. Yes. Don Ward. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, next up we've got a presentation from the Riverside PTO on a fundraising plan. I know. Oh, I got a click, too. Thanks for joining us tonight. No shooting. Okay. I don't know if she was gonna say something. Uh members of the board, thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to talk to you tonight about our project. We'll start with introductions. My name is Misha Freeman. I am the PTO secretary at Riverside and I have two children in the Brainer School District, both that go to Riverside. My name is Alicia Prlemmyer. Um I am the president of the PTO.

036I have been part of the PTO for 12 years and my youngest is in second grade and my oldest will be graduating next year. My name is Carrie Gorgus and I am the PTO treasurer and I have one child in first grade and I have another one that will be joining for the voluntary preschool program this next fall. Friends, so um one of the big initiatives, if you'll call it that, um we'll say Jill's catchphrase is that Riverside is a place to belong. And as a group of PTO parents, we have really taken ownership of what that means and really talked a lot about how we can do a better job participating in that vision for every student in Versail to feel and have the autonomy to belong in the community we create. We've done

037that so far with just making sure that every activity that we offer is accessible. Yeah, you guys can sit down with me. Um, making sure that we are creating spaces that every child is able to engage in in our space. Um, and as we've grown in our understanding of what that means to be long in our space, um, we came up with a $1.2 million vision. Um, we sat down this summer as a PTO. Um, it doesn't scare you as much as it scares us. Um, we sat down with parents, we sat down with, um, school staff, um, with Miss Borgi as well as buildings and ground members and talked about what would it look like and feel like if every child in our building had the opportunity to engage in play um, in a

038way that they are self-driven and they have the access to do so, but more importantly that all of the students in Riverside have an opportunity to engage with each other in really important ways. Um, our playground, just like every playground in the district, um, meets the ADA guidelines for what accessibility is, which is a single blue adaptive swing, um, that is surrounded by wood chips. So that means that an adult has to actually actively make the decision to put a child in that swing to allow that child to engage it. And we have a greater vision um, for the students that we work with because we recognize that, well, we are hoping that someone will give us $1.2 2 million. But if that doesn't happen immediately, um we worked with St. Croy to develop a

039threephase process for how we're going to develop this program. As um Carrie mentioned, next year we are really excited to have VPK on campus at Riverside. So we will have preschoolers there. So we have an immediate need for playground equipment that hits the ages of 2 to 5y olds. Um everything in this picture is pretty true with the exception of the fence. There will not be a fence. That means that it is accessible for every child in our playground. I personally have a little girl. She's in kindergarten. She is five. Uh and the 5 through 12year-old playground equipment is not safe for her. She's itty bitty. And so um she'd be able to engage in this playground equipment in a safe way that I would know she's not a fall risk while playing on the

040playground with her friends. This is going to be um set up this summer. We'll already have it implemented and ready to go for that prek students that are starting in the fall. We have funding for that piece. Um but our next big piece is going to be phase two which is our universally accessible structure. Um I don't know how much it is. I don't know that I need to know that right now. U but the dream is as you can see a fully um accessible play structure that any child in a wheelchair would be able to access and engage in activities once they access that playground. we um really dreamed about what it would look like to be able to play. So, there are slide structures that allow students with varied mobility to be able

041to play in there. You'll see that every piece that allows wheelchair play also has very intentional um spaces for abled-bodied childrens to engage with them because it's not just about allowing children with disabilities to engage, but allowing children to play together in a way that makes sense to them. So, this will be our next big push. And then phase three, which would be the addition of an adaptable um zipline. Thank you, Jill. Uh and then another swing in the back. Part of our plan in that the larger picture that we showed does have us keeping some of the existing equipment that we have while upgrading a good chunk of it to make sure that all of our children are able to play in that space. Um the three adults sitting in front of you right

042now have never done anything like this before. We are engineering as we go. And so we came up with three ways that we think we can do some fundraising. Um the first one, it's going to be amazing. We're going to tell ourselves that it's going to be a dinner fundraiser on May 13th. We are going to invite members of the community so that our parents and our students can talk to them about the need and our dream for this playground. We're partnering with a community restaurant to do this program. So we're hopeful that it will all be taken care of in that one night and this event will be over. If we don't raise all our funds in a single night, the next step will be some grant writing. A group of us this summer

043are going to be sitting down and writing grant applications. Um, one of the things that you might see or hear from us is we're going to be coming to community members to ask for letters of support. Uh, Brainer Lakes area does not have an accessible or universally accessible playground anywhere. So, we also are keeping in mind that this playground would help our children and our future children, but also be accessible to any community member outside of school hours. Jill is really great about making sure that our playground is open and accessible to the community. I'm a community member who also travels to all the other elementary schools to play at the parks. So, it would definitely be something that we're adding to our community. So, we're hoping for letters of support on how this could

044bring more business or bring more families into our community. And then finally, um the other thing that I was really excited about was when we met with St. Croy and he gave us the very itemized, uh pricing list for phase one, which was really overwhelming. He identified some pieces that we could work on to lessen the bill. One of those would be um working with construction companies who might be interested in donating the concrete for some of the areas um that we would need within the playground. Um the other place that he talked about is what I am calling a wood chip party. um they would drop the wood chips at a location and we would work as a community to put those wood chips where they need. So, we are going to invite our

045school family, our students, our community members, preferably those with Bobcats, but if you have a wagon, we're excited to have you join us um to move those wood chips and put them into our playground um so that our students really have ownership over this space that we're creating for them as well. So, you'll get that invite in your mailboxes as well. So, um, planning with a goal in mind. Although, um, some of us are worried about 1.2, Jill has a vision that we're going to raise more than we need. We love that about her. Um, and so if and when Jill, we raise more than $1.2 million, our plan is to put the rest of that funds in an endowment account through the Brainard Foundation to make sure that the upkeep for our playground will

046forever be uh in place. Um, and then we'll go from there if we have additional funds. So, I'll pause here and ask what questions might you have for our team. Mure. So, um the ARB has just putting in a playground as well. Um and it's a handicap accessible playground, but I'm not sure if it's totally handicap accessible. Do you know Do you know anything about that? I am uh familiar with it. uh they have both the the outdoor pieces that they're allowing to make um outdoor a little bit more accessible for students. I do not know because I haven't seen the plans. Um one of the things that is really essential when we're talking about dis disabled like just universally accessible would be um the paths. So one of the reasons why our playgrounds aren't

047is because they're all wood chips. They have put in some paths to my knowledge but I don't know if the there's concrete or what pi or in place or in place. Thank you. um materials and space that would allow wheelchairs to go through. And I don't know if the ARP has those. Um some of the state parks are getting those um wheelchairs that have the really intense wheels so that you can go off-roading um and engage in nature and natural. And I don't know if the ARP has any of those, but um Madam Chair, um so you you may want to visit with them though about some possible grant writing and places to go for money. Mhm. I also um I'm from Proctor which is up by Duth and Proctor has a handicap accessible playground

048and and I've been there and visited it. I've seen it. Um one of the things that they did different than what I see here and and by the way, thank you for including all of our kids. Thank you for the inclusion of every child in this in this area. Um because there are not not that many years ago recently or we had a a parent at a at a board meeting whose child had to sit and watch while the other kids played. So thank you for inclusion of uh all of the kids. Okay. Having said that, um um Proctor has a a playground, a handicap accessible playground. They didn't use wood chips. They used poor in place. Yeah, we agree. Also, a $1.2 million dream would be like a $2.7 million dream. So, there is

049an opportunity. If anyone listening has a lot of money to make it fully accessible, that would be our dream. I think there was a certain point where one, we can always add more porn in place to make the entire ground um pour in place. It's just a matter of yeah, how much we're going to do. And and this is a big ask. I I I want to be really clear like this is a massive ask and there are a lot of inclusive playgrounds. The city has quite a few. Um we're just trying to figure out how we can kind of get it started into a place um because we looked at complete porn and play for the VPK plus and it was a difference of $90,000 for just that small area. So it's it's a

050big but we're going to try to do our best. How long does that pour and play stuff last 10 years? That's it. Huh? Closer to the end. Correct. And because of the ADA laws regarding step differences, we can't do all concrete. It's also not really great for children falling. But um we looked in different ways, but that was part of the endowment. And the other piece that's that we're aware of is that it's going to be a shift in buildings and ground because you can't plow it, you can't shovel it, you can't blow it because to keep it longer in the snow. Too soft. But isn't that great for like getting sued, right? like soft play makes less injuries. We're here for you, Madam Chair. So, the other thing I want to say about Proctor

051was that they they uh Essentia Health provided a significant amount amount of grant money for them. So, I would encourage you to um visit other places that have those uh that have handicapped accessible playgrounds and where they got their money from. There's some state money available as well. Okay. Um, so yeah, we have a big list of people that we want to start asking both within our community and outside of our community. We worked with some other parent groups in the cities who created playground funds to see how they've did it. And as well as the grants, we were really thoughtful about um whose values aligned with what we were trying to do. Um, I haven't seen any grants that would like make this really easy for us, but $10,000 at a time is something

052that we're willing to do if it meant our children got to engage in play. So, but if you have ideas, I will take them. We are more than willing to make this happen. And again, I mentioned we have no idea what we're doing. Get a hold of me. Actually, there was there was a um playground put together up over in Crosby. Um not handicap accessible, but it was grassroots. It was grassroots from some uh citizens that didn't know what they were doing either, but it turned out to be quite a beautiful project. So, our neighbors can help us as well. Yeah, Madam Chair. Um, you said that this is going to be accessible year round. Well, um, as much as snow can be accessible for children in wheelchairs, but we use our playgrounds outside in

053the winter. Um, with the exception of I don't know what the temperature is where they make the kids stay inside, but it would be accessible and the parks are open in the winter. How about in the summertime? The your school parks when school is not in session. Yeah. When schools are not in session, the gates are open. um what we talked about or our concern was, is that true? And it is in Riverside. It's just um how you get in is not necessarily as easy as other spaces, but it is open. And so we talked about how do we create better signage so that parents can come into our community park and be able to see it. I would also get our local police department involved because um Riverside is close to Washington Street and

054I've been told in the past, this is not a negative, this is just getting them involved because they have zero tolerance for anything going against a child. Mhm. And the playground was closed on one Friday and I called someone who's in the know. He's no longer in the district, but uh I asked him why why why was it closed? Vandalism. Well, vandalism. Uh alcoholic bottles were found. Uh they've even found uh needles in the past. Now, I'm not trying to scare anybody. No. So, you want to get them involved because we want that patrol and we want it open for the children. Yeah. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say is good ideas attract money. Oh, that's what we're hopeful for. And we are really excited per your concerns for any cameras that you'd like

055to install at Riverside Outside to help prevent any of that vandalism to keep our park nice and safe. I'll speak on Jill's behalf. Um, but also I think one of the pieces that we're really going to drive towards is that the more that we can make this a community space and not this is Riverside's playground, but this is a Brainer Lakes, which is why we thought the wood chip party would be a really good idea is that people take care of what they own and what belongs to them. And so we're trying to try really hard to make sure that the community knows this is a space for not just children. Like I have seen adults who have found accessible playgrounds that they never had as children and it is life-changing. And so we want

056to create that space for the adults in our community as well. an idea and I think it might have to run through the school district at our sporting events. You might want to consider a 50/50 raffle. We have a lot of questions about how much gambling andor alcohol-related activities PTO is allowed to engage in, but we will look into that. Oh, okay. I see. Yeah. Yeah. Like where's the line? Somebody else may be able to do that for you. Yes. And we would say yes to all the money. That have a license. Yeah. So, I mean that's a good Usually it's a pretty decent fundraiser. Yeah. Where does it go now, Randy? What's that? The 50/50. Well, I know at basketball games, I believe the uh basketball parents, they have an association and they're they're

057selling 5050 at basketball games. I don't know about football. I'm pretty sure the same thing at hockey. It could be. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty positive. Yeah. They got a little competition. It's being done, you know. So, so did did I hear you right? You have the first phase, the funding for the first phase. Yes. And how did you get those funds? Part of it is the funding that's being provided by the district. This is not where I'm in the area of expertise at. Okay. Um Jill did that. We have She's in the back. Uh we have about $170,000 or $150,000 that was donated for the PK Plus space. Um and Paul Bunan Co-op I think did part of You should be up here. I don't see what's happening. I know. She's in charge. I

058don't know. Well, really? Who's in charge? Yeah, we got um so the district has been working to create and make our playgrounds more accessible and part of that was having some capital money set aside for each of the buildings and Marcy can speak more to the budget piece of it and we've been collaborating with the cooperative to make sure that the pieces we do select really are truly accessible and meet the needs. Um but as Misha said, our whole team, um parents, staff, uh even student input have participated in the design of our playground. And so thinking about the students we have and the students that are to come, um it will meet the needs of all. So anything you want to add, Marcy? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Wonderful. Nice job.

059Nice job. All right. Next up, we have director Christina Lundren and the winter data presentation. Welcome. Hello. That's a tough one to follow. All right. Well, good evening. Uh I am sharing this is the winter data presentation that was uh shared at the February uh curriculum instruction and staff development uh schoolboard committee meeting. Um it's an overview of our winter uh fastbridge screening data and then we have some information related to the online school programming at the high school. So the first slide uh this is just an overview of the implementation of the fastbridge screening assessments. Last year was our first year of implementing those assessments. Um and then the items in red for year two early reading uh CBM reading and then CBM math automaticity at uh grades two and three. Those assessments were

060just added this year. So really this year is our first year of full implementation of all those different assessments that we're using in K12 uh for our three screening periods over the course of the year. So, our uh data and assessment coordinator uh put together an infographic just as an overview of that of that winter screening data. And so since this is our second year with that full implementation of those assessments, our goal for this year was really to have uh fidelity in the implementation of those assessments. And we were looking to get 90% of our students participating in those assessments. So that's our goal uh this year in the fall, the winter, and then the upcoming spring uh screening assessments. So the the top box um that is a district-wide so this is a

061district-wide view of the winter screening uh proficiency data for reading math and then the social emotional that's the sabers um assessment and that's looking at uh social behavior how students interact with each other um academic behavior and then emotional behavior how I manage my emotions in difficult situations are those three categories for that assessment. Our our second row um in that first box is the percentage of students that completed the assessment again districtwide. So in math and reading uh we we did meet our goal of that 90% for the winter screening. Um hoping to increase that as we move into the spring assessment. And then we had 80% of our students uh complete the sabers. Uh again the K4 students that's a teacher uh the teacher completes that assessment for students grades 512 uh the

062students do a self assessment on that sabers assessment. And then our next item is uh a breakdown of the percentage of students p proficient uh by grade level for the reading and the math assessments. So the reading is in the kind of teal, green, blue and then the math is in that orange color on that bar graph. What is proficient? Uh so that means you would be making progress of meeting the benchmark goals for those end of the year goals. So you're meeting you're meeting for proficient to benchmark. What what's the number? So you would be meeting the goal. So you are at grade level by the end of the year is what that means. So you are reading at grade level by the end of the year. You are at math for grade level

063by the end of the year. How does the state define that Christina? Proficiency uh based on the MCA score. So I don't know what the actual number is for that but um I can get that information for you at the next meeting. Well, I just asked the question because I think I know the answer. Yeah. 50%. 40% 40% and the MCA% is proficient. Okay. Wow. unfortunate, but that's what it is. So, this is really looking at specific skills. I mean, it's happy to see some better numbers, not cleaning, and just Yep. It's these these, you know, when you think proficient, I mean, when you when 60% is the bottom of the D's, right? So, then you'd think that 40% would be not proficient, but it's proficient. So, it it's disappointing. Um, well, I remember when

064I went to school, 40% was an app. No kidding. 50% wasn't enough. Yeah, it still is. And I'm not I'm not throwing darts at you. You're I know. I know. We're just going by what the state is saying. I know. These numbers are nice, though. We're We're making progress. Yeah. The the last item is looking at the growth scores. Um comparing the fall screening assessment scores to the winter. Um so looking at uh those those four categories. So we had uh overall for reading 40% 46% of our students had typical aggressive growth from fall to winter and then in math 51% in that typical to aggressive growth from fall to winter. So when we do this again in the spring um we'll come back with the same overview of the the data for that spring

065screening um assessment data at that time. Well, thanks for bringing us some data. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Um I do want to make a me this is the first time I've seen this. I wasn't able to open up anything uh in the uh agenda. Well, it doesn't show that you can open up. I think you could have. I saw you do it and then I went to mine and sure it was there because I was wondering like what are we looking at? You had to get permission. I don't know. I didn't know it was a link. Didn't really show up that it was a link. It's a link. Did you know it was a link, John? Yeah. You figured it out. You old whisbang. Okay. Well, if I wouldn't have been out west,

066I'd have been at the meeting. I'd have seen all this. So, I wasn't at the meeting either. What should growth be? I mean, growth kills me because I would think you could read better at the end of first grade than you could at the start of first grade or the end of second. I mean, you're you're supposed to grow. So, and so we would hope like if we look at that bottom graph, bar graph, the hope would be that our students that are in flat to modest, we want to move those students into the typical and aggressive. So, typical growth is the expected level of growth for for that student over that time frame. So we want to move those students from flat and modest to the to the other side of that graph is

067is the hope. So is that fast bridge terminology? Flat growth mod. Okay. I just I just because that's a good tool. Yep. We're getting getting used to it. We are and we're still learning too. Sure. Being it's only our second year. Get rid of it. And so our our spring window uh is starts April 28th. through May 16th. So that will be our spring uh screening window. So then we'll have another set of data at the June the June meeting. And just another note, MCA season has started this month. So we are in the midst of MCA testing this month. So we'll MCA test in April and then move into our last screening window this spring. That just triggered a question in my mind. What can d how got to think about my question? Can

068we take any of this data and predict how our kids are going to do on the MCAs? Now, I'm not saying that that's is the only thing, but is there any kind of a predictor, Christina, y of how we think our kids will do on MCAs? So, I I wrote I wrote down that number because I anticipated the the question here. Uh so the kind of the relationship of the correl relation is that the the fastbridge proficient score um is related to an 80 to an 85% accuracy of predicting their uh performance on the MCA that they would meet those benchmarks on the MCA assessment especially for the A reading the adaptive reading and then the AMAT the adaptive math those two assessments So it's a good it's a good predictor of how they will

069how they will perform on the MCA. So can you compare it like is flat growth does not meet and then moderate to typical is meets and then aggressive is um seeds or not. It's more just the progress that they're making that day. Okay. So as they've progressed through the year they are um their their learning is deepening. They're growing in their skill development. That's what that growth cost would mean. Okay. Madam Chair, if I can make a comment, and this is not directed at any one individual. I think our school district needs to change our mindset. I've been on this board for about two and a half years and I went back and looked at all of our board meetings and I think I counted maybe four or five times we've talked about proficiency. We

070spend more time on cultural issues than academic issues. And that's the purposes of our school is to graduate smart kids. And we as a board, I think we need to change our mindset as well and challenge staff. Not berate them, not put them down, but challenge them because I think they want to be challenged and I think we want to talk about these things. So, thank you for bringing this up now. And what I would also ask you to do is if you could come up with a monthly or bimonthly Christina or co quarterly or something give us an idea of when we can expect data. So I think we need to talk about it more. We don't talk about data enough. We don't talk about how how how our students are doing. Now maybe

071we don't have data but maybe do we have trends? Well, if you're thinking we could four kind of the four quarters right now um planning for would be uh fall, winter, and spring screening. So, this this overview that we looked at this evening and then the fourth in the fall would be MCA data. So we can start with those four uh quarters of the year and then if there's other items we can we can discuss but we can start with those four if that's a good place to start. Yeah. I mean I would like to see us talk more about proficiency. How are question? I have a suggestion. So if we're going to do that which I think is a great idea. Um we've been waiting for this to get rolling, right? I mean that's

072kind of the deal. But then I think you need to show us last year and this year. I think we need to see if we're getting better or worse. We can look at these numbers and if you have a really good photographic memory, you'd remember that the third graders last year were at 67% in math and this but then so it'd be nice to see the trending, right? So this stuff is great, but then somehow somebody smarter than me put together a little summary sheet that shows last year, year before, last spring, last whatever. You know, if you're this is this fall to last fall, fine. this winter to last winter. So, you can kind of see the trend like, wow, we're either getting better or we're getting worse. Because a lot of times you

073think that everything is going the direction you want and by the time you figure out you've been going the other way, you've slipped quite a ways and it's hard to get those little points back. You know what I mean? It's like So, the trend data, it's Yeah, trend data is that's the trick. It's And I would say that's probably something that we'd look at adding starting next fall because this year is really the first year we've done all the assessments. So some of the assessments we didn't um administer last year so there wouldn't be trend data wouldn't be accurate anyways but then starting in the fall we could look at last year to the the next school year. I think it's a good idea. Y okay. So the kind of the followup to the the

074data um is is around literacy um and and as you know the um the the teaching staff and our leadership staff have been participating in the OLA training this year. Um, OLA is a professional learning that dives into structured literacy instruction. And our leadership cohorts completed um the the course uh in February. Our teacher cohort which is made up of uh teachers grades K6, our special ed teachers and our uh English language learner teachers. Uh they will be completing the course um at the end of of May or midmay. Um and so uh part of the moving forward from this learning, we have a summer workg group uh with representation from each of those grade levels to look at how we can use that learning to I'm going to grab my our kind of our

075outcomes uh to connect our uh to communicate the learning outcomes uh aligned with Minnesota ELA standards to determine assessment practices and success criteria in reading and to create uh cohesion kind of collective around those evidence-based instruction practices um so that we are using common language with our student common visuals uh possibly lesson templates and things like that so we can have some consistency across that uh literacy instruction across our elementary grades. So that's a a next step with that OLA uh professional learning experience that we had or still in process with this year. How about that? Now Ola is the training part of it. Correct. What is the curriculum? What are we using for uh the curriculum? So the curriculum uh right now we're still using our current adopted curriculum. And really this is about

076instruction and evidence-based instructional practices which can be used with any resource. It's really independent of the resource. So our group this summer is really focused on how do we implement the instructional practices as a starting point and then uh a resource conversation may come later down the road but that's not where we're at right now. So, it's really focused on those instructional practices. What kind of improvement do you think you could expect from training compared to I mean just for a dummy like me, I'm thinking same curriculum. Why would we think it's going to get a whole lot better? Um I'm sure training is going to make a difference. Could you could we could we hope for a 5% improvement, 10% improvement? That is a great question. I I don't want to throw out a

077number, but um I would expect yes, there would be improvement because really it does come down to instruction and not things. And so um this course um I participated in this course and um as you know I'm a a former chemistry teacher. I was not a Did you like it? I did and it is it is intense. I mean it is it's nine modules. Um they are uh intense. They're they're deep. There's practice. There's um a lot of reflection about your instructional practice. And and I would say even as a a secondary teacher, um there were things that if I was in a classroom, I could have been taking that and bringing those instructional practices into my classroom. It was it was a wow a wow moment. So um I think for our teachers that

078are literacy instructors um this has been a great learning experience for them and they are really excited to um implement these practices next year. So while they're going through the class, just help me because I just think different is so I learned this new thing I could use in my class, but I'm not going to use it until next year. No, why wouldn't I use it right now? People have been using it this year. Um the the goal for kind of broadly speaking is this is the learning year. So the expectation is that you are a learner. If you would like to try some of these things in your classroom, great. If you have a group that you're working with and you want to try some of these strategies, great. But collectively, that's going to

079be our our year two. So, we're going to have a workg group with all those different grade levels represented. So, now that we've completed this learning, we've seen the whole the whole package, so to speak, how do we collectively move forward and implement the instruction? So next year it's really about intentional implementation of those instructional practices so that we're using common language with our students, common assessments with our students. We can talk the same language with each other. Um and that's really that year too. So there are people that are using these practices this year. It's not just a a no, but the intentionality and the collective will be next year or that year too. Cool. Because they are just and they will just finish in May. So, it's they're still in the midst of

080of the learning right now. We got buy in from all the uh from the literary coaches. Correct. They're on board. Yeah. I think it's been a really positive learning experience. I mean, it's it's been a lift. It is it's an intense course. It is an intense course and um our teachers have been amazing in their um professionalism, their willingness to to learn and to do hard things and um dig into their learning. It's been really impressive and just really good conversations with each other. Uh good conversations across schools um and some of the different groups that we've had them in together. So, it's been it's been really impressive. So everything everything we've kind of discussed right now are enabling behaviors. Um and the proof is going to come with the kids and that's what we're

081about. That's what this district is about. And you guys are about the same thing. We're all pulling in the same direction trying to accomplish the same goals. And there has to be trust uh between staff, between us, board members. Everyone's got to be on board. And this is so important. I mean, we we talked earlier um I know John was a big proponent of the read Act and we all were, but I mean, if we can get those kids reading in K through four, man, it's going to make their life so much easier. And I'm excited to see what is going to happen next year. That's because right now it's all a lot of training and and whatnot. So, you know, it's, you know, you pass, you know, you make a good pass in basketball.

082We just went through March Madness. You make a good pass, but you don't score unless the ball goes in the basket. And that's what we want to have. And we want a lot of basketball uh scores next year. That is the goal. Yeah. Cool. All right. So, the last data piece, kind of a shift um just because it's newer programming is around our online school, online courses at the high school. And I'm going to invite up uh Brandy Hegel. She's our online school coordinator to uh go over the last couple of slides here. Good evening. Hi. If you like data, you're going to love me because this is what I got for this whole thing. So, there are three pieces of information I really want to point out for Brainer Online School in terms of

083our enrollments for this year. When you're looking at fall 2024, we had a total of 561 students taking at least one course. That doesn't count our entire enrollment for fall, which was around 900 courses being taken because you're going to have many students that are taking two, three, four, even five or six courses. Um, so if you even take a look at like the 9th grade under fall of 2024, we started off with 54 students and by far the majority were taking one course. That was 81% were taking one course. By the time we jumped to 2025, we went up to 81 nth graders that had decided between going from first semester to second semester that they wanted to try online. Um, and if you look even down the row from 9th, 10th, 11th, and

08412th, the majority of our students are taking one course. Um, 10th and 11th grade, we have the highest numbers with uh, well, we only have one eighth grader. Um, but the ninth and the 12th grade, they have the lowest amount of students. So, when we even compare this to what we see with fall of 2023, we had about 230 students that were taking one online course. And so, we jumped for almost double that amount in the in the space of one year. And even our enrollments for next year look like they're going to be higher than this number. So, we're excited to see the growth that's happening with Brainer Online School. Are you offering more classes? We are offering more classes. Um, right now we're trying to we'd be up around 33 offerings and then

085it depends on section numbers on if we're going to be moving ahead with those. But what we want to do is is really focus on our electives and making sure that we have that we have the core courses and we have enough electives where a student if they wanted to go online starting in 9th grade, they could go fully online from 9th through 12th grade, which is an amazing feat considered that we're in our fourth year of an online school. And that has been like an astronomical um kind of boon for for the district and in what we see with interest in taking online. Brandy, how many um Madam Chair, you want me to go back? How many um Brainer kids versus out of district kids are there? Um of these 500 I have my

086glasses on. Yeah. Now currently 5683. So Yep. So, we actually have two full-time outofd district students that are fully enrolled within Brainard. Um, one lives in McGregor, another lives in Piers. Um but then also when you take a look at the supplemental part of this where we just have students taking one or two classes from outside that enrollment isn't it kind of it varies from semester to semester and they you can have students taking two classes or three classes and so that totals about 20 classes being taken. What is our capacity for number of students that that is going to be the question. It really is looking at are we going to reach a plateau and if so when is it going to be? And right now if we're looking at at next year and

087let's say that theoretically we're looking at 900 to a thousand students taking at least one course do we have the section numbers for it? Um is this where we have enough teachers that want to be doing this as well? And so there's a lot of things to take into consideration in deciding how does this look moving forward. Like do do we plateau it ourselves or do we see where it can go? But the the interest is there and we don't see it waning at this point. And at this point we've addressed every student that's applied for online school. I mean every student has had been able to participate if if they want to. It's completely their choice. They do not have to take online if they don't want to take online. I get that. But

088we haven't had to turn anybody away at this point. We have not. Okay. Do any of these classes uh mimic uh elective classes where it's in classroom where there's a teacher? Do you mean like a hybrid class where teachers like all of our teachers take it online or take it in the school? We have teach classes like that. Like you could do the in the building class or you could do the online class. Yep. So, when you look at all of our our core classes, there's an in-person version and then there's an online version that you can take. Really? Yep. Do most these kids do they go to school and it's just like they decided to take these two online classes. Mhm. So, they're here most of the time, but they're done at 1:00 or

089something like that and they take the last two classes at home or wherever they want to go. Yeah. And so what is built into their schedule is let's say they have like a fifth and a sixth hour that is built into the schedule for them to work on the online class. We have designated spots within the high school that are supervised where students can sit down. They have a nice area to work on things. Um all of the teachers are within the building and so if they need help from their teachers in person, they can go directly to them as well. Brandy, I see um you know other online programs u marketing themselves. Um how much marketing are we doing? We have not done marketing like you would see like um let's take Minnesota virtual

090academy for example and they're out of the the Houston Minnesota school district and they were also had K12 as a funer and as a backer as kind of a partner with it and so they had that outside source to be able to say hey we're going to try to reach greater Minnesota in terms of bringing kids to that program for us it is we're focusing on what can we provide for Brainer students? And yes, we are getting students that are supplemental or out of district um because they have heard it's a great program or it has suited their needs in terms of flexibility. But that is our number one goal is to make sure that we're supporting our students and we we're making a program that is good for them. Absolutely. That should be I'm

091glad glad to hear that. But also, you know, if we have an opportunity to re recover some resources, financial resources um down the road or whatever, I think we need to look at that as well. Yep. And there are when when you look at the number of online programs that have really sprung up across the state, it is phenomenal. Within the last the last year or so, um we're up over a hundred online programs. Okay, so more data. exciting. Um, this is a comparison of what do we see with in-person grades versus what do we see with online grades and you'll notice that when you look at percentage of B's, C's, and D's, very similar across the board, which we are very happy about. Um, the difference that you're the greatest difference that you're going

092to see is in terms of the amount of A's and then the amount of Fs. And so it kind of looks like, ooh, that's that's a big difference. But what I do want to remind everyone is that we are in only our fourth year. We create all of our own curriculum. We are still learning in terms of what is effective e-learning design. And as we get better, these numbers will get better. Is there is there um online curriculums that you could buy? There are they are they are very expensive. Um, and when we look at something that we want to offer for students, we know that our teachers, they are the ones with the knowledge. They're the ones that have went through the training and the learning in order to provide the best possible resources

093for students and be able to apply it to online as well. And and that is something that I think separates Brainer online school from a lot of other online programs. And it makes us head and shoulders above the programs where the curriculum may be coming from states like California or Texas just because they're bigger and they can um sell to to more people. And so when we're looking at ours specifically, this is for Minnesota. This is to meet our standards and benchmarks, which is what we need to do. So these these aren't textbook companies that are putting out online curriculum. No, they're complete um full companies that will provide the entire curriculum, not just a textbook. It will be if you're looking at like the learning management system. So we have D2L is where we

094store and house all of our online classes. And if you're looking at uh like a like a company like K12, I think it's called Stride Now, they will provide it. So, it's built for that LMS. It's built for that learning management system, but that is also something that we can do just as well because that's where our learning is taking place throughout the year. I really appreciate that it's the same thing being offered online and in the classroom. Just the fidelity of that in general, I think is awesome. And so I'm glad I know it's more work, but I'm glad we're not subscribing to some of those boxed curriculums. So we're doing this so that we don't lose these kids to online school somewhere else partially. And it's it's partially offering the year is 2025.

095There is choice out there. There is there is flexibility in terms of what students have for options. We need to be flexible as well in what we're offering our students and wanting them to not only stay with our district, but we know we can provide that learning experience that they need to have in order to be prepared for what comes after high school. How many staff are are teaching online? We have 24 right now. Okay. You know, when you look at the grades too, um C or better, you know, um online is about 80% and in person is 83%. So, when I look at that, I'm going, you know, that's that's a relatively very very good correlation of of online and in person. Yeah. Yeah. We we were happy with these numbers. Yeah. We know

096that there is room to grow. Um there always is. But that's where we're hoping that our hard work and and learning in terms of what does it look like to be an effective online provider and having that for our students, we know that's going to make the difference between providing something that is high quality for our students or not. Do we know why the percentage is so much different uh with with the uh grade with the upgrade? And I would I would Are they just screwing around? No. No, they are not. No, they are not. You know, okay. Well, I won't do it today. There's a variety of reasons for this. And when I look at the reasons, I would I would say that we are still a new program. We are still learning how

097to be online teachers and we're learning what is the most effective way in our formatting which is asynchronous online. How do we make sure that we have that effective engagement communication and even when you see scores from previous years to now it is increasing toward the better. Do the kids have any comments? I mean do do we ask them? Yes, we do. I hold several win sessions at the high school, the what I need sessions, um, asking for feedback and then I send out surveys throughout um, at the end of fall semester and spring semester. And then all of the teachers within their courses put in surveys. Some of them do it at the end of of each unit because as they're creating units, they want feedback on how is that going, what needs to

098be changed. So some do it at the midterm mark, some do it at the end of the semester. And so we rely heavily on that student data which also when you look at uh we go through an MDE process a continuous improvement process where we have to show that student um qualitative data as well as just quantitative there's probably a learning curve for students too taking to online and so there's you're trying to encourage them to make develop good habits and one of our goals as part of that continuous improvement pro process is how can their experiences with Brainer online school, how can that take them into life after high school? Most colleges and universities within the state of Minnesota use their learning management system of D2L and they have online courses. And so if

099you can experience it in high school where the stakes are not as high as what you're going to see in college, this is this just puts our students one step ahead of someone who hasn't experienced online. Even if you're not looking at it in terms of of a college or university experience, there are so many professions or jobs out there right now where you have to do learning through online modules. And this is something that if they understand how it works and how it functions and they're used to it, they're going to be more successful. Any other questions? Thank you, Brandy. Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. You can probably stay seated. I I can, but Melissa's going first, so I'll get up for her. Great. Thank you for that great information. Oh, Melissa, I think we

100got one. Thank you. There we go. All right. Up next, we have a presentation on personal the personal finance course. Melissa Carnea and Brandy Hegel. Thank you. Thank you. So, first know that Brandy and I are here to represent an entire team and I'll speak to that team later. Um, but we really are representatives. Um I'm our K12 literacy and humanities coordinator and as you heard from Brandy the Brainer online school um and really where the support for the team that is launching this new course personal finance that came from the state statute during 2023 legislative session. So during that session the graduate requirement for personal finance was passed into law. All students, all high school students need to re take a course for credit um in personal finance and that starts with next year's

101students. So this year's 9th graders need to take a personal finance course next year 10 11 12 and so that's a graduate requirement of every student in the state of Minnesota um per state statute in 2023. So, we are starting next fall with our 10th graders or our current nth graders. It will be one semester for one credit and it will be offered both online and in person. I'm going to talk you through our process. Um, you'll see there at the bottom that idea of feedback loops. And so, being able to bring people in on the conversation. Um, we had our CTE teacher who already teaches the elective personal finance. Landon Brainer. Bless you. Bless you. We had our fax teacher. Um, our fax teacher, Emily Neistad. Thank you. Um, that she also teaches a

102course that brings in personal finance. We had a special education teacher. That special education teacher has been in the business sector. Um and so Angie Andress was able to bring in that perspective of both special education but also coming from um the financial world along with our special ed curriculum coordinator Tammy Nelson who's helping us think about okay what about beyond just the core those students who can access core students who um have different programming how do we start thinking about them meeting this requirement. So, that's something that we're starting to dig into. Administration that we began this conversation with Andrea Rusk and Christina Lundren um because there's numbers in there and math 10 um you'll we won't get into it but that this is something that doesn't have a specific teaching license um and

103so bringing in just all of our partners. So math was Eric Job and then social studies um personal finance are standards that are within the Minnesota social studies standards um but specifically in state statute that can't be how our students learn personal finance that it was specified that this needs to be a course. Yes, the personal finance social studies standards would stay in that course because they really do speak to two different things. Um, so for social studies, we brought in Dylan Canipple who is our economics teacher. Um, we started the conversation back in September, uh, bringing really the conversation of how does state statute apply to Brainer public schools and so what are our options? How do we want to approach this? Um that team then focused in with our two experts from CTE

104and Fax, Landon and Emily to look at the focus areas. And so MDE came out with guidance once um this went into state statute. MDE had a team that was providing guidance. Uh they have strands which we'll speak to later um or focus areas is the name of that area. Um so what we did is we looked at the focus areas and we looked at okay what are we currently doing in these courses where we do speak to f personal finance um and what does that mean for how we move forward in January then we specifically sat down and vetted curriculum resources to begin thinking about okay what would this look like the scope and sequence of these focus areas what's the curriculum resource that is best going to meet the needs for what we

105want for our students and building their financial literacy, their personal finance. So, where we're at now is uh bringing it to you, finalizing that scope and sequence and beginning to build units. Next year, it will be full implementation and continuous improvement. So, that feedback loop, that team there will continue to come back together and support um those teachers who are implementing the course. Career in technical education. What's fax? Fax is family and consumer science. Home. Great question. So many acronyms, right? So many acronyms. So so few days. All right. Just because we had already touched upon focus areas. I'd like to go over these first and then come back to our course description so you can see how it fits into the course description that we created. But the focused areas that MDE has provided

106with her guidance, financial psychology, earning and income, financial systems, credit and debt management, risk management, budgeting and investing. So with those in mind and based really on the expertise of of the teachers who have taught personal finance and in those areas, this is the course description that we came up with. So take a moment, read through it. And what we see is a change within this is it's not simple memorization of information, memorization of terms. it is we want to build skills and we want to implement those skills in the areas in the focus areas that MDE had provided and when we did our feedback loops and when we went through the in the entire process what we needed to really look at was what are the proper resources or what are the best resources

107that that we can use that will make sure that we are meeting these areas with fidelity and they're the best resour resources for our students and this is where we relied on the expertise of of the teachers once again and through I mean we did a lot of indepth um analysis of different resources and we came up with the the next generational personal finance curriculum that we are going to apply to this course. So it aligns with all of the focus areas that we just went over. Um and this is the big part. fosters that higher level thinking which is what we need to do for our students in 2025 and and later. Um and it also gives teachers an ability to be flexible based on the needs of the students which we thought was

108um extremely powerful in terms of this resource and then of course it also aligns to the national personal finance standards. Any questions? One of the exciting things in my opinion is that you're going to be able to um with this course, you're going to be able to go out into the real world and find real life examples for those kids to work on, you know, with the stock market or checking accounts or I mean, there's all kinds of real life examples there. Yeah. And we're we're even looking at how do we bring in community professionals as well to share their expertise in these areas. So, we bought this curriculum. It is a free curriculum. It's free. I like it. You're welcome. I just find it funny. Curriculum's expensive. So, I've been hearing for two and

109a half years. This one's free. Yeah. I always, if you ever notice, I always ask about this curriculum stuff. It's always kind of the, oh, it's going to cost us millions. You know, you can't do that. And then you know this one obviously I don't think you guys came up with well I googled it so I know you didn't come up with what it is you know but whatever know that there are links here too of you can see the focus areas um that's linked along with personal finance standards the national standards are linked and then I believe they linked the nextgen um so if you clicked on the logo I believe it takes you to that website and um our personal finance teacher. This has been the curriculum that he's been working from. And

110so when we sat down and we I mean we used the MDE rubric to vet the different curriculum resources they both have been using um both were high quality. This especially allowed those simulations, application evaluation, that piece of to be able to actually go out in the world and be financially literate towards your personal values and your goals. Well, that was nicely said. This is a requirement beginning next year 10, 11, and 12. We have to take it once. Kids are that are entering 10th grade for the first time next year will have three years of this class or one year. One semester. One semester, one credit. Yep. Great question. Yep. But they can take it as we're recommending that they take it as 10th graders, but they could take it as an 11th grader

111or a 12th grader. So, will this fall into the category of elective classes as far as them building? It's a requirement, but it's an elective. No. Right. Are they going to be able to build around their other classes? Yeah. Just Yes. And we worked with the the high school team to make sure, okay, when would this fit best and that recommendation of putting it in the 10th grade year. um Dylan Canipple economics that it's exciting watching the conversations that had happened in the past and will continue to happen of what he talks about in 12th grade economics that brings in the social studies angle of personal finance. Um he is already in conversation with these teachers and and asking students too that student voice of of what do you know? What more do you need

112to know? How do we how do we get you to this goal? So, I think it's really exciting that in 10th grade this deep dive um and then in 12th grade that partnership with the social studies economics course. Lord knows they need it. I mean, look at SVB Bank. Remember that? Silicone Valley Bank. All those young billionaires, Google people lost all their money because they didn't know what FDIC. Like, who doesn't know that? And uh John talked about him writing checks. Not a whole lot of 25 year olds even have a checkbook. Um, you know, it's maybe there's no protection with Venmo. Zel is a bad deal. Um, it's not like a credit card. Debit cards don't have nearly the protection that credit cards do. And I don't know. I feel like for 125 million

113bucks, we owe it to them to at least give them the basics when they're getting out of here. So, good for the state of Minnesota. They find it's something we needed around here. I just pumped about it. Damn. So Jason Frerieded was presenting to the board. He helped me with it last year ago. Was it a on a course similar to this leadership? Leadership leadership, but he was bringing in some personal finance stuff and if I remember correctly, I thought he was doing some of that some of that stuff as well. Have you dialogued with him at all? We will. When I think of his course, um, I think of it as very much being a leadership, being a leader for yourself, being a leader for your community, being a a leader in the future.

114Okay. Um, I think so different. Yes. Yeah. And that wouldn't be a part of the state statute. That is truly an elective. Um, if a student doesn't take that course, they can still graduate. This is a course that every student needs to graduate. Thank you. I I I have people in my household that still don't know the difference between cash and credit, but and if they they know the difference, but I guess what I'm trying to say is they if they used cash, I think they would be a little bit more careful. Take the old plastic out and you just start. I mean, hopefully that's going to be part of the the the behavior issues regarding personal finance as well. I think a benefit of the course um according to Landon that he really appreciated

115and spoke to and and aligned with the rubric is uh we wanted to make sure we weren't pushing an agenda and that we were helping students be able to evaluate their own choices. Um and so that exact idea of budgeting can work well for one person using the envelope system with dollar bills, right? Um whereas budgeting works better for other people in various ways. And so it truly does set a student up to know in depth um this aspect, this focus area of financial literacy, but then to be able to evaluate, make decisions for themselves um for their own goals and values. And that's also where that financial psychology comes into play in being able to y set goals for yourself and understand why you're reacting to certain things in this way and why you

116want to make these types of decisions. So 10th graders will take it next year. Um juniors and seniors won't need to. Okay. But they have had a course, you know, offered to them where they can take it, right? Um, so and yes, and many have have taken that opportunity to do that. And those ninth graders that are in that personal finance course this year will still need to take this one next year. Right. Yeah. But it I I realize this is a much deeper dive probably than the other one. And I would say Mr. Caniple's class is awesome. He does a really great job. Yeah. Just from my own kid bringing home some of that stuff. Right. I'm glad we're still doing that as well. So, Peter, do we get rid of a class then?

117No, we're just adding in another class. That what I find difficult is that the ninth graders this year are going to have to repeat something similar. So, that that's kind of a rip. And I know they've tried to get MDE to can't we work this out? And the answer was no because they already did this this year. This year they're do. So that's kind of a rip on the kids going forward this ninth grade group. But the other side of it is that the outcome is going to be interesting because if we're not teaching any of this at home and we're relying on the schools to do it, they have to really do a good job of what they're explaining because this is how kids get in trouble as soon as they graduate from high

118school. Sure. first thing they do is get a debit credit card and everything's free. They never think about the consequences of zip zip and then when you go to college you're unendated with advertisements to get the credit cards. So it's a really critical course. Um we just have to do a really critical job of instruction. What other questions can we answer? I'll make a motion to approve this. I'll second. All right. Got a motion from Director Doninger and a second [Music] from Director Edman. Any further discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose the same. Thank you very much. Great work. Thank you. Nice job. Thanks. All right. The next action item on the agenda is the approval of the resolution for the American Indian Parent Advisory

119Committee, the APAC vote of non-concurrence response. And I think Superintendent Grant, you're on deck for that. You'll have to bear with me. My voice a little bit raspy after last Thursday, but um the Brandon Public Schools Board of Education proposes the following in response to the American Indiv Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee in his vote of non-concurrence to the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee APAC members. The Brainer Public Schools would like to begin its response to the vote of non-concurrence and recommendations presented from APAC in February 2025 acknowledging the need for ongoing support and collaboration with the with our staff and communities to support indigenous learners. In response to the APAC recommendations, we offer the following recommendation number one, statutory requirements to offer an Ajiway language and cultural course. Our response. The Briner Public School

120in cooperation with the Brainard High School administration and staff prepared a curriculum for a course titled Introduction to Indigenous Language and Culture. Course number 131600 for grades 9 through 12 with a value of one credit. The course was presented to our district advisory committee before planning began in earnest and their input was considered when developing the course. Since this course was only offered for one section one semester, the position was posted internally for existing staff. All licensed applicants were considered as of course continues as the course continues to grow and expand. There may be a need for additional staffing at that time. Future actions will be taken to create a more inclusive plan for participation of APAC. Recommendation number two, submission of data request by APAC for special education, disciplinary, fastbridge, and school climate response.

121The Briner public schools followed the MARS reporting for North American Indian students by procedure 30. Identification of indigenous students is self-reported identity data and does not need to be verified by school personnel. The district makes clear that these data are for purposes of compliance with federal and state civil rights laws. Students, parents, and/or guardians may be asked to self-identify. There are three ways in which parents, guardians, or students typically report their indigenous identity. One, ethnic and racial demographic designation form. Two, a title uh six ED506 Indian student eligibility certification form. and three Johnson Ali program certification form. Reporting eligibility and timeliness for all MARS requires students must be identified as North American Indian to be identified in the MARS with a code of one. If the identification is inaccurate, the data will reflect a difference

122in data that may be requested. It is the district's understanding that data requested by APAC may not have been what was anticipated yet self-identification cannot be changed by district personnel. It is also important to recognize that elementary schools record attendance and discipline differently from the secondary schools. Thus, the data will reflect that in the Minnesota report card reports. Recommendation number three, Indigenous People's Day program. Response: We agree with the recommendation accepting that a timeline to implement curriculum for the Indigenous Day was faced with constraints. The district plans on a more responsive approach to assist staff in preparations for the future. Each of the past three years, information, resources, and expectations have increased for district staff. This year, the district established a working committee to review data and make recommendations for the meeting the spirit of

123the law regarding this requirement. As we continually improve curriculum, we are mindful of incorporating multiple perspectives and identities across all content areas throughout the school year, especially that of our indigenous community. It is important for students to see themselves in text and instructional materials throughout the school year. Our goal is to provide an educational experience that supports all students along with an ongoing support for curriculum development throughout the school year. And recommendation number four, implementing sustainable leadership training response. The Brainer Public Schools do provide training for succession of roles in the district. The roles in HR, executive director of schools, and the superintendent all strive to provide appropriate training for new personnel. The district recognizes that every year changes need to be implemented in order to keep in line with state personnel requirements, changes in

124state laws, and policies approved by the school board through its membership with the Minnesota School Board Association. Thank you. Thanks for reading that. motion. I'm sorry I missed. It's a motion. Motion. Excellent. Second. We've got a motion from Director Don, a second from Director Heidman. Any discussion? If not, we'll do a roll call vote, please. Stephanie Edman, yes. Randy Hidman, yes. Sarah Spear, yes. John Ward, yes. Michelle Breen, yes. DJ Dunling, yes. Thank you. Our next action item on the agenda is the board decision on whether to administer the state the Minnesota student survey. And this does look different. When we when we originally had it on the agenda, we had it on there as a a proposed um motion to approve opting out for grades five and eight for the Minnesota State Survey and

125we went back on that and said let's leave it to this group to decide what kind of motion they want to make on this. So to start the discussion, I will say the and we had some conversation at length, director Heyman, I know about this on what does this mean when we're talking about the Minnesota state survey. What is our action on this? And our action is to opt out. If we don't opt out, we offer the surveys. We don't want to put our staff I know superintendent um Grant, we talked about this. We don't want to put our staff in in the shooting lines either. So, we want to be really respectful about what this means for middle school grades and high school grades as we think about um the options we have in

126front of us for opting out of the survey. So, I will start with that and uh entertain a motion if we want to start off discussion. I've got a question. Who decided to to change the agenda? Was that you or Peter? Did you do that? Randy, did you have any involvement in that? You said we discussed it. So, who's we, Sarah? Well, Sarah and I spoke on the phone this morning and it moved around three or four times. Um, and what we wanted to discuss, I contacted our council and asked um if it's a three vote, what does that mean? three support the um conduct or the doing the testing of the survey. Three do not want to do the survey. And um he said you need a majority because a 33 is not a

127majority. And in his recommendation, it was that um if you cannot come to a consensus for a majority, a 4-2 at least, that you would opt out, take the time to discuss it for the next third year when the test would be offered. In in talking with Sarah, um we thought it was important for the board to discuss it and make a decision here on whether or not you're going to offer the survey of 58911, if you're going to offer the survey 911 11 or you're not going to offer the survey at all. And the question comes down to what does the board think is um an amendable solution to a potential 33 vote and not have a majority. Um if you recall any other 33 votes you've had in the past, whatever was on

128the table for the 33 vote did not move forward. Um I'm here because of your last 33 vote, right? So that's something that you have to make a decision on. So, the original motion that was on the agenda to approve opting out of grades five and eight for the Minnesota State High School Survey, we you're welcome to make that motion, but we didn't want to specify that that was the motion that needed to be made. So, that would have meant go forward with 911. Yes. And that was the original agenda item. That was that was the original agenda item. So the floor is open for any kind of motion we want to make. Um and then we can open discussion. And when Randy and Sarah and I met um a week ago, um we thought

129a compromise would be 911 compared to 58 911. Okay, that's how we got the original motion. Well, I would like to make a motion um that we give the survey to eth 9th and 12th year 12th grader or 11th graders. Surveying students and collecting that data gives us insight and understanding the unique challenges students face such as learning how to navigate social pressures um struggles with body image and self-esteem, stress and anxiety and managing demands of academics. We need to understand more fully what specific challenges these students are facing. This survey also helps us better understand the positive behaviors and the protective factors that impact overall adolescent well-being from their perspectives. Area nonprofits and service clubs use this information to help guide decisions on the resources needed to locally address, reduce, and prevent issues. This

130data helps us know how to best support young people during this very critical time, developmental time in a student's life. So that is my position. What was your motion? So my motion is that we give the survey to 8th, 9th, and 12th graders or 11th graders. 8th, 9th, and 11th. Yeah, there's a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. All right, we have discussion. We have a motion and a second. We'll open up for discussion. Well, I think the I've been on record of saying I think the student survey provides a wealth of information for our school district, but also those agencies that are working with our kids. So I went and looked at some of the analysis from two 2016 to 2022 uh with the help of um Sarah. And so some of

131the things that we have found out about our kids um and I know that I know that uh within the survey there are some there are uh questions there are verbiage there is uh controversial um pieces that um are objective to to folks period we I I understand that. I get that. But on the other hand, here's some of the things that we've learned from the survey since 2016, since we've been doing this for since 2016. Uh there's been a reported increase in mental health issues. I think we all understand and know that there's been a rise in anxiety, depression of our students. This is all talking about our students. Uh the um physical and verbal bullying rates remain consistent. Uh cyber bullying has increased significantly. Um as far as alcohol, tobacco, vaping and drugs,

132um vaping has surged significantly. Alcohol use has decreased slightly. Marijuana use has remained steady. Um as far as how students feel about the teachers, fewer students believe the teachers care about them. Um there's less of an interest in school. Um as far as economic and food insecurity, uh more students have skipped meals due to financial hardships since is what we have found out. More students have reported housing instability where some students have nowhere to stay as in for a home. Um race and and and ethnicity. Um we are predominately a white student population. We know, we know that um bullying due to race or ethnicity remains low but is persistent. Um gender inequity, gender identity and uh LGBTQ students. Um they um there's been an increase in students identifying as LGBTQ. A higher rates of

133bullying for those students, higher rates of anxiety and depression for the for those students, the survey showed. um and they feel less likely supported at school. Those are just some of the areas that we have found out information about our students which I which in my opinion um helps us as a district serve all students serves all of our students with with uh with their needs. So I just I just wanted to clarify I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you. That's why I'm supportive of it at this point. So my question is good information and we've given the survey I think since 2011 haven't we Peter? Well I think it's before that. I think so too. So it's not since 2016 you know. Yeah. When you guys told us about this before you

134told us we didn't give it to the fifth graders. Well we did give it to the fifth graders in 22 because we have all the results of the fifth graders in 22 and you can look them right up from Brainard. So you know I have a tough time when I don't get straight facts. Number two is is I don't know if it's worth $7 million. So, as good as that information is, is we know that the president of the United States has put everybody on watch for $6.8 million for the Brainer School District. Alexandria was going to give this the survey, too. At the last minute, their board flipped. They were four to three against it. Superintendent decided it wasn't worth the gamble of the $7 million. Someone got up here today and told us

135about Maine. I don't know if any see what's happening in Maine, but President Trump has pulled all Maine's uh uh prison funding because they put a male in a female prison and now he's pulled their education funding. And so, you know, Chairman Spear sent us out a letter like I mean, did like this is your opinion of it. Like I don't know if it's a legal opinion or what we're what we're hanging our hat on there with your deal, but to me it's like I I I don't know how it's worth the risk for the benefit. You know, it's the risk benefit program. They're going to teach people's personal finance. Risk benefit. What's the benefit compared to the risk? We are going to be $3 million in the hole this year. Hopefully uh between Peter

136and Marcy Lord, they can come up with some miracles and maybe it comes down to two, you know, but regardless, we're in the tank. We're going to have to make some hard choices next year. And here we are because of something like this, which is to me is a little political. Uh we're going to get in the weeds. We got 999 kids that have opted out of our school. We could say that enrollment's down all over the country. You know, uh we talked this weekend Why is it because of things like this? Maybe not. Maybe some. You'd have to admit that it doesn't help, right? I read some of those questions today. Mental health. If I was trying to figure out the list of genders that they have listed on some of those tests, I

137think I might have mental health problems, too, cuz I can't even figure out which one I might be. I mean, it's like, holy cow. It's just like it's foolish. It's confusing. Let's stop the stop it for 7 million bucks. I mean, can we just wait three more years? Well, this is going to come back. We're not like this is the last time this is ever going to happen again. We won't even get the results for what a year. I just think that that the person that we got in the White House isn't acting like a like a normal government politician. They've sent two letters to the state of Minnesota. Our attorney general right now is in so much trouble because of this feeding our future fraud thing for a quarter billion dollars that I would

138be surprised if he's still in office come the 4th of July. Um, and we're going to go with what they're saying. Like, I just don't know if it's worth the, you know, if it's worth the risk. You know, I don't know, maybe it is. Uh, I can guarantee you I'm voting against it just because of that right there. I don't want to have to be the person that's trying to figure out how to cut another 7 million bucks out of this budget. And that's a lot of money. We're already in trouble. And it's like to me if you take the three plus the seven that's that's that's 10% of our of our general budget. I mean like I don't know what the benefit is. I I just want the kids to be smart. I want

139the teachers to have a good time. I I want to get the bullying under control. I don't think the survey is going to fix the bullying. John, we have to fix the bullying. Peter, you need to fix the bullying. The principles need to fix the bullying. We need to change our procedures. We need to change the way we're running the schools to help with this bullying. It's all over the place. By the way, I think that there's been bullies ever since the crack of time. Probably since there's been people. Just watch the darn gone birds. There are a lot of bullies out there with them. You know, I don't think it's okay. I don't think it's funny. But I don't think that us giving a survey is going to fix the bullying problem. We need

140to change our policies. We need to change our procedures. We need to change what we're doing to help with the bullying. And I and then even when we do all that, if we were perfect, there'll still be some bullying, I believe. Um, anyways, that's where I'm voting. Uh, I liked the deal better that you had before. I thought that was a little bit more of a fair shake. Um, I wasn't ready for everything to change, but regardless. So, that's where I'm at. I don't know. I'm I'm not going to talk the whole night, but I mean I if I was a parent, I'd be looking at trust. You know, I'm trusting you. Like the last time this happened, I told John, it's one of the reasons I'm on the school board. I had so many

141employees and customers coming up to me and showing me these questions, especially for the little kids, that they couldn't believe it. And so, you know, I sent a letter to the school board and I had one school board member respond to me. Um, which we'll just leave previous school board, the previous school board because there's nobody left that was on it. Um, maybe were you on here, Sarah, the first time? Just get you might have just got here. I think I didn't get on in June, January. Oh, you might have been here. But anyhow, I don't know. I don't, you know, I know that the opt outs were real hit and miss. You know, if I was when I was in eighth grade, if the teacher gave me something to take home and give it

142to my parents, the odds of them getting it in the next 10 days weren't real good. You know, probably got underneath the seat of the bus or was in my backpack or it was smashed in like this or that. You know, it's like, you know, they're young people. Um, so I know that there's a lot of animosity about it. Peekquat didn't give this survey. Pillager didn't give this survey. Crosby did give the survey. Piers has opted out of the survey. And Little Falls has opted out of the survey. So, we're going to be the big red riding hood that's going to carry the torch for MDE. I think that the downside's a lot bigger than the upside. But I will quit talking. I too will be uh voting against giving any kind of a survey.

143More and more school districts are opting out. it's becoming a trend. That's not the reason why I'm ving against this. Uh the monetary risk is great. Uh some people have talked about the fact that there's grant money that's going to be provided. Let me ask this question. The county seems to be very interested in the survey uh because of the possibility of losing funds for mental health and related grants. But when we go talk to them about truency and where our kids are at, ain't got money, ain't got staff, but because they're going to receive some money potentially through this. That's another reason I am I'm not interested. There's too much of a financial risk. And um to me, this is more it has nothing to do with education. It has nothing to do with

144proficiency of students. Uh it's it's almost like you know we're an academic institution. Uh we're not um how do I want to say it? I better look at my note here otherwise I'll get myself in trouble. We're not a therapeutic institution. Now what I mean by that is this. We want to screen people. We want to make sure our students are being taken care of. But our main goal is academics. We're not a therapeutic organization. And it just seems like a lot of these questions are so I mean they're they're so appalling that I as a parent I'm going to raise my children the way I see fit. I'm not going to rely on the school or MDE or anyone else. And it just seems like we're we're turning over so much and taking away

145parental rights. Um it's um it's not right and uh as director Dinger said there's there's things that we need to do here uh from the standpoint of bullying and stuff like that. We need to handle that here. I mean our our issues up here are a lot different than they are in the metro area. I think we would all agree with that. And I I I I just don't to me there's no there's no value in providing the survey and I will be voting against any grade taking the survey. I'm done. One thing is I called Deborah Ericson at the county and Michelle, you straightened me out on this at the retreat. The county doesn't receive any money whether we take this survey or not. So, don't let anybody fool you that the county is

146getting that much money. Now, there are a few organizations in the county that qualify for some small grants, but the county itself gets zero dollars whether we our kids take this survey or not. That won't sway my vote. I mean, I just No, I just wanted No, thank you. No, no, thank you for clarifying that. I'm just just not interested in these questions are just so over-the-top invasive. Yes, I will not be vulgar either. Um, I agree with DJ and Randy questions they're asking. I feel like, okay, I have one right here. During the last 12 months, how many different partners have you had sex with? And they have five different answers. Why does the state need to know that? I mean, that that's for a parent and a child to talk about. I had

147to feel like that's not for us. Or do did you drink alcohol or use drugs before you had sex the last time? Yes or no? Really? That that has nothing to do with academics with what the kids should be learning in school asking them this sort of stuff. And I don't want to lose that funding. There's a lot more questions that I ran out. I ran off all the questions and I just was wow. Wow. And this is for ninth graders. I didn't do the fifth grade ones. I did for the ninth graders. So, um, yeah, I can't believe some of the questions. Have you has everybody read all the questions for all grades? And just to clarify, the kids don't get all of those questions. It's a line of questioning. So, for example, the

148one about how many sexual partners have you had, you wouldn't get that unless you went down a choose your own adventure that said, I've participated in sexual behavior. And so not all kids get all questions. It's it only pertains to you if you've um participated in those kinds of activities. This was right off the this was the I mean they'll give you every question that is part of the survey. But not every kid gets every question. It is only if you answer if you answer yes to that question then you may get more questions regarding that. But if you answer no, you'll move on to the next se section because because that won't all of those questions won't pertain to you. If you haven't participated in sexual activity, then it's a moot point. So they

149skip over what you're saying, but the survey that I received had all the questions. So like they take it electronically and so once you take when you when you press a button that you go down a a certain travel way if you say yes you'll get a line of questioning and if you say no then you get a different line of questioning. So not all kids get all the questions. But yeah that's a good point. The other thing I would I would say and I I think this is right Randy you said our issues are not are different than the metro and um if if we're using this survey to point out what kinds of help and support our district needs and there's a void there we there's no voice coming from Brainer that doesn't

150help us that doesn't help us at the state level because as we know the money follows the problems and follows the issues and you can point to some programs at the state level that have been put into place because of these state surveys. And so the more we opt out um the metro schools are just laughing all the way to the bank and all the way to their great programs and supports that they're getting. Well, look at their numbers. And I think that um you know if we I I think there's no connection between this issue and the $7 million at the federal level. I I believe that that decision is made by the Minnesota Department of Education because they are the funer. They receive that $7 million and they disperse it to school districts.

151We we have no part in that. It does not matter at all what we say to the national government, to the state government. They they get that $7 million and they disperse it. So, they are the gatekeepers to that money and they've made a decision on how the state will react to that and good, bad, or other faith in their decision. They're the gatekeepers. It made it their decision because the money goes directly to the state. It doesn't. You don't think that that someone like me could go and say there's 341 or 343 school districts in the state of Minnesota and then I could just keep track of who did what and just cut yours and give it to them and give it to you and give it to you and then not give it

152to them and just send it to the state of Minnesota. They're not just going to go and say, "Well, we're going to give you half of Brainards or half of so and so's because, you know, because Trump's being mean." I mean, it's like I I don't know. I don't think it's worth the risk. I don't I don't who the Minnesota Department of Education, Willie Jet, he's got the the gumption to take on this guy that's taken on the whole world. I don't know. What are we messing around with him for? But what I what I'm saying is there's no connection between that $7 million and and this survey. I don't believe there is because the state of Minnesota makes that decision about where the funds go. And they're not going to look at us and

153say, "Oh, they took the survey. Let's not give them funding. That's I just don't see that happening. If if anything, they might look at us and say they didn't take the survey and we really want people to take it. It might be a different scenario. So, they're not going to get the money. Okay. Well, whatever. We're going to disagree on that one. Madam Chair, what happens if the state of Minnesota doesn't get a dime from the federal government? Yeah. What happens? A dime. You want to know what happens? All school districts. That's what's going to potentially happen in May. You want to know what happens? That's what's going to happen in Maine. The disabled kids, the poverty kids, the kids that need special needs, those kids are going to be the ones that are going

154to have to brunt the whole thing. That's what's going to happen cuz that Title One money and that federal money are basically for the kids that have the greatest needs in our schools. Period. So, that's your answer, Randy. Our our our poorest and most needy kids are going to get screwed. I'm sitting right next to you. I can hear I happen to work with those kids for 34 years and know a little bit about those kids as well. And I'm not going to vote on something because somebody said something. Somebody said I'm going to put all these tariffs on these countries and then a week later, oh no, I'm going to take them off. Doesn't make any difference. No, wait a minute. Wait a minute now, DJ. Oh, I'm going to I'm going to put

155a 124% tariff on China now. I'm going to take some of that off. I'm not going to go and vote on something that I believe is good for our kids. Now, I'm when I when we talked about this before, I said, "Let's do our own survey." The only problem, I have one with 15 questions on it from one of our neighbors schools that does the job just fine and we could say totally legal and not risk our deal. And you could find out who's not living at home and you can find all the things you want. And I offered that up to you and it's no problem. I have it right here. I can read you the questions. They did it right in one of the neighborhood schools within 40 miles of here. They did

156their own and they stayed legal and they stayed out of trouble and everything. It's not a big deal. The only thing about that is the reli reliability and validity of a test. It does not does not come when you make your own your own tool. But having said that, um you know, I I'm not opposed to having to try to do our own our own test. I would I would like to see how many kids are not having a place to stay at home tonight. How many kids are missing meals? I don't have a problem with the data. I don't know that I'm interested in how many times how many drinks they have before they have sex. I'm not sure that's my business, but there's a school right here down the road that just did

157this. They took a couple principles and and a half a dozen teachers and they wrote out their own deals of what they're seeing in their own classrooms, their own lunchrooms, and they made their own survey. And it's pretty simple and it's about 20 questions, maybe 15, 18, 20, 22. And it's pretty much a lot of the same stuff that was on uh Sarah's thing that she showed us from 16 to 22. I mean, I don't know. We don't have to take any risk. And I respect what you guys are talking about and what people have talked about coming up here. I respect your opinions. I understand your opinions. I get that. My my take is these kids, we need to do we need to find out what the needs of the kids are. And this

158survey provides that. Yes, it goes overboard in some areas. Um, for sure. Um, but I think it's important that we find out the needs of our children in this district. You know that yubidabics thing I sent you out of Georgetown Ubidomics or whatever out of Georgetown University? Yep. They got some pretty good articles in there. I was reading an article about surveys like this and you know what it says? That a lot of these kids think that when they tell you that they've been abused at their house that helps coming. And when the help doesn't come, they feel even more left out because they feel as though when they check that box that someone's going to come and help them. And when no one comes and helps them, it makes them feel even more distant.

159Michelle would have a better word for it than I do because you spent your whole life in this industry, you know, forgotten, you know. I mean, I I don't know. I don't think this is a perfect deal. I I don't think this other thing that I told you about is a perfect deal either, but I don't think it's worth, you know, it's it's it's worth the the rub isn't worth it, you know. I just think it's too dangerous. John, I appreciate your passion. Uh but let me ask you this question. You were in the education business for how many years? 34. That's a long time. Will anything change because we take a state survey or if we do our own survey? I would hope if if if it comes out and if it's valid and

160reliable and it shows that we need to do something within our district to um help protect um educate or whatever a change that's needed in our district. I would hope so. Why wouldn't we take every opportunity we can to learn about the kids in our district? I just it's be I don't understand why it's so important to me when I look at this to know in 2016 we had about 2 to 4% of our students say they didn't have housing stability. They were living in cars or or sofa surfing. In 2022 that was 12%. What's it going to be this year? Okay. So you say and what have you done on it then? If it's 12%, what has been done on those students that haven't had housing since you've had the results? What have you

161done on it? I personally haven't done anything, but I look out in our community and they use this information. I mean, if you look at some of the ship grant money that goes to the actually to programs in our sui suicide prevention program in the high school, the sources of strength, the make it okay stigma campaign, the tobacco coalition, the one vegetable one community, all of these things are they look at that data and they figure out what programs need to come to this area, where the support is for our students. This is a huge slap in the face for our supporters out in the community when they're like, "You're not going to provide us with data and we're trying to help your kids and and we have no idea where to bring the support

162or what it looks [Applause] like." I mean, I I'm confounded on I I I think it's a winwin because definitely kids can opt out and I think parents should have that opportunity. if they don't want their kids to take it, let's make sure we do a great job communicating that and they have prior notice and that half hour that's spent in that that they don't have to be a part of it. I I think that's absolutely an important option. And there are kids in our schools that are relying on us getting this data so that the community sports out in our community have it and can act on it. I don't feel good about letting them down. I bet you that if if I just took out a piece of paper, I could write down

163the 10 biggest problems that we have. I'd get nine of them right. And I'll bet you could. And Stephanie, you've only been doing this for a few months. And I'll bet you could. And I know you could, Michelle. And I'm sure that we all could without a survey. We already know what the problems are. I mean, what's new? bathrooms, scared to go to school, gonna get bullied, cyber bullying, you know, depression. It's always the same, but whatever. Might as well just vote. Why can't we opt out of this survey and do our own survey and put together questions that we think are important for our communities? We absolutely could. And I think that's something we could take on, but the reliability of it and the validity of it is not the same. The trend lines

164that we already have going back to 2011 are not the same. It's it's like starting over with data, which is fine. Um, and somebody has to take that on to make it a reliable survey for as many students as we have in this district. It's it's adding work to somebody's job. Would you be would uh board members be the motion on the floor is for 58 911? No. 8 9 and 11. 8 911. Okay. Um would you be opposed to just doing 911 or 11? You know the one those of you that have spoken against doing the survey at all? Well, the most in the most over-the-top invasive questions are with the older ser with the older uh students. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. And I don't think and I I I don't disagree with

165you as far as disab that would be wrong, but I Well, that's the same talking points as they're talking about getting rid of the Department of Education. That's the talking points nationally for the administration saying they're going to get rid of the United States Department of Education is that these work these kids are going to really be in trouble. Well, we don't know that. No one said they were cutting funding. They're just getting rid of the 12,000 people that work at the Department of Education. So, we don't know the experts. Well, they could be the experts, but they're their results aren't real great. We used to be in the top of the pile and in a mere 45 years we're now down to 40th out of the 40th wealthiest countries in the in the world.

166So whose fault is that? Maybe we are we going to blame the teachers? I don't think the teachers are any different. We going to blame the kids. I don't think the kids are any different. Kids pop out the same. I got to think that maybe the parenting isn't quite the same as it was. Um, you know, I mean, that's what I hear is that it's not quite as, you know, it's not quite the same as it was. But what else has changed? I don't think that teachers decide they didn't want to teach. I don't think principles decide they don't want to have smart kids come out of their schools. I don't think super I don't think anyone's got bad intentions. I mean, it's no different than a why did Sears have 87% of the market

167and lose it and go down to nothing practically? Because Walmart came in had a better plan. Kmart came in before them. And so when you keep doing things the same or you keep grad, you know, you keep going down this road sometimes, you know, you can't see the forest through the trees. And you know, that's what's happening. It's like there's going to be a change. Things are going to change. And I think that we can help these kids. And I don't know what this is going to do to help it. Once again, here we are at a board meeting. You know, someone got up here and talked about noise today. Uh Mr. uh Hagstead and someone got up here and talked he got up here and talked about the noise and he's right because here

168we are wasting all of our time arguing about the survey. Maybe we're maybe I'm wrong about the survey. Maybe you're wrong about the survey. I don't know. But here we are instead of worrying about the grades and how to help the teachers get better grades and how to get more kids to quit skipping school and fix our truency problems and figure out how to get it so it's a better environment. We're wasting time on this survey. But R TJ, everything you're saying and and and it's talking about bullying, tendons, we can get those answers from from a survey. It doesn't tell us how to fix it, though. It just tells us what the problem is. Well, I could, like I said, I can tell you what the problem is already. Where does it say in

169the survey how we fix it? I didn't say that. No, it didn't. But you know what I'm saying? It's like we all know what the problem. Yeah. I mean, see, Michelle wants to talk. No. Well, you do. just the organizations that look at the data are the ones that have the experience and expertise to develop the programs that are going to support these students. Let me make a recommendation. I just um I just think it's an we're just enabling again and we're not even we're not focusing on the kids as far as their academic and it's a it's an an adult behavior and we sit and we talk about it and yeah, how do we fix it though? That's the most important thing. The one thing I would say though, and I think um probably

170as a teacher in a classroom, and we've talked about this as a board, is that when a student shows up, they show up as who they are in the classroom. These 12% of kids that showed up that just got out of their car because that's where they slept. They come to the classroom with a different need than me who got a full night's sleep in my bed. And so I I think yes, as as a teacher, you tell teachers just go teach. That's that's the worst thing you could say because that's just not going to happen. You can't push information into a child. I think we all recognize that. You can't push it into a child. You have to teach the whole child that shows up. And so the more we know about those children

171when they show up, the better job we can do. That hasn't changed though, has it? I mean, I don't know how long since she taught, but John, you talked for 34 years. Didn't you know that this kid needed you to be a little more concerned and maybe give him a little bit of a hug every now and then? And this one over here, we need a little kick in the butt. Glad you said that because the student changed from year 1973 to 2006. I bet. Big time. Big time. Yeah. And there's still education changed from 1973 to 2006. Big time. Why the society also changed from 200 adults adults my sales meeting has changed too let me tell you I can't do the same things we used to do you you ask me question yeah

172I know that's what I mean it's the same thing you know I just figured that grant I think you have um suggestion I appreciate your discussion um I've been in education as long as you John um my struggle with this is going into this agenda. It's not put in a priority list, but there are priorities in the agenda. Um, we had Christine up here talking about data. And since I've been here since July 1st, you guys have wanted data till you can't see it any longer. Um, we we have this last presentation about kids needing to learn finance because um it's become a weaponization of their pocketbook. Kids have much more money today than I ever thought about having as a kid that age. So, I appreciate all the dynamics you're fighting. And unfortunately, most

173of them are social. They are social driven. They are politically driven. They're not student driven. Somebody wants something for something. And it just so happens we happen to have the vehicle. They want the most information from our kids. And um I don't disagree that we need to know more about our kids. I do agree we are becoming invasive in what they're thinking as 12y olds. Do I really want to know what a 12-year-old's thinking on one day of the year? Do I want to know what a 18-year-old is thinking on one day of the year? Probably not, because I probably either going to be disappointed or very happy. And because you are in a in a tough spot, you have supporters and and to do the survey. You have supporters that don't do the survey.

174You can't win, but you're elected to make a decision. Right now you're at an impass. And John, I think you brought up the best solution. How about a compromise? This all started with maybe we should just do grade 11 and let things settle. See what happens in the future with where this survey is going. I'm going to tell you this. If there's a change in Minnesota's um political ground, this is all going to change. Whoever gets elected governor is going to choose the chair or the commissioner of education. Whoever the commissioner of education is, he's going to push whatever the agenda is of the governor. Doesn't matter. Republican, Democrat, independent, it doesn't matter. And I'm going to say this one time. They don't care about our kids. They don't care about them. It's I have

17510 grandkids. I care about them. I'm tired of the politics. I'm tired of the BS coming out of I don't care if it's St. Paul. I don't care if it's Washington DC. I don't care if it's from Iowa. We're We're supposed to be brainard warriors. What's a warrior going to do? What would a warrior say? What would a warrior expect? What's best for our kids? But we're at an impass. So what do we do? You can't go home and pound the table. You got to compromise. That's what a republic is about. You compromise. You come up with a solution. you're not going to get everything you want, but it's about our kids. It's not about us. And we're making decisions for our kids, but we're not talking about kids. We're talking about how we feel

176about our stupid politics. My mother and father would be so ashamed if they saw what I was doing today to fight for education and for kids. I just ask you, you got to get out of the game of politics. Focus on our kids. Focus on our school. Focus on our teachers. Support them. We're not ever going to win the argument this way. In fact, we're going to lose every argument this way. Support the kids. You want to know things about them. I don't want to know about their sex life. It's none of my business. But I do care if they're hurting. I care if they're poor. I care if they're hungry. I care if they want a better education. That's what's I'm supposed to be responsible for. I can't control what society is thinking about.

177Personally, every one of us in this room has something different. How are we going to make it work? It's about the kids in this district. That should only matter right now. We need to figure it out. A compromise. John, you I think you were right on. Let's find out something about our juniors. They're the closest to having the biggest problems in their life right now cuz they're going out the door in 12 months. What are they going to do about their society? We can't change it for them, but we can help them learn and they can change it. No offense to all of us gray hairs in this room. Our day is over. We have tried to do the best we can. It's the next group of people. But we got to be standing up

178for kids. I don't care what else. You can throw anything else at me. Fine. If it isn't about kids, I don't really want to hear about it anymore because we're never going to get where we need to get if we don't focus on kids. Yes, they need our emotional support. They need our hugs, our kisses, and every once in a while a backhand, but they need our support. And we only do it because we're adults who have lived that life and we think we know pretty well what we did right and what we did wrong. We want them to learn about it, but in the meantime, we're spinning our wheels over things we have no control over. So, John, I appreciate your compromise offer because as a board, you have to compromise on things that

179you don't want to, but that's the only way we move forward. I don't get what I want all the time. I'm not going to tip over and pound on the ground and be, you know, raining and crying and everything else. I move on because the next hill is going to be bigger than the one I just finished. I just ask you as a community, move on. Don't look back, look forward. And if you remember, that was our theme this year. Don't look back, look forward. It's too expensive if we don't, and we're going to lose big time. That's all I ask of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. So, we have a motion on the floor currently to opt out of grade of giving the survey to grade five. And we have a

180second. Anybody like to amend that motion? Yes. Say that. Was it a motion to um give the survey to eth 9th and 11th grade to give the survey to eth 9th and 11th and opt out of grade five? Right. Okay. You asked if there was an amended motion. Would anybody like to make an amendment before we vote on this? I'll move an amendment. I'm sorry, Randy. Go ahead. I would like to um make a motion that we do our own survey. Put it together. We've got the questions. You talked about reliability. We have questions. Let's put a survey together. Let's give it to the kids. But I I I totally agree with Superintendent Grant. I don't care. We don't need to know about personal issues with these kids. I mean, I it's just Do we

181need to know if they're sleeping in a car? Yeah, damn right we do. There's important things. let's do our own survey and we talk about reliability. Well, let's use some of the questions in that survey and and not use some of them uh etc. We've got a motion on the floor currently to deal with and then we can come back to this if need be. Um I'll amend them my second initially to um to give the survey to the 11th graders only. I'll second it. Let's get something done. Okay, we've got Go ahead. We've got a motion and a second on an amendment to give the survey to 11th grade only. We'll vote on the amendment and then we'll go back and vote on the motion as amended uh to complete the motion. So, go

182ahead. Say that again. We'll vote on the amendment first. The amendment, the amendment is to to to give it to the 11th grade only. Okay. And then we'll go back to the main motion then which becomes the actual motion to give the survey to 11th graders. I know it sounds really repetitive. Okay. What about my amended motion where we we do a we we we put together our own survey. That's a separate motion we can take on unless you Okay. So, um we've got an amendment to give the survey to 11th graders. Um only all those in favor of that amendment to the motion signify by saying I oppose the same. No. All right. So, we'll move on. Motion passes. We'll move on then to the amended motion, which now reads to give the survey

183to 11th graders only. Sorry, I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's Robert's rules of order. Um, and that original one was your your original motion. All right. Any further discussion on the motion at hand, which is to give the survey to 11th graders only. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. The same. No. Motion passes. It says roll call on our list. Yeah, it's a resolution. No. No. No, it isn't. It shouldn't be roll. Sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah. I am really proud of this board. I'm super proud of Superintendent Grant. Thank you for your impassionate words. Great job. All right, we do have a fourth action item um that was added to the agenda, which is to put the agendas back in the newspaper. Um anybody want to make

184that motion? Well, I already made it once, so I can make it again. So, you can make it again. Thanks. I'll second it. Awesome. All right, we got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Question. Yes. When do we have to have the agenda given to the dispatch? So it does get printed as a full agenda, Kelly, by Thursday. Thursday prior to the Monday meeting Saturday. So Thursday, do we do we want to adjust our the agenda review meeting? Well, you guys can do that on your on the side. You don't need us to vote on when you have the agenda review. But but the other thing to make note of and I apologize it was my fault that uh we had changes to the agenda today. So I appreciate that. Thank you Superintendent

185Grant and thank you um Director Heidman for being part of that as well. Um and just to note that we as a board we can make changes to the agenda up until the time of the meeting and it then it becomes an an amended agenda. So even the one that's produced publicly um can be changed any time before the meeting and during the meeting. Obviously we just did that today. So I would like to know what the cost difference is between um posting the agenda in the discussion not posting the agenda. It depends on the length of it because you create per line per line. What are you asking? the cost of it was about 300 bucks per month to post someone told me that there there is no charge but is it is that

186for online edition or is it the print edition or what I have I I'll I'll try to find out more information for when we get together next we do that all right so we've got an action item to put the agendas back in the newspaper we've got a motion and a Um, any further discussion? I mean, if the if the agenda can be changed up until the day of, maybe there just needs to be better communication to the board that the agenda is being changed prior to us meeting here. So, it isn't a surprise when you walk in, right? Yeah. That would make me I'm sorry I got a little snappy, but it's like, what on earth is going on? Yeah, we can take that as as an action item rather than an action to

187put it in the newspaper. So, we're all going to vote against this is what we're saying. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. No, no, no. All those opposed to putting it in the newspaper signify by saying I. I. I. All right. Do we have to do that again or that makes sense to you, Kelly? Okay. Are we putting in the papers that we're doing? No, we're not putting in the paper, but we are going to be notified if any changes of any changes up until the time we're going to do a better job communicating. Yeah. And hopefully this does I mean this is the first time I've made changes and I apologize for that. But um I think we'll end up back in the paper. I've had people complaining. You

188know, the city did this too and the city found a free way to do it though. Absolutely. Which maybe you could talk to them and figure it out, but So, we're just going to do the notice is what we're doing. Yes. And we'll communicate better on the agenda. Yeah. We'll take care of that. Yes, we will. Okay. All right. Um I know it's getting late here, so I'm going to keep us moving a little bit. Next up, we've got committee updates. the legislative committee met and we talked about keep me honest DJ um the spendown of the Esther funds from the last of those we talked about some upcoming agreements that are coming to an end school portraits re school resource officers and student transportation that we'll have to watch for and the big one

189was we we got an overview of the projected 2526 budget in kind of a um first look at that. So, it was a great meeting. Uh next up, we've got someformational reports. Brandon Public Schools Foundation Director Edan. Um the board approved a 5500 total in grants to be divided evenly to each district school building to purchase inventory for the school pantries to support students in need. Over half of these dollars came from the warrior war initiative. It is starting to and they are also starting to collect gently used warrior gear for resale to support our school pantries. Um they also held three grant cycles and awarded nearly $80,000 in 4A grants this school year. And then the scholarship recognition night is on May 21st. They will again be awarding over $180,000 in scholarships to graduating

190seniors. Awesome. Did you say $180,000? $180,000. The fundraising has been going really they've been doing a really good job. Thank you for that. All right. The safe and welcoming schools committee, director Breen. Yep. So, the safe and welcoming schools committee, which was formerly the equity task force, um continues to work on the interrupter campaign by creating verbiage responses for staff to use to model interrupting. The purpose of interrupting by staff is to stop harmful language in the moment and in front of all students who heard it and to model for students how they can also use interrupter language. This will also be in place for fun and friends summer programming to help build communities that are safe and welcoming for all students. Thank you. And the wellness task. Okay, so uh wellness task force has

191been really busy. The first thing is that the hope chatbot from Smiles for Jake is in Brainer in Brainard, Minnesota is a digital tool designed to provide immediate accessible mental health support for students and community members. Um the bot offers resources, coping strategies, positive affirmations to promote emotional well-being. It serves as a confidential space where users can explore mental health topics, find encouragement, connect with additional support services as if needed um which is reinforcing smiles for Jake mission to spread hope and reduce the stigma around mental health. So the hopebot has been put added to Clevver so all students have access to their on their Chromebooks and for staff or community members who do not have access to Clevver it is added to the district website and then I think Ryan has a short video

192he can show it's like 50 seconds explaining how to use the whole bot. Yep. Well, I don't know where you are, but I am here. Smiles for Jake on the shores of the Brainer Lakes area. And we know that spring soon becomes summer and with that change. And sometimes life brings changes, unwanted changes. And uh oh, frankly, it's okay to not be okay sometimes. But Smiles for Jake and Living with Smiles has a resource not only for you as educators, but for your students, their friends, their families, their loved ones. It's on your clever home screen. It's called Living with Smiles. When you click on it, you will meet our bot, Hope. Hope is there to have a guided conversation for those in need or wanting assistance with their mental health and wellness. It's anonymous.

193It's free. Take advantage. Check it out. And uh Hey, hey, remember, smile on. Well, I don't know where you are. Okay. Um, uh, Crowing County and Crow Crowing Energized and Blade are excited to welcome Tanner Clark to Brainer Public Schools Thursday for Warrior Day, April 17th. Um, it will be at the BHS BHS will have it at the get ZB per Performing Arts Center at 9:15 to 10:15 or 11 to 11:45 and Forest View will have it at the middle school um at 1 from 1:45 to 2:30. Um, he is the host of the Second Strength podcast. He uses social media for good to teach teens about digital dangers and to help them overcome distractions so they can live up to their potential and find happiness. We're extending an invitation to any schoolboard member who

194would like to attend. So Thursday, get you ZB in the morning or middle school cafeterium in the afternoon. And then my last item is there were 10 or 12 community members trained in project 11 on March 31st. As a reminder, project 11 is a K12 curriculum that supports deepening an understanding of how to be well through supporting wellness practices and educating students about mental wellness and brain health. We now have access to the curriculum and are in conversation with Briner public schools as to how to best bring this program to students in the 19 uh or in the 202526 school year. And Smiles for Jake is also offering to provide advocacy training to Forest View staff um at end of year staff training day and they are also in the planning stages of providing advocacy

195training to the full staff during teacher workshops. So that's what I have. Thank you. Right. Next we have business services report. Marcy Lord doesn't know any better. Um so I have the financial report in your packet. Nothing new to note. I'm just going to comment that the next month the budget revision will was approved in March. So next month will be compared to the revised budget versus the original. Um and then the presentation earlier tonight on the playground, you know, Jill was like comment on that. So we had set aside 150,000 per um for three sites in 2425, Forest View, Riverside Welk. We got Forest Views done. So this next year in 2526, we're going to focus on Riverside Welk and um Baxter Elementary. And that's coming out of the construction funds. You got it.

196Um, and then the enrollment report is also in there. From the beginning of the year, we're down 68 and the average is about 87. So, we're we're actually doing better. And then also the uh ADM budget column got updated with the revised budget. It's no longer the preliminary. So, is those online kids? Are they showing up in here? Yes. Good. Yeah, they are on there. Any other questions? Welcome back, Marie. Have I asked you how much were we could lose uh because of the new definition of compensatory revenue uh that the MDE uh has come up with? Yep. So right now we're projected to go down about 700,000. We're going to lose 700,000 of the new calculation method. Yep. Wow. And the reason that is is I saw it on that MA thing. Wh what

197why why is that happening? So instead of taking because of the free lunch reduced that that's what's killing us, isn't it? So it's going to be direct certification problems. I mean everything they touch. So some districts are opting out of free lunch the free lunch program. And if you talk to our director Thompson, she can tell you all the reasons why we should not do that. Okay. How many are out? I mean it was the only one that was out was Prior Lake that I knew of. They were the only as far as I knew they were the only one in the state. And the great thing about opting out, which we could have this meeting on the side someday, y is um you don't have to follow the national food program. That's where the

198trouble comes in. You know, uh I think it was Mrs. Obama that came up with that deal. And so they claim that you'll have this big football player that gets a 3 uh chicken breast. And you know, it's like that's kind of a weird there's some weird dynamics to the national food program that when you get off of it, you can opt out of that and then you have to do the free food thing and they reimburse you like we used to do. And what we have now and I think in those districts there's maybe not as high of free and reduced and that's why it's not going to affect them if they opt out. Oh, really? Okay. They're pretty people I mean if you want to talk to them I could hook you up.

199They're pretty happy. But you probably know where I Thank you, Marcy. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Superintendent report. I think I've said enough. I apologize for you don't need to. You don't have to. Anyway, um I did have a really good opportunity to go to Welk and read a book, Pete the Cat. Um, I had to sing. I'm glad nobody no adults were hearing me because the kids were great though. They helped me sing. But, um, that was a lot of fun. I do have some concerns with legislative issues. Um, it's being proposed to delink um, inflation factor from the per pupil unit. Yeah. Um, Marcy would have said that's about 2.74% change. So they're going to say we didn't do anything, but they did and you didn't know it. That's in the Senate. Yeah,

200it's in the Senate, not in the House. And there's a also a proposal that for the first year of the bianium, a 0% on the formula and the next year, year two, they would take out 687 million. So what we're looking at if all things were steady will be flat but that depends on what you consider flat. There's going to be a slope going in the wrong direction. So they haven't made it, you know, now the the bills are in committees and so forth. Um it's not looking good at this point. So, we got to do our job to call and write and talk. Um, a 0% increase is a about a minus 3% because you have inflation. So, we're going to we got to battle and hopefully we're not going to lose. Thank you.

201When will all this be done? End of May. I mean, May 19th is the scheduled date, but you know that he's going to go for an extension. He did. He has every year, hasn't he? Well, well, they fought for the first 60 days. All right, gang. We're gonna have this conversation. Well, nothing got going. They didn't get started because they were We've got some future meetings on there. You can take a look. Um, a bunch of uh committee meetings this week. So, fine arts and activities celebration was tonight. Unfortunately, we missed out on that. Um, and a bunch of other stuff there. Okay. Are we talking about a retreat at Elpu? We are. Okay. So, if we could hang out for a second after this and nail down a date for Kelly, that would be

202great. Um, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make it. Second. Thank you. Uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. The same. All right. Thanks you guys. Thanks for being part of the marathon.