February 2026 Regular Board Meeting

001It's 5:30. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the board of record board of education to order. >> Please stand for the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance 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. At this time, we'll take board rob Jessica Johnson >> here. >> Barrett Gordy >> here. >> Kevin Shadine >> here. >> Jamie Hilstrom here. Uh Chris Morgan and Beth Krascard absent except forth >> Beth Rasca. >> Beth is here. >> All right. Next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. >> I'll make motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Gordy. >> I'll second. >> Second by Mr. Shadine. Any questions or comments. >> All in favor signify by

002saying I. >> I. Those opposed. Passes unanimously. Our next item on the agenda is public comment. And we do have one. All right. Public comment at each regular uh regular schoolboard meeting is an opportunity for residents of the Rockford area school district to address the school board. After being recognized by the chair, each individual will identify themselves and the group they represent, if any. To ensure that all individuals have a chance to speak, speakers will be limited to one threeinut presentation. The public comment portion of the regular schoolboard meeting is not a time to debate issue, but for the board to hear comments from community members. It is important to remember that the board has a legal responsibility to protect the rights to privacy and due process for all employees and students. This means that

003both district policy and the school mis and the Minnesota law prohibit public disclosure of matters that involve private data about students or employees even without naming the student or employee in open session. This prohibition includes the public comment portion of a school board meeting. The board respects and values input on matters of concern, but when they involve complaints about particular students or employees. Such input must be heard and addressed by the appropriate personnel such as a building principal or superintendent and not during an open meeting of the school board. All right. At this time, we have one public comment and I'd like to ask uh Scott Kissner to come forward. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Scott Kissner and >> there's a button on there. see if yours works. Mine doesn't. >> My name

004is Scott Kissner and I'm a Rockford alumni. I'm a Rockford resident and I have kids that go to Rockford High School. Um I'm also the former Rockford trap shooting coach. And so I know a couple of schoolboard members from those years. And tonight I just wanted to um be complimentary towards uh two individuals that are teaching and coaching in the district. And um the first one is the girls tennis coach Andrew Kennedy. He had a very successful uh season with our first varsity season this year in competing in girls tennis. And the uh competition was great. We were about a 500 team and we got to participate in um the tournament down Davis which was excellent for our kids and they had a great time and I just wanted to compliment him because I know

005at being the trap shooting coach and starting the trap shooting team here at Buckard I know how much work it is to get parents on board to get kids on recruit kids and to get things done. He did a great job of putting together the schedule. We played his elma mater at Richfield High School. We played at Covered Horn Park in Minneapolis. And we had, like I said, a great time, great competition. Um, everywhere we went, everybody was complimentary towards us being our first varsity season. And I just wanted to recognize him for doing a great job with the girls tennis team this year, and I wish him and the team well uh next year as well. Um, also I wanted to recognize Gerald Ferdick. Um, He's been here for a long time and been

006doing band for a long time and he has done an excellent job and I don't know if uh we give enough recognition to him as a teacher and kind of band is also kind of coaching as well. Um he has produced some excellent musicians but also uh musicians that are competing at the state level and are winning um awards um best in sight ensemble awards solo awards and all state band qualifying people and I really wanted to recognize the hard work that he does day in and day out and I think both gentlemen both educators are outstanding and they are gems to Rockford and we've got to make sure that we keep supporting these wonderful educators um in this way and being a parent, being a a resident, being an alumni, being a former coach

007here, I just want to say that those guys are doing a excellent job. And I want to give them every kudos that we we can publicly, not just, you know, privately. And that's all I have for tonight. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. There you go. Thank you very much. Our next item on the agenda is our consent items. Is there anything in that? >> I would just like to mention that we did, you know, per board policy, we should get the field trip uh forms two months in advance. That did not happen. Just wanted to call that out. Um however, we are looking to approve it tonight via the consent agenda. It is their big competition. um their transportation is set up with the school bus. They're ready to go.

008Um everything's in line. It just came in very late and I want to acknowledge that to the board. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. And hopefully in the future we'll get those ahead of time. All right. So, if there's any other questions or anything, um at this time, I'll accept a motion to approve. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by uh Miss Pilstrom. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Mr. Shadine. Any other questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. Passes unanimously. And our next item, superintendence report. Dr. Ryalure. >> Thank you, Chair Johnson. Well, it seems like we just turned the page into 2026 and now here we are midway through the month of February, uh, creating the conditions for a strong conclusion

009this school year. We're also planning in earnest for the 2627th school year. Tonight we're blessed to have Rockford Middle School principal Paul Warzeka here with us. In in a few moments, Paul will share some of the recent happenings and good news coming out of the middle school. Before we get to Principal Warzeka, it's my pleasure to share some of the exciting news coming out of both Reams and Rockford High School. Um at the elementary school, they once again participated in the kids heart challenge. The kickoff was on January 27th, and that event just concluded on February 13th. Uh third grade students spread holiday cheer through reams on Valentine's Day with their annual singing Valentine's. I personally received a couple and it was very heartwarming. Um students and staff are celebrating uh reading during I love

010to read month this month uh with several fun events that highlighted to promote reading. Uh Principal Nigos and counselors Katie Reynolds and Allison Elystico spent the week of February 2nd in classroom sharing a kindness lesson. Uh RES held kindergarten roundup on February 5th and welcome the newest learners to RES for next fall. Uh staff continues to reach out to family to assist them in the registration process and we are quite a bit ahead of last year for registrations at this time. Our rehearsals have started for the all school song that will be recorded in March and uh sharing with the board some previously scheduled field trips uh recently who have been re-evaluated and staff and families um having expressed some concerns related to safety down in the metro area. So, some alternative field trips have

011been planned at this time and we're confident that our students will have some exceptional experiences with the new chosen venues. Uh, teachers continue to meet in common planning time to collaborate on the new CKLA curriculum. In addition to this, work with our uh CKLA trainer took place just yesterday uh during professional development day. Our trainer worked with teams and also departments individually providing them dedicated time uh to meet their specific needs. Uh moving on to the high school, our 10th grade students completed their IB project, personal projects this month. Uh they asked students to identify a passion area, document, and explain the project in an innovative way. Um we've seen some of those before, but we are welcome um we are hoping that they will share some of that at the showcase coming up later

012this spring. Um our high school teachers continue to map their curriculum to better support students who are um struggling near the end of the semester. Um and these targeted efforts were used to um assist students in getting uh specific standards met uh to pass their courses and avoid summer school. Um professional development for focus on quarter three is on rigor and inquiry where they discuss common questions of rigor and how they can achieve it through the use of strategically designed questions, discussions and assessments. Um our leadership team recently vi visited Champlain Park to share our launch your future program which you'll see about next month and how it might benefit Champlain Park and in turn our team learned about Champlain Park cyber security and tech repair IB uh pathway. Um there's strong consideration for this

013to be our next pathway as we evaluate that in the coming year. Our AVID implementation specialist recently visited the high school to observe our AVID strategies and student tutorials. um high school IB leaders and art teacher u will be visiting Annunciation school later this month to deliver a moving recreation of the enunciation a 15th century painting. Uh Minnesota asked IB schools to send a message of support. So as Rockford tends to do we went next level and they created a work of art that shows our support as they continue through the difficult school year. If you've not seen the painting, it is truly breathtaking. Um, I'm so proud of our Rockford High School students and staff for their work in creating this incredible work of art. Uh, last week was snow week culminating in the

014winter dance. Students dressed up, engaged in energetic pet fest, exchanged flowers, and celebrated our school community and to one of our recent uh, speakers. We also had a music festival at the high school last week. I was there at the very beginning. Um, but I had uh got reports back that our students performed incredibly well and um they were honored in several categories. Moving on to district news. Operationally, we have started preliminary preparations for next school year with Rockford CFO Bridget Peterson. Uh we recently met with principles again. We met with him for the second time today to review enrollment data and discuss early projections for section counts and departmental staffing allocations. Process is still fluid. Final staffing allocations will be determined prior to spring break. Um along with this annual staffing uh for teaching,

015we continue to analyze and reimagine the manner in which we may best structure u our school sites and departments. This work begins with our administrative model at the high school and a couple of anticipated retirements have recently been announced. So postings for activities director, activities secretary and assistant principal have already been drafted and posted. Um I wrote here last week when I created this report that we would anticipate an excellent pool of candidates. We already have over 30 candidates for both um the AD and the AP position. Um as noted the uh newly created structure will be cost neutral. At the same time it will provide greater flexibility and bandwidth for our high school admin team and districtwide in order to create efficiencies and to best align ourselves with our collective work. We also anticipate

016some additional personnel adjustments here in the coming months at the district office. In other operational news, long-term facility study we alluded to last month is underway. As recall, we're partnering with Krauss Anderson to perform a comprehensive study of all facilities. We'll use this information to proactively engage in a long-term planning for repair and/or replacement of equipment and structural components. Any detailed report will be shared with the board and community once the study is complete. I shared last month the calendar committee provided an updated recommendation for the 2728 calendar and that calendar um is here for your approval this evening. Uh we continue our progress as we work toward a potential teacher early retirement incentive proposal uh recent conversation both legal and actuial experts and we will not be offering that this year but we plan

017to do so upon approval and recommendation from the board for school year 2627. Uh the rationale for the proposal will both financial uh which is anticipating significant cost savings but it will also offset higher salaried employees with lower salaried replacements. In the area of finance, Rockford CFO Bridget Peterson is present this evening and she'll be sharing information related to our enrollment projections and our quarterly budget revisions. Miss Miss Peterson recently shared this information with the finance committee and will be doing so with the board at large later tonight. just released hot off the presses. Uh the per pupil funding allocation from the state will increase via the rate of inflation that is done by statute as you recall 2.69% for next year. As a reminder to everyone, the 2026 legislative session opened yesterday. Moving on

018to instruction, it's been another very busy yet very exciting month for Department of Learning Innovation. Not wanting to steal any thunder from the presentation that Kathy Matson will provide shortly, I'll share some highlevel items of note. Uh these items include the submission of our midyear access report to MDE and the drafting of our new three-year achievement integration plan, the Rockford Middle School magnet evening, our recent professional learning day summer school planning and our work towards a model of systemwide personalized learning and the exciting work as well centered around the Rockberry School's profile of a graduate. Um each of these items is important from a singular perspective but all together are complimentary components of our braided instructional model. Again I also mentioned earlier that kindergarten roundup um occurred um earlier uh this month and also we

019had national signing day at the high school and magnet night at the middle school and the annual winter pepfest. As I do regularly I attended meetings of our friends from our educational orgs. I also included work on the MASA federal advocacy committee of which I'm a member. Closer to home, I attended our local Chamber of Commerce com commerce gathering at the spot. An opportunity to engage some wonderful conversations with local business leaders. In closing, I also want to share that I was reminded several times in the past weeks of why we do what we do. Uh, two examples come to mind. First, I was able to spend time with a special group of Paul Staria students as they shared Valentine's cookies with staff and students at the high school. And if you ever want to

020simply feel good, um, please go spend a few moments with these young people and you'll be grateful for the experience. Secondly, as I like to do, I recently spent some time visiting classrooms. While I enjoy visiting every classroom, I really want to point out the amazing work occurring at RES. I witnessed some outstanding teaching um, as well as classrooms full of engaged students. I was able to learn about uh farming vocabulary in the kindergarten classrooms and the five paragraph essays on the revolutionary war that were being constructed by our third graders. The writing was impressive. Um in closing, I want to sincerely thank um all of our amazing teachers uh for bringing their best selves to the classroom every day. And that concludes a very long February superintendent report. >> Thank you very much. Does

021anybody have any questions or comments for Dr. to write a blooper. All right. Well, thank you very much. We will move on to our next item, which is one of our favorites. Uh we have middle school principal, principal Warzaka here to share a celebration for the middle school. >> Hello, members of the board, Superintendent Ry Hoover. Uh I'm Paul Warsa. I'm lucky enough to be the middle school principal. Um before I introduce uh who we are celebrating, I think it's important to note that u many times we talk about student voice as a uh way to say um student representation in the leadership process. I'm excited to actually talk about actual student literal voice. Uh so um today uh I'm going to invite Claire Rton and Valiant to come on up. Uh each of you

022grab a seat. Um so in true fashion um uh I gave them an opportunity to uh speak tonight or not and uh like you can imagine uh they said oh yeah I'm speaking uh so uh we met briefly and uh they're going to tell you a little bit as to why but each of them represent um the uh student council and Rockford Middle School. Um, now we talked about no surprises. Uh, and so I prepped them on what to expect in the room layout. But one thing they did not, uh, suspect is what I'm about to say, which is I got a chance to ask your teachers, uh, how do you show up in the classroom? We know how they show up as leaders, but how do you show up in the classroom? And unequivocally,

023my favorite response was, "Do you know how they show up on the PA announcements?" I'm like, "Yeah, exactly like that." uh filled with excitement and joy uh and curiosity uh and they also mention characteristics like respectful, collaborative, hardworking, kind, all the things we hope for in a Rockford Middle School student and they embody the best of us. Uh so uh without further ado, I'm going to turn it over. We'll start with Clara and then head to Zion. >> Good evening. My name is Claire Brotten and I'm in fifth grade at Rockford Middle School. I am very honored to be here tonight. One of the things I am most proud of this year is being a part of the the student council and helping with our morning announcements. Every morning during the first hour first 10

024minutes of the day, student council meets to write the script. We include important information like sports games, school events, reminders and things students need to know. We rotate which students student council member which a student council member gets to speak on the PA system which means everyone gets a chance to use their voice by helping and sharing ideas for the script or be able to say it. Be being one of the voices of Rockford Middle School is something that I take very seriously and also very much enjoy. It feels important to share information in a way that helps students feel connected in their own way and ready for the day. This is a new tradition at our school and I'm really excited to be a part of it and get to be starting it because

025it is a great way to start our morning. Thank you for rec recognizing us tonight. Hello, my name is Xander Valiant. I am an eighth grader at Rockford Middle School. I decided to apply Zoom council because I thought it would be a good position for when I'm president one day. It's never too early to start. I say one of my favorite parts is doing our morning announcements for our Missy Seth member. Each week we choose one mystery staff member and give a clue each day day students try to guess who it is by the end of the week. It is fun but also was nice to know we're helping kids connect with other adults. Also something I like doing this year is starting my very own chess club. We mostly play during run, lunch, and

026sometimes after school school and then passing it down to younger students of when I go to high school. Thank you for letting me share share up here today. It's nice to know that my work is acknowledged. So, uh, many thanks to both of them. Uh, and I also want to call Samuel Olaf Femi, uh, who is not here today, uh, because he couldn't make it, but we want to acknowledge him for very similar work. Um, I can't tell you how fun it is to hear their voices over the loudspeaker. And at first in September, I was apologizing for it interrupting meetings um because the whole building comes to a stop still and the do I'm pretty sure um and I have uh actually join enjoyed um explaining what it is and the response is always

027the same. Nobody cares about the interruption. They all look at me and they say, "I love that you do that." Um and so uh we appreciate both of these. I'm so incredibly proud of both of them and how they've uh been leaders. Do you have any questions before we turn them to the other busy schedule? >> One over here. >> Not not a question, but I am fortunate enough to work in this building. So, I get to hear you too and it is amazing and I want to say thank you because it it actually helps me start my day in a really good way too. So, thank you. >> I get that comment a lot. >> Thank you all. Thank you guys. >> Well, that just like makes the whole night, doesn't it? >> All

028right, we will move to our next item on the agenda, and it's our APAC annual vote of concurrence. Dr. Buffy. Um, >> hello board and superintendent. I'm Perry Buffy and I am the district APAC leaison. Apac stands for American Indian parent advisory committee and we have uh Jessica Peralt who is our chair of our committee and Elizabeth Blackhawk who is our vice chair. they have some things to say. But also in the back, if I could just have some of our other members stand up, um Kendra Island is on our committee. Jerry Roberts is on our committee and um Terry Broker is also on our committee and Terry is sort of our community elder. Um, and in fact, so much so that uh Xander, who was just up here, is also on our roster. And

029we had a nice little reunion between Xander's mom and Terry up in the hall. They haven't seen each other for a long time. But Xander always comes with the same enthusiasm that he brings to the house. I get to hear him too sometimes. And um when we go on field trips and things, he's always there for us. So, we have two uh things to do. one. I just wanted us to talk about this new logo and for this I'm going to turn it over to Elizabeth. >> Hi there. Um we started out the be well last uh last year um thinking about a logo and how we wanted to represent our American Indian students. um not necessarily from a parent advisory perspective, but how do we connect with the students in our building? Um and

030we asked for some artwork input from some from those students um and kind of rolled around some ideas. Ultimately, we took some of those elements and rolled it into working with a graphic designer. Um and we ended on this uh logo that you see here. Um there's a couple of elements. We have kind of rebranded per se um the student portion of what is the American Indian student or parent advisory committee and have identified those students as Rays. Um so Rockford area indigenous student education we thought represented the whole um the broader group of kids that are in this population um and was a little bit better identified rather than our acronym of APAC um which represents the parent. So um we kind of rolled around a couple of concepts and we ended here and

031there's a few elements that I want to talk about. Um, not only it did was the name, you know, a large portion of that, um, but some of the design on this logo. So, you'll see the four colors around the outside are representative of a traditional medicine wheel. Um, which is also reflective of the shape of the garden that's on the middle school grounds here. Um, there's four directions or um, representative of like four stages of life. Um, in here I have some notes that it's also a symbol of balance and the wholeness of life. Um, recognizing that education is not just academic in this building. Um, for our group of students and for all students as a whole, it includes emotional, social, and cultural um, growth. Um, and we felt that the word raised

032was representative of that as well. Um, and then there's a braid around uh the around the name and that is um sweetgrass. I have a physical example here. This is a medicine that is grown in the garden out front um that we harvested multiple times last summer. Um it has 14 strands, three strands of seven that are representative of a number of things, but the three strands braided together are stronger than just one. Um and that is something that we're striving to um help our students identify. Um so some notes that I have about Sweet Grass. Um it represents our school, the community and family all woven together that are supportive of these students. Um one st strand alone is fragile. Um I've also always been taught that the the three sections are representative of

033um seven generations. Um and you may be familiar with that concept. Um I'm not going to go into that, but um I think that that's it. Um there's a feather that we chose as the eye rather than a letter. Um that's uh knowledge, honor. Um what other word comes to mind there? I can't recall exactly, but also it could be a quill. Um which is representative of education as a whole. So um I think that that's kind of all that I have to say about that unless you all have any questions. >> I think it's great. >> It's a great logo. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And then the other part of this is something that we have to do to fulfill on some legal requirements. So Jessica turn it over to you.

034>> Good evening chair and members of the board. On behalf of the American Indian parent advisory committee, thank you for the opportunity to present our annual vote of concurrence for the 202526 school year. Over the past year, the APAC has worked closely with district staff to review the goals and programming outline in the district's American Indian Education Aid application. Tonight's vote reflects our review of the goals report 2025 2026, which was organized around six focus areas required by Minnesota statute. These include postsecary preparation, academic achievement, culturally relevant curriculum, positive reinforcement of the student identity, intercultural awareness, and ensuring that American Indian education programming supplements and does not replace existing services. The committee has reviewed the goals, the planned implementation strategies, and the data sources the district will use to measure the progress. We are satisfied

035that the goals are clearly defined, culturally responsive, and aligned with the needs of American Indian students and families in Rockford area schools. Based on this review, the American Indian parent advisory committee is issuing a vote of concurrence for the 2025 2026 American Indian Education Program. We appreciate the continued collaboration with district leadership and staff and we look forward to ongoing partnership throughout the school year to support student success. Thank you. And do we if we have any questions either about the vote of concurrence or anything that may be going on and also the other uh APEC folks that have come um might be willing to chime in too if anybody has anything they would like to know. >> I would actually just like really quick here. Um, two years ago we sat here and Elizabeth

036provided a vote of concurrence and she said, you know, we really need to go to the next level and we need a person. And I'm I kept thinking that's that's great. It's going to be hard. Well, we got a person. And not only did did Perry come in and step into this role as as the the leazison for our APAC, this group in particular, um Jessica, your leadership, Elizabeth, your leadership and others has stepped up and we have a model APAC. I hear this across the metro right now. Um, as many of you know, we were highlighted in AMSD last last year in an article. Um, and the things that are happening around our APAC. Um, it's pretty fun. It's fun to see and I'm thankful for your leadership. I also wanted to put a

037plug and I hope I'm not putting in the spot. I know we're having some folks stop down to our schools soon. Has that been finalized? And would the board perhaps come and visit uh when that group comes down to >> Sure. Absolutely. Uh it's March 12 uh at the high school. During lunch, Chef Harlon will be um making uh a menu from indigenous foods such as bison, wild rice, squash, those sorts of things. Uh and then we also have a group of um dancers and singers, drummers coming down from Northland Community Schools will be putting on um all school performance, but it'll be educational, not just for not just for the students to watch, but also for the students and anybody who attends to learn. And yes, it was our intention to invite a broader

038community to um to this feast, the celebration. So that includes the school board as well. Um and uh you'll be seeing something coming about that very soon. I'm going to sit with Harland. Just got an email for him tonight to put some finality to it. But >> looking forward to that. >> That's awesome. That sounds great. >> I put it on my calendar. I just have a meeting invite for all of you guys to be there anyways too to take one. >> Awesome. >> Okay. Love it. >> All right. Anybody have any other questions or >> just another comment. Thank you so much for all your work. It it does seem very valuable like some of the growth that I've seen. It's awesome. So, >> thank you. It's been awesome. >> Thanks so much. >>

039Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you. there there's something to sign in and you'll handle that at the end and just get just >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Next item, enrollment update. Miss Peterson, our CFO. >> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. Um you have in your board packets this evening um our attempt at projecting enrollment for Rockford area schools for the FY27 school year um as well as into the future a few more years uh 28 29 30 and 31. Um sorry for the small data but I wanted to provide all of you with our actual trends on the right side of the screen. Um, so a little bit of the history and then in the middle you have the estimated ADMs um that I'll ask for your approval this evening for revision

040related to that and then of course those estimates that I talked about. So as you can see um with the data here and I'm going to make it a little bit bigger. Um, lots of data for you. Um, our enrollment projections are bouncing all around, I will call it, because as you graph the grade levels that I have on the screen for you this evening, you you know, if you were to try to draw a line somewhere in the middle there, there are the grades that are below wherever we would draw it. Let's call it a 100. And then there are those that exceed that by, you know, in some grades almost 30 kids. And so this makes it tough to staff when we have, you know, I mean, I don't want to call them

041drastic, but when you have these staffing spikes like this. So as we look to next school year, these are our current projections and this is our our current reality. You heard Dr. Ryle Hoover say that we are working with principles around what this this looks like for us um and then what this means as as we go into the future. And so we did have a lot of good conversation around um you know the the future of Rockford and where we're going. Um overall we believe um next school year we will decline um from around 15 1 520 students today to about 1485 students. And you can see there on the bottom, it's kind of small you guys, but the total change in overall enrollment versus um some K K12 shifts. And so what those

042are is the graduating seniors and then what we're bringing in for kindergartens and then migration. So I have applied migration to each of these grade level projections. So what is migration? Migration is I use a one year, threeear and fiveyear trend again. going back to the the left side of the screen um and capturing and retaining students. And so when I say capture, I mean capture our kindergarten students that we have that are resident students. What is our capture rate of that? And then capture rate as we transition from our elementary school to our middle school and then on into our high school. And so there's trends around that and are we over 100% or are we under um for for many different reasons. Um and so that's what the migration number that you see

043on the bottom. So you can see that we are projecting in 27 to lose about 11 children across K12 due to migration. Um that could be you know secondary levels going private. um could be not capturing all of our kindergarten students. Um various reasons why families choose homeschool, all different areas, but um that has been our five-year trend. That is what I used was a five-year trend. It is not the most favorable for Rockford. Our oneyear and threeyear trends are actually more favorable, but for conserviveness, I've been sticking with the fiveyear average for Rockford. So, I want to make that kind of public information for transparency. Um, they're threeyear and fiveyear are really close. Our one-year uh migration is fantastic. Um, and you'll see that when I talk about our FY25 um or I'm sorry,

044our FY26 numbers, our for the first time, and I had a conversation with Mr. Bernard about this last time I was on site a couple weeks ago. Um, for the first time ever in 12th grade, we are up in retaining our 12th graders. Usually that second semester and even into almost the end of the first trimester semester, can't remember what we're on. Um, we we do lose students in 12th grade. And so for the first time ever in 26, we are seeing that our 12th grade numbers are exceeding our projections and we are retaining our 12th graders. So definitely something to celebrate. Um, it relates to um our future in keeping those upper grades in our system and um Mr. Manard had reasons for that but I I won't spoil that for all of you.

045I'll let you have a conversation with him on why he believes that is the case. So um at any rate um you can see moving past 27 um into 28 29. Unfortunately that trend for us does continue to decline. um much of it again because as you follow that right side you can see those K and one two numbers at the top where they're the low 90s and then we're losing those upper hundreds classes that are are exiting our system. So uh again the sky is not falling for us. Please know that this is very very very conservative. Um, you guys know I have a hard time sometimes projecting six months out, let alone six fiscal years. So, please, you know, members of the board, take this with a grain of salt that um this

046is our reality. We want to be aware of this a little bit, but many many factors can change these numbers um fairly quickly. So with that, I'll leave it at that for now and ask if any of you have any questions or comments or what did I miss? Yes, Mr. Rubber. >> This is not unexpected. We've been seeing this trend um across the country in particular. We've seen it locally. Um a couple things I'll add. Um we are no different than than our neighbors. Um, areas that are a bit concerning is that neighbors that really don't need students, I'll use YZ as an example, they're opening up open enrollment to kindergarten um because they're seeing smaller numbers as well. Well, they're building schools um first time they've had open enrollment at any grade level in

047close to 20 years, but they're opening a kindergarten. Um the new school being built um just to our west, that's Memphis Grove Elementary School, they are open enrolling for outside residents, but intra district residents can't enroll there. So >> um that is a bit troubling for us um because our students to the east of us um have options for schools um that are other than Rockford that are closer in proximity to their homes. Um and they did not have openings previously and now they will. So that's that's unique. Um so um we need to keep an eye on that. The other thing and I appreciate you saying this is that we do everything conservatively in terms of a budget. That's just how Bridget and I and this board have have operated. We have been more

048aggressive in marketing and also with open house. And as of uh yesterday we were at 73 registered kindergarters, which is far and away um ahead of the pace we've had the last couple of years. >> In February, they have that many. Yes. So, that's really good. >> And a very successful open house uh that occurred earlier this month. So, um we're doing all we can to uh retain and to um increase our capture rate of district students, but we also are looking to um look uh as an alternative for those who might be outside of our our district boundaries to come to school to rock. I think we need to just continue doing great things here and getting the word out and we're going to get more and more people coming here. >> I agree.

049>> And that's K12. I believe we're going to get more and more coming here. >> Um I will also add that um Miss Peterson is also um in the process of reaching out to a demographer. So um looking at wider trends, bigger trends for our system um because where we are unique and this is why we believe the sky is not falling. Districts that are landlocked or have residents that have been living there for years, they are not moving out. The aging population is staying put and there's no areas to build. We still have lots and lots of space for growth. And I am going to say this right now on February 18th of 2026 in 10 years our district is going to look very differently in terms of number of students, homes, businesses, and

050possibly schools. So um it's it's an exciting time to be in Rockford. Um and um these are our numbers right now. >> Thank you. >> Anybody have any questions? >> When meeting demograph? Um that's in process process. >> I reached out. >> It's a study. Be interesting to see. >> Yeah, it's really interesting. Um I'm really interested about the birth rates. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That's really hard for me to get that data. >> They're not going to be as good. >> I know we know that across I found it recently read an article that it's not just the United States either. It's worldwide that birth rates are down. >> Yeah. Very true. All right. Any other questions? All right. We will move on to our next agenda item and our CFO, Miss Peterson, is

051going to stay here to give us our uh reision, our budget revision. >> Budget revision. All right. So, as you just um heard me say that, you know, projecting things and and budgets especially can be very challenging work. And so um when we Rockford Area Schools um adopted our FY26 budget, remember that was last June of 2025. And so as we sit here today in February of 26, um I I know some things some things are are very different and some things have become much more clear um starting with enrollment. And so this evening um I want to present to all of you um the request for a budget revision for quarter two that would have ended December 31st. Um so with that here we go. So um the first summary page you have um

052I have total revenues and total expenditures. Um this is just the general fund. So that is the main fund that Rockford Area Schools operates. And so you can see the first column um we have our FY2425 actual numbers. So that was our actual ADM, 1546 back then, actual revenues, expenses. Uh you can see in that year we had a profit and then our beginning fund balance, ending fund balance. And so all of that ending fund balance carries forward into the, you know, one column over each time. Uh a reminder for the board, the second column there, that last June we adopted a budget projecting, 1531 kids. Uh we also adopted a deficit. Many of you recall that, but we did adopt almost a $600,000 um deficit back then. And then now moving into where we

053are today um with that revised budget, you can see I'm asking for a reduction in students down 11 to 1,520 students. Um and so with that revision um and I'll get into all the details around the revenue and expense change numbers and then I'll actually circle back you guys if that's okay to this and then kind of where we're going. So, I'm going to flip one slide for you all, and you should have this in your packets as well. Um, this is my work of of how I got to to the revenue increase of about 800,000 from where we are last um I'll call it last summer, I guess. Um, that that's a really big number. I'm not proud of that number. Um, but I'm going to explain to you how we got there. So,

054um, the state aid revenue is going up overall over all of the categories, you guys. There's probably over, you know, 4550 categories of state aid, different variations of state aid that we receive. And so, overall with all of state aid, we're going up about $357,000. I highlighted there for you guys four pieces of where the bulk of this is coming from. So because of the reduction of 11 kids, there is a slight reduction to gened revenue. We did receive um a pension adjustment. So think TRA and perra um because TRA primarily increased so much from the district contributing 8.75% to 9.81%. We did receive an offsetting state aid um contribution for that. That's consistent with everybody in the state of Minnesota. So that was not known at that time what it would be. So it

055was um about $105,000 for Rockford. Um the next bullet you can see there is special education revenue. So this is the bulk of what's happening. So remember, special ed is on about an 18month lag. And we get paid this year on stuff from prior years, and this is the most complex funding formula you'll ever find in your life. If you thought, you know, algebra and calculus were hard, no, special ed funding formula is really hard. Um, and so at the time when I adopted the budget, none of the cross subsidy aid calculations were done. So, remember that was a new legislative thing a few years ago where districts were winners, if you will, as it related to receiving more special education funding um to close that gap of what the mandates were versus what they

056funded us at. And so, favorably enough for us, we are going to be the recipient of an additional $400,000 in special education. So, um, and then there were some other minor things in some other special ed areas that were, um, a loss of $81,000, but, um, that, like I said, that being almost the bulk of it. Um, and then of course the tax revenue is going up about $221,000. Most of that is the recognition of some tax shift being going on. Again, um I won't go into great depth in that, but that can be common this time of the year because again, we don't know those tax shift items when we adopt the budget. Federal revenue, you can see some minor changes there for about $3,300. And then other revenue is the other big place

057actually where there's um actually there's there's a lot going on in that category, but the bulk of it is again my favorite interest earnings. So Bridget Bridget budgeted 50,000 for interest earnings to be conservative and we are actually today almost close to $300,000 of revenue. So um I'm going to continue to stress to the board that I don't know how to change that. Um meaning I don't know how to budget more because I'm I'm way too afraid that the the the market and the rates can change on us as fast as we go to sleep and wake up the next morning. And so um I think As long as I'm working with all of you, you're going to hear me on these quarterly budgets to ask for your permission to increase interest revenue because I

058just I'm not sure how else to do that just for the sake of I'd hate to put a a big $300,000 number out there and then we we do not receive the revenue for that. So, that was all of my math and all of my work to increase revenue of about $82,000. Any questions related to the revenue? you guys. Of course, I have lots of spreadsheets and all that stuff and this is just one tiny picture of how I got there. So, um, all right, that is revenue. And then, uh, I'll quickly walk you guys through, um, the expenses. There's great detail in here. I'm not going to walk through every single line item of all of these. Um, I've done the same kind of format for all of you and I hope you find

059this extremely helpful. I've set it up based on our program areas that we off operate. Um that is the the UFARS coding, you know, the the standard codes that all school districts in the state use as it relates to our programming. So you can see, you know, district and school administration and and so on. Um so I just want to highlight a few things that I changed from the middle column, the adopted to the revised. Um, starting right there with school building administration, we did not, you guys, add $140,000 worth of staff to our building administration. That was an error on my part when I was doing some moving around of individuals. I dropped off a staff member and a half. So, um, you can see last year's actual was 7:15 and now I'm proposing

060744. So, that was my own human human error. Um, and then as I could comment on a couple of the other bigger numbers. If you move kind of in the middle there, regular and vocational education instruction, the K12 instruction, I did increase that about another 2% and much of that was because I used um low rollup cost for our teacher contract. So, I um adjusted for those. That's part of what you're seeing there. And then um and then in special education um I you can see our actuals came in last year at 3.2 million where I was only budgeting 3.1. Much of that was related to transportation and some other areas that we do get reimbursement for. And so the same thing within the revised budget. I'm projecting us to be a little bit higher

061despite some staffing changes and some other things. But at any rate um there is some revenue offset with that as well. So um and then in the staff development area we are working on um you can see last year's actual again 688,000 my budget 477 that was really conservative um and some ch other changes I thought that were going to happen but we do have a reserve fund balance for that that is getting a little bit higher than than I would like it to be. So there is a little bit of intentional spend down um in that specific area related to staff development as opposed to other areas. It's also me digging into revenue maximization and finding more things that are eligible for certain buckets and and that kind of thing. So that work will

062always continue you guys um as I dig in and do these quarterly reports for you. And then the final item I just want to kind final couple there is transportation. So last year's actual came in at about 3,80,000. You can see there my budget was at 2.9. That did include our regular gened transportation increase of about 5% and then um an estimate for our DEG transportation. Unfortunately, my estimate was too low. Um, and so I did revise this year up. They had substantial costs of like 12%. As well, they the um transportation company that's doing a lot of our digg um remember we do get reimbured 90% on that, but of course there is that 10% cost to us. So that's what that increase was there. And then finally, our sites and buildings. Um I

063the first line there, operations and maintenance. You can see we adopted 1.5 million where last year we only spent 1 million. That was an oversight on my part as well of carrying forward old budgeting. Um remember we've done a lot of work in the operations and maintenance area to clean up spending and clean up procedures and clean up different things. Um, so the 1.2 revision there is just fixing my carryover of a large budget that we didn't need. And so, um, that's what that is. And then, of course, that I then turned around and added back some positions that I missed before. So, I'm I'm moving them around in areas. Um, and then, of course, I utilities there I did reduce by about 100,000. I took a three, fouryear average roughly. And so, That is

064an area you guys as well that I I I never know. We never know. Is it going to be warm? Is it going to be cold? Um but that can really mess up our budgets really fast. So I did feel like using a three-year average of that 648,000 that I was being fairly conservative and did reduce that line item in in our budget. So all in all, bottom line here, it's an expense increase of about $367,000 for our general fund. from where we originally projected. And so you can see there in the third column what that means with a revenue increase of 800,000 expense addition of 300 I have reduced our deficit from 582,000 down to about $150,000. Um so I I feel like I have never ever pulled apart a budget as much as

065I did here. So, um I hope you guys are as excited about um these numbers as as I am. Um and then what I did um because we are in the midst of looking into 27 and staffing, you can see I did roll forward the next two fiscal years based on those enrollment estimates that I just shared with you this evening. Um I did not add in the revenue of 2.69. I use 2% because we were not we did not know at the time when I was working on this at the end of January what that number was. But I did do a quick calculation. It's about an additional $83,000 for Rockwork for next year and then obviously in future years. So just thought I'd throw that in there. Um I did throw in there

066though because I think it is fair to say that with the enrollment decline, there will be some right sizing that our district needs to do whether it be related to staffing or other supply areas or different areas. I don't know what that will be at this moment. Um, but as you heard, we're we're already working on it. But I plugged in at any rate right now a $250,000 reduction to our expenses. And you can see happily in 27 um with the amazing support of our community. The tax levy increase is in that revenue number and all of that. Um we're looking at a positive $465,000 profit. um all fund balances you guys not just unassigned or presented up there but you can see that does bring our fund balance up 2% if we do finish

067this school year where I'm projecting us to be and then I do want to note one thing you can see that the 28 school year is there that would not be another like $500,000 that's the 250 in 27 and then just a new 250 so it's it's cumulative ative basically I guess. So it's not it's not 250 next year and then another 500. It's the 250 and then just one additional 250. Okay. So and again that would be right sizing as well into the 28 school year. Um if those enrollment numbers are what they are when we get out there. >> All right. That was a lot. What questions, comments? >> You knew I'd have one. >> I welcome them. Um I understand the uh school admin up above 30%. You know missed >> an

068FTE right? Not a thing. >> Uh health services up 30% though. Was that purposeful or is that >> um yes I shifted based on moving people into right codes. >> Okay. >> Again getting reimbursement. >> Yep. That's great. And then can you you made mention about the spend down of a reserve with staff development. Can you explain that a little bit more deeply because we have a 30% increase in their budget as well? >> Yep. I would love to. Thank you. So as part of state statute and state requirements, school will districts are required to set aside 2% of their gen revenue on staff development. So that has been done always in the past in Rockford. What has not been done is the demonstration that we spent those resources. So unfortunately in the past years

069the re you know the auditors would make you calculate your 2% set aside and then there were no expenses coded there. So we couldn't prove to NDE or others that we really did spend those resources on staff development. And so when I came in I went because it looks like we're not providing PV and development to our teachers, which of course we absolutely know we are and we want to continue to do that and and we even have amazing leaders like Miss Madson who are doing all of that hard work. Um even Mr. Ry Hoover himself and so um we're definitely doing it. It's just the unfortunate past of the past couple years. So if I So if I get this straight, we're setting aside 2% of our budget a year >> to be spent

070on professional development. Previous years with the bookkeeping that occurred, obviously we spent money for staff development but did not put in to the proper code that we spent staff development money which then pulled money somewhere else unfortunately. >> Yep. And now we are on the hook now to make sure that we are very good. >> You nailed them. >> Got it. >> Thank you everyone. >> How many years do we know? >> All of them. >> Yep. Very good. >> Several. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> But we're better now >> except the last two years. >> We're better now. I appreciate it. Just it makes sense. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Yep. >> So the spend down is that just you're going to take from the bucket and just >> Yeah. So what I'm doing

071is I am scouring the statute and finding current things that we have in our system to say no that work definitely qualifies as providing staff development that and then there may be honestly an influx of some one-time offerings that we do for some staff members that may be in program areas. You know, I'll point to IB, for instance, and send some people to some trainings that they maybe, you know, would otherwise to try to get ourselves caught up and to try to spend that down a little bit. And, you know, you guys, my biggest fear is MDE comes after us and says, you know, you're not providing PD to your your teachers. Of course, we are. >> So, we just have to approve it with the accounting codes. >> Further question on top of there.

072Thank you. Um, blue ribbon panel. Any uh any leeway on the cross subsidy changes or funding or other >> I'm glad you asked that question. Um, this has been a a really hot topic. So, um, for the board and public who might want to listen to this. Um, last year, uh, state statute was passed for the legislature to reduce funding in the area of special ed by $250 million. Okay? Ongoing. So, it's not like a onetime cut. They need to cut it completely. And so, what what they were charged with this committee is to say, okay, how can you eliminate this $250 million? And we're talking next bianium, so not this current year or next year, but the following two years. And if you look at what they can cut, I know our principles have

073been here. This is like the third time today we've talked about this. They they these people are boxed in because uh we have to maintain effort which is a fancy way of saying is you can't sp can't spend less on special ed in one year that you spent the year before. Um it's illegal. And so unless you lose kids, okay, which we're not really in that boat. So the only places they can actually pull this money from that don't have any impact on maintenance of effort are ADS which by the way is not a special ed program but it's funded through special ed and transportation. And right now they're going after that as their two items there. They really have no other choice but to go after those two things. So, I've been on calls

074recently with superintendent colleagues um and other edorg leaders to say we we have to not let this happen. So, you know, what are they going to do? They're not going to find money under a rock. They there needs to be a shift of money outside of special ed to infuse into that. And so, I know it's on the platforms of MASA, AMSD to remove that statute of the $250 million cut. I I don't think it's going to get removed. They have to find a way to shift it. And I I have ideas and I've shared them. Um but this is this is a big deal because if you go um Bridget, can you go to that screen where it shows access on there? >> Um scroll down a little bit. >> There it is. >>

075Oh, so if you notice that so 530ish,000 um we we are on the hook. It's not free money. Um we we get 56% reimbursement. I think it's 56% right from from the state >> um to do this. So we're putting our own money in here. I mean for a good chunk but we have we have exceptionally wonderful things happening right now in ASIS and I think some of that's going to get shared tonight just on a periphery. But um the idea of ASIS is to keep kids out of special ed. What's going to happen here, and I know I'm, you know, preaching to the choir, is these kids who we've been keeping out of special ed are going to end up going into special ed and costing more money to the state than what we're

076paying here, what they're paying us here to keep them out. And um and that intervention work. So um I'm glad you asked that question um Vice Gordy, because this is something that um we are extremely concerned about and we're watching very closely. And as I'm talking to our colleagues um locally, I'd say our MSCO friends um they're all saying the exact same thing about this because we utilize this a lot. I've heard that of the 250 they could cut somewhere between 110 and 180 just by cutting ads. So ADSUS has become a big pot of money at the state and so that that's that's why it's being zeroed in on also because of the maintenance of effort that it doesn't qualify. Um, I would suggest to all of you as board members, um, to be

077having those conversations with your colleagues, you know, MSBA and whomever else you could talk to, um, local legislators, you know, I'm doing that as well. Um, we need to bang the drum because what I'm afraid of is that they're going to go to the legislature and say, "Here's our recommendations." And it's going to be check, check, and we're gonna have to cut. I will share. It's about one of three emails a week I send to our legislatures right now about various things. So, >> this is one and >> thank I know you have other things to do rather than mess with Rockford's budget, but I appreciate you doing the Rockford thing. >> I appreciate and I'm gonna say this out loud for all to hear. >> I'm thankful that we passed our levies. because if

078we didn't, it would be much worse. >> So, the community stepped up to help us, which was a good deal. >> Can I ask a clarifying question? >> Absolutely. >> So, they can cut special ed transportation, but they can't cut special ed. >> Yep. Correct. >> What about when it's written? >> And they already did, by the way, >> and they're going to cut it somewhere. even if it's written in the IEP that transportation has to be provided. >> I'm gonna have a district look to Bridget for that one. >> Yeah. So, prior to this school year, special education transportation was reimbured 100%. >> This school year we're reimbured 95. Next school year will be reimbured 90. >> So, specialized transportation falls in a little bit of a I don't know if it's 100% if

079it's a different like state statute number, but it it does get pulled out when you at this the special ed funding formula. It's like on its own mind much like ASIS. So it doesn't go into the you know salaries and benefits and supplies and all those other special ed expenses that we incur. It kind of stands alone and it actually stands alone with homeless transportation as well. But they did not touch homeless is still 100%. There's talk about reducing that as well >> and does not include our integration transportation. That's a different >> that's another different >> just need to say that. >> Yes, sir. >> All that being said, I want the board and the community to know that we're prepared for any scenario. Um, it's our job to to see forward and we

080have a plan for every scenario where our district's going to be um in the best position possible to be successful to teach kids. Um, so we're we're ready for whatever comes at us. Um, I say we got to see around corners and that's what we're doing. So, I'm confident and I hope that the district is also confident that we got this. Um, I'm hoping we got this with the $530,000, but if we don't, we're gonna we're going to find ways to do super innovative and really awesome things with our kids. >> Well, thank you. >> I have to have you vote to approve these amendments or revision. >> Does anybody have any other questions or comments at this time? I do want to say thank you for all your work on this and thank you

081for digging in. so deep um and making sure that we're coding things properly and that we're uh being accountable for our for our dollars in our district. I we greatly appreciate all of your work. Thank you. >> All right. So, at this time, I will entertain a motion to approve our revised budget for the 2526 uh fiscal year. >> Make a motion to accept fiscal year 256 budget revision Q2. Motion by Mr. Birdie, second. >> Second by Miss Pasco. Any other questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. >> Passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Drive safety. >> Yes. >> All right. Next on our agenda, we have the Rockford Middle School Center for Environmental Studies Principal Report. >> Principal Wareka. >> Good to see you again. Um, uh,

082members of the board, uh, just wanted to, uh, connect and follow up. Uh knowing the students are gone and that student celebration uh gives me great joy both to celebrate their amazing accomplishments and growth as humans um learners uh and just to see them develop as overall well-rounded human beings. Um but the other thing that gives me great joy is to listen to them talk about the action going action steps that are on our actual SIP. um in the realm of staff connectedness and the conversations that they highlighted in the mystery staff member has created uh opportunity and pathway for students to not even know that that teacher liked that one thing or we have a teacher afraid of birds and they if you're afraid of birds you can have a conversation out with that

083teacher. So very cool things. Um and I just want to point that out uh because that alignment it will echo through this presentation uh that we have uh both today but just in everything that we're doing. Um just a few housekeeping things. Um tomorrow is our fifth STEM and real life speaker. Um super exciting. A lot of giving kids access uh actual experiences with different professions. that's uh that is u birthed out of both um some of our STEM work but then also out of um our eighth grade course on uh college and career pathways that will ultimately link to the high school work. Um but just trying to get them thinking about it now uh so that when they have to make those choices for uh classes uh they are ready to do so.

084we had launched your future and uh that has previously happened um and excited about some promotional things we have there um and the traction we're getting on online and then also um STEM showcase is coming up I believe on the 30th of April. I should have it up there. Um but would love to see you guys uh uh join us and it's a great way to showcase all those student learning activities. I can get you the actual date too. Um so uh a few things I'm going to go through uh these items. I just want to say that we have tremendous momentum that is caused by the intentional and strategic action from many leadership teams. Uh and so I'm just a representative of those that collective uh intentional work. Um so beginning with the end

085in mind. Um, I know Kathy will touch on this also at the middle school. Uh, I think this graph uh is where we're going to uh end also, but this is fall um winter on where our teachers self assessed at. As you can see, we have not arrived and we are making progress. Um, so what that progress looks like uh I'll spell out in each of the categories. Uh so instructional design is really about this evolution from the one through four model that was at the uh fifth and sixth grade into a standard A through F that also encompasses um a standard approach to um things like how we wait summitive uh which is now universally 70% and then also all the little coding things um what we call missing assignments. Um, and the goal

086of this is to align so that as uh parents navigate the system, it's the same throughout 5 through 12. We have a lot of learning curves internally, but we're really excited to be able to, um, in addition review the course description, uh, essential learning targets, um, and just an overall like, uh, understanding of vertical alignment with this goal area. And so um uh in additional uh we've done great uh work in clarifying things like relearning and um we'll continue to do that throughout the course of the year. So um that's a little bit about uh instructional design. Now moving on to engagement continuum. Um, this is really intentional work and the the heart of it is we want students to know what it looks like and sounds like um to be able to um uh

087be engaged. So, this is the continuum that is referenced and talked about. It's obviously something you've seen in the past. Um, but we want uh formally uh staff members to use this at least once a unit. uh however we do that more informal ways uh throughout the learning process and then we want students to be able to understand uh how to self assess and then we also want um to have those coaching conversations um so that we're all talking about the same thing um so in other words what does participating look like and sound like um we've been doing a lot of PLC one thing I'm super proud of is our team uh shared a bunch engagement strategies and then they essentially got a chance to select the ones they were most interested in knowing

088more and we start each PLC uh with a uh sample where the teacher uh who shared that strategy shows and actually can actually do that strategy and that's how we start PLC. So it's a way of not just telling about engagement but showing um and embedding that into our own learning um because what's good learning is good learning adult or kid alike. Um uh and then quarterly we do formal um uh check-ins on having students self assess. We try we're going to try to align that with things like conferences or natural points of pause uh to reflect. And then um Yeah. Uh we want them to be aware. Uh this is just captures the heart of it is students have seen it. Uh it's hanging in classrooms and then uh the part about teachers using

089this consistent uh we see room for growth there but it is new and then on top of it uh they don't know the nuances of quarterly versus or sorry per unit um formally. Um the and then if somebody asked me majority of kids can identify um and so just to talk about what that looks like. So this is uh what students self assessed and honestly it's very very very similar to um where teachers put it. Um the part that I want to point out is that the gray lines are are all lower on the graph. Uh all less than 10% that self assess in that. Um and the prompt was where do you spend most of your time? Um and so what we really noticed through this um we didn't know what to expect. However,

090the biggest thing that thick what blue line uh that you're going to see represents participating which in all but FIAD and social studies is the highest reported thing that echoes what our teachers are seeing in more passive learning. And so the challenge that really this engagement uh use the data to kind of evolve is how do we help kids go from a passive participating to being more active in their learning and investing or exploring and that is the ongoing work of of this scale. It's also um really uh good to be able to help help us identify so we can have those coaching conversations with kids. Um so again this is uh data that we will collect uh two more times yet this year and watch it uh change and event flow over time. Data

091back student support this is uh the work of so many things uh from um our access to our student plans. Uh each grade level has multiple student plans uh that uh look something like this. And so based on their exact need um we frequently will pull uh the F list missing word list uh we've been more intentional at getting those out more consistently and then also offering up on Thursdays where any any parent a parent will get her email if their kid is failing any class for an optional pause uh homework help um in the cafeteria. So this is just a way that we can um kind of build the systems leading into uh hopefully preventing the amount of funds that we have. So we're really excited to see the growth of these individuals. Um

092and then just trying to think um the other uh component of this um and I'll touch base a little bit on it later but um we are getting really specific on ML support um being able to um as those needs e and flow with changes in enrollment that also our needs should e and flow uh in terms of staff support. Um ADS is crushing it at the middle school level. Um so we have seven students exit math and eight in reading. Um and our u by and large uh we are tracking to meaning our access goal. Uh kudos to them. The thing that none of this data is going to suggest or is going to capture well is the access kid who's been working really hard for a long time who uh is engaging in

093the classroom who has confidence. uh when I pop in, there's kids who I don't know how to say it any other way that have swagger. Um and so there just uh is a dramatic shift when they have those needs met. Um and we're seeing a different student reenter that space. Uh and ultimately don't need that support, which is exactly what Dr. Jeff was talking about previously. Uh the importance of access um student connectedness. Um just to kind of capture this is where um end of September we gave a survey. Um we're at about 80% of our students uh feel connected with uh one u member in the school. Now that was one question and another one asked them to uh name it and so there was weird discrepancies uh as you would expect with middle

094school. Um but um one thing we am really proud of we did an empathy interview with almost every kid who uh did not feel connected last year and this year and then uh we shared that with their teachers. We also mapped uh we just completed a mapping activity where every single kid who expressed any disconnect um we looked at perceived relationship. How many uh perceived staff members have a meaningful relationship? And then we have 54 students who are doing a 2 by10 intervention which is two minutes a day uh for 10 days in a row uh that where you're trying to connect with them on anything. And so uh that has started as of today. Um so really excited about the work that we're doing here. Um and then uh postcards to every student um

095staff member. A lot of intentional work around student connectedness. Um and then fast bridge growth. So, uh, our goal is, uh, to really see students grow and by and large in fast, and I know I'm short on time here, but, um, these are the last four fast tests. So, perspective wise, um, our math team is all relative. They've all been here. Uh, all of them are a year and a half or less. Um, so we we're seeing a little bit of a stagnation on the math side. Um and part of that is new curriculum. Uh we're in the process of doing curriculum review and the previous curriculum uh wasn't fully mapped uh or aligned to standards in the way we wish and we're in the process of redoing that. And then also um the other

096component is just getting uh new staff getting feet underneath us. Um in reading we see a gradual uptick in the results that we're we're seeing. Um, additionally, um, when we look, uh, at what is the ratio of students going up versus down, um, it ends up being two and a half to three and a half uh, respective reading and math uh, uh, two and a half more kids or times more likely that kids are going to go up uh, than down. And within the down, there's some nuances with where they were at in that initial scoring relative to the range. Um, and so what that tangibly looks like, uh, relative to each grade is we have three grades that if the year were to end, and we're not even close, uh, can't jinx us, but

097if the year were to end, we'd have um, met our goal, um, and I know that that goal uh, something we're going to continually revise. We have two more groups that are really close, and then uh, the other three are well within uh, what we would expect to see by the end of the year. So, uh, we're seeing incredible growth. Um, every data has so many things to share that I wish I could highlight here. Um, but, uh, one that came screaming off the page is, um, we had 20.34% of this of our student body that increased their leading fast score by 10 or more points from fall to winter. So, um, I think that's, uh, pretty, uh, incredible and just something that should be celebrated. So, any questions? I know that's a lot of

098information coming at you. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Just one. >> Yes, Mr. Gordy. >> Your your uh charts. So, the last one you did was 23% or 20 whatever percent 23 20.34%. The one above that, are those student counts or are those percentage counts? >> Those are student counts. >> Okay. Thank you. I just didn't know that there was a >> Yeah, I should have explained. They said some are high risk only, which was a general focus. I think I I was assuming as much as you were going but then you went to percentages and I'm like okay >> sorry >> I just have to ask so >> yes Dr. You know, Princa alluded to this depending on where kids are. So, essentially, think about four buckets, right? You know, there's the top

099bucket and and this is where I think this is this can be tricky when we look at those bar graphs and we're going to go away from that and just look at student growth going forward. But if you look at that um a kid could be and this is a moving target for every kid. So, you could be on the low end of one of those buckets, right? Or the high end of one of those buckets. And as you grow, you know, the you're having to keep up with the with with the metric, right? It doesn't not like it's staying here and you have to go past it. The metric keeps moving. And so, um, depending on where you are in those buckets, it could really throw those those bar graphs off, good or bad.

100And so, that's why, um, you know, we we brought that forward as a as a plan for us to do for this year for goals, but we're also adding in the point of we're looking at student growth. And so I think you're going to see more of that and I think it's a better and more accurate representation of things. Um but for the most part I'm really proud of the work going on. You know, one of the things we talked about our roadmap this year is we're looking at at data, right? Um we're digging in. I mean, and we're digging in in a really big way. Um so lots of conversations and this stuff can't be hidden, you know, from from our staff. It's right there. And we one of the things that we talk

101about and Kathy might share this too is um they're all of our kids. Just because I don't teach third grade doesn't mean that person's not mine. And if you're in the third grade PLC um you're you're working for all the kids. How can we impact that? And we have a really cool professional development coming up in April that we're going to be really zeroing in on how we can how we can target all of our learners um to get what they need. So I'm really excited about that. But the work that's happening at the middle school, Principal Warzaka's leadership, we're seeing great strides and and it's fun to see. Um, and that's, you know, there's always work to be done, right? And so we say, you know, we got some stuff we got to work

102on in math and that's coming. And so, um, I I do want to point out the fact that Prris Reeka personally was calling home to these families whose kids who knocked it out of the park. And we all know as parents um how cool that is and so I want to thank you for for your work with that and with your team. >> Yeah. And I think uh the nature of that is uh we are as proactive as we can in that work in a way that is we are on our toes and um the there's not much of a gap between when we get the data and when we go with the data and um uh the other component that I uh has been a amazing uh ad is we have a student support

103PLC and we meet every week. Um and the people on that are our school nurse counselors, student support specialists and we literally are constantly looking at data from F list to uh fast scores and we're constantly coming up with plans that are not just taxes. Um and just to be candid when I first started it was we have much in that cap before. Now uh when we backfilled ads, it was truly um over half of them were already receiving some sort of an intervention which is a testament to how much we evolved to um meet the needs of kids. Um in other words, we didn't have to go looking for who those kids were. We already knew them and we already knew that they were plugged in elsewhere um in a less intensive intervention. So

104um I think that's just kudos to the team and how how the system has evolved to support the uh teachers who then support the kids. So any questions? >> One more comment. I just uh I love to see the access numbers of people graduating out of it. Um and as proof that it's working here in for sure in the middle school people are moving up and um so that's really great to see. Um I also want to say that I um I get to see some of the student support stuff, the announcements and stuff, and I get to hear, you know, kids say, "Oh, this is so and so's birthday." I was like, "How do you know that?" They're like, "It's in the morning announcements today." So, and I I get to see some of

105those moments. So, uh kudos also on that work and the morning announcements. Um creating those little moments where you can really connect with the staff or the students. >> Thank you. Um, and for those who don't know, Jamie is referencing her volunteer work in the mushroom, which all are available. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> I just want to piggyback on that. At a middle school, I think that connectedness is extremely important and uh having our students here today um was pretty awesome. >> Yeah. And uh I love uh the moment and I know that uh time is precious but uh the moment in which uh uh Christa not to call you out Christa but could uh recognize a voice and be able to can make that connection because we hear their voices all

106the time. Um so it's awesome that that benefits the district office and um uh just to see their uh who they are and how they represent us so well is is an honor. So and again many many things at play but uh thank you for your support as well. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Um our next item on the agenda is learning and innovation and Miss Madson forward please. All right. Thank you for having me. And I think principal Warzaka put it well. There's a lot of positive momentum and it's always really nice to prep for these board meetings and think about all the things that I want to highlight of the work we've been doing with the leadership teams and within the department. So, as a department, we're a year

107and a half in to the built approach and we're dedicated to that purpose, process, product. I do actually have a shirt I made. Um and really teachers are learners and also we have leaders who are treating their role as teachers of teachers as built members and what I come back to regularly is what would we do if these were students and really teachers are learners and students in the context of the work we're doing and that has really helped repeatedly because we have effective teachers and So, we use that in our leadership. At the start of the year with the builts, I said I use these quotes from some training I did this summer with the PLC um at work conference. And our goal is to make sure our process is clear. So that supports

108high performance and that we celebrate um the things that are really working and we see where that's happening and then we try and learn from that and transfer it to other areas that need support. With that said, certainly there are times where things are not going um the way we want them to. And in those moments with the built uh we kind of try and reenter on what what haven't we communicated clearly about what we're looking for and how do we support teachers in achieving that and again in the same way that we frame it for teachers with students. How do we support the people we're working with to make sure they can achieve and grow? And we'll have actually today we had positions post for each building for built positions. So we'll have new

109members coming on and I look forward to having more people have that experience of leadership within the sites. Overall the builts have been ranked very very effectively. This is all builts across each building. And anywhere that yellow and red sliver comes up, then I follow up with those people or they explain those ratings and we make sure we understand why those ratings happened. The builts are always focused on the road map, these three components that you just heard principal war present on. And really those drive our PL our PD days. This was our January PD day. At the end of that day, uh staff overall rated us at a 4.21 over five in terms of the value they saw of the day. Um I haven't done the data from Tuesday. >> That was yesterday. Um

110but a lot of positive response and learning happening as we kind of redefine um how we approach that time. Yes. I mean, yesterday's training, the trainer um for CKLA came to the elementary school and she talked with principal NIHUS and emailed me about it feeling like our teams were in the third year of implementation rather than the first. She was super impressed. And then at the middle school and high school sites, there was a moment in the media center where there was veteran teachers sitting next to new teachers collaborating and helping each other on the work we're doing. And it was really cool to see. So those days are really appreciated and the data shows that this was from their December reflection about what they see as the most valuable and the staff development days.

111If you look at the archive of data from the December check-in hasn't always reflected that value. So we really celebrate that as bills. A lot of a lot of the middle school uh points were highlighted already. I shared something about the elementary schools CKLA really they are data driven asking a lot of fantastic questions keeping my colleague Kevin Nef really busy. Um and then at the high school we've been working on metacognition and monitoring um both as teachers and students meaning how do we um teach them to monitor themselves and then what are we doing actively as teachers to make sure we're monitoring their progress on an ongoing basis. I always like to bring teacher voice. Um this some of the explanation about the value of the staff development days and the the time they

112provide to grow in teaching skills, work through things together and they do see how intentionally planned they are. I've been growing in my um exploration of AI tools and sometimes I I see it as valuable to see how they take a large body of feedback and put it into categories. And these were the categories it uh highlighted as a result of our December feedback. So we've got actionable instruction um individualized professional growth which is fantastic as we think about personalized learning for students. Teachers are experiencing that through our professional development here. Um it's really purposeful staff development time and then really valuable team collaboration we learn from each other. Also exciting news uh I launched in December asynchronous professional develop opportunities for teachers so that if they need a particular um re requirement area they

113can access that independently. So teachers have really appreciated that flexibility and choice. In terms of instructional design, I got to observe in the elementary school and uh teacher was telling me how students were coming in asking if they were going to do knowledge building because they were so excited and uh the teacher shared that they didn't remember a time when students came in and saying when do we get to do knowledge building? So that is a really exciting um experience to highlight um in terms of engagement. Teachers see the focus on it and see the value in working on it. Um it's really changing the way we um support students and talk with our colleagues about what's going on and how to make sure we respond to students who need support in a way that's

114going to get them growing. And then with our student achievement plans, uh it's it's really focusing the work and aligning the work across all the buildings um in a way that is powerful. I got emails yesterday um during the professional development as we were celebrating some plans where a student who really struggled last year had the student achievement plan this year and is doing significantly better as a result of that targeted work. Principal Wareka shared this. That's the learning scale progress for teachers. Just like we want to see the building goal data improve for students, we want to see that the work we're doing professional development and PLC's is leading to growth for our teachers. And all of our roadmap goals we're measuring um through the learning scale and we're also continuing to maintain the

115work we started last year as well. adsis. I want to reinforce the shout out to the middle school team. Um, and when they exit those students, they share that, it gets celebrated, and then they go, "All right, who can we work with next? How do we bring more students in?" And furthermore, the teachers in that program have um put together opportunities for collaboration to come learn about the students they're working with and how their specific reading skills in this instance um can be supported in the content area classrooms. So, it's super cool to see that happening and we're trying to highlight that when the access team meets we're sharing things like that so that we can see that transferred to other buildings. We are completing that math review so that we can implement new curriculum

116for the middle school next year and then the elementary school the year following that. um in alignment with the implementation of the new mass standards. So that that process is underway and um we'll come with recommendations as soon as we can. Our MTSS team is still working together and this was a part of the training and though it's from 1987 uh it still rings true. Um, and I find myself looking at this sometimes when I see any variety of the the emotions coming up. Um, and the interesting thing is you can be on the same team and have people um at different rows. So, uh, if I sense those things, I go back to this to kind of ground and try and assess what's going on, kind of triage the situation because we want to

117get the results and all the work we're doing. And this was also part of the MTSS training and uh, the purpose of the training was to try and make sure leadership is adequately planning and supporting implementation. And then they were identifying some of the other potential barriers to successful effective implementation. And so this also is something I reference regularly to make sure we're meeting the mark. My day today ended with a lot of work with our instructional cabinet which is a cross-section of all our builts coming together across the district and we were working on profile the graduate. One of the suggestions we made was to change it to profile of our graduates >> and even subtle changes like that can make a huge difference to how we present a message. And so this is

118a draft and work continues to define how we'll implement this and roll it out next year. Uh we will ask uh students at the fourth grade, eighth grade, and 12th grade levels every spring to reflect on how well the buildings have helped them develop these skills and become strong learners. Up next, we have March professional development and April um professional development that we're planning for along with the roadmap focus points for 2627. As Dr. Ry Hoover mentioned, we have a personalized learning training to help set us up for effective planning for that. And then we'll continue to reflect on this year and figure out how to go and grow from here. All right. Anybody have any questions? Um, I did want to point out a couple of things. when you're talking about the PD PLC

119celebrations, >> um something that stood out to me was um under the dedicated purposeful staff development time, >> the training is viewed as effective and purposeful, especially the focus on new curriculum rollouts like CKLA. um appreciate that tremendously that uh when we're bringing in something new that we are fully supporting our staff and to hear a comment from the CLA representative saying we're ahead of the mark, our staff is that's incredible to hear. And uh kudos to our learning and innovation team uh for making sure that we're doing that for our staff. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um and I from everything you hear it's a >> um CLA can be a lot for staff. So to hear something like that is tremendous. So thank you. Um and on the next page uh love

120love to see this. This is amazing and awesome. And um I think this is something that um when we're hiring to make sure people understand that we're also providing this for our staff. I think that's huge. Um not a lot of schools offer things like this. So thank you for putting this together. Um love that we're supporting our staff this way. It's very important. Thank you. >> Yes, I'm happy to do it. And I learned through doing this, someone was keeping track of their personal reller progress and they asked me for a certificate because they have an a certification outside of the teaching license and they were like, can you give me a certificate so I can take what we've done here and provide evidence to them and so it was an opportunity for me

121to learn about cool things some stuff in addition to their teaching. >> Oh yeah, that's awesome. Wonderful. Anybody else? >> Yes. Um, I'm so proud and appreciative of the work that Kathy's doing, our principles are doing, and all of our teaching faculty. We we literally are living shared leadership. And there's a lot of balls in the air right now. And this can only happen if everybody is on the same page. And we have that going on in our system, which is really cool. Um, the other part is, you know, for I think for the first time in many of of our teachers careers, they're having to be incredibly vulnerable. I mean, there's no hiding from this stuff. I mean, we show it here at the board meetings. You know, sometimes it it looks great, sometimes

122it doesn't. Um, but to be at that point where you're going to say, well, you know what? This is the work and um, you know, we're going to be vulnerable about it because it's about kids and how can we do better? um and how can we put our our kids in a better better position but ourselves in a better position. Um but that that happens through um substantial leadership through the system and and that's really happening not not just from from Kathy and the principles but from all of our rank and file teachers and that doesn't always happen. So, um I know that um the numbers that look good are going to look better and the numbers that don't look so good are going to look better um because we're doing the right work and

123um that happens with the right. >> Well, thank you. >> We're all good. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming in. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. Our next item on the agenda is Rockberry School's achievement and integration plan. Dr. to write a loop. >> This is going to be rather quick unless you have lots of questions. In that case, I'm happy to answer them. Um, every three years we have to put together an achievement integration um plan that is submitted to the state. That submission is due to the state by March 15th. Um, reason it's here tonight is because well, it's been done for a while and because we don't have another meeting till I think after that. So, I'm sharing this with you for your approval tonight. Um, we

124have made some changes to it. I I didn't like the old one. Um, well, I didn't like the first question on there and um, first one was about student achievement. It was almost all around MCA scores and you've heard from me before that I'm not the biggest fan of MCAs for a lot of reasons. Um, but we're going to mirror a lot of the work we're doing um, with our current goals on student individual student growth. We're still going to have things in there around our PD work and so forth, but um, this is the the proposal going forward. Um there is a budget that corresponds to it that's can be kind of messy. Bridget and I are doing on the back end that's due to MDA um at the end of March, beginning of

125April, but that's just kind of where the the buckets of money go. We get about $217ish,000 a year from MD for our ANI work. We have to put roughly 80% by state statute because we didn't meet that first growth goal into directly into student achievement and that's what we've been doing. We're actually around 93%. So, I'm really proud of that. Um, what I'm doing tonight is sharing with you that um, achievement integration plan that all of the member districts in North D have to submit this year. Um, and ours is is ready for your um, viewing and approval uh, tonight and I ask for you to move forward on that. Does anybody have any questions regarding this? All right. If not, I will entertain a motion to approve the ANI proposal. I'll make that motion.

126>> I'll second. >> Second by Mr. Shadine. Any other questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Passes unanimously. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. All right. Next item under c culture of collective purpose. Um we have a calendar approval for the 2728 school year. >> Yep. Thank you very much uh Chair Johnson. We have we if you remember we brought two calendars or I brought two calendars for your consideration few months ago and one was wellreceived. The other one I was told to go back to the drawing board. So I did uh with the team consisting of a few of the board members here as well in our team and it looks um a little different especially in the front end of things. Uh so we

127are bringing this calendar for approval tonight the school year 2728 calendar. One thing I want to point out is that commencement is still TBD for that year. Um the high school is a little bit concerned around um state softball if we were to qualify for that. Uh my my concern on that is I don't know if I want to end this school year three to five days early on the account of maybe we'll make state softball. So that is still under discussion. So I'm not sure when we're going to have commencement yet, but the rest of the calendar is ready for your approval. >> Well, that's a valid concern because that happened. Some kids had to miss graduation. It was >> couple years ago. Well, baseball and softball and track all this. It was yeah

128very unfort. >> So we have a little over two years to figure out commencement but I I wanted to hold that out for now just because I I want to uh have more discussion on that. >> Not a problem on that. >> So the copy that you've provided us it says May 26 commencement in fourth quarter and then it says TBD in the box. >> Yeah. >> So just pointing that if we need are going to publish this if we clean that. >> Yes. It'll be TBD on both. >> Thank you. >> Um >> we will make sure that is corrected. Thank you for pointing that out. >> All right. So, with that correction of making sure that graduation is noted as to be decided, um I will entertain a motion to approve the 2728

129calendar for the school year 2728. >> I'll make motion to approve 2017. >> Motion by Mr. Gordy. >> I'll second. >> Second by Miss Hilstrom. Any other questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. All right, moving along. Our next item under community, school, and family partnership, we have a resolution of acknowledgement of contributions and donations. Um quite the list this year and or this month and um a lot of things from our wonderful education foundation and boosters. Yes, thank you. U on behalf of the district and administration, I would like to express our our uh thanks to all of the donors for donating um in this case uh lots of money. And so um I I would ask the board to approve the donation set forth

130in the agenda. >> All right. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the contributions, the acknowledgement of contributions. I'll make >> I'll make a motion to approve the acknowledgement of contributions. First by Miss Pasca. >> I'll second. >> Second by Mr. Shadine. Any other questions or comments? Madame Cler. This is a roll call. Vote. >> Bena. >> I. >> Kevin Shadine. >> I. >> Jamie Hilstrom. I. >> Eric Gordy. >> I. >> Jessica Johnson. >> I. This passes unanimously. All right. So, we are now um at our end of our agenda. So, we have um school board retreat on Wednesday, March 4th at 9:00 a.m. here in the district office boardroom. Policy committee meeting March 16th at 4 p.m. in the district office conference room. Schoolboard work session March 16th at 5:30 in

131the district office boardroom. Regular meeting in the board of education Monday, March 16th at 6:30 p.m. in the district office boardroom. Any changes to any of that? Everything looks good. All right. Um board and committee updates. I'll go. I had a board prep meeting and then I had a uh focus group on a daytime focus group with Northwest Suburban and a consultant to try to get working agreements in order. >> All right, sounds good. >> I can go. No updates. >> Same. No updates. >> Um I believe I just had the finance committee meeting last Friday. So, and I did get to shuttle around elementary schoolers while they were singing those Valentine to >> people. It was pretty cute. >> Oh, how fun. >> All right. Um, let's see. I've had Masiko board meeting. Masiko

132um at will contract discussions um board chair training with MSBA. Two evenings of that this month. uh attended one board chat, MSBA board uh chair chat uh meeting and um board prep. So I think that is is it. So I think that's everything. All right. Last item on the agenda, adjournment. >> Eric Gordy makes a motion to adjurnn. >> First by Mr. second by Miss Dilstrom. Any other questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed passes unanimously. We are journed at 7:24